Announcing The Speakers This Year At Technovanza!

As we have said before, the motto of Technovanza is ‘Taking Technology to the Society‘. And we have found that arranging for innovative and inspirational speakers is one of the best ways of achieving the same.

From watching or attending TED talks to listening to a coach train his students, we have seen the power that a speaker holds over the people who listen to him. Our Prime Minister, Narendra Modi himself is a good speaker, and a good speaker is most likely a good leader too!

We here at Technovanza understand the importance of speakers and hence take it in our stride to bring to you the best speakers possible from across the world.

Technovanza and Larsen and Toubro present to you, our speakers this year!

Sekhar Basu, director – BARC

Sekhar Basu, the director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre(BARC) is also an alumni of our college. He is considered to be the architect of the land based Nuclear Submarine Propulsion Plant at Kalpakkam and the 80 mega watt compact pressurised water reactor (PWR). Don’t miss this opportunity to interact with him! As the seats are limited, we request you to fill this  registration form to secure a seat –

Registration Link :- http://bit.ly/SekharBasu

Sachin Teke, founder, m-Indicator

It is very hard to find a Mumbaikar who hasn’t used the m-Indicator app, the app which makes the life of travelling Mumbaikars a little less painful. Get a chance to meet and interact with this dynamic and innovative personality. PS: He might give out tips for android app developers who don’t have a clue on how to start with an app.

Dr. Anand Nadkarni

He completed his MBBS and M.D in Psychological Medicine as well as D.P.M. (Diploma in Psychological Medicine) from Seth G. S. Medical College and K.E.M. Hospital, Bombay. Apart from an award for his de-addiction work, he has also furnished 13 award winning Marathi books and several award winning one act plays. Witness his diverse personality at the TEDxGateway and let him work his magic on you.

Satyajit Bhatkal

An Indian television and film director, he was the director to the hit series, Satyamev Jayate, hosted by Aamir Khan. He was also the director and screenplay writer of the 2011 film Zokkomon. Missing this lecture would definitely be a great loss.

Krishna Ramakumar

Krishna Ramakumar, an alumni of IIT Bombay, is the co founder of ‘Avanti Fellows’, an organisation aimed at helping underprivileged students to crack tough Engineering Entrance Exams. Get a chance to interact with him. Maybe, you’ll get inspired to join his noble cause or start your own!

 Alok Kejriwal

Alok Kejriwal, CEO & Co-founder of Games2win, is an Indian entrepreneur and founder of the Contests2win Group of companies. The game Parking Frenzy, is ranked #1 on the US iTunes Appstore. Thinking about starting up on your own company? Attending this lecture definitely is the first step towards it!

Srijan Pal Singh

Srijan Pal Singh is an Indian author, public speaker, social entrepreneur, activist and a leader. He has co authored with Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on the books Target 3 Billion and Khushhal Va Samridh Vishwa. Add this lecture to your list of must attend lectures!

Angad Daryani

Angad Daryani is an Open Source Hardware Developer and an Entrepreneur. He loves hacking into technology to make it suitable for solving real world problems. And the best part about him is, he is just 16 years old! So he has his entire life in front of him. Come attend this lecture and be guaranteed that you’d leave with a sense of curiosity and wonder for technology and the things that the human mind can achieve if it is backed by passion.

Ramesh Raskar

Ramesh Raskar is a Massachusetts Institute of Technology Associate Professor and head of the MIT Media Lab’s Camera Culture research group. His lab produced a number of extreme highspeed pictures using a femto-camera that took images at around one-trillion frames per second! He also holds a number of patents(50 to be precise). To speak about geniuses, he is definitely more than that.

Phew, so that is just about it! If you are still not convinced of attending our lecture series, to be subtle(because the CMO would kill me if I were not), there is definitely something wrong with you! For those who are coming, see you there in the lectures!

 

 

 

 

 

Connected yet Disconnected

You can’t imagine a week without Wi-Fi, Edge or 3G can you? Well, that’s how life was for most our grandparents.  Ever wondered how people in the early 19th century communicated? Well those times were different, an era which had its own charm. Pigeons carried the messages; trunk calls being booked courtesy Mr. Graham Bell, Telegrams were shot out to send URGENT information and Faxes being the norm of the day.

Post World War II people would glue themselves to the radios for all the news be it a small event in the region to the major global events like sports or mutiny. This was complimented by the newspapers and magazines. Soon came the “idiot box”, which revolutionized the way news was reported and helped the entertainment industry to grow by leaps and bounds. Pagers entered into the commercial world from the medical fraternity which were followed by the handheld mobiles in the late 1900’s making communication possible on the go. Simultaneously computers used for easing commercial transactions evolved into desktops, then laptops and now iPads. This entirely changed how people communicated with each other.

 

THE CREATION AND EXPANSION OF THE CLOUD
The invention of the internet is the early 1990’s has, changed the entire way of exchange of data. It provides all the information under the sun at one’s finger tips.
The internet has become one of the indispensible ways to stay connected. Without WhatsApp, Google and Wikipedia, life would’ve been much more difficult.
Since the current generation have had the luxury of using the internet, of course their childhood has been much different from that of their parents, most of whom didn’t have this facility .It surely has made life more comfortable but sadly has reduced the human touch thanks to numerous social networking sites and limited physical activity due video games and online shopping.

We can say the internet has digitalised print media .Reducing our dependence on books, even saving us the energy of carrying heavy 1000 page books and also helping remote education. The internet cloud is a pool of infinite information. Now the trend is all about the fancy and hi-tech wearable’s aided by the 4G internet which constantly plugs us into the fast changing world.

infographic credits: Atlassian

 

 

To infinity and beyond

Let’s be true to ourselves, all of us have, at some point in life, dreamed of floating away in zero gravity, wearing bulky space suits and and mimicking the shuttle countdown. All of us have wanted to go to outer space and be an astronaut. With the ISRO’s recent successful Mars Orbiter Mission(MoM), Mangalyaan, all those sweet childhood dreams must have resurfaced within many of us. And as of 24th September when the Mangalyaan successfully landed on MARS, we bring you some of the insights of that mission which made it a success.

Purpose :

ISRO’s mission is foremost a technology testbed and secondarily a platform for obtaining information about Mars.

Mission and Vehicle Parameters:

•  MoM has a wet mass of 1350 kg and a dry mass of 500 kg
•  MoM at its aphelion- farthest distance from orbit, pulls in 840 W of Solar Power.
•  MOM’s closest approach is 377 km from Earth – that’s quite an achievement
•  An evolved version of India’s domestically developed Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, with extended rockets, took Mangalyaan into an elliptical arc around the Earth. The satellite’s thrusters will then begin a series of six small fuel burns, moving it into higher orbit before it slingshots toward the Red Planet which reduced the fuel usage of Mangalyaan

Cost Effectiveness:

• This is India’s first Mars mission, and no country has been fully successful on its first try. More than half the world’s attempts to reach Mars – 23 out of 40 missions – have failed, including missions by Japan in 1999 and China in 2011
•  The cost of this herculean mission cost nearly INR 450 Crore. Covering  780 million km, it costs Rs 5.77 per km, INR 4 less than the fare of cabs and autos in India. It is the cheapest Mars mission, ever!
• Deployed it in just under 15 months.

• While ISRO has been researching for a Mars mission since years, the project was only approved by the government in August 2012. It took ISRO just a little over a year to put together the spacecraft and the project. In August 2013, ISRO announced that a mission to Mars will soon be launched, and on November 5th, the PSLV rocket carrying Mangalyaan left for its 300-day journey to Mars.
• Now you may ask, ISRO has sent so many missions in the past, what’s the need of sending a mission to Mars.Wrong. A mission to Mars is nothing like sending a satellite or understanding the ground work. Think of it like this – sending a satellite is like playing ISL, sending a mission to Moon is like playing EPL, but sending a mission to Mars? Now, that is Champions League
• A mere 613690Trips from VJTI to ISRO, Tamil-Nadu!(Yes, we did calculate that)

What did ISRO do different?

Every 26 months, a phenomenon called Hohmann Transfer Orbit occurs when the distances between the two planets are relatively shorter, and the opportunity for a cheaper mission is for the taking. Mangalyaan indeed took the benefit of this transfer orbit that occurred in November 2013.

Which programmingLanguages they used to automate it?

FPGA with VHDL programming was used mainly for Data Handling. C++, Assembly Language and FORTRAN was used for Mechanical Movements. ADA Programming- an extension of PASCAL was used for Attitude and Orbit Control Systems(AOCS)

Significance:

1)Technological PoV: As did its predecessors, the Indian Mars orbiter will be looking for methane signatures (a sign of possible life), which will certainly lend a new momentum to the planetary exploration road maps of India, China, US, Europe, Russia and Japan if detected on the surface of MARS .

2)Technology demonstration –India demonstrated that they have the technology for a planetary mission. Credit to ISRO’s deep space network and LAM engine and AOCS thrusters which fired successfully even after 300 days of travel in deep space.

3) More funding – This success will definitely bring more enthusiasm towards R&D activity related to science and technology. An increase in funding for such activities is imminent in the future.

4) Moral boost – It has given a huge boost to the image of India in the world. It will also generate interest among the youths of India and world over to pursue science and technology as a career.

Impact on the young technical minds:

‘Mangalyaan’ has proved to be a great technological success for the people of India and they are all proud of it, the mission giving an inspiration to the young technical minds. The very instance of this can be the Event VJTI Robotics Challenge(VRC) – A dual robot event wherein automatons are build according to the task specified. The task this year being to conquer MARS zone with the dual robots needing to work in co-ordination to move it from Earth Zone to Mars Zone.

After the achievement of the mission, as a tribute to it, students of VJTI incorporated it’s significance by making a mosaic art of ‘Mangalyaan’ comprising of 1000 rubik’s cubes

‘Mangalyaan’ has truly given India the new picture of its Technological Aspects and has given its students an impetus to widen their technical horizons. The achievement has led to restoration of the pride among the Indians, especially the youth. Aadit Ralph, a class 3 student of Don Bosco High School Mumbai, said he will never forget the PM’s lines:

“Unless you enter the waters you don’t learn to swim.”

And he hoped India would be the first to enter other orbits as well.This mission is truly going to be remembered as a successful mark in the history of India. To repeat the catchphrase of Buzz Lightyear, let’s take India’s name and fame “to infinity and beyond”!

 

The Inseperable Ts- Technovanza and Teamwork

Time and again we have been told that teamwork is vital for any institution to succeed in the long run. Infact, we find legends like Sachin Tendulkar always reward the team for the success. Why is it that teamwork and in turn the work culture considered
significant? Reminds me of a story I read long back.

We all are well aquainted with the glory of TAJ MAHAL, one of the finest Mughal arts and an epitome of perfection. Once Shah Jehan wanted to know how the work of Taj Mahal was progressing. That was when he
disguised himself as an old man and went to the site by the Yamuna river. There he came across a stone cutter, whom he asked, “What are you doing?” The stone cutter being annoyed
by the disturbance, said, ”Go away old man ,don‟t you see that I am busy?” His dedication impressed Shah Jehan.Then, he went to next stone cutter and asked the same question. The stonecutter replied, ”Cutting stone is a great art, old man, and I can‟t be answering questions and practicing my art.” Being impressed by the professional skills reflected from his body language, Shah Jehan moved on to the third stonecutter asking him the same question as done before.” I am building the Taj Mahal, old man, and if I keep answering idle questions, I shall never be able to complete the most beautiful monument on the Earth” Shah Jehan, being pleased, returned to the palace.

Clearly, the first worker practiced dedication– an honest day‟s work for an honest day‟s pay. The second marked professional excellence. But the third portrayed the
power of a shared vision. Unfortunately, too often the work force fails to understand this power. We all work here for Technovanza with a shared vision of creativity, innovation and
excellence. The two inseparable Ts that go together are Technovanza and Teamwork. It is rightly the soul of Technovanza. They say the culture at work always influences the
performance. It is the ethics, behaviour, convictions and the thought-process of not only an individual but the entire work force that forms the culture of a particular workplace.
TECHNOVANZA is one such workforce. But still there is a lot to learn.
This may seem to be trivial but it is about time that we, as the youth, grasp
these fundamentals.”We should not work as an assemble entity but as an organic unity”-these
words of our Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the RedFort on the eve of our independence day make absolute sense. There’s a sense of responsibility that always accompanies while
working and learning at the same time. Planning, the in-depth study, punctuality, professionalism and accountability form the roots of a dynamic working environment capable
of producing results. The mantra should be “Results will win us rewards.” I feel that every
individual should ameliorate his reliability index and understand the golden rule of performance-taking orders, understanding and analysing them to the best of their abilities, implementing them and most importantly reporting back which will certainly lift the
performance of the team as a whole. The question is how to get the desired results. That is where the role of a leader
lies. It is everything but the stringent rules that will drive the people towards work. The leader with his own foresight should enlighten the power of a shared vision amongst his teammates
and wake up the potential of each individual to notch these desired results.

So as students, while we work for events like Technovanza, we should make it a point to develop our work ethics along with creativity and excellence which will implicitly
foster performance and that will help us become not only the best technocrats but the worthy ones. The Prime Minister’s address revolved around the idea of having youth with global
consciousness and competence as also professionals with a national character. It is time for all of us to ponder over these words and act wisely. So, let us all integrate for a reformation to
get in perfection and add bricks to the bridge that will transform India from a developing to a
developed nation.

 

(This was a guest blog by Priyanka Parle. If you too are interested in writing for us, please mail your blog contents to yashashree.bhore@technovanza.org. We’d be happy to put your views on the blog. And thanks Priyanka, for your take on work culture and team work! )

Our First Hackathon!

 

We live today in the world of rapid changes and fast advances in the field of technology. Our lifestyle has now become a race, with no finish line anywhere in sight. Don’t agree with me? When was the last time you cursed your net providers when your internet connection became slow? There is no harm in this lifestyle, one would say; but only if he is too blind to see the environmental conditions we live in today. In this sort of fast paced world where everyone links advance in technology with the deterioration of the environment, a bunch of software developers have stepped up to prove otherwise.

Geeklist #hack4good ( http://hack4good.io/ ) is an international, Multicity Hackathon movement that has taken the world by storm and is about to set the bar for bringing together Software Engineers, Hackers, UI/UX Designers, Product Developers, Founders, Leaders, Thinkers, and Civic minded Organizations together to “hack” together for social good. Over 3,000 will unite in venues in 40+ cities around the world and online to hack against climate change.

Working with leading Government and UN experts, Scientists, Businesses, NGOs and teams will collaborate intensively for 24 hours to build projects addressing challenges posed on three broad themes – Climate Awareness, Climate Adaptation and Climate Action; The intent being  to showcase to the world the prowess of technology to unite humanity towards a positive and sustainable future, with aim to showcase the most promising projects in UN Climate Summit at New York

 

The center in Mumbai was our very own VJTI college and the event took place on the 13th and 14th of September, 2014. The event saw students and professionals from around the city dedicating their time and efforts towards building something that would make a difference. The participants were required to code from 9 am to 9 pm straight on both the days. To keep them motivated, we had speakers, mentors and refreshments provided to them throughout the event. The event was a grand success.

Over 2 days, more than 100 attendees, 17 teams and in the end there  were 12 projects that came out of their efforts over the weekend. We at Technovanza would like to thank each and every one of you who came to the hackathon and tried to make a positive difference to this world.

The winners of the hackathon were

1. Greelog

2. Digital Awareness and Public Awareness

3. Click4Good

Some other noteworthy projects were GuiltTrip and Ship O Green. Congratulations to the winners and to all those who spent their weekends hacking for the environment!

We would love to see all of you and many more in the future contests that we will hold! And to all the hackers out there who missed the event, don’t get disheartened, go check http://www.technovanza.org , there are many more contests to come!

 

Cube Art! The one thing that we are really good at!

 

 

 

 

“Launched” To The World

 

Long queues to get inside, incoherent screams of ‘Revo’& ‘Techno’, cacophony of noises from the audience, the Committee giving the final touches and a look of excitement on everyone’s faces are some of the sights familiar to a Technovanza launch. Well, this year was no different.

August 21, Around 1700 Hours. Location: audi.

The audi was abuzz with FYs and SYs filing in & rushing to find themselves a spot. Hundreds of Techno tees dotted the space. The stage was set. The Launch had begun. The hush that had set in was intermittently was broken by gasps and wheezes from the crowd. The Official Technovanza Video and House Cup videos garnered unprecedented claps and cheers. It was the culmination of work that had begun months back, when Launch team was assembled.

At some unknown time. Location: Hub.

A team was formed. Their mission: Make the launch an event that the audience are unlikely to forget.

What followed were some exciting, hilarious & memorable couple of months.

Here are some excerpts from what the SYs had to say after the event…….

“In one statement: chaos, creativity and canteen food. My best memories as part of the video team along with Prashil, Rushiil and Sahaj, was seeing our basic idea of the AI go from being a drawing on paper that we showed the seniors, to being played on a laptop and critiqued, to finally being played in front of 300 people on the big screen. It was just surreal. We spent two entire months making it and I think it ended beautifully 🙂 #gotechno”

-Abhishek Divekar

“After joining Technovanza and choosing a sector to work in, Technovanza Launch is the first thing on which all the SYs work together.
In the first launch meeting, seniors told us that we the SYs were completely in charge of the launch, not them. Also the launch budget was small.
Then we started working.
For the next one month, 50+ SYs came down to VJTI, everyday, to make the Launch become the grand success it finally became. You realise the true worth of Jugaad when working in the Launch. 😛
We would roam around the college, collecting stuff that would be useful- ply, aluminium pipes. Every rupee saved was a tiny success in its own right. The Launch happened on 21/8/14, and when it did, the crowd brought the house down. By the way, after the launch, all of us went out for dinner.”

-Ankit Gaherwar

“Working for Technovanza mega launch has been a great experience. There was so much to learn along with having loads of fun. You’ve got to have that *techno feeling* to understand what Technovanza is! And the best part was getting the opportunity of being a host to that wonderful evening. Hard work really pays off. Two months of team work, fun and an unforgettable experience. I don’t have words to describe the feeling that one gets when you’re standing on stage and you hear a huge crowd cheering for your fest, “TECHNO TECHNO” echoing throughout the auditorium. Thunderous claps, all for one name, TECHNOVANZA! To sum it up, all I can say is be a part of techno or you will miss out the most amazing and fun filled 4 years of your college life!”

-Arsha Khan

“I think last two months was the best months of my college life.. I will never forget Divya’s “Shut up guys “and Yakeen’s scolding speech:-p. I have made so many friends and learned lots of things in this 2 months. Proud to be a part of LAUNCH TEAM. A great experience. How can i forget the party after launch !! Best party ever. #Go techno!!”

-Kajal Rajput

“Technovanza launch is one of the best thing I have done in my life. I enjoyed a lot in my launch group. I have learnt many things. Divya & Yakeen were too good. Most important thing is I got my techno family.
Amazing group, amazing seniors and an amazing launch.
Go techno..!!”

-Leena Jadhav

“Working on the unoff video for techno launch was the most entertaining thing I did in my one year in vjti….shooting the video and seeing how it’s turned out and then editing it was too much fun.
There were a few scenes that may not have been funny but while shooting them, the jokes that were cracked and all the memories, all of us would cherish :’).
There are some scenes which make me laugh to no end how many ever times you see them coz of the memories attached with them :’).
You also make new friends and you never forgot such moments.
The best time thing I remember was helping prashil edit the unoff video and then the dance. But then just to look at yourself dance in a video and laughing at it is also fun :p
The best part of it is the reaction you get from the crowd/juniors.”

-Rohan Amarapurkar

“If an amazing life, if you want friends who’ll stand by you, NO MATTER WHAT, if you want to learn to how to laugh so hard that your stomach starts aching, Juniors, you are at the right place! Technovanza launch, two months of sheer fun, happiness, hard work! These couple of months give you friends for a lifetime. Happiness is all the fun you have in team work, the support of your companions and the day of Launch! For us, it was the 21st of August! The best day of your lives is yet to come! So just let everything else go! Seize this opportunity, because it’s gonna be legendary to be a part of the largest techno-management event of Maharashtra! Technovanza is not just a fest, it’s a feeling, a religion that we share! So give it a wonderful start by  a part of Technovanza Launch, something that will soon define you  🙂 ”

-Hetal Motwani

 

“Techno 14 launch was one of the best things that happened to me this year. I still remember the first launch meet, around 35 people were present, and none of us knew each other, reason being all of us were in different branches. And then I recollect the last meet for Techno launch, 88 of us, we all know each other, we’ve come together to make this thing a success, and we made it a success. Well, to sum it up, Techno just brought us all together, the experience was amazing working with so many people, so many ideas, making so many new friends.  And hosting the launch was the cherry on the cake. We knew it wouldn’t be easy from the very start, but what we also knew was that it would be worth it. And It truly was! All the masti and dhamaal we have done over these past few weeks has been awesome, and these are memories I will cherish for a long  long time to come

-Mikin Shah

 

The Official Video:

The Unofficial Video:

 

A billion Hearts. One Emotion.

“Sau raginiyonse Saja Bharat Anokha Rag hai“..
Today we are celebrating 68 years of Independence. From 1947 to 2014, we have come a long way. Independence, freedom, these words don’t invoke much of a feeling within us. Because the value of something isn’t clear unless you lose it. That is why people from Iraq, Ukraine, Palestine know that freedom is not merely a word, it is a cause worth giving your life for. So we should always keep one thing in our mind, whatever we are now, has been possible only because of the multitude of  sacrifices done by our patriots, who gave their all to a common goal; our Independence.

If you are wondering what the title is all about, it is one of the patriotic songs composed by DD.
Being a young Indian, certainly all of us have the responsibility to make India a superpower in the world. We have a very rich heritage, and a culturally diverse civilization which dates back to 6000 B.C. and a tradition of respect. 12.5 billion people speak in almost 650 languages, follow more than 6 religions, wear numerous types of clothes, celebrate number of festivals and traditions; still each one is bound to every one by a relation called ‘India’.
We respect the feeling ‘Unity in Diversity‘. That is how Indians are different from rest of world.
Celebrate today by  commemorating all those to whom we owe our freedom to, by understanding the importance of freedom, and by feeling a sense of unity with the country. That’s how a society works, a culture  is maintained and sustained.
And make sure that the feeling is not short-lived, but lasts throughout your life. All for one and one for all.

Happy independence day!

Where I Met My Friends

Imagine this. If someone asks you, “Do you remember how you came to be friends with all of your friends?” You’d probably be stumped. At least I would’ve been. Our memories may be short-lived but these bonds that we term ‘friendship’ generally tend to last even after your last breath.

One tends to make a lot of friends during college life. That’s the rite of passage. I’d taken up the most hyped program in India, Engineering. See, it even sounds hyped. In the initial days, there was a lot of buzz around college fests. I was sitting in class, alone, when a classmate came around. He said, “Why haven’t you gone with your friends to explore your college fests? They’re interesting, ya’know.”

Reluctantly I told him that I hadn’t many friends. “All the more reason to go!” I took his advice & from that day on something changed. I changed. That marked the road to Technovanza’13 2.0. Those who’d joined so as to better their resume, later realised it wasn’t just that that made their journey important;that the feeling  you get when reach the summit seems dull when compared to the climb, the climb that we took,together! The ‘I’ changed to ‘us’. We thought it was “team work” but it was in fact “Friendship”. Though I don’t remember how I met my friends, I definitely do remember ‘where’ I met them.

So, on this Friendships Day, we at Technovanza salute the pure bonds of friendship, and wish everyone a very Happy Friendship Day.

If your road ever seems lonely, keep walking, you’ll soon find out that you’re not alone. Friends will find you.

Humble Beginnings

                     Technovanza is the largest Technomanagement festival of Maharashtra attracting participants and visitors from all over India. But this great achievement did not happen overnight. It’s humble beginnings date back to a long, long time ago. It all began in the year 2000, the dawn of the 21st century.

            To begin with, VJTI had been culturally vibrant since its early days. It was in the year of 1999 that the then Principal,Dr.S.D.Varwandkar, initiated elections for a technical secretary. Shaunak Bhide, T.E. Mechanical, was filled into this post. Under the guidance of the then faculty in-charge Mrs. Prasanna Nambiar, a historic decision to organize VJTI’s first technical event was given the green flag. The technical fest was baptised ‘TECHNOVANZA’, and its V1.0 was held in February 2000. Mandar Raje, Atul Ganpatye, Prashant Mahajan, Nikhil Kulkarni & others helmed the organising of a Technical Paper Presentation Competition and Industry Experts Seminars, among other events, which attracted a multitude of students from other engineering institutes.Thus started the journey of Technovanza,bequeathing a legacy that still rekindles students’ minds and attracts those who have taken to the seas of Technical extravagance!

                 In the very next year a new dimension was added under the guidance of Mr. Arvind Deshpande (faculty of Mechanical Engineering), by holding a video conferencing session in the VJTI auditorium with the top management of Larsen and Toubro. The flames had been ignited! There was no stopping it now!

                  In the subsequent years, Technovanza gained popularity among students and adults alike,its fan base growing steadily.

                  It was in the year 2006 that level 3 robotics was introduced. One of the exhibits presented that year was called “I, Robot”, inspired from the book and the movie of the same name, the central idea of the project being to make a robot which has more or less the same maneuverability as that of a human. Robotics was welcomed with open arms by the crowd. Robotics events have only become more sophisticated and more interesting after that. Events like “Gati: The assembly line” were also crowd pullers where a motor vehicle was assembled in front of the public. People watched with awe as the motor vehicle came to life right in front of their eyes.

                The year 2008 saw the rise of a new event, which would eventually turn out to be our mega event. Inspired by Grand Prix, VJTI flagged off its first IC Engine based competition. The sound of the engines revving up provided the boost that Technovanza required. But something was missing,  Technovanza lacked a motto. This void was filled in by the great Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who gave us the dream that we pursue relentlessly, even to this day; Taking Technology to the society!

                  In the year 2010, Technovanza evolved from just a technical event to a techno-management event. In the words of the then Joint Gen. Secretary, Akshay Shetye, “As you may be aware, mere technical skills are not sufficient to face the outside industry. An overall development of the personality is extremely essential for it. Technovanza has managed to convert itself into a techno-management festival by introducing many entrepreneurial events for testing management abilities. This step has increased the reach of Technovanza to more students and colleges. Even students from non technical backgrounds can come and participate.”

               In the year 2011,the “Underwater City project” was a huge hit. The project’s aim was to solve the lack of building space that we are soon going to face. To complement this project, a model floating airport to replace the existing Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport as made. An ambitious project to complement the Underwater City and start our shift to the seas! Thus started radical efforts to put young engineering minds to solve the problems that the world is facing.This year saw a tremendous footfall of 23K, definitely a sign that Technovanza is succeeding in its motto.

               The next year was a happening one, with Technovanza making it to the Limca Book of world records for
for erecting a Taj Mahal, a record-breaking 5100 rubik’s cube used, at the Rubik’s Cube Mumbai Open Competition.Coupled with initiatives like Pratigya, Technovanza was living its dream.

               2013 was a huge sucess with the industrial tycoon, Mr. Ratan Tata coming to pay a visit to the festival. Lying in wait for him was a rubik’s cube art of himself, which he  appreciated  whole heartedly. This year saw the rise of two new events, VJTI Robotics Challenge and Robowars, both of which had the viewers wanting for more!

               This year the torch of responsibility has been passed on to us! To keep the flame ignited, to take its light and warmth to every nook and corner,

to take technology to the society.

Down the Memory Lane

            So I was given this task of writing the first blog for Techno this year. While I was pondering about what to write in the first blog and being the lazy *** that I am, I got a lazy but great idea(well, it wasn’t my fault. It was halfway through vacations and I was drenched in laziness). So I got this idea to ask our seniors to share their best experience with everyone(that left me with very little to write :p).

And so, about two weeks ago, I asked all my seniors to mail me their best experience of Techno. And it took almost more than a week for the last mail to come in. Now you must be assuming that they are just lazy bums or something. But let me tell you this. I’ve seen these people work their asses off for Techno, and definitely they are not at all lazy. Well, I happened to ask one of them the reason, and this was what he said, “The problem was choosing, there were so many awesome memories to choose from, so many moments that were close and dear,that choosing one single best was a bit difficult.” ‘Difficult’ was definitely an understatement.

Skipping over the part where I bore you to death, let’s see what they have to say.

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This one is the most elaborate of the lot! “Selecting one out of many great experiences is always a tedious task. Technovanza in its 3 years has given many such experiences which if asked I could jot down a blog myself 😛 19 December, 2013, the only Mall Event of Technovanza 2013-14, was the day for which we were given orders by Marketing team to get done with some events, projects and a major attraction Rubik’s Cube Art of Nelson Mandela. The same was accomplished after a very hectic day of 18th December and was done for once before 12.00 am of December 19 and now was the time to shift things. With everything possible done we loaded each of those things into the truck and was time to shift it to High Streets Phoenix.

             We reached High Streets Phoenix by 1 30 am and was told we wont be provided with the room to store things and the only possible way now was to have a night out in the Mall itself. The night was spent wandering around and checking out some lavish lifestyles on Mumbai. Niklesh, Ninad, Swakit, Poptani, Rahul and me stayed near Nelson Mandela thus making him feel secure(yeah, cracking hilarious jokes is his forte). The whole of the marketing team were sent home for they had to work hard the next day. These friends tried sleeping hiding from the securities but these securities just proved them to be a alarm clock snoozing each 10mins.

              The day arrived when we had to make most of it and take Technovanza to each corner of India with limited resources that we had. The team started setting things right, some with the approval of Mall manager and some without her approval 😉 The day went by attracting people and also Media from all parts of the country and Karishma Kapoor and Randhir Kapoor being the surprised celebrities for us. Busy making arrangements for lunch snacks travelling college back to mall and keeping things going alive, loading things back after the Mall event in the evening and sending everything back to college. Back home with my friends around 12 30 am the next day.

I’ll define these 2 days as 48 sleepless hours, not once trying to take a nap, everything just for one Festival TECHNOVANZA led by one of my dearest Niklesh Phabiani with other friends for Life. The 3 days of Technovanza no doubt was the most hectic and the most Epic days of my life till now but these MALL event days will always be a memorable sleepless days of my life.

P.S  Aditya Lahoti. He has to be mentioned. Nothing would have been complete without him and in each of my experience he pokes his nose 😛“

-Preetam Nayak, ( Executive Director, Technovanza 2013)

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               Speaking of Preetam, the next one should naturally be from Lahoti, his best bud. These two have been into really exciting experiences(most of which always ended them in trouble:p) and most of the time, we ask Lahoti to tell us those funny and awesome adventures. (Maybe a blog on that later)

“Not speaking of any particular memories about Techno (reason being a blog will be insufficient for that!!! ;p….Even a book can be written on them!). I will always cherish Techno in my memories..one of the best memories!!

What I gave: Some time of mine..(that i would have wasted any ways), dedication, my thoughts and ideas.

What I got: Some of my bestest friends, a lots and lots of sweet memories, lessons in life (never forget them!! ;p) the list goes on….

I m bit weak in my vocab so finding it difficult to express my thoughts…hope this may convey my feelings… #technoite forever“

-Aditya Lahoti.(Technical General Manager, Technovanza 2013)

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              Next comes Swakit More, our first impression of him being a very happy go lucky and innocent guy. But that impression was definitely didn’t last long :p

              “1st Time in Technovanza, night event without  night event.Techno second day,1st day evening,our night event had been forbidden.So we had to think of something that would replace the night event slot.On 2nd day,our committee decided to extend the time for robowars matches.Because it was the most difficult task to hold crowd during night.We had focused only on robowars and because our marketing team which had done great job,there was crowd only to watch robowars matches.All 3 floors were packed with the crowd and the arena was covered with the people.This was the moment when we said ,”there is no need for a night event in techno, robowars has replaced it.Go Techno..!!!!!“

– Swakit More, (Design Head & Sponsorship General Manager, Technovanza 2013)

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              If you walk into a sweet and adorable guy in the hub, don’t misunderstand  him for a teddy bear! He is Maninder Singh Bumrah! The coolest guy to hang around with.

              “The one thing that I liked most about Technovanza was that how it gave Students a platform and most importantly resources to create and display their ideas. Seeing everything working out on the first day after months of hardwork done by everyone was definitely the best feeling ever. It was amazing to see all the events turning out pretty well and how the projects turned out to be successful. Crowd gathering to watch the amazing matches was something I will cherish forever. It was also amazing to see how people turned up everyday to work for the fest with their complete heart and soul inspite of having vacations.I have been a part of Technovanza right from my very first year and it is going to be sad not working for it. For the first time I won’t be knowing how to utilize my vacations. It was amazing to work for techno.Thank You Techno“

-Maninder Singh Bumrah.( Chief Operations Officer, Technovanza 2013)

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                Mohit Deshpande, our CMO, was a really nice guy, always gently coaxing us to do our work. Here’s what he had to say;

                “There are a lot of good memories associated with Technovanza for me. I worked in Techno for two years and got the opportunity to become the CMO in this years Techno. It was a lot of fun…I got to lead the marketing team which helped a lot to develop my people skills personally. I made a lot of new friends which I would have never ever even come across if we hadn’t met in Techno. My best memories of Techno include all the nights spent in college in which we enjoyed along with doing all the work and also all my GBMs which I had with my beloved juniors(yes, we remember them too :p )…I will surely miss those days. All in all…it proved to be a welcome change to the hectic college life and I hope everyone works for the fest of his choice and make the best use of their years in VJTI. Lastly..I want to wish ALL THE BEST to my juniors for the upcoming Techno and I am sure you will rock it.”

-Mohit Deshpande, (Chief Marketing Officer, Technovanza 2013)

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                  Omkar Inamdar! One of the first few people with whom I bonded really well. A cricket fanatic and a really good friend.

                  “There are many experiences during the six months of Techno,but most memorable will be night out in college.We used to wander the whole college at night ,making (or pretend to make :p) plans for three days of Techno and then in morning We were like useless people in front of Nikita.Because we were so tired and no work is done in the night. She used to tell ,” tumlog night maarte hi kyu ho?” Later everyone knows that Revo Technovanza was our best night out partner :p”

-Omkar Inamdar. (Marketing General Manager, Technovanza 2013)

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                    Amey Nirgude, the best description for him would be “the ladies’ man”, which describes him quite well :p

                   “My best experience in Technovanza would be The Mega Launch(this is when techno is launched into the new comers and when many new people come and work for techno). I have been a part of the launch for two years, and that was the one of the best time i had. The work used to begin with lot of new ideas pouring in from everybody. Following which, most of the ideas had to be rejected 😛 I still remember, those interactions with new people, making new friends, working hard for the launch by bunking lectures, it was all so much fun 🙂 And finally after a spectacular show, the post-launch party, that first love for techno, that feeling of togetherness between everybody who worked, it was all priceless. I would really love to work for the launch even this year 😛 Anyway, all the best to you and your team. And always ‘Live Techno’ 🙂 “

-Amey Nirgude. (Chief Finance Officer, Technovanza 2013)

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                     Aditya Gaherwar, well he is the most hardworking guy I’ve ever seen. We all missed his absence during Techno(a personal reason which he couldn’t avoid ). Also, he is one of the coolest guys to hangout with(I don’t say all this just because I’m his wingman :p)

                     “MSTs had just ended and Omkar, Rohit, Akshay and I were leaving for Pune the very next day. Niklesh had somehow arranged for the tickets. Rohit was going to collect them from a MOTORMAN(!) at Dombivli. That didn’t happen and Rohit later somehow collected the tickets. Turns out that we were in the waiting list and we ended up standing in the doorway for the whole journey. We had a lot of fun on that trip.”

-Aditya Gaherwar.( Marketing General Manager, Technovanza 2013 )

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                  Whatever it is, all I can say about Techno, is that Techno is like magic. And like everything magical, you have to be a part of it to believe it.