Pragyan

Pragyan

Type	Student-run non-profit organisation
Founded	2005
Place	Tiruchirappalli, India
Institute	NIT Trichy
Major events	Coding, Robotics, Management, Paper presentation, Guest Lectures, Infotainment, Crossfire, Core Engineering, Exhibitions, Workshops, Square one
Prize money	₹12,00,000
Slogan	Let's Celebrate Technology
Website	www.pragyan.org Facebook Page Twitter Page Google+ Page

Pragyan is an ISO 9001 & 20121 certified annual International Techno-management Organisation of the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, India. Since its inception in 2005, it has been held every year over a period of three and a half days during either the month of January or February. Every year, Pragyan sees participants from over hundreds colleges from across the country. Pragyan 2015 had a total footfall of 3,548 people over three days and participants from over 400 colleges and universities had registered for the various events and workshops. Pragyan is the first student-run organization in the world and the third overall next only to London Olympics and Manchester United to get an ISO 20121:2012 Certification for Sustainable Event Management.

The tagline for Pragyan was changed from "Create.. Innovate.. Scintillate" to "Let's Celebrate Technology" from the 2011 edition.

History and Growth

In 2005, in the portals of NITT, the staff and students put their heads together to come up with a vent for their creative outbursts. As a result, Pragyan ’05 took shape in its maiden year as a technical festival attracting innovation from across the state.^[1] The college took the promise of handing the torch down every year with a commitment to the highest levels of quality in the event.^[2]

Pragyan launched itself to the international arena since then, with teams from over 60 countries taking part in the online programming contests. With a host of more than 50 events spanning across 11 genres, Pragyan presents an opportunity to innovate. And while innovation is not separate from technology, thus lays the need to know technology, use technology and celebrate technology. Currently, there are around 700 volunteers working in tandem to make this event a grand success.

Events

The events in Pragyan have traditionally been broadly divided into clusters.

Guest Lectures

Pragyan has had many renowned people coming to the campus to impart their wisdom and experience to the students. These include-

The 2015 edition saw the introduction of 'Divergent', an inspirational talk series by youngsters who have made a marked contribution to the society. The speakers at the 2015 edition included Roman Saini, Vishnu Nair, I.A.S, Ajit Narayanan and Kartheeban.

Crossfire

Crossfire is the annual panel discussion organized at National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli as a part of the annual international techno-management festival, Pragyan. Crossfire aims to provide a global platform for the academia, industry and government to interact with the student fraternity. The following were the topic for each year's discussion since the inception of Crossfire in 2009, along with the speakers.

Year	Topic	Speakers
2015	Putting an Indian on the moon seems easier than keeping an Indian street clean	Mr.M. Chandra Dathan, Mr. Shyam Chetty, Dr. Damodar Tripathi, Mr. T.S. Krishnamurthy, Mr. Abdul Ghani, moderated by Dr. Sumanth C Raman.
2015	Was it all worth it? An alumni crossfire on career choices and following your passion	Sharon Koshy, Shyam HN, Shankar, G. Naveen, Sri Ram Shankar.
2014	The role of youth in Nation Building	Mr. D.R. Karthikeyan, Mr. Santhosh Hegde, Mr. Bhagwan Singh, Captain N.Thinakaran and Mr. Karthik Janakiram, moderated by Prof. G. Balakrishnan.
2013	Failing Educational Institutions?	Panellists of Pragyan 2013 Crossfire Chris Philips, Dr Sultan Ahmed Ismail, Bushra Shariff, Professor Eugene D’Vas, and Prashanth Raj, moderated by Professor Vinod.
2012	It's not about the Degree, it's about the Passion	Panellists of Pragyan 2012 Crossfire Amoghavarsha, A.N.Chandramouli, J.N.Reddy, Arunabh Kumar, J Balamurugan, Sarath Babu, and Prof. Vinod
2011	From joint families to live-in relationship, from pen pals to Facebook, from outdoor games to video games – this generation has surely changed a lot. But are these changes for the good? What are the priorities of youth at present? Where are we headed? And where do we go from there?	Krish Ashok, Dr.L.S.Ganesh, Subramanian Vincent, Dr. Ramesh Jain, Kishore Kumar and Jagan Jothivel.
2010	Why aren’t we I.D.I.O.T.S (I do it on my own terms)?	Mr.L.S.Ganesh, Mr.Subramaniam Vincent, Mr.Kishore Kumar, Dr.Ramesh Jain, Mr.Sudhish Kamath and Mr.Jagan Jothivel
2009	India as a global knowledge superpower	Prof. Anil Gupta, Dr. P.V Indiresan, Dr. Sujatha Ramdorai and Dr. Prabhakar Marur with Rashmi Bansal as the moderator.

Workshops

Workshops have been an integral part of Pragyan since 2007. Every year, the workshops team in association with the best technological organisations come up with new and challenging workshops to test and hone the skills of the participants.

Year	Workshops Conducted
2015	Accelerobotix, conducted by Technophilia Touch and Augmented Reality, conducted by Infi-Zeal Technologies Bridge design and Fabrication, conducted by Ark Technosolutions Whatshack, conducted by i3indya Technologies Brainwave Robotics, conducted by Ark Technosolutions Analytical Engineering and Decision Science Autotrix, an automobile workshop Infysec Workshop Series IBM Coding Challenge
2014	Pragyan 2014 Quadcopter workshop Seismic Design conducted by Civil Simplified Rocket Launch conducted by Xovian [4] Lie Detector workshop conducted in collaboration with Truth Labs India Big Data conducted in partnership with Microsoft Quadcopter conducted by Robofission Labs in association with Techkriti, IIT Kanpur PC, Internet and Speech controlled bot building workshop organized by Robogenesis Distributed computing through Java conducted by a special initiative of IBM called “IBM India University Relations”
2013	Automotive Systems and Advancements by Tata Motors Authorised Training Consultant Sixth Sense Robotics Android App Development Six sigma Tall structure design Underwater robotics The viral media workshop
2012	IC Engines Assembling in association with AerotriX Bi-pedal Robotics in association with Yogiki Introduction to Stocks Light Painting Cyber Forensics
2011	Gesture Controlled Robotics: Haptics Workshop Computer Animation Cloud Computing Mobile Applications Management Workshop Aeromodelling
2010	3D Photography Ethical Hacking Hexapod Robotics Adobe Flex.
2009	Light Painting Workshop by Kshitij Anand Animation Workshop conducted by the Nikhil Madan, RoboSapiens
2008	Ham Radio operation Linux Bio-inspired robotics Amateur Astronomy
2007	Automobile Design by Amarendra Kr. Das. Digital Signal Processing- Pattern Recognition and Digital Watermarking.

Exhibitions and Sangam

Apart from providing the opportunity to participate in various events and interact with eminent personalities, Pragyan also offers the participants a sneak peek at the future through its varied Exhibitions every year.

Exhibitions

Year	Exhibit
2015	NASA Moon Rock sample, presented by NASA Defense exhibitions-Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE) and Defence Research and Development Organisation DRDO (Tank and flight simulator) GTRE Gas Turbines NAO Humanoid Robots presented by Vishnu Engineering Brain controlled helicopter presented by Pantech Solutions Masha Nazeem's social exhibits High energy batteries presented by High Energy Batteries (India) Limited
2014	Pragyan 2014 Exhibitions 3D Modelling Quad-Rotor, Robotic arm and X-pod robots by Robosoft Surrogate, FB car, advanced vision systems, hacking Kinect, XNA gaming, computer security and Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio (MSRDS) by Robogenesis Collection of antique cameras by Arun Cameras Motion Sensing with Natural User Interface (NUI) by Gesture Research India CSM1 3D Printer by Cycloid Systems
2013	Pragyan 2013 Exhibition by CVRDE Vintage Cars by GJ Automobiles, Trichy Indian missiles presented by Defence Research and Development Laboratory, Hyderabad Models and Presentations about the labs, products and facilities of Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE), Chennai Vertical Axis Wind Turbine by HEXDOG Engineering HAM Radio Operation by the Amateur Radio Society of Tiruchirappalli Augmented Reality by GAMOOZ India Multitouch Interactive Sensing by TouchMagix.
2012	Kinect 3D model installation by Blink Solution Precision Instruments by Aimil Ltd. Augmented Reality by BlinkSolution Ductbot, Biped and Hexapods by Robosoft Systems Adaptive Gripper Arm by Festo Bionic Learning Network
2011	Digital Effects Processing and Multitouch Technology with DJ-ing, "Reactable" Musical performance using only solar powered instruments by Solar Punch.

Sangam

Sangam is an inter-departmental technical contest, where the engineering and architecture departments show their mettle. This exhibition involves display of models and solutions developed by our college students from various departments. It is an initiative that encourages the top brains to churn out fresh ideas and innovations.

Some of the notable projects include :

Year	Project
2015	Innovation in Concrete Drone assisted navigation The geodesic dome project Real time 3D object reconstruction project 'Smart' bikes equipped with gyroscopes to sense accidents Sun powered hydraulic solar tracker Fan Wing Aircraft Perovskite Solar Cell
2014	Portable ECG Machine with Real Time Signal Coanda effect flying saucer Under water robot Bascule Bridges
2013	Pragyan 2013 Sangam Project Prototype for voice controller electric wheel chair Stepper Motor using shape memory alloys MPPT solar charger for buses Green Charger for mobiles
2012	Solar powered water pump using PMDC motor CO2 removal from vehicular emissions Cold start emission Control

Infotainment

Infotainment is regarded as the fun element of this tech fest. Since its inception in 2008 it has always delivered a perfect mix of knowledge and entertainment through various artists and performers across the world. Infotainment aims to shatter the long-standing boundary between technology and entertainment. The Infotainment performances promise all the flair, fanfare and fun to keep the techies and non techies alike feted with the shows stretching across all genres- be it acrobatics, freestyle dance, beatboxing, illusion, light shows or comedy night-outs.

The notable performances in Infotainment include:

Pragyan 2012 Infotainment Lasers show

Sponsors and Partners

Pragyan is a non-profit organisation run entirely by students of NIT, Trichy. Pragyan has been associated with a number of corporate sponsors in the past. Some of the partners over the years include:

Tata Steel, Texas Instruments, Tata Consultancy Services, Schneider Electric, Mastek, State Bank of India, TNPL, eBay.in, Google, Jindal Steel and Power, Indix, Temenos Group, Toshiba, Makkal TV, The Princeton Review, Pepsi, Marrybrown, Indian Oil Corporation, McAfee, Intuit, BHEL, Goldman Sachs, Nikon, JCB, Bisleri, National Instruments, National Insurance, Bovonto, UltraTech Cement, Larsen & Toubro, Levi Strauss & Co., Logitech, IBM, Deccan Chronicle, Amazon, iBall, Flipkart, Cadbury, United India Insurance, Electronics For You, Digit (magazine),

Pragyan Social Responsibility

In Pragyan 2012, a new wing of Pragyan, Pragyan Social Responsibility(PSR) was added.

Pragyan 2013 saw two events under the wing of PSR, namely, Disha and Wishberry. Disha was a career counselling event that was launched with the sole objective of promoting the importance of technical skills and the need for innovation among the school and college going crowd. Wishberry was brought out to help improve the infrastructure in a rural government school in Trichy district with the motto that "education is one of the best investments". As an ode to the world class education the students of NIT-T are provided with, and as a statement of Pragyan’s commitment to education, the team proceeded in the quest of trying to fulfil the minimum required infrastructural needs possible at the Government ADW Boys Higher Secondary School located in Pappakurichi Village, Trichy District. As part of the novel initiative, a total of around Rs. 95000 was collected from various sources namely, Rs.73000 online and Rs.22000 in-person from interested contributors.

As part of Pragyan 2014, Pragyan Social Responsibility in association with The Third Dimension, Aero-modelling Club of the National Institute of Technology, Trichy organised an event to spread interest and awareness in science among school students. It was conducted at a Tamil Nadu State Government Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Thiruverumbur on 6 December 2013. The event consisted of simple experiments conducted with things available around us to help the school students understand the basic concepts they study in school. Contact details were provided to the students for further assistance and also to receive study materials and college books for entrance exams free of cost as a part of Pragyan Social Responsibility. In a first of its kind initiative in NIT, Trichy; PSR took to pasting stickers in all hostels of NIT, Trichy to spread awareness about conservation of energy.

Catalyst, A Pragyan Social Responsibility Initiative.

For Pragyan 2015, PSR conducted Catalyst, a one-day workshop on MS Office for the students of Boiler Plant Girls Higher Secondary School in BHEL township. The workshop was held on November 1, 2014.
As a year round project, Pragyan in association with LEAP (the Eco club of the college) and the Entrepreneurship cell launched PET Project, an initiative to reduce the wastage of paper in campus. This was launched after considering the enormous wastage of paper that occurs in the campus. As a novel initiative, a collection box was placed in the Octagon (the computer centre) to collect the roll number sheets that are generated for each student with a print command. The sheets will be used for activities such as making note books and helping out Self Help Groups by teaching them to make paper products.
The event ‘Dhisai’ aimed at educating the school students of Tamil Nadu about the Joint Entrance Examinations (JEE). A mock JEE exam was conducted in Trichy in association with ROTARACT CLUB for all students of class 12.^[5] Talks on Career Counselling and Cybercrime were conducted by professionals.

Square One

The First edition of Pragyan 2015's Square One, formerly known as Outreach, was conducted in Chennai took place at the Sathyabama University, Chennai on November 1 and 2, 2014.^[6] Four different events were conducted during the course of the programme. This included a guest lecture, the Circuitrix event, the regional prelims of the Pragyan Open Quiz and a hovercraft workshop, conducted by the AeroSapiens, in association with the Third Dimension Aeromodelling club of NIT Trichy. The guest lecture had a turnout of about 250 students. The winners of the regional prelims in the quiz competition got a direct entry to the National Intercollegiate Pragyan Quiz held during Pragyan.

The 2015 edition of Pragyan saw yet another highlight event, the Hackathon conducted in association with Amazon India at Amazon, Hyderabad. The contest was held on the 20th and 21st of December, 2014 and had more than a hundred participants working on various projects. The contest was a theme based one, with “Collaboration Tools” set as the theme of the contest and contestants had to develop mobile and web based apps that would help people with “team work”. The prizes were worth a total of ₹90,000.^[7]

Previous Editions of Pragyan

References