Morris Garages (MG) Motor India, the British-marquee brand owned by China's SAIC Motor Corporation, which plans to roll out its vehicles from the Halol plant in the first half of 2019, has announced the winners of the first MG Innovation Challenge conducted at Navrachana University, Gujarat.
The Hackathon’s theme on ‘How to make transportation safer and cleaner’, saw students demonstrate modern and technologically advanced solutions in telematics, IoT, smart sensors, Al and machine learning.
The day-long event saw participation from over 125 students across 26 groups representing five cities across Gujarat including Baroda, Ahmedabad, Nadiad, Surat and Anand.
Of the many solutions showcased by various groups, the team from Parul University bagged the first prize of Rs 100,000. The first runner-up was from Silver Oak College of Engineering and Technology, Ahmedabad (Rs 50,000); the second runner-up was from Navrachana University (Rs 25,000).
“With Gujarat set to become the next big automotive hub, it is imperative for us to nurture talent that helps build cars that are not only futuristic, but also responsible towards society in terms of creating an ecosystem of safe and clean transportation. We look forward to studying these solutions and possibly embedding them in the cars we produce here,” said Rajeev Chaba, president and managing director, MG Motor India.
'Smart Helmet' the big winner
The winning entry from Parul University was a prototype ‘Smart Helmet’ with indicator lights and an embedded GPS system with an emergency call feature in case of an accident.
Team Parul University was the big winner with its prototype ‘Smart Helmet’ with indicator lights and an embedded GPS system with an emergency call feature.
The runner-up team, from Silver Oak, demonstrated an IoT platform on which apps can be built and Navrachana University students presented a device to reduce vehicle tailpipe emissions.
While all the teams were tasked to work on ideas on-the-spot, some teams came with prototypes from projects they developed recently including a kit which converts a manual car into an automatic one, a car built for physically challenged people, a smart helmet and a wireless electric car charging system. Following the evaluation, prizes were handed over to the winners by Rajeev Chaba and Tejal Amin, chairperson, Navrachana University.
The ‘MG Innovation Challenge’ is an extension of the ‘MG Drives Innovation’ program, which was launched in partnership with TiE, Delhi NCR, in December 2017.