TechXetra 2008

"Coming together is a beginning, keeping together is progress and working together is success." With this hypermetropic success mantra, TechXetra’08, the first annual technical festival of Tezpur University concluded on October 18, 2008 after a hectic two-day event. The technical festival, organized under the initiative of the School Of Engineering, aims at expanding the frontiers of technology by setting the highest standards for the rising techno-geeks and to encourage young minds. TechXetra’08 held during 17-18th of October, 2008 presented a variety of events including robotics, structure designs, circuit designs, Defence and Science exhibitions, quiz, photography and literary events making it the a phenomenal karmabhumi of technological events.

Participating as the Chief Guest in the inaugural ceremony of the event on 16 October, 2008, Prof. T. V. Ramachandran, a distinguished scientist from IISc-Bangalore stressed the need of students’ exposure to the state-of-the-art technical developments worldwide for an advanced learning. Assuring of all possible cooperation from his organization, Guest of Honor Dr. S. Ghatak of TCS, Kolkata said that a sound industry–academia relationship would not only render the students through the interiors of industry but also help the industry in preparing their future executives in the way they like them to be. While emphasizing the significance of institutional festivals, Vice-Chancellor of the University Prof. Mihir K. Chaudhuri said that such festivals enable the students of various institutions to interact and showcase their talents on a common platform. They also provide them first hand training in event management and organizational responsibilities. A Souvenir was released to mark the occasion.

The first event of Day One was on robotics "d Siegfried Debacle" which was inspired by the Siegfried line of the Germans. There was a lecture by Dr. Subhendu Ghatak from TCS, Kolkata on the innovative projects undertaken by TCS like microfinance to provide financial support to the poor, mKrishi designed especially for the farmers, DTH operator which will enable the future television to act as a computer with limited operations, and remote video consultation service where a doctor can access the audio-video information of the patient at home or an ambulance by sitting at his computer in a hospital and subsequently deliver his advice. The Defence Exhibition by the Indian Army was inaugurated by Brig. Sartaj Singh. A wide range of military gadgets were displayed and a lecture was delivered by Col. A.S. Paul, Col. Education, Gajraj Corps, where he elaborated on how one can join the Army as an officer. There was also a Science Exhibition which provided a platform for the students to showcase their expertise. Apart from these, there was a coding contest, a structure design event, an advertisement event, a photography contest and a computer gaming contest. There were also literary events like essay competition and science fiction competition.

The beginning of the second day was marked by another robotics event "Against d Tide". This event took place in a maze in water. A quiz contest "Full Throttle" was conducted by Mr. Manimugdha Sarmah of The Indian Express. There was an electrical circuit design contest, a mathematical model making contest and a lecture by Mr. Dipak Chakravarty, Dir. (Technical), N.R.L. He delivered a talk on the importance of natural gas as a rising contributor to energy demands and talked about the scope of industrial development in the North-Eastern region contrary to the conventional notion that there are few industries in this region. He also talked of the gas-cracker project proposed by GAIL and the recent discovery of fuel in southern Assam and Tripura.

There were around 250 outside participants from various universities, colleges and schools in this techno-fest. The prize distribution and closing ceremony was held in the evening of 18 October with which the tech-fest came to an end with the anticipation that it would continue to kindle scientific flair amongst the student community.

Rajeev K. Doley, Tezpur