The much awaited Mega Shaastrotsav - Festival of Science attracted massive crowd throughout the day and thrilled science and technology enthusiasts with various robotic games in which many school students and professionals participated. It was held at Al Zumuruda Hall on Friday, December 14th.
Sri Anup Singh from Indian Embassy inaugurated the Shaastrotsav 2018. "I congratulate IIK and NSS College Alumni Association for bringing up this unique idea of Shaastrotsav," Anup Singh said. "Unlike the usual dance and song event, this is a kind of event which will definitely benefit the students," he added.
Shaastrotsav 2018 convener Mr Sunil Jacob welcomed the audience while NSS College Association President Mr Pradeep presided the inaugural ceremony. Officials from Kuwait Engineers Forum, TEF, IIT Alumni Association, IEI, IndiansinKuwait.com and NSS College Alumni Kuwait Chapter were attend the inauguration event.
35 innovative projects from various schools, professional organizations and alumni associations of various engineering colleges were displayed and explained in neatly laid out exhibition stalls. Apart from these stalls, there were many displays by various companies and organizations giving visitors an opportunity to know about new ideas in technology.
Many students participated in inter-school robotic sumo wrestling and track following robotic race. Spectators were thrilled by seeing autonomous and intelligent robots built by school children wrestling in the wrestling ring and trying to push the opponent out of the ring. In the robotic race, robots traversed a complicated track with loops and bents with an overall length of approximately 10 mts. The robot which completed the race in 39 seconds without deviating from the track was awarded the first prize.
Robotic Football exhibited students and professional’s skills in artificial intelligence. Autonomous robots played football in a table top football court with an infrared signal emitting ball. Teams made major improvements in the design and programming of robotic players based on their experience from last year’s Shaastrotsav Robo Cup.
Rubik’s cube contest as usual attracted highest number of participants and the first price winner solved the cube in 11.27 seconds. Most participants in the last rounds of the contest were able to solve in less than 30 seconds, which is showing the increased interest generated by Shaastrotsav Rubik’s Cube contest among students.
Major attraction in concluding program held in the evening was the incredible demonstration of ‘invisible cloak’ by the keynote presenter Mr. Pulkit Gaur, using augmented reality technology. Audience were awestruck when Pukit Gaur demonstrated how a person or part of body can be made invisible by covering with a cloth and viewers can still see the background behind the person, while the cloth and the body are totally invisible. All children and some adults in the audience tried this technology using the ‘invisible cloak’ on stage. Mr. Pulkit Gaur is an innovator who won many accolades, including ‘Best 35 Innovators’ from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA and TED Fellowship.
All visitors were of the unanimous opinion that Shaastrotsav – Festival of Science continuously amaze visitors by presenting latest technological developments and offering opportunity for students and professionals to demonstrate their technical and scientific skills and knowledge. Each year quality of and variety of technological contests in Shaastrotsav steadily increase.
Shaastrotsav – Festival of Science is organized by NSS College of Engineering (Palakkad) Alumni Association– Kuwait Chapter, in association with Indiansinkuwait.com Gold Sponsor for the event was Al Muzaini Exchange Co. and NOURI Industrial Establishment Co. Silver Sponsors were American Tourister, Kiran Technical, Kalister Technology Limited, DAN Trading & Contracting Co. Integral Services Company (I.S.C.O), American Society of Safety Professionals, Kuwait Maritime & Mercantile Co. National Petroleum Services Company (NAPESCO) and Al- Rashed International Shipping Company. Print Partner was Bosco Press.