A variety of topics including technology, psychodrama, performing arts and social taboos were covered at TEDxNITTrichy 2019 at National Institute of Technology-Tiruchi, here recently.
The event organised on the theme ‘unchartered’ envisaged bringing positive change in society through bringing in audience after an elaborate screening process.
S.R. Chakravarthy, Professor of aerospace engineering at IIT Madras, spoke about ‘defrastructure’, a novel idea endorsing the shift from massive infrastructure undertakings towards smaller, smarter engineering solutions.
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P. Namperumalsamy, Chairman Emeritus, Aravind Eye Hospitals, spoke about the Aravind social business model, and how the healthcare industry needed to develop something like it to not just foster innovation, but also give back to society.
Magdalene Jeyarathnam, founder of Indian Institute of Psychodrama, gave a demonstration on the power of psychodrama in healing emotional scars left by the trauma of guilt.
Annamalai Lakshmanan, founder of Tanglish Comedy, emphasised the need for universal humour that transcended boundaries of language and age.
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Ananth Nagaraj, founder of Gnani.ai. explained the concept of conversational artificial intelligence and natural language processing.
LGBTQ activist and transgender television host, Rose Venkatesan spoke on how sexual hypocrisy led to broken households, and Thilagavathi Palani, ‘kattaikoothu’ performer, dwelt on how art, in general, could be viewed as more than just a profession, as something that enabled personal and social transformation.
The day-long programme culminated with a talk interspersed with music by Kaber Vasuki. The talk delved on the power of deep, reflective lyrics in music.