Crack the code
Akshay Shetye is 19 and a chief executive officer, while his friend Paras Kapadia, 20, is a managing director. They are part of the organising committee of one of the city’s largest national techno-management fest, Technovanza 2011, hosted by Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute.
Akshay Shetye is 19 and a chief executive officer, while his friend Paras Kapadia, 20, is a managing director. They are part of the organising committee of one of the city’s largest national techno-management fest, Technovanza 2011, hosted by Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI).
The fest will be held from February 4 to 6. The fest will house 19 highly stylised and innovative projects, including a biped robot empowered with vision and hearing called Revo, a robotic fish Piranha, a Rubik’s cube solver; a self-sufficient city that can float on water- Floating City and a car parking giant wheel, among others.
“With over 100 participating colleges on board, including the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) and the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), we are expecting a footfall of 20,000 people including students, parents, professors and professionals,” said Shetye, as he gave orders to his general managers.
Besides the technology display, the festival has also given an open invitation to management students to exhibit their knowledge and skills in the Real Stock Market (RSM) challenge, wherein they have take part in mock trading of shares. There’s also Mission Mumbai, where contestants will have to find feasible solutions to some real life problems affecting Mumbai.
For the computer junkies, there’s iCode, a computer coding challenge that will test contestants’ ability to code computer programmes efficiently.
In its tenth year, the festival earlier exhibited only projects of its students, this year it will include projects created and designed by non-VJTI students that are completely funded by Technovanza.
“I am always awestruck by the array of projects that are lined up at the festival,” said Remika Jose, 20, third year engineering student, Don Bosco Institute of Technology. “More than anything else, I always leave the venue more inspired and enthusiastic about the course.”
As a part of its tradition, the festival will continue organising Pratigya through which the budding engineers will hold workshops in schools and address environment and social issues and spread awareness among children. New additions to the mega festival are Rachna, a national level conference on education, and Maitri, an inter-collegiate collaboration.
“We are aiming at creating an educational utopia,” said Kapadia. “Ideas, entrepreneurship, collaboration and society comprise the different aspects of innovation and we aim to inculcate and reflect these qualities in our festival.”