The fifth edition of the SUPRA SAE India Formula student competition saw Team Kratos Racing from the PC College of Engineering, Pune, lift the trophy.

Team Interceptors V2.0 from Dr DY Patil Institute of Technology emerged as the runner-up and Team Amrita Racing from Amrita School of Engineering took the second runner-up position. The best woman participant award went to Ms. Davindrvjit Kaur from GDEC College while team AIOUS Formula Student from IGIT took the trophy for the team with the maximum number of women participants. 

The valedictory session was attended by chief guest, Dr David Schutt, CEO, SAE International; C V Raman, executive director, Engineering, Maruti Suzuki India; R S Kalsi, executive director, Marketing and Sales, MSIL; Aravind Bharadwaj, president, SAE India and Narain Karthikeyan, the first Indian Formula 1 driver.

Speaking on the occasion, Prashant K. Banerjee, deputy executive director (Technical), Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), said, “SUPRA 2016 has been a phenomenal experience, not only for the participating students, but also for the judges, organisers and all those involved in making the event a roaring success. The student teams have demonstrated exceptional skill and have the potential to add tremendous value to the Indian automotive industry.”  

Maruti Suzuki’s R S Kalsi said, “Maruti Suzuki has always been focusing on strengthening its connect with the youth to shape and encourage their skills in automotive technology. Through our association with SAE India, we are giving these budding engineers a platform to follow their passion for automobiles. We are confident this exposure will enhance the passion for modern technology in the minds of young engineers in the industry and prepare them for creating innovative ideas and handle challenging assignments. India is poised to be the third largest automotive nation by 2020 and events like this will definitely help in strengthening the engineering talent pool of the country.”

Organised annually by SAE India, SUPRA is a platform for students to apply their engineering skills to design and construct a Formula category vehicle as per defined performance and safety specifications. This year, the event saw record participation from 3,500 engineering students from 125 teams.

Maruti Suzuki India was the title sponsor of Supra India 2016, which also saw sponsorship from Total. BPCL, Castrol, Shell, AVL, Siemens, Altair, Ansys, MRF, Ceat, GKN, Horiba, Eleation, Dassault Systems, Hindustan University, Tripti Hospitality, Continental and Viper Hobbies.

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