Vedanth 7.0
Over the chattering and commotion caused by everyone who gathered to see the exhibition, the sound of the loud music playing outside was barely audible. Teams ran to the tables their exhibits were stationed at, eager to explain their brainchild to the spectators. The ground floor of the Innovation Centre in Manipal University was more lively than ever.
The seventh edition of Vedanth, MIT’s robotics exhibition that focuses on Research and Development and Technical Projects kicked off on day 1 of TechTatva ’17. The first day was the first round or abstract submission where all the participants who were students of Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) displayed the prototypes they made for the event. On the second day or round 2, students from not only MIT but also other colleges like JNN College of Engineering in Shimoga, Canara College in Mangalore and SMV Institute of Technology and Management in Bantakal participated.
The interesting part about Vedanth this year was its collaboration with Innovation Challenge, where the winners from MIT qualified to participate on Innovation Day on the 20th of October. Innovation Day will include students from all the constituent colleges of Manipal University. Abhay, the head of Innovation Challenge said, “It started under Arun Shanbhag, the chief innovation officer and is basically the first round for MITians to qualify further. The people who win here move on to Innovation Day where they present prototypes and get cash as a reimbursement.”
The two days of Vedanth saw an array of robots created around six themes: Internet of Things, Robotics and Automation, Clean Energy, Technologies of Social Betterment, Smart Learning and Medical Innovation. The event which saw over 30 exhibits through both the days ranged from inventions like Talking Gloves that converted American Sign Language to speech via a laptop to a biogas maker.
On the first day, 10 projects were showcased. Star Tracker did exactly what its name suggests- track stars. It used an astronomical coordinate system and given the number of the particular star, the tracking device aligned itself in the direction of the star and the input appeared on the phone screen to verify its position. The Autonomous Home Cleaning Bot had a brush in the front and mop in the back, used three infrared sensors to detect obstacles and according to the inventor “costs only 500 if it’s commercialized and a lot of hard work”. Other interesting robots were the Object Recognition Bot (ORB) and Heart Murmur Detection Device. The ORB used Bluetooth through an app to detect basic household objects like alarm clocks and bottles, made a bounding box or region of interest around it, and picked up the object with its mechanical arms. The Heart Murmur Detection Device detects heart murmurs or irregularities in one’s heartbeat at early stages and portrays it on a graph seen on a computer screen at a fraction of the cost of an ECG.
The second day saw more displays, including five from outstation teams. They included a Paani Puri Vending Machine, a walking stick for the visually impaired that used infrared sensors and emitted high frequency noises as the proximity towards the object increased, and Simple, a website to make life simple by being a platform for all walks of life- education, social media and in the future, e-commerce.
SMVITM displayed a drone that could be used to aid people in rescue missions and one team from JNNCE demonstrated AROURA, a voice controlled home automation system that used Google’s speech-to-text feature over their application to carry out basic functions like switching lights and fans on or off. It even worked in other languages that Google recognizes, like Portuguese and French.
Vishal, a 3rd year Mechatronics student who displayed his product on the first day said, “Vedanth is a featured event of TechTatva and we’ve got coverage from The Hindu and Times of India as well, so the university doesn’t hesitate to shower resources on us. It’s a robotics exhibition and we make ideas tangible.”
The end of Vedanth saw the hard work that all the students put in for almost two months appreciated greatly by those who came to see the exhibition. The results for the second round will be announced on the 4th day of TechTatva.
- Karthika Venugopal
Robowars
Karel Capek’s play R.U.R (Rossumovi Univerzální Roboti) was the first to introduce the word robot to literature. Since then it has taken many forms appearing in books, comics and some legendary movies. Wall-E, Terminator, Star Wars to name a few are some classics we definitely associate with our childhood. However, seeing them made right amongst us is a vividly unique and amazing experience. Robowars happens to be the one event that year after year starkly helps TechTatva envision its theme with this instalment being ‘Realizing Fiction’.
The first challenge to conducting this event lay in bringing up the right battle ground to unleash these metallic beasts. KC, not only served as the hangout spot for MITians but also housed the arena for Robowars to take place every year. With the circle under construction, and the robots homeless, the organisers had to find a new spot which was suited both for the event to take place smoothly and for the audience to enjoy. The arena finally came up in front of the FC, shaped in the form of a hexagon compared to the earlier rectangle giving it an all the more authentic look.The organisers were apparently overwhelmed, with the audience patiently waiting for the event to convene amidst slight glitches and technical fallacies which led to a delayed start.
The preliminary round consisted of planting the bomb. Players were divided into teams of Red and Blue. Each had two minutes to place the bomb in the designated bombsite of the opponent and fetch points. A stationary bomb in the opponent’s site for 10 seconds meant the team planting it, automatically won. The top teams surviving the explosion then proceeded to the one on one face off with the sole objective of rendering the opponent’s robot non-functional. What further ensued was a delight to watch for the audience gathered around the arena as they cheered for their respective teams while the robots went full throttle with complete determination of knocking their rivals out of the game.
“Standing here outside this cage amongst all these people with hard rock songs playing in the background reminds me of scenes from ‘The Fight Club’ with the only difference here being of robots instead of humans.”, said a spectator.
Manipal clouds poured down heavily but failed to play a spoil sport as the spirits and enthusiasm of the participants were undeterred. Being one of Techtatva’s most coveted and sought-after events with over 24 participants, twice as many as last year, including many from across the sub-continent, Robowars lived up to its legacy and was a grand success.
- Abhishek Mishra
Questionable Intelligence
Easily one of Techtatva’s most participated event with an exhilarating list of quizzes lined up, questionable intelligence is the abode for nerds and geeks alike.
The first day kicked off with a general quiz being hosted by one of India’s most acclaimed quizmasters Major Chandrakant Nair who stressed on the importance of questions being more on the lines of deducible manifestations rather than fact based trivia which was also very much evident by the format of his questions. The participants and audience lauded the simplicity yet brilliance of the major’s set with him receiving ovations every now and then. Questions ranged from all arenas including sign boards at Las Vegas to the Queen of England who was decapitated. The event saw excellent and enthusiastic participation from all colleges across Manipal as well as outstation colleges with the MV Seminar Hall full to its brim. After an intense battle to the top, 8 teams qualified for the finals which led to a further round of brainstorming to crack answers, pouncing on opponent’s questions and holding their nerves to prevent negative scoring.
Day 2 was a feast for all science fiction aficionados across books, movies and TV shows as the questions tested the knowledge of participants in all aspects of the theme. Teams made a lot of efforts to fight it out and emerge as the better amongst the best making calculated guesses, logical deductions and recollection of facts. The questions put before them were interesting to go through even for those who weren’t great appreciators of the subject, such was the beauty of the quiz.
The last leg of the event saw the fusion of science and business. An NIT-K alumnus and a Crucible National finalist, Hem Maradia conducted the quiz. Supposedly only his second attempt at being on the stage instead of in front of it, the quiz master’s inexperience was rather evident as he fumbled with a couple of facts and ended up giving incorrect hints which later had to be rectified. The questions however were inquisitive and well framed giving the participants a good time. Surprisingly though for a biz-tech quiz one could find more questions on biology and geography rather than on the chosen theme, we’re guessing it had to something to do with Mr. Maradia’s inclinations. A thumping win in the prelims was registered by one of the teams while the others barely managed to beat each other by half points keeping all of us in uncertainty about who will eventually end up winning the contest.
That wrapped up the event leaving us asking for more as the sheer thrill of figuring out answers to questions you wouldn’t have ever dreamt of before, which stood as hurdles between the participant and much deserved cash prize was a refreshing and invigorating experiences for all attendees.
- Abhishek Mishra
Fuel RC
Mario Andretti once said “If you have everything under control, you’re not moving fast enough.” These words held true because in this racing event every time that little car roared its way through thin air it toppled quite a few times but kept moving forward in spite of what happened.
There were four events under Fuel RC- Time Attack, Drag, Stunt, and GP de Manipal. The first two events were held on day one of TechTatva’17 and the rest events on day two. Day one of Time attack saw participants compete against each other to complete a certain track in the shortest amount of time possible. There were six tracks and seven core teams with three to five individuals each. Every team got a trial run and two chances. The team which took the least amount of time was declared as the winner. The other event Drag which was also held on day one had two cars racing against each other. Each team had to do a minimum of three races. The cumulative time and efficiency determined the winner of this event.
The third event Stunt was held on day two of the fest and had tracks laid down for the car to race down. Though sounding simple, there was a catch—the tracks were laid down along with quite a few obstacles along the way. There were curved slopes and higher platforms for the car and players to overcome. The time allotted to the each player was five minutes and for each stunt completed by the car the player got points.
After a sudden downpour on the second day of Tech Tatva, the MIT quadrangle was marked with tyres yellow and black as the participants geared up for the final round of GP de Manipal. A grand prix race essentially has its roots in automobile racing but it has evolved into one of the most popular forms of formula racing. The final segment of Fuel RC saw participants building a car from scratch and then racing for two laps.
All the people involved, from the category head to the organisers spent almost two weeks in preparation for this event. Everyone carried four to five tyres in their hand to prepare the track for the race, and tirelessly ran around doing chores under the blazing heat of the autumn sky. During the trial run there were instances where the car stopped working but there was always a substitute. One might think that hosting a racing event maybe quite troublesome but Fuel RC’s impeccable organization ensured a smooth event with almost no delay, which was definitely a rare sight in this year’s Tech Tatva.
“You don’t get to drive racing cars at a young age and do this crazy stuff , so there is an aspect of fiction there” – Shreyansh (organiser) on how the event was relevant to the theme “Realizing Fiction”.
- MTTN Crew
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