MUMBAI, Jan 17: Science and technology need not be the complicated, esoteric stuff it is often made out to be; it can be fun too. And the Indian Institute of Technology (Mumbai) is going all out to prove this with a unique technology festival on January 24 and 25, 1998.Techfest `98 will host competitions, workshops, an infotech show, lectures, video-conferencing and an atomic energy exhibition. Students from at least 200 engineering colleges and professionals from several organisations are expected to participate in the event.
Thirty top infotech companies -- among them Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Tata Infotech, Onspec, Kla-Tencor (USA) -- will display the latest in information technology products, instruments, software and solutions.
A unique feature of the event, sponsored among others by AMD and The Indian Express, will be a series of design competitions with pre-defined problems for participants to wrestle with. For example, designing spectacles for the blind, a gripper (a robot which can pick upobjects), a windmill; making a tetris player (software which plays the game); and an open software and hardware competition in which participants are invited to display original software and hardware models on par with today's technology. Other on-the-spot events include science puzzles, teasers, paradoxes, trivia and science fiction writing.
A series of workshops will focus on the Internet. Some emerging technologies like virtual reality on the Net will also be featured. The Amateur Astronomers' Association will conduct a workshop on astronomy. For aviation buffs, the Indian Association of Model Aircraft will hold demonstrations on designing and building model aircraft. Sophisticated aeromodels will be seen in action.
The lecture series, Speak, will have as a guest speaker, eminent scientist Jayant Narlikar, Director of Inter-University Centre for Astrophysics and Astronomy. Professor U R Rao, former ISRO chairman and chief of the UN Space Panel, will lecture on satellite communications in India, while
head of the Asian operations of Advanced Micro Devices, Mark Linsford, will interact with the audience via video conferencing from Tokyo. The state-of-the-art infrastructure is to be provided by Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL).
The atomic energy exhibition will be organised by the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India, and is intended to educate people about the peaceful uses of nuclear technology. BARC will showcase the uses of nuclear technology and the advances made in the field, ranging from food preservation through irradiation to power generation.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
