Pragyan - Country's biggest techno-manegerial fest at NIT Trichy
Pragyan is an ISO 9001 AND 20121 certified annual international techno-managerial fest of NIT Trichy. It is one of the biggest festivals in the country which hosts and showcases the talent of students from various colleges across the nation, since its inception in 2005. Pragyan is acclaimed for the diverse experiences and opportunities it offers for technology enthusiasts.
In the past 10 months, Pragyan ‘21 organized a plethora of events and took social initiatives. Some of them were GyaanE, Pragati, Career Compass, Young Techie, and iCitizen.
The social responsibility wing of Pragyan conducted ‘GyaanE’, an interactive virtual event to engage with the young teenage minds of SOS Children’s Village, Bhopal. The session served to be extremely fruitful for the students, filled with exciting activities and motivational lectures. The event was wrapped up with a valuable career guidance session.
Pragyan in association with Mindlake Analytics conducted ‘Pragati’, a free full-length mock JEE Main exam. Experienced evaluators then assessed their answers and provided each student with a detailed analysis of their results.
To help out students in choosing a suitable career, Pragyan ‘21 conducted Career Compass, a free day-long career guidance event. Participants were allowed to take a psychometric test and were provided with a detailed analysis and instructions on how to perceive the results on the very same day.
Pragyan conducted the second edition of Young Techie. All students from class VIII to class XII were invited to submit their project abstract in approximately 200 words. The finalists were decided based on the quality of the entries received, and they also availed the opportunity to attend a four-week-long project development program, under the mentorship of the technical clubs of NIT Trichy.
Pragyan knew how important it was to stay up to date on your rights and services. To make this easier for you, Pragyan introduced iCitizen, an initiative taken to bring to you essential knowledge and information on various government and other crucial services, like PAN and insurance.
Pragyan ‘21 also conducted ?????????, a live infotainment series where experts in VFX, animation, and other fields talk about the incorporation of technology in entertainment. We hosted Pete Michels is a renowned Emmy-winning animation director and his most notable works include Rick and Morty, The Simpsons, and the Family Guy.
We also had a live session with Wahid Ibn Reza who has worked on HBO’s Game of Thrones, Rick and Morty, Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, and the Oscar-nominated Doctor Strange.
The next ‘Backstage’ episode saw Gaurav Sundararaman, a senior cricket analyst who has over 12 years of experience in multiple domains of cricket. He is well-known for developing data-driven analytics and strategies to improve the performance of teams in the IPL.
Pragyan also successfully observed the Space Week from 4th to 10th October ‘20 with special events like Cosmic Canvas (a graphic design contest), What If (an abstract/theory submission event), Space Riddlers, and insightful guest lectures by Dr. B.N Suresh, the Chancellor at IIST Thiruvananthapuram, Dr. V. R Lalithambika, the Director of the Directorate of the Human Space Program at ISRO and Dr. David Reitze, the Director of the LIGO Laboratory.
We conducted two virtual hackathons, the Pragyan Hackathon with exciting domains like Automotive Sector, Climate Change, and Women Safety on the 16th and 17th January 2021 and the Fusion Hack, a one-of-its-kind 30-hour hackathon conducted exclusively for college students, to ideate, innovate and provide implementable proposals in the domains of CAD Design and PCB design, in association with Autodesk, Inc. on the 27th and 28th February 2021.
Virtual exhibits were also a highlight of Pragyan ‘21. Jonathan Tippett, from Vancouver, Canada, has always been fascinated by the dynamic between humans and machines. This is what led him to design and build the largest tetrapod exo-skeleton, which he named “Prosthesis” and demonstrated over a live session. We await more of such exhibits in the coming days.
Pragyan ’21 is scheduled to happen from the 25th of March to the 11th of April. With the fest being conducted virtually, a list of events, workshops, guest lectures, panel discussions, and many more are to be witnessed.
There are about eight clusters of events, with different events under them that have been planned out. Bytehoc, Conception, Concreate, eWitts, Manigma, Pandora’s Box, Phronesis, and Roborex are the clusters for this year’s fest. The events include Pragyan Premier League, Circuitrix, Town Trace, Sherlocked, Code Wars, among many others.
Workshops by practicing professionals in both the managerial field and technical fields will be conducted. Animation Software, Electric Vehicles by Mahindra, Six-Sigma Yellow Belt and, Data Analytics are among the lined-up workshops.
This year will see the first online edition of Guest Lectures. With topics like innovation & self-sustenance, cybersecurity, next-generation antibiotics, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented and Virtual Reality and their role in the coming future, and much more, Illumináre, the online lecture series, is sure to nudge your curiosity.
Crossfire, the annual Panel Discussion, with its virtual iteration seeks to address the dilemma that has been pertinent for the last few months - The Social Dilemma. Though social media served as the only platform of communication during the pandemic, its ugly sides have become too glaring. Administrations of various nations have taken note of this and various draft policies are being brought into play to regulate it. Will that be sufficient? Is it ethical to allow only a few corporations to control the world through algorithms behind the black boxes? Stay Tuned for the Crossfire ’21.
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CM Siddaramaiah alleges ‘criminal conspiracy’ in Sringeri recount, vows legal action
Bengaluru (PTI): Alleging a “criminal conspiracy” by BJP candidate D N Jeevaraj in the Sringeri Assembly poll recounting, Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said the outcome was manipulated after valid postal ballot votes in favour of Congress leader T D Raje Gowda were tampered with during the recounting process.
Following a Karnataka High Court order on an election petition filed by Jeevaraj, challenging Raje Gowda’s election, the reverification and recounting were conducted on Saturday.
After the reverification and recount of postal ballots for the Sringeri Assembly constituency, votes polled in favour of Raje Gowda were reduced by 255, the returning officer said.
A report on the matter has been submitted to the Election Commission of India for further action, the officer added.
Congress leader Raje Gowda had won the 2023 Assembly polls from Sringeri by 201 votes, defeating his nearest rival Jeevaraj.
Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, Siddaramaiah said the High Court had directed the recounting of postal ballots and that irregularities were noticed during the exercise conducted on May 2.
“This is a clear case of criminal conspiracy,” Siddaramaiah said, alleging that valid votes cast in favour of Raje Gowda were altered after being accepted by counting agents of all parties, including Congress, BJP, and JD(S).
He claimed that during the recounting of postal ballots, 255 votes were initially accepted as valid by all agents but were later tampered with by subordinate officials.
“There is a second mark on the votes polled in favour of Raje Gowda. They had accepted these as valid votes. Subsequently, another mark was made by officials. This is a clear case of criminal conspiracy,” he said.
When asked who was behind the alleged conspiracy, the CM replied, “It was hatched by Jeevaraj and others. It is planned.”
Siddaramaiah further alleged that the returning officer acted improperly by declaring the result despite the presence of an Election Commission observer during the recounting.
“Immediately after the counting, the returning officer announced the result. He should not have done so; this is against the law,” he said.
He pointed out that Raje Gowda had originally won by 201 votes, but after the recounting, the BJP candidate was declared the winner by 52 votes.
“The BJP has committed a criminal act of conspiracy. This is not vote chori but vote dacoity,” he alleged.
The CM said a police complaint had already been filed by Raje Gowda’s election agent, Sudhir Kumar, and emphasised the need for electoral integrity.
“We want transparency and free and fair elections. That is what our Constitution mandates,” he added.
Stating that the government would pursue legal remedies, Siddaramaiah said, “We are preparing an appeal challenging the returning officer’s announcement in a court of law.”
Responding to a separate query on elections in other states, the CM said there appeared to be an anti-incumbency factor in West Bengal, while results in Tamil Nadu were “surprising,” adding that Vijay’s party was emerging as the largest there.
Following the victory of party candidates in Bagalkote and Davanagere South, Siddaramaiah expressed confidence about future electoral prospects in Karnataka.
“Even in 2028, we will win the Assembly elections. We will come back,” the CM said.
Siddaramaiah added that he would order a forensic examination into the alleged tampering of postal ballots.
