Science Hack Day, Belgaum

Science Hack Day, was one of the great event attended by me. I feel lucky to be there as everything was so perfect from venue to the arrangements made by Praveen Patil, Sankalp Bhumi is a very beautiful and peaceful place with all the natural beauty. After reaching there it was a beautiful evening and then we had dinner which was so good. After having dinner we went to sleep as we all were tired after a long journey. 

Day-1

In morning I got up by a natural alarm which was not set by me, it was the voice was cock, who were there at Sankalp Bhumi. After getting up I just opened the door and a cool breeze blew on my face making me more refreshing, it was such a beautiful morning. Then I stepped out of my room, and sat on the chair outside my room watching the lake and small fishes in the lake in front of my room, by that time Hong was also up from her sleep and joined me outside. It was such a pleasure to see Ducks swimming in the water. After spending some time there, I went to take shower as breakfast was to be served at 9am, and after that the event was going to start. So after the breakfast, the event started with the introduction, Praveen Patil and Hitesh started the event with the introduction, " What the event was and what we are going to do in these two days". Then mentors shared their ideas that what they are going to do, so that people who were their without any ideas can join them according to their interest. It was so interesting that school student were also going to join us, even student from 5th standard came there for the event, it was so good to see them. After the lightening talks from mentors, hacking began at the place which was decided for hackers and it was also so beautiful. We all were set to start with our ideas, I was just planning to join Nisha in making the "Cookie Smarter", then I came to know that the School student are making a Solar Latern and they might need help in Soldering and I was perfect in this as I have two years experience so I made up my mind to help them to convert the solar energy to electrical energy. And I was surprised to see a huge number of students were interested in it. Then we just distributed the components to the student, and told them about the precautions to be taken while soldering and we started to make solar latern which was a workshop organised by Jithin who came from Delhi , thanks to him for all his time and the components. Also some students were making Science Toys at another place. 

Then the day ended with hacking and ligtening talks by hackers and mentors. Also there was a demo by Prabhu Sir on Fuel conservation by burning bio-organic mass. Then we all had dinner and discussion with people, I was able to meet a lot of new people . In the end we had a laser show by Praveen Patil and it was awesome, enjoyed by everyone there. After seeing the show everyone was wishing to have a Physics teacher like him.

Day-2

Again the day started with a alarm by the cock, and I went for a walk with Praveen around Salkalp Bhumi to explore it more. Then we all had breakfast and set for hacking again. Again there was a Science workshop for kids. I was again with the students for helping them in soldering, after the workshop I went to hacking place where everyone was ready to present their project, as after lunch they have to show demo of their project. So after lunch demos begin each team was given time to represent their project. There were 11 teams in total, they all described about their projects. Projects are listed below:

1. Sun Tracking

2. Making Cookie smart 

3. Nodemcu and MicroPython

4. Web VR

5. Alarm System using NodeMCU

6. Chrome Extension to convert Text to Speech 

7. Symposium 

8. Organic Map

9. Beautiful Belgaum Map

10. Moodlight and IoT switch

11. Motion Detector

There were four categories on the basis of which the award was given:

1. The Most Socially Useful Hack- Sun Tracking

2. The Best Education Hack-  Chrome Extension to convert Text to Speech

3. The Best Science Hack- Organic Map

4. The Audience Favorite Hack-  Motion Detector

Then the medals were given to the winning teams which were bought by Hong. Then we all had discussions over tea. Everyone was exchanging their ideas and were making new friends. The time was moving so fast and the night came. Before dinner we have Rahul Prabhukhanolkar with us who was describing us about Bat Conservation on which he was working,as Siddhesh want to know more about it as he also want to contribute. It was so interesting how he was using the ultrasonic frequencies to detect a Bat movement, and  he also told us about different Bat species which were unknown to us. Also he showed us the device used by him to detect Bat, then we had  a practical with it. We went out to detect the motion of Bat and we were able to detect the Bat movement. I, Nisha and Siddhesh tried listening the noise and we were able to detect it.  Then we had a get together where we discussed about our experiences, event and many more things. After that we went for the dinner, there also we had  a long discussion, it was like no one wants to sleep as next morning we were going to leave, so we want to utilize each and every momemt of that day. But as some people were leaving in night only, so we ended up with the discussion and were in our room. Hong and I planned to see a movie or series with others but it was too late and we had to leave early also, so we both slept. 

On 24th, we woke up at early and left at 5.30 am, as all of us had office, so we said bye to Hong, looking forward to meet her at FOSSASIA, Singapore next year.

For Belgaum:

It was a great event with a lot of energy, you all were awesome. Students were so interested and keen to learn new technology. Best of luck to the students for future. We all got lot of positive energy from this event, I personally got motivated by seeing the environment at Belgaum. I want to come to Belgaium for the next event. Thanks to all the organizers ( Hong Phuc Dang, Praveen Patil, Rahul, Shrikrishna Prabhu, Bandu Majukar, Sanjay Kulkarni, Suyash, Hitesh, Jithin, Minal, Nitesh, Akshai, Abdul and many more.....) for such a great event and hope you will continue it, so that we can visit Belgaum again and get a chance to meet you all : ) .

For more photos visit: https://www.flickr.com/groups/3087939@N23/pool