IIT Hyderabad Students have earned international recognition after winning the Excellence Award at the TECO International Contest 2026 in Taiwan. The team comprised four first-year BTech students—Mahak Gadia, Raqi Mohammad, Udit Maini and Yug Nikesh Gandhi—under the supervision of Dr Ashish Kulkarni. Their project, “Decarbonizing Solar Energy Through Humidity-Tolerant Perovskite Fabrication,” was selected among the top 20 finalists from 267 applications worldwide. The students demonstrated the formation of perovskite thin films under high-humidity conditions and at 70°C using a 25 cm² mini-module. The project explored methods to simplify the fabrication of perovskite layers under conditions closer to real-world manufacturing. The team was the only Indian finalist and received a ₹1.5 lakh cash prize. Their work was supported by Pavakah Energy, an IIT Hyderabad-incubated deep-tech startup, while the institute was developing its solar research facilities.
IIT Hyderabad Students Win TECO Award for Solar Innovation
