Students at the Amritapuri campus came together once again to host the second edition of the multiFest Vidyut. This year’s fest attracted participation from over 4000 students who traveled from 18 different states around the country to attend.
Most workshops and events organized by students of the Schools of Arts & Sciences, Biotechnology, Business and Engineering were centered on the theme of sustainability. The fest aimed at promoting awareness of low-carbon options for growth.
The fest was inaugurated on National Science Day by Swamini Krishnamrita Prana, through the symbolic lighting of a lamp. Invited guests included Sivathanu Pillai, R&D Director of BrahMos Aerospace Pvt. Ltd. and Nanda Kumar, CEO of SunTec Business Solutions.
At the inaugural ceremony, all speakers emphasized the need to embrace spiritual values.
As the fest rolled on, over the next three days, delegates attended workshops, contested in over forty events and browsed the exhibition stalls. They competed with each other, learned from each other and struck up new friendships. The festive premises saw them lounging around, and often heading to the food court, that offered up delicious arrays.
“The township planning event was one of the best events I participated in,” shared a contestant, afterwards. Organized by the Department of Mechanical Engineering, the event called for the designing of an imaginary town in India that had a minimum population of 5000 people and zero waste.
“Zero waste is imperative for sustainable living. When we throw something away, the loss is not only of that object, but also its embedded energy which represents all the energy it took to make that object,” the contestant added.
Other popular events included coding contests, robotic wars and treasure hunts. Technical paper presentations were organized in the fields of biotechnology, computer science, electrical engineering, electronics engineering and mechanical engineering.
In workshops, participants learned some interesting facts.
“800 million Indians still use traditional fuels. Of the 1.4 billion people in the world who have no access to electricity, our country accounts for over 300 million.”
Workshops on diverse topics such as Rubik’s Cube, Hydroponics, Haptics, 3D Gaming and Scripting, Business Incubation and Ethical Hacking saw enthusiastic participation.
“All workshops were impressive, we learned about things we weren’t aware about earlier,” shared workshop participants.
The fest exhibition proudly displayed not only innovative creations of Amrita students, but also those of students who came from other colleges. Many brought their models to be exhibited; they had worked on these outside of class hours.
A GSM-based wireless energy billing system, a semi – automatic fish scale removing machine, an e-coat with inbuilt sensors and detectors to help the visually-challenged move around without depending on anyone else, were only some of the creative displays.
Students of Sastra University displayed a sensor system for potential deployment under roads. “These sensors would collect vibrations caused by vehicles and convert them into power,” they explained.
By no means were they the only ones offering up such out-of-the-box energy solutions. Harvesting energy from the human body, from movements of walking, running and even breathing, other students displayed their E-Harvesters.
Participants also had the opportunity to work with traditional sources of renewable energy. In an event, they were asked to make a wind turbine coupled with a DC generator to provide output of AC current. In another event, participants generated electricity from a module of solar cells to light up a 60 watt bulb.
“The events were challenging and well-thought out. They gave us a chance to think, explore and even deepen our understanding of fundamental concepts,” stated enthusiastic participants.
March 7, 2013
Amritapuri Campus
