ANOKHA Techfest

About

Anokha
Techfest

Anokha, the National Techfest of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore campus, is a 3-day technical congregation of the brightest minds in India. Founded in 2010, Anokha has grown by leaps and bounds and has progressed to become one of the most popular Techfest in India. The 12th edition of this Techfest was held from 17 to 19 October 2024 at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Coimbatore campus. Over the years, Anokha has emerged as a platform for probing young minds to unleash their creativity, innovation, and teamwork as also enhancing their technical competencies. The tagline of the Techfest is “Dare to be Different”.

Dr. Sasangan Ramanathan Dean – Academics, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham quoted, “Anokha 2024 witnessed a remarkable surge in student participation, with a vibrant atmosphere fueled by the enthusiasm and innovation displayed in the technical events. The workshops offered a great platform for the students to gain hands-on experience in various key emerging areas instilling the “Can Do” attitude. Lumiere talks were very inspirational and covered some very important topics on the future leaders of India, India’s technical prowess, women’s empowerment and entrepreneurship, and many more. Overall, Anokha 2024 was a grand success and I was truly delighted to be a part of this year’s edition.”

Highlights 2024

Anokha
Techfest

A flagship Techfair & Exhibition showcasing 50+ projects aligned to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) with prize money of Rs. 1 lakh. This innovation showcase featured projects such as Safe Step: an AI-powered assistive system for the visually impaired; Smart Autoflow Well Management System; Flame Mitigation Bot, Campus Navigation System; Club Collaboration Software; Ornithopter; Web Rover; Puppy Bot, etc. The first prize was won by a quadcopter ensemble, Albatross, Aeolus, Chakshu, and Suparna, a diverse range of drones and aircraft, each serving unique purposes like vision-based navigation (VBN), delivering medical supplies, terrain imaging and monitoring, fixed-wing aircraft fully designed and modeled in-house by students of the department of aerospace engineering from AMRITA Coimbatore campus. The Techfair attracted 3000+ visitors including 300 school students from various schools.

55 highly competitive technical events (contests & competitions) with a total prize money of Rs. 10 lakhs. The popular events included:

Ragnarok – Gaming contest
Xenon – Capture the Flag cyber-skills event
Tech Track Thriller: The Robo Racer – An event wherein contestants unleash their wired or wireless robotic cars onto the track
Sumo Bots – An event wherein two bots compete in a head-to-head match following the basic system of traditional human sumo matches
Ecostructura – Participants construct buildings using bamboo skewers
Codebot2.0 – Teams of three refine Large Language Model (LLM)
Micromouse – Participants and their miniature robotic marvels compete to navigate a complex maze with unmatched speed and accuracy
Glider – Aviation enthusiasts design, build, and fly their gliders
Epictures – Short film contest
Farm Frenzy – An event to master the art of agriculture by navigating challenges and making crucial decisions for a bountiful harvest

Anokha Lumiere talk series with a galaxy of eminent speakers who inspired and motivated the students. The eminent speakers included:

Sudhanshu Mani, the visionary behind the Vande Bharat Express, showcased engineering excellence in Indian Railways.
Major Deepak Iyer, a former Special Forces officer, shared powerful insights on leadership and resilience in the business world.
Dushyant Dubey, a tireless social activist, discussed his mission to drive mental health awareness and combat abuse through digital platforms
Kalki Subramaniam, an advocate for transgender rights, highlighted the power of art and media in creating meaningful social change.
Veena Kumaravel, founder of Naturals, inspired all with her story of empowering women entrepreneurs across India through her salon franchise

Eventide cultural spectacle with spectacular performances by Ragasudha and Natyasudha clubs of AMRITA and a scintillating pro-show by renowned keyboardist Stephen Devassy, and playback singer Sathyaprakash Dharmar.

Anokha sponsors include ICICI Bank, Dhanalaxmi Bank, Prominance, SBI, H&R Block, Institution of Electronics & Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) Coimbatore Center, Jore & Jore, and VNC group.

The core team for Anokha 2024 consisted of faculty conveners, Mr. M. Sreevalsan & Dr. Prashant R. Nair, and student heads, Mr. Mehul Sharma & Mr. Dilip Parasu along with a team of 30 faculty & 500+ student volunteers.

35+ Workshops were conducted in cutting-edge technical areas such as Generative AI, Robotics, Electric Vehicles (EV), Blockchain, Embedded Systems, Revit, Nanosatellite design, Abaqus, Semiconductor manufacturing, Quantum Computing, Wildlife photography, Stargazing etc. These workshops are organized by leading companies such as Google, Shell, IBM, Philips, Salesforce, Intel, Ashok Leyland, Bosch Global Software Technologies, Altair, GuideWire & Arista Networks.

For the first time in Anokha’s history, a Rolling Trophy for Best Technical Department was awarded for overall performance in workshops, events, and Techfair and the inaugural winner was the Department of Civil Engineering @AMRITA Coimbatore campus.