The inauguration ceremony of Pragyan, NIT Trichy 2019

The inauguration ceremony of Pragyan, NIT Trichy 2019 took place on  the 14th of March 2019, from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM. The chief guest for  the evening was Padma Shri M.Y.S. Prasad, former director of the  Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The guest of honour for the evening was  Mr. Kesavan G, Head of supply chain management, Power, Transmission  and Distribution at Larsen and Toubro.



The ceremony began in an auspicious manner, with a prayer song and the  lighting of the lamp. This was followed by the welcome address by the  Staff Advisor of Pragyan 2019, Dr. Rajeswari Sridhar. Next, Mukesh,  the Chairperson of Pragyan, NIT Trichy 2019, took the stage to inform  the audience of the story of Pragyan 2019 so far, with a speech titled  ‘Pragyan at a glance’, following which the Dean of Students Welfare, Dr. Samson Mathew, delivered his address to the students. The Director  of NIT Trichy, Prof. Mini Shaji Thomas then delivered the presidential  address, highlighting everything Pragyan 2019 has to offer, giving  special emphasis to Sangam and Ingenium, competitions aimed at  fostering product development and Intrepreneurship.

TThe chief guest for the evening was Padma Shri M.Y.S. Prasad, former  director of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre delivered his inaugural  address on highlighting the steps taken across the globe in the  
mission to Mars. He ended his insightful keynote by encouraging the  students to reinvigorate the scientific temper of the country. In his  inauguration address, he spoke at length about the mission to Mars. He  spoke briefly about the solar system and discussed the journey to  Mars. He justified the effort and time taken for a Mars mission by  noting the possibility of discovering extra-terrestrial life in Mars  in addition to helping us decide conditions for our own colonies. The  keynote went into great detail regarding the Mars missions across the  globe in U.S.A, Russia, India, and China. The talk enclosed details  from the initial framework for Mars exploration (starting from 1975 in  USA) to recent successful endeavours like the Curiosity rover. He  highlighted the challenges faced in space exploration and hoped for  innovative solutions from the young minds present. He ended his  insightful keynote by encouraging the students to reinvigorate the  scientific temper of the country.Quotes“When India speaks in a world conference of space, the world listens”

Next, the Guest of Honour, Mr. Kesavan G took the stage to deliver a  speech and expressed his best wishes for Pragyan 2019. The speeches  were followed by the Memento distribution. The event concluded with  the vote of thanks by the Overall Coordinator, Mr. J.M. Kabinesh.This year’s edition of Pragyan, NIT Trichy is scheduled to take place  between the 14th to 17th of March, 2019. The inauguration ceremony  will be graced by the presence of Padma Shri M.Y.S Prasad, who will be  the chief guest for the evening.

In line with our theme, Spectrum, Pragyan presents to you an array of  exhibitions involving PepperBot, the humanoid robot capable of  recognising the principal human emotions along with informative  workshops on, augmented reality, IoT prototyping and deep learning.Pragyan 2019, also presents a distinguished class of eminent speakers  for the Guest Lecture Series including Dr Spyridon Michalakis, quantum  physicist and staff researcher at CalTech, and the scientific  consultant for Marvel Studios. Dr. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, former  Deputy Chairman of the Erstwhile Planning Commission of India, Dr  Crystal Dilworth, science communicator and advocate on Gender equity  and diversity in STEM among many others. This year’s crossfire topic  of “Do we have the right to free speech or just compliant speech?”  
promises to be eye-opening and enlightening in so many ways.

Pragyan 2019 also plays hosts to a lineup of internationally acclaimed  infotainment artists like Graham Maxwell from UK, Yanika Beliza from  Spain, Ramod Malaka from Sri Lanka, and a whole lot more. The world’s  largest human library conducted by a student-run organisation acts as  the perfect feather in the cap of this amazing celebration.