Scientific Innovations take centre stage

PM misses solar bus ride, courtesy bad weather 

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Students unable to show their vehicle to Modi 

Aparna Banerji
Tribune News Service
Phagwara, January 3

Till yesterday, they were hoping to showcase their solar bus to the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi. But, inclement weather conditions on Thursday played a spoilsport with the aspirations of students of the Mechanical and Electronics Department of Lovely Professional University (LPU). As the PM reached the venue late, he missed a ride of the bus.

Called as LPU Autonomous Solar Bus, the students who built it will eventually be applying for patenting it. Not dampened by missing the opportunity of showing their work to the Prime Minister, students say they are hopeful that the project’s anticipated commercial viability will bring their innovation to limelight.

Nearly 300 students from various department of the university had been working on the driverless solar car, which is being claimed as the world’s first solar car, for the past one year. With the Prime Minister skipping a ride of the car, the students are now pegging hopes for a patent and to commercialise their innovative project.

Mandeep Singh, a member of the Student Research and Project Cell, said, “Any student of the LPU can come up with a feasible idea and nourish it. The driverless car was first showcased at a drivers’ expo in 2014. At that time, we made subsequent innovations in it and embarked upon this model.”

“There are no drunk-driving constraints in this. Besides, there is no fuss regarding charging it or fuelling it. A micro controller-based system charges the car. We started working on the project a year ago. When we came to know that the Prime Minister is coming, we speeded up our work on the project,” he added. While the car has been designed by students of the Mechanical Department, students of others departments, including fine arts, body works, CSC and electronics, have also been part of it from time to time.

Rajvansh, a lecturer, who is also the co-leader of the bus, said, “Due to bad weather conditions, the Prime Minister got late. Therefore, he could not get a ride of the bus. We are hoping for many other opportunities to showcase our innovation. We will develop the bus further and make its algorithm stronger. We are also eventually trying to patent the bus since a driverless solar bus has not been built before.”