The previous Open Day was at the end of February 2020, when Covid cases had just begun surging. After all these years, Open Day was back again to enthrall scientific minds! The great thing about a science crowd is that everybody is well behaved and organized. Even the human-trains of school kids that snaked their way through everywhere, were organized and well behaved.
Here's a video of some of the interesting exhibits:
Although IISc put up a map of the place, and it had a grid to help figure out where we were, the map turned out to be useless, since when people photographed it and ventured to other parts of the campus, referring the map ended up making them confused. We really need a better, more responsive map that recognizes locations and perhaps even helps us plan out our path of visiting exhibits and provides info on the transport vehicles.
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Neural network meant for physics-specific calculations
An autoencoder that compresses data and de-compresses it with some loss
A catapult without the conventional friction joints
A robot-fish fin showing how turbulence is created in water and propels the fish forward
An anti-gravity structure that pulls the string in various directions and can even support a load
A demonstration of immiscibility of fluids of various densities
Drones display and demo
Silicon chip manufacture
You can move the arms of the robot on the left, and it'll copy the same motion on a robot placed in another room. It vibrates to let you know you have reached a boundary. Useful in robotic surgeries done remotely
An Augmented Reality gun which you can use to play a game
A circuit that calculates using analog signals instead of digital. Meant to mimic the human neurons. It performs calculations with much lower power than digital processors.
A circuit assisted with quantum computing
Tiny ML for use in ecological conservation and gesture recognition
Industrial control systems and security
Seeds encased in manure and mud, forming a ball which can be thrown in areas that need aforestation
A travelling salesman game
Ice cream made from milk cream, milk, vanilla essence and frozen with liquid nitrogen. They give you samples to taste, and it's delicious!
Flexible solar panels
Toys that make learning mathematics fun
Rainwater harvesting model
Tender coconuts at an outrageous price of Rs.40
A bus driving simulator you can try. The simulator is actually used to train BMTC drivers to handle Indian roads. Surprisingly, there were no potholes on the road. So much for trying to simulate "Indian" roads.
A toll-gate game where they design the game to see if you choose to use the toll and then switch to a non-toll road and then switch back to the toll road based on traffic. This game had a lottery for players, based on how often they used the toll road.
A traffic junction game where you control the signals. The player who reaches the highest level wins a pen
Robot football
A robot kit for children to create their own robots
The high voltage lab setup
Testing aircraft for lightning strikes
More on the lightning strikes
The demos shown at the high voltage lab. The queue is quite large here
The brain research centre
If you ever wondered how many idlis you need. Apparently, idlis contain protein too.
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Explanation of flash floods
Hydrogen fuel cell powering a toy train
Tactile robot arms
Some people travelled all the way from Kerala just for Open Day
What's shown here is a minuscule subset of the massive number of exhibits and interactive games that IISc had organized. Kids can win chocolates and prizes too in the games organized. One day isn't enough to go through all the exhibits. There are so many.
Parking is available at IISc Gymkhana ground for free. However, be prepared to end up with a dusty vehicle, and if you don't find a shady area, your vehicle gets baked in the afternoon sun.
Each of the departments have toilets that you can use. There are plenty of food stalls available, but it's better if you bring sandwiches on your own, since the stalls are overpriced. There are plenty of places on the lush green campus where you can sit and relax. Everyone is helpful.
