ASME, founded as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, is a professional association that, in its own words, "promotes the art, science, and practice of multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences around the globe" via "continuing education, training and professional development, codes and standards, research, conferences and publications
government relations, and other forms of outreach". ASME was founded in 1880 by Alexander Lyman Holley, Henry Rossiter Worthington, John Edison Sweet and Matthias N. Forney in response to numerous steam boiler pressure vessel failures. ASME also has a student development section which focuses on budding engineers and helps them to develop the skills to compete in the international arena. ASME Student section in India was started in the year 2010 with IIT Roorkee, IIT Delhi, BITS Pilani and other pioneer institutions in India as its initial members. Within 4 years the number of student sections rose from a handful to over 200. Indian section is currently the fastest growing ASME section in the world with new additions every year. In the year 2012 the Mechanical Engineering Department of Baselios Mathews II College of Engineering joined the elite rank of ASME sections in India thereby making itself the 3rd college from Kerala to have an ASME student section. Currently BMCE is the forerunner for ASME activities in Kerala and is mentoring new sections to benefit the most from ASME. As a veteran student section, the students from BMCE have attended all the national level events conducted by ASME. Jibin John of Mechanical Department was elected as the Zonal Representative of Zone 8 (Kerala &Tamilnadu) at the Student Professional Development Conference (SPDC) held at KoneruLakshmaiah University, Vijayawada. The ASME BMCE section and Meqnzo (Mechanical Engineering Association) conducted a workshop on RC Aircraft Design and Fabrication in association with Aerotrix on 12-13 August 2012. The workshop was attended by over 200 students from all over the country. A team of final year students from BMCE participated in the first ever ASME HPVC (Human Powered Vehicle Challenge) held at IIT-Delhi on 17th -19th Jan 2014. A team of pre-final year students have participated in the Student Design Competition (SDC) at BITS-Pilani on 28th -30th March 2014.Many more programs are scheduled to be conducted in the coming days.
ASME HPVC
ASME's international Human Powered Vehicle Challenge (HPVC) provides an opportunity for students to demonstrate the application of sound engineering design principles in the development of sustainable and practical transportation alternatives. In the HPVC, students work in teams to design and build efficient, highly engineered vehicles for everyday use-from commuting to work, to carrying goods to market. The first ever ASME Human powered Vehicle Challenge India (HPVC) was held on 17 January 2014. Students from Baselios Mathews II College of Engineering competed in the event after designing and fabricating their own Human Powered Vehicle. They were the only team from Kerala to participate in the said event. The vehicle fabricated was christened as Pegasus. Over 40 teams from all over India participated in the event including IIT-Delhi, IIT-Bombay, BITS- Pilani, NIT- Jalandhar etc. The event was sponsored by Red Bull and Dassault systems. The vehicle was tested for its safety features which included disc brakes, seat belts and roll over protection system as well as its mechanical efficiency. Since the safety features were found to be above par with the ASME HPVC safety standards, the vehicle was qualified for racing event. This allowed the students to test the vehicles on road performance. The vehicle performed admirably, running more than 30kms without suffering any mechanical/structural failures. The team secured first place in safety, fifth in design, and eighth in overall.