Vandy, an electric car design by students of the Government Engineering College, Barton Hill, has won an award and an honourable mention at the international energy efficiency competition, Shell Eco-Marathon (SEM) 2022, held at Pertamina Mandalika circuit in Indonesia recently.
The electric car design by Pravega, a team of 19 students from the mechanical stream of the college, with the mentorship of Acsia Technologies emerge as the best from multiple entries across the world, a prepare statement said, adding that it won the International Award for Safety from Dupont and an honourable mention for the International Award for Technical Innovation during the event.
State minister for Higher Education, R. Bindu support the team in accessing grants and other government schemes and the students went through various stages of interviews and tests before making it to the achievement, the statement read.
Kalyani S Kumar, Team Leader, Pravega Said :
“It’s truly an accomplishment for us. This project offer us a unique opportunity to utilise and widen our engineering skills to create something which is sustainable and environmentally-friendly,”.
Pravega was one of the five teams that qualified from India for the international level of the event.
It took the team almost ten months to complete the prototype electric car that receive much attention from the panel.
Vandy weighs almost 80kg, with a top speed of 27 kmph.
Jijimon Chandran, founder & CEO, Acsia Technologies, said it was very exciting to see the students winning two major achievements at a global competition.
Jijimon Chandran Said :
“As a mentor, we are proud to have guide the students from the college in creating an electric vehicle that embodies this value. Our goal is to continue to mentor our student community, imparting relevant knowledge, increasing their industry readiness, and supporting their growth towards becoming world-class engineers,”.
The vehicle design was base on the biomimicry of Tiger Sharks who are known to eat plastic and other such waste in the sea.
The electric drivetrain features an innovative battery thermal management system that the team develop using the PCM 1-Tetradecanol, a research paper which has publish in the journal of Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments by team Pravega, as per the statement.
Additional systems include a drowsiness detection system using non-intrusive sensors that utilises AI to identify if the driver is fit to drive or not and act accordingly, it said.
Team Pravega receive huge support from Additional Skill Acquisition Programme, Kerala during their programme on Industrial safety held at CSP Mananthavady, and is also support by various governmental and non-governmental organizations like CCI, PTA-GECB, Tech Education Quality Information Portal (Tequip), Translational Research and Professional Leadership Centre (TPLC) and many more.
The vehicle was made under the guidance of Dr Bijulal D, Principal, Government Engineering College, Barton Hill, Thiruvananthapuram, Dr Bindu Kumar, HoD, Department of Mechanical Engineering and Dr Anish K John, Faculty Advisor of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.
The group members of Team Pravega are Kalyani S Kumar (team leader) GS Amal Krishnan, Hithin Krishna, Akhil Nishad, Joshwin T Rajan, Pranav Binulal, Prahlad Vivek, Sooraj SJ, A Arjun, Goutham Sai Krishna, Aaron Clarance, Aamy Ceasar, Niyuktha R Krishna, Ananthu A.
The Shell Eco-marathon is an international competition where students from all around the world design, build, and test cars and the goal is to build cars with high mileage, both in the electric and gasoline categories, according to the statement.
