Obama strikes right chords for science and technology!

Finally, the USA has Barack Obama as its 44th president! There are bound to be lots of expectations from the new president of the United States.

Very interestingly, and aptly, Obama referred to science and technology in his inaugural speech. Surely, it is not a place for any US president to detail his policy, but from what everyone heard, the new President struck the right chords.

Savor some of these extracts from his inaugural speech:

“The state of the economy calls for action—bold and swift—and we will act, not only to create new jobs, but to lay a new foundation for growth. We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids, and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together.”

“We will restore science to its rightful place and wield technology’s wonders to raise health care’s quality and lower its cost.”

“We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories.”

Wonderful! The US President clearly hinted at the role science will play during his tenure. Also, his suggestion of ‘harnessing the sun and the winds’ points to the growing importance of renewable energy, hybrid cars, and of course, solar photovoltaics.

I’ve indicated in an earlier blog post that Obama’s, “New Energy for America Plan” could have a significant impact on the US solar industry.

The plan’s provisions include:
• A federal renewable portfolio standard (RPS) that requires 10 percent of electricity consumed in the US to come from renewable sources by 2012.
• A $150 billion investment over 10 years in research, technologydemonstration and commercial deployment of clean energy technology.
• Extension of production tax credits for five years to encourage renewable energy production.
• A cap-and-trade system of carbon credits to provide an incentive for businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The focus on healthcare could see more attention on medical electronics — just my guess — and use it to provide affordable healthcare services.

I’d be very interested to see even more activity on hybrid cars. Closer to home we have had two great prototypes of hybrid/fuel-efficient cars last year — the Chimera, said to be India’s first plug-in hybrid car, and the Garuda.

As I am about to unwind for the day, I received a press release from the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA), USA, where the CEA President and CEO Gary Shapiro congratulated Barack Obama on becoming the 44th President of the United States of America, saying: “On behalf of its 2,200 consumer technology member companies, CEA congratulates President Obama, our first digital president, on his inauguration.”

Indeed, Obama is the USA’s and the world’s first digital president! I’d go on to add that he’s the world’s first Web 2.0 president! For instance, the amount of activity on Facebook has been overwhelming. Oh, in case you happen to visit the White House web site, it’s brand new! The site says: “WhiteHouse.gov will be a central part of President Obama’s pledge to make his the most transparent and accountable administration in American history.”

Garuda car likely to cost Rs. 4 lakhs (US $10,000)

Last Saturday, the R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore unveiled Garuda, its super fuel efficient car! Team Leader Nishant Sarawgi, and members Kayaan, Darshan, Bharat, Jacob, Krishna, Gautham and Rakshit from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore developed a shared vision to build this super fuel efficient car! Power to the students of RVCE, Bangalore, India!

Yesterday, I again caught up with Nishant Sarawgi to learn more about the Garuda car and its commercial viability.

Potential for commercialization
According to him, the car is a R&D prototype on the whole. However, the designs and technologies that have gone into its making have the potential to create a significant impact on the automobile industry.

“The auto industry is hungry for greener technology, lesser emissions and high energy efficiencies, and therefore, several companies have expressed interest in this project. A lot of R&D has gone into it and if not now, then as the project progresses and evolves over time, the components and innovations therein will have the potential for commercialization,” he said.

Sarawgi added: “As already mentioned, our car has also been built with the intention of participating in international competitions like the SAE Supermileage, USA, and Shell Eco-Marathon, UK, where the best student teams in the world compete to try and set new world records in energy efficiency/fuel economy.

“These competitions are very significant as they highlight major global issues of oil crisis and energy conservation besides creating awareness among the youth and general public to take constructive steps towards tackling such issues. Special focus is given to the use of new and innovative technologies to address these global issues.”

As far as a commercial launch is concerned, the time-frame would depend on the massive amount of financial, technological, marketing and infrastructural support and the backup his team receives from the industry in due course of time.

Garuda’s project cost Rs 4 lakhs
One question on everyone’s mind has been, what can be the approximate price of Garuda? Sarawgi said: “It would be a little difficult to quote the exact price of ‘Garuda’ as it involved various other parameters apart from the components and machining that went into making the car.

“For example, logistics (both local and international), PR activities, transportation, administrative work, etc., also figured in the expenditure. The total project expenditure would be around Rs 4 lakhs (approximately, US $10,000).

From a short distance, Garuda seems to look like a prototype of an F1 model. How would the actual car look like: an SUV or a family car? While Sarawgi is thrilled that the prototype is being compared to an F1 car, he clarified that it doesn’t actually look like an F1 model from any angle!

It is different in many ways: be it the shape, size, the body contours, the styling, the weight, the materials used, the system components, the driver’s positioning and seating, driver’s comfort, driver’s visibility, driver safety measures, the overall weight-distribution, the location of the centre of gravity of the car, the car dimensions(length, width, height, etc.).

He said: “Moreover, an F1 car is all about the adrenalin and thrills of high speed, torque and power, whereas ‘Garuda’ is about high fuel-efficiency, energy conservation, greener technologies, and foray into the world of alternate energy resources and innovations. It has nothing to do with high speeds and power. The maximum speed of our existing car ranges from 40-60 kms per hour.”

“The price tag attached with a Formula 1 car is usually in the range of Rs. 30-35 crores, whereas the price of our car would be in the range of Rs. 3.5-4 lakhs,” he added.

An F1 car has four wheels. However, the car ‘Garuda’ has three wheels (bicycle wheels, which are extremely light-weight and offer optimal aerodynamic efficiency for high mileage).

Sarawgi said: “Also, an F1 car is made for motor racing, with very limited possibilities of actual implementation in the commercial road-driven cars, whereas ‘Garuda’ Supermileage prototype is built with the intention of trying to commercialize the designs and concepts of the team to find some meaningful and feasible applications in the consumer cars of tomorrow.

“We would say that the team is already thinking on the lines of trying to take the design and layout of the existing car to the next level by enhancing the overall vehicle performance and use of better components. We might have to go back to the drawing board with respect to certain systems of our car, so it is going to take some time before we finally freeze on the outer appearance (layout and design) of our future car. However, we are sure it would be nothing like a bulky and heavy SUV!”

Garuda runs on iso-octane pure petrol, kerosene
Great! What about the mileage? Does the Garuda car run on petrol or diesel, or some other fuel?

Sarawgi added: “Our car primarily runs on iso-octane pure petrol. It can also run on kerosene. It depends on the engine and other integrated systems used on the car. As of now, our car can run on both petrol as well as kerosene.”

Finally, how green is the car, given that Garuda’s thrust has been toward high fuel-efficiency, energy conservation, greener technologies, and foray into the world of alternate energy resources.

Nishant said: “There’s a simple empirical formula to answer this question… Less fuel consumption –> lesser emissions –> lesser pollution –> minimal contribution to global warming and climate change, finally leads to a respectable green car!

“We are using petrol, no doubt, but there is minimal usage of petrol and the mileage that we get out of it saves a lot of fuel. There are concepts of hybrid, solar or electricity-propelled vehicles, but it would take a lot of time, funding and infrastructure to mass-produce such cars for the consumers, which are feasible and practical.

“We are starting off with petrol, but we can change it later on and make it run on a totally different fuel. It all depends on which technology is more relevant and feasible at that time: whether hybrid, electric, bio-diesel, methanol, solar, hydrogen fuel cells, etc.,” he added.

He highlighted the fact that the prototype car is giving a very high mileage from petrol itself. Most cars of today run on petrol. Therefore, the prototype is of great interest to everyone!

“We hope that our modest attempt would inspire people of all ages and from all walks of life to take up individual or collective responsibility of conserving our energy resources and save the planet from the adverse effects of global warming and climate change,” he concluded.

Best of luck, guys!

RVCE unveils Garuda super fuel-efficient car

Students from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore, have developed the Garuda supermileage car, which was unveiled last Saturday at the College campus by Dilip Chhabria of DC fame, an internationally renowned authority on car designs.

Armed with the aim to represent their College and India in international events such as the SAE Supermileage and the Shell Eco-Marathons, the group of enthusiastic and like-minded students — Team Leader Nishant Sarawgi, along with Kayaan, Darshan, Bharat, Jacob, Krishna, Gautham and Rakshit from the College’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, developed a shared vision to build a super fuel-efficient car.

This dream was realized with the unveiling of the Garuda RVCE supermileage car! This car is said to give an amazing mileage of about 200 km/litre and is slated to give a mindboggling 500 km/litre in due course.

After evaluating the features of the car and understanding the specific design details from the students, Chhabria expressed his great sense of confidence and appreciation of the design and technological capability of students in achieving this fantastic mileage.

Sarawgi says: “The project not only gave us a chance to implement the concepts we learned in theory, but also helped each one of us in unleashing the inner potential to innovate and find implementable solutions to practical problems. The fusion of theory and practice has proved to be invaluable in re-inforcing knowledge, while also enabling us to think out of the box. The many innovative solutions that emerged during the whole process led us to sharpen our application skills. One very core objective, which guided the process was also to help create awareness of the burning environmental issues like global warming, oil crisis and the need for green technologies and conservation of energy.”

Key features of the prototype include: HONDA GK 100 97 cc, 2 Hp air cooled engine; TAV 2 Torq_A-Verter and asymmetric CVT transmission systems; Tubular A1 6063 T6 chassis; use of glass fibre for the shell; Bontrager, 16-inch Moulton sizes recumbent wheels; Twin tie road steering system; Inteneidate freewheel design; variable jet carburetor and simple caliper cycle brakes.

The next steps, as per Bharat, a team member, is to improve the existing design and enhance the fuel efficiency to above 500 km/lit, and participate in international competitions like SAE Supermileage-USA, Shell Eco Marathon-UK, etc., next year.

Dr. S.C. Sharma, Principal, RVCE, congratulated the team for being among the first Indian teams to design and develop a super fuel-efficient vehicle. Dr. M.K. Panduranga Shetty, President of the Rashtreeya Sikshana Samithi Trust expressed his sense of pride on the achievement of the students and promised all support in such endeavours.

The team worked under the able guidance and support of Dr B. Anand, HoD, Mech. Dept. Patron, along with Dr. R.S. Kulkarni as the Faculty Advisor.

Sarawgi expressed deep gratitude to Tantra Infosolutions (Total Outsource Group), CD Adapco and Chameleon Motors, who willingly came forward to sponsor the initiative. Tantra Infosolutions provided strong engineering and financial support; CD Adapco chipped in with the critical engineering design software; and Chameleon Motors provided infrastructural support during the building of the car. Bimal Auto Agency provided logistics support and Innoversant Solutions provided strong support in project management, marketing and PR.