THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Vandy, the electric car designed by engineering students from the Government Engineering College Barton Hill has bagged multiple international recognition at the Shell Eco-Marathon 2022 held in Indonesia recently.
The electric car bagged an award for safety from Dupont and an honourable mention for technical innovation. Designed by Pravega, a team of 19 students from the mechanical wing of the college, the electric car emerged as the best from multiple entries across the world.
“It’s a huge accomplishment for us. This project offered us a unique opportunity to utilise and widen our engineering skills to create something sustainable and environmentally friendly,” says Kalyani S Kumar, team leader. Pravega was one among the five teams that qualified from India for the event.
It took the team almost ten months to complete the prototype of the electric car, which weighs almost 80 kg, with a top speed of 27 kmph. The vehicle design was based on the biomimicry of Tiger Sharks, known to eat plastic and such waste in the sea.
The car features an innovative battery thermal management system that the team developed using the PCM 1-Tetradecanol. They also published a research paper in the journal of Sustainable Energy Technologies and Assessments. The electric car also has a drowsiness detection system that utilises AI to identify if the driver is fit to drive or not. The car was developed with the mentorship of Acsia Technologies and support from the higher education department.