Blog Buster
random stuff :P
4. To future coordies...
Read this to take a few steps backwards in time, but, in our shoes :)
Post-tenure-clarity :P — few grains of gratitude
Looking back at the whole tenure, there are many things that I am grateful about:
First and foremost, my co-coordinators. I got 2 best friends for life. I trust them and know them better than anyone else on campus and vice versa. We happen to be 3 entirely different people by personality, we somehow always manage to have 3 different angles on the same topic and still always manage to come to a common conclusion (sometimes after bitter fights, but eh), that everyone agrees with. The only thing that unites us is our love for technology and ambition to take this club to a higher level and, honestly, that's all that matters— A common vision.
I learnt that you need to accommodate your fellow Coordi, so that they always feel heard. They may not be always be able to put in the same amount of work as you do but learn to let that go, because they will cover for you when you are not able to give time (you aren’t superhuman to be able to do anything perfectly alone, so yes you are gonna need them just as much as they need you- trust them). All in all- It was a character-building arc- We are far more confident humans now.
Secondly, amazing secys. There were a lot of moments where our secys made us feel proud.
Golden spending 3 days straight working on GyroBot during Summer, Shivansh working on Testbot with his Phone flashlight even when the electricity was out, Chinar keeping the club organised with his index and “DON’T BE A RETARD” warning, Soumyajit cleaning the impossible-to-clean whiteboard as if it were his own, Arbaaz and his tireless efforts on the Inverted Pendulum, teaching Y24s to etch PCBs and trying to fix the speaker for days.
All this kept us motivated to keep running the club.
Thirdly, Campus response:
From the moment when L7 filled up for Robotics101, when 600 people signed up for the workshop, when Robodive test papers ran out in L20 to when 150 people joined the IGVC task submission group. All these moments make us feel like we have created an impact on a significant number of people, these peaks - however satisfying- were not possible without the first 2 things.
Lastly, Our ex-coordies. We are thankful to the Y21 and Y20 (and other) coordinators. We sought their advice on lots of major decisions throughout the tenure and they were always ready to help. It is only because they trusted us, we got through the tenure. This drive contains a lot of notes and tips by past coordies that inspired us.
A Mid-tenure-crisis— Honours and Hardships of the Hardware Entities:
This bit is a realisation I had post Inter-IIT, a time where we had to interact with other entities and felt some differences. This led us to asking a lot of questions and trying to answer them…
What are the current Hardware entities in IITK today? AUV, Aerial, Aeromodelling Club, E-club, ERA, Humanoid, IIT KMS, RASET, Robotics Club (and Vision?)
What are they working on? Underwater robots, Drones, Airplanes, Electronics, Robo-Soccer, Human-like bots, F1-cars, Rockets, everything else, and Ground vehicles.
Like any student body, we work on cool projects. So what's different? In the era of open source and AI-ML projects, where anyone can install python and VS code and print their first “hello world” in a matter of minutes. One can set off with projects involving designing, consulting and programming with just a laptop and good surfing skills.Hardware on the other hand, requires a long term plan, even the simplest RC car requires 10 different electronic and mechanical components to be sourced from usually more than one place and then if all components are compatible and not defective (or chinese :P). One can assemble it successfully. Then after a few library installations, and a little bit of surfing and typing, one can get the car moving (until something blows up). If you ever went through the process of building something from scratch, you probably recall that one incident where you spent hours trying to get something to work and then discovered one loose wire or one bug in the code that just magically got things running. Some even probably blew up a component or 2 in the process. If one has been in hardware long enough, at some point you probably even made up your mind to quit and never return for good. You also probably regret spending endless money on soldering irons, jumper wires, motor drivers and batteries, where instead you could have been streaming your favourite Web-Series while your ML model was training, for free.
So why even bother doing hardware?? There is no placement or intern in building RC cars or coding them. In contrast, there is a surge in demand for ML engineers. Everyone wants an LLM interface for everything. Let’s face it, hardware is hard and expensive and people seem to function just fine without humanoid robots interfering or without drones hovering around them. Au contraire, Software is easier, and people cannot seem to even get their homework done without ChatGPT.
So what are these 10 entities doing? and moreover, WHY? While our projects may look like a ball of wires and frame of shafts, we relish the moments it took us to get them working, and truly appreciate the complexity that it embodies, all from scratch. And well… someone has to do it.
Now, What next?? Isn't the smart thing to do is bring AI and ML together with hardware, A wholesome project, won’t that consist? This is where I appeal or put my suggestion that the council come together and collaborate on larger projects where hardware entities contribute simultaneously and equally as software can.
Why is that not happening right now, one might ask? The council seems to have another 10 entities for ML AI and other software Applications. An effect that we need to keep in account is the effect of COVID. The pandemic shut down Hardware entities for almost 2 years. The knowledge and practices of our seniors were not effectively transferred to juniors; Especially, When it comes to manufacturing intensive projects where knowing how to use tools like drills and lathe was taught by seniors in workshops. Moreover, the full potential of existing inventory was lost. Our club has projects and components worth more than 10 Lakhs but unfortunately we were not told its purpose or why they were bought. Secondly, the learning curve is slower in hardware with a huge entry barrier, one finds it hard to develop any useful expertise with just second year and third year projects. First years were not actively allowed to contribute or given access to clubs before, but in the coming batches, increasing involvement of freshers will lead to better quality and scale of projects.
So, Are we getting better? Yes, lol, It is commendable that entities have revived the culture of doing-by-hand slowly but successfully over the last 2 yearsAnd the second problem is being addressed by Winter programmes like Winter Camp and Robodive.
Well this is just a start and there’s yet a long way to go.
A stunted-tenure-start:
Roboclub is dead, Coordi banna kyun hai and bohot zyada kaam hota hain Coordi ko were 3 constant things I was told before I got involved in the club. I admit that I signed up for this rather half-heartedly, hoping that the other 3 will work a bit and fearing that the other 3 might just vanish mid way. Our personal ambitions - intern, CPI, projects etc already had us worried so much that the club was least of our concerns. We just wanted to get the bare minimum done, itna ki secys humein gaali na de.
[march:] When congratulated on selection, with total regret in our hearts, we made a pre-term report, budget and summer project proposal. Each of which seemed to add to our anxieties. Our summer project recruitment numbers were terrible in comparison to most clubs. Our budget had hardly increased. No one wanted to willingly co-mentor our summer-projects. We were in for doom, that too- alone. So what turned things around? (Drum roll) THE hackathon. [uhm, story time]
Now, THE hackathon was one of Aayush’s many ideas (including Robodive). He is an ML enthusiast working at the-tuf-to-get-Vipul-Arora-Lab, who got interested when he saw the Amex Super Bowl Campus Challenge notification. He wanted 2 more people who were half as interested in tech as he was and could not find any better options who were on campus other than us. With no visible loss in this opportunity we 3 signed up for this hackathon; After all, this seemed to only add to our aforementioned personal ambitions.
Thus we started to spend time getting together each night to work on the ML model submissions for the hackathon. With time, we started to get to know each other better and the work element started to go down. We would spend countless hours talking about ourselves, our situations and how we ended up here. We were surprised at how well our wavelengths seemed to match. We started to enjoy each other’s companies so much that the hackathon performance didn’t really matter much anymore. Subtle flex: We still managed to do better than Pclub, BCS, ICG wali team, thus laying the start of a “Roboclub is Best” idea. I was lucky to have found company in my intern prep as it was rather lonely on campus during summers. Thanks to this hackathon, I ended up landing my summer internship at AMEX.
This hackathon managed to unite us on the 2 important things- love for technology and ambition to take this club to a higher level. After this, we led the tenure with a common vision, trying to do our best for the club at every opportunity.
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TLDR: Please don’t screw up your tenure! Also, Roboclub is best
3. Bombay Diaries
The Inter IIT Tech Meet is a prestigious Pan-IIT competition that spans a wide range of fields in Science and Technology, from Robotics and AI to Machine Learning, Finance, and Consulting. It’s essentially a large-scale hackathon with four categories of problem statements, each varying in terms of preparation requirements: High Prep, Mid Prep, Low Prep, and No Prep. The categorization depends on the team size and the time allocated for preparation. In these, teams work and submit their solutions before the Meet. In the Meet, teams present their solutions to the sponsor companies and get evaluated.
The No-Prep PS is slightly different. The PS is provided on the spot during the event and a 6-hour window is provided to come up with a working solution. In this category, participating teams are quarantined. Participants must rely solely on their own knowledge and experience.
We were initially working on a Mid-Prep Problem Statement presented by Kalyani Bharat Forge. The task was to design a centralized swarm navigation system capable of:
- Mapping unknown environments.
- Tracking changes in objects within those environments.
- Labeling objects and coordinating robots for various tasks.
Our solution incorporated a Reinforcement Learning (RL)-based exploration algorithm that used the Gmapping package for environment mapping while avoiding dynamic obstacles. We also integrated YOLOv3 to recognize and label objects, storing their locations centrally. A task allocation algorithm was used to assign navigation goals to individual robots. We were working with ROS2 Humble and Gazebo, tools I had some prior experience with but was still in the process of mastering.
However, things took an unexpected turn when the No-Prep Problem Statement : RoboQuest was announced. The event was organized by Rigbetel Labs, a small startup from Pune. Their flagship product was the TortoiseBot—a cost-effective, made-in-India alternative to the widely-used Turtle Bot3. The Turtle Bot3 is a standard in robotics for testing navigation and automation software, and the TortoiseBot aimed to replicate this functionality while still being in development. This new problem also involved working with ROS2 and Gazebo, so my teammate Aayush (co-coordinator at the Robotics Club) and I were selected to work on it.
While the exact problem statement wouldn’t be revealed until the event itself, the key requirement was to brush up on our ROS2 skills. Having worked with Aayush for the past 9 months in the Robotics Club I couldn’t have asked for a better teammate for this challenge. Entry #2: RoboQuestEven though we had prepared as much as we could, uncertainty loomed over the event. Given our lack of prior experience, there were little expectations from us. We were under strict instructions not to interact with anyone or reveal our team ID.
Round 1: The Simulation Challenge
The first round was a simulation-based challenge in Gazebo. Out of all the teams, only 10 would proceed to Round 2. For this round, we were provided with a Gazebo simulation of the Tortoise Bot. The problem statement required us to: Spawn four copies of the robot model in the given environment. Run a mapping algorithm on all four bots to autonomously create a joint map.
It seemed impossible to achieve in this short time. Breaking it down into manageable goals, we began working on each part. Progress was slow and frustrating. At times, nothing seemed to work—until suddenly, it did. Aayush managed to get SLAM running autonomously, and I successfully spawned multiple robots in the same environment. However, we ran out of time to write code for map stitching. Drawing from prior experience, we decided it was better to submit whatever was functional rather than risk an incomplete submission. Nervously, we hoped we’d make it to the next round.
Round 2: The Hardware Challenge
The next morning, to our relief, we found out we had qualified for Round 2, securing a spot among the top seven teams. The second round focused on implementing a localization algorithm using the Tortoise Bot. We were quarantined in a workspace for five hours and each team was provided a bot to code on. The task was to build a map of the given environment and then localize the robot within it. Despite our efforts, nothing seemed to work. Time was slipping away, and the algorithms we found online were far too complex to implement within the tight time frame. Other teams appeared to have made some progress, but their strategies were unclear to us. As our demonstration time approached, I decided to take a risk. Instead of chasing complicated solutions, I wrote a simple feature-matching-based algorithm. After some debugging and a fair amount of frustration, it finally worked.
During the demonstration, we discovered that only three teams—including ours—had managed to produce a working solution. Most teams had successfully created a map but failed to implement localization. It turned out that many had attempted sophisticated algorithms and couldn’t make them work within the constraints.
The judges were engaging and insightful. They were happy to discuss solutions and even offered tips based on their own expertise. To our surprise, some of them were part of the organizing team for ROSCon India, an event I had long anticipated. They connected with us on LinkedIn, opening up new networking opportunities.
After eight intense hours in quarantine, we were finally free. Exhausted but elated, I indulged in a midnight dinner, eagerly recounting the event’s highlights to my friends.
There was a lot of learning to draw from these 2 days. Witnessing how quick thinking and efficient teamwork propelled our efforts, despite our lack of expertise in SLAM and robotics, was both inspiring and rewarding. Successfully competing on equal footing instilled in me the confidence and motivation to further pursue my work in robotics.
Entry#3: Mumbai and the Robotics Club
The Robotics Club had members working on different Problem Statements. Aayush and Yuval served as co-coordinators, while Garima, Varun, and Aniket—former Secretaries—were tackling the Bharat Forge Problem Statement. Beyond our shared passion for robotics, we had built a close-knit bond through projects, concerts, and parties throughout the year.
For days, we had been buzzing with excitement about exploring Mumbai. This trip held a special significance for me, as it was a chance to revisit my old home, school, and neighborhood. Still, we reminded ourselves that our primary focus was the Problem Statements we had prepared. Balancing work and fun was important—and we mostly managed to stick to it.
Once Yuval, Aayush, and my Problem Statements concluded, we had a free day. Yuval was eager to visit a beach, while I wanted to see my old home and pool. Being the “local guide” of the group, I took charge of the group, but my rusty navigation skills led to some confusion. Having not been to Mumbai in years, I wasn’t entirely sure of the routes, and Yuval’s endless questions didn’t help.
Our first stop was my old home and pool. Yuval, still puzzled about the lack of a beach, reluctantly followed as we hopped from an auto to a local train to a kaali-peeli cab. When we finally reached the beach, it turned out to be as I had warned—overcrowded and unkempt.
To make up for it, I took the group to Marine Drive, the iconic promenade immortalized in countless movies. Under the night sky, with the city skyline sparkling and a cool breeze enveloping us, our complaints faded. The chaos of Mumbai dissolved into a rare and precious tranquility. We sat quietly on the walkway, soaking in the surreal peace that contrasted sharply with the city’s frenetic energy.
Later that night, we joined the Bharat Forge team for dinner. The table buzzed with stories of presentations, other IITs, and speculation about the medal results to be announced the next day.
The results, expected by noon, were delayed. We had explored the IITB campus all morning, so we decided to visit Hiranandani and the Jio World Drive at BKC. Being tech enthusiasts, we were especially thrilled about the Apple Store there. Our last day in Mumbai, concluded with the Inter IIT networking dinner and Award ceremony. We formed new relations with several other robotics teams across IITs. We had enjoyed our time on campus and had countless moments to look back on.
2. Namma Bengaluru
My eyes lit up the second my father said, "Ghar dekhne ja rahe hain." I had been looking forward to this day for seven years. Bangalore, or Bengaluru as it's fondly called, holds a special place in my heart—a city where I spent the most significant six years of my life. It’s a place that taught me to work hard despite the circumstances.
As we drove through familiar streets, we first crossed the big blue gate of my alma mater, Baldwin Girls’ High School. Nostalgia hit me as a wave of memories of my sisters and me running through the gate just as it was closing, flooded back. We lived just 200 meters away and always managed to reach just in time at 8:15. Laksha, the youngest, was and still is the most pampered. She was three when she started school with us. Her chaotic morning routine remains the butt of family jokes.
Every morning was a mad dash. My father would start waking Laksha up at 7, but she always went back to sleep. He would pick her up, make her brush her teeth, and leave her with my mom for a bath, which she often skipped as it got late. By the time, Laksha was in her school uniform, it would be 8 o'clock. Panic mode would set in. My dad would put her shoes on while my mom forced milk down her throat. Urvi would dump books and lunch into her bag, and I often ended up speed-writing ABCs in her homework book at 8:05. Depending on the urgency, we would walk, run, or be driven to school, always barely slipping through the closing gate.
Our school was massive, with a big playground, classroom buildings, and a basketball court in the center. In fifth grade, I took up basketball, dreaming of making it to the team, but the 6 a.m. practice sessions were a hurdle. The only thing I consistently achieved was scraped knees. I remember looking forward to visits to the nurse's room as an excuse to roam outside class with a friend.
Baldwin Girls was an all-girls school and was highly populated, with sections from A to H and 55 students per section. The sections shuffled every year, so it was hard to know everyone. Friend circles changed yearly, but I was lucky to find Muskaan in fifth grade. She stayed in my section until seventh grade and became my constant, my anchor. She was the first person I confided in about moving to Mumbai, despite my parents' strict instructions to keep it a secret. Muskaan was my savior, helping me catch up on classes I missed due to swimming and RoboCup. She shared her notes and brought me lunch in the robotics class during breaks. She was mature beyond her years, and I often followed her lead. We made a pact never to marry boys, thinking it was a silly idea. She was into fashion while I embraced my sporty side, much like my current roommate, Khushi.
Amidst all the changing sections, I had another constant: Tanusri. Tanusri was in my swimming batch from 4th grade till 7th. She was a year senior to me. We had a lot in common, apart from the daily rants in the changing room about the swim session. She had a younger sister, a grade senior to Urvi. Her mother and my mother were both Chartered accountants and became friends really soon. They even did a few auditing assignments together. They used to come over to our house a lot. My mother tutored Tanusri in Hindi for a while as they were core Tamilians and struggled in Hindi. We have been to plenty of competitions together and had many meals together, even on regular school days. I would visit her class often and just hang around her friends. They would tell me about the teachers they had and what I should expect in the next year. They made me feel comfortable. I even slipped out of my class to attend their annual Christmas Class party in 7th grade. 8th Graders were allowed to bring Electronic Gadgets on that day. We clicked a lot of pictures and ordered Dominoes on her phone. I enjoyed pretending to be an 8th grader for a day. The class was so big that no one noticed me. I even had the privilege of trying on her blazer.
I want to thank Bangalore for introducing me to Music. In 7th grade, I was made partners with Cheryl Jasline. She had an American accent even though she had never lived outside of Bangalore, and I always wondered how. She had the weirdest handwriting as if she had seizures while writing. She was below average in studies, and that just made her impression on me weirder. The first time I spoke to her was when the song “Blank Space” was trending in my class, and I had no idea what that was. She told me to go listen to it on YouTube. And that way, she would tell me about an English song almost every day and I would go back home and listen to it daily. Soon, we both became crazy fans (along with the whole grade) of One Direction and Taylor Swift. I was surprised by the infinite number of songs she knew. I realized super late that her watching VH1 all day was probably the reason for her American accent, her infinite song knowledge, and her bad grades. When I moved, I had probably gotten 50% of her knowledge. My impression of her changed from weird to fun.
She never missed school. The only 2 days she missed school was when she got her first period. This was a moment of discovery for me. I knew about the fact that girls get periods but had never gotten any details. When she returned from her 2-day leave, she described vividly about what had happened. It was a serious discussion, and I made mental notes for when my time came. We agreed that I had to be prepared, unlike her. Unfortunately, I don’t think anything can prepare one for their first period.
After crossing school, we stopped at the swimming pool. I learnt swimming in Bangalore in the third grade. We first joined the beginners batch in my school which did not work out due to school constraints. My mother then shifted me to the pool opposite our apartment building. It was a small 20m pool with 5 lanes. It became my training spot for the next 6 years. They had multiple slots, and they were full. My batch had at least 15 children. I resented it every day. I cried almost every day. During the first month of training, all I did was blow bubbles while keeping my eyes open in the chlorine water. I did not find goggles comfortable, so I had to get used to the sting of chlorine. Later in every session, they would make us kick while holding on to the wall for months. At the end of the session, they would put us in a queue and throw us into the deep end of the pool 2 meters away from the pool, expecting us to reach the wall with the kicks we learnt. I would cry and scream, go to the washroom to escape this part and run to my mother to hide from the coach. There was no escape ... the coach sent my mother out of the pool and gave me no choice. This continued till I started swimming.
Then there was a golden period where I made friends, learnt more strokes, improved, and got lucky with medals. I enjoyed flexing in class and even skipping classes for competitions. Training hours increased, and balancing studies with swimming became challenging. My mother was my pillar of support, tutoring me to ensure I stayed at the top of my class while giving my best in swimming.
Bangalore, with its challenges and triumphs, shaped me. It’s a place of fond memories, lifelong friendships, and invaluable lessons. Bengaluru, you will always be my home.
1. Story of the worst course? EE250.
Writing this piece for my own retrospection, so pardon my language, these are raw thoughts:p This semester (4th) I had a course called EE250 [Control Systems]. Now for anyone with little knowledge of Electronics or Robotics this is a simple yet essential course. I had impleemneted PID controls earlier and assumed ki yeh course toh aasan padega cuz sabse hard cheese toh already kar rakhi hain.
Rookie mistake? yep.
The professor taking up this course had his own Robotics Lab, a place I was fascinated with the second I laid my eyes on it. I wanted to work with him ever since.
Like any other course, I attended the first few classes. The first weekly quiz was fine, but in the next one, I scored 0. I neglected it as it looked like a silly mistake, and it only carried 2% weightage. Similarly next quiz also went bad, this time I blamed it on my lack of focus and this way i made reasons for every quiz and the 0s kepts piling up. I would prepare harder, more carefully only to get another 0 because of something stupid.
We had reached a major quiz now, 25% weightage, and I had no idea what to fix. I was doing the normal routine where I would do the asignment and notes a night early. There would be one tiny concept taught over the week which seemed easy to deal with. In the major quiz, I somehow managed to make a mistake in every question, almost as if someone was plotting against me or using the Imperious Curse on me. Everything seemed to slip out of control, I felt frustrated as I had tried everything. This streak of 0s would barely budge to a 5. The course was approaching a critical point, MIDSEM, and the pressure was getting real. I had started to doubt by capabilties, how would I run a robotics club if I cant even solve simple questions each week.
My friends were tutoring me, I was attending classes, I was double checking everything during the exams, and still the zeroes wudnt stop. The next 25% worth Major quiz was round the corner, I could not afford another loss. I experimented with the subject to all extents that I could, and went for the quiz. GUESS WHAT?- Another 0. I knew the theory for sure, but problems, nuhuh.
Everything was lost now. All hope in the drains, 75% of the course had passed. The midsem was easy and had gone well for almost everyone, even me. Apart from that, there was nothing left to try for the end sems. I could foresee another 0 already. why study if 0 hi aana hain. padhke dekh liya, kuch nahi hota.
The end sem was announced to be an Open Book Test, I had nothing to prepare. I saw people doing all sorts of reference books, everyone seemed to find the course simple, they discussed so many things around me, and all I felt was, its pointless. The quizzes had always been basic, so was the mid sem, I did not expect the End sem to be any different.
The final day was here- D-DAY: I went in for the exam, with my notes, with just one aim, 0 nahi laana hain. I was least bothered about scoring full even though the paper would be easy, I just wanted to get through these 3 hours without screaming or crying. The paper was of a slightly better level than our midsem/quizzes. I wrote slowly and numbly.
A week later, the papers were shown, and PLOT TWIST: I scored 87/100. It was among the top few people. I was shocked beyond my senses. padhna nahi tha kya!
My net total remains pretty low, but somehow managed to come close enough to average. On the bright side, sir was impressed with the work I had done so far in robotics and I got a project under him this summer.