Springtime is here- a season of new beginnings, love, laughter and happiness. A great situation for budding relationships you may think. But will the blossom stand the frost of the web team lab of NIT Trichy. I can assure you that it is a trial by fire.

This doesn’t happen only to nerd types or programming fanatics, it can happen to anyone.. cos that s the kind of single minded devotion that Pragyan demands from all those who work for it.

The guy I am dating is normal, that is, as far as guys g.. which isn’t saying too much..:) but he seems to have gotten stuck in a sorta time warp.. with selective memory loss..
Imagine our stone age ancestors.. the times when shaving razors and bath soaps were out of fashion. Waiting in front of the campus main block for a couple of minutes can magically transport you back.. No prizes for guessing what my boy friend’s selective amnesia includes..
For starters.. FOOD, HYGIENE, SLEEP and also most importantly ME..

A day in my life would illustrate this better..

7:30 am Respective Hostels
ME: “Hey!! GET UP.. u r gonna be late.. 8:30 class.. anyway when did u sleep yesterday”
HIM:” I dunno.. three.. four.. ” SILENCE
ME: ” GET UP.. Don t go back to sleep”
HIM:”Watever…Yawwnn”

8:30 am Class
ME: (SMS) ” u get here now.. u cant bunk more than four classes”
HIM.. no reply.. dashes in when teacher is about to lock the door”

12:10 pm
ME: “Lunch??”
HIM: ” Oh.. sorry I have a meeting at one.. very important.. how about dinner… say sevenish, canteen?”
ME:”K..”

7:15 pm Canteen
Me:(Thinking)” I ‘ll wait a while and then call”
7:30pm
Me: (Calling)
His phone:”Error in network connection”,” number busy”
7:45 pm
Me: (SMS) U plan on coming or no..
try again to call
Finally..” The number you are trying to reach is currently switched off”
8:15 pm
HIM :”I am really sorry. Didnt mean to.. i was giving ppl work.. then jus wen i was coming out i met X.. I had to talk to him.. “
Phone rings..
HIM(on the phone):”Yeah tell me.. blaaah blaah blaah..”
Finally five minutes of peace.. we eat in silence.. then suddenly
HIM:”Server ke liye kuch karna padega”
Me:(THINKING) ” Can he pls stop thinking abt work for a while..”

10:00 pm
ON phone
HIM: “I am busy.. can i call u later??”
Me: “cool”
12:00 am
DITTO
1:00 am
ME:” U better sleep if you want to attend class tomorrow..”
4:00 am
HIM:” I am going to sleep now..”
ME:”HMMM..” doze off and put the phone down..

and another brand new day with the same old routine begins..

Well all relationships need a trial; we are serving our internships now.. And maybe it s all for a reason:)

The stage is set for the mega event of the year starting on the 28th February,2008. Its the 4th edition of Pragyan, the International Techno-Management Festival of NIT Trichy.

With around INR 5 million at stake, its going to be a gold rush this time for sure with participants from all over the country battling it out in 28 events with 7 different clusters ranging from Management, Coding, Innovation, core Engineering to Brainwork, hard core Robotics and Informals!

Apart from the events, there’s loads to do at Pragyan. Here’s quick run through.

GUEST LECTURES

Dr. Philippe Lebrun

Dr. Philippe Lebrun is Head of the Accelerator Technology Department at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research). The Large Hadron Collider(LHC), which is the largest scientific instrument ever made, is being funded and built in collaboration with over two thousand physicists from thirty-four countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories, with Dr. Lebrun at the helm.

Philip Zimmermann:

Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), VoIP encryption protocols notably ZRTP and Zfone are some of the creations of Philip Zimmermann. He was one of the first to make asymmetric, or public key, encryption software readily available to the general public. He released the source code for PGP, which is now the most widely used email encryption software in the world, and made it available overseas via the Internet in 1991.

Dr. Subramanian Swamy

Dr Subramanian Swamy is a leading economist and an authority on Indo-China relations. He has served as a Cabinet Minister for Commerce, Law & Justice and has held the post of Chairman of the Commission on Labour Standards & International Trade. He was a member of the Planning Commission in 1990-1991, when the decisions to liberalise the Indian Economy were taken, leading to the phenomenal growth that we see today.

Prof. Trilochan Sastry

Dr. Trilochan Sastry is a Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. An alumnus of IIT Delhi, he did an MBA from IIM-Ahmedabad and received his doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA. He will be giving a talk on entrepreneurship.

Mark Shuttleworth

Mark Shuttleworth is the creator of Ubuntu, a venture capitalist, a space tourist and a leading philanthropist in the year 2002; he gained worldwide fame when he became only the second space tourist at the time as a spaceflight participant aboard the Russian Soyuz TM-34 mission.

Ronald Mallet

Dr. Ronald L. Mallet is a Professor of Physics at the University of Connecticut. Prof. Mallet’s proclivity for the subject stemmed from an interest in science and science fiction. Now an authority on the subject of time travel, he believes he is tantalizingly close to achieving his ultimate dream, a real working time machine!

WORKSHOPS

Robotics Workshop

Dr. Amir Shapiro is a professor teaching at the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel. He actively conducts research in robotics and takes courses in Dynamics, Robotics and Mechatronics. For his contributions his biography has been included in the Who’s Who in Engineering Academia 2007. At Pragyan ’08 Dr. Amir Shapiro will conduct a workshop on bio-inspired robotics and will be bringing hos snake robot for display.

Ham Radio Workshop

Ham Radio Operators undergo a very thorough process before being certified by the government. So this is probably the closest you can get to have the intricacies of Ham Radio explained by an expert attached with ISRO Satellite Center. More than 3 million people in the world pursue HAM radio operating as a hobby! It’s time for you to start too!

So, still wasting time thinking what to do and what not to do? Just pack your bags, get the tickets and be there to enjoy the festive season of technology..!

Come, Lets celebrate Technology..!

Pragyan ’08.

And once every year, the world gathers at its birthplace to gaze, marvel and applaud all that Pragyan means to the world of innovation.

And this time, marvel they shall.

Building on last years progress, the Pragyan ’08 blueprints are more than mature and are waiting for the world’s attention. With events charted out and teams scanning the world for worthy participants, Pragyan ’08 is leaping into the realms of a peerless techfest. And the events are not lonely on an unparalleled planet.Giving them company will be technology gurus and innovation experts that have rewritten theories and successfully prophesized revolutions to share all there is to share.

Learn, share, innovate and throw open your bag of tricks. Pragyan ’08 will reward you like only Pragyan ’08 can. The gauntlet has been thrown, the countdown has begun. It is time for the emperor to crown a new king.

© Pragyan Team 2008
webadmin@pragyan.org