Winners all:  Students of OU College of Engineering, who developedall-terrain four-wheel vehicle ‘Dirt Rider’.   –Photo: By arrangement / The Hindu

An all-terrain four-wheel vehicle “Dirt Rider”, which was designed, fabricated and tested by the Students of Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College of Engineering, Osmania University won the “Technology Innovation Award” at “SAE BAJA-2013”, an annual event conducted by Society for Automotive Engineers, India (SAE) at NATRIP Track, Pithampur near Indore.

The award was given for their innovation of four-wheel steering mechanism incorporated in the vehicle and it carried prize money of Rs.1 lakh. Apart from the award, five students from OUCE were also offered Jobs by top Automotive Companies with average pay package of over Rs.5 lakh per annum, said the faculty advisor and professor of Mechanical Engineering, V. Uma Maheshwar, who guided them in the project.

He said there was heavy competition for the award with 350 teams coming from across India including IITs and NITs competing.

The student group was led by Captain Srinath Sharma and Vice Captain Raja Rao. The driver of the Vehicle was Venkatesh.

The team had five girls Priyanka, Nishita, Pravallika, Sai Laxmi and Divya Shivani who contributed actively in the development of the Vehicle. A. Ganesh, J. Srujan Reddy, Sai Srinath, Sendilkar and Avinash formed the Core Committee of SAE BAJA Club. Nikhil and Srikanth Prasad were the welding experts.

The team worked for ten months to develop the vehicle.

R.r.R

source: http://www.TheHindu.com / Home> Features> Education Plus / by R.R.R / February 25th, 2013