IIT Madras student bags second position at annual innovation challenge Season 4
Jamshedpur, July 14: Tata Steel announced the Season 4 winners of its much-awaited Annual Innovation challenge – Mind over Matter (MOM), today in Jamshedpur. The 6-month-long programme culminated with the Grand finale held today, where a total of 5 teams presented their innovative ideas before the jury at the Centre for Excellence, Jamshedpur.
Kayenat Farheen and Niharika Singh from BIT, Mesra, Ranchi emerged as the winners of MOM season IV; Venkata Ravi Teja from IIT, Madras bagged the 1st runners-up position and Kislay Jha and Sankalp Sachdev from BIT, Mesra , Ranchi, secured the third slot.
Prize money worth Rs. 1 lakh, Rs. 75,000 and Rs. 50,000 were given to the winners, 1st runners up and 2nd runners up respectively. The winning team was also awarded with a trophy. Certificates of recognition and pre-placement offers were given to the top three teams whereas certificates of completion were given to all other teams.
The jury for the finale was chaired by Dr. T Venugopalan, Technical Advisor to Managing Director.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Sanjay Chandra, Chief R&D and SS, Tata Steel said, “Mind over Matter is a promising stage for young minds who bring a fresh perspective to the table with unparalleled creativity.
The initiative gives them the chance to work with the expert specialists at Tata Steel’s R&D department to channel their ideas and creativity in the right direction. The program has helped students put their insights into application using state-of-the-art equipment and facilities and has seen their proposals materialize. This in fact, is a huge motivation for these students.
The fact that Tata Steel is coming forth to recognize these young bright minds and is giving them a chance is very commendable.”
Season 4 of Mind over Matter received an overwhelming participation from more than 30 top engineering institutes of India including the IITs, NITs and the likes.
The competition witnessed a record of more than 350 idea submissions against a total of 12 challenges (topics) put forth by the Company’s R&D team. A total of 12 teams were selected and invited to work with Tata Steel’s R&D team under the guidance of assigned mentors as part of their two-month internship.
A total of 12 teams were selected in the pre-finals held today and went on to fight it out for ultimate glory in the grand finale.
Tata Steel started the annual innovation challenge ‘Mind over Matter’ in 2014. It was primarily to provide a platform to enable young budding talents to shape to their thoughts, ideate, innovate and work on real manufacturing and product challenges and explore implementation of the idea on an industrial scale. Over the years, the initiative has grown manifold and promises to be one of the most credible and popular innovation platforms for young minds.