This semester, we at Techfest, had a unique plan of having an initiative for the place we call our home -“IIT Bombay”, launched by the name Energy GC. Techfest and TechniC have been working on it since over a month before its actual launch.

Energy GC is an initiative to let hostels compete amongst themselves to reduce their electricity consumption, with the highest “saver” at the end of month of November winning the “Most Energy-Efficient Hostel of the Year” Trophy. Each month-end sees the top 3 positions grab some points in the Tech GC as well.

Talking about the performances of the Hostels in the first month, few of the hostels have been very good at their efforts. The reduction in the per capita consumption of the hostels ranges from 1.5% to 14.5%. Overall, there has been a decrement in the total electricity consumption of the institute as far as the hostel areas are concerned. Each year the trend analysis shows an increment in the September’s electricity bill ranging from 1.2-2.15 lacs according to present scenario. But this year there has been an increment of only 0.15 lacs from the electricity bill for the month of August 2009. This year the institute has managed to save an amount of Rs 1.75-2.00 lacs just in one month as a result of such an initiative.


Hostels may have a look at the energy saving tips which have been put up at www.techfest.org/energygc. GC can be won if each and every hostel inmate just becomes cautious about the wastage that is done in his daily activities and responsibly switches off the unused appliances even though they may not belong to him. Council can play a great role by maintaining a constant watch on their hostel’s consumption, making the inmates aware about the area of maximum wastage, allotting proper persons for the work and by executing various plans and amendments that are fruitful for the same.

Alexander might accept this as a challenge, jump his horse and set off with his troops to conquer the new land. However, here at Techfest, we conquer new lands not by might and force, but by extending a hand of friendship and collaboration. An apt example is Techfest Nexus Rourkela – the very first event of IIT Bombay in the East Zone.

The idea of taking Techfest to all the four corners of the country was a major focus as we began deciding the centers for the Outreach Programme of Techfest – the Techfest Nexus. An initiative of Techfest 2007 to spread the robotic culture among the budding engineers of the country, Nexus seemed to be the best platform to reach out to the East. With discussions and contemplations and long calling sessions to our counterparts of the east, we finally came down to NIT Rourkela as the first center of Techfest Nexus in the East Zone.

When you move to a new land though, things aren’t so simple. You have no demarcated paths, no lessons from the past. This is just what we experienced in the first few days of our exploration of the east. Finally, after careful analysis and some heated discussions, we found our counterparts working with us at NIT Rourkela and our quest for Nexus officially began. It was tough, but fulfilling. We still vividly remember the long calls, the descriptive mails, the frantic calling to get participation, the sending publicity posters, the brainstorming over solutions to the problem statement with the participants and their “Sir, can I disturb you once again? My communication device doesn’t seem to be doing good”!

The D-day dawned on 10th October 2009, the day of Techfest Nexus Rourkela. Slightly apprehensive about the participation, we began the competition at 10:30 a.m. The first run got over at 1 p.m., with the leading team having the second best score in the country! As the participant teams gave final touches to the bots in the short break, we conducted random quizzes and the right answers bagged chocolates! The slight tweaking did have an impact, as the second run saw 3 more teams’ bots communicating with our computer and moving when ordered to do so. At the end of the day, the winner team had scored the second highest in the country, and the runners up were from the host institute, NIT Rourkela itself. We distributed their certificates and prizes, thanked the coordinators at NIT Rourkela and waved goodbye to our newly conquered land.

Mission Accomplished. The Techfest Team won the East with its only arms – of strong will power and sincere efforts.

Date: 4th October
Venue: IIT Bombay
Event: Nexus Mumbai

The day was when the first ever competition of its kind – CommQUEST – in the form of Nexus was to be held at its home ground, IIT Bombay. We were greeted with the unexpected showers which really made us worry about the participation in the competition. But to our dismay our worries turned out to be needless. 32 teams in all registered at the venue with many innovative designs which really made us feel relaxed. People learning something new was what we had envisioned and this was indeed what happened. People who never would have thought about the idea, before the competition was uploaded, made a bot which could perform the tasks of wireless communication and grid following.

Though many of the participants were not able to make there bot run at their turn, there were winners and few other who actually made a record by completing the given path in surprisingly less time.

The competition was graded as a tougher one by the participants but the motive of teaching and introducing a new field of robotics was indeed appreciated by one and all.

The winner position at the competition was as below
1st Position: NX1705
2nd Position: NX1710
3rd Position: NX1324

Here are the pics of the event for all: