Little drops of water makes the mighty ocean
Back in the year 2008, group of students decided to do something innovative at the wonderful place of NIT Rourkela. The students realized they need to do something more than the academics which would be more practical, useful and expose them to new ways of thinking, believing and setting a new trend. The very thought process gave birth to one of the largest and active student chapter/ club of SAE at NIT Rourkela. ...The initial path as usual was not easy. The chapter had to pass through various barriers, initial bottle necks, haziness in the trodden path but what kept on moving was the larger picture every one dreamt of and believed could be possible. When intensions are correct, everything starts falling in place. We started receiving enormous support from the institute, the then Director, Dr. Sunil Kumar Sarangi who appreciated the idea and extended all possible support to make it happen. We are blessed to have wonderful alumni who stood with the team and gave all possible support. After several months of uncertainty, the team was successful in formally setting up SAE on 15th Aug 2008.
The inception year was quite exiting and the team understood completely that the very year was crucial to set up the foundation of SAE. The team gave the best effort to leave no stones unturned in organizing several events, workshops, guest seminars inviting researchers/ industrialist of national repute, industrial visits and many more. Fortunately, the chapter was recognized as the best chapter in the Eastern India and we were invited at ARAI Pune to present our road map and vision. This was something a great achievement for all the team members who worked throughout the year giving their best in its foundation year.
The team treaded its path into Baja SAE and SAE Formula under the banner of SAE NITR chapter and enjoyed each and every moment of wonderful engineering. The team will never forget the cold Dec night when the first Baja Car “Black Mamba 47” was given the life and roared on the roads of NITR. This brought a different feeling all together and gave us the strong identification in the institute and all over the state. From there on we have seen many wonderful cars have been built by students every year with new innovation and design frame work.
With every year passed by we have seen students working together and coming out with much better and better concepts in fabricating cars, managing teams, building relationship and achieving new impossible targets. The memories of designing concepts in CAD, spending sleepless nights in workshops, struggling with long lists of tasks and balancing academic pressure with SAE project deadlines will always remain fresh in us. We can surely boast of tapping the sharp and bright minds of NIT Rourkela and utilizing in the right direction. We are and should be proud of such young innovative minds over the years who have taken SAE to the new height of success.
There is no doubt in it that we, SAEians at NIT Rourkela have always dreamt big and have performed the best in achieving it and bringing laurels to our institute. Time has come to look beyond the institute and further broaden our vision to identify the prevailing issues concerning the society and come forward with innovative and workable automotive solutions. I am sure we have the right skills, the mindset and the confidence to do it as we have done in the past.
I extend my best wishes and congratulate the current members of SAE and the alumni of SAE who have brought SAE to this level of success.