Pragyan, the student festival of National Institute of Technology – Tiruchi (NITT), has always been a highly anticipated event among college goers in the region, for its mix of educational and entertaining programmes conducted on the sprawling campus on Thanjavur Main Road.
However, thanks to the pandemic-induced lockdown, the festival has had to adapt itself to the new normal of going online to meet people.
While the restrictions on large gatherings made Pragyan 2021 a fully online experience, in 2022, the ‘techno-managerial’ festival has created a hybrid model of campus-based offline and online events under the theme ‘Nexus’.
Pragyan’ ‘22’s Metaverse platform, developed by Delta and Graphique, has scheduled events through an immersive cyberspace that networks three-dimensional worlds with technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to build a social connection.
“We have taken hundreds of 3-D pictures of our campus that gives our Metaverse platform a realistic touch, and organised our most popular events on it, so that visitors from outside NITT can get a feel of the local ambience, from a safe distance,” R. Rahul, chairperson of Pragyan ‘22, told The Hindu. “Once the visitor is logged in and registered to compete in any of the contests, he or she will be notified about the event timings and other details,” Mr. Rahul added.
The platform also offers mini competitions and virtual campus tours.
On Friday, the offline events included a guest lecture on nano electronics by Thalappil Pradeep, Padma Shri awardee and professor of Chemistry at IIT Madras, and light painting by Ukrainian artist Kupava held in the Barn Hall.
The online schedule for Saturday has guest lectures by Santhosh Radha, quantum computing expert at Agnostiq and Dr. Rakesh Agarwal, director of JIPMER, Puducherry.
‘Cross-Fire’, scheduled for Saturday, is an online panel discussion on cryptocurrency and NFTs moderated by Jason Rodrigues, featuring Sathvik Vishwanath, founder of Unocoin, Udit Misra, journalist, Abhay Joshi, partner in Economic Laws Practice (ELP), and Kanishk Gaur (founder of India Future Foundation).
On Sunday, Mark Sundhal, professor at Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, and Valipe Ramgopal Rao, former director of IIT Delhi, will be the online guest lecturers.
In the offline entertainment on campus, Kupava will hold a fire and laser show on Saturday, while stand-up comedian Nishant Suri will be presenting his set at the Golden Jubilee Convention Hall (GJCH) on Sunday evening.
Virtual exhibitions of ship models and robots and games to test management and fiscal skills of students are among the other features of Pragyan ‘22.
