12 December 2007

USP students win Mondialogo Engineering Award

THE CHAMPS: Vaibhav Tidke (left), fourth-year MUICT Chemical Engineering undergraduate; and Veerappan Swaminathan, second-year NUS Mechanical Engineering undergraduate, at the award ceremony with organisers.

A Solar Pond Fruit Drying System proposal by a group of five NUS University Scholars Programme (USP) students and two undergraduates from Mumbai University Institute of Chemical Technology (MUICT) won the Mondialogo Engineering Award 06/07.

Organised by Daimler and UNESCO, the Award is given to the top 10 engineering proposals that improve the quality of life in the developing world. The year’s competition saw 809 proposals from 89 countries.

NUS-MUICT’s low-cost system can reduce the drying times of fruits from about three to five days to a mere 10 hours. The drying process can also be carried out at night. Judges’ comments ranged from "very detailed and well-thought out proposal" to "a project with great potential to directly impact the lives of farmers in rural India".

Said team leader Veerappan Swaminathan, a second-year Mechanical Engineering undergraduate: "The competition was very tough and there were many excellent projects from all over the world. It was a great honour to win at this competition."

Other team members include second-year Engineering Science undergraduates Tan Huei Ming, Tan Yi Han,  Muhd Ibnur and Set Ying Ting, all as well as fourth-year MUICT Chemical Engineering undergraduates Vaibhav Tidke and Darshan Metha.

The team has been awarded a cash prize of 20,000 Euros (S$42,000) which is expected to be used as seed funding. They will be implementing the project at a village in Mumbai over the next two days.