Over 1.5 lakh students from India and abroad descend on the Mumbai campus for Asia’s largest science and tech festival

Over 1.5 lakh students descended on the IIT Powai campus to attend its annual technology fest, Techfest, Asia’s largest science and technology festival patronised by the UNESCO and the UNICEF.

Youths from 2,500 colleges within India and 500 foreign ones are participating in the fest that began on Saturday.

On display at the Powai campus are the latest breakthroughs aimed at promoting the use of technology and its applications among the masses in India.

Visitors took in the the Walking Humanoid Robot, an automated robot capable of mining in lunar environments and autonomous football-playing Nao Robots. These low-cost programmable swarm robots and robots like these that come in handy at times of disaster to provide relief are named rather quirkily as Relief-e-Robot. This was created following the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh in which 3,000 people died.

A Dutch team here has showcased its Nao Robots, which can take decisions. “They can think for themselves and take calls depending on the situation. Once the robot enters the football field, it decides when to attack and when to defend, depending on the game. It does not require any instructions,” one of the creators said.

The field for competitions at the Techfest ranged from sustainability and design to advanced robotics to events based on pure sciences. Robowars, a game of style, control, damage and aggression saw the robots pitted each other in combat, was a huge draw on Saturday with a lar ge number of national as well as international enthusiasts and participants.

In Robowars, the teams enter a box with the James Bond theme music playing in the background and the audience indulges in virtual betting. Two robots clash with each other through their mobile destructive remote controls. The show of technical might was held across several rounds and boasts of Rs.1.25 lakh as prize money for the winners.

A competition to make low-cost solar lamps was also held, which had both Indian and international participants. The participants in this event used technical specifications, design, efficiency and brightness to create the most viable solar lamp.

In Robowars, two robots face off through their mobile destructive remote controls