An initiative by a group of engineers, doctors and teachers to teach people the skill of making low-cost solar lamps in drought-prone poor power-grid areas, will now receive a helping hand from a French software firm to upgrade those skills. The social welfare arm of Dassault Systemes, part of the larger Dassault group, has partnered with the Sharadashram Foundation based in Pune as well as an engineering college in Solapur, to train 16 engineering students on how to make low-cost, high quality home and community solar-based lighting systems, as well as laminators.
“Our foundation has been doing work in drought-prone areas like Latur and Osmanabad to teach people simple and low-cost methods to make solar lamps, for more than a decade now. But now, the aim is to make those cutting-edge and high-quality, while keeping the ethos of simple manufacturing methods and being low-cost. Dassault is extending us a helping hand towards that end. This also helps in integrating industry with the academia, something China has been able to do very effectively. 16 final-year engineering students will learn new and upgraded methods to manufacture solar lamps, as well as a few other solar-powered equipment, such as laminators, which can be used to harness solar power effectively,” said Sachin Dhande, part of the Sharadashram Foundation.
The students at the engineering college in Solapur, according to Dhande, will learn 3D imaging and printing techniques using specialized software and equipment, from trained mentors, which is part of Dassault’s contribution to the initiative. The project is scheduled to run for a year, by which a prototype is expected.
