The ultimate goal is to enhance the employability of budding engineering students

Q. Tell us about the thought behind launching the Mitsubishi Electric Cup for engineering students in the country?

Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Japan, (MELCO), strongly believes in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and “Citizenship” as a guiding principle. MELCO, as a global player contributes to the development of communities and society as a whole. Mitsubishi Electric India (MEI) also, being a group company  of MELCO, follows the same philosophy to contribute for society. Therefore, MEI has initiated the activity of skill development of engineering students through various initiatives like collaborating with top institutes in India by providing Factory Automation Lab (FA Lab) based on world-class factory automation products from MELCO.  The lab has been in operation since the year 2012. MEI has now decided to move one step ahead and provide a challenging platform in the form of competition for students to showcase their knowledge and innovation in the field of Automation. The ultimate goal is to enhance the employability of budding engineering students which leverage them to pursue career in Automation.

Q. This is the second year of the Mitsubishi Electric Cup. How is this edition going to be different from the first one?

The first edition of Mitsubishi Electric Cup was  a new experience for MEI as well as for the hosting Institute – “Vishwakarma Institute of Technology(VIT)”, Pune. The response was encouraging; we received 65 proposals out of which 23 teams participated in the finale. This year the hosting institute is “College of Engineering (COEP), Pune”, and our target is to accommodate 35 teams in the final round and aimed to reach pan-India through extensive and focussed branding of the event.  This time the theme is “Intelligent Manufacturing for Greener Tomorrow”. Last year’s event was a great learning and motivating experience for the organizing committee. Obviously, second edition will be more refined and developed in terms of execution of the event; and also the scale will be bigger!

Q. How different is the response for this year’s Mitsubishi Electric Cup from last year’s? Are any of the institutes from last year participating this year too?

We have received a tremendous response from the students across the country for the second year of Mitsubishi Electric Cup. This shows that the awareness regarding the competition has increased among the students as we have managed to reach more number of institutes across the country. As mentioned earlier, last year we received 65 proposals and this time we have received over 100 proposals. This year major difference we notice is regarding the quality of proposals; almost all proposals are in-line with the theme and noticeable innovative ideas have been presented.  Now we need to shortlist 35 teams for the final that will be held in February 2017.  A total of 35 teams from 34 Institutes will be participating; 14 Institutes will make it again this year, remaining 20 Institutes are new entrants for the event.

Q. From which states have you received maximum responses in terms of entries?

We have received proposals from more than 10 states. Maximum participation is from Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, as we received 30 proposals from each state. Also, we have received good response from NCR, Gujarat, Punjab and other states as well.

Q. What kind of professional training can students who are part of Mitsubishi Electric Cup hope to receive from the Mitsubishi Electric India team?

MEI through its Factory Automation Centres located at Pune, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Chennai and Ahmedabad has arranged focussed training programmes for the shortlisted teams. The training will be arranged in a phased manner;  initially training will be on Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) and Human Machine Interface (HMI), as these two components are mandatory to be included in the working model submitted by each team. In second phase, Variable Frequency Dive (VFD) and Servo Training will be arranged. The students development on projects will also be evaluated on frequent intervals by the Organizing Committee of Mitsubishi Electric Cup to provide them appropriate guidance related to the status of their projects.

Q. What kind of models are participants required to prepare?

Working models are to be developed as per the proposals submitted by the teams and they are based on theme of the competition – “Intelligent Manufacturing for Greener Tomorrow”. Students are required to integrate Mitsubishi Electric’s factory automation products (including PLC, servo, inverter and  HMIs, 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 models should also inculcate the best industry practices for wiring and safety while showcasing different aspects like innovation, cost effectiveness, feasibility etc.

Q. Tell us more about the theme that has been chosen for the second edition of the Mitsubishi Electric Cup. On what basis was the theme chosen?

We have kept the theme of this year’s competition as ‘Intelligent Manufacturing for Greener Tomorrow ‘, to encourage students to come up with innovative ideas of technology which has an environment-saving aspect to it.

Q. What kind of technical support will Mitsubishi Electric India be providing to the teams in preparing their models? Will they also be given any kind of financial support in their exercise?

As mentioned, MEI through its FA Centres will be providing the FA training to all shortlisted teams. A technical expert from FA centre is assigned to each team to guide students across their journey of preparing the project models. He will be the single point of contact for all technical support needed for the project.  This time, each team will be getting financial support of INR 7000/- after achieving required level in the project.

Q. Mitsubishi Electric will be giving Factory Automation equipment to the teams to make the model. Can you tell us what kinds of products are included in the Mitsubishi Electric Factory Automation product kits that will be provided to the students?

Mitsubishi Electric will be giving its FA products like PLC, HMI, VFD, Servo and MCBs. PLC & HMI are mandatory to use by all teams. Based on the proposal and project requirements, Servo System and VFD will be given to the team.

Q. On what basis will the teams be shortlisted for the final round?

There are three categories of evaluation criteria:  Proposition & Design, Quality of work and e&eco-F@ctory concept. The proposition & design includes Innovation factor and technical complexity address in the proposal. Quality of work includes documentation of proposal, feasibility and commercialization. All proposals have been evaluated by competent judging panel comprising of senior professors, technical experts from MEI and industries.

Q. Tell us more about what kind of awards the winning teams will be given to encourage their innovative abilities.

As per my opinion, the participation in the event by top 35 teams in national level automation competition is a great fulfilment. The winning team, 1st runner up team and the 2nd runner up team will be rewarded with a prize amount of Rs 1,00,000, Rs 75,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively. Apart from these prizes, special appreciation prizes will be given to 10 teams as a token of appreciation for their innovative abilities.

Q. This year, the final round of the Mitsubishi Electric Cup will be held at College of Engineering (COEP), Pune. Can you tell us why this particular venue was chosen? Also, why was Pune chosen as the city to hold the finals?

COEP is an autonomous engineering institute and one of the oldest and renowned colleges of India. COEP has been associated with MEI since 2013 through a separate MoU. The competent faculty members, good infrastructure, involvement and enthusiasm levels of members of COEP in this event, location of COEP in the heart of city with easy connectivity have made us to consider it for venue of finale.  The reason why Pune is chosen to conduct the finals is that Pune is centrally located in India, conveniently connected with other parts of India through rail, bus and air transport, one of the most popular engineering hubs in India and holds a large amount of crowd of engineering aspirants residing from different parts of the country. Pune is also head office of Factory Automation & Industrial Division (FAID) of MEI that executes this event.

Q. Since last year’s venue too was in Pune, what kind of response are you expecting this time for the finals?

We are expecting a tremendous response this year as the number proposals received is very high as compared to last year.