IIT Madras: Annual tech festival goes online this year

NEW DELHI: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras’ annual technology festival Shaastra is going to be conducted entirely online this year. The event will be held from February 25 to February 28, 2021, a statement from the institute said.

For the first time, the tech-festival, one of the largest student-run events in the country, will be completely virtual.

The event will witness eminent dignitaries addressing the ‘Spotlight Lecture’. Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist, World Health Organization, Nobel Laureate Dr. Muhammad Yunus, founder, Grameen Bank, Dr. Barry Barish, American experimental physicist, Dr. K. Radhakrishnan, former chairman, Space Commission/Secretary, Department of Space and Chairman, ISRO, are among those scheduled to address the students this year.

Shaastra, attracts more than 50,000 people every year from diverse backgrounds to join the celebration of technology through many events.

Virtual rendering of IIT M

A unique feature of Shaastra 2021 will be the virtual rendering of the important sites on the IIT Madras campus. This will enable a viewer to virtually walk through a location in IIT Madras and provide as close to a real-life experience as possible.

“With the team’s unique effort to recreate the overall IITM for an overall immersive experience, I’m really certain that this first-ever virtual edition is definitely going to be a benchmark with lots of opportunities and enriching initiatives. Shaastra 2021 will not be any less attractive, educational and entertaining than its previous years,” said Dr. Shaikh Faruque Ali, faculty advisor, Shaastra 2021, IIT Madras

The events will be available to the public free of cost.

The total prize money for the contests will be worth around Rs 17 lakh.

Appreciating the initiative of the students, Nilesh J. Vasa, dean (students), IIT Madras, said, “The novel edition of technical festival Shaastra will certainly be an important step forward towards realizing student participation from anywhere in India.”

Shaastra ‘Summit’ focuses on a unique and relevant theme every year to integrate technology into that sphere, the statement said.

Theme

The theme of this year is ‘Archi-Tech,’ the students aim to highlight the growing opportunities that technology possesses in the field of architecture and design.

Shaastra 2021 also features various competitions such as the Boeing National Aeromodelling Competition, The Drone Applications Hackathon 2021, exclusive All-Women's Hackathon called ‘She Hacks’ in collaboration with Wells Fargo, an American multinational financial services company, and the MTX HackOlympics to flaunt the participants' skills in cloud computing.

Shaastra will host an open house, in which research laboratories, department infrastructure, and projects will be showcased to the public.

Virtual interactions in the open house will highlight the research projects and expertise available at the departments where members of the public can also interact with the researchers.

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