Every college has a technical festival. Every festival has competitions, guest lectures,
workshops, and entertainment. NIT Trichy’s ISO rated festival Pragyan has all this too, but
that’s where the similarity ends. Pragyan is no mere technical festival, it is a celebration. A
forum, where everyone right from the inquisitive school kid or the quick-witted college-goer
to the visionary scientists and business tycoons meet, under one roof to observe, experience,
showcase and feel technology at its very best. A platform made to interact with people who are
at the forefront of technology and for them to meet their successors.
“Sometimes life gives us brief moments of joy. It is these moments that become memories for
life” Every Pragyan is one such moment; something new, something scintillating, a plethora
of learning and fun. Anyone who has attended Pragyan will be proud to tell you that. When
you look at it now, it is impossible to believe that Pragyan is only 6 years old. It all started in
2005, when the first Pragyan was held. And it did with a bang. Pragyan 2005 saw more than
1000 participants from over 85 colleges. Since then Pragyan has grown leaps and bounds. Each
Pragyan has only got bigger. From India, the Pragyan wheel has rolled on to leave its imprints
around the world. Pragyan 2011 saw leading technocrats and entrepreneurs from around the
globe converge for this mega techno-management festival.
Pragyan has events of every genre, from automobiles to aero-planes to robots to computers.
To add to the 40+ competitions which promise prize money of well over 25 lakhs, there are a
host of online events which anyone with a computer and an Internet connection can participate
in. It has a science and technology quiz, an adventure hunt game, an online mock stock market
event and lots more. There are events on land, air as well as water, and maybe one outer-space
sometime soon. Most events are fun to watch and there is a lot to learn even for a layman
spectator.
The highlight of Pragyan is the guest lectures. Every year, academicians, scientists,
entrepreneurs and people from the pinnacle of technology share their knowledge and
experience through live as well as video lectures. Over the years Dilip Chhabria, Noam
Chomsky, Peter Norvig, Loren Acton, N.S. Ramaswamy, David Hanson, Sugata Mitra, and
countless others have been a part of Pragyan. These guest lectures are not just one way talk but
a platform for interaction with the greats.
Workshops are that part of Pragyan where you actually get a hands-on experience of
technology. Learn from the best and put your knowledge to work in real life situations.
Pragyan workshops are not confined to any single theme; astronomy, ethical hacking, business
development, robotics, animation, hypnotism, forensics etc. all have been featured as
workshops in Pragyan.
If you thought Pragyan is only for the geeks and the nerds, think again. Pragyan is synonymous
with fun. Live performance from renowned bands, and an abundance of informal events, not
to mention the mouth watering food, rejuvenate the audience and fill Pragyan with cheer and
enthusiasm.
Pragyan has been sponsored by industry giants like ONGC, IBM, Airtel, SBI and many more. It
has etched a name for itself in the record books by setting the world record for “The maximum
number of people successfully solving the Rubik’s cube at once” in the 2011 edition. Pragyan
2012 promises to be bigger, better and much more fun. The stakes have increased and so has
the competition. Pragyan is not about winning or losing, it is about celebrating. Come, be a part
of Pragyan 2012, let’s celebrate technology, together.
OPEN-NIT
Open-NIT, a consortium of events, lectures, workshops-an out and out dream package for the Linux
freak is the first of its kind ever seen in any tech-fest in India.
Link : http://www.pragyan.org/11/home/events/openit/
Crack The Shell:
‘Crack the Shell’ is all about solving simple day to day tasks on your computer through the terminal.
An event designed to test the Shell scripting knowledge of the contestant, Crack the Shell witnessed
record participation at Pragyan’11 with Shell enthusiasts swarming in online from all across the globe.
Treasure Hunt:
An event which tests the TERMINAL knowledge primarily of the user through a series of
maze’s,tasks, puzzles, network-hacking scenarios- Treasure hunt is an all-in-one package for the
Linux enthusiast in you!
Tux Venture:
The official desktop-designing contest in which digital artist’s let rip their creativity through a
combination of vivid colours, funky designs in the open source arena. Pragyan’11 witnessed a huge
participation of more than 100 for this event.
DroidO:
Pragyan, keeping up with it’s long standing support of the open source movement went a step ahead
and introduced DroidO-the official Android App development contest.
PenguFest:
Conducted by the GNU/Linux User’s Group of NIT,Trichy Pengufest was like a breath of fresh air with
a reincarnation in Pragyan’11 except this time it was bigger and better!
Having its origins at Pragyan 2008, Pengufest consisted of talks on eclectic topics, hackathons
and unconferences to instigate the hacker in you. With its primary goal to help participants kick-
start their open source journey, Pengufest provided beginner-friendly talks on contribution to open
source, version control (Git), and hands-on hacking sessions. There was a diverse range of speakers
from alumni of NITT to past GSoC’ers. The talks went together with hands-on sessions, providing
participants a learn-by-doing approach.
Pengufest also witnessed the celebration of Wikipedia’s 10th birthday(including a live video
conference with Jimmy Wales( who has already come down to Pragyan in it’s 2008 edition), followed
by a session on contributing to the Wikimedia Project.
