Techfest- A Zion Revelation

Techfest
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Techfest- A Zion Revelation- IIT Bombay

Techfest- A Zion Revelation is the annual science and technology festival of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay. It started in 1998 with the motive of promoting technology and it was the 21st edition of the festival this year and was held for an epoch of three days i.e. from 29th December to 31st December 2017. It has turned out to be Asia’s largest Science and Technology Fest recently with a footfall of nearly 1, 60,000 and more than 2500 participating Indian colleges and over 500+ colleges abroad. The festival was loaded with a variety of events like competitions, exhibitions, workshops, lecture, professional shows and much more. The team of Techfest consisted of student volunteers who work to promote technology; however, the team of Techfest or the Core Managerial Team (CMT) comprises of 23 members with one Overall Coordinator guiding 22 Managers heading different departments, mainly the Administration and Events, other departments were, Marketing, Media & Publicity, Competitions, Ideate & Accounts, Hospitality, Food & Beverages, Lectures, Exhibitions, Infrastructure and Web & Creatives.  Techfest 2017 worked for a social cause of blood donation as well, to save the lives of people so they don’t die due to deficiency of blood. However, any festival is not possible without the respective partners and sponsors who support the fest, therefore, the sponsors and partners of Techfest2017 were; Larsen & Tourbo (Presenting Partner), Partnered by British Council, Powered by Capgemini, BHIM and RUPay (Associating Partners),  CNBC Aawaz (Supporting Partners), DNA Newspapers (Brought By), Union Bank of India (Banking Partner), 93.5 RED fm (Radio Partner), Pepsi (Beverage Partner), Nestle (Chocolate Partner), Maharashtra Times (Marathi Media Partner), Classmate (Stationery Partner), 9XO (Music Broadcast Partner), Paytm (Payment Partner); Bajaj, Park Avenue, Tata, Air India, Boeing (Major Sponsors), Campus France (Foreign Collaborations) and many more.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4755″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

SOCIAL CAUSE

A very few college festivals exist which work for a social cause, Techfest 2017 IIT Bombay was one of those. The social cause of Techfest this year was the Blood Donation Campaign. It was a large initiative of its kind in order to warfare against the lost lives of the people due to the blood deficit. It was a step taken to encourage people to #DonateBlood in order to prevent people from dying due to the deficiency of blood. It was a three-day Blood Donation Campaign from 29th to 31st December 2017 at Techfest IIT Bombay; with the support of Facebook Blood Donor Product and all the youthful souls out there were inspired to be a part of this noble cause and contribute their part for the betterment and a better future of the society.

The Campaign proved out to be a success, as people in large numbers gathered together and donated their blood. Their effort will certainly help and serve people in the long-run. Due to this campaign, a feeling of humanity, peace and love was spread amongst everyone as they did their part well in order to help and save the mankind.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4756″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

EVENTS AND PROCEEDINGS

Techfest 2017 was declared open with the blessings and good wishes of our honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The activities performed were loaded with performances from every field and were divided into a few sectors like, Lectures, Exhibitions, Technoholix, Artists, Ozone, Competitions, International Robowars and more. These events were held in order “to promote technology and scientific thinking and innovation” amongst the audience.

However, the few highlights of Techfest 2017 day one included a very inspiring and knowledgeable conversation with Shri Manohar Parrikar (Chief Minister of Goa), Rupay Interactive Sessions, Guest Lectures with Sonam Wangchuck (Founding Director of SECMOL), Patrick Dai (CEO, QTUM) and he talked about , “The Future of QTUM & IOT”,  Partha Narasimhan (Aruba CTO), Shri Pranab Mukherjee (President of India) and Shri Jayant Sinha (Minister of State Civil Aviation), his speech was about the “Opportunities and challenges for youth in Indian Economy” . The Exhibition section included some International Exhibitions, Auto Expo, Exhibition of the Indian Forces; Navy, Army and DRDO, the Technoconnect which is the RnD Expo of IIT Bombay. The Juan Pablo Illusionist and Krzystof Riewold Diablo Artist were the Artist Performances which certainly made the day magical. Few of the competitions which were held on day one were the Automation Challenge, Code the Game, Overwatch, Meshmerize, the Boeing National Competition, Crane-O-Mania, International Sustainability Challenge and much more. These competitions added to the competitive and team spirit of the audience so as to perform better and work harder. The Ozone section of Techfest 2017 inculcated and increased the feeling of urge of gaming and technology amongst everyone with activities like Flight Simulator, UBISOFT Just Dance 2018 (the Dance Competition), Stratazania (Game Throne Competition), the Drona Aviation, Bossaball, Archery, PaintBall, Rubik’s Cube Workshop, Ice-Breaking Workshop and more. Techfest 2017 outstretched its arms internationally as well with Internationals Robowars activities which included Middleweight Qualifiers, Middleweight Royal Rumble and Artist Performance.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4757″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]The sparkling attractions of the day were in the Technoholix section which included the Mirror Family from Austria and Maxwell-the Bubbleologist (Bubble Artist) from London. The energy packed performance of the Mirror Family left the audience awestruck at the Technoholix in the Techno Nights of IIT Bombay. The Bubble Show by Maxwell was no less, as the impossible and the unbelievable was made happen which amazed the viewers and the applause didn’t end and the the Day one at the Techfest 2017 IIT Bombay ended on a magical note.

The chilly cold weather of the December morning brought us to the Second day of the Techfest 2017 IIT Bombay; with many more surprises to avail Techfest 2017 IIT Bombay proceeded. The activities on the second day included the Guest Lectures with some amazing personalities like Randy Schekman (Nobel Prize recipient in Physiology), Abhay Karandikar (Dean of Faculty Affairs at IIT Bombay) Marlene Kanga (President at WFEO, UNESCO) the conversation with her was about the “Sustainable Development: Engineering for People, Planet and Prosperity”, Financier, Sudhir Khot (CEO at Financial Fitness), J. Satyanarayana (Retired IAS Officer of Andhra Pradesh and the current Chairman of Unique Identification Authority of India or UIDAI), George Varghese (Chancellor’s Professor, UCLA) who talked about the “Interdisciplinary Thinking via Confluences” the Panel Discussion on “Digitization Towards a Modern India” by Deepak B. Phatak (Padamshree Award Winner)and the Google LunarX Mars Mission. In the exhibitions section, the proceedings of the exhibitions of Day one i.e., the International Exhibitions, Auto Expo, the Exhibition of the Indian Army, Navy, DRDO and the Technoconnect were carried forward. The Artist, Juan Pablo Illusionist and Krzyszt of Riewold Diabolo performed even today. Few competitions like Enigma, Bajaj Electrical Hackathon, Vice Clutch, Op Rahat, Full Throttle and many more were also held; along with the International Robowars in which five countries and around sixty teams participated with events like, Middleweight, Featherweight Royal Rumbles and more. The activities in the Ozone section included the Techfest Razer Games League, 9-D Virtual Reality Simulator, Augmented Climbing Wall, Fulldrome Pro, BMX-JAM, GoKartig, Ozone Stage, Golf Simulator and much more.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”4758″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]However, the prestigious highlights of the day were the Guest Conversation with SOPHIA, which is the First Humanoid Robot with citizenship, the Techfest Blood Donation Campaign (in association with Facebook) which was a step taken towards the betterment of the society and mankind and last but not the least was the Special Screening of the movie Jumanji 2; in the Technoholix section which excited the audience to watch the complete movie in theaters as well. The day ended on a very positive and cheerful note.

The last and the most exciting day of the Techfest 2017 IIT Bombay began with the Guest Lectures with the renowned personalities like Soumodip Sarkar (the Economist and Management Researcher) who gave the lecture on “Technopreneurship & the new developments in Entrepreneurship”, Samir Brahmachari (the Former Director General of CSIR) who talked about “P4 Medicine the Future: Convergence of Genomics, Big Data and Crowd Sourcing”, Radhanath Swami (Governing Body Commission, ISKCON) who talked about “A Scientific Case Study of Spiritual & Religious Faith” and Swati Bhatia (Vice President, Seller Risk & Experience at PayPal). However, the schedule of the Exhibitions and Artist was followed the same way as on the past two days. In the Competition Section, the finale of the Full Throttle was held; while in the Ozone Section, activities like Power Zorbing, Land Zorbing, ATV, Face Painting Workshop were held along with the proceedings of the other activities which were held in the first two days of Techfest2017 IIT Bombay. The other knowledgeable attractions of the day were the Guest Lecture by H.E. Hamid Karzai (Former President of Afghanistan) and the Guest Conversation with Tanmay Bakshi (the youngest IBM Watson Developer) who talked about “How to Build Neutral Networks: IBM Watson”. The discussions with both of them inspired the audience to never stop learning and do more and better in life.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

CONCLUSION

Well, well!! How could the New Year’s Eve at the Techfest 2017 IIT Bombay end without the scintillating performance of Sountec, DJ Marnik and Martin Robots in the Technoholix section.  Their electrifying performance gave the festival the perfect end and the audience grooved on the mind blowing music which was performed and went home with the beats of music still banging into their ears.

The festival ended on an exuberant note, with great achievements and new heights, leaving behind golden memories for everyone to grow, gain and learn. The efforts and devotion of everyone turned out with flying colors as the festival went smoothly and came out to be successful. The technical ride of the festival came to an abeyance for everyone until Techfest 2018.

Disclaimer: All the images have been picked from various sites to represent the content and none of it is owned by what after college and is credited to its rightful owners[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]