Techfest is IIT Bombay’s Annual International Science and Technology festival. Techfest was conceived as a platform for students to display their talent in science and technology and it also serves as the perfect confluence between students, academia and industry. In 10 short years, Techfest has grown to become Asia’s largest festival of its kind and its popularity can be judged by the fact that over 3 days, every January, there are more than 30000 students from over a 1000 colleges across India present on the IIT Bombay campus. While the competitions at Techfest prove to be the ultimate test of grit, knowledge and skill, the lecture series and workshops will provide an enriching experience for the avid learners. Exhibitions along with Technoholix will showcase the recent breakthroughs achieved across the world.
The next edition of Techfest, Techfest 2008 will be the eleventh edition and this year we bring back Nexus. Nexus was a highly successful program first held last year with unprecedented response. The Program included workshops on Robotics followed by the competition at various centers across India. Nexus was conceptualized with the objective of taking robotics to students in different parts of the country. While there are robotic enthusiasts abound in the country, there is no platform in their vicinity to showcase their aptitude and it is this platform that Nexus aims to provide. This year Nexus will be held in 7 centers and will cover the length and breadth of across India. Techfest Nexus will be held at IIT Bombay as also in New Delhi, Jaipur, Indore, Surat, Pune & Calicut. Each center will serve as a base for our activities to promote robotics in the area and Techfest envisages Nexus to expand to several other centers across India and address a number of other fields over the next few years.
The Second edition invites students from across the nation to participate in Vertigo: The National Robotics Challenge, to be held under the banner of Nexus. The competition involves constructing a manually controlled robot, which can perform specific tasks. This competition will be held in two stages for every center - the first stage will comprise of a zonal round to be held at each of the seven centers in the months of September and October to be followed by the grand finale during Techfest in January 2008. At stake for the top three entries at each Nexus round is Rs. 10,000 prize money along with a direct entry into the finals at Techfest in January 2008.
For participating in Nexus interested students have to form teams of maximum four members and register themselves online. During Nexus outstation students will be provided accommodation at the venue itself. For more information on Techfest and Nexus check http://www.techfest.org