Science Hack India -2023 amidst the serenity of nature at SankalpBhoomi Belagavi was the bridge between the Philomath and Polymath. The madness, exploration, craziness, weirdness, knowledge sharing, learning, networking, making and everything that happened for nearly 36 hours here has now come to an end and this successfully concludes the sixth edition of Science Hack Day India hosted at our very own City of Belagavi. I am making a sincere attempt to summarize the chain of events as precisely as I can for people who could not make it this year.
DAY 0: We always look forward to this day as we get to meet and interact with our members who are not localities after a wait of nearly one long year. We kind of catch up with memories of previous years and try to sketch the fun awaited this year. We also have training sessions and prep for the workshop activities on this day. In addition to interaction with our non local members there was also an icebreaking session with our new set of young volunteers from different colleges mainly the SKE society and GIT Engineering College.
DAY 1: Thanks to the ticketing Software, registration this year was super easy. We had an efficient check-in system available to all the registered participants including Student Workshop, Hackers, and Volunteers. This was also the reason why no walk-ins were encouraged this year. We had plenty of last minute requests from parents and various schools but we could not accommodate the requests as the tickets were already sold out. This was also necessary for us to avoid wastage/shortage of food and other resources as we had a clear idea of the headcount. Interestingly since the theme of the year was the Moon attributing this to the success of Chandrayaan-3 mission, we had the different locations at the venue nicknamed after locations on the Moon, Dinning Hall was named as “Mare Nectaris”, Main Hall where the student activities were conducted was named as “Mare Cognitum”, Reception called “Mare Marginus”, Hack area that is the Cafeteria at the venue was named as “Mare Crisium” and the open area connecting us to all these places was named as “Shiv Shakti Point”. Do Google this to find the creativity and relevance as it is extremely interesting.
Thereafter the sessions began. Students were introduced to the world of magnets, cells, LEDs, wherein they learnt some quick experiments with the miniatures from their kits including the magic with straws. These created different sounds at different decibels, different tunes. The kids also got to experience the glowing LED connected by a human chain. The laughter and fun the kids had, were the moments worth capturing. In addition to this they also learnt making a LED Diva for this Diwali. The lunch was sumptuous lunch and the kids utilized this as an opportunity to make new friends as well. Next session was making an alarm for intruders. This introduced them to the world of soldering, circuits, and sensors. The little hands got busy the entire afternoon connecting the circuits and making the alarm. Amidst the busy tables for fixing the connections, laughter broke when a kit on some table worked and the dog actually barked. The thrill multiplied and got contagious. After a long day the kids grabbed some time for hi-tea and waited for an interesting session to interact with Retried ISRO-Scientist Shri B.A. Subramani, who took us on a tour of the world of satellites. He also briefed us about how we can create a ground station and receive signals from about 3 dozens of Satellites that are orbiting in space. He promised to be present at next year’s SHD where he will also explain about how we can also make and launch our own satellite if we get trained in this area. With this, Day 1 for students Workshop ended. This was then followed with lightening talks with some real interesting topics and presentations that left the audience in deep thoughts. Day-1-We also had our sponsors invited for interaction over dinner and some real cool and interesting experiences were spilled during this session. Dinner time on Day-1 was fun with lot of talking over eating and enjoying the delicious Chicken Curry. After the long tedious and resourceful day, the dinner ended with lot of jamming, talent show, masti and dance. We had Maruti Goral (member of the Music Band) present his guitar making hack during this session as well. It made us realize that one need not hold degrees to gain knowledge and there’s a never ending ocean of knowledge and you can never have it all.
DAY-2- The student workshop had very interesting lessons about micro controllers on this day and the magic began. After learning to connect, code, use the app to command the microcontroller when it actually worked per instructions we had the microcontrollers dancing to the tunes of 80 different commands and it was simply magical. Hard to believe that this kit so simply designed by our founder member Jithin actually introduced the kids to the world of coding, AI and Robotics and this too absolutely effortlessly. The mobile phone that parents restrict their wards to use was in true sense the mode of education on this day. After some magical moments with “Hello World”, lunch time was magical with delicious menu at the catering. While the kids workshop was active, there were several Hackers trying to make their ideas work at the different corners of the venue. There were volunteers joining the Hackers, creating, breaking, at times messing up, and at times providing insightful solutions to get the Hack working. The deadline to get it to work was announced as 4 pm. The venue looked buzzy at this point in time. Volunteers, Hackers, Students were running around asking for materials, sharing ideas to make things work and others trying to contribute wherever and whatever possible. Amidst this perplexity, there were interesting Mathematical puzzles being cracked & brain stormed and demos on how Engines work explained. We also enjoyed clicking the Go-Kart with us in the frame. On the other hand at Mare Cognitum i.e. the workshop area there were different micro organisms being traced while exploring the world of microbiology. During this exploration a paramecium was cited that got itself entangled in algae and its struggle to free itself was witnessed for nearly a minute’s time and this amazing struggle was trapped on the camera.
A group photo was called out and within no time the enthusiasts from different Mare locations of the Moon landed at Shiv Shakti point to get themselves captured, to mark their presence in this historic event. Science demos were presented by the science enthusiasts during which time the kids’ energies were at its peak. There were rockets being launched, acids and basics changing their colors like chameleons, liquid nitrogen creating magic to a different level, and the laser beams dancing to the tune of the music in the background. Parents arrived to pick their kids who were glued to the venue. Finally, the day had to end and we had to bid good bye and promise to meet again the next year with much more excitement and loads of fun along with new hacks.
Thanks to Saptak who has ensure all hacks are listed on https://sciencehackday.in/projects/
Some of the Best Hacks were as follows –
Burnoulli’s Effect By Atharv Inamdar
Tensigrity Struture By Shiv, Rahi and Siddharth
Fractal Chair by Ishaan and Gautam
Night Driving Visibility Improvement by Anant Patil and Mahadev
Health Vigilance App by Shabnam, Farhan and Shekhar
3D Constellation by Harshad, Shubham, Ashok
Electro Spin Combination of infusion pump and high voltage generator by Prathamesh, Praveen Patil, Prashlit and Arshad
Laser Mase by Shashank and team
We are extremely thankful to AAB our media partner through our journey.
We express our heartfelt gratitude to all our generous sponsors who have joined this community for the excitement to make something happen. The pricing of tickets only cover the cost of kit provided during the session. Rest of our expenses are shouldered by our generous sponsors.
Science Hack Day believes in community service and hence we are always bestowed by hardworking volunteers who relentlessly work hard for months to make this yearly event a grand success. We express our gratitude to SKE Society and GIT College of Engineering for sparing their best hands.
It was indeed difficult for Team SHD for not being able to accommodate walk-in and this has led to disappointment to many student science enthusiasts. In order to ensure your entry for next year, do follow our instagram page, facebook and Twitter. Also look out for updates on our website for announcements by mid September or early October next year.
Somehow the pictures never do justice to the rush of adrenaline that we go through during these 36 hours.
If you were a part of this journey do tag us on instagram at #SHDIndia, follow us on Facebook @Science Hack Day India, Belgaum, on Twitter @SHD_India