Tech Fair 2023 was a success

Organizing any event in campus, let alone an educational one, is a hassle. The classes you might miss or be late for, the quality time you would otherwise spend with friends, the back and forth from office to office in order to get approval and in this case presentable supplies are all so tiring and time consuming. So why do it in the first place? Why go through all this trouble?

The why

Well, it all started in a members meeting one day. We were discussing the enthusiasm, or lack there of, campus students have towards technology in general. After all it is a technology institution yet no one seemed to care. “How do we change this?”, “how do we get the community to get involved in tech?” we said. Among many other solutions, this event came up. Considering the short time we had left in that academic year, we decided to go with it.

The main elements

Like any event, ours had to have a central idea, something it stands for. So after thinking and talking it through, we went with a theme of showcasing, preferably with tangible and physical items, the latest and greatest tech products. We prioritized exciting and trendy options like AI, VR and drones. We wanted this event to stick in out fellow students’ minds, to make it something worth talking about with your friends. And that we did!

The difficulties

The biggest hurdle we had to overcome, is probably acquiring items. First the lack of any interesting stuff in campus, then the lack of willingness to share what limited resources we managed to track. Frankly tho, there were a number of offices within the campus that had items we were interested in, they were reluctant at first. I mean who can blame them? A bunch of kids asking to borrow items you personally signed on is not so much confidence inspiring. To their credit, once we went through the proper process of getting authorized by the university’s scientific director or Sci-Di as we call him, they were willing to lend us all items needed for presentation. Even a research drone estimated to cost 1.5 million ETB. So yeah, the difficulties are also what we are most grateful for!

Also, on the day of the event, there was an ongoing construction project that was being operated on the events ground. I am not sure if it was a miscommunication issue or if the admins weren’t paying enough attention. Ultimately, that didn’t stop us from hosting our event. It did cause a few delays and confusion on table placement, but nothing more.

So how was it?

Attendees included the Sci-Di himself, other higher officials of the campus, technical experts and most importantly the students. We set out to spark an interest in our friends, and we did just that! Just, let me just show you. That’s easier.

Our member Nebyu, explaining solar technology.

Mekdim is here showcasing the latest on AI

Here, Yordanos is passionately explaining Blockchain technology

The drone booth, didn’t even have any rest, but thankfully Leul and Feven had it under control

Yohannes was going around, interviewing attendees

The crowd just couldn’t get enough of the VR

And here I am breaking down CPU cores probably for the 15th time :)

Have I stated how good Leul was handling the Drone fans

So by any measure, the program was indeed successful and has made us the organizers very proud.

Helping hands

Okay we did not do this alone. And by we, I mean myself, Feven Tesfaye, Hildana Shisema and Natnael Endale. This was the team behind Tech Fair 2023, but we had a dozen hands helping us in the background. Just to mention the biggest ones:

• Dr. Bimrew Tamrat, Scientific Director at BiT
• BiT Energy Store
• BDU STEM Center
• Dr. Minyichl Gitaw, Managing Director at BiT
• Tibebe Solomon, BDU Student Union president
• And more

We are also very thankful to all members of KTS club, you didn’t hold back from giving your precious time and even helping out with labor when it came down to it. So again, thank you.

What’s next?

Briefly, we plan to have an even bigger event next year.

What do you think? How did you see our journey? Feedback and comments are highly appreciated. Feel free to reach out to any of the organizers. Thank you, and have a lovely day.

Abdulhafiz Ahmed