Supra Duper

Maruti Suzuki ties up with SAE India to encourage young engineers

The Indian auto industry is on a roll and there’s no doubt about that if one glances at the 2010-11 sales figures. And there doesn’t seem to be any let up for the forseeable future. While manufacturers are gearing up to meet the demand, there is still a shortage of talent, especially automotive engineers, across the board.

Enter the SupraSAE India 2011 competition. Driven by Society of Automobile Engineers (SAE India) and supported by Maruti Suzuki and Automotive Research Association of India (ARAI), the fixture will see 44 teams from various engineering colleges and institutions participate in an event where they will design and race their own formula car.

To take place in July 2011 at the Chennai race track, the teams are gearing up to prepare for the event that will not only highlight their racing skills, but also their vehicle preparation and engineering skills. Speaking on the occassion, V Sumantran, Chairman of the SAE India steering committee said, “The event blends the challenge and excitement of motorsports with the learnings and experience in team work and engineering.” The event itself will determine the winners based on the design, cost evaluation, presentation, acceleration, skid-pad, auto-cross economy and endurance.

Maruti Suzuki sees it as an opportunity to shore up its engineering and research base. IV Rao, Managing Executive Officer at Maruti Suzuki believes that the constant inflow of dedicated  passionate and innovative young engineers is essential for its organisation, as it expands its engineering as well as production capacity.

Over the last few years, the automotive industry is showing interest in shoring up the automotive engineering base as it expands rapidly. Events like the SAE Baja are also used as a base to nurture and develop future automobile engineers. Like the SupraSAE challenge, the Baja whittles down the list of entrants after going through their virtual reports and then selects feasible ones for the competition. With the entry of the SupraSAE competition, budding engineers will not only get an opportunity to showcase their talent, but be picked up by an industry that is always scouting for fresh ideas.