The Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL) put out its best machinery at display in an exhibition to celebrate National Science Day in the southern port city Visakhapatnam.
NSTL, a premier underwater systems laboratory of country's Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), organised a two-day open house-cum-exhibition themed 'Science for Nation Building' to commemorate Nobel laureate C.V. Raman's birth anniversary.
The sprawling campus of NSTL attracted hundreds of students of various colleges and schools from in and around the city for the exhibition.
Former director of NSTL and chairman of the recruitment and assessment council of DRDO, Dr. D. Srinivasan, was the chief guest at the inaugural function on Thursday.
NSTL has indigenously designed and developed an Anti Torpedo Decoy System for naval platforms under project MAAREECH. At present the system is installed on two Indian Naval ships.
Director of Naval Science and Technological Laboratory (NSTL), C.D. Malleswar, said the objective of expo is to generate interest among students.
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"We are celebrating Sir C.V. Raman's birthday. On this occasion, we are encouraging all the college, children and the school children to showcase their talents by way of exhibiting models on science and technology," said Malleswar.
The DRDO and the Indian industry must form a consortium to sell products in the domestic as well as international markets to make India a global player, he added.
He said NSTL has several world-class facilities such as the cavitation tunnel and the academics could work on them on a deputation basis.
Prototypes of Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), electrically driven Heavy Weight and Light Weight Torpedoes, thermal torpedo, Varunastra, sea mines, and decoys were among the exhibits on display.
Many components for Fire Control System, GPS-based Positioning System, stealth technologies, degaussing (demagnetisation of ship) technology, homing, control and guidance technologies, actuation systems and, models of war ships and propellers were also displayed.
"It's so brilliant I felt that the things which we have put up, I have also got ideas from the people who come to see our projects. They give ideas how to develop it further, how to make it much better, how to make it to common use. So it's been a really fantastic experience coming here," said a participating student, Swetha Mehta.
The visitors had a walk around advanced scientific test facilities such as high-speed towing tank, cavitation tunnel, wind tunnel, sea-keeping and manoeuvring basin, shock, noise and vibration test, shock tank, anechoic room, vibration exciters, CNC machine centre, and Radar Cross Section measuring instrumentation. A film depicting various advances in technologies was also screened at the auditorium.