Aranya

Infobox_aranya
name=Aranya


caption=

catchline=What you think Imaginary is what we make real
college=Thapar University
festival_type=Technical
started=2006
current_date=16^th-18^th Oct. '08
duration=3 days
participation=3000+
faculty=Dr. Maneek Kumar
osc=Dhruv Kalia
event_manager=Avan Goel, Varun Jindal
website= [http://www.aranyatech.org www.aranyatech.org]
forums= [http://www.aranyatech.org/forum www.aranyatech.org/forum] Aranya is the annual technical festival of Thapar University, Patiala(India). Marked by a great deal of exhuberance and pomp and show, the festival brings about the talents from all over North India to one platform. Started in 2006,the golden jubilee year of the university, Aranya has gained more and more popularity as time has passed by. Held in the months of September-October, this festival draws attention of thousands of college as well as school students from all over India.

Aranya 2008

After two successful ventures, Aranya enters its third year this year. It plans to expand its horizons with a bigger budget and much better contests. Announced just recently, Aranya 2008 to be held from 16^th to 18^th of October 2008. The festival unlike the previous versions will span over just 3 days. With lesser time of presentation, this time it has the opportunity to come out much bigger as it promises to provide the proper mix of Man, Music and Machine.For first time in history of Aranya online events are taking place as inception to festival with iCyberPirates,iReverseGear and Bugbash online events are scheduled to take place.

Aranya 2007

In its second year Aranya magnified in participation and complexities. Aranya 2007 accomplished the task of having partcipation from more than 400 [http://www.aranyatech.org/News/index.php] colleges spanning all over India. With a budget of 30 [http://www.aranyatech.org/News/index.php] lakhs, the festival improved the quality of events, as well as added a few more events that seemed to turn it from a set of contests to a proper college festival.

Inaugration

Aranya 2007 had another sparkling inaugration with a more majestic laser show after a lamp lighting session -the Aratrika.

Events

Computers

Don B’4 Dawn

It was an overnight programming contest, the next year version of 2006's Nightout which saw a massive participation of over 200 students which woke up whole night to find out the best.

All Bugs Out

It was the debugging contest,where the participants had to search for the syntactical bugs in the source code and then test the source code for the logical errors as well.

Rush Hour

Tagline: Survival of the fastest
It was the quick wit programming contest that tested the speed and accuracy of the programmer. The shortest and the most accurate line of code came out to be the winner.

Virtual Warriors

Tagline: Feel the thrill….
It was a different kind of a programming contest where a virtual player for an action game had to be devised in the form of an algorithm that was to compete to be the best.

Cyber Pirates

It was the online hacking event highly popular in the computer world. The contestants had to search for clues and encrypt and decode the website and then reach the final destination in the shortest time.

Electronics, Electrical & Instrumentation

Digimaze

The participants had to catch the clues and complete the circuits. The basic digital electronics was under the test.

Bug D Bugs

Debugging contest-in electronic circuits.

Trade Off

It was a techno-managerial skills. the contestants had to trade for your components and completethe circuit.

trato - Plant

The event had strategic planning within electronics.

Grid Yantrika

The electrical and electronics technical knowledge was tested as a combination involving transformers, thyristors and oscillators.

Micro - Crackers

Micro Controller coding, testing and programming.

Aranya 2006

In 2006, which was the golden jubilee year of the Thapar University, it formulated ARANYA, a mega technology festival. Aranya was set out with a dream to fashion a legacy of innovation and leave behind a heritage of vision. Having a budget of 20 lakhs [http://www.aranyatech.org/News/index.php] , the festival added all ingredients to attract more than 3000 [http://www.aranyatech.org/News/index.php] students. Aranya-06 turned out to be a technical festival setting up a platform of innovation and genius for the young brains of all over India to try out new things as well as learn.
The university, then Thapar Institute of Engg. and Technology, opened up its gates for a contest with the following words:
"Since ancient times man has always yearned to rise above the vague illusions seeking reality, creating hypothesis and trying to prove the same, yet knowing fully well that he can't defy transcendentalism."" The search still continues….. ""This search has formed the basis of existence of many a scientist, an engineer and a technocrat, who thrive to achieve what man has not achieved so far."
In Aranya 2006 the organizers tried to present another land, a mystical land where the technological and scientific geniuses of today will stand hand in hand, to discuss, innovate and work towards creating another theory, make another discovery or invent another thought and fulfill their desire of reaching where no man has reached thus far. ARANYA provided a platform for Industry, the Engineers and Budding Entrepreneurs to interact and create.

Inaugration and the Laser Show

To mark the beginning of Aranya-06 an inaugural laser show was organized. The laser show created a kaleidoscope of colours. A mesmerizing mix of music and laser created a riot of colours and an apt beginning for the first ever technical festival of Thapar University.

Events

General Events-Magneto

Inquizitive

Inquizitive was among biggest quizzing events of the year in North India. The participants had pit their brains against each other in the battle of wits. Hosted by Barry O 'Brian, the world renowned quizmaster, the event had a whoppling prize money of Rs 30,000 which was taken away by a local team. This was the last event of the festival but can be counted as among the major successes of Aranya '06 for since then it has become a part of its tradition, being repeated in next editions without any changes.

Yantriki

This event was to test the participants' innovation in analog and digital electronic fields. Working, innovative hardware models (digital, analog or mixed) were to be presented that too which must have an industrial or some other application. Such events normally are low participated but a heavily viewed, and Yantriki came out no different.

Kshatriya

Among the more contested of the robotics events was Kshatriya. In this event the competitors decided the best among themselves by battling each other robo to robo, testing the limits of endurance to the extreme. The yodha(fighter robot) which passed the toughest practical problems of speed and durability was crowned the best.

Dhanyakar

It was the treasure hunt contest with a twist in it that differentiated from the normal hunts. The event started with a clue given to each team comprising of 3 members while the 2 members have to strain their grey cells to find the next clue. The other member had to decode the clue decayed in C language helping the team to proceed to the next clue. Hence while the team had to keep a check on their watches they also have to keep a watch on the others. As innovative the even was, as were its participants who unmangled all the puzzles set before them to reach the final destination.

Artha

Artha was an event associated with the business management and marketing strategy development. A viable business plan had to be presented that was to be tested on all the skills of the presenters, the kind of product,the marketing, the sales strategy, the economic and cultural feasability etc.

Vedanta

The college doors were opened first time for the school students. A large number of students from various schools all over India were invited to Thapar University(then TIET), Patiala to demonstrate their scientific attitude and imagination. Projects, model presentation and quizzing was hosted for them to give students a peep into amazing world of science and technology.

Innovo

Keeping up with the legacy of coming up with the most optimal solution, the participants were posed with challenging problems frequently faced in the industry and real life. The team with the best solution under constrained resources was to walk away with the prize. The main aim of this event was to expose the students with real practical problems presently haunting our industry, and maybe find a new Newton hidden somewhere.

Pradarshini

New technical ideas and papers were presented from all fields of science and technology. There was no particular topic set up and the contestants were free to present anything. The topic just said:"To make the Earth a better place to live in."

Maha Yudh

Among the very important components of the festival was Maha Yudh,LAN gaming. A hardcore gamers paradise was set up - with all famous multiplayer games like Age of Empires, Age of Mythology and Counterstrike. Gaming has always been among the most passionately participated event of any college festival in Punjab. This contest saw the top gamers from all over Punjab compete.

Computers

Nightout

Tagline: "Put on your thinking caps and burn the midnight oil real hard."
In this overnight programming contest the participants had to structure a program catering to the given guidelines on a 24 hours deadline. Studded with a participation of over fifty teams, this event was among the most talked of events of the department in Aranya 2006.

Atomic Pirates

The event was concerned with Ethical Hacking. That was the objective of Atomic Pirates to help a National atomic power plant that was taken under control by a terrorist group called Black Mambas. According to the legend, they had fitted a laser protected system somewhere in NAPP, which will any time result in a nuclear blast causing death of millions of people. The participants had to hack into the system to save the world. This event saw participation from all types of computer geeks from all over Punjab. Not really heavily participated, but this event was seen as a satisfying event, especially for the participants who came out knowing that they had learnt something.

Fast and Furious

The event was to test the participants' knowledge in Artificial Intelligence. A computer game was provided to the teams in *.exe format and the teams were required to develop a computerised, artificial intelligent player for that game. The objective of the team was to design and develop such a player which ultimately wins the game by scoring maximum points. The game was a four player strategic action game, where each player tried to kill the other players and reach the target destination as soon as possible.

Command and Commands

The event was supposed to help explore the power of UNIX in DOS (windows) i.e. to help a windows user write commands without using any system calls. The objective of the team was to develop a command prompt in windows which behave like UNIX prompt accepting UNIX command.

Mobi Sim

The participating team had to design a web browser server for WAP. The teams had to make their application accessible using WAP by turning their PC into a mobile.

Electronics

Intelliment

This event was basically concerned with making virtual musical instruments using LabVIEW and provided hardware (DAQ card vision system, etc.). This event not only included writing code for virtual instruments, but complete realization of instruments using hardware.

Bit by Nibbles

This event was concerned with dynamic displays, testing your programming skills in C, microcontrollers and knowledge about various analog components. A static display is one which keeps on displaying anything that it has been programmed for, while in a dynamic display, the content to be displayed can be changed at any time.

Re-Encode

Participants were provided with a logical problem. Participants had to understand the problem, look out for the various inputs and outputs given in the problem. And finally the event had the part of designing the circuitry for generating that output and implementing the same on the digital kit.

Vidyut

The objective of this event was to design a power supply having specification above 30V and 5 amperes. Contestants were provided with various components: resistors, capacitors, diodes, transformer, SCRs, transistors, etc. Their task was to design power supply using those components only. The submissions were tested with peak load continuous as well as intermittent testing.

Mechanical

Karmakar

A job had to be prepared using various shops of workshop. Knowledge of machining, sheet metal, carpentry, welding and electroplating was tested. A completed job was provided whose replica had to be made.

Terrain Racing

This was the robotocs event where all the teams had to come forward with their own off road robotic cars. These cars were tested to their limits with not only the speed but also the handling and the sensitivity with all the turns and twists. The event's tagline was: "Buckle your seat belts and start your engines as we are ready to roll."

Tetrix

The participants were expected to assemble a two stroke engine from a complete disassembled form.The details of the engine were be revealed on the spot. The event saw a lot of attraction on the arena from not only mechanical but a lot other engineering branches as well.

Shape Thou

Based on the subject of engineering graphics and mechanical drawings,in the event the participants were provided with all the orthographic views of a design and the team has to reproduce the same on a soap.

BioTechnology

Bio Tycoons

Bio-Tycoons was an event to test various capabilities of the participants like creative thinking, handling tough situations, business thinking and also technical knowledge where the participants had to plan out themselves viable products and then make them a reality in the virtual market, overcoming various hurdles that came in the way.

Bio-Paragon

Bio Raragon was an event where the participants had to build a model out of the raw materials provided which was to be tested for practicality by the judges.

My Bio School

The participants had to design a curriculum for undergraduate course of Biotechnology.

Civil

Nirmana 2020

Nirmana was a town planning contest where the contestants were given a terrain with all of its spatial as well as non-spatial information and the sole aim was to plan out an ideal city at the place, keeping in mind all the restrictions regarding regional features, economics, etc. Though the description started with the mention of old plannings of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro, what was wanted was what the name suggested: a highly modern city anyone would develop in the year 2020.

Neev

The contest was associated with building construction and maintenance. The event was to test the participants' analysis skills and the ability to decrease strains and stresses. Participants started from the very foundation and developed a virtual model of a structure given by the organizers.

Chemical

Hydro Fight

This event was based on finding a suitable flow path through a pipe maze with minimum pipe losses that is the participants had to connect the pieces of pipes provided such that, when a hot fluid was allowed to flow through it, there were minimal thermal losses that could be measured at the output.

Insulation Master

Similar to the other chemical event, this event was based on minimizing the pipe losses that occur when the liquid flows through it.

Besides these there were also the informals to keep the participants busy.

Sponsors

Despite being the first techfest in the university, Aranya did manage some notable sponsors including Bilt, Crompton Greaves, Fedders Corporation, General Electric, Kamdhenu Steel, Majestic Autos, Shehnaz Hussain,Toyota, Trident, Vardhaman. [http://aranyatech.org/Sponsors.php]

References

1. [http://www.aranyatech.org Aranya 2008 Official Website]
2. [http://tiet.ac.in/home.php?main=festival_aranya Thapar University's page on Aranya]
3. [http://www.thapar.in/community.aspx Thapar.in's Page on Aranya]