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``Celebrate technology beneficial to society''

Staff Reporter

Valedictory of `Pragyan `06', a four-day `technology festival'

PROUD MOMENT: B.S. Shonde, former Vice-Chancellor, Goa University, handing over the Recal Overall Tech Champs Trophy to students of SASTRA, at the end of the four-day technology fest `Pragyan '06,' at National Institute of Technology in Tiruchi on Tu esday. — PHOTO: R.M. RAJARATHINAM.

TIRUCHI : Distinguished speakers sought integration of social implications into technology and engineering syllabi at the valedictory of `Pragyan `06', a four-day `technology festival' organised by students of National Institute of Technology — Tiruchi on Tuesday.

The upcoming generation of engineering students should be initiated into celebrating technology beneficial to society, insisted B. S. Shonde, former Vice-Chancellor, Goa University, and former Chairman, Electrical Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, delivering the valedictory address.

He appreciated the motto of Pragyan: ``Let's Celebrate Technology'', but observed that all technologies did not bring happiness. He wanted the students to ponder over the negative implications of technology and find solutions. Citing an instance, he said that Information Technology professionals spending several hours before computers, suffered from serious health problems. This technology, causing biological effects on humans due to information overload, did not qualify to be celebrated. Similar is the case with energy. Growing requirement for energy has resulted in environmental degradation, pollution, and holes in the ozone layer. The solution, he said, was in revamping the syllabi and exposing students to social implications of technology, facilitating them to weigh self and society in same balance.

Prof. Shonde saw the event as a foundation to prepare the students for knowledge society, besides providing them insights into event management, marketing, and camaraderie (team work). He handed over the Recal Overall Tech Champs Trophy, including a cash component of Rs.10,000 to students of SASTRA, Thanjavur. The R.S.K. Alumni Association has instituted the Trophy this year.

G. Prabhu Kumar of Logic Information System, USA, and an alumnus of NIT-T, said India, with a booming growth in Information Technology, and Biotechnology sectors, was less than two decades away from becoming a superpower in the perception of USA. Reminding the students that all big companies were once started as small enterprises, he urged them to imbibe the entrepreneurial instinct, and get beyond the mindset of settling down with some jobs in established concerns. Only then can India's economic transformation be expedited, he said.

The NIT-T Director, M. Chidambaram, assured to create a vibrant classroom atmosphere, replete with freedom, to help students generate creative ideas.

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