
Science Hack Day is a three-day event where anyone excited about making weird, silly or serious things with science comes together in the same physical space to see what they can prototype within 36 consecutive hours. Designers, developers, artists, scientists and people from any background are welcome to attend – no experience in science or hacking is necessary, just an insatiable curiosity. The event is organized by volunteers, and supported via sponsors. SHD India 2022 was the 5th annual event!
The mission of Science Hack Day is simply to get excited and make things with science! People organically form multidisciplinary teams over the course of a weekend: particle physicists team up with designers, marketers join forces with open source rocket scientists, writers collaborate with molecular biologists, and developers partner with school kids. By collaborating on focused tasks during this short period, small groups of hackers are capable of producing remarkable results.
Every time this event is organized at Sankalp Bhoomi Farm Resort,Belgaum, Karnataka State, India.The farm resort, totally in tune with nature in its rustic uncorrupted state, stands testimony to saving nature. It was once an abandoned quarry, today natures glory restored. The resort resembles an enchanting oasis, with a thick set of trees, sprawling lawns, and a large lagoon surrounded by picturesque expansive rock walls as backdrop. The venue provides perfect space and ambience for all hacking/making activities. It also offers a complete rejuvenating and relaxing experience for all SHD participants to return with everlasting memories.
To be a part of this event, you just need to bring your curious mind and an open attitude to explore new ideas and concepts.
Day 0 : Hackers from different places kept coming at different times. Volunteers were making arrangements for packing the workshop kits.All awesome volunteers were involved in getting the preparations done.

Hitesh setup the wifi at the cafeteria.Jyoti Sawant has designed all the posters and banners.Everyone gathered in the main hall and introduced themselves. Everything was informal and all this was followed by a tasty dinner. Beautiful venue

Day 1: Sun rises to witness a day filled with fun-filled science activities.

Students and participants kept coming and received their kits and batches.

A sense of curiosity to know what will happen throughout the day. Breakfast was arranged, followed by an informal inaugural where everyone was briefed about the schedule by Gautam Samant and Rahul Khanolkar. Hackers presented their hack ideas and invited anyone interested to join.
The science toys workshop began. Students were excited to learn by doing simple experiments.Concepts like electromagnetic induction, magnetic properties, glowing an led,etc were well understood.All credit goes to our dynamic volunteer and hacker Jithin BP. He is responsible for getting the entire workshop material, conductiong the workshop and even for his hack ideas.


A delicious lunch was served. Later a session on taking slides were arranged by Dr Rutuja Khanolkar, Rahul Khanolkar and their team of students.Students were taught how to bisect the stem of a leaf, and observe it below the microscope. Curiosity sparks.


Also exhibit of different stones were being explained by students of GSS College.

This was followed a panflute making session by ArunGanesh, Shruti, Advait and Vedant.Flutes were prepared by using Papaya tree leaf stem and different sounds were produced.

With all this exciting learning happening, kids wanted to spend more time at the venue but reluctantly went home and came back the next day full of energy.
Meanwhile all hackers were busy working with their hack ideas by collaborating with one another.Kids were busy playing hula hoops(by nano hacker Eva), synchron

Also exhibit of different stones were being explained by students of GSS College.
This was followed a panflute making session by ArunGanesh, Shruti, Advait and Vedant.Flutes were prepared by using Papaya tree leaf stem and different sounds were produced.With all this exciting learning happening, kids wanted to spend more time at the venue but reluctantly went home and came back the next day full of energy.
Meanwhile all hackers were busy working with their hack ideas by collaborating with one another.Kids were busy playing hula hoops(by nano hacker Eva), synchronised swing, clay modeling,trying to balance on the slack line, riding the unicycle.

A team from Bellary who visited Science Hack Day for the first time were inspired by the learning atmosphere and they began to build models of boat with plastic bottles to explain concepts of upward thrust, buoyancy etc.

We felt refreshing by playing volleyball for sometime.
Next was Lightning talks, which i eagerly wait for. Lightning talks are a format for
presenting information quickly and consicely, typically in a group setting such as a conference or workshop. They are typically shorter in duration than traditional presentations, often lasting only a few minutes and are usually given in rapid succession. Physics fun with Praveen. Jithin and leds, Prabhu sir and number counting with fingers. Code as an art by Farhan, Open Street Map by Arun Ganesh, Chat GPT by Gautam, Rock climbing by Sayan, Learning with kids by Shruti, Psychology and Science by Natasha,Mountains and Trek by Akshay, Bat Myths related to Covid by Rahul, Hand-made clay tiles by Suyesh. This was followed by dinner.
Wait wait that was not the end. Night 9.30pm Capture the Flag contest,was organised online by Hitesh and it was an event on demand. The primary task was to identify different ports on which there were vulnerable services running. The person or team that collect all 5 flags wins the CTF contest.
Parallely, people not involved in CTF, were made to walk through a scaled solar system with the Sun and planets Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune beautifully setup and exlained by Harshad,Gautam and Praveen, followed by a star gazing session by Askok Shanbag sir, who had some interesting stories to narrate.

Day 2 :Kids were back full of enthusiasm to know more. They had a session on breadboard.Fun with leds, Intergrated chips…


Later Harshita and Adarsh engaged everyone in the colorful pigment workshop, where everyone was taught to make own colors and paint from plants, flowers, stones etc.


Meanwhile Anirudh and Shankar sir arranged for some puzzles designed by Anirudh and Jija.These puzzles engaged all the young and young at people. Sayan engaged the micropython workshop.

Evening judges were invited who witnessed 11 hacks, which were as follows
- LEDs for performance art – Jithin and saptak.
- Automated Irrigation system – Shweta and Farhan
- Jacob’s ladder – Prathamesh
- Reinforced soil – Arun Ganesh and family
- Spontaneity synchronised pendulums – Natasha, Rahi and Sahir
- Camera Obscura – Anant and Pawan
- Demo of Newton’s first law – Ajit Simu
- Boat models :
- Synchronised swing – Praveen, Ajit,Abhishek and Vinayak Simu
- Tesla turbine – Adarsh and Gautam
- Terracotta 3D tiles – Suyash, Mangesh and Vinayak
It was a tough job for Mr Raj Belgaumkar and Mr Sameer to rank the hacks as everyone had put in their best foot forward. Medals were awarded to the winners.


All this was followed by a awesome lazer show by Praveen.Some fun with helium.
We missed our awesome hackers Siddesh,Nisha,Ira,Rupa and Ananya.
Though all this was a great learning experience, we will always miss and mourn the sad demise of two of our active and dynamic volunteers, Pallavi Samant and Rutuja Katamble. Humble souls. You both will remain in our hearts forever.
Thanks to all the participants, volunteers and organizers for their valuable contributions and also for making Science Hack Day a grand success.

Pic credits to all awesome volunteers of SHD.
For more details visit https://sciencehackday.in/



















