Indore's All-Girls Team Develops Driverless Car, To Compete At National Auto Engineering Platforms

Indore: The rise of women across sectors no longer gives anyone goosebumps since the narrative has, over the years, changed - for better, and for good. It signals a structural shift, where girls have gone on to lead in combat roles at the borders to breakthroughs in space and now steering innovation in the automobile sector.

In a major development, an all-girls team from Acropolis Institute of Engineering and Technology here has successfully built a driverless car, one that is currently going through test runs within the campus.

A 25-member all-women team was constituted by the institute to work on the ambitious autonomous vehicle project. After months of coordinated effort across disciplines, the team finally came up with the vehicle that is being described as the first driverless car developed at the state level.

Professor Hemant Marmat, who led the innovative experiment, explained that the initiative was not limited to just assembling components. “This project brought together teams from mechanical engineering, electronics, artificial intelligence, machine learning, computer science, coding and information technology. The students brainstormed at every step and built each part of it,” he said.

The autonomous vehicle operates using a combination of cameras and radar systems. These enable real-time decision-making, allowing the car to independently manage acceleration, steering and braking.

The system functions as per the programmed instructions, maintaining speed and direction while adapting to surroundings. Cameras help detect nearby vehicles and regulate distance, ensuring safe navigation without human intervention.

The project executed under the coordination of faculty engineer Yogesh Katare, had students including Ashmi Jain, Pallavi Shahi, Gayatri Patel, Gauri Sharma, Muntaha Khan, Niyati Thakur, Sejal Raikheda, Tanisha Lashkari, Shruti Rathore, Sanchita Khiyani, Parul Devkar, Aditi Sharma, Shreya Gupta, Mitushi Tanwar, Aashna Jain, Moksha Jain, Rakhi Yadav, Urvashi Kushwaha, Himanshi Verma, Prachi Agrawal, Ritika Solanki, and Megha Manote.

Currently, the vehicle is in test-drive mode within the campus and is being fine-tuned for competitive performance.

The team is now preparing to participate in BAJA SAE India, scheduled to be held in Chennai this July. The competition is a premier national platform where engineering students design, build and test all-terrain vehicles under real-world automotive evaluation parameters.

At BAJA SAE India, participants are assessed not just on technical design but also on practical performance, endurance and innovation, making it a critical proving ground for emerging engineers.

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