Engineer 2008, to enquire, create and innovate...

Formerly known as KREC Surathkal, and now with the new name National Institute of Technology, Karnataka (NITK), this institute is one of the best places in India to spend the college days. Apart from being a top-notch engineering institute in India and ranked as one of the best schools in this nation for engineering talent, this college is a fun place to be in.

Situated in a secluded place, far away from the Mangalore city, this small hamlet of Surathkal has a picturesque beach which is just stone's throw distance from the college campus. The salt laden winds, the smell of fish on the highways near the campus, living on a shoe string budget, the road side tea stall @ Krishna, the clean surroundings of red bench on the beach and the lighthouse, all these make the life at this place for a period of four years, a never to forget experience in the lives of those who graduate from this esteemed institute.

NITK hosts, an annual technical fest, 'Engineer' each year and over the years it has grown not only in volumes but also has been a platform for some interesting discussion to celebrate the spirit of engineering. It also highlights, the impact the engineers can make to the society. Engineer 2007 was a well organized event, which brought together students from more than 120 colleges from within India and abroad. The symposium attracted the talent across India and also a gamut of sponsors with prize money worth Rs. 9 lakh.

The highlights of Engineer 2007 were video conferences with world-renowned scientists, including Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of C++ and Prof. John C Mather, a Nobel laureate in Physics. The Last Word, a debate about Government Expenditure on Higher Education, saw many eminent personalities discussing and debating on very important topics and the how the engineering fraternity should take more responsible steps. Prof. Deepak Phatak, Subrao Nilekani Chair in KReSIT, IIT Bombay and Dr. Anil K Gupta, Executive Vice Chairperson, National Innovation Foundation were some of the chief speakers at this event.



A workshop on building underwater robots by IURS (the Indian Underwater Robotics Society), a hardware workshop by Ashish Derhgawen, a young IT student from New Delhi was one of the most featured workshops. There were many such events and open house discussions. Events like these opens up new avenues for discussion and research and adds new dimension in the thought process of graduates. I personally feel that an event of such proportion has many benefits: helps students to plan and organize as the entire show is managed by a students committee, it helps to meet students from varied backgrounds and share ideas, and also makes students realize that there is a big world to explore outside, rather than settling for a career in the regular IT and services industry that paints a rosy picture in the pre-placement talks.

I also feel that this is most apt time for the students to explore as there are ample opportunities on the fray, the market is healthy and needs young blood doused with energy, innovation, entrepreneurship and ideas. To support my point, at the previous year's competition, few of the featured contests, were Mushaca, where participants were invited to create original software applications that could benefit from the use of a three-degrees-of-freedom mouse (pioneered by Dr. Tim Poston and Srikanth MB, IISc Bangalore) and Mock Stock, an online stock exchange simulation.

I feel that this year’s fest, Engineer 2008 will be even better, bigger and loftier., and all those who can make there, just rush to Surathkal, to Think, Create and Engineer. More details here..

Keep reading and remain connected.

(If you watched the video clipping, there was one line that I liked the most: 'The qualification if you wish to be innovative is not that you become front benchers but become back benchers'.)