Day 2 of IIT Techfest draws over 45,000 people in Mumbai

Dancing robots, shaping public conversations on Twitter and quick-fix innovations for a sustainable India — with all this and more, the second day of the Indian Institute of Technology’s annual science and technology fest in Mumbai saw a footfall of over 45,000.

Day two of Techfest 2014 was kickstarted with a lecture by serial entrepreneur Kanwal Rekhi, who gave the audience tips on building a successful company. Other lecturers included Nobel peace prize awardee Rajendra Pachauri, founder CEO of Wolfram Research Stephen Wolfram and vice president of Twitter, Shailesh Rao.

“Social media has changed the way we consume the happenings around us. It came to us only through traditional media. Today, multiple people share perspectives on social media and we triangulate the truth,” said Rao in his talk titled ‘Shaping public conversations on Twitter’.    

The day also saw teams display their work in the International Robotics Challenge (IRC).

Techfest’s flagship event required participants to construct robots with high sychronisation, speed and accuracy. “Today, team Sri Lanka was evaluated as the team with the best overall performance, while team India was adjudged as the fastest and team France had the best design,” said a volunteer. The IRC eliminations were conducted across 11 countries and the best team will win prizes worth Rs9 lakh. 

Exhibits from the world over which are on display at the three-day fest included BINA-48, the humanoid robot, cars like the Ferrari F340, Porsche 911 Turbo and Mercedes E Cabriolet and Tanks from the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).   

The evening was full of tech-filled fun. The audience was treated to an augmented entertainment show, SIRO-A. “It is a revolution in live entertainment. Through dance, mime and puppetry, five performers from Japan interact with technology to show video projection, light animation and laser effects,” said Divyam Bansal of Techfest.

The other entertainer of the evening was the Wheel Sensation by Boy Loojien and Laura Stullich, combining their backgrounds in german wheel, aerial arts and acrobatics.

What was on the agenda on Day 2
Teams display their work in the International Robotics Challenge (IRC). Techfest’s flagship event required participants to construct robots with high sychronisation, speed and accuracy

The audience was treated to an augmented entertainment show, SIRO-A. The other entertainer of the evening was the Wheel Sensation by Boy Loojien and Laura Stullich, combining their backgrounds in german wheel, aerial arts and acrobatics.