Campus Fest

Every college has a technical festival. Every festival has competitions, guest lectures, workshops, and entertainment. NIT Trichy’s 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.