BIRTH OF “JEC ROBOWORLD”

ARTICLE BY PRIYAM PRATIM DAS

FOUNDING MEMBER & FIRST CO-ORDINATOR

The Club "JEC ROBOWORLD" was a fruit of extreme hardwork of The TTI “Team of Talented Individuals”. It was a dream that was executed into reality. Till “ PHOENIX ” 2010 ( PHOENIX - Techno Cultural Fest of JEC ). JEC didn't have any official Club for sharing Robots building ideas or methodology. Robotics events were then a part of PHOENIX schedule.

Techniche , a techno cultural event of IIT Guwahati is conducted every year. I & my batchmates Samarjyoti Deka ( Mech 2007-11) & Shekhar Limbu ( CSE 2007-11), attended the events & workshops during Techniche 2009 & 2010 . We also achieved 2nd & 1st position in Robotics event in PHOENIX 09 & PHOENIX 10. During those days, participants at Robotics event in PHOENIX were shallow. It was maybe because they weren’t filled in with the ideas of Robotics . So to make more students aware of Robotics & Robot building ideas, we thought of forming a Club. Then the trial begins.

Now to convince the students to join the Robotics Club was a big challenge for us. To overcome this challenge, we thought of organizing a workshop. With no money in our hands we were in a dilemma Thousands of questions were in our mind at that time, but the most important one that crossed our mind was, ' Will we be able to organize a workshop? ' . I also wanted an interesting workshop topic to attract the students initially. Accordingly, I started approaching few institutes that conducts Robotics / Cyber security / Ethical Hacking workshops. Then I came across an institute name "APPIN TECHNOLOGY LAB” from Guwahati.

They assured us to conduct a two days workshop on "INFORMATION SECURITY & ETHICAL HACKING” and in return they asked for a batch of 40 confirm students. They also insisted to arrange fooding & lodging for the faculties. Now for someone like us who had zero penny in their pockets, their whole requirements sounded like a huge rock put on our head. We along with the help of fellow final year batchmates started visiting hostels after college hours and started explaining the importance of such workshop and its certificate . Even we shared our workshop experiences from Techniche, IIT Guwahati. We also visited POWIET, J B College and Jorhat institute of science & technology for promoting the workshop .

Our hardwork paid off and we had 58 confirmed participants. We took permission from Dr Atul Bora , Principal of JEC to allow us to conduct a two day workshop and provide us with wifi net facility, and thankfully we were allowed. Then on 31st March 2011, we organized our first two days workshop on “ INFORMATION SECURITY & ETHICAL HACKING “. Thus, on 31st march 2011, "JEC ROBOWORLD CLUB” officially formed and functioned. We issued ID cards from JEC ROBOWORLD to the participants & a pen with JEC ROBOWORLD written on it. Since we were able to gather more than 40 participants to “APPIN TECHNOLOGY LAB “ they dropped the demand for fee regarding fooding & lodging .

The first step of forming a club and enrolling few members was accomplished . But our vision to make students aware of Robotics & Robot making ideas was yet to fulfill. To translate our vision into concrete result. I started contacting institutes that organizes Robotics workshop . Then fortunately, I came across an institute name "ROBOSAPIENS INDIA" from Noida - a leader in Robotics & Embedded items . They assured me to conduct a two day workshop at JEC , if I was able to provide them a batch of 60 confirm participants . With the success of previous workshop without a penny . I gained some confidence that I will be able to gather required number of participants and convince "ROBOSAPIENS INDIA” to conduct the workshop at JEC .

The first step of forming a club and enrolling few members was accomplished . But our vision to make students aware of Robotics & Robot making ideas was yet to fulfill. To translate our vision into concrete result. I started contacting institutes that organizes Robotics workshop . Then fortunately, I came across an institute name "ROBOSAPIENS INDIA" from Noida - a leader in Robotics & Embedded items . They assured me to conduct a two day workshop at JEC , if I was able to provide them a batch of 60 confirm participants . With the success of previous workshop without a penny . I gained some confidence that I will be able to gather required number of participants and convince "ROBOSAPIENS INDIA” to conduct the workshop at JEC .

With the accumulated confidence, I contacted them again & conveyed frankly that our club was very new and we didn't have any fund to spend for workshop publicity & to provide lodging & fooding facility to the faculties . However , I suggested to accommodate the faculties in our college hostel (H-7) with lodging & fooding facility . Then, the faculty, who was assigned for the workshop accepted my suggestion. He asked me to design the banner for the workshop & mail him the softcopy. I did and after few days he posted printed banners & flyers. We took permission from Dr Atul Bora , Principal of JEC for organizing the two days workshop and he granted us permission. Next, we carried out full scale publicity of the workshop with the help of entire batchmates and successfully registered 60 plus participants .

Thus, on 30th April 2011, JEC ROBOWOLD organized its second two days workshop on " VISION ROBOTRICKS " . Participants were thrilled to learn about robot building ideas , matlab , micro-controllers and lazer guided robots. They were provided free kit worth Rs 3500 from "ROBOSAPIENS INDIA" at a joining fee of Rs 1200. We, as organizers , were very happy since we delivered what we promised. Thereafter, JEC ROBOWORLD continued to conduct in-house learning & other activities. At the end of the session 2010-2011 , charges of Co-ordinator & Joint Co-ordinators for the session 2011-12 were handed over to Pranab Deka , Cse ( H-1) , first Joint Co-ordinator - Dwanel Barman, Elec (H-7) & Second Joint Co-ordinator - Dipankar Bora, Cse (H-7) .

At last , I place my sincere thanks to Dr Atul Bora , Principal of Jorhat Engineering College year 2011 for allowing 'JEC ROBOWORLD' to conduct two Workshop programs in the JEC premises . Then, I thank Shri Abhineet Baruah & Shri Pranjal Pratim Baruah for their initial guidance & sharing knowledge about Robots . I also give my heartfelt thanks to my teammates Samarjyoti Deka & Shekhar Limbu for being always there with me then. We together seeded the idea of a Robotics club at JEC . And I specially thank the core team of talented Individuals of JEC ROBOWORLD session 2010 -2011. The entire credit of successful completion of the two workshops goes to them. I would also like to thank the boarders of Hostel 7 especially " Nabinder Singh & team " for helping us in promoting the banners & flyers in various part of Jorhat Town prior to both the Workshops.

I firmly believe , JEC ROBOWORLD Club will evolve during each session and will continue in a never ending journey to share Robot building ideas to JORHAT ENGINEERING COLLEGE.

JEC ROBOWORLD 2010-11 Website at our preiod