Chennai: Teams from IIT-Madras have won first and third prize in the second edition of carbon zero challenge, an All-India innovation and entrepreneurship contest organised by IIT-M and Virtusa Corporation here Friday.
CZeroC19 was started with 996 applications from 25 States across India. After a rigorous process of shortlisting by business experts and technical experts, 24 teams were selected. These shortlisted teams received training and mentoring in addition to the financial support of up to Rs 5 lakh over a period of six months to build their prototypes and evolve their business models, a press release said.
The grand final was held Friday, where top three projects were selected.
They are: Circular Economy Domain – A self-sustained integrated closed cycle coconut shell activated carbon production process by Pristine Energia, a student team from IIT Madras (Members: Muthu Kumar K, Syed Mughees Ali).
The second project – Electric Vehicle Domain – Electric powertrain solutions for E-commerce logistics by Clean Electric, a startup from IIT-BHU Varanasi (Team Members: Akash Gupta, Praveen Kumar Yadav).
The third prize went to Clean Energy Domain – A tubular PEM Fuel Cell that is open-cathode and air-breathing, developed by Elicius Energy, an IIT Madras-incubated startup (Team members: Sam Pearn-Rowe, Suseendiran Ravichandran, Amit Bhosale, Rishaban Radhakrishnan, Niyas Attashery).
Two projects received a special mention from the jury – Agriculture Domain – An agricultural dehydrator to increase the shelf life of fruits, vegetables and spices by Carpro Technologies, a startup from Coimbatore and Electric Vehicle Domain – an electric kick scooter by IngoElectric, a startup from Bengaluru.
Addressing the gathering, MHRD Chief Innovation Officer, Abhay Jere said, “The Ministry of HRD will certainly consider partnering with carbon zero challenge team for the next smart India hackathon initiative, especially for the theme on Sustainability and Waste Management.”
IIT-M Director Bhaskar Ramamurthi said, “This all-India competition identifies and nurtures young innovators and entrepreneurs to develop solutions that will help us to move to a greener and cleaner world. Technologies developed by these youth for clean water, air, energy and the environment are very important for the world, particularly India. IIT Madras has a vibrant ecosystem to encourage innovations through our student-centred Centre for Innovation (CFI), pre-incubator ‘Nirmaan’ and the Gopalakrishnan Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.”