National Inter-college Technical Festival-Pragati ‘08

The student association of the department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amritapuri Campus, Lakshya organized a three-day national inter-college technical festival, Pragati ‘08 from April 4-6, 2008.

The festival was inaugurated by Dr. F.V Albin, Director, Baselious Mathews II College of Engineering. Campus Director of Amritapuri Br. Sudeep, Associate Dean Dr. Balakrishan Sankar, Principal of Amrita School of Engineering Dr. K. Sankaran, Head of Corporate Relations of Amritapuri Campus Br. BijuKumar and Professor & Head of the department of Mechanical Engineering Dr. Ganesha Udupa were also present on the occasion.

The theme of the fest was Technology for Common Man. The event saw a participation of more than 600 students from all over India. The various events that were held on these days were Paper Presentation (Sanketika), Business Quiz (Vyavahara), General Quiz (Prajna), Coding Contest (Sameeksha), Concept Design (Srajanam), Ultimate Engineer (Viswakrma), Best Manager (Chanakya), Industrial Problem Solving (Vikalpam), all of which included fabulous cash prizes.

Apart from the above events, a three day national workshop on Walking Robots was also conducted for 250 students from various colleges by Dr. G.Venkatesh of Bangalore Robotics, organized by Amrita Robotics Club of the department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amritapuri Campus. The workshop was purely hands-on Practical sessions and involved physical construction and experimentation. The kit consisted of take-home materials used to construct the various Robots such as Electronic components, Remote control units, DC Motors, Motor controllers and other materials needed for the construction of the walker. The Robo Walker Workshop consisted of A 2 motor 3DOF per limb BiPed Robot, with associated electronics, semi-autonomous. (Humanoid Walking Robot- Principles, design & construction of a 2 legged walking robot.), The workshop material consisted of Robotic kit including Electronic components, wires, sleeves, Mechanical appendages, hardware and miscellaneous material needed for the construction. Participation certificates were also issued to all the participants.

A 3-D Modelling Workshop was conducted by Mr. Rakesh, Lecturer, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Amritapuri Campus. Two distinguished lecture series Design and Analysis of Brahmos by Dr. K. Venugopal, Executive Director of Brahmos Aerospace, Trivandrum and Indian Nuclear Program by Dr. Suresh Kumar, Chief General Manager of Indian Rare Earths, Kollam, were also organized.

A Network Gaming event- Kurukshetra and an Open Forum Discussion with Filmmaker Mr. Syamaprasad (discussing various aspects of Film Making) were also held. The Technical Symposium provided the budding engineers with ample opportunities to express and ignite their innovative ideas, talents and creative spirit. The main sponsor for the event was Union Bank of India.