Kshitij

For other uses, see Kshitij (disambiguation).
Kshitij
Type Student-run non-profit organization
Founded 2004 (2004)
Place Kharagpur, India
Institute Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
Major events Robowars B Plan Laws of Motion
Slogan Think. Create. Enjoy
Website ktj.in

Kshitij is the annual techno-management fest of IIT Kharagpur, one of India’s premier technical institutions.[1][2] Started in 2004, Kshitij was conceived with the aim to provide the technically inclined youth a national-level platform, where their talent and expertise would be recognized and rewarded.[3] Having grown exponentially since its nascent years, Kshitij receives overwhelming participation from the student community all over the world.[4][5] The official website of Kshitij, ktj.in, is the largest student run website, receiving 8 million clicks in its 2012 edition.[6][7]

Kshitij organizes a wide range of events encompassing every genre of technology and management with the aim to infuse a scientific and rational temperament in the young minds.[8] World-renowned organizations like ACM, IEEE, ASME, ASHRAE and IMechE certify numerous events of the fest. To address issues plaguing our society, Kshitij undertakes social initiatives in association with the foremost NGOs of the country.[9] Workshops are conducted all over the country to help the participants gain hand-on experience and enhance their technical skills. Kshitij also organizes guest lectures, exhibitions and megashows.[10][11]

Kshitij 2016 was held from 21 to 24 January 2016, with a total participation of over 70,000 and Rs 65 lac offered as prize money.[12] The 14th edition of Kshitij is scheduled from 27 to 29 January 2017.[13]

History and growth

The inaugural edition of this techno-management symposium was in the year 2004, when it was named Ideon. The fest witnessed a participation of about 260 students from outside IIT Kharagpur. The participation has since grown exponentially, and it has now become Asia’s fest of its kind.

The year 2005 saw a massive growth in the participation of students from outside the institute, with a participation of about 1400, including people from abroad.

In 2006, Kshitij hosted about 3,000 in-house and 2,000 outstation participants, who took part in 20 events spread across various genres, vying for the chance to grab prizes worth Rs. 15 lakhs. It alse witnessed guest lectures from eminent personalities like Prof. Klaus Von Klitzing(Nobel prize in Physics 1985) who was also the judge of the finals of the technical paper presentation event Eureka[14], R. Chidambaram (Principal Scientific Advisor to the Govt. of India), Lord Sushanto Kumar Bhattacharyya (Scientific Advisor to the Govt of South Africa and Warwick Manufacturing Group's Director) and Dr. Praveen Chaudhari(Director, Brookhaven Laboratory). The flagship events of the fest at that time were Eureka, CarXs (a competition to design the seating arrangement of SUVs) and Mission Mars (a programming contest).

Kshitij 2007[15] was held from 1st - 4th February, with the Egyptian civilisation as the chosen theme, as a homage to the pathbreaking technical expertise and the rich cultural heritage of one of the world’s earliest civilisations. The 35 events with prizes worth Rs. 30 lakhs, providing a confluence of technology and business skills, were extremely well-received. Prior to the fest, robotics workshops were held in cities like Kolkata, Hyderabad[16] and Jaipur. The fest itself was a massive success, with people like Wg. Cmdr. Rakesh Sharma[17], ad-guru Alyque Padamsee, Nobel laureate Prof. Paul Krutzen sharing anecdotes from their life. The events Eureka, BPlan (the business plan presentation event) and Overnite (a night-long coding event) were yet again hugely successful. The fest also witnessed awe-inspiring exhibitions from across the world, some of which included a next-generation flying mechanical bird (an ‘’Ornithopter’’).

In 2008, Kshitij witnessed 3500 outstation students from all over the country. The fest consisted of engaging guest lectures by people like the co-founder of Wikipedia, Mr. Jimmy Wales, the father of Nano-Technology Mr. Eric Drexler, the world famous theoretical physicist and author of the bestseller ‘Physics of Star-Trek’, Prof. Lawrence M. Krauss. There was also a video conference by the Nobel Laureate in Chemistry for genetic information transfer from DNA to RNA, Prof. Roger D Kornberg. There were 30 technical and 15 managerial events in the fest, in addition to enriching workshops on topics like rocketry, microfinance, cryptology, kite modeling and carbon trading. Incidentally, it was in this year that the official website www.ktj.in received about 8 million clicks, making it the largest student-run website in the world.

Kshitij 2009, held from 29th January to 1st February, saw the fest joining hands with globally reputed associations like ACM, ASHRAE, ASME and IMechE, which certified some of the events conducted, thus extending international recognition to the outstanding entries in various categories. This edition had a participation of about 30000 and gave away prizes worth Rs. 45 lakhs.

In 2010, Kshitij, which was held from the 28th to the 31st of January, conducted over 40 events spread across 9 genres, comprising of both technical events as well as managerial events. These events covered diverse fields like coding, case studies, business plan presentations, industrial design problems, aeromodelling and robotics besides other on-the-spot events. This edition had witnessed a participation of more than 40000, with prizes worth Rs. 50 lakhs being given.

Kshitij 2011 was yet again a grand success. It was organised from the 28th to the 31st of January. The guest lectures were particularly enthralling, with illustrious personalities like the first Indian astronaut in space, Dr. Rakesh Sharma, the Nobel laureate Sir Anthony James Legett, the famous ad-guru Mr. Prahlad Kakkar, and the Father of the Internet, Mr. Philip Emeagwali gracing the symposium with their presence and sharing anecdotes from their personal experiences.

The 2012 edition, held from the 27th to the 30th of January, saw the inaugural edition of The Verdict, the National Moot Court Competition being held. It also witnessed more than 35 events being held across 9 genres. Incidentally, it was also in the year 2012 that the official website of Kshitij, www.ktj.in , became the largest student-run website in the world, receiving over 8 million hits in a single year.

Kshitij 2013 was yet again hugely successful, with prizes worth INR 60 lakh being given out for more than 45 events, which comprised of online events, submission-based events as well as on-spot events. Held from the 1st to the 4th of February, it witnessed a participation of more than 60000 from 1400 colleges. In this year, Kshitij for the first time, came under the patronage of UNESCO. It also had world-renowned organisations like ACM, IEEE,ASME,ASHRAE and IMechE giving their prestigious certifications to some the major flagship events such as Overnite, Eureka, Student Design Exposition, Kryotech and Laws of Motion.

Kshitij 2014 offered a gamut of options for the participants. Be it guest lectures from distinguished personalities cutting across various fields, to the megashows that managed to captivate the audience, to the wide-ranged workshop series, the 11th edition had something to offer every student. Among the guest lecturers were the critically acclaimed actor, Mr. Nawazuddin Siddiqui, the renowned activist Ms. Shazia Ilmi, Mr. Amitabha Ghosh, chairman, Mars Rover Mission, NASA and the Nobel Peace Prize winner Mr. Jonathan Forman. Workshops on investigative journalism, rupee depreciation, sustainable development and automotive engineering were also held. Apart from all these, social initiatives were held in association with NGOs such as Drishti, EBAI and PETA for the cause of eye donation and ethical treatment of animals.

The 12th edition of Kshitij was held from 30th January to 2nd February, and had incorporated the theme of “Celebrating 100 Years of Relativity”. It had hosted the the 2015 ACM-ICPC India Overnite Multi-Provincial Programming Contest. It also saw a workshop on Public Policy Engineering by The Takshashila Institution, an Insight into Supercomputing by CDAC, an engaging workshop on cinematography by Ali Kazmi, and the conduction of TCS Hacka THINGS, a Hackathon for Internet of Things (IoT) Applications. Kshitij also witnessed guest lectures from a number of leading names such as Satyajit Bhatkal, the creator of the popular show Satyamev Jayate, Piyush Mishra, a film and theatre actor, Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan (ex-chairman, ISRO), R S Gandhi, deputy governor, RBI, and Dr Juergen Knobloch, physicist at CERN. The megashows by The Viral Fever, Parkour and Slackline and Pyrobatics too were very well-received.

Kshitij 2016 was a tremendous success in terms of both participation and the scale of the fest, and was held from the 21st to the 24th of January. It was in 2016 that the official mascot of Kshitij - KRUX, The Technosapien, was introduced. The guest lecture series too was especially diverse, and consisted of global achievers coming onto the stage and sharing their experiences with the students. Mr. Carlo Cottarelli, the Executive Director of the IMF, Mr. V.S Sampath, the former Chief Election Commissioner of India, Mr. Shoojit Sircar, the critically acclaimed director of films like Piku and Vicky Donor, Mr. Dilip Chhabbria, the creator of India’s first sports car DC Avanti, Mr. Claude Nicollier, the first astronaut from Switzerland, Mr. Hatim Zaghloul, the co-founder of Wi-LAN, Mr. AS Pillai, the CEO and MD of Brahmos Aerospace, Mr. Abhas Mitra, the celebrated Indian astrophysicist and Mr. Sanjeev Sanyal, who was declared a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, were the guest lecturers for the 14th edition. The fest also hosted workshops by technical giants like Texas Instruments, Deloitte, NASSCOM, Microsoft and IBM, apart from exhibitions from countries like Switzerland, Sweden, Malaysia and Bangladesh. In addition, Kshitij conducted two social initiatives, Sankalp, an initiative held in association with UNICEF to eradicate malnutrition, and the Digital India Summit, held under the aegis of the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Certifications

Many of the events in Kshitij 2016 have certifications from organisations and institutions. These are:

Flagship events

Laws of Motion: This aircraft design event certified by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers IMechE is one of the most famous events of Kshitij, which receives participation from students all over the country.

Eureka : An IEEE certified technical paper presentation event.

Overnite: The ACM ICPC multi-provincial programming contest is certified by ACM, world’s largest and most prestigious scientific and educational computing society.

ASME SDE: Student Design Exposition is an open hardware modelling competition certified by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Embetronix: It is an embedded electronics circuit design competition spread over two rounds.

Nightshift: An adaptation of the popular Discovery Channel show, Junkyard Wars, this event is also certified by IMechE.

IDP: It is Kshitij’s Industrial Design Problem competition. Conducted in association with reputed industrial organizations, it gives participants a chance to give solutions to real-time problems faced by industries, in a scaled-down version.

The Verdict: The national-level Moot Court competition of Kshitij, it is conducted in association with the Indian Bar Association.

Robotix events

Main article: Robotix (competition)

There is a complete genre called Robotix,[18] which has many events based on amateur robotics. The events for Kshitij 2015 were:

Cascade: Build a manually controlled robot capable of traversing vertical rods while shooting terrorists

Skyfall: Build a robot that is capable of picking up packages on a pier and depositing it on the given ship by traversing the arena aquatically or by zipline.

Minefield: Build a semi-autonomous robot capable of detecting hidden metal mines and rescuing stranded victims using gesture recognition in a minefield.

Step Up: Build an autonomous robot that is capable of traversing a grid and arranging the blocks placed on nodes in the increasing order of height.

Aug-Hit: Build an image processing robot which can play the Break Bricks game.

Sudocode: Write a code to optimise your strategy to find and destroy enemy bunkers in a jungle. Write a code to find and attack enemy troops in the jungle.

Guest lectures

Each year, Kshitij invites illustrious dignitaries from all over the world to share their valuable insights. The guests for Kshitij in its previous editions include:

Workshops

Kshitij organises elucidatory workshops during and in the days before the festival. The workshops are organised in association with reputed organisations and are conducted free of cost.

Asserting the importance of gaining hands-on experience in the learning process, Kshitij organizes interactive workshops on a wide variety of topics to bridge the divide between theoretical and practical knowledge. These workshops are conducted by intellectuals from hi-tech companies like Microsoft, IBM, Delloite, Texas Instruments, Jaguar, NASSCOM, Takshashila Foundation[19] which provide technological breakthroughs and promise innovative solutions to the most pressing global challenges of our time.

The Kshitij Team organises external workshops in cities like Kolkata,[20] Indore, Nagpur, Lucknow and others before the festival.

Activities

For the recreation of the participants after the events, Kshitij hosts activities like:

References

  1. ↑ Fritz, Ben (2010-10-14). "Budding engineers, managers to attend Kshitij at IIT-Kharagpur". Los Angeles Times. Tribune Company. Retrieved 2010-10-16.
  2. ↑ IIT Kharagpur, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.
  3. ↑ "IIT-Kharagpur invites students for techno-management fest". Times of India. 2013-10-14. Retrieved 2013-10-14.
  4. ↑ Kshitij -Techno management fest. Knowafest.com. November 2011. Archived June 2, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ "Kshitij 2011 - Techno Management Fest, IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur, West Bengal, January 28-31 2011". Knowafest.com. 2011.
  6. ↑ IIT-Kharagpur organises techno-management fest IIT-Kharagpur organises techno-management fest
  7. ↑ IIT Gandhinagar students gear up for Kshitji
  8. ↑ Fritz, Ben (2012-10-24). "Online events ahead of techno management fest at IIT Kharagpur.". Los Angeles Times. Times of India. Retrieved 2012-10-24.
  9. ↑ "FEATURES / EDUCATION PLUS : IIT-Kharagpur gears up for Kshitij". Chennai, India: The Hindu. 2012-10-29. Retrieved 2012-12-22.
  10. ↑ Fritz, Ben (2012-10-31). "IIT Gandhinagar students gear up for Kshitji". Times of India. Times of India. Retrieved 2012-10-31.
  11. ↑ "Campus chitchat: Kshitij 2013 in February". Indian Express. 2012-12-04. Retrieved 2012-12-22.
  12. ↑ "Robot festival at IIT-Kharagpur - The Times of India". The Times of India.
  13. ↑ "Call next Android Lassi, demand IITians". DNA India. 2013-10-14. Retrieved 2013-10-14.
  14. ↑ http://www.thehindu.com/2005/12/12/stories/2005121206040500.htm
  15. ↑ https://www.campuskarma.in/photos/album/13982/kshitij-2007
  16. ↑ http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-educationplus/technomanagement-fest-at-iitkharagpur/article3215054.ece
  17. ↑ https://seraphic.wordpress.com/2007/03/28/kshitij-2007-an-overview/
  18. ↑ Robotix 2015.
  19. ↑ http://takshashila.org.in/event/public-policy-engineering-workshop-at-iit-kgp-fest-kshitij-2015/
  20. ↑ http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/education/news/Robotics-workshop-by-IIT-Kharagpur-students/articleshow/49676933.cms

External links

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