Ahmedabad: Maker Fest, the Indian conti nuation of Maker Faire which is held across America, Europe, Africa and Japan will be held at Cept University here from Ja nuary 22 to 24. Maker Fest, which launched in city in 2014, is the amalgamation of festi vals celebrating innovators and an art show with booths for inventors and de monstrations and workshops for partici pants.

Asha Jadeja, founder Maker Fest, said that this year they will also launch an acce lerator called Makers’ Lab where innova tors and inventors will be given guidance and financial support. She said that Maker Fest is also about giving a platform to loca inventors in parallel with the global move ment of Maker Faire.

This year, a 14-year-old boy from Bapu nagar -Harshwardhan Jhala was among the young innovators. Jhala has made a drone that can be used for agriculture, se curity and defence purposes. “I was inspi red by the Bollywood movie `Three Idiots’. I have used a microcontroller, in-built came ra and sensors to make this device. I want our defence forces to use it to protect our co untry ,“ said Jhala, who has calls his drone Eagle A-7, the smartest drone.

A youth from Gandhinagar, Pratik Parmar, has made the world’s cheapest smart watch. Parmar, who came up with the smartwatch along with four friends, said “Smart watches are available in the market from big companies like Apple, Asus and Samsung, but they cost between Rs 4,000 and 8,000. If my smartwatch is produced in bulk, it will cost around only Rs 800.

Creators, artists and hobbyist across the country are invited to Maker Fest to pre sent contemporary applications of ideas using the vast oceans of art, science and technology. This year, a world-renowned team of US-based women techies `Lady Tech Guild Bios’ is also participating.

Published at timesofindia.indiatimes.com