Industry Defined Problem

That was junkyard wars which kept us busy the last three days of shaastra. but why did we go there in the first place?! coz we were selected for the final presentation for an event called IDP.. GE sponsored. we came third.. and GE gives summer internships at The GE John F. Welch Technology Centre, Bangalore. totally excited about it! waiting...
here's the pic of all three prize winners. first prize IITM. second.. a college from vizag. third.. BITS Pilani! standing amidst the panel of judges fro GE.
Now coming to the other teams.. abhinav 2nd year wins the first prize in Science Fiction writing competition. Civil guys 2nd year get a consolation 6th or 7th in Master builder. and Team Shona gets a consolation (4th place) in Fire n Ice.
Oh! and ya.. my wingies (siva, selp, terror, bile and lingam).. participated in Capture the Flag, a robotics event. made it almost till the semis. and a 2nd yearites team (gaurav, gaurang, anshul, gaurav gupta, manish) for the same event.. did pretty well, but not quite! a couple of second yearties (bineet and sartak) participate in coding events. good effort but again.. something missing!
Congrats to all the winners! and for those who missed it this time.. dont worry guys. this is just the first techfest.. you'll definitely rock in the ones to come. after all.. "participation is more important than winning right?!" but just that winning gets you slightly more appreciation! no worry.. stay always ready!
So BITS Pilani basically did pretty good in Shaastra 2K7! We Rocked! We'll keep rockin!

Chaloooo!!!

That pic was during the prize distribution ceremony of Junky yard wars. Bosch official sponsor. from left standing: Karteek, Ankur, me, Susheel and some Bosch guys!
Now video time! this is the trial run we'd taken with our 'Auto' (evident from its looks!) pucca chennai auto coz it doesnt have breaks! and thanks to karteek for that real professional video recording! esp towards the end!!

The next video is the best one! having done two main runs @12 sec and 11 sec, it was time for some action and adventure! attempting the world's greatest stunt of all times! (thats is, definitely, coz look whose pushing me!! Chaloo....!!)

Shortly after that..

Following that one was another nasty fall from our IIT counterparts! a bad one indeed! check out this NDTV coverage for more details.. http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/videopod/default.aspx
Search for Test Drive. you'll find the one for junkyard wars. i'm unable to download it completely. shall try to post it soon! Enjoy!

hindu article!

Well, IIT M techfest.. Shaastra was good. check out this article! (totally unexpected. we thought the reporter zubeda was some iit student who was generally asking us some questions! the next day's newspaper was really a shock! hehe!)

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Day Three of Shaastra: ingenius ideas abound

Zubeda Hamid
DREAM MACHINE: Students building a vehicle for a contest held as part of ‘Shaastra 2007’ at IIT-Madras in Chennai on Saturday.

CHENNAI: It was hard to imagine that anything in IIT Madras’s junkyard could actually be used. Backless chairs, mangled wheelbarrows and broken tube lights littered the area. Among the rubbish the organisers of ‘Junkyard Wars’ had scattered useful items: tyres (second hand) and metal rods. It was up to the six teams that qualified from over 400 to wade through the junk and look for things that would help build a vehicle.

‘Junkyard Wars’, one of the many competitions on Day Three of ‘Shaastra’, IIT Madras’s annual inter-collegiate technical festival, involved teams putting together a vehicle that could be manually operated. Once ready, the vehicles with the riders would have to pass under a stick held at three feet, navigate six turns and ride through a 50-metre course of road and sand.

“It wasn’t that difficult. We are used to this in college,” said G. Susheel, a student of BITS-Pilani, whose team has been working on the vehicle since Friday morning. Since the organisers supplied the teams with a moped engine, it was not very difficult, other students said. Finding the smaller part needed though, was a challenge, another team member A. Jaideep added.

Another event, ‘Master Builder’, saw students putting together a transmission line tower with sections of aluminium. Built over two-and-a-half days, the towers will be tested for both strength and cost-effectiveness.

“We received about 25 designs and selected the best 10 for the competition,” a ‘Shaastra’ volunteer said.