Ankur Sharma

Ankur Sharma (born September 29, 1986) is an Indian scientist who is the creator of India's first solar car.
Education
Ankur Sharma was never a brilliant kid in school. Though, he topped his school successively for many years and secured 98% in his seventh grade, he fared vary badly in college. Out of the 100 students in the mechanical department of his college, he stood at 86th and gave three re-examinations after failing in them. Sharma had received his school education at St. John's School (on National Highway 2, Near Agra). While at school, he received recognition as a Government certified child scientist in 1998 by Baal Vigyan Congress for his work on a Hydel Power project, won some Inter school science exhibitions and got his first media acclaim at the age of twelve. He joined S.M. Arya Public School at Punjabi Bagh, New Delhi and later, Delhi College of Engineering to pursue Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering.
At Delhi College of Engineering, he realised his childhood dream of making concept cars. He joined the DCE Formula Student racing team in his first year at college. As a part of this team, he learned the basics of Formula cars and worked as a member in the power train department of this team. He then started working on his dream solar car with the help of his faculty and friends. Unable to manage both the projects simultaneously, he was asked to quit the Formula Student Racing Team. The team went on to build a Formula Student car and participated in the U.K. chapter of Formula Student racing at its Silverstone circuit in 2007.
India's First Solar Car Project
Soon after, he started receiving sponsorships and came up with India's first Solar Car, which he named Nova SB2.
This car received widespread acclaim from Indian and international media. This Government funded project aimed at making first Indian solar car and racing 3021 kms in World Solar Challenge, Australia from Darwin to Adelaide. Apart from being showcased at Auto Expo 2008, the project gathered media attention worldwide and all major Indian news broadcasters and newspapers recognized the effort. Many leading channels like Headlines Today, Aaj Tak, Delhi Aaj Tak, NDTV, India TV, Zee News, Star News, MH News, Aaj Tak Tez, News X, Aazad, etc. called for half hour live talk shows and covered the news in detail. The effort also found front page and exclusive releases about the car and the Team Head in newspapers and magazines like The Times of India, Hindustan Times, The Hindu, The Pioneer, The Indian Express, Amar Ujala, Punjab Kesari, Alive, Junior Science Refresher, Eenadu, Dainik Jagran, and others. The project was sponsored by Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., Indian Railways, JK tyres, Central Electronics Limited, and DCE.
India's First Hydrogen Kart Project
He also worked towards developing India's first hydrogen kart and racing it in the third season of Formula zero.This ongoing project aimed at making first fuel cell kart in India and racing it in the third season of Formula Zero Grand Prix at (tentatively): Silverstone, Detroit, Rotterdam, and Dubai. The main aim of building this kart was to show that hydrogen can be implemented in racing cars with zero emissions. Formula Zero Organization, supported by C-40, an organization sponsored by Ex-U.S. President Bill Clinton, had offered a fuel cell worth approximately 30,00,000 INR for his project. He was invited by Formula Zero on a sponsored trip to visit their Amsterdam circuit during their World Record attempt in September 2007. Due to a very tight schedule, as his team was scheduled to leave for the World Solar Challenge during the same period, he politely refused. Later, Mr. Bo Ridder, the world record holder in Hydrogen kart racing, came to India to meet him. They drafted the proposal to make India's first Hydrogen kart and race it in the first season of Formula Zero. Maruti Suzuki assured them of full support and the plan was put before Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. Currently, he is looking for sponsors to participate in the third season.
Google X Prize Lunar Rover
Sharma has worked on an international project based in the U.S. that aims at building a lunar rover and launch it to the moon for the Google X prize competition before 2011 from Florida. The cost of the project, in several million U.S. Dollars, has already been sponsored by [http://www.osirinternational.org Organization of Scientific Investigation & Research(OSIR)]. As a team of international scientists at OSIR, they aimed at making world's fastest solar car by 2009 and race it in the World Solar Challenge, Australia. The organization had also selected Ankur to be the chairman of its core team of managers for building India's first Science City in Hyderabad by 2010.
Professional Career
Sharma has been the technical consultant for various projects viz. Solar
Car Project (Alwar), Solar Hybrid Project (Bhopal), solar car project (Hyderabad) and other design teams like Manipal Institute of Technology solar car team which attempted to make a solar car.
He was the member of Indian team that aims to participate in FIRA 2010 (Federation of International Robot Soccer Association), the largest robotics competition in the world.Sharma has worked as Amateur Rocket Scientist for many years. One such rocket research team, that is led by his close friend, Ashish Rayat, has been acknowledged and included in the R & D program of Institute of Engineering & Technology, Bhaddal, Punjab.
Just after his completing his school, he worked as a Science & Maths tutor for two years and one of his two students failed again under his coaching. He is the founder of a non-profit society named Phoenix Ventures Ltd. that provides technical assistance to teams working on solar cars to promote R&D in the field of Solar Photovoltaic and assists his family, in their family business of Pathological Equipments and of late is working on his own Solar power pack company.He had worked for the following Professional Societies in his graduation days:
* Member of Organization of Scientific Investigation & Research(OSIR).It is a global non-profit organization that works for the promotion of science and technology. OSIR wanted to set up its India chapter to benefit Indian students.He had been proposed as the first President of the chapter.
* Ex member of DCE chapter of National Service Scheme .
* Member of Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE).
* Member of a Non Government Organization to promote orphans.
* Regularly worked for DCE societies on a voluntary basis.
Other Activities
Ankur Sharma has been involved in various activities on an international scale. He was shortlisted by Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and Ministry of New & Renewable Energy, India to develop a commercially viable solar car with patent. He is the participant of an entrepreneurship competition at CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad to venture in the field of IT. Moreover, he is the holder of Certificate of appreciation from IIT Delhi for making a human propelled four wheel vehicle in Junkyard Wars after being selected amongst five other teams out of 323 teams in four rounds.
Sharma has co-authored three research papers and his team won third Prize at a Technical Paper presentation contest held at DCE for a research paper on Hydrogen cars.He, despite his relative poor academic record, has been the runner up of multiple Inter School Science Exhibitions.
In his first year at College, he won his first award at an engineering institute, a consolation Prize for Inter College Junkyard Competition held at Delhi College of Engineering.
He was Invited by Indian Institute of Technology (Mumbai) and VIT, Vellore to make a seminar on solar cars. He has worked as a part time script writer for Aakashvani radio station. Sharma had won merit Certificates for consistently achieving very high grades at school. He is the winner of many I.Q. competitions, with a I.Q. of 150. For the solar car project, he got the opportunity to be proposed for nomination for National award for Technical Innovation by IIT Kharagpur.
He had been organizer of cultural & technical fests at Delhi College of Engineering.
He has written research papers on the Development of a Hydrogen Kart and Soccer Robos & Amateur Rocketry in India. He is currently working on The Economic Times Power of Ideas Contest to get funds for his startup and his GD PI for Faculty of Management Studies, from where he has got a call for its MBA admissions.
See Also
*Formula Zero
*World Solar Challenge
*Hindu E-Paper
*CSE
*Deccan Herald
*[http://www.dcetech.com/downloads/IOTA%20'07.pdf DCE Webpage]
*Tropicala
*earth Times
*South Australia Gov.
*Aurora Solar Car
*Eco Wordly
*Inside Kerala
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*Web India
*News Post India
*Telugu Portal
*Monsters and Critics
*Telugu People
*Mangalorean
*Andhra Vilas
*Indian Express
*Elephant Motors
*Magheap
* South Australia Gov.

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