BENGALURU: Burning that midnight oil sure came in handy to four boys from Vijaya Vittala Institute of Technology (VVIT). David, Daniel, Bapi Dhar and Gautham, all 6th semester students studying mechanical engineering, have bagged the second prize at the prestigious 2nd National Students; Project Exhibition, jointly conducted by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi, and the Alpha College of Engineering on May 7.
What won them the second prize? Their love for cars and their prototype model displaying the continuously variable transmission (CVT) technology. For those of us not well versed in the field of automobiles or physics, CVT is basically the latest technology being used by leading automotive manufacturers like Renault, Honda and Nissan, and hasn’t caught on in India yet. CVT is an automatic transmission that can change seamlessly through a continuous range of gear ratios, and is also highly cost and fuel effective. Which means, that the hassle of changing gears and experiencing that jerk during a shift, will no longer persist when vehicles are made using CVT. “We started the project two months back, and weren’t sure if we’d be able to finish it in time,” says Daniel, who has always been fascinated by machines.
“We would finish classes by 4pm and then end up staying back in college till late at night, as we could only work on the model after college hours,” says David, who aspires to be car designer.
He adds that the most frustrating part of the process was the number of times they had to dismantle and reassemble the model before they got it right. After winning the prize, which came as a pleasant surprise to them, the boys are now making future plans.
The next step for them is to get sponsorship, so that they can build a vehicle to test out their technology. This project, their mentor, Dr Dinesh K Anverkar, director, research and development/ product innovation cell at VVIT, says will cost about `1-2 lakh, and will take about seven months to complete.