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Techkriti’22: IIT Kanpur’s annual fest explores new horizons in tech
The Indian Institute of Technology , Kanpur, (IIT-K), hosted the 28th edition of its annual festival Techkriti’ 22, which is also Asia’s largest technical and entrepreneurship festival, from March 25 to 27 in hybrid (both offline and online) mode
The Indian Institute of Technology , Kanpur, (IIT-K), hosted the 28th edition of its annual festival Techkriti’ 22, which is also Asia’s largest technical and entrepreneurship festival, from March 25 to 27 in hybrid (both offline and online) mode.
The prominent participants in this year’s event included Nobel laureates, scientists, technocrats and many other dignitaries from various fields. With the theme “Transcending Origins”, the prestigious institute offered a platform for the great minds to discuss and explore various crucial aspects of business development, start-ups and entrepreneurial eco-system and ever-evolving technologies.
Faculty coordinator was prof Amitabha Bandyopadhyay, department of biological sciences and bioengineering (BSBE), IIT Kanpur. Prof Abhay Karandikar, director, IIT Kanpur, said, “Techkriti has been a platform where ideas are exchanged and discussions take shape to take research and innovation one step further. The amalgamated discussions on the old versus the new truly resonate with the theme. This would not only groom future leaders but would also give shape to countless ideas of young entrepreneurs and technology enthusiasts.”
There were various talks scheduled for the three-day event where experts from various sectors exchanged ideas and ignited discussions. Speaking on “Road to Techkriti”, Bangladeshi Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 2006 for founding the Grameen Bank and pioneering the concepts of microcredit and microfinance, talked about his own idea of creating a “World of Three Zeros.” The three zeroes he talked about are zero carbon emission, zero wealth concentration and zero unemployment.
He urged students to value the nature and work towards preventing global warming. He said the current profit-driven economic system had concentrated the capital in the hands of a few, leaving the economic system to be nothing but a ticking time bomb. He also said the economic slowdown caused due to the Covid pandemic must be reversed.
Swiss chemist/biophysicist Dr Kurt Wüthrich, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2002 for developing nuclear magnetic resonance methods for studying biological macromolecules, gave an enlightening talk on “The Molecules of Life: DNA, RNA, and Proteins – History Placed in Perspective.” The talk explained in detail about DNA, RNA and protein with anecdotal references.
Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, talked about how cloud computing (the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage (cloud storage) and computing power) evolved from being a software delivery system to its current form over the past 20 years.
He said initially it was made for the convenience of companies, reducing their need to maintain a high-end technological infrastructure, but the second generation of cloud computing was based much more on infrastructure. It is now quintessential across sectors. Amit Agarwal from NoBroker and Rizwan Koita from Citius Tech highlighted their journeys and how entrepreneurs and startups can translate ideas into reality.
Robert Metcalfe, father of Ethernet, initiated a talk on Ethernet and connectivity. He shared how his inspiration for a new dissertation came while working at Xerox PARC when he read a paper about the ALOHA network or Alohanet at the University of Hawaii. He talked about how access speeds have increased from 2.94Mbps to 800Gbps with the number of connected devices now exceeding the number of people on the planet, and that today’s Ethernet standard bears little resemblance to the one created by Metcalfe back in the 1970s.
IIT Kanpur alumnus Gautam Khanna, CEO, PD Hinduja Hospital, in his talk on “Improving healthcare performance through digital transformation” talked about the history and significance of technology in healthcare and that healthcare should be uplifted from “sick care” to “healthcare”.
The three-day event hosted various workshops, competitions and exhibitions along with talks in a dynamic virtual platform. The only two on-ground events were the “Comedy Night” and “Pronite Show”. Comedian Sahil Shah enthralled the audience on March 26 while singer Shaan made the crowd groove to his music during the concluding “Pronite Show” on March 27.
