The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : ‘Godspeed' sets Kurukshetra in top gear

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 06, 2011
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

‘Godspeed' sets Kurukshetra in top gear

Staff Reporter

On the second day of Kurukshetra - 2011, the techno-management fest, at Anna University

CHENNAI: As heart beats rose in tandem with the frenzy of cheering spectators, wireless remote-controlled cars with names like ‘Hummers,' ‘Redknot,' and ‘Tirupati Brothers' raced with each other, tumbling on blocks and speeding on an off-road dirt track.

Crossing the chequered flag was the unwavering objective for all the racing aficionados participating in ‘Godspeed,' a car racing event on the second day of Kurukshetra - 2011, the techno-management fest of the College of Engineering Guindy, at Anna University here on Friday.

Running on nitrogen-based fuel, the little cars may not function as desired many a time, mainly because the engine-tuning varies according to the temperature, said the mechanical engineering students who had designed them. But learning from mistakes is the best way to know about engines, they added.

“Unfortunately, we have few original prototypes of car designs, so we only fabricate and assemble the parts,” said Adarsh Reddy, a participant, explaining the process of bringing the chassis and servos together. Ask a team why the little cars make so much noise and a participant says, “It is because they are forced to run fast on dirt tracks.” “But going slow would eliminate us from the competition,” says Arun Bharadwaj, another participant, as he checks his engine and gets ready for the race.

Some distance away, a group of math enthusiasts try applying the rules of probability and arithmetic progression to a puzzle of lockers and keys. It is filled with riddles and baffling jigsaw puzzles and Math-Modeling, says participant Vandana Raj, a third-year Computer Engineering student.

The fest also saw budding civil engineers come together in ‘Megastructures' to build concrete structures that would be evaluated on their ability to withstand pressures.

“As civil engineers, we have to be careful of lapses when people use more sand and water as substitutes for cement,” said a participant from M.N.M. Jain Engineering College.

While aspiring marketing professionals attracted crowds to their stock of apparel by singing jingles, gaming fanatics played popular games at Gamindrome, a virtual gaming competition on a common server. “Here you get to beat your seniors and control your opponents outright,” says Ashrrith Sridhar, a first-year engineering student, hooked on to his controls.

Various events on coding the right logic, a wildlife photography competition and an exhibition on space research applications by ISRO were among the other highlights. The Hindu is the media partner for Kurukshetra 2011.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Tamil Nadu