NIT Trichy’s Pragyan has set foot on YouTube in an attempt to broadcast ourselves, connect and integrate with thousands of students. The Pragyan 2010 Publicity Video is currently the hot favorite and this is just the start of the journey. Numerous other videos are yet to be uploaded bringing you the refreshing experience of what it takes to be a part of Pragyan.  Catch up with the highlights at Pragyan’s YouTube Channel – nittpragyan

PRAGYAN is celebrated from Feb 12th to 15th in 2009. It promises to be bigger, grander and sleeker- and a WHOLE LOT MORE FUN! So if you have traversed all the way to the Tamizh cow belt and thought Festember was all we had on the platter, think again!

Last year, PRAGYAN was a roaring success. There was enough to make the nerd groan (now that’s something!). There were events on Engineering Sciences (Circuitrix, NITTro, Dexter’s Lab, Ashtavigyan…), Management Events (Ventura, Dalal Street, Biz Quiz…), Coding (ADAventure, Byte Code, War of Bots), Robovigyan and a whole load more. Add to that workshops on Bio Robotics, Ham Radio, Astronomy, Investment Management and a series of Guest Lectures by Dr Robert Michelson, Dr Noam Chomsky, Dr Phillippe Lebrun… and you start gasping for breath. Now we are bound by rules more mysterious than mysterious rules, that ban us from revealing what’s up on the cards for PRAGYAN ’09, but we assure one thing. Last year was just a taster.

So come back again, feel the spirit of PRAGYAN ’09, and this time be prepared. We assure you one thing- YOU WONT REGRET IT!

For more extensive details please log on to www.pragyan.org

• Talking Paper

Someday, in the future (No, India is definitely not shining!!) smileys may probably become as ancient as Egyptian Hieroglyphics. Do you realize the consequences?! It would take an average Trichified techie twice the time, effort and mental pressure to express himself conveniently, with his/her average, no, abominably degrading knowledge of English. But, not to worry, Mid Sweden University experts have constructed an interactive paper billboard that emits information to an attached microcomputer that contains recorded audio files, in response to the user’s touch. A letter you may write to a friend, simply talks out to you, with nearly accurate levels of voice modulation and response to punctuation. Imagine its range of applications- tourism, advertisement, product packaging and many more……

• Underwater Breathing

You might be wondering why I’m opening this topic in a place where any form or proportion of water is a rarity. Well, thank Alan Bodner. This genius has invented a system of underwater breathing, without cumbersome, compressed air tanks, purely on the basis of Henry’s law (Chem. Techs Alert!!!). Okay, for the sake of better understanding, this guy took inspiration from ickle fishies, to develop a hypothetical mechanism to breathe a gas, dissolved in a liquid, taking into consideration the pressure on the liquid body. Imagine the consequences, if this were developed as working system…the next time you are scuba diving, and your air tank empties out, don’t panic and start “What the fishing hell!!…” you can safely rely on the Bodner mechanism…..

• Aluminium….the new fuel option

Have you heard? The makers of The Incredible Hulk now plan to come out with The Incredible Hike, starring cylinder walas demanding a hike in their tips…..I think you would have figured out where I’m hitting at. Inflation is sometimes considered a necessity, but at times it could prove detrimental. Though the situation is definitely better than what it was in the recent past, we must equip ourselves with a practical solution. Again Science comes to the rescue…

Hydrogen, as we all know is the ultimate clean fuel, especially for powering cars, motors etc…because it emits only water when it is burned. Also, it would not have to be stored or transported, taking care of two stumbling blocks to its generation. Now, aluminium on its own will not react with water, due to formation of a protective oxide layer. But pellets made of aluminium and gallium can produce pure hydrogen when water is poured on them. What is left over is aluminium oxide and gallium, and in the engine, we obtain water as a byproduct. No toxic fumes whatsoever are produced.

I hope this has helped you realize that Sci and Tech are more or less our saviors in hours of need and can only fuel development, if used in the right way. Please don’t look at them the bookish way, and use them as cheap weapons to fight GPA wars. You ain’t gonna learn anything that way.

-Felix

It was the time of the technical fests,

Of which there were a lot.

Some were bad, some were mad

And some, you just forgot.

This is the story of one such time when

 gray cells were beckoned from afar.

It was a fest, both grand and great;

With the best ones, it was on par.

In the midst of it all, a terrified kid,

Not knowing quite what to do.

I felt like a little marmoset

In this magnificent, mechanical zoo.

It was a land where machines ran free

And Ideas were blown out loud,

With passion and zeal filling the air

From every member of the crowd.

Papers were given and taken alike

In the various battles of wit.

Participation ran far and wide,

From professor to loitering git.

It was not all boring old work;

There was play, with  enough to spare.

With quizzes and games to name a few,

And the mysterious robots’ lair.

Robots here, robots there,

metal was all around.

With nuts and bolts and commanding dolts,

Mayhem was abound.

To sum it up, it was quite the affair,

Magnificent, like a well spun yarn.

Awe, was the one, true reaction,

At my first glimpse of Pragyan.

-          42