Kerala students develop electric car; win laurels at global competition

An electric car, designed by students of the Government Engineering College Barton Hill here, has bagged an award and an honorable mention at the international energy efficiency competition, Shell Eco-Marathon (SEM) 2022, held at Pertamina Mandalika circuit in Indonesia recently.

‘Vandy,’ the electric car designed by Pravega, a team of 19 students from the mechanical stream of the college, with the mentorship of Acsia Technologies emerged as the best from multiple entries across the world, a statement said here. It bagged ‘International Award for Safety’ from Dupont and Honorable Mention for the International Award for Technical Innovation during the event, it said.

State minister for Higher Education, R BIND supported 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, it said. “It’s truly an accomplishment for us. This project offered us a unique opportunity to utilise and widen our engineering skills to create something which is sustainable and environmentally friendly,” said Kalyani S Kumar, Team Leader, Pravega. 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 received much attention from the panel, it said. Vandy weighs almost 80 kg, with a top speed of 27 kmph. Jijimon Chandran, founder & CEO, Acsia Technologies, sad it was very exciting to see the students winning two major achievements at a global competition. “As a mentor, we are proud to have guided 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,” he said.

The vehicle design was based 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 developed using the PCM 1-Tetradecanol, a research paper which has been published in the journal of Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments by team Prevega, the statement detailed.

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 received ample support from Additional Skill Acquisition Programme, Kerala during their programme on Industrial safety held at CSP Mananthavady, and is also supported 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 so on.

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, the statement added.