InnoVent, the hackathon organised by Tata Technologies, saw 2,696 engineering students from about 229 colleges across the country participating. A whopping 814 unique project submissions were received. The best part was that job opportunities were offered to all the finalists.
The first edition of Tata Technologies InnoVent was launched in July 2023 to inspire young engineering students across India to showcase their creativity and innovate solutions for the manufacturing industry, across areas such as electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, cybersecurity, generative artificial intelligence (GAI), and the Internet of Things (IoT).
The Grand Finale Demo Day took place at the global product engineering and digital services company’s headquarters in Hinjawadi, Pune, where the Top 10 teams presented their prototypes. The three winning teams received cash prizes worth Rs 4.5 lakhs, while all the top 10 finalists were offered career opportunities at Tata Technologies.
Subject matter experts (SMEs) from Tata Technologies mentored the teams for over 590 hours via workshops and training sessions to enable them to scale their ideas. This is the company’s way of engaging with the academic community, fostering innovation and creativity among young engineering students and helping them prosper in better careers.
The final evaluations were done by a jury comprising Warren Harris, CEO & MD, Tata Technologies, Ravi Arora, senior vice president & head, group innovation – Tata Sons; Sven Patuschka, CTO – Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and 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 3 lakhs, for their innovation Generative AI for car design – unleashing creativity and efficiency in automotive styling. Team Blitzkrieg from RVCE, Bangalore, won the second prize of Rs 1 lakh for their design and development of an Autonomous Electric Vehicle (AEV) for Indian roads. The 3rd prize of Rs 5 lakh was won by the team ThunderBolt from VIT, Vellore, for their battery system and pumping station for buses using vanadium redox flow battery. Tata Technologies offered 34 team members from the top 10 teams, an opportunity to start their careers with them.
According to Harris, MD and CEO, Tata Technologies, the company’s “vision of engineering a better world embodies our commitment to innovate sustainable eMobility solutions by collaborating with our entire ecosystem, including the academia.”
Harris was “inspired by the way innovators have applied ingenious, frugal solutions to these issues, blending the finest of human creativity with cutting-edge technology.”
Santosh Singh, EVP and global head, marketing and business excellence, Tata Technologies, believes, “The students today will innovate some of the biggest solutions in the 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.”
