Excel, Model Engineering College

Excel

The logo for Excel 2016, the annual national level techno-managerial symposium of Govt. Model Engineering College, Kochi, Kerala, India
Type	Techno-Managerial Symposium
Genre	Technical
Founded	2001
Place	Kochi, India
Institute	Govt. Model Engineering College
Website	www.excelmec.org

Excel is the annual techno-managerial festival hosted by Govt. Model Engineering College (MEC), Cochin, Kerala, India in association with IEEE.^[1] The symposium, conducted over a period of three days, is intended to bring to the forefront, budding innovative engineers from all over India and to provide a platform to showcase their technical skills and management capabilities. Excel incorporates versatile technical and managerial events which include both online and on site competitions, workshops, talks and seminars, video conferences, exhibitions and pro shows. In 2009, TEDxMEC, an independently organised TED event was held in for the first time. Though not associated with Excel, a TED event has been organised every year during these days. Excel also features talks by entrepreneurs, research scientists and heroes of everyday life. Since its inception in 2001, 15 editions of Excel have been hosted till date. The organisation of all these editions has been purely by the students themselves.

History

Excel was introduced in 2001^[2] as a platform for the students to present and exhibit their technological innovations. The capital required to run the event was raised through sponsorships, grants from IEEE and the funds provided by the college. Exhibition stalls were put up, and competitions were held, headed by each of the then existing branches (Electronics & Communication Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering and Electronics & Biomedical engineering) which received an incredible response from students in and around the state.Subsequent editions saw the evolution of Excel both in terms of reach, number of participants and events. Purely organized by the students themselves, each edition of EXCEL saw something new and innovative. While the competitions at EXCEL prove to be the ultimate test of grit, knowledge and skill, the lecture series promises an enriching experience for the avid learner.In association with the Yi chapter of the college, the event Technopreneur - a lecture series was organised alongside Excel in the years 2006 and 2007. Sowing the seeds of a greener Kochi in the midst of urbanisation, Excel brought forth an organic farming campaign on the 15th of August 2014 as one the events of Excel 2014. ^[3][4]

Events : An overview^[5]

A large number of technical and non technical events^[6] are distributed throughout the days of the fest. The events can be broadly listed under the following categories -

TECHNICAL EVENTS

Technical events form the backbone of Excel. Excel organises a wide variety of events for its participants, ranging from robotic events such as ROBOWARS to electronic events such as DEFUSE (a circuit debugging event in which participants are required to defuse an electronic “bomb” within the given time), EXTRINSICITY (a classic electronic circuit design and debugging event), TERRAIN MASTER(create a small robot which could surpass and survive the obstacle track created, WAVE CLONING( an event that challenges participants to replicate the pre-specified waveform). Computer events at Excel include /BIN/BASH (an event that tests participants’ Linux and shell scripting skills), 4x120 (a team coding event in which a participant codes for an allotted time and teammates continue from where he/she left off), WEB MANDRAKE(website design event), APP GENIUS(participants have to modify the app that is given in the most creative way) and other coding events like LORD OF THE CODE , WEB BOT and #INCLUDE which instigate coders to think at a whole new level). Electrical events include LUMIERE (an event where participants are required to light a set of bulbs in the given order), EXTUNDO PRODIGO(participants are required to create things from a given set of materials and use them to complete tasks such as obstacle courses). Excel also includes biomedical events - LIFELINE (a circuit debugging event in which participants are required to debug malfunctioning ‘life support devices’ in order to save the life of a ‘patient’).

GENERAL

Technical events in which participants can take part irrespective of their chosen streams. Events include - PAPYRUS OF ANI (a paper presentation event).

ONLINE EVENTS

Excel includes online events both technical and non-technical in nature to challenge participants throughout the country. A few of the non technical online events include - KRYPTOS (an online puzzle solving event) and DALAL BULL (an event inviting participants to make the most money on a virtual stock market). Technical events include - #INCLUDE (an online C coding event)

NON TECHNICAL EVENTS

A cluster of non-technical events are included as part of Excel, to make it accessible and more fun for everyone. A few of the events coming under this category include - The Excel General Quiz, Crime Scene Investigation (CSI), Best Manager, GameZone, FunZone and so on.

INNOVATIONS FOR A BETTER TOMORROW (IBeTo)^[7]

An initiative by the organizers of Excel to find ideas for innovations that can benefit society in some way. Viable ideas are given the chance to be implemented with the organizers providing the requisite funding and mentors, to selected participants. A prize money of Rs. 1 lakh is offered to the best implemented project.^[8]

The event was held for the first time at Excel 2012.The subsequent edition event was held in February 2013 as part of Excel 2013 alongside IBeTo Junior which aimed at giving school students above 8th grade a proper means to implement their ideas. This edition of IBeTo bore witness to simple, ingenious ideas such as Pulse of a billion,Sign Language Detector, E-Civics Management system, and a Voice Interactive Email Client for the Blind. IBeTo gave birth to various solutions for problems.

Workshops and talks^[9]

.ISSUE! is essentially a platform where renowned speakers gather and discuss on a socially relevant issue of the time. The youth of a nation steers the pace of development, and .ISSUE! is a venture to produce young people with substantial social awareness; to prevent the engineers from reducing themselves to sectarians.

Previous speakers at Excel include:

1. Mr. Kris Gopalakrishnan, Former CEO and Co-Chairman, Infosys.^[10]
2. Prof. Yash Pal, Scientist and academician.^[4]
3. Mr. Suhas Gopinath, CEO and Chairman of Globals Inc.^[9]
4. Mr. Atul Chitnis, Founder, FOSS.IN.^[11]
5. Mr. Shreyas Srinivasan, Co-founder RadioVeRVe.
6. Mr. Jayaram, Product Engineer, Texas Instruments.
7. Mr. David John., Design Engineer, Montalvo Systems.
8. Mr. Ajith Basu, Chief program executive, Agastya International Foundation.
9. Ms. R. Sreelekha IPS, first lady in the IPS from Kerala.
10. Captain Raju, Actor, Captain(Indian Army)

A number of other workshops are also organised as part of Excel on topics ranging from Avionics^[12] to MATLAB.

Pro Shows and exhibitions

Right from the time of its commencement, Excel has played host to a variety of dazzling performances and amazing exhibitions, things which one rarely gets to see up close and personal. They include Airshows,^[3] Water rocket shows, Laser shows, concerts by Stephen Devassy in 2010 and Naresh Iyer in 2012 and performance by the rock band Avial in 2011 and a live concert of Thaikkudam Bridge in Excel 2013. Excel 2014 witnessed the likes of Baiju Dharmajan Syndicate, Vidhwan, and Harish Sivaramakrishnan performing live in what was the first open air concert of Excel.

^[13]

In addition to the exhibitions presented by reputed institutions such as NPOL, ISRO, etc., Excel also organises an exhibition in which students of the college showcase their technical skills through a variety of innovative and informative projects(MEC Labs).^[14]

Legacy

• Excel 2001 - Excel was introduced with the motto INSPIRE|INNOVATE|ENGINEER. Conducted from 16–17 February, the debut edition featured events like Brainstorm- A paper presentation competition, ctrl-alt-del : a software design contest, Twister- a technical quiz and Grandmaster -a competition to find the best engineer.
• EXCEL 2K2 - Open Forum, a precursor of .issue! came into existence.
• EXCEL 2K3 - Excel was organised from the 20th to the 22nd of March, 2003.
• EXCEL 2K4 - Held only for 2 days, the 27th and 28 February this Excel featured a talk on “Ethics, Indian Heritage and Culture” given by Prof. N. S. Ramaswamy Iyer, Director of Indian Heritage Academy and founder director IIM, Bangalore.
• EXCEL 2K5 - This edition was held from the 5th to the 7th of February, 2005.
• Excel 2k6 - This edition marked the beginning of Technopreneur,^[15] a venture to abridge technology and entrepreneurship, an event organised by Excel in association with Yi, the youth wing of CII. Online registration was introduced increasing the participation.
• EXCEL 2K7 - This edition was organised from the 13th to the 15th of February, 2007.
• Excel 2k8^[16] - Organised from the 31st of January to the 2nd of February, 2008, this edition featured robotic events ‘Sumobot’ and ‘Robo Soccer’.
• Excel 2k9^[17] - FOSS Meet was the highlight of the edition held from 23rd to 25 January 2009. The meet had four sessions given by high-profile tech gurus.
• Excel X^[18] - The Tenth edition, held from 11 December to 13 December 2009 saw the rise of .issue!, the topic of discussion being “The current education system in India”. ExcelTalks were organised for the first time. TEDxMEC^[19] was hosted independently but in association with Excel. Air show and a water rocket show were also organised.
• Excel 2010^[20][21] - Excel held from 24th to 26 September, revolved around the theme “GO GREEN”. Excel co hosted the South Indian leg of NEXUS; an IIT B venture, in which many teams from all over South India participated of which one team qualified to the finals at Techfest, IIT-B in January 2011. The proshows included an Auto Expo, the ISRO exhibition, Laser Show and concert by Stephen Devassy.
• Excel 2011^[22] - With the theme “REACHING BEYOND’’, this edition took Excel to new heights. The fest was held from 23rd to 25th September, 2011. Electrical events were introduced for the first time. The culmination of Excel 2011 was with the power packed performance of rock band “AVIAL”.
• Excel 2012^[23] - Biomedical events were introduced for the first time with the introduction of “LifeLine”. Innovations for a Better Tomorrow (IBETO), a social initiative by the organizers of Excel, to find innovations that can benefit society, was held for the first time. The “Teen Speaker Hunt” organized by TEDxMEC 2012, identified Ashwin Sreenivas, from The Choice School, Cochin as a vibrant teenager with an innovative idea to share. Excel 2012 concluded with an electrifying concert by popular playback singer Naresh Iyer.
• EXCEL 2013^[24] - The fourteenth edition of Excel was held from 26th to 28 September. Ibeto Jr. was introduced for the first time.^[24] DevCon 2013, an open source developers meet was organized. The proshow witnessed the first ever live performance of “Thaikkudam Bridge”.^[13]
• EXCEL 2014 - The first phase of Excel 2014 – the launch of IBETO and IBETO Jnr was held on the 24th of February 2014 in the college amphitheatre along with the rebranding of Excel with its new dynamic fluidic logo.
• EXCEL 2015 - Excel 2015 started its journey with the launch of IBETO and IBETO Jr on the 26th of February 2015 in the college amphitheatre. This was accompanied by the new logo of Excel as an ode to Excel's motto as well as the season of Autumn during which it is conducted.

See also

• Govt. Model Engineering College
• TEDx Independently held TED event
• List of IEEE milestones

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Model Engineering College.

• Excel official website
• TEDxMEC website
• IBETO|Excel
• College website
• IEEE MEC Student Branch