Mysuru:  A group of Final Year Mechanical Engineering students from the National Institute of Engineering (NIE), Mysuru, bagged the second place and received a prize money of  Rs. 3 lakh at the TECHGium Technical event conducted by L&T Technology Services Limited on Apr. 13.

The team comprising Kenneth Fernandes, V.M. Vishwith, Adithya N. Kumar and Naseel Sinan took home the prize at their first attempt in the competition.

TECHGium is an open-innovation initiative by L&T Technology Services Limited. It aims to provide a platform for the nation’s most-talented engineering graduates to solve real-world engineering problems and also get due recognition for it. Student teams could choose from 30 problem statements posed to them by LTTS, to develop a solution in concept.

Over a thousand concept abstracts, by nearly nine thousand students were submitted. The competition lasted nearly five months, starting with submission of concept abstracts, followed by a presentation of Proof of Concept at the initial stages.

The final rounds of the contest required another presentation of proof of concept, along with demonstration of prototypes, following which the top eight teams undergo one last round of presentation to determine    the winners.

The team from NIE, Mysuru, developed a concept to one of the problems posed. Prototypes for valve timing systems in marine engines were fabricated by the students over the past two months, and the concept was validated by extensive testing.

In the final round, the Proof of Concept was presented along with demonstrations of the prototype, in front of distinguished professors and industry experts, according to a press release from Dr. M.V. Achuta, Head, Department of Mechanical Engineering, NIE.