Mitsubishi Electric Cup: Budding engineers battle it out at grand finale of automation contest

The grand finale of the Mitsubishi Electric Cup 2016 -- the national-level automation competition for students organised by Mitsubishi Electric India’s Factory Automation and Industrial Division (FAID) -- was held on February 13 at the Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT), Pune. This was the first such competition held by Mitsubishi Electric India. It had been launched in the month of July last year after which the company had invited applications from technical institutions across the country.

The final round that spanned over two days showcased some mind-boggling technological innovations created by budding engineers using products from Mitsubishi Electric Factory Automation.

The winner team ‘Inferno from Dayalbagh Educational Institute, Agra’ walked away with prize worth of Rs 1 lakh. The second place was taken by 'N-Dimension from Vishwakarma Institutes of Technology, Pune' who took home prizes worth Rs 57,000 and ‘“A”utomation from CVR College of Engineering, Hyderabad’ secured the third spot and received prizes worth 50,000 . All the participants were given certificates of participation.

Amidst overwhelming response, the organizing committee of the Mitsubishi Electric Cup shortlisted a total of 24 teams from across the country to compete in the final round.

The theme for the maiden edition of the contest -- in tandem with the environment statement of Mitsubishi Electric -- had been kept as Eco Imagination through Smart Manufacturing. FAID has always been committed to the motto of ‘Eco Changes for a greener tomorrow’. Under the theme, students were required to integrate Mitsubishi Electric’s factory automation products including PLC, servo, inverter and human-machine interface etc, build up and achieve an analogous system of intelligent manufacturing and energy saving management application, based on e&eco-f@ctory concept while taking e-f@ctory system as the trunk.

The competition aimed at providing on-field training to budding engineers from across the country and improving the ability of college students for engineering application, stimulating their interests in learning engineering technology and building up an innovation capacity in them.

Mitsubishi Electric India also supported Vishwakarma Institute of Technology (VIT), Pune with extension of their Factory Automation lab with latest technologies.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Makoto Yokoyama, Director and Division Manager, Factory Automation and Industrial Division, Mitsubishi Electric India said, “I would like to express my sincere gratitude to all participants and supportive members from institutes, organizations and companies who made this event successful. I congratulate all the winners; this competition was designed keeping in mind real-life experiences and challenges that a budding engineer faces. Therefore, the whole idea was to create a similar environment and to provide them real life experiences and training. The theme for our first year was 'Eco Imagination through Smart Manufacturing' so as to encourage students to come up with ideas of technology that have an environment-saving aspect to them.”

Also speaking on the occasion, Mr. Makoto Kitai, Managing Director, Mitsubishi Electric India said “It was a pleasure to witness the young engineers of India with their fresh ideas and Innovation. Mitsubishi Electric Cup is also a part of Mitsubishi Electric India’s CSR initiative which is supporting education and skill development. Mitsubishi Electric India is committed to contribute to the societies it operates in, through a wide range of activities”.