Global product engineering and digital services company Tata Technologies has announced the successful conclusion of the first edition of InnoVent hackathon, an innovation platform that provides young engineering students in India with an opportunity to showcase atheir creativity and innovate solutions to address the challenges being faced by the manufacturing industry.
The hackathon saw enthusiastic participation from 2,696 budding engineers across 229 colleges in India submitting 814 unique projects, culminating into the final Demo Day. Tata Technologies SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) facilitated over 590 hours of mentoring in the form of conducting workshops and training the project team/s so that they can scale up their ideas.
The hackathon saw enthusiastic participation from 2,696 budding engineers across 229 colleges in India submitting 814 unique projects
This initiative marks a significant milestone in the company’s engagement with the academic community, fostering innovation and creativity among young engineering talents across India, helping engineer better careers. The Top 10 teams participated in the Demo Day at Tata Technologies headquarters in Hinjawadi, Pune, where they presented their innovation prototypes. The final evaluations were done by an eminent jury comprising Warren Harris, CEO and MD, Tata Technologies; Ravi Arora, Senior Vice-President & Head Group Innovation – Tata Sons; Sven Patuschka, Chief Technology Officer, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles & Tata Passenger Electric Mobility; and Jyotin Kutty Sastabhavan, Chief Sustainability Officer – Tata Motors.
The winning team Rolex from Bannari Amman Institute Of Technology, Erode, was felicitated with a cash prize of Rs 300,000 for its Generative AI for car design – unleashing creativity and efficiency in automotive styling. The team Blitzkrieg from RVCE, Bangalore, won the second prize of Rs 100,000 for its Design and development of an Autonomous Electric Vehicle (AEV) for Indian roads. The third prize of Rs 50,000 was won by the team ThunderBolt from VIT, Vellore, for their Battery system and pumping station for buses using Vanadium redox flow battery. In recognition of their talent, visible in their innovations, Tata Technologies has offered 34 team members from the top 10 teams an opportunity to start their careers with them.
Speaking at the Tata Technologies InnoVent felicitation ceremony, Mr. Warren Harris, MD and CEO of Tata Technologies stated: “Tata Technologies’ vision of engineering a better world embodies our commitment to innovate sustainable eMobility solutions by collaborating with our entire ecosystem, including the academia. We had identified real world challenges while inviting projects for the InnoVent hackathon and I am inspired by the way innovators have applied ingenious, frugal solutions to these issues, blending the finest of human creativity with cutting-edge technology. I congratulate all the winners and participants for displaying such creative talent and a Can-Do attitude while innovating the solutions.”
Highlighting the importance of creating a culture of innovation amongst young engineering students, Santosh Singh, EVP and Global Head, Marketing and Business Excellence at Tata Technologies, added, “As a human brand, we focus on delivering great experiences to our customers by innovating solutions that address the business challenges faced by our clients. The students today will innovate some of the biggest solutions in next few years. It is important for us to support, mentor, and empower these young engineering minds, equipping them with the skills necessary for a successful career. The enthusiasm and creativity displayed by these young innovators exceeded our expectations and reinforced our belief in the power of innovation in engineering a better world. We are delighted that we were able to offer them not only cash prizes and learnings but also job opportunities to all the finalists.”
