Mechanical Engineering Research Exhibition announces 5 Tata Fellow winners.

On September 16th (the same day as the Tata Center Symposium), the MIT Department of Mechanical Engineering held their 3rd annual Mechanical Engineering Research Exhibition (MERE). Over 80 students presented their research with live demos, videos, interactive models, and posters.

The winners included these Tata Fellows:

Grand Prize for Outstanding Presentation: Guillermo Diaz Lankenau (pictured on the left)

Guillermo is focusing on an agricultural solution called the Bullkey. Instead of animal draft power, which can be expensive in the long-run, the Bullkey aims to fill unique needs of small-scale Indian farmers, inlcuding high maneuverability at slow speeds, narrow width to fit between rows of crops, and a tight turning radius.

Best Live Demo: Deepak Subramani

Deepak’s project is coastal forecasting for a sustainable fisheries management system in India. He is developing a system tailored to India’s economic and environmental welfare to fulfill specific needs in the coastal zones.

Newcomer Award: Sahil Shah

Sahil is working on in-home water desalination in India. The goal is to improve water palatability for many Indian households by designing a low-cost alternative to reverse osmosis water purifiers, which will use electrodialysis to reduce energy consumption and wastage.

Honorable Mentions: David Bian & Sterling Watson

David Bian and Sterling Watson, both new additions to the Tata Center, are focusing on photovoltaic-powered desalination systems. This project aims to design an off-grid desalination system for small-scale applications that can be scalable, efficient, and sustainable alternative to on-grid reverse osmosis systems. This project was recently highlighted by CNBC.