City college shines in National Competition
Mumbai: K J Somaiya College of Engineering ranked first place in India in the Electric Vehicle category in the Formula Bharat 2020 with their vehicle ‘Artemis’ at an Engineering Design Competition held in Coimbatore (TN). 15 teams from across the country competed in the Electric Category.
Formula Bharat 2020 is an engineering design competition where students design, manufacture, test and validate a single-seater open-wheel formula-style race car. The participants compete in static and dynamic events which tests the designing capabilities of the students as well as the performance of the vehicle created by the students.
The 70 member winning team, ‘Orion Racing India’ of K J Somaiya College of Engineering with students from mechanical to the electronics department, spent months on research, development, designing manufacturing, testing and validation of the vehicle.
Talking about the specifics of the car Dr. Manoj Patil, the Faculty Advisor said, “The electric vehicle has a custom made battery management system which was designed and manufactured by the students from scratch. It has a high power to weight ratio due to imported motor and cells. The motor can give 80KW horsepower and 180 Nm of torque. The accumulator was made of 112 cells summing up to 470V.
Dr Shubha Pandit, Principal K J Somaiya College of Engineering, said “The scrutinizing before the dynamics were rigorous to ensure of all-electric teams. Students, girls and boys from the first year to the last year work on this project. Beyond sharpening their technical knowledge, participation in such competition teaches students teamwork, organizational skills, marketing and working under stress and deadlines.”
Shanay Shah, the student team leader, said: “A passion for engineering, learning and innovation is what motivates most team members to participate. It is a chance to learn beyond the confines of the classroom and compete against some good universities across the country. I’ve been on that stage in 2018 with the winning team. The feeling of receiving that champions trophy is unparalleled. This motivated us to work even harder towards this victory. We are the only team to have won the competition 4 times, and we have been Victorious each time we have participated at the competition.”
“Throughout the year we work tirelessly on our car and put all the effort on those four wheels. And then at the competition, we realise that 75 such teams have come there with their cars. It was an amazing exposure to know how other teams function. We can surely implement a lot of it in our team.” added Neel Patel, (Design Lead and Drivetrain Engineer)