Pragyan is the ISO 9001 and 20121 certified, international level, annual techno-management fest of National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirapalli. Incepted in 2005, the fest takes place in the college campus and has grown bigger each year. The fest stays true to its slogan “Let’s Celebrate Technology”, by conducting 50+ events for tech buffs and management gurus from across the country. With students coming in from over 100 colleges, each edition of Pragyan sees the footfall figure reach the thousands. The 50+ events organized by Pragyan range from programming competitions like Reverse Coding, to brain teasing events like the Pragyan Main Quiz; from core engineering competitions like Junkyard Wars, to robotics events like RoboWars; from management events like Dalal Street, to innovation competitions like Sanrachana – Pragyan has something for everyone. Apart from the horde of events, Pragyan also plays host to people who have made it big in tech from around the world, who come down to Trichy to deliver enticing guest lectures. Previous editions of Pragyan saw big names like Jamie Hyneman, Tessy Thomas, and J.N. Reddy.
The fest also hosts Crossfire – where influential people from across the country participate in a series of panel discussions on various topics relevant to India and the youth. The 2014 edition of Pragyan saw Mr. D.R. Karthikeyan, Mr. Santhosh Hegde, Mr. Bhagwan Singh, Captain N.Thinakaran and Mr. Karthik Janakiram, participate in a heated discussion in the topic ‘The role of youth in the building of the nation’. If these weren’t enough for you, Pragyan also hosts a number of amazing workshops held by experts in their respective fields. Seven workshops were held during Pragyan 2014, including a lie detector workshop conducted in collaboration with Truth Labs India, and ‘Big Data’ workshop held in partnership with Microsoft. A number of exhibitions are also held during Pragyan, and the previous editions saw eye popping exhibits of Harley Davidson bikes, 3D printers by Cycloid Systems, and Indian missiles presented by Defense Research and Development Laboratory, Hyderabad. Pragyan also hosts Sangam, an exhibition exclusively for NIT Trichy students where they are provided with a platform to showcase their new projects and ideas. Infotainment, as the name suggests, is the part of Pragyan that is the perfect mix of information and entertainment. Under its banner, a number of amazing events such as laser shows, and 3D mapping projection of the Lecture Hall Complex of the campus were conducted.
In recent years, Pragyan has gone beyond the borders of the campus, and even the borders of the country, and held outreach events. These include a quiz for school children in Dubai, and a hovercraft workshop held at Sathyabama University in Chennai. Pragyan Social Responsibility (PSR), has played an integral role in raising awareness about various issues in and outside campus, as well as spreading much needed technical knowledge to the masses. A few events organized by PSR are Catalyst, a program were school children were taught concepts of MS Office in detail, as well as a pet project to prevent wastage of paper on campus.
Without a shadow of doubt, Pragyan has proven to be much more that just another college tech fest. This year, with the theme of ‘Space’, Pragyan 2015 is bound to be an even greater spectacle than the editions before it.
Website: http://www.pragyan.org/
Blog: http://www.pragyan.org/blog