From activists, designers, entrepreneurs, personality trainers, even a senior police officer recounting the days of being shot, TEDx (technology, entertainment and design) held at THE National Institute of Technology – Karnataka on Sunday presented a wide array of speakers with the objective to motivate, stimulate, and enthral.
TEDx primarily serves as a display of ideas, and the speakers ensured the talks were not deficient in ideas. Sumit Dagar, an interaction designer, displayed the concepts behind the ‘Braille Phone’, a mobile phone specially meant for the blind.
At just 22, Gagan Agarwal elaborated on the idea behind ‘VYOM’, a student project that saw a rocket being launched with the assistance of Indian Space Research Organisation that saw him become one of the youngest project directors in the continent. “At present, the participation of youth in innovation is very less,” he said, suggesting the project Delta(x) as means to change this. Delta(x) will be a mediator between academics and industry, and projects required by the industry would be broken down into subparts that could be given to students, he said. “This way, students get practical training, while, the industry gets their Research and Development done for cheap. Even small companies can access R&D this way,” said Mr. Agarwal.
Entrepreneurship was another key theme, with Arun Sharma, a personality trainer, whose claim to fame is cracking the CAT (common aptitude test) 11 times, announcing: “Entrepreneurship is romantic, it is a reward and a struggle!”
Lending performance to her talk, Shruti Seth, actor and marketing manager, recounted her journey as a video jockey and actress, all the while battling stage fright and shyness.
Gopal B. Hosur, Inspector-General of Police (Intelligence), narrated his days of chasing brigand Veerappan and the perils of police work. The tangible rewards were few, he said, while narrating being shot in the neck and surviving through the pain during the hunt for the brigand.
Other speakers included Freeman Murray, Co-Founder and Director of Jaaga, who talked about the internet and the global future, Balaji Girisaballa, Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo! Entrepreneurship Network, on “In search of a story: why we do what we do”, Vijay Krishna, Director of Arghyam, on the importance of research in water and its preservation and Dasami Moodley,Director of Business Development at InVenture, on the ‘microfinance revolution’.
Ending the day on a peppier beat, Vineeth Vincent, a beatbox artiste, and Vighnesh Shivanand, known as rapper Brodha V., signed things off with their hip-hop renditions.
Keywords: TEDx, Braille Phone, Entrepreneurship
