Students’ Technical Activities Body (STAB): Manifesto Review

**Click on individual manifesto points to get a more descriptive understanding.

aaa: The manifesto point was fully completed.
bbb: The manifesto point was partially completed.
ccc: The manifesto point was left to be taken up by the next OC.

Freshmen Activities

[gsreview title=”Promote technical visits to give enthusiasts an insight into the industrial world” color=”green”]Technical visits were held to Parle factory, GMRT, Volkswagen factory so as to give a broad overview about technological advancements in industries[/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Incorporate more informal events in schedule of clubs like piano stairs, contraption events
” color=”blue”]While there was an emphasis on holding more fun oriented technical events so as to involve more freshmen, due to implementation issues, piano stairs couldn’t be completed. Contraption events held during the freshmen orientation, were well appreciated. Additionally, fun oriented competitions such as Techify your Room were introduced specially for the freshmen. [/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Solve the component procurement problem faced by freshmen during freshmen technical competitions and seniors during their projects through the tech shop” color=”green”]The component procurement problem faced by a huge chunk of freshmen was solved to a large extent, thanks to the inauguration of the new Tinkerer’s lab. [/gsreview]

General Championships

[gsreview title=”Ensure fair execution of technical GCs and incentives for winners and participants” color=”green”]A total of 6 Low prep GCs and 2 High prep GCs were conducted throughout the two semesters. The GCs were judged by knowledgeable individuals from the concerning fields so as to avoid any type of bias in results. [/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Special attention is given to hostel-level events in coordination with hostel technical councils” color=”blue”]Regular meetings were held with hostel technical councils, but there was no significant change in the number of hostel level tech events. [/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Keep meetings with tech councils twice a semester to ensure their active involvement with STAB” color=”green”]Meetings were held involving all the tech councils from different hostels, so as to get timely feedback from them regarding the execution of events, talks, GCs, etc.[/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Put up a monthly calendar in every hostel” color=”red”]Due to a number of organisational issues and postponing plans, the monthly tech calendar could not see the light of the day.
[/gsreview]

Advanced Workshops

[gsreview title=”Organize workshops on cutting edge technology by professionals from the pertinent industry in order to involve the seniors” color=”green”]Organize workshops on cutting edge technology by professionals from the pertinent industry in order to involve the seniors.
A number of advanced workshops by Japanese industries (MnP), Tinyurl (WnCC), Arduino (Electronics Club), Autonomous Gripper (Robotics Club) were organised so as to increase senior participation in STAB events.[/gsreview]

PG participation

[gsreview title=”Collaborate with PG AA council to ensure that technical events specific to PG students are held” color=”green”]A number of PG centric events such as Tech-a-Minute, Stargazing, Code it!!, R Workshops, Website development and design were carried out specially for the PG students.[/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Appoint a PG Nominee and a PG coordinator under each club to ensure greater PG participation” color=”green”]A special PG team consisting of PG co-ordinators for each club and a PG nominee was appointed so as to attract PGs to STAB events.[/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”PG orientation will be conducted separately and PG tech weekend will be conducted” color=”green”]PG orientation and PG tech weekend were held in the autumn and spring semesters respectively.[/gsreview]

TechOn

[gsreview title=”Mini projects to be introduced of duration of a maximum of 2 weeks with a planned backup of converting the structure to a 24 hour hardware hackathon” color=”blue”]The main motive behind TechOn was to increase the number of short week-long technical projects. Due to lack of participation, this plan was scrapped off. Alternative week long events such as Techify your Room, SSTeP (Solution to Socio-Technical Problems), Tech Nite, Hardware Hackathon were initiated with the same motive.[/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Develop innovative applications using existing technology such as projects on Kinect” color=”blue”]A host of new technology such as 3D printers, Kinect were made available to students through Tinkerer’s lab. A couple of introductory sessions were held for some of them.[/gsreview]

Technical Projects and Exhibition

Institute Technical Summer Project (ITSP)

[gsreview title=”Revamp the ITSP structure to make it more effective and efficient” color=”green”]The ITSP structure was improved by introducing a 3 tier mentorship system, involving the pertinent club manager, a permanent mentor and a 15 member general mentor team.[/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Try to ensure the availability of the STAB room for storage of ITSP projects during the vacations” color=”green”]The old tinkerer’s lab in the main building was converted into a storage facility for ITSP projects. [/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Train and ensure proper mentorship program and incentivize the same with appropriate recognition” color=”blue”]The general mentor team, consisting of experienced seniors and PGs held weekly mentorship sessions so as to solve any issue faced by the teams. Inspite of this structure, some teams cited lack of proper mentorship as a reason for the non-completion of their projects.[/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Organize IDC lab visits to inspire students to professionalize their work” color=”red”]IDC lab visits were not conducted; however students were given 24 hour access to WEL, Tinkerers’ Lab, Mechanical Workshop, IDC Lab.[/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Industrial visit during ITSP for the participants as an excursion” color=”red”][/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Try to organize a day-long hackathon in order to promote culture of teamwork” color=”red”]The day-long hackathon was substituted with tasks and sessions involving rigorous teamwork..[/gsreview]

Projects

[gsreview title=”Will ensure that various department undertakings such as EE health tech projects, CS greenhouse project, the biogas plant project and the solar vehicle project are brought to the notice of interested students and are made accessible to them” color=”blue”]The STAB team was successful in undertaking some of the above mentioned projects through a weeklong workshop SSTeP (Solution to Socio-Technical Problems), in collaboration with Tech GSR.[/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Provide senior students with opportunities to apply their academic expertise in solving real time industrial technical problems” color=”green”]Advanced workshops were held by the clubs in an attempt to involve more seniors with STAB.[/gsreview]

Institute Technical Exhibition

[gsreview title=”Merge the technical exhibition with academic council’s UG research symposium” color=”green”]A Tech and RnD exposition was held along with the help of academic council so as to publicise technical as well as research activities in the institute.[/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Ensure representation of students’ technical activities in the Techfest exhibitions” color=”green”]Stalls of the various tech teams were set up in Techfest exhibitions in order to broaden their outreach.[/gsreview]

Organization

Tinkerers’ Lab

[gsreview title=”Promote active faculty/alumni involvement to mentor and float projects in the Tinkerers’ Lab” color=”green”]Alumni and faulty members were actively informed about the developments of Tinkerer’s Lab and timely feedback was taken from them.[/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Create an executive committee headed by the Technovation manager and 5 core committee members so as to facilitate day-to-day administrative and maintenance issues” color=”green”]A Tinkerer’s lab committee was formed consisting of a Technovation manager, conveners, two regular technicians and a staff engineer to handle all the lab related activities.[/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Create a proper and fair usage policy and ensure its implementation” color=”green”]A biometric system was installed and proper equipment logs were maintained so as to ensure fair usage of the lab facilities.
[/gsreview]

Technical Teams(on the lines of Edgerton Center – MIT)

[gsreview title=”Represent IIT Bombay in various international competitions and then collaboratively work with them in reshaping their projects into real life implementable products” color=”green”]In an attempt to encourage sharing amongst the technical teams, an entirely new organizational structure under which all the technical teams and STAB would come under the same umbrella, was put forward. Consequently, a proposition for Gymkhana Technical Affairs Board was approved by the higher authorities.[/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Will work towards bridging the gap between professors and students by involving students in technical projects and activities guided by professors” color=”blue”]Professors from different departments were invited to give talks on their research areas, float technical projects through STAB. However, due to their miscellaneous commitments, not many professors turned up for the same. [/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Hold monthly discussions and review sessions in order to improve the technical scenario in the institute” color=”green”]Regular meets were held along with the tech team leaders so as to promote sharing of technical knowledge and equipment among each other.[/gsreview]

Technovation

[gsreview title=”Will ensure successful expansion of Tum-Tum Tracker & Electronics Notice Board across institute” color=”blue”]The Tum-Tum tracker was successfully expanded into an independent body. However, the plans to install Electronics Notice Board could not be fulfilled due to opposition from other institute councils.[/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Collaborate with SINE and E-Cell to provide mentoring and pathway for technical projects to develop them into a commercial product” color=”green”]The Tech & RnD exposition saw participation from over 10 startups from SINE and E-Cell. These startups were invited specially by the club managers to showcase the current technical and research work pursued by students. [/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Float and promote societal projects from NGOs and/or CTARA to solve real-life problems using technology for the benefit of the common man” color=”green”]Tech GSR was converted into an independent body to specifically solve social issues by floating relevant technical projects across the institute.[/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Formalize the review committee and will try to develop a better organizational structure” color=”green”]A review committee mainly comprising of project leaders was formed so as to solve any issues faced by the Technovation projects.[/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Aim towards motivating students and generating more enthusiasm vis-a-vis technical activities via organizing tech talks in collaboration with the Institute Academic Council” color=”blue”]The Institute Academic Council was majorly involved in the Tech and RnD exposition. Apart from that, there were no collaborative events as such between the two bodies.[/gsreview]

Infrastructure

[gsreview title=”Bring in the necessary equipment for astrophotography and other clubs’ infrastructure to facilitate proper execution of hands on sessions and competitions” color=”blue”]Although the Tinkerer’s Lab was started to tackle the infrastructure and equipment issues faced by the clubs, no club specific equipment, such as those for astrophotography, were brought in.[/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Will try to build the student planetarium in the institute for astronomy enthusiasts” color=”red”]The planetarium could not be built due to lack of funds, space and a relatively low number of enthusiasts.
[/gsreview]

Online presence

[gsreview title=”Ensure a proper launch of Tech ID, synchronized with google calendar and event scheduler, thus minimizing the need for online forms” color=”red”][/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Create a tech forum linked with the Tech ID, which will act as a common platform for technical discussions among the students” color=”red”][/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Link the roboshop interface and the project portal through Tech ID for better user experience” color=”red”]The entire plan of introducing a single Tech ID portal to handle all event registrations, technical discussions, equipment usage could not be completed due to small size of the STAB web team and other priorities of the team, such as revamping the STAB website. [/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Ensure that the STAB wiki page is well updated in time with content of the sessions and relevant information regarding projects” color=”blue”]The STAB wiki page was updated by the club managers every now and then, but the page still has a lot of old information, which needs to be looked into.[/gsreview]
[gsreview title=”Expand the outreach of STAB to various regional and national colleges through the Ehive community in collaboration with CDEEP to inculcate technical awareness” color=”red”]This collaboration was envisioned to help colleges across India to benefit from the technical knowledge of IITB. Talks are currently being held among the STAB team and CDEEP to create an online portal; however the portal would take around 1-2 years for complete execution. Alternative work on creating an Online Knowledge Sharing Portal (OKSP) was done, with the same intent.[/gsreview]

Publicity

[gsreview title=”Increase the visibility of technical activities in the institute and ensure recognition of students” color=”blue”]There has been a general increase in the publicity of STAB events. MnP and WnCC clubs are an excellent example of how timely publicity can do wonders for expanding the club outreach. However, the other clubs still have to put efforts to increase their visibility at the institute level.[/gsreview]

[gsreview title=”Ensure a timely release of institute technical newsletter for publicizing the technical activities” color=”blue”]Two issues of Lightsaber were scheduled to be released in the entire year. The first one was ditched due to shortage of articles. An editorial team is currently working on the second one and plan to release it by the end of the semester.[/gsreview]