Manipal Institute of Technology's SolarMobil wins innovation contest for engineering students

BENGALURU: SolarMobil, a team of engineers from the Manipal Institute of Technology, was declared winners for the Solar Electric Road Vehicle (SERVe), a prototype solar car, at the fifth edition of QuEST Ingenium 2015 -the pan-India innovation contest for engineering students organised by global engineering services company QuEST Global.

The winning team will receive a cash Rs 1 lakh and is being sponsored prize of by aircraft manufacturing giant Airbus to go on a facility tour of its Stade and Bremen facility in Germany.

The team consisting 27 students de signed a four-wheeled prototype that runs on solar energy that can reach up to a speed of 60 kmph, and is custom-fit with solar panels designed by Tata Pow er Solar capable of providing up to 960 watts of power.

Out of over 5,700 registrations from 750 colleges across 27 states, a total of 10 teams were shortlisted that produced innovations suc0h as a real time air pollution monitoring system, human detection robot for disaster management, a robotic arm and a PCB printing machine among others.

"At QuEST Global we are glad that we could make a positive impact with this initiative to harness and nurture India's future talent to shape tomorrow's India," said Ajay Prabhu, chief operating officer, QuEST Global, that offered placement exploration opportunities to the top 100 qualifying teams.

"Nurturing talent is an important aspect of our globalisation strategy and we are glad that we are extending our hands to such students to come forward and be a part of this big industry," said Marcus Gehle, head of engineering for wing movables and plant engineering teams - Stade and Bremen, Airbus.