For the students of city-based Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology, it was four days of learning and putting their theoretical skills into practice at the Sieger Pro Karting Championship that was recently held at Adithya Engineering College in Kakinada.
A 25-member team, 17 of whom were girls, participated in the grand event, competing with 46 other colleges from the Telugu speaking states, to come out with flying colours. While they were adjudged runners-up in the competition, they were only one among two teams that had a majority of girls. What’s more, they won in the lightweight and sledge pull categories while also bagging the top title for project plan, cost presentation and best acceleration.
Speaking about the experience of being a part of the competition, team captain and III year Mechanical Engineering student Akhila Gajjala shares, “While we learn a great deal in college, this competition was quite elaborate. We saw how various other teams came up with brilliant ideas that we hadn’t even thought of. I am glad that we got to compete with some of the best teams, making us confident of our credentials. It has really proved to be a boost for us.”
Interestingly, this is not the first such victory for the college. Their in-house club SAE (Society of Automotive Engineering), a society of Mechanical Engineering students that aims to provide the best possible avenues for its members, is responsible for putting together a team for such events.
“This opportunity came to us only because we are part of the club,” shares Navyashree Thatikonda, the vice-captain of the team that was called Mechanizers 25.0, adding, “Right from the first year, members are chosen to be a part of the club through an in-depth process to evaluate eligibility. Once we are in, we get a boost by being sent to such prestigious events. In fact, the division of duties of the entire team that has been assigned the project is done by the club’s board members, who are our seniors.”
At the karting event, students spent four days fabricating the vehicle they had developed over a period of a few months, as judges evaluated them on various levels such as checking their efficiency in braking, steering and transmission. In fact, the process of developing the vehicle was the most crucial one for the students, in which they were ably mentored by 4th year Mechanical Engineering students Sumanth Putta and Satvik Reddy.
Telling us about the process, Satvik shares, “The entire club is proud of their achievement. Even as we leave the college after this academic year, it is with a sense of happiness that things are now in good hands. As mentors, all we had to do was guide them as and when needed since this was the first time all of them were handling such a project. For experts, it would take around eight days to build such a model. But they did it in three months, which is quite commendable,” he signs off.
