SCE represented Israel at the International Science and Technology Festival in Mumbai

Last December the SCE represented Israel at the International science and technology festival, TechFest, held at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Mumbai. Our delegation included Prof. Iko Avital, head of the Product Planning and Design track, and eight fourth year students from the Mechatronics and Product Planning and Design tracks in the Mechanical Engineering department at the Be’er Sheva campus.

The IIT TechFest is the largest of its kind in Asia. It hosts about 175,000 students from 2,500 colleges in India and 500 colleges around the world, as well as more than 7,000 faculty members and corporate managers. This year 20 companies had exhibition booths at the festival, among them the U.S., Russia, Japan, Holland, Spain, Germany, Singapore and Hungary.

The festival, that focuses on cultivating creativity in engineering and design, included the following activities: lectures on AI and learning machines, robot and machine competitions and exhibitions of advanced projects from academia and industry. The festival events are also an excellent platform for developing relationships with universities, technological institutes, and engineering colleges from many different countries.

The SCE delegation presented a project of an autonomous water robot, as well as the design of an innovative product for rape victims. The Israeli booth also attracted a great deal of interest during the five days of the festival.

Recounts Dr. Gedalya Mazor, head of the Mechanical Engineering department: “Participation at the Mumbai Festival is part of the department’s wide-ranging cooperation with several academic institutions abroad. The students that were sent to represent Israel are outstanding students who won first places in international competitions the department held during 2018 Mechanical Engineering Week”.