The entire team of OG has a wonderful weekend while attending the two day Techfest - TaqNeeq. In its very first technical event the students at MPSTME + CSI have done a splendid job. The event was indeed planned meticulously and implemented effortlessly all by the students themselves.
With the goal to close the gap between classroom learning and the practical world for their students CSI-MPSTME (NMIMS University) is all set to kick off its first TechFest - Taqneeq 08. The event looks extremely promising in its first edition itself. In the coming years we hope Taqneeq would lift the bar for Tech fests in India.
Computer Society of India established a Student Activity Center at NMIMS University in 2005-06. From a few students then, the Student Activity Center grew into a Student Branch with a strength of more than 200 members. Our first technical festival TAQNEEQ promises a phenomenal assortment of events for all present at our festival.
Events to watch out for:
Blog IT Up - A blogging contest. We love Taqneeq for this!
Robotics Race: Wired robots competing across different tracks
Hardware Junkyard: Collect junk from a puzzle and make a product on the given theme
Guest Lectures: Senior execs form L&T, Mahindra and Tata communications
Robocamp, an exclusive robotics event held by IIIT-H, was started with a vision of providing a creative platform for all aspiring robot scientists of the Country. And after the conclusion of the 3rd Robocamp, we have really progressed a lot. After all, who would have thought that students of 1st yr. B.tech would be able to build a Computer Interfaced Robot!
Making this possible was definitely not easy and to find more on how this was made possible, read on. Robocamp ’08, sponsored by Google, was held at the IIIT-H campus from 2-7th June. This time we had registrations from 550 students from 95 universities spanning the best in India. In fact, majority applicants were from outside A.P.
The applications received were scrutinized to handpick only 135 students who were invited to attend the camp. Emphasis was laid on inviting students desirous of gaining knowledge and applying it for something innovative and amazing. All students, irrespective of their prior knowledge in the field of Robotics, were given a series of lectures for the first 2 days to get them acquianted with the subject. This provided all the participants, experts or novices, with a glimpse of various ideas and concepts in the field of robotics in general and its relevance in today’s world.
The students were introduced to the latest fields in robotics today like GPS, wireless communication and mobile robotics. Mr. Sartaj Singh from CAIR (Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Research), Bangalore, gave the participants an insight into the work that the government’s agencies are working on and it did leave them awestruck. To know about what all is going around them pumped up their aspirations and infused enthusiasm in them. Next, students had several long Brain storming sessions where they presented their amateur but fresh ideas which were fine tuned by the mentors. In fact, this was the best and the most essential part for both the students and the organisers as this was the time students got to apply the knowledge they had garnished during the informative lectures. The groups then started to build their robots.
Experienced mentors provided help and advice all through the process as necessary. There was a mentor for almost each group so that students get personalized attention and learn much more than they could think of. Such was the enthusiasm of the mentors and students alike that not only they skipped their lunch but took 2-3 nightouts to complete their dream robot. The hostels of mentors were empty in the nights as they wholeheartedly dedicated their time to realizing the dreams of amateur students. 3 days of hectic building and tweaking and it was down to the last day when students showcased their effort. The last day, 7th June, IIIT-H’s main reception was a place to catch with media persons swarming the place and covering the event. Even they were amazed and awestruck to find what students had accomplished in mere 3 days! Then, it was justified to pay a small tribute to students’ efforts and it was amply done by awarding prizes to the winners. At the end, it was really comforting and satisfying for the organizers to hear great reviews and applause from all. Yes! Google sponsored Robocamp ’08 was a great success.
To look back and think of the past week, it really makes me think what we would have achieved if were able to help the 400 students who had applied but didn’t get to be a part of this event. So, we promise to bring you Robocamp ’09 next year, much bigger but with the same vision and enthusiasm. Keep waiting!!!
Henry “Fritz” Schaefer III (born June 8, 1944) a computational and theoretical chemist and an astrophysicist as well was one of the prominent personalities at the IIT TechFest ’08. To tell you more about this imminent personality, he is the author of a large number of scientific publications, and was the 6th most cited chemist from 1981 to 1997 and the Graham Perdue Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Computational Chemistry at the University of Georgia. He is a Fellow of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture, the hub of the intelligent design movement, and the International Society for Complexity, Information and Design, and a signer of the Discovery Institute’s anti-evolution letter, A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism.
Following is a guest post by Neeraj Bagdia from IIIT Hyderabad
Ever wondered how to transform yourself into an Iron Man? Or construct an R2-D2? Even if your answer is No, Robocamp is a place where any interested person can find lots of stuff to work on and enjoy building robots!!!
Yes, my friends! We are back. IIIT-H is proud to present for the third time its annual robotics workshop Robocamp ’08 to be held from 2nd June to 7th June in IIIT-H campus. For the newbies, IIIT-H every year organizes Robocamp purely as a robotics event where the experienced as well as the starters can know about upcoming trends in Robotics and learn more about this challenging but amazing field. Let’s go into flashback and get a glimpse of Robocamp ‘07. Robocamp ’07 was organized from 17th May to 23rd May.
It had registrations from students of around 90 colleges from all over India spanning the IITs, NITs and BITS. With lectures given by eminent personalities such as Dr. Bipin Indurkhya (Founder - IIIT Robotics Club), Mr. Sartaj Singh from CAIR (Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Research), Bangalore, Dr. Prabir K. Pal ( DRDO) and many others, students got to know what Robotics is all about and how it is emerging as one of the vastly growing research areas of cutting edge technology. A wide range of topics from bio-robotics to Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Sciences were discussed.
Many workshops were held such as one by Mr. Amitabh Mukhrejee from IIT Kanpur which propelled creative thinking and applying simple fundas to build something useful out of junk. But the best part of every Robocamp held till now is that students get to build and tweak on their very own robots. Not only the experts but even the novices, with the help of experienced mentors, try their hands on mind-boggling but yet highly interesting and innovative stuff. Moreover, all the instruments are provided free of cost; then why not tinker and build something new? Last year the 125 participants were divided into groups and it was great to watch them work through the night to finish their bots within the timeline. The thought of having made such a thing work filled a cloud of happiness in their hearts. They could see the result of all their patience and hard work glowing right in front of them. It turned out as an experience which they would never forget.
This is the best place for a beginner to get involved in robotics as well as for the experts to try their hand at something innovative and win amazing prizes. So guys, what about constructing an R2-D2 now?
IIIT Hyderabad will hosting its annual Robocamp from 2-7 June. The event has been a regular since 2006 and is a popular destination for students trying their hands on Robitics.
"The aim of our annual Robocamp is to encourage and empower the untapped and budding potential of students by providing them a platform where they not only compete but also learn to apply their innate skills. We are organizing this for the third year in a row after having achieved a great response for the past two years.We aspire of providing students, a feel of "not very far-fetched" problems and their solutions and apply their innovative minds to sketch creative solutions to common problems. The main purpose of organizing this workshop is to introduce the basic of the following areas"
The Pyromania Team from Israel performed on Vande Matram (on occasion of 26th Jan, Republic Day) and the entire Open Air Theatre was on its feet cheering …! Truly one of the best moments of IIT TechFest 2008
The most awaited lecture of the TechFest’08 was the lecture by Mr. Jimmy Wales (Founder Wikipedia). Before the lecture started a trophy was presented to the best performing college of the TechFest. Jimmy Wales arrived just an hour before the lecture in the IIT campus. Even with that minimum amount of time, he was all ready for the presentation. What didn’t come to us as a surprise was the long (really long) Q for the lecture (seemed even longer than the Q for Technoholix)
The air show was aired in the evening on the NCC grounds. The air show had some brilliant moves. The pilots of the planes kept the audience captivated with their breathtaking maneuvers. The helicopter at the air also was amazing and had the audience in awe after completing some excellent somersaults. Overall the air show was good and there was a good response from the audience. (more…)
The programming competition at TechFest 08 was a great opportunity for students. The local IITB teams performed well. The competition was split across 3 days with different rounds. (Coding, Networking and Reverse Engineering).
The final round of Vertigo on the last day of TechFest was probably the most exciting competition we saw this year. The convocation hall at IITB was jam packed with the crowd cheering their favorite teams. We could heard nothing in the auditorium except VIT VIT VIT … There was no doubt that VIT had the majority support here.
The Rubiks cube session was very promising for students. The expectation of themselves being able to solve the cube in a minute and do it blindfolded as well brought them there. And I can tell you that the students were not left disappointed. The session conducted by Sachin a third year IIT-B student (a future great if we are allowed to say that) was interactive and he not only demonstrated the audience on how to do it but called up some volunteers to try their hand at implementing what they had learnt. The trick is to solve the grid with the help of algorithms which you need to learn by heart and then…
Yes you guessed it you can solve it in a minute and blindfolded as well.
I must say Bravo!!!
TechFest 2008 had the UK micromouse champions Jim Chidley & Derek Hall. They were the judges for the final round of the competition and they also conducted a workshop on how to build a micromouse on the second day of the event.
Jim & Derek have been building micromouse’s since over 24 years! Its the passion and craze for these micro wonders that keeps them moving. A lot of students look up to J&D for advise on how to build an effective micromouse. And this years TechFest @ IIT Bombay brought this great opportunity for the students to interact with them and learn how to build an effective micromouse. Jim and Derek also brought in a lot of their Mice for demonstration and this included MouseX, that won them the UK micromouse competition in 2007.
The workshop also focussed on a lot of technicals for building a micromouse. Architecture of some of the best ones was discussed.
On the last day of TechFest they showcased their best mice in action. Also present was Ashish Bhatt (ex-IITian) who has won probably the most micromouse competitions in India. Both Ashish and this year’s Winners also had a run with their micromouse along with the UK champions.
MouseX managed to put a best time of around 9 seconds wheres Ashish and the 2008 champions did between 12-14 secs. (Video Coming Shortly)
Janta, we have reached the 3rd and the Final Day of the TechFest 2008 here at IIT Bombay. It has been a splendid event, and we expect the most crowd today. Things to watch-out today: AirShow, FTGP Finalle, Jimmy Wales Lecture & the Laser Floyd.
The day has ended with an awesome Laser Show and a very good lecture by Jimmy Wales. We managed to get an exclusive video interview followed by a very productive chat with Jimmy Wales and John Hall (Executive Director of Linux International). Videos and complete interview and all the action from TechFest 08 here.
Day 2 of the IIT Techfest 08 is underway and here we have the latest buzz from the campus…More updates on day 2 events now live!
Pyromania rocked!!! The day had its great ending with Pyromania having given a great performance. As a Goodwill gesture the team also performed on Vande Matram for the occasion of Repulic Day. We exclusive Videos and Images from the Pyromania team which will be updated shortly. Also watch out for the exclusive OnlyGizmos’s Pyromania Interview. (more…)
Yes thats the 15 year old whizkid Meet Patel, who made it through quite convincingly. After over 50 teams failing, only 3 made it to the final round. The boy somehow convinced his school to grant him a leave between his exams just to participate in the IIT Techfest 08.
(Update: All four contestants who passed the U-571 during round 1 and 2 have been declared the winners. So our whizkid is officially the winner of the event.)
It was a wonderful day here at the IIT Bombay campus. And the action here was nothing less than what we expected. Long ques and some amazing performances has left us wondering what more is coming over the weekend? Still what here is a quick look at the days highlights:
MicroMouse competition was amazing. Winners from IITB setting a record. View Video
U571 was really tough for the participants. But there were exceptions. View Video and Pics
F1 was kewl! Again a splendid performance by the participants. The eliminations continues today. Video Here
Lecture: Prof Henry F Schaefer (detailed coverage with video now available here)
Lecture: Blaise Aguera y Arcas (detailed coverage with video coming soon)
Lecture Cancelled: Robert E Kahn (Technical Snag)
Lumen Performance
Science Exhibition View Gallery / More Coverage on Day 2
We saw a few pretty good teams at the eliminations of the MircoMouse competition yesterday. However today we were completely blown away by a splendid performance by this years winners (from IIT Bombay itself), who’s micro wonder managed to crack the maze in just around 12secs! Reports were flying that this is probably good enough to beat the world record (Update: What we have confirmed is that this is the new record for IIT TechFest only)!! We have the exclusive videos and a Interview from the winning team.
The Micromouse started wit a slow examination of the maze and then in the subsequent runs went on performing faster. The first clip is the fastest.
Further Updates and videos for the IIT TechFest Day1 can be seen here
8:01PM: Our team is still in the IIT campus. We are covering LUMEN (the team from Switzerland) and we shall have the videos by tonite. OnlyGizmos shall also cover the U571 competition today around midnight.
A special Thanks for Mr Manas and Parasvil from IITB for making this coverage possible. Prof Henry F Schaefer has just completed with his lecture on ‘The Big Bang Theory, Stephen Hawking and God’. Our correspondent made it a point to attend the entire lecture. The entire lecture room was packed with participants with no seat available. The entire lecture saw everyone attentively participating.
However the lecture didn’t come without any protest. Interestingly a student came with pamphlets challenging the theory promoted by and thoughts of Prof Henry F Schaefer.
The Participants of the Full Throttle:Grand Prix are in a great battle to the finals. Great Performances by many and some try to complete the lap after many trials. Its a show of workmanship and engineering. The crowd not being a spoilt sport cheering each and every participant. The event Vertigo also seems to be the event of the ay where in participants with their robots show their skills in Robotics where they direct their robots to pick a bag with a definite weight and place it t a height where in the placement of the bag needs to be perfect at the exact block. This entire thing needs to be done in the least amount of time.
An amazing MicroMouse entry from COEP (College of Engineering Pune). This was one of the fastest and motile autonomous robot we we have seen during the IIT TechFest 2008.
And here is the official word on how the eliminations are taking place:
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