The IIT techfest was beyond words. The best technology from the country was at display and the lecture series was also amazing. The best part was perhaps the laser show. Then there was the 'Robo-cup' - dog like robots playing football match and then dancing in synch to "Who let the dogs out". There were so many amazing things that it would require a full fledged report to describe them
all. Maybe www.techfest.org would be much better. One thing that 'stood' out was a 6 foot tall, six legged walking robot (Natraj). It's manufacturing price is about 13 lakhs ... compared to $2 million of its US couterpart with the same functionality. There was a lecture by RMS (teleconference from Boston). Thankfully, he spoke not on free software, but on current copyright laws and their ill effects.
It's sort of sad that the space shuttle had to crash during the event though. Maybe NASA should have thought about an abort after something went wrong during the launch.
Anyway, I had an amazing time out there. And if I can, I will go there every year. If you can't get motivated by the techfest, you probably never can.

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