Autodesk rolls out India Design Challenge 2017

Autodesk in partnership with NID and Maruti Suzuki brings forth a unique platform to encourage design-led innovation among students - India Design Challenge 2017. Participants will be leveraging the power of Fusion 360, the flagship cloud-powered design software by Autodesk, to conceptualize and build out-of-the-box industry design solutions. The two design topics for the students are Personal Mobility Solution for Urban Youth – 2025 & Design of Green Vehicle in the year 2025 (full brief). Fulltime students of Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses in all Design Schools can participate in this challenge.

With a vision to foster design skills and drive sustainable innovation, Autodesk along with Maruti Suzuki and NID will be working closely with the students, as mentors and jury. The mentoring will be online, 8- 12 hours in total over a period of four weeks and will include interactive sessions with experts from NID and Maruti Suzuki. This is a unique opportunity for students to attain hands-on training from distinguished faculty members and understand the intricacies of modern-day designing. The key criteria to decide the winning teams will be based on design objective, technology usage (Fusion 360), creativity and novelty of design, design process and overall presentation.

Pradeep Nair, Managing Director, Autodesk India & SAARC, said, “At Autodesk, we believe today’s challenges will be solved by tomorrow’s designers. Aligned with initiatives like Make in India and Startup India, the India Design Challenge encourages the design and creation of innovative solutions leveraging the power of the cloud. We’re delighted to partner with Maruti Suzuki and the National Institute of Design - leaders in Industry and Academia - who share our vision of design-led innovation.”

Autodesk, as a design leader, has undertaken multiple initiatives over the years to reskill and upskill the present and future workforce of India. In 2016, it partnered with NASSCOM to build global occupational standards for design and engineering by launching a newly standardized courseware ‘Product Design Engineer – Mechanical’for the Engineering and R&D sector. Over the years, it has partnered with various higher education institutions and vocational schools in India to provide training and free access to all its design software for students and educators.

CV Raman, Executive Director, Engineering at Maruti Suzuki, said, “Industry-academia partnership is an integral part of our R&D efforts. It gives us a platform to engage the next generation youth and capture their aspirations in our products. Today, the automobile industry is aggressively striving towards unleashing the full potential of Industry 4.0 in India. Right skills and right approach towards innovation are an integral part of it. We are glad to partner with Autodesk for the India Design Challenge and provide an experience to the students of how they can redefine the paradigms of innovation by leveraging their creativity and the right technology.”

Pradyumna Vyas, Director, National Institute of Design, said, “Collaboration amongst industry and the educational institute is pivotal to bring innovation and out of the box concepts, Autodesk’s cloud-based technology enables and opens up new avenues to quickly realize and build innovative concepts to reality. The competition brief is contextually relevant for near future challenges the next generation will have to address in a creative manner. It is quite encouraging to see global technology leaders like Autodesk, putting in so much effort to upskill and reskill the future workforce, the students and make them potential drivers of innovation.”

The India Design Challenge is aligned with Autodesk’s commitment to preparing students for careers in design, engineering, manufacturing, and the digital arts using the tools the professionals use. Autodesk is tapping into the passion of young people to change the world for the better, to be more than just successful in their careers, but to do good while doing well.