KPIT a global technology company specializing in product engineering and IT consulting, announced the winners of KPIT Sparkle Munich 2017, a national design and development innovation contest also being annually held in India since 2014.
“With our comfortable and flexible solution, you are highly mobile”. This was the answer that Felix Ballendat, Jakob Karbaumer and David Heid came up with to solve the problem of future transportation, the theme for this year’s KPIT innovation contest, KPIT Sparkle Munich. For their disruptive idea, the student group from the University of Applied Sciences, Munich was conferred with the KPIT Sparkle Platinum Award, with a cash prize of 10.000 EUR. What makes the solution a very light and small vehicle is the folding mechanism and the high-tech material carbon fiber used in its body. The vehicle can be folded in just two seconds and can be carried all day long. “Thanks to KPIT Sparkle we could turn this idea into an award-winning prototype,” said the winning team.
Team “UTOP” from the University of Applied Sciences and the Technical University Munich (TUM) won Gold while the silver went to Team “Individualization of Public Transportation” from the Technical University Munich (TUM).
Anup Sable, CTO, KPIT said: “The groundbreaking ideas that we received in the first German edition of our contest shows how well young students are able to identify problems and solve them with imaginative and scientific thinking. We are pleased to note that KPIT Sparkle has emerged as a platform for young innovators to think big and out-of-the-box.”
Started in April 2016, KPIT Sparkle Munich gave students the opportunity to submit their futuristic ideas on the given theme. The ten best teams were invited to present their prototypes at the final event in Schloss Hohenkammer on Friday, 24th February 2017. A jury of professors and experts from the industry chose the winners, based on innovation, social impact, technical knowledge and completeness of the prototype.
