Faculty, students and the alumni of IITs across the country are all set to run a marathon, but of a different kind. For the first time, a group of alumni from the IIT-Bombay are organising a race which will be completely hi-tech. The participants in this novel race will compete based on their body mass and fat index. And while they run, the participants will even be tracked using GPRS.
Madhur Kothari, an alumnus, along with Shirish Waghule and Akshay Mishra, is
behind the conceptualisation of the hi-tech race called the Varsha Run. “In our marathon, we will set a target for every runner based on their ability. Every participant will be a winner of sorts if they exceed their abilities,” said Kothari.
The ability or the normalisation factor of each of the participants will be calculated using their body mass and fat index, age, sex and the distances they plan to cover. The positions of each runner will be received by the central computer and the total distance travelled by each runner will be computed using the normalisation factor.
For instance, a 55-year-old lady has a normalisation factor of 1.88 while an 18-year-old’s is 1.02. After 19 mins, if the computer receives the lady’s position as 2.84km and the man’s position as 4.85km, the computer calculates the man’s equivalent position as 4.95km (4.85km x 1.02) while the lady’s is 5.33km (2.84km x 1.88). Clearly, the central computer says the lady is leading in the race.
Also, the runners in will be tracked with the help of GPRS enabled mobile phones. “This will not allow any one to take short cuts to win the race. All the devices will be connected to the central computer so that the runners will be informed about their chances of winning,” said Mishra, adding, that people wanting to participate in the marathon can register on http://tinyurl.com/varsharun08.
The marathon is open to all IIT alumni, students, staff, faculty and their families.
