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Paper presentations, project demonstrations and technical contests. The Vidyut multiFest encouraged students to put forth their best and learn from each other, even while competing.

Many winning papers emphasized sustainable solutions. For example, a team of mechanical engineering students who presented their work on eco-friendly twin-jet fluid application for surface milling of hardened steel won the first prize in their category.

“Surface milling of hardened steel is usually carried out with copious supply of cutting fluid and is obviously associated with problems related to procurement and storage of cutting fluid. The disposal of cutting fluid has to comply with environmental legislation. Our investigation aims at establishing an eco-friendly minimal pulsed jet cutting fluid application scheme for surface milling of AISI4340 steel with a hardness of 45 HRC using commercially available carbide tools,” explained the winning students.

Students of electrical and electronics engineering focused on innovation in renewable energy sources and presented their work with converting high voltage electricity into a usable form of electrical energy, which is otherwise wasted. “Our prototype efficiently charges the battery and its output is around 1000 volts in contrast to reports in literature where only a few milivolts are obtained as output. This is due to the innovative method of fabrication used for the prototype model,” the students explained.

While engineering students presented research papers, management students and others with a flair for entrepreneurship wrote business plans. Here again, the winning plans, emphasized sustainability, in addition to profitability.

“Solid waste management becomes crucial for power plants, ferrous and nonferrous metal industries that generate solid waste contaminated with heavy metals such as chromium, nickel and zinc. Disposing these is a big problem. Presence of these in even small quantities causes havoc to the environment and ecosystems. We propose a business model that can not only revolutionize the brick industry but also address this problem. Through fly ash based low density bricks made with zinc sludge, energy consumption can be reduced,” presented one team of winning students.

These students came from Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Mysore and Visakhapatnam. Some travelled great distances from places such as Ajmer, Dehradun, Gandhinagar, Gaya, Goa, Gwalior and Nagpur.

The student participants at Vidyut represented colleges from all across the nation. Several were enrolled in such premier institutions as IIT Delhi, IIT Madras, IIT Guwahati, IT BHU in Varanasi, NIT Suratkal, NIT Calicut, NIT Trichy, IIIT Allahabad, BITS Pilani, BITS Mesra and the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology.

These students participated also in the technical contests. Remote-controlled fighter bots warred against each other in Robozuna. Other robotic contests to judge the fastest bots and the most efficient. In Heliotherm, participants made devices to boil, condense and thus distil water, using solar energy power.

The winning students walked home with prize money worth Rs. 12 lakhs.

Br. Anand, who mentored and guided the Amrita student organizers of Vidyut shared, “The lamp of Vidyut was lit with practically 0 watts in January 2011 when the idea was floated to have a national-level student festival combining all disciplines and schools and departments. It was a long way to make the Vidyut lamp glow to more than a 1000 watts.”

“The sincere, dedicated effort of the students made Vidyut a grand success. Participants expressed satisfaction with the manner in which our students organized the fest. More than 400 student volunteers from Amrita put forth their best efforts.”

“All in all, the whole event has transformed these 400 students. The legacy they have created will undoubtedly be carried forward by others.”

February 6, 2012
Amritapuri Campus

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