A packed Hariharakala Bhavan on a weekend morning, teeming with energetic and enthusiastic students, faculty and volunteers from the Telugu states under one roof, the first ‘Undergrad Summit’ in the city, organised by the digital platform Stumagz,was replete with grandeur, celebrating talent across many spheres. Talks, panel discussions, tweets, awards — the event had it all, encouraging students to be self-starters and the need to be prepared for failure. Many student summits end up merely sermonising students on what they’re to do next, the main aspect that made the cut here was the interaction. Students across colleges bonded on this unique occasion, the infectious spirit had to be felt to be believed.
A peek into the future
Ravi Teja Muthu and Murali Talasila came together for one of the most interesting conversations to emerge out of the event, taking crowds onto a time-leap on how technology would progress over the next two decades. They mentioned how Robotic Process and automation will help track texts, mouse movements and mimic a human, something that’ll severely force BPOs to rethink their communication approach. “The ability to learn and re-learn matters. The degrees that we study will be rendered useless in the coming years.” Recruitment in the future would deal with games helping one judge the potential of a student that’ll give better than resumes to the HR managers on taking the final call.
Among the firsts
Short film competitions are often reduced to intra-inter college events, for the first time, short films made by engineering college students were awarded on a grand scale. Some of the shorties that won big include Mithuna , Chitrakavyam and Shivoham .
The gender debate
‘Men and women are two wheels of a bicycle’ opined the duo Sridevi Reddy and Kamini Saraf of TiE and FLO, as they came together for a talk that busted certain myths about empowerment and gender bias. Both being the first women to work in their families, they viewed empowerment about the tuning of a thought and the ability to think freely. “The day we embrace the differences that both our genders bring, we feel liberated,” Sridevi added. Another point that brought about a lot of cheer is their mention of how women needn’t be protected by men.
Social media buzz
Over the three hour event, many students were found to be tweeting, posting updates about the summit on social media and guess what, they were rewarded for that too! Following every talk or a panel sesssion, the students went onto receive prized mementos for their activity. Sricharan Lakkaraju on a lighter note addressed undergrad students as ‘multi-taskers’ who could listen, talk and tweet at once.
Don't lose heart over a job
Among the interesting talks that caught the fascination of the crowd was one by Peri Maheshwar, founder of Career360. He addressed for rapid changes in the education system that creates employees over employers. “Don't lose heart if you don't get a job, it will give you some pain and the need to solve a problem. Most importantly, don't lie in interview. Each of us must know what our interests are- I was a CA, publisher and now an education consultant. Innovations and growth happen out of passion,” he added.
Get your hands dirty
Co-founder of one of the earliest startups to have evolved in the city, Mysmartprice and now Bonusapp, Sulakshan Kumar batted for students getting out of their comfort zone towards achieving their bigger goals in life. “Like our app that gives extra cashback to every purchase, do something more than the usual in your career, get your hands dirty in many things,” he added.
