pragyan '08

Pragyan, the international techno- management festival of NIT Trichy, as they call it, which aims at imbibing a scientific temper with the spirit of innovation among the youth, truly lived up to its expectations, in its fourth edition. It not only provided a platform to the students to make innovative working models using their engineering skills or to make a profitable Business plan, but also gave them a chance to compete against the best geeks in coding to f1 car making!

What made this pragyan special was not just the participation from across the country, which even turned global in many events, but the strong desire of organizers to deliver the participants, ‘the best’. From 3D movie shows to guest lectures on breathtaking topics like ‘time travel’, from the so-called humanoid robots performing dance on ‘dhoom’ song to the workshop on investment management, it was where everybody found something, which they had always wished they could!

Day 1 – After witnessing one of the biggest contraptions ever at the inauguration ceremony, junta pulled up all their seat belts, to be a part of this classic journey for the next 3 days. The morning crowd puller was the robotic workshop by Mr. Amir Shapiro, where he shared various invaluable fundas with the robotic enthusiasts. It was the day where all the participants made their best attempts to clear the prelims of different events and reach the finals. The results brought smiles on the face of some alongwith the awareness of tough challenge lying ahead in finals! And glimpse of sadness on the faces of those who could not clear the prelims. But as someone has rightly said, ‘success is never ending and failure is not an option’, these high spirits pulled up their sleeves for rest of the events, to give their best shot next time.

Day 2 – After gaining momentum in its very first day, pragyan still had a lot more to unveil and this was proved on the 2^nd day, when the participation in the next round of events touched new heights. Starting off with Ventura, one of the biggest Bplan competitions of India, which had more than 4 million INR at stake, the day saw engineering enthusiasts building bowling machines with simple materials and mind-boggling creativity! The day ended with an admirable alumnus of college enlightening the future engineers about the importance of renewable energy and entrepreneurial aspects it offers.

Day 3 – where there is a beginning there is an end, but at pragyan they seem to believe not in the end but in continuous improvement. With a promise to come back next year, better than ever, this year’s pragyan came to an end. The day witnessed the final results of various events, eminent guest lectures including the one by mr. subramania swamy on indian economy, jagriti- the ‘contribution to society’ aspect of pragyan and pengufest- the linux workshop.

Nostalgic it was for all those who had witnessed previous editions of pragyan and an unforgettable experience for others.

p.s. – The things that I liked the most, as NOT mentioned above, included food stalls and few temporary maals (or hot-chicks, as they are called) in the campus. Special thanks to www.findnearyou.com team, for giving me a pen drive for writing this blog :)