Journalism of Courage
Four city-based colleges will participate in the maiden international leg of Formula SAE.
For four years now,the annual event of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) has been a crowd-puller for colleges across India. But this year their Formula SAE event has climbed a notch higher,as it goes to an international level for the first time. Formula SAE will be held at Lincoln,Nebraska,USA,from June 19 to June 24. Pune,particularly,has reason to celebrate. A team 15 students from four city-based colleges will participate in the event that promotes automotive industry. They will be among the three teams from India to head to Nebraska.
Calling themselves Areion motor sport,after the Greek mythological horse that is extremely swift,students of Smt Kashibai Navale College of Engineering (SKNCE),Bharati Vidyapeeths College of Engineering for Women,Flora Institute of Technology and GH Raisoni College of Engineering and Management have collaborated to form the Pune team. Trithviraj Phalke of SKNCE is the teams captain.
Since its an international event,we wanted to have the best. These colleges have a history of performing well in the tournament that is why we have roped them in, says Pranav Shinde,one of the designers of the car.
The team is divided into four major heads designing,manufacturing,sponsorships and managing. While the captain is managing design,the rest of the work has been divided within the team members based on specialisation and skills. The team is putting together a car said to be worth Rs 12 lakh,including parts imported from Japan,clutch plates and differentials from the US and a body plate from Delhi. The car will be driven by Sagar Patni of Raisoni College,who won the best driver last year in the same event.
