Day-2 at NIT Trichy’s Pragyan keeps crowds engaged and entertained

The third day of Pragyan kick-started with several guest lectures that were a major crowd-puller. Lectures by Sudhir Kumar Mishra, CEO and MD of India’s premier missile programme, BRAHMOS and by Gianni Di Caro, a senior researcher at IDSIA, the Swiss Artificial Intelligence lab, both witnessed a packed auditorium. The latter’s presentations covered the various aspects about the same, including modelling and engineering of robots, applications of Swarm Robotics, cognitive heuristics, and human-robot social interactions.

Some unique events and workshops also conducted throughout the day saw active participation from students of different colleges. ‘Aerogami’, a one-day workshop on the science of paper planes and basics of aerodynamics, followed by a competition, was one of the major attractions. ‘Quadcombat‘, an event sponsored by TCS, tested the quads piloted by the participants based on speed, navigating check points and their ability to intercept obstacles. Events like the ‘Seven Stones’ and ‘Nittro‘, saw robots developed by students to do some of the most wonderful tasks. A crossover of robotics and racing madness, ‘Rush Hour’, had robots completing a lap impeded with obstacles on site, while the second round involved the robots searching for a box in a maze. The management events of Pragyan participants was brought out in the Marketing Hub event where the participants were required to undergo a round of Ad Zap, from which 10 teams were selected for the product launch round.

One of the highlights of Pragyan, Crossfire, features an eminent set of people who debate, discuss and voice their opinions on some of the most pressing issues of the time. This year’s panel witnessed Abhinandan Sekhri, the Co-founder and CEO of Newslaundry, Nawshir Mirza, a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a Partner of S. R. Batliboi&Co.Boardat Calcutta, and Bahar Dutt, Former Environmental Editor, CNN IBN, Anoop Poonia, an outstanding Program Officer from Climate Action Network (CAN), Dr. A Ravindra, head of the Centre for Sustainable Development, and Chellapandi. The discussion was revolving around the theme ‘Development sustains Pollution; Must we defile to go the extra mile?’.  

In all, the day lived up to all the hype and more, thus enabling Pragyan to live up to its motto and bestow success to the hard work of every individual involved.