LOCUS 2018 to Put Smart Cities on the Limelight
The fifteenth edition of the most anticipated annual technological festival in Nepal- LOCUS 2018 is announced to be held on Magh 19-21, 2074 at IOE, Pulchowk Campus, Lalitpur. LOCUS is a student body of Electronics, Computer and Electrical Engineering of Pulchowk Engineering Campus working for the promotion of technology and the spirit of competition among students. Since 2003, it has been an opportunity for the students to display their projects and ideas. Its core values lie around the motto ‘Competition builds Quality’.
Theme Release
The theme for LOCUS 2018 was released on December 1, 2017, at Pulchowk Engineering College in the presence of professors, students from various colleges and media personnel. LOCUS 2018 encourages all the enthusiastic students to identify a problem, build a team, come up with an idea and act on it. It also draws the attention of hardware and software companies, engineering colleges and all the concerned authority for the co-operation and collaboration.
Prof. Dr Subarna Shakya, on the theme release event, said that “Smart cities are the need of future and there will be very powerful and amazing technologies to make cities smarter. And, it is an opportunity for all technical students to contribute to this movement.”. Campus Chief of Pulchowk Campus, Prof. Dr Gokarna Bahadur Motra added that there is a very big potential in Smart Cities and will soon have multi-billion market size. Prasiddha Karki, the LOCUS 2018 Coordinator invited stakeholders, institutions and students to join LOCUS 2018 for making a measurable impact on the development of Smart Cities in Nepal.
Events
Along with the 3-day main event on Magh 19, 20, 21 hosting competitions in the hardware, software and electrical categories, there are various pre-events that may support these ideas or even help to visualize a new one. Following events are to be organized this year:
- Dronacharya – a drone competition
- Robo Warz – an extensive robot fight
- Crash Course on Robotics
- Hack-a-Week
- Code Jam
- Code Camp
- Talk Show with motivational and inspirational figures
- MATLAB Simulation
- Paper Presentation
- Energy Hackathon
- Tech Debates
- Zerone Magazine and scholar publish
- Technical Quiz competition for +2 students
- Photography Competition
- Flash Mob
- Children in Technology (a social initiative) and many more
Smart Cities- the BuzzWord
Considering this burning issue of the need to understand the smart city, LOCUS 2018 will be organizing various programs, seminars and exhibition on the theme Smart City: Information and Technology’. In this season of National Election, Smart City has been quite a buzzword for the candidates. However, we might miss out on the important aspect of how it can really be made possible. It is not just free wifi or automated traffic system. It is rather a clean, beautiful and organized city that is implemented in practice through extensive research.
Did you know that by 2050, 70% of the world’s population will be city dwellers? Smart cities use new technologies and data management to achieve sustainable development and adapt to this rise in urbanization. The mission is to help governments, businesses and citizens to create better cities for tomorrow! Here’s a video from LOCUS, IOE Pulchowk to help you understand Smart Cities.
