About ESSENCE 2027
Organised by Chetana’s Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship Learning (CiEL) to empower undergraduate students across Maharashtra to transform classroom ingenuity into validated, working prototypes.
Chetana’s Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship Learning
Chetana’s CiEL is an academic innovation incubator established within Chetana’s Trust in Bandra (East), Mumbai. Founded with the mission to cultivate a culture of experiential learning, research-backed innovation, and ethical venture creation, CiEL provides students and young professionals with mentorship, prototyping facilities, and ecosystem linkages.
With decades of institutional excellence in management, research, and community service, Chetana’s Trust has envisioned ESSENCE as a premier state-level vehicle for nurturing grassroots undergraduate problem solvers.
Institutional Positioning Principles
- Strictly Undergraduate Focus: Exclusively dedicated to students enrolled in degree, diploma, and polytechnic programmes across Maharashtra.
- Non-Commercial, Merit-Driven: Free registration with zero equity claims on student intellectual property.
- Regional Inclusivity: Equitable outreach spanning urban centres (Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur) and rural districts across Marathwada, Vidarbha, and Konkan.
- Prototypes Over Presentations: A dedicated focus on functional models, physical or software evidence, and real user testing.
Why ESSENCE 2027 Was Conceived
The Ideation-Implementation Chasm
Many student projects conclude as theoretical reports submitted for final-semester marks. ESSENCE provides the impetus and structured feedback to translate these ideas into working models.
Multidisciplinary Team Dynamics
Engineering students build technology; management and design students understand market viability and user empathy. ESSENCE fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Post-Competition Incubation
Unlike short hackathons that end at prize distribution, ESSENCE finalists gain direct access to Chetana’s CiEL incubation mentorship, patent advisory, and seed progression reviews.
Chetana’s Campus, Bandra (East), Mumbai
Centrally situated in Mumbai’s prominent educational and institutional corridor, Chetana’s campus features modern auditoriums, innovation lab spaces, and the open central plaza that will house the 100-stall Maharashtra Innovation Exhibition during the Grand Finale.