Road Tour RE-Charge at Vellore Institute of Technology

Written by Caroline / 03 January 2009 / Read Caroline's latest blog entries.

After our first leg on the road, driving from Chennai to Vellore, our first white Reva arrived at Vellore Institute of Technology to meet those of us travelling in the solar power car. It was really exciting to be charging our cars in a great and beautiful location, and with a part of our power coming from renewables - research technology that's powering campus!

We spent a glorious afternoon at VIT, speaking with the few students who were not on vacation and who shared with us their thoughts on what students at VIT were already doing. One of the great ideas we heard was the SuperPower Environmentalist competition, in which they asked that students debate how they would solve major environmental problems if they had any super power. This fun, innovative way to get students thinking about problems and solutions, brought a lot of VIT students together.

The University itself is being led by a VC who was incredibly supportive of our projects. He spoke with us on a number of their projects and initiatives, including having a mandatory environmental education program for all undergraduates, after a Supreme Court mandate required that all universities do the same. More excitingly, VIT has a number of incredible renewables projects on campus, ranging from solar golf carts to small scale wind power, from an experimental biomass plant powering the campus to solar concentrators. It was really inspiring to see a campus of so much innovation. We've planned a return trip during their major conference in February or March.

Some of the recent graduates that we met shared with us their environmental companies recently started, that are working with rural communities around Vellore to implement biogas projects and rural electrification programs. Students were working with their seniors to gain expertise, and many were planning to start their own companies after graduation.

It was a day full of solutions shared, and we are really looking forward to a long-term partnership with VIT, and hope that the students there and all over will continue to share their solutions!