A Nostalgic trip down lane - SAKSHAMA'08

The School of Mechanical Engineering, Sastra University conducted its first ever National Symposium- “Sakshma-08”, thus providing a chance for the best minds of the country to show off their superiority in mastering this era of Machines and Technology.

The whole idea behind such a mega event came forth when the powerful ones of the “Mechanical and Mechatronics Association- MECCASO” decided to add something more to their list of achievements, a feather in their cap and hence “Sakshama-08” was born.

But what is Sakshama?? What has that name got to do anything with a mechanical symposium?? Well when the time for naming this brain child came up, a huge turmoil took over. Needed a name! A name that not only talks about the technicality of the symposium but also sticks to the traditional roots of Sastra University, and then came up the idea of naming the event in the “language of Gods-Sanskrit”. After literally an era of careful research, “Sakshama” was chosen which means, to realise one’s potential.


Ideas for the events were left open to students of the SoME and the response to that was revolutionary! Finally the committee of organisers scrutinized and shortlisted five events which covered the various aspects of the mechanical and mechtronics sector.

The events were a combination of technology and entertainment, of careful research and conceptual analysis, of money and power!

The base for any symposium played a foundation here too!
Paper Presentation: Innovation is what sending shock waves through corridors of power and it’s the thing that drives much of today’s conglomerate. With the three main subdivisions of the mechanical world as the topics- thermal engineering, design and production, Sakshama served as a platform for various innovative ideas to be showcased.

Watch the Birdie: Well men and the game golf go a long way back but golf and machines?? Well at Sakshama, the idea of golf for machines came up. Participants were required to construct a mechanism to drive a ball into strategically positioned holes, with varying levels of difficulty.

On the spot events were decided to inculcate fun and frolic in the symposium. The events under this were Treasure Hunt and Inti Sensors.
Treasure hunt: as the name suggests, this was to bring out the ‘Jack Sparrows’ within one’s self by providing clues to hunt for the treasure hidden in the deep and dark corners of the Viswakarma Joth. Participants were required to use the combined might of brain and brawn to find the product of quest and thus to emerge victorious.
Inti Sensors: Measurement has become an integral part of the engineers and the event Inti Sensors was based on measurement of different quantities. A Mechatronics problem statement was given and the participants were to solve the problem impromptu.

Finally, none of the tech fests or the symposiums becomes true without this event- “Tech Quiz”. The team came up with rounds of questions to quench the thirst of knowledge for the participants.

The preparations for the symposium started in full swing about a month earlier. First things first, Sponsorship! With just the idea for a technical platform and the green signal from the authorities, nothing could be officially started, unless and until someone came forward in financing the events. Fortunately, ZOHO, A Product of Advent and TATA Consultancy Services, were indeed a blessing in the implementation of this creativity.

The rules and the problem statements for the events being set, the Design team of the department got together to start off their long process of preparing the brochures, posters, pamphlets, certificates and what not!

With the job of the marketing team and the design team nearly complete, the posters and the invitations were sent to some of the leading engineering colleges of the nation and the response to the preliminary rounds of Paper Presentation indeed made the team happy! A jury was set up to select the papers for the finals presentation on the Sakshama platform. It consisted of eminent professors from the host department.

All this while the infra team was busy in preparing the tracks and thus spreading the feeling of enthusiasm all over, the design team came up with the idea of Sakshama T-shirts for better publicity within the University Campus. The excellent design and the T-Shirt quality accelerated its sales and even before the Day arrived, the college was swarming with the people in the t-shirts.

Finally the D-Day dawned bright and sunny. The day started off with the inaugural function with Mr. R.Venkatraman, Director S.P.F as the chief guest. After the ceremony, the day proceeded on with the various being held as scheduled. An overwhelming response from more than 18 colleges spread throughout Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states with over 250 participants from different branches of engineering.
Apart from the outside colleges, the interest shown by both department and non department students of Sastra University was indeed like icing on the cake. The event witnessed a marathon paper presentation program with more than 17 papers being exhibited in fields of Thermal, Design and Manufacturing Engineering. The most sought after Treasure Hunt had whopping 85 teams, while Watch the Birdie event drew more than 10 different mechanisms all of which were to play the robot golf. Inti sensors, event to test innovation, pulled in a large crowd along with a Surprise event on creativity in drafting saw huge participation. The Quiz Finale was the trademark of the entire event, with 5 final teams battling it out to glory. The valedictory ceremony marked the culmination of a month long efforts by the team. Mr. V.Badrinath, Dean H.R. Department, Sastra University, presided over the ceremony and gave away the prizes to the victorious.