It was an enclosed arena bordered with students who cheered lustily. Their sound would intermittently grow louder into shrieks and some of them clapped ecstatically.
“Bot Militia” read a board hanging atop, dropping broad hints that some kind of military robotics are at play. Robotic fight it was indeed, between young participants drawn from different colleges across the State and a few from outside as well.
The participants revelled in pitting their bots produced using home-brewed technology against one another in a contest as part of ‘Valiant 2K17 Technical Symposium’, a two-day event hosted by Vishnu Institute of Technology (VIT) at Bhimavaram in West Godavari district, on Wednesday.
The remote-controlled, little wheeled robots were given direction and aiming by students. Nothing stimulates creativity quite like having someone trying to kill you!
Making use of the available technologies to cobble together a robotic device was just one of the exhibits on the sprawling campus dotted with awe-inspiring exhibits.
The campus was abuzz with 1,200-odd student engaged in diverse activities that reflected their innovative streaks.
Eiffel tower replica
The space was awash with ingenuity, the cornerstone of such events. A few yards away was positioned a 28-foot high replica of Eiffel Tower, generated by a group of 30 fourth year students of the civil engineering branch, using bamboo, thread and some 700 screws. “We first created the shape of the tower using survey stakes, then we used bamboo sticks cut into identical pieces and joined with thread and screws,” explain Manikanta and Suresh. The students worked four days continuously to produce the structure that looks tremendous perched on a lawn.
Vishnu nitro championship is yet another major attraction at the event.
Cement boat
Next to the Eiffel Tower is a tiny boat sailing in water captured in an enclosure. Take a closer look and you realise that the boat is made with cement. “It’s a boat made with cement. It weighs 30 kg but it can carry a weight of 40 kg. We reduced the weight of the cement by mixing lather and foam in it to prove that even a cement boat can be made to float in water,” say Pradeep Kumar, Lokesh, Mallikarjun and Deepti.
The event drew good response from students who have come from institutions like IIT-Bombay, IIT-Kharagpur, SRM University in Chennai, Vellore Institute of Technology, Lovely Professional University in Punjab and several other far-flung areas.
“The college is known to encourage innovation on the campus and this is perhaps the reason we get good number of participants from across the state and outside also,” says D. Suryanarayana, Director VIT.
