This Kashmiri girl’s innovation can transform the automotive world

Srinagar, Sep 26: In the pursuit of fuel efficiency and enhanced acceleration, the automotive industry has prioritized lightweight construction. Yet, this quest has raised safety concerns, as prevalent materials such as polymers and aluminium offer inadequate compressibility, risking severe damage and injuries even in minor accidents. 

Enter Bisma Parveez, a driven Material Scientist hailing from Srinagar, who is spearheading efforts to transform the automotive landscape.

“Isn’t it amazing that the world around us is made of materials, and that we can always improve the materials to make our lives better,” says Bisma who has been working on this project for the past two years in Malaysia.

After repeated failures, Bisma and her supervisor Dr. Ayuni Jamal were able to combine diamond with porous aluminium, producing a material 40% lighter than the one used in cars but more compressible and stronger. 

One might wonder if the introduction of diamonds in making car parts make automobiles more expensive, but Bisma assures that won’t be the case. She sourced diamond particles from a lab in China.

“My material is lightweight and has compressibility which is important at the time of car accidents to protect human lives and minimize the damage to car components,” explains Bisma.

The material, she says, can be used in Crash Boxes of cars as fillers.

Crash Box is a component equipped at the front end of a car and is one of the most important devices for crash energy absorption.

But the journey to this innovation wasn’t as smooth as one might expect.

Driven by curiosity, toiling through demotivation, failures and past stories, Bisma Parveez, a 31-year-old Material Scientist at the International Islamic University of Malaysia feared of following in the footsteps of those who had tried this before but never succeeded. 

And whenever the thought of giving up vexed her, the flashbacks of the days she first stepped into the world of Material Sciences kept recurring, keeping her motivated.

Then, Covid-19 kept her away from the University Lab, “but the work solely depended on it, so I utilized that time to explore previous works while also publishing three review papers,” says Bisma. 

“My mind was fully focused on my material, I didn’t even explore the country,” Bisma says.

But when she went back to the lab, the samples kept failing, “followed by frustrations, disappointments, and finally hope,” she says while going down the memory lane.

However, consistent failure didn’t stop her, “Eat, work, sleep and repeat, is all I did, all of it inside the lab,” Bisma recalls.

And in September this year, her hard work and her shunning of the comfort zone rewarded her when her innovation was recognized and awarded at the 8th annual edition of International Invention Innovation Competition (ICAN), held on 26th August 2023, in Toronto, Canada.

About the collaboration with car manufacturers, Bisma said they are now putting up their work at research exhibitions to attract potential collaborators. “We have tested the material in the lab only and it needs more consideration,” said Bisma.

Although the material can be used in other parts as well, Bisma and her supervisor are only focusing on a single application.

“Working and perfecting the single application is a big task,” says Bisma, according to whom the research has opened many other unexplored possibilities.

The material can have a positive impact on the environment as well, Bisma says. “Less weight means more fuel efficient and more fuel efficient means less emission,” she explains.

Although Polymers are providing light weight structures these days, they have limitations in terms of strength and compressibility. “I have worked with Polymers in collaboration with other universities in Malaysia and that’s why I am well aware of their limitations and drawbacks,” says Bisma.

“We have shared all the works and results openly to the researchers, as we believe there is no end to the innovations.”

Bisma says they have published 7-8 articles in good journals for the future aspirants who want to continue this study.

This material can have a profound future, further reduction in weight and improvement in strength can be the subject of research, says Bisma.

The property of compressibility promotes car safety during accidents or impacts.

Bisma, who originally hails from Karan Nagar in Kashmir’s biggest city of Srinagar has received over dozen awards for her study, achievement, she says wouldn’t have been possible without the support of her family and her supervisor.

Kashmiri students are talented and if guided properly, they can do wonders in their respective fields. “But the lenient approach of supervisors often demotivates them, burying their talent forever,” laments Bisma.