The two-day ninth Annual Fest of MCKV Institute of Engineering, Pragati 2018, was held recently at their campus. There were around 18 events at this fest that primarily test the students’ technical and gaming abilities like Mathamania, Code Fiesta, Circuit Design, Quiz, Chess and others.

However, the main attraction of the fest was robotics. “We encourage our students and will continue to do that in achieving newer heights in their endeavours,” said K K Kejriwal, managing trustee, MCKV Institute of Engineering.

Indeed, the institute is helping their students to apply their knowledge in projects that can bring a change to the daily way of life. This is a platform they serve to the students of all age groups—schools and colleges at par, where one can materialise the innovation already in bloom in their minds.

This year they had participants from over 10 colleges including Budge Budge Institute of Technology and Jadavpur University and non-technical colleges like Calcutta University and St Xavier’s College.

They also emphasised on how every year the number of participants is increasing and young school students have been winning prizes in several competitions.

For their event on robotics, which is the most popular event that ends with a “robo-war”, a war in which two “bots” are made to fight in an arena, occupied one of the workshops in the institute which simultaneously housed the soccer field, maze and tracks—all built for the special purpose of running the “bots”.

A fourth year student of the same college, Anubhab Sarkar, also a member of the fest organising committee, said, “I am glad I am a student of this college because it has given a wide scope of study along with helping us to apply our knowledge. We participate in numerous competitions throughout.”

Indeed, a large number of innovative projects of the MCKV students were displayed that included wheel chair on power, a project that has already secured international acclamation and a 1:1 ratio model is under development in their inventory, smart glass for blind people, portable solar charger and others. A multipurpose hand crutch and a smart medicine box were explained by the contributing students.

When the education system produces students who function on mugging up lessons alone, MCKV Institute of Engineering is giving the students many opportunities to break barriers and give a flight to their imagination.