Theme: Learning from the Past

TEDxNITRourkela is an independently organized TED event coordinated and curated by a group of NIT Rourkela students. We present people with the opportunity to suggest innovative and efficient ideas to tackle our society's various issues, thus gathering a diverse range of voices from a plethora of disciplines that exist to help humanity grow. From essential, radical, and exciting ideas to electrifying performances from performers who are on top of their respective fields. We aspire to deliver to you an experience you would not want to miss.

Bhubaneswar Behera Auditorium
NIT Rourkela, Sector-1
Rourkela, Orissa, 769008
India

Anup Nandy

AI Researcher and Professor | NITR

Professor Anup Nandy, a researcher in AI & ML area, was one of the few Indian scientists selected to present his research in the momentous 5th BRICS Young Scientist Conclave 2020. He is well-acknowledged for his remarkable research on the development of a pathological health care system for early detection of neurological gait abnormalities, human cognitive state estimation through multi-model gait analysis, and more. He has brought great pride and glory to our institute and has been the recipient of numerous prestigious awards like the NVIDIA GPU Research Grant Award in 2018, the Early Career Research Award from SERB, DST, Govt. of India in 2017 among others. His noteworthy work at such a young age is sure to act as a source of inspiration to all youngsters, and generations yet to come.

Ashwathy Satheesan

Product Designer and Researcher | IFB

Winning the James Dyson award at the national level is in itself a matter of immense pride and recognition. To do so in the early 20s? Extraordinary. Ashwathy Satheesan was one such extraordinary person with an extraordinary scale of work for society when she developed ‘Fleo,’ a writing aid for people with Parkinson's tremors. ☆Being a graduate from NID, Ahmedabad, she is a product designer and researcher working on design activism, circular economy & the future. ☆Her accounts of numerous works have been presented at various events like Global Futures Symposium in 2018, RSD8 Symposium in 2019, and IUS Symposium in 2020. ☆She is currently working as an Industrial designer for IFB Appliances, where she is part of the team that designs and develops the whole range of IFB home appliances.

Jeremy Philemon

Engineer and Designer | covid19india.org

Jeremy is an Engineer and Designer. He was part of the team that led the open-source initiative called covid19india.org that tracked the coronavirus's impact in India. The crowdsourced effort helped government/medical authorities carry out critical policy-making decisions, enabled over 600 fast-paced research publications and kept millions of Indians informed during the pandemic.

Kabir Cafe

Folk Fusion Music Band

Kabir Cafe, the makers of 'Mat Kar Maya ko Ahankar,’ the ending track featured in the hit series "Scam 1992', is a Mumbai-based folk fusion band known for performing songs composed of Saint Kabir's Dohas. The band has been presenting Kabir's poetry musically without compromising its lyrical beauty. They aim at spreading the words of Kabir, referring to him as the band's "First Member". Kabir Cafe has emerged as a fresh wave of innovation in the Indian Music scene. The band rose to popularity after featuring in the second episode of the fourth season of The Dewarists. The band's lineup consists of Neeraj Arya (lead vocals and rhythm guitar), Raman Iyer (Mandolin), Viren Solanki (percussions and drums), Mukund Ramaswamy (violin), and Poubuanpou Britto KC (Bass guitars, backing vocalist).

Lisa Russell

Global Speaker and Filmmaker | Lisa Russell Films

Lisa is an Emmy® Award-winning filmmaker, Academy Nicholl Fellowship for Screenwriting quarterfinalist and artist curator. An established global speaker and thought leader, Lisa is a two-time TEDx speaker, Fulbright Specialist, writer and is a regular presenter at film festivals, storytelling summits, international conferences etc. In addition to her filmmaking activities, Lisa is considered a leading advocate for the inclusion of diverse, creative communities in her work at the United Nations and in the global development space. She has founded Create2030, an initiative to engage members of the growing creative economy in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Currently residing in East Africa, Lisa is commemorating the UN's 2021 International Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development by providing the Arts Envoy artist development program and conducting live and insightful workshops for enthusiasts throughout this COVID-19 period!

Lokesh K Gurram

Researcher and Developer | Co-founder | Ditto by Finshots

Lokesh Gurram, the co-founder at Finshots, a popular and emerging finance bulletin, is an alumnus of IIT Delhi and one of the few people who truly understand the meaning of building revolutionary services and technology. Finshots delivers your daily dose of the latest Financial developments delivered in plain language in short, through their newsletter. Finshots has amassed more than 200,000 subscribers as of today, continuing to simplify business and financial news for its readers, whether it’s about the much-talked-about Starlink project or the Cair arbitration case – a concept that had always played with many’s understanding. Lokesh, who joined his brother Bhanu in the initial launch days for Finshots, is now the chief technology builder at the now-largely followed startup; after doing a strong and comprehensive job at Samsung research, massively contributing towards defining new standards for Wireless networks(Wi-Fi), IoT, digital car key, etc.

Pranav Khaitan

Senior Engineering Lead | Google AI

Pranav Khaitan is a senior engineering lead at Google AI, where he leads teams working on dialogue systems, conversational understanding, recommendations and on-device intelligence. He has led the research and development of AI technologies that power more than a billion user products, including Search, Chrome, YouTube and Android. He was one of the founding leads of the Machine Intelligence organization when it was created in 2013. Before Machine Intelligence, Pranav worked on Google Search, where he built technologies spanning the entire search stack and played a key role in developing the Google knowledge graph as one of its early members. More recently, he has also been working on using AI to solve humanitarian aid problems in partnership with the United Nations World Food Programme and the World Bank. This partnership was announced at the United Nations General Assembly 2018. Pranav has degrees in Computer Science from Stanford University and the NIT Rourkela.

Riki Biswas

Co-founder and CEO | Pointo

Mr. Riki Biswas is the co-founder of numerous revolutionary ventures: Solarstair, Rodo, and, more recently- Pointo. Pointo provides an app-based e-rickshaw booking facility; it is an eco-friendly company that brings local commute into users’ hands. Rodo, the brainchild of Mr. Biswas, is India’s First dock-less public e-bicycle sharing service that aims for a cleaner, greener, hassle-free environment. His roster of technologically outstanding companies also includes Solarstair, which promotes renewable energy and discards the use of non-renewable sources of energy for a better and safer environment.

Sabysachi Patra

Wildlife Filmographer | Conservationist

Mr. Patra is a Cinematographer & Filmmaker and founder of “Wild Tiger Productions’. Alumni of NIT Rourkela, he is an Experienced Corporate professional turned Filmmaker. Mr. Patra also founded ‘India Wilds,’ which has raised awareness for biodiversity and wildlife conservation in India through various photo collections and documentaries. It currently boasts 3000 members. He has been featured in multiple eminent magazines and organizations and press releases of equipment manufacturers with Adobe Spark, The New Indian Express, YouTube, to name a few. Before turning to Film-making and Photography, Mr. Patra served as the Head of Government Relations at NOKIA and as Executive Director at MAIT.