Cognizance: A technical extravaganza
Cognizance ’18, IIT Roorkee’s annual technical festival, will be held from 23-25 March 2018.
Last year, Reliance and IIT Roorkee in association with Larsen & Toubro presented Cognizance 2017, a conflation of 200+ events spread over a span of 3 days. A mélange of technical competitions, theme events, guest lectures, workshops, exhibitions, awareness drives, tech-tainment shows and a lot more, it was a celebration of the technophilia and technovation that this institute has stood for over the past 170 years.
Cognizance 2017 organized several theme-based events addressing issues like digitisation of banking system particularly in rural India, sex education, tackling youth unemployment, amongst others.
For avid gamers there was CHAOS; for management enthusiasts FINANZA and for budding entrepreneurs E-SUMMIT. Robotics buffs tested their mettle in ROBOSAPIENS; quizzers battled it out in QUIZZOTICA; while enthusiastic debaters and orators had their calling in VOX POPULI and MODEL UNITED NATIONS. And for coders, our coding event INSOMNIA and online events like ILLUSHUN, COGNISTREET, PROJECT GAUSS, TELE-E-TALE and BACKDOOR CTF presented a wide range of opportunities.
Guest Lecture Series: Several eminent personalities from all corners of intelligentsia graced the festival as keynote speakers. Some of the big names included:
1. HRD Minister of India, Sh. Prakash Javadekar (Recorded Speech)
2. Railway Minister of India, Sh. Suresh Prabhu (Recorded Speech)
3. Deputy Director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Mr. S.C. Sharma (Chief Guest of Inaugural Ceremony)
4. Sr. Vice President, Head Technology, Power & Utilities of Reliance Industries Ltd., Kirit Brahmbhatt (Guest of Honour of Inaugural Ceremony)
5. Vice President, L&T Heavy Engineering, Mukesh Bhargav (Guest of Honour Inaugural Ceremony)
6. Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri, Dr. G. Satheesh Reddy (Chief Guest for the Valedictory Ceremony)
7. Asst. Vice President, Head Technology, Reliance Industries Ltd., Gaurav Saksena (Guest of Honour for the Valedictory Ceremony)
8. Environmental Activist and Stand-up Comedian, Ritu Vasu Primlani
9. Sr. Vice President, Samsung, Balaji Srinivas Holur
10. Co-Founder, Indian School of Business (ISB), Anil Kumar
11. Deputy Director, UNEP, USA, Jamil Ahmad
12. UPSC Topper 2014, Ira Singhal.
Exhibitions: Contemporary technology like InMoov from Sweden, Fumanoids from Berlin, Epson Moverio BT-300, Pluto Mini Drone and the latest tech from the stables of Micosoft India Development Centre, Hyderabad and Samsung Research Institute, Bangalore. ISRO gave the audience an insight into space and astronomy.
Techtainment: Performances by Kutle Khan Project under Coke Studio, Vipul Goyal, Akanksha Thakur, Abhishek Banerjee and Gopal Datt under the banner The Viral Fever, Papon Live and the Sachin-Jigar concert show.
Social Initiatives:
1. -edefined- Weightless Wallets: Cognizance 2017 took the initiative to spread mass awareness about transiting to a cashless economy. Cognizance, in collaboration with Unnat Bharat Abhiyan IIT Roorkee, taught rural people about digital modes of payment including digital wallets and coupons.
2. I’m F.I.N.E- Fine Is New Escape: Ignorance about the term ‘mental health’ has engulfed Indians. Taboos, social stigmas and misinformation have made people reluctant to ask for help. Students, quite often, constitute a fair fraction of people affected by mental health illness and find catastrophic remedies to get rid of their ailments.
3. Aviral Ganga – Reinstate. Rejuvenate. Retain: The Ganga, once synonymous with serenity and sanctity, has now become a symbol of degradation. To raise awareness of this critical issue, Cognizance organised an ‘Environment Conclave’ under the guidance of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Centre for Environment Education (CEE) and South Asian Youth Environment Network (SAYEN).