Taking the millennial sharing economy work ethic to heart, Deepak VS and his friend decided to buy a bicycle together while studying at the sprawling SRM campus in Chennai. Having saved significantly on running, maintenance, and purchasing costs, they wondered if the concept of shareable bikes could be extended to students and faculty across the university.
Deepak assembled a team, and together, they created two docking station prototypes (patent pending) at two stations at SRM, and a smart card system that allowed students to borrow and return the bikes seamlessly using their student IDs. Once introduced to the DISQ co-innovation system, Deepak decided to scale his concept – now called Tilt – and test it in the real world.
Making good use of the fabrication spaces, technical mentorship, and ecosystem resources made available to them at DISQ, the team tied up with the local municipal corporation to pilot Tilt. The team deployed a 6-bike station at the Golf Club Grounds in Nashik, signing up riders to their card-based system to make borrowing and returning bikes simpler.