The first day of IIT-Bombay Tech Fest was kicked off by none
other than former chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and the
man behind the missions such as Chandrayaan and Mars Orbiter Mission, Dr K
Radhakrishan.
The annual science and technology festival, Asia's largest of
its kind, will go on till December 28. Youths from across the country were
present at the inaugural ceremony presided over by dean of students affairs
Soumyo Mukherjee and director professor Devang Khakkar.
Apart from Radhakrishan, the other eminent lecturers
included Ajit Narayanan, inventor of Avaz, India's first Augmentative and
Alternative Communication device for children with disabilities, Google's
Robert J Mical and developer of first Internet in Asia, Kilman Chon. They spoke
about their experiences and the love for technology.
'Mamma look a UFO!' screamed a child while walking through
IIT Bombay today. Families and kids stormed the gates of IITB to visit the Tech
Fest 2015 - the 3 day annual festival targeting geeks from other colleges.
While walking in from the main gate towards the academic building, visitors get
a view of the galactic world and superhuman creatures. The pathway has been
decorated with caricatures of Superman, Batman, Boba Fett and aliens, and with
flying banners of the Big Bang Theory and Star Wars. Some visitors while
walking towards the convocation hall got the feeling that the event was themed
in lieu of the release of the new Star Wars movie on Friday. No doubt, someone
must have strolled around looking for a Darth Vader caricature. But what many
students got to see through the day was a fun fair for family and kids.
The release of the new Star Wars movie and the decor of the
IITB pathways with space objects, had students expecting an event on a
different tangent. Besides, many events in the fest were given a name after
sci-fi movie legends like the Martian, Quidditch, Robowars, etc. But what did
the visitors get when they actually visited these events? While the Quidditch
game was rescheduled due to lack of registrations to play, the Martian event
was a presentation competition about the possibility of life on Mars. Now that
may interest some science geeks, if only participants did not present hilarious
ideas like introducing a Martian currency called Marta and installing
television for entertainment of martians. Frankly, don't we have more pressing
issues to solve about Mars habitation than the entertainment of martians? Like
decomposing carbon-dioxide into oxygen for better survival chances? And for
those who were excited about the Robowar, were left to see a monotonous
cockfight between human operated robots. Speaking about the events that lured
families with kids and grandmas into the campus. An entire section of the
campus was deployed to organise around 15 events for the entertainment of
children. These events included bungee jumping, sumo wrestling, paint ball,
etc. The startling point was to see teenagers indulge in juvenile competitions
like 'rotate 15 times in one place and then walk on a straight line, or a
balancing act on one leg for a minute.' A piece of advice, 'do not participate
when you're drunk.'
What was tragic was that in a fest dedicated to technology,
some of the intelligent summits like water harvesting and cloud computing,
received minimal audience or appreciation. The only stand out of the day was
the exhibitions where students from different countries like Hungary,
Netherlands, Zurich, Israel, USA, Bangladesh, Germany, had displayed their
innovations. Majority of the student crowd at the fest was standing in an
infinite queue to enter these exhibitions. One of the bright ideas at the
exhibition was; the invention of a Smart Marine Black Box, which uses wireless
technology to immediately transfer ship signals to the cloud. The idea was
devised by a group of Bangladeshi students as a solution to the issues faced in
locating signals of missing planes like the Malaysian flight MH370. Apart from
this, a lot other countries, bound by internet restrictions, couldn't portray a
demo of their inventions and had to work around with power point presentations
of their devices. It was embarrassing to see that one of the premier
engineering institutes in India couldn't provide WiFi to its guest counterparts
at an international event.
Scientists shine at IIT-B Techfest
The first day of Tech Fest had a misplaced target audience
where the prominent events lured families like in a fun fair while the more
intellectual summits had a negligible crowd. The second day of IIT-B's Techfest
2015-16, held in association with the Times of India, served as a stage for
some of the greatest revolutionists in the fields of science and technology.
The highlights for the day were lectures and talks by author
and astrophysist Jayant Narlikar, Noble laureate Serge Haroche, inventor Dr
Gurtej Sandhu and co-creator of spreadsheets Bob Frankston.
Sandhu spoke about various flash technologies and their
continuous advancement since the past. He also talked about the cause to invent
and innovate to solve problems, create wealth and express creativity. Frankston
explained to the students the internet as a concept and it's evolution over the
years. He described it as a part of a larger picture of opportunity.
Haroche, the 2012 Nobel Laureate in Physics, gave the
audience an insight into the history of light and the determination of whether
it was a wave or a particle.Another attraction was a "fast car"
developed by the IIT Bombay Racing team, which has 74 students from 10
disciplines.
The annual science and technology festival, Asia's largest
of its kind, will go on till December 28. Youths from across the country were
present at the inaugural ceremony presided over by dean of students affairs
Soumyo Mukherjee and director professor Devang Khakkar.
