She’s a 19-year-old girl from Jamshedpur who enrolled as an electrical engineering student at BIT-Sindri this year. And N. Harshita is already making waves on campus, as she figures out how moving vehicles can be harnessed to generate power.

Harshita, who has made a blueprint of harnessing automobile motion to generate electricity as a part of an innovative project to be displayed as a model during Sandhan, BIT-Sindri’s tech fest to be held in December or January, said she wanted to build a mini wind turbine generator and attach it to the moving vehicle.

The daughter of N.V. Rama Rao of Tata Steel in Jamshedpur and homemaker N. Sawjanya said she started working on her idea after Durga Puja and developed the blueprint within 20 days. “The idea is to make a mini wind turbine generator and attach it to the moving vehicle. Combining wind generators with automobiles can develop a new way to generate power,” Harshita, who has given her diagrams to the scrutiny panel of Sandhan organisers, the BIT-Sindri students’ society Model Club.

The girl said her idea had been appreciated by the scrutiny panel. “I hope to be selected. The car’s radiator fan can be connected to the electric generator to create power and this in turn can be used to charge the car batteries and other accessories. It is a win-win.”

She added that her idea would help generate clean energy and clear hot air from the car. “A vehicle that runs at an average 60kmph can generate enough electricity, 7-10 volts, to charge car batteries and other electrical appliances.”

Ayaz Imam, a BTech third-year student of BIT-Sindri and technical head of Model Club, said they had received Harshita’s idea, among others, and students could submit ideas till mid-November. “The winner will become the Techie of the Year. We liked Harshita’s idea though many others are coming in.”