Technothlon, a technology event for school children

Pune Mirror: The country’s top technical institutes are now opening their doors to school children in order to groom their budding talent.

Till date, the various Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) have been known for conducting events for technocrats and engineering students. IIT tech fests are popular among technology students.

Last year, IIT Guwahati had encouraged school children from across the country to participate in the event called Technothlon and incidentally, students of city-based Vikhe Patil Memorial School emerged as winners.

This year, the event is going to be organised on a larger scale as students from over 70 cities across the country are slated to participate.

Last year, 400 students from Pune had appeared for the preliminary examination of Technothlon. This year, more than 2,000 students are expected from the city and more than a lakh from all over the nation, Aatish Rathi, chief organiser of the event, said.

Rathi, a Puneite currently pursuing education at IIT Guwahati, added, “Technothlon intends to give students an early exposure to advanced technical fields. It is organised to find hidden young technocrats of India.”

A team of Amol Joshi, Ruturaj Eksambekar and Tejas Deshpande — all class X students of Vikhe Patil School — had participated and won last year’s Technothlon.

Joshi shared his experience at Guwahati, “It was a great experience as we could see the high-tech labs at IIT. It was inspirational.”

This year, IIT-G has organised Technothlon from September 3 to 6. “The events scheduled range from robotics to science exhibitions.

Students will also get a chance to visit IIT-G labs and check out super computer PARAM. Lectures by Nobel prize winners will be organised along with workshops,” Rathi added.

“The Technothlon serves as an able plat-form to expose the innovation and creativity of a student in all its rawness,” he said.

Register before July 15
“Only the best of the best get to participate in Technothlon on the basis of an All-India preliminary exam to be conducted on July 19, 2009, in 70 cities across the country.

No prior preparation is required to take the test as the objective of the paper is to test the analytical and aptitude skills of the students,” Rathi said.

In Pune, Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan (Senapati Bapat Road) is the centre for the examination. The event has been organised in two modules — Junior Squad for classes IX and X and Hauts Squad for classes XI and XII.

Students have to form a team of two members from the same school/junior college and register their team online at www.techniche.in/technothlon.html. The last date for online registration is July 15, 2009.

Also see:

• May 2, 2011 -- SunGard opens global solution centre in Pune (0)
• February 3, 2011 -- UoP to start 4-yr integrated course in tech studies (0)
• November 26, 2010 -- Housing societies getting tech-savvy (0)
• May 3, 2010 -- Parents can get day-to-day updates about their children through R-Fi technology (0)
• March 11, 2010 -- National conference on stem cell technology (0)