Example of a Student Design Contest Entry

Dear Student Friends

Glad to be able to have this conversation with you. For those who are returning participants from last year’s (2014) contest, welcome back again! Thanks amply for your enthusiastic and energetic particpation last year. We look forward to much more of that enthusiasm and energy and a whole lot more of a display of your inborn creativity. Remember, each of us is a spark of the all-knowing all-powerful Divine. So let us all strive to realize our true and real potential for addressing societal needs and challenges.

It is indeed heartening to see so many young hearts and minds at work in the hope of stumbling upon that elusive win-win project that gets them the recognition (a step towards entrepreneurship) and simultaneously addresses a need of the society at large. I am thankful to the Divine for having blessed the ARM University Program with the resources, including this wonderful opportunity of sponsorship, that enable us to have this great interaction with each other. This is that chance for each of us to bring out our creativity from the depths of our hearts. May I humbly therefore say we are all truly looking forward to something AMAZING from each other?!

While we work on our individual project ideas and shape these ideas into something beautiful that can be appreciated for their applicability and relevance to society, let us recognize we could do some learning as well on the side. Remember, life is an opportunity in and of itself for constantly learning and evolving into more and more beautiful human beings. So I thought we could take a leaf out of some book to see how we could put together our project ideas on paper for others to see and appreciate clearly and quickly as we went working on our ideas from concept to creation. And as the Divine ordained, I chanced upon this example entry of a student design contest project. It is about an Automated Clutch Control System (ACCS) for people with minimal or no leg function (ACCS folk, purely accidental, no pun intended here!).

What struck me in the example entry (in the link provided above) is the crisp, clear, structured and evolving manner in which the student authors have presented their idea: Title with University/College Name in Parenthesis, Author Names, Abtstract, Background, Problem, Methods, Results, Discussion, Cost Analysis (very important from the point of view of commercial viability), Future Improvements and, finally, Acknowledgements. Last, but not least, it may seem the absolutely key component of stake-holders is missing, but it is not. The project idea was gleaned from the medical fraternity as well as the folk working with the handicapped or in high technology.

Thanks again and wish each of you the very best in your endeavors in life!

Sadanand

ARM University Program