Pune, India, 24 February 2019: KPIT, a global leader in automotive engineering and mobility solutions, has announced the winners of its annual national design and development innovation contest, KPIT Sparkle 2019. The competition aims at fostering innovation among students by providing them with an opportunity to imagine, ideate and develop innovations with a high social impact on sustainability. In the last five years, KPIT Sparkle has received nearly 6000 ideas from more than 50,000 students nationally.

The theme for the 2019 edition was “Energy and Mobility for the Future.”  It sought futuristic solutions, based on cutting-edge technologies, to solve problems in areas, such as renewable energy generation, energy storage, energy utilisation and clean, safe, shared, connected, and secured mobility.

Ravi Pandit, Co-founder, Chairman and Group CEO, KPIT said, “Sparkle is our endeavour to provide young and aspiring minds with an opportunity to explore and apply new technology trends. It is a manifestation of our efforts to achieve sustainability. It will be pivotal in contributing towards our new vision of reimagining mobility with the ecosystem for the creation of a cleaner, smarter and safer world.”

KPIT Sparkle 2019 received more than 2000 ideas from around 22,000 students across more than 1,100 colleges in India. The Top 30 teams presented working prototypes of their solutions at the grand finale held on 23^rd and 24^th February 2019 at the Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering (PCCOE).

THE WINNERS

• Team Aqua from Army Institute of Technology, Pune, won the platinum award of Rs. 10,00,000 for developing a vertical axis water turbine (VAWT), which is 24% more efficient than a conventional system. The turbine can be used for both small and large-scale energy production and in all flow conditions.
• Two teams won the silver prizes of Rs. 2,50,000 each for the following ideas:
• Team Gravity from Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai, for designing a scalable plant-based microbial fuel cell technology. The solution has the capacity to generate electricity and eliminate dependence on climate for renewable energy production.
• Team AutoTrac from College of Engineering, Indore, for designing a driverless tractor, which saves labour cost, time and manual labour.
• Team Drivetrain from Jayawantrao Sawant College of Engineering, Pune, won the Most Popular Award for designing a novel transmission system (single stage gear box) to increase the load carrying capacity and gradeability of existing e-vehicles. The team garnered online votes in excess of 11,000 for their project.

INCUBATION OPPORTUNITIES

KPIT Sparkle 2019 was privileged to be associated with the Government of India’s Department of Science and Technology (DST), NITI Aayog’s Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), India Design Council and the National Institute of Design as the knowledge partners and Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering (PCCOE), Pune; Noida Institute of Engineering and Technology (NIET), Greater Noida; and Sandip University, Nashik; as academic partners.

Also, KPIT partnered with the Centre for Innovation Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE), IIM Ahmedabad, Incubation Cell – IITM, Science and Technology Park, BHAU Institute and Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Linkages (CIIL) – Savitribai Phule University to provide incubation opportunities to deserving ideas.

THE JURY

The finalists were evaluated by a jury comprising national and international experts from the academic, business, automotive and technology fields, including Padma Vibhushan Dr. R.A. Mashelkar, Chairman, Innovation Council, KPIT; Dr. Peter F. Tropschuh, Vice President, Strategy Sustainability, AUDI AG; Dr. Ashish Lele, Chief Scientist and Former Chair-Polymer Science Engineering Division, CSIR-National Chemical Lab; Dr. Milind Rane, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Bombay; Dr. Siddhartha Mukhopadhyay, Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur; Dr. Praveen Kumar,  Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Guwahati; Mr. Masashige Mizuyama, Automotive CTO, Panasonic Corporation; Mr. Tapish Bhatt, Vice President, Centre for Innovation Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE), IIM Ahmedabad; Mr. Praveen Nahar, Senior Faculty Member, Industrial Design, National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad); Dr. Carl Perrin, Director, Institute for Future Transport & Cities, Coventry University; and Mr. Rafi Maor, Chairman, R.O.N. Investments Ltd.

About KPIT

KPIT is a global technology company with software solutions that will help mobility leapfrog towards autonomous, clean, smart and connected future. With 6000+ Automobelievers across the globe, specializing in embedded software, AI & Digital solutions, KPIT enables customers accelerate implementation of next generation mobility technologies. With development centers in Europe, USA, Japan, China, Thailand and India – KPIT works with leaders in mobility and is present where the ecosystem is transforming.

For more details visit www.KPIT.com

Media Contacts :

Mohit Kochar, Global Head Marketing, KPIT, mohit.kochar @ kpit.com
Rahul Uplap – Sparkle Programme, Rahul.uplap @ kpit.com
Niva Mohanty – Gutenberg, niva@thegutenberg.com – +91 9916398995