Mumbai, December 23, 2018 : The 22nd edition of Techfest, Asia’s largest science and technology festival, was held during December 14 to 16, 2018 at Mumbai IIT Campus. It was a hugely successful festival which attracted a large crowd and impressed one and all with it’s grandeur. It has always been an ideal platform for each and every tech-savy person, irrespective of whether the person wishes to display his expertise or gain from the intricate details about the technology on display.
The major attractions this year were the lectures by the following world renowned personalities who shared their rich experience and profound knowledge:
- His Holiness – The 14th Dalai Lama, Nobel Peace Prize 1989. At IIT Bombay, he spoke on the “Relevance of ancient Indian education system in the modern world”
- Gaur Gopal Das – A well-known motivational speaker associated with ISKCON, he spoke on “A positive attitude is a key to success in life”.
- Viral V. Acharya, Deputy Governor, RBI Exhibitions spoke on the relation between finance and education. Quoting on the relation between finance and growth, he said, “Growth is limited to skills and skills to education and imagination”.
Exhibitions at Techfest are one of the rare avenues where you can see and experience the grandness of what the world calls modern science and technology. Following were the major attractions showcased during Techfest this year:
- Furhat robotics: AI powered Robot from Sweden capable of Human interaction
- Exhibitions by Defense Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Army
This year, Techfest achieved a record footfall of 1,55,000 with an outreach to 2500 national colleges and 500 international ones.
The fest comprised of a series of lectures, summits and competitions at the Institute campus as well as exhibitions by students from institutes around the world. Techconnect exhibited the development and research activities of IIT Bombay’s students. The festival witnessed exhibitions, war of robots, sessions, talks on advancement of science and technology, gaming competitions and a display of various creations and experiments.
The annual science and technology festival also witnessed lectures by Rajagopala Chidambaram, Ex-Director of BARC; Henry Schaefer, Graham Purdue Professor in Chemistry; John C. Mather, Nobel Prize in Physics in 2006; Anima Anandkumar, Director of ML Research, NVIDIA; Varun Gandhi, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha; Alok I Ranjan, Country Lead, Nutrition Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; Shanta Devarajan, Senior Director for Development Economics and Acting Chief Economist of the World Bank; Simon Taufel, retired Australian cricket umpire and former member of the ICC Elite umpire panel; and Ashish Chauhan, MD and CEO of Bombay Stock Exchange.
One of the major attraction at the Techfest was the 1st edition of International Full Throttle, with world-class racing tracks and participation from three international drivers ranked 9th, 19th and 38th in the world.
