Pragyan, the ISO 9001 and 20121 certified annual International Techno-Managerial fest of NIT Tiruchirappalli was held from 18th-20 March 2022. Exhibiting a plethora of events, workshops, and guest lectures, the 17th edition of Pragyan was conducted in a hybrid mode, with the aid of the Metaverse.
Following the success of the virtual edition the previous year, the theme was chosen as Nexus, and Pragyan ‘22 engraved the statement that the future is when we decide to make it. Presented by Salesforce, the fest provided an abundance of opportunities for students, with special mentions to Agnostiq, Pragyan’s Quantum Computing Partner, Comedy Central, Pragyan’s Entertainment Partner, Suryan FM, Pragyan’s Radio Partner, and News 7 Tamil, Pragyan’s Tamil News Partner.
Various events, guest lectures, panel discussions, and workshops were organised over the span of 3 days, to enlighten and shape the young exhilarating minds of the future generations. Pragyan ‘22 stood hand-in-hand with its tagline of Let’s Celebrate Technology by integrating technology in our lives and engaging in the comprehensive progress of society as a whole.
A sneak peek during ConclaveX
ConclaveX, a pan-NIT event where students come together to discuss and share ideas, was conducted by NIT Tiruchirappalli from March 4th - 6th, 2022. Engulfing a large audience, Pragyan successfully organised and provided a sneak peak of the Metaverse platform during the occasion.
ConclaveX saw the engagement of 10,000+ participants from over 30 different NITs who spent 7 days, 5 hours and 6 minutes over a week-long period from across 7 different countries competing for the winning title. Pragyan on the Metaverse was also a massive success as 1000+ registrants visited the virtual Metaverse for a time period of 2 days, 7 hours and 37 minutes across the three days of Pragyan ‘22.
Events and Workshops
Even though this edition of Pragyan was conducted using both offline and online modes, Pragyan on the metaverse was a huge hit with around 10,000 participants registering for 23 events contained within 8 clusters. With a prize money of 4,75,000 Rupees, the eight clusters spanning multiple disciplines and walks of life saw the vigorous involvement of eclectic students.
The various clusters included Capture the Flag, Concreate, Manigma, Attack on Robots, Pandora’s Box, Family Feud, and How Stuff Works, among many others.
Renowned for being a techno-managerial fest, Pragyan’s guest lecture series brought the greatest of minds together to share their knowledge and wisdom with students and eager listeners. Running on an expanse of topics ranging from Clean Water Development, Space Laws, Internal Medicine, Electron Devices, and Nanoelectronics, the lineup for this year had an exquisite list of speakers. Some of
them included Dr. Thalappil Pradeep, Professor of Chemistry at IIT Madras, Dr. Mark Sundahl, an expert of the space and universe, and Dr. Ramgopal Rao, Director of IIT Delhi who spoke on the various aforementioned specializations.
The workshops included a wide array of topics, particularly related to the Metaverse. An extensive set of workshops on Quantum Computing, Cyber Security, IoT, Web 3.0, NLP, and Chip Design were some of the workshops that received widespread acclamation.
Debates, Standpoints and CrossFire
Innovative thinking and problem solving has always been at the helm of human evolution. Constructive discussions open up antilogy and give us a perspective of both sides of an argument. An elite discussion panel consisting of reputed speakers included Moderator Mr. Jason Rodrigues, an alumnus of NIT Trichy, Mr. Abhay Joshi, partner at Economics Law Practice, Mr. Kanishk Gaur, a renowned Digital Technology Expert, Mr. Sathvik Vishwanath, founder and CEO of Unocoin.com, Mr. Udit Misra, a writer and associate editor at the Indian Express and Mr. Varun Sethi, a technical lawyer. The future of Cryptocurrencies and NFT in India was the topic of discussion during the CrossFire rounds.
Social Responsibility
The Social Responsibility body of Pragyan brought about astounding reforms through their various initiatives for the benefit of the society. Initiatives such as GyaanE, Canvas for Change, webinars on Organ Donation and UFOs were conducted to educate the common people on today’s contemporary topics.
There were initiatives such as distribution of goodies, basic knowledge of STEM fields for government school children, Human Books, that take us all into a much loved celebration of diversity. It brings people from all walks of life to share their experiences and interact with a wide audience, enabling both the human book and the audience to create a great impact on each other’s lives. Pragyan ‘22 had 4 Human Books who shared their fascinating life experiences, dreams, disabilities, grief and happiness, and other facets of life that are not generally spoken of.
Pragyan is also about fun and games!
Fun events such as Gamescape, the flagship gaming cluster of Pragyan, included the unification of technology with entertainment. Pragyan ‘22 witnessed over 800+ participants who took part in various fun-filled clusters such as Laser Tags, Virtual Reality Games, Socializing events with Board Games, Racing events, and many more interactive and thrilling games.
The Pragyan Infotainment Team was also committed to providing an interesting array of shows like Light Painting, Fire Show and Laser Show by the globally popular Ukrainian artist Kupava, and a standup comedy by Indian comedian Nishant Suri. An eye-catching performance by Laser Show India and LED POI by Kupava proved to be a visual treat for the brains that worked upon different facets of the fest.
The Pragyan Blog, Sangam, Ingenium and other outreach events
The Pragyan Blog provided the ignition after the completion of the previous edition of Pragyan ‘21. Articles on a multitude of topics ranging from Science and Technology to Fiction were written and published by the Content Team of Pragyan on Medium. Comics, informational texts and an assortment of other initiatives were taken upon by the team.
The Content Team also actively worked on ‘The Pragyan Times,’ a newspaper esque campaign in an effort to help the people within campus premises know about the happenings and events of Pragyan ‘22. Informational articles, brain racking puzzles and other innovative writings were published and shared throughout the institute.
Subsequently, events and competitions were organized and the best minds throughout India were put to test on innovative ideas, creations, and inventions. Ingenium, the technical flagship event of Pragyan, called all the finest minds to showcase their ideas and innovations. It saw an enthusiastic number of participants pushing their ideas to limelight among the accomplished technocrats visiting from across the country.
Sangam, in association with SCIEnT, held the ‘Hardware Hackathon,’ for all the technophiles of NIT Trichy. The registered teams were put to task with innovations in the fields of Energy, Healthcare, Agriculture and Defence technology. Partnering with 180DC, Sangam also conducted a Case Study Competition for budding business enthusiasts. Lucrative prize money was offered to the most interesting and thought-provoking ideas.
Outreach events play an essential role in any fest to gather momentum. With the help of the various teams, Pragyan was able to successfully hold webinars, events and other competitions to give a platform to students and to raise awareness of contemporary issues. Logo Quiz, Scavenger Hunt and a comic strip titled Love is in the Air were some of the earliest unique conversation starters for Pragyan ‘22.
To raise awareness on the vital issue of organ donation, a webinar was organized with Ms. Sunayana Singh, the CEO of ORGAN INDIA, who shared ideas, its significance, monumental necessity and even informed us of ways to sign up for donations.
GyaanE and Canvas for Change were events that focussed on giving opportunities for school students to find and express their hidden talents. The events consisted of sessions on important subjects like Cybercrime, Art & Crafts, and Social Skills. The future generation came together to attend guest lectures, interactive sessions and obtain knowledge from enlightening career guidance sessions. Canvas for Change provided a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the students to use their creativity and design posters about the real-world issues that we face every day.
In the future, Pragyan also plans to organize ‘Catalyst,’ an interactive session with government school students for them to learn Science, Math, and English from a different perspective.
Conclusion
Pragyan has been and will always be a platform and stage to provide exclusive opportunities for students, irrespective of their background, ethnicity, and irrefutable differences. Going 17 years strong, Pragyan ‘22 was no less a success and the incorporation of the Metaverse only boosted the prospects of an even more tremendous fest in the future. With the inception of the hybrid mode, Pragyan ‘22 saw massive success and will continue to do so for years to come.
A big thank you and heartfelt gratitude from Pragyan ‘22.