Well, since I have no other thing to do this week, other than seeing movies, TV shows and listening to yet another new crappy album by a young wannabe star, I have decided to blog about my visit to NAL last Sunday! (Who wants to talk about that Ayodhya issue, its too damn boring for my tastes :P.. Anyway because of that I've holidays for 4 days in a row!! Don't know whether to rejoice or grumble!)
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| Kodihalli Campus |
It was a technological exhibition day at NAL organized as part of the Foundation Day celebrations of CSIR - Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. So my classmates and me made it to their Kodihalli campus by 9 in the morning. To enlighten everybody what NAL is, its a high technology oriented institution concentrating on advanced research in aeronautics and related disciplines.
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| Belur Campus |
The day long event was hosted by NAL's Belur campus. When they first told us to board their buses and go to Belur, we were like WTF!!! It would take most of the day just to get there! And what will they show there, historical statues and tourism spots! No thanks, we have seen all of it! Then they put some sense into our very over excited brains saying it was just another campus some distance away. We felt relieved and went to the other campus and it was quite nicely done. Most of the popular themes being composite materials as the future of Indian aviation industry and prototypes and main frames of Airbuses, planes, etc. The NAL's technological innovations and recent achievements were on display as well. The exhibits included tapping of wind energy, power generation from solar ponds, support to India's space program, smart materials and structural health monitoring materials, among many others.
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| Inside the Belur campus |
Collaboration between the different fields of mechanical, computer science and electronics was highly stressed at the event. Then we came back to the main Kodihalli campus' cricket field where there was the real highlight of the event, meant for most of the audience which consisted of parents and kids who expected some kind of flashiness and not just the boring scientific talk which went on inside the Belur campus. It included live flight demonstrations of NAL developed MAV's (Micro Air Vehicles) and radio controlled UAV's (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles).
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| MAV: This costs about 4-5 lakhs!! |
MAV is an autonomous flying vehicle capable of carrying a payload and a miniaturized video camera which can locate nearby enemy troops, support military and civilian missions, weather observations and help in anti-terrorist operations, much like a drone. The different maneuvers can be done by a skilled operator. Anyways, if you have seen the air show on Independence Day on TV, its very much the same, except on a small-scale and there are no human pilots inside the vehicles, not that one can actually fit in even if they try!!
19 comments:
It looks like you had a good time inside campus with all the planes... :) Did that red little plane vehicle really cost that much..?!!!
wowo it looks cool
i loved the planes ... nice ones but the MAV so expensive no wonder the army can't afford loads of them
:)
Karthik: Yeah it does cost that much!
Bikramjit: Thanks :)
Yup, its too bad about the cost factor!
That open day gave all the people an oppurtunity to interact closely with the things there....Thanks to NAL and you for sharing such a good experience:-)
Racer: Thanks:)
I didn't see you, though we went at almost the same time!!
And I think you are there in that pic with the planes :)
Yeah yeaah. That's me near a plane demo volunteer. I am in a khakhi cargos shirt....Pic is blurr though so couldn really depict the face
Racer: Yeah :)
wow looks cool indeed...like bik i loved the planes..cheers buddy:)
wow...nice sneak peak inside..were u allowed to take pictures??
Ramesh: Yeah, they were cool :)
Madhu: Actually we weren't allowed to take our mobiles or camera inside the Belur Campus!
So, the pic is blurry!
My friend gave that pic with the planes to me!
Don't know how he got it! :)
@Giri: Dude, there was this professional photographer who had been there as part of the photo thing for the records of the day's event.
I saw him with a long lens camera and it was quite proffesional too. This pic could have been got implicitly from the web's saved pages. That'll decrease the clearity:)
Bcz strictly no cameras or phones allowed insid3!
:-)
beautiful campus
like the pics
That MAV device reminds me of the helicopter and embedded video cam thingie Ranko made in 3 Idiots. Seems like you had a good trip.
Racer: Yeah dude. I think so :)
Thanks for sharing :)
sm: Thank you :)
Samadrita: Good educational trip :)
Now that you mention it, it does look like the thingy Ranchod made in 3 Idiots :)
Girish,
CSIR allows clicking pics inside?
But, seems it was an informative visit for u and frnds!
Restless: Absolutely not!!
The pics I took were from the outside!
The inside pic was given by a friend!
It was highly informative and kinda fun :)
@Girish : Oops I made a mistake. It's Rancho and not Ranko :P
Btw check your FB message.
Samadrita: It happens :P
Gonna check it now!
Hi,
I have to visit C-MMACS, NAL Belur Campus in a months time. Can you please clear it whether it is actually situated in Belur (Distt - Hasan) or in proper Bangalore?
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