IIT Bombay's Techfest focuses on robotics, yet again

IIT Bombay organised its annual science and tech festival, Techfest, wherein the youth come together every year to organise a variety of competitions, exhibitions, lectures as well as workshops. A number of exhibits were showcased during the event and there were many eminent personalities present at the venue too. The main aim of the festival is to promote breakthroughs in science and technology, scientific thinking and innovation among the masses in India.

On the first day, the summit began with a keynote lecture by Bob Frankston, co-creator of Spreadsheets and after that, there was a panel discussion on the topic of IoT and smart cities. The panel discussion also focused on the big data handling and analysis in the era of IoT. On day two, the summit started by the continued workshop of day one, followed by a keynote lecture by Bob Frankston after which there was a panel discussion on the topic of IoT and smart cities.

On the last day of the event, eminent personalities Eric Klinker, President and CEO of BitTorrent was present along with co-founder of  Virgin Group Nik Powell, Director of Research, Radiolab, Latif Nasser, CEO Cyberspark Roni Zehavi and President and Founder of University of the People Shai Reshef.

On the exhibition front, some of the highlights this year included Jinn Bot from Switzerland, who showcased the first 3D printed walking humanoid robot, which made heads turn. NASA Chondrobot from Bangladesh was an automated robot which is capable of mining in lunar environments. In others, the Dutch Nao Team from Netherlands were present which show-offed  autonomous football playing Nao robots from RoboCup. Other exhibits included a Poker Robot from Hungary, All Terrain Rescue and Relief Robot from Bangladesh and Minirobots from South Korea.

Apart from robotics, there were many artists present at the event too. Afishal from United Kingdom, who is known to be the father of a unique technology for visual DJ drums will showcase his talent for the first time in India. Some of the setups this year also included an All-Terrain vehicle, laser tag, 9D simulator, aerodrums, drona, F1 simulator, flying simulator, paintball, bungee run, BMX bikes, 3D chess, quilling and cards tricks workshops too.

In addition, Techfest also organised competitions for students. SoUL, aims to make low cost solar lamps available to the common people in the rural parts of our nation as a part of the Million SOUL project for education and study purposes with the winner’s model being extended to 1 million users. Another competition called Full Throttle, offers an opportunity to students to build their own IC car as well.