Techfest 06 @ IIT Mumbai on 20-22 Jan, 2006

Come January and a lot of engineering students from all over India will be making a beeline at one of India’s most prestigious technical institutes – IIT Bombay. The reason of-course being Techfest ’06, he 3 day annual science and technological fest that kicks off on the 20th January 2006 and the largest student-organized festival of its kind in Asia.

Since its inception in 1998, Techfest has grown rapidly providing a common platform for the academia, faculty and industry to interact and take a look at where the world of technology is headed. The fest now attracts a massive participation of about 30000 students from over 750 colleges all over India, international participation since the last 3 years and involvement from about 1500 corporate and faculty.

The high point of Techfest ’05 was the display of David Coulthard’s McLaren Formula 1 car accompanied by a dazzling laser show.

A technical fest generally has the various branches of engineering as the main focus but Techfest ’06 aims to change the outlook of technical fests by looking beyond core engineering. The spotlight at Techfest ’06 will be on applied technology. A.I (Artificial Intelligence), eRustique (emerging Rural Technologies),Cosmos (Space Exploration Technologies), Sixth Gear (Automobile and Aviation Technologies), Smart Tech (Smart Technologies) and CONCREaTE (Modern Structural Engineering) are the six themes at Techfest ’06. The chosen themes represent the most talked about technologies with diverse applications that will change our lives - not just in the present but even in years to come. Through competitions, exhibitions, guest lectures and workshops there will be a thorough look at each of the themes.

With just about a month left, here’s a brief look at the 3 days and 3 nights of fun filled, spell binding activities: Exhibitions

Welcome to Mars – Arizona State University

Arizona State University has been collaborating with NASA on the Mars Rover Project and now they are coming to Techfest ’06. The only other time this exhibition was held outside USA, in China, it attracted a million viewers in just one week and undoubtedly it is going to be one of the ‘star’ events at Techfest ’06.

On display will be a number of scaled down models of the spacecrafts, rovers and probes that have been to Mars. Also seen will be some of the complex instruments made specially for the mission as well as some of the small meteorites collected from the Martian surface. On huge ‘story boards’ there will be detailed accounts of the mission and on display screens will be fly-through videos over the canyons of Mars and other Martian footage! Not just that, Techfest has arranged for the screening of latest pictures from the cameras on Mars. Apart from this there will also be a team of senior researchers and engineers from ASU, working with NASA, who will deliver technical lectures and also take part in Q & A sessions.

India in Space – ISRO

The Government of India has announced its plans to send an unmanned lunar probe and explore the moon in great detail. This mission has been entrusted to the premier space agency, ISRO who have called this program ‘Chandrayaan Pratham’.

Guiding us through this exhibition will be Dr. Jayanti Dutta and Dr. S.C Chakrabarty from ISRO. The exhibition will have a look at the Indian space programs in general through models of various space crafts and more specifically focus on the Moon Mission. There will also be story boards detailing the various aspects of Chandrayaan Pratham.

Technoholix

Technoholix has been an essential feature at Techfest as it provides for the glamour element of the day at the end of the day. This year too Technoholix continues in the same vein – only it’s bigger and better.

Technovision Awards

Not every idea or innovation is a winner. It is said only around one percent of all ideas actually fructify into something meaningful while others just fade away. The ones that don’t are at times way ahead of time or not completely developed. However they do have tremendous potential which is unfortunately lost and to catch these Techfest has come out with a unique event.

Techfest ’06 in association with CHIP magazine launches the Technovision Awards to recognize and award innovations in an array of fields in Technology and Science. Technovision only calls for ideas and no implementation in any manner is required. The winners get to take home a bag of goodies in a glamorous award ceremony.

So do you have it in you to be a ‘Technovisionary’?

SciTech: College Quiz Challenge

SciTech is an inter-collegiate quiz that attracts some of the sharpest minds from across the world. If you think it’s a competition that is meant for the nerds and geeks, then you couldn’t be farther from the truth. To be a winner at SciTech all one needs is an alert and sharp mind with just a bit of ‘gyaan’.

This year SciTech is being held in a revised format that calls for an official entry from the colleges who will participate in an online screening round. However to give everyone a fair chance, on the spot entries will also be taken during the fest. The best 6 make it to the finals on the stage. The SciTech Final is an event with a reputation of its own. Held in front of a packed audience at the Open Air Theatre and conducted with modern technologies like touch screen pads, it will be hosted by renowned quiz master Barry O’ Brian. The winners get sleek trophies as well as hefty cash prizes.

As Techfest has grown, so has the quality of competitions and the participants. This year Techfest ’06 presents 4 ‘big’ competitions, under different themes, each of which carry prize money of $1000 as well as travel reimbursement for the winning teams. To know more, read on…

A.I (Artificial Intelligence)

Artificial Intelligence lets machines think and act independently, based on their interactions with the environment. Right from the simplest aspects of human life, like solving riddles, to the most complex of things like identifying handwriting, A.I makes it all possible… A.I. - the field of the future without a doubt!

1) Micromouse – Masters of the Maze

Micromouse is a standard fixture at many technical fests/meet the world over and an extremely popular event. Micromouse involves the building of a machine that can navigate a maze, without any prior knowledge of it, and reach its centre in the least possible time. Micromouse is one of the USD 1000 problem statements with travel reimbursements
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2) Core War

This is the competition for all programming and gaming enthusiasts. Core War is essentially a game played between two programmers to gain the sole control of a machine using programs (warriors). The game is set on a hill (the battleground) with 10 warriors. A challenger engages in a series of battles with the warriors on the hill and by scoring more points than a warrior on the hill eliminates him and takes his place. In this manner, the warriors are slowly eliminated and finally only one survives. The sole survivor is the winner and crowned the ‘King of the Hill’.

3) Character Recognition

Identification of stimulus, even in the form of characters, is essential towards attaining complete artificial intelligence for a machine. Character Recognition involves designing software which can recognize inputs, made by the mouse or stylus, of different characters primarily in the Devnagari script. The competition will be held in two stages – firstly, the code will be tested and then the teams must give a presentation about their code detailing the algorithms used, the salient features and other aspects.

4) Crux

This one is for the all-knowledgeable ‘technoholic’. Crux is the technical paper presentation competition. Participants are allowed to pick any topic of their choice related to Artificial Intelligence like neural networks, natural language processing etc and write a technical paper on it. Short listed entries will then have to come to IIT Bombay during Techfest to make a presentation on the same.

e – Rustique (Emerging Rural Technologies)

The majority of our country’s population lives in the villages where technology is yet to permeate into everyday lives. With the aid of technology, rural India can surely work wonders in the development of the country. Our Hon’ble President APJ Abdul Kalam’s mission of Providing Urban amenities to Rural Areas (PURA) is a step in this direction. At Techfest we believe the student community can play a major role in this noble endeavor and keeping this in mind we have the theme of e–Rustique which looks at how technology can be used to tackle grass root issues like infrastructure, education, communication, health, commerce and other aspects that can further the interests of the rural community.

1) The Simple Life v1.1

This is the second of the ‘big’ competitions that carry prize money of $1000 and travel reimbursement for the winners. The competition involves designing of software that can be used in village kiosks to analyze the demographic factors like literacy levels, population strength etc and suggest the best course of action leading to the prosperity and development of the village. The short listed projects will undergo development to completion by actual interaction with the industry.

2) Agrobot

Going a step ahead of seed planters is the sapling planter – Agrobot. Participants must devise a wired remote controlled machine that can dig holes in mud and plant maximum saplings in minimum amount of time. The machines must be able to carry 15 pre loaded saplings and then plant ten of these in the ten pits on the arena in the given time of 10 minutes. Not to forget, agility will make a huge difference because there will be two machines competing simultaneously on the arena!

3) Innovision

Have an idea for tackling some of the problems faced by rural India? Put it down on paper and present it at Techfest ’06! Innovision takes a look at how innovation and improvisation of technology can be used to solve some of the problems faced by the rural community. Participants can choose from the problems listed on the website or come up with something equally relevant. The write up must cover the feasibility, the value addition as well as the cost effectiveness of the idea. Qualifying entries will need to come up with a working solution / prototype / model / poster presentation which explains the concept with clarity.

Participation in Innovision has other added benefits too! Firstly, entries for Innovision get direct entry into Technovision Awards. Secondly, they also get a chance to participate in IIM Ahmedabad’s Anveshan Innovator Competition where the winners get a chance to float a company of their own and develop their idea to practicality.

Sixth Gear

Welcome to the world of supersonic jets and charismatic concept cars. Starting from the small wheel man has made giant strides in the fields of transportation from land to water to air. The focus has shifted beyond just transportation and now the areas keenly followed are aerodynamic packages, speed, elegance and eco friendliness of late. Sixth Gear follows this trend in the field and showcases some of the very best marvels in the sector.

1) Full Throttle

Full Throttle involves building a machine, on the lines of a dragster, complete with its own start and stop mechanisms, which can cover a given stretch of 40m in the fastest possible time. To make these machines faster, participants are allowed to use I.C engines of up to 3.2 cc. At stake again is a lot of money - $1000 precisely, along with travel reimbursement.

2) FlyHigh

The objective of FlyHigh is to make a wireless remote controlled flying machine that flies along the air-path provided, passes through three rectangular rings and returns to the starting point. The competition will he held in an indoor arena with only one model flying at a time. The machine that can traverse the path in minimum time will be declared the winner.

3) Hover – Junior

Hover is the competition designed specially for students up to 10 + 2 who are going to be the future engineers of India. In this, the teams must build a hover craft that can traverse both land and water, knock down enemy flags and then return to the starting point. The tournament will be played on a knockout basis and the machine that gets back the fastest after completing the mission wins the event.

4) Future Flight

Nightmarish traffic jams and bad roads make us all wish we had one of those machines in comic capers that can fly as well as drive. Is it possible to make this figment of imagination a reality? Future Flights invites participants to design the flying cars of the future and make a report detailing the various aspects of the idea like the technology used, feasibility, regulation of flying cars in the sky and any other special details.

Cosmos

Space has always been a fascinating interest for mankind since ages. What lies beyond terra firma is a question that has posed itself innumerable times and every time man has made an attempt to unravel these mysteries of space he has always managed to land up with more mysteries. Man has relentlessly pursued his dreams from sending satellites into space to man on the moon and rovers on Mars! Cosmos is a look at this endless quest of man…

1) G.R.I.P

The International Space Station (ISS) has been one of man’s greatest works when it comes to the realm of space. G.R.I.P – Galactic Recovery Instrumental Probe - has been formulated with the ISS as the background. On the verge of achieving optimized functionality, catastrophe strikes the ISS in the form of a meteorite collision that tears away the all important fuel cell! The only way to recover the fuel cell before the ISS perishes is by using the G.R.I.P. Participants are called on to design the G.R.I.P – a wired/wireless remote controlled machine that can traverse a grid of cylindrical pipes, collect the fuel cell located at a specific point below the grad and replace it in the hollow cylindrical container provided.
Can you prevent the inevitable?? If successful, there are rewards worth USD 1000 at stake and travel reimbursement if you win it all!

2) Mission Moon 2030

With the advances in space technologies, it is possible for humans to go to space as tourists and ‘take space holidays’. But is it possible to go beyond being tourists and actually turning inhabitants in space? What will have to be done to ensure that this dream sees the light of the day? If you have the answer, taking the moon as the model case, send in a detailed step by step report of your plans on building a human settlement, that will be permanent and self-sustaining in nature, and can arise in the next 25 years.

3) Black Box

Solar energy is one of the most abundant sources of energy and it makes a lot of sense to use this energy extensively especially in space where the use of other energy sources is very expensive. To harness solar energy in space, science has come up with the solar sail - a large, flat surface that harnesses the energy of photons (light) from the Sun to propel a spacecraft around the Solar System. Black Box involves the design of a model solar sail – one which initially fits into a box of given dimensions and on receiving a mechanical/electrical impulse expands to have the maximum projected area in the given direction.

Smart Tech

Take a look around and one sees that technology is everywhere. It has permeated into our lives, handling simple day to day tasks to even complex industrial tasks. This, however, is just the beginning…the future promises much more in terms of smart technologies. All we have to do is lay back and enjoy the proceedings; everything else will be taken care of!

1) Prayaas

Technology is best used when it can be incorporated into the lives of everyone. One such category of people in whose lives technology can make a vast difference is the physically challenged. As students ourselves, we know that the student community has tremendous potential and plenty of ideas for making society a better place. So Techfest ’06 in association with the National Association for Blind (NAB) and the Happy Hours Centre (HHC) presents Prayaas – a competition to develop smart workable solutions for the disabled that will makes their lives more comfortable. The solutions must be cost effective, easily adaptable and practical.

At Techfest, nothing will make us happier than the knowledge that we could bring a smile on someone’s face and make their lives better. So join us in this noble endeavor and do your bit for society.

2) Industry Defined Problem (IDP)

Through an Industry Defined Problem Techfest provides a platform for students to see the industrial perspective of technology and find solutions for problems that are being dwelt on by the industry. This year Techfest ’06 along with General Electric (G.E) invite entries to design an energy efficient, eco friendly desalination device for household use. The winners will get to pocket Rs. 25000 as prize money and what’s more G.E will give them the opportunity to work as an intern at the John F Welch Technology Centre Bangalore.

3) iClean

How wonderful would it be if there was an automatic vacuum cleaner that would do all the cleaning up at the press of a single button? Techfest ’06 gives you the chance to design the cleaners of the future. Build an autonomous machine that can clean a specific amount of dirt (murmure/puffed rice), go past obstacles on the arena and dump the dirt in a garbage pit. The competition will be made livelier by having two machines on the arena simultaneously and the faster machine will be declared the winner.

4) Home Alive

As the saying goes, ‘There’s no place like home’ and Techfest ’06 presents you with the golden opportunity of making your home even better by using technology. Design a Smart Home – incorporating smart security systems, efficient lighting solutions, smart entertainment systems as well as any other gadgets to provide the added comfort. The smart home must be designed for a given layout and only existing technologies can be used. Following the screening of entries, on the basis of a ‘Smart Security solutions’ write up, the short listed teams will be asked to make a presentation of their smart home at Techfest ’06

CONCREaTE

Architecture marvels from the Pyramids of Giza to the CN Towers have never ceased to amaze us. Some of the structures have lived for ages and ages but are still going strong. So what makes good structures? What role has technology played in building superior structures? The theme CONCREaTE offers you the chance to explore and answer some of these questions for yourself!

1) Connecting…

Simulation today is an essential preliminary step of construction as a number of scenarios and their consequences can be considered leading to only the best design being finally implemented. Connecting… is a simulation competition that involves the designing of a bridge. Participants must design a cost efficient bridge for specified site conditions using the software West Point Bridge. The bridge so designed must be able to withstand a simulated load test. Participants are allowed to submit any number of entries after registering just once thereby giving them a chance to continually improve on the design.

2) Bridged

Bridged is a bridge-building competition with a difference. In this teams get a chance to actually build a bridge with aluminium angles, joints, GI wire, ply and the likes. To make it even more realistic, the plans for the construction of the bridge satisfying certain design constraints, must be submitted in the form of a sealed tender. The best tenders will be called to IIT Bombay during Techfest ’06 to make a presentation on their design as well as actually build the bridge with the provided material in the time specified in their tender.

3) H

H involves the building of a helipad using only ice cream sticks (Popsicle sticks), standard adhesives and threads. The lightest structure that can support the maximum weight is the structure with the most efficient design and will be declared the winner.

Lecture Series

Techfest has always boasted of an impressive line up of speakers. The lecture series at Techfest has always been an enriching experience and there have been a gamut of speakers from myriad fields talking about their work. Lectures are always followed by a fun interactive session with the speaker which makes it even better. Presenting the ‘star’ speakers of Techfest ’06:

• Prof Rodney Brooks, Director of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratories (CSAIL) has contributed immensely to the field of mobile robotics. He is also the Chairman and Chief Technical Officer of iRobot Corporation.
• Dr. Amar G Bose, the Chairman of the Board and Technical Director of the Bose Corporation and Professor of Electrical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) brought about a revolution in speaker designs and sound quality by introducing the widely acclaimed Bose 901 Sound System.
• Dr. Sam Pitroda, the chairman of National Knowledge Commission and Chairman and CEO of World-Tel Limited was instrumental in bringing about the telecom revolution in India in the 1980’s. He’s also a social thinker who has made a strong case for the cause of the less privileged
• Prof Anil Gupta, the Executive Vice-Chairman of the National Innovation Foundation, Chief Coordinator Honey Bee Network and also holds the Kasturbhai Lalbhai Chair in Entrepreneurship at IIM Ahmedabad has worked extensively to build bridges between indigenous agriculture and scientific developments.

For any updates or queries please visit us at www.techfest.org or e-mail your queries to info@techfest.org.

Workshops

No learning is complete without knowing how to apply what has been learnt. The workshops at Techfest have always focused on ‘do while you learn’ to make sure learning is not restricted to just concepts but applications also. Over the years Techfest has held workshops covering a number of topics like User Centric Designs, Forensics, Smart Materials, Animation and Cryptography. This year too Techfest ’06 brings to you a series of interesting workshops:

1) Grey Circuits

Grey Circuits is a workshop on artificial intelligence that deals with various aspects like neural networks and fuzzy logic and their application in various genres of engineering as well as implementation using MATLAB. The workshop will be held over all 3 days and comprises 4 lecture sessions and 2 Hands on Sessions of using MATLAB toolboxes. The only prerequisite for this workshop is some elementary knowledge of MATLAB and loads of enthusiasm to learn more!!!

2) roboTRIx

As the name suggests this is a workshop on robotics. This workshop has been specially designed for enthusiastic beginners while it also provides existing robotics aficionados a chance to learn more and hone their skills. The workshop will be held in association with TRI – The Robotics Institute, a venture founded by a group of IIT Alumni to increase robotics awareness and promote its learning. roboTRIx is a 2 day workshop in which participants will be taught how to build a robot from scratch and will also cover a number of concepts like Robot Locomotion, Actuators, Transmission, Good Engineering practices and Electrical Control Systems. At the workshop we will also provide participants with a special take away kit consisting of various robotic components and also CDs on robotics. Not just that, even certificates and some cool T-shirts will be given.

3) Codec

With the advent of technology, communication has grown in leaps and bounds. Digital Video finds application in a number of communication channels today. Codec is a one day 2 session workshop, which takes a look at video coding – the field that deals with finding efficient compression formats for digital video. This is used in Videoconferencing and Video telephony, (VOIP), telemedicine, wireless/mobile applications, distance education etc. The prerequisites for this workshop are elementary knowledge of MATLAB and basic coding skills.

4) Iterations

Iterations is a workshop on Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) that is supported by Department of Aerospace Engineering IIT Bombay, Zeus Numerix, and C-DAC. The workshop will focus on teaching CFD and CFD software in the lecture sessions. The workshop also has a hands-on session where participants not only do while they learn but also get a chance to earn prizes. They will have to solve CFD problems using the software taught and the most successful and creative solution will take home Rs. 3500.

For any updates or queries please visit us at www.techfest.org or e-mail your queries to info@techfest.org.