“Drone Technologies and Applications”
For the first time in India KCG college has brought in National level Drone Racing to Chennai on March 2nd and 3rd. KCG Drone PitStop 2018 happened to be the most exciting event for the Drone lovers of this country where flying drone has become a passion for most of the youngsters. This event was planned in such a way that young minds have to design their own drone not just flying the off the shelf commercial one. This was a spectacular event for the audience witnessing the several drones competing with each other and flying through challenging obstacles. Department of Aeronautical Engineering, KCG college of Technology in association with, Aeronautical Society of India (AeSI) and Aerospace Industry Development Association of Tamilnadu (AIDAT) has conducted the Mega event KCG Drone Pit Stop 2018. On 2nd March 2018 eminent speakers from Drone Industry have delivered the lectures in the Seminar “Drone Technology and Applications” at Mirza Seminar Theatre of KCG college of Technology. The seminar program was started with welcome address by Dr. K. Vijayaraja, HoD Aero followed by the Lightning of Lamp by the Dignitaries. The Special address was given by Dr. G. Prabhakaran, Principal KCG College of Technology. The Chief Guest and the Guest of Honour for the event were Dr. S. R. Chakravarthy, Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, IITM and Coordinator National Centre for Combustion Research and Development (NCCRD) and Mr. Subbian Seetharaman, Asst Vice President, Siemens-Gamesa. More than 270 students from KCG College of Technology and 38 students from various Colleges and professionals from Industries have attended the seminar. Chief Guest spoke on the different engineering principles and shared his vision how the engineering should be. His key note address covered various topics including grounding of CONCORDE, air taxis in future, VTOL, comparison of US GDP and Indian GDP growth and the possibility of India becoming the second biggest economy in the world within twenty years and necessity of our younger generation commitment. Guest of Honour shared his experiences in the industry, usage of drones in wind turbines and solar power plant and his current projects at the outset. He spoke on various drone applications in the current market and its future prospects. The Dignitaries unveiled the Logo of Critical Thinkers club and its Year Magazine followed by the prize distribution to the achievers in the club. After the tea break the Seminar started with the first session given by the Resource Person Mr. Syed Mubashar Ali, Director, D-EPSAT Pvt Ltd. He spoke on DFMA (Design for Manufacturing and Assembly). He stressed on the importance of manufacturing machine components with less parts which would reduce the weight and leading to additional benefits. He introduced a new term EVIATION which deals with electric planes. Finally he wished to be a partner of Hindustan group in innovating new technologies in air travel Second session was handled by Mr. Bhaskar Raghunathan, Director and CEO, Takvaviya Tech Pvt Ltd. He shared his passion towards the drones and hisexperiences in the industry. In the interactive session about the out of the box applications of Drones and he explained about his companies involvement in developing drones for specific applications in agriculture NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), studying the tide waves and collecting the data for safety precautions on Tsunami. His work was highly application/task oriented and inspired the students to take up a career on drone technology.After Lunch Break the third session was conducted by Mr. Sai Patabiraman, Founder, Sree Sai Aerotech Innovations. He introduced the regulations of Drones in India and said it was one of the best in the world and how the regulations will create more opportunity in the future. He said every registered drone will get a Unique Identification Number. He stressed the importance of autopilot in the drones and the requirement of four data points to develop an AI (Artificial Intelligence). Final session was handled by Mr. Rakend Dubba, CFD Engineer, Sukra Helitek. He spoke on various application of CFD with drones and their company’s contribution towards the development of drones. 18 teams participated in the event. On the first day, the teams were involved in assembling their drones as per the specifications provided by the organising team of the Department of Aeronautical Engineering, KCG College of Technology. Points were awarded for their assembling skills and for the innovation. On the second day, in front of drone lovers of various colleges and public, racing event have started with loud cheering. Professional flyers have flown their UAVs and demonstrated their various aerobatic skills of flying. MMC_UAV and SKYPORT Innovations, an Indo-Chinese MNC, have flown their UAV showing its capability of crowd monitoring and patrolling, which was well appreciated by the knowledgeable crowd. This is the first ever college event in India for drone racing which will become a yearly event.
Student Category:
First prize – Agni College of Technology, Chennai
Second Prize – RV College of Engineering, Bangalore
Third Prize – Sri Krishna College of Engineering, Coimbatore
Consolation prizes:
- Hindustan Institute of Technology and Science
- Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research
Open Category:
Winner: Mr.Mohammed Riyaz
Consolations Prize: Mr. Janarthan
Judges for the Event:
Mr. Vinoth Kumar, Engineer, Boeing India Pvt Ltd
Mr. Manoj Kumar, Technical Engineer, Boeing India Pvt Ltd
Mr. Bhanu Praveen, R&D Head, SKYPORT Innovations
Mr. Suresh, Assistant Professor, HITS, Padur
Mr. Dinesh, Project Lead, UCAL
Mr. Parvez Alam, Head Corporate Marketing, UCAL, India and Mr. Justin Kwok, Overseas Manager, MMCUAV, China were invited for the valedictory function as Chief Guest and Guest of Honour respectively. Mr. Parvez Alam has appreciated KCG College of Technology for conducting such events. He also spoke to the students insisting the importance of drones in future. Mr. Justin Kwok explained the need for drones in present and future, he also detailed the type of drones used for various applications. The dais was decorated by the presence our Principal Dr. G. Prabhakaran and Vice-Principal Dr. Sumathi Poobal. The prizes under various categories were awarded to the winners by eminent personalities on the dias. The participants and winners have appreciated the way in which the event was planned, organised and executed.