Having bagged the third prize at the Computer Aided Design (CAD)competition organised by Autodesk and National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), two students of the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IIT-Gn) are now looking at commercial application of their innovation.
As part of their entry into the competition, third year mechanical engineering students form IIT Gandhinagar - Shashank Agarwal and Dhwanil Shukla - came up with an innovative idea for an electric-powered vehicle. The students conceptualised that a couple of two wheelers could be conjoined to become a four-wheeled vehicle.
"The design will allow the vehicle to be dismantled into 2 two-wheelers according to their requirements, for example, for commuting through crowded lanes and more convenience in congested parking areas and so on. We are looking at several options including commercialising the design through an auto company or seeking incubation for our own entrepreneurship," said Agarwal.
The competition, which is one of the biggest of its kind in the country, received more than a thousand entries from students of various design institutes and leading engineering colleges including many IITs.
Referring to the contemporary transportation challenges in the country, the organisers asked the students to design a low cost personal transport considering aspects like transformability, foldability or modularity.
"Our institution has been quite supportive and have offered all the help in developing the idea further," Agarwal added.
According to Shukla, the two-wheelers have been designed in such a way that they can accommodate removable fabric roofs for harsh weather conditions. The design has also taken into consideration various safety issues usually faced by two wheelers.
While the IIT-Gn team bagged the third prize at the finals, the first and second prizes were won by Fr C Rodrigues Institute of Technology, Vashi, Mumbai and PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore respectively.