The annual technical fest of National Institute of Technology-Karnataka (NITK), ‘Engineer’, began at a glittering ceremony at Surathkal on Thursday.
This is the 15th edition and will end on October 20.
Alok Ohrie, Chairman and Managing Director, Dell India, inaugurated the event in the presence of K. Balaveera Reddy, chairperson, Board of Governors, NITK, and K. Umamaheshwar Rao, director of the institute.
As the theme of the fest is ‘Sanrakshan’ (protection of nature), Shubham Bhardwaj, convenor, Engineer-2019, spoke on how technology can work along with nature for a comfortable living.
Mitra, the humanoid robot developed by Invento Robotics, was the cynosure of all eyes. The 5-feet tall robot was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ivanka Trump at the Global Entrepreneurship Summit in 2017. In the following days, students will be able to interact with the robot and get to know about the technology behind it.
NITK dance crew and Manikandan Muthu, a juggler who also works in an IT company, presented a dance performance on the occasion. Jagannatha Nayak, Dean (Student’s Welfare), welcomed.
The fest also has events conducted by departments of NITK, including ‘Reflux’ by the Chemical Engineering Department and ‘Bot Hockey’ by the Mechanical Engineering Department.
The tech mela features a lot of exhibits such as Industry grade 3D printers, dancing robots, and other state-of-the-art technology.
Another attraction will be ‘Robowars’, where participants bring in self-built robots to the battleground to fight and win. Other events such as Technites ‘Magicians of After-Dark’, laser shows, and other exquisite electro-mechanical exhibits placed across the campus will be organised by students.
Major Deepak Rao, a military trainer and scientist, along with Sharad Sagar, a young entrepreneur who became the CEO of Dexterity Global at the age of 16, will speak at ‘ENGI talks’, the talk series of ‘Engineer’.
