UPES team shortlisted for the ‘I innovate’ challenge

Team Retrofit, comprising UPES’ Mechanical Engineering students and their faculty mentor, was shortlisted for the ‘I innovate’ challenge at KPIT Sparkle 2020, for designing a Retrofit Camera system for road safety

The students of UPES once again brought laurels for the university through their problem-solving innovation. Team ‘Retrofit’ comprising of 4^th-year Mechanical Engineering students, Aviral Singh, Sambit Sarkar, Mohit Khatri and their Faculty Mentor, Mechanical Department, School of Engineering, Mr. Prashant Shukla, was shortlisted for the grand finale round of ‘I innovate’ challenge, at KPIT Sparkle 2020, Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering, Pune.

The team showcased its market-ready product – a side-view retrofit camera system, useful for all the automotive segments. The purpose behind this product is to eliminate the blind spots in the side-view and rear-view mirrors by using cameras and display techniques.

Incubators and evangelists were enthralled with the idea and are still in communication with the team.  

Ravi Pandit, Chairman, KPIT Technologies said, “The mobility ecosystem is evolving, and it needs skilled talent to cater to consumer demands. With our solid reputation as a technology disrupter for the automotive industry, KPIT is strongly positioned to contribute as a creator of new-age talent in the mobility ecosystem. KPIT Sparkle facilitates the academia and the industry to join forces and promote innovation with solutions led by new talent.”

KPIT Sparkle is an innovation platform that nurtures, mentors and supports aspiring entrepreneurs, students from the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths) streams and connects them with incubators in the ecosystem to transform their inventive ideas into viable products. It also encourages and facilitates students to secure intellectual property for their solutions. Under its aegis, ‘I innovate’ challenge received more than 3000 ideas from over 20,000 students across 1000 colleges in India.”

Faculty mentor, an elated Mr. Prashant Shukla, said, “The showcased idea was the outcome of real incidence. Most of the four-wheeler users face the challenge of driving with broken side-view mirrors and/or overtaking a vehicle, which is running with folded sideview mirrors. It was a great team effort, which resolved such a serious road safety issue with a simple and affordable solution.”

“The developed solution,” Mr. Shukla added, “is a market-ready retrofit kit, which can be implemented in any kind of 3-wheeler or 4-wheeler or multi-axle vehicles. I would like to thank UPES and KPIT Sparkle for providing such a big platform to display our idea among industry experts and incubators. Very soon, our solution will be certified through a regulatory authority and launched into the automotive market.”

Dr Anil Kakodkar, Chairman, Rajiv Gandhi Science and Technology Commission, and former Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, was the guest of honour at KPIT Sparkle 2020. Dr Unnat Pandit, program director, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, and Dr Anita Gupta, Adviser and Associate Head (Innovation & Entrepreneurship), Department of Science & Technology (DST), were special guests at the event.

For Sparkle 2020, KPIT collaborated with:

• The Centre for Innovation Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE), IIM Ahmedabad
• Incubation Cell, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai
• Science and Technology Park, University of Pune
• Bhau Institute of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Leadership
• College of Engineering Pune, Aartech (AIC), one of the first corporate Atal Incubation Centres established under the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM)
• Sandip Incubators (AIC)