Events
I organised a number of academic and professional events in the past. Here is a brief overview of these events.
Public Engagement
Explorathon Extravaganza 2023
As a member of CCNi team, I engaged with the general public of all ages to discuss about the "Biases and Guesses: The way our brains work" that dealt with how our expectations shape our perceptions with examples in auditory bi-stable perception (Green Needle vs Brain Storm), visual bi-stable perception, colour perception (#TheDress), selection attention, McGurk effect, Kanizsa illusions, hollow mask Illusion., etc.
CCNi_Poster_Explorathon.pdfEvents organized
Student Professional Awareness Conference
As conference chair, I organised a national level "Students Professional Awareness Conference" (S-PAC) on creating professional awareness and management skills among upcoming engineers. This conference was the first of its kind in India, and was held on Sunday, the 19th of December, 2004.
In S-PAC renowned speakers are invited to address several topics such as career growth, working, professional responsibility and self management, which are of utmost importance to the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. The speakers for our S-PAC include:
Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Padmashri awardee, IIT-Madras, Chennai.
Mr. Laxman Badiga, Chief Executive Talent Recognition and Transformation, Wipro Technologies, Bangalore.
Dr. B.V. Ravi Kumar, MBBS, Ph.D., Doctor-scientist turned entrepreneur, XCyton Diagnostics, Bangalore.
Prof. S.P. Bhattacharya, Fellow of IEEE, Texas A&M University, Texas, USA.
The event was a purely non-profit venture, and was funded in part by the IEEE-USA parent body and in part through registration and sponsorship. About 200 student delegates participated in this conference.
The New Indian Express, 20 Dec 2004, Trichy Edition
Bridge rural-urban divide: Engineers told
Student Professional Awareness Venture
As conference overall coordinator, I organised a national level Student Professional Awareness Venture (SPAVe conference) on 17th September 2005, at NITT on creating professional awareness and management skills among upcoming engineers.
SPAVe, a sequel to SPAC, was primarily aimed at imparting management skills among engineers. The goal of this conference was to provide delegates with skills outside the confines of their engineering education. Renowned speakers are invited to address several topics such as career growth, working, professional responsibility and self management, which are of utmost importance to the entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Our speakers included:
Prof. Anil K. Gupta, Kasturbhai Lalbhai Chair in Entrepreneurship, Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Co-ordinator, SRISTI and Honey Bee Network and Executive Vice Chair, National Innovation Foundation.
Professor M. Seetharama Bhat, Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Sciences (IISc), Bangalore.
In all, around 200 delegates from various institutions attended the conference and made it a success.
The Hindu, 26 Sept 2005, Education Plus
Beyond basic engineering skills
The New Sunday Express, 18 Sept 2005, Trichy Edition
Engineering students told to generate new products
Pragyan - Technical Festival of NITT
As the event manager, I organised Guest Lectures for 'Pragyan' - An annual international technical festival of National Institute of Technology Trichy (NITT) - during my undergraduate days.
I organised several guest lectures in Pragyan 2006 held on 27 - 31 Jan 2006. I list a couple of important ones below:
Dr. Stephen Wolfram, Inventor of Mathematica, Wolfram Research, USA
Prof. Yash Pal, University Grants Commission Chairman, India
Space Apps Challenge
I was involved in the organisation of 'International Space Apps Challenge' (ISAC) - a NASA sponsored citizen science hackathon - at Center for Internet and Society, Bangalore, India.
ISAC 2012 was held for the first time on April 21st - 22nd, 2012 in Bangalore (only Indian city) and simultaneously across 50 cities worldwide
ISAC 2013 was conducted on April 20th-21st, 2013 including New Delhi and Bangalore and simultaneously across 83 cities worldwide
The speakers for these two events were:
Prof. S Balachandra Rao, Hon. Director, Gandhi Centre for Science, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bangalore
Prof. Jayant Murthy, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore
Dr. B. S. Shylaja, Director, Jawaharlal Nehru Planetarium, Bangalore