What’s on? Yantra 5.0, a Science, Art and Tech Festival

The collaboration between Art, Science, and Technology can create wonders and breed innovations that change our lives for the better. In order to celebrate this collaboration, the Robotics Association of Nepal organizes Yantra annually. This event provides a platform for young enthusiasts and engineers to showcase their creative and genius inventions. Yantra started in 2012 as a National Robotics Competition, but over the years the event has taken a unique shape – an Art, Science, and Tech Festival.

Each year the festival has a theme and this year the theme for Yantra 5.0 is “Agro-Innovation“. The main objective for this theme is find innovative technological solutions to the problems in agricultural sector. Yantra 5.0 will start on November 30 and will run for two weeks in different parts of the Kathmandu valley. The festival consists of five major events.

International Robotics Competition

This event is the major highlight of the festival. It provides a platform for tech enthusiasts to showcase their self-made robots. With regards to the theme, the competition will emphasize on the applicability of the robots in the agricultural field.

Among the three categories to compete in this event, Krishak Copter is the main. In this competition, the participants should design and develop quadcopter that can spray pesticide in the field.

International Robotics Competition will be held at Army Physical training and Fitness Centre, Lagankhel Rajdal.

Art and Tech Exhibition

The main motive of this event is to bring together artists and engineers to collaborate in creating innovative solutions to the problems faced by farmers.

Art and Tech Exhibition will be held at Bikalpa Art, Sanepa.

Paper Presentation

This event provides a platform for researchers and scientists working in the robotics and electronics automation to present their papers and findings on agricultural subjects. Moreover, they will present these papers in front of the investors, entrepreneurs, and international delegates.

Yantra Learning

Yantra Learning is a software competition to develop software for the Yantra(machine). The Yantra should be able to process environment and past data to detect patterns and make decisions. This competition also focuses on aiding the agricultural sector by alerting the farmers about possible natural disasters.

Yantra Learning will be held at LDTA, Jwalakhel.

Creative Computing

Creative Computing aims to create a platform for productive interaction among professionals involved in technical and non-technical field. The professional educators will facilitate this event and encourage the participants to use technology effectively in the betterment of our day-to-day lives.

Creative Computing will be held at Pulchowk (RAN’s office).

There is no doubt that this festival will produce innovative solutions to the problems in the agricultural sector. But the festival can have a real impact if these solutions can be commercialized and used to solve real-world problems. Hence, the winners of the various events will not only receive a cash prize, but at least three of the best projects will be selected for the Yantra Incubation program. This incubation program will give the teams opportunities and guidance to build businesses around their prototype.

We all know that, Nepal’s education system is inclined heavily towards theoretical aspect and ignores the practical aspect. However, with events such as Yantra 5.0, engineers and tech enthusiasts alike can use the theoretical concepts to fabricate solutions to the real-world problems. And this year with the theme “Agro-innovation” we hope Yantra 5.0 yields solutions to some of the pressing challenges in the agricultural sector.