Students from COEP who participated in Sparkle 2015 have won the Gold award of Rs. 5 Lakhs. The team won the award for their work done on creating centrally suspended cage-less differential for automotive sector. The award consists of a trophy, certificate and the cash prize of Rs. 5 Lakhs. Sparkle 2015, a national design and development innovation contest was organized by KPIT in association with College of Engineering, Pune (COEP). The contest was aimed at fostering the culture of innovation among science and engineering students by inviting breakthrough ideas to address ongoing challenges in the areas of transportation and energy. The winners were awarded cash prize of Rs 18.75 Lakhs. The contest received 424 varied ideas from over 1100 students from more than 114 colleges across 17 states of India.
In the final round, the shortlisted teams presented 'proof of concept' of their solutions for global issues, from unconventional power generation and hybrid solutions to intelligent transport systems and driver safety. The ideas were reviewed and judged by a jury comprising eminent figures from the field of science and technology including Dr. RA Mashelkar, Head, Innovation Council, KPIT, Anil Datar, General Director, DRDO (Defence Research & Development Organization), Arun Firodia, Chairman, Kinetic Group, Prof. Mathai Joseph, former Executive Director at the Tata Research Development and Design Centre, Pune, Dr. Ashish Lele, Polymer Science and Engineering Division, NCL (National Chemical Laboratory), Satish Gokhale, founder of Design Directions Pvt. Ltd, Alok Mukherjee, Head of Robotics at R&D E (Engineers), Pune and Dr. Sahasrabudhe, Director of COEP. The finalists were evaluated for novelty, utility, and inventiveness of their ideas at a grand exhibition held at KPIT's campus in Hinjewadi on 21st March'15.
