Mumbai, Jan. 12: The fact that it’s being organised by students is perhaps the only thing that makes it a campus fest.

Techfest 2004, IIT Bombay’s annual technology festival, is mounted on a scale that will make many global corporate events blush. As India keeps shining in the glory of its techie achievers, corporate sponsors are showering their blessings on an institute that produced several of them, allowing the campus in picturesque Powai to host its most happening party till date.

This year, Techfest — the biggest in Asia — is going where no other Indian campus fest has gone: international. A new competition has been introduced to ensure international participation. Teams from 10 other countries — all expenses paid by the fest — are expected to participate in ‘Cliffhanger’.

Three-member teams from Singapore, Nepal and Sri Lanka have confirmed their participation. Teams from Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong and Turkey are expected. The institute is arranging for the foreign teams’ airfare, not to mention accommodation, and the prize money for the event alone is $2,500.

The first prize is $1,000 and will go to the team that best builds a machine capable of climbing a cliff and eventually bursting the maximum number of balloons — before an opponent who plans to do the same thing at the same time.

The total prize money for the fest is Rs 7 lakh, in cash. It’s the same amount in kind (cutting edge technology goodies). The cash prize has gone up by about Rs 2 lakh from last year.

The visitors’ list is impressive. Among the speakers is “the world’s first cyborg”, Kevin Warwick, professor of cybernetics at the University of Reading, UK. In 1998, he had shocked the world by implanting a silicon chip into his left arm. He is even more of a machine now as a number of other implants have taken place.

With the event, to be held from January 24 to 26, the publicity department is working overtime with professional expertise to handle a deluge of queries from the media.

“It is the biggest techfest in not only the country, but also in Asia, that is organised by students,” said Jasvipul Singh Chawla, publicity manager of Techfest. “We went international because we wanted to increase the level of competition. We wanted to keep abreast of international competition,” he said.

It was all possible because of the bounty of the sponsors, which was in turn brought about by the runaway growth figures of IT, Chawla said.

“The feel-good factor around IT definitely helped,” he said. “We also have a panel discussion on the same topic — on how IT growth can help manufacturing in the country.”

The title sponsor of Techfest is Tata Indicom. Other sponsors are Microsoft, software firm Verizon, solutions company Veritas, and Indian Oil.

“About 15,000 students, 1,500 corporate executives and faculty and 750 colleges attend Techfest, which is seven years old now,” said Chawla.