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Techfest, the largest annual science and technology festival of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay will begin tomorrow with a budget of Rs 2 crore and major sponsorship coming in from Reliance Jio, the title sponsor.
Techfest had a budget of Rs 1.68 crore last year.
In addition to various companies including Intel, IBM, Microsoft, Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority, The City and Industrial Development Corporation of Maharashtra, GE, CitiusTech, Croma, Uniball, Axe, Pepsi, Bisleri and other FMCG companies sponsoring Techfest, NGOs like Akshara and Laadli have also associated with the fest for its Women Safety and Empowerment Campaign, ROAR.
Techfest, said IIT Bombay, "Is well established as Asia's largest science and technology festival patronized by UNESCO, UNICEF, CEE (Centre for Environment Education) and SAYEN (South Asia Youth Environment Network)."
The fest receives footfall of more than 1,35,000 people, mainly youth, from across the nation and has an outreach of over 2,500 colleges across India and over 500 overseas.
The fest will also see participation from Vint Cerf, an American internet pioneer also known as one of the Fathers of Internet who will talk on Internet of things.
Manjul Bhargava, a renowned Mathematician of Indian origin and the first Indian origin recipient of Fields Medal, also known as Nobel Prize of Mathematics will be at Techfest to give an insight on square values of Mathematical Expressions, from ancient times to the modern day.
Ada Yonath, Nobel Laureate of Chemistry from Israel will deliver a talk on her journey from basic research to advance medicine and Kurt Wuthrich, a Swiss chemist/biophysist and winner of Nobel Prize in Chemistry will deliver a lecture on Basic research and illustration of Daily Life with Nuclear Magnetic Resonance.
Other speakers include--- Ryan Germick, Google Doodle Team Head famous for creating some of the Google’s best homepage logo doodles; Bjarne Stroustrup, a Danish computer scientist and Inventor of C++; R. Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Advisor to Government of India; K. Kasturirangan, former chairman of ISRO; R.A.Mashelkar (Father of Innovation in India)- former Director General of CSIR; Subhash Khot - Winner of Rolf Nevanlinna Prize and Silvio Micali -Turing Award Winner.
Techfest will also feature world’s most advanced robots and Humanoids from US, Russia, Italy, Switzerland and many more countries.
US Consulate has associated with Techfest for organizing Smart City Challenge, another initiative of Techfest. Embassies and Consulates of Canada (Imagine Canada), France(Campus France), Switzerland (Swiss Nex), UK (British Council), Germany (DAAD), Australia (Melbourne Education) and others have contribute by sponsoring exhibitions, International artists and performers and also promoting foreign studies.
This edition for Techfest is scheduled from 2-4th January, 2015 at IIT Bombay, Powai.
