Kshitij

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 2018 was held from 19th to 21st January 2018, with a total participation of over 70,000 and Rs 45 lacs offered as prize money.[12] The 16th edition of Kshitij is scheduled from 18th to 20th January 2019.[13]

History and growth

The inaugural edition of this techno-management symposium was in the year 2004 when it was named Ideon. The fest had a participation of about 260 students from outside IIT Kharagpur. The participation has since grown exponentially, and it has now become Asia’s largest 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 also 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 1–4 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 was attended by 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 workshops on topics including rocketry, microfinance, cryptology, kite modeling and carbon trading. In this year, 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 29 January to 1 February, saw the fest joining hands with globally reputed associations such as 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 nine genres, including both technical events and managerial events. These events covered diverse fields such as coding, case studies, business plan presentations, industrial design problems, aeromodelling and robotics besides other on-the-spot events. This edition had a participation of more than 40000, with prizes worth Rs. 50 lakhs being given.

Kshitij 2011 was organised from the 28th to the 31st of January. The guest lectures included illustrious personalities such as 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 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 had more than 35 events across nine genres. In this year, 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 gave out prizes worth INR 60 lakh for more than 45 events, which were online events, submission-based events, and on-spot events. Held from the 1st to the 4th of February, it had 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 such as ACM, IEEE, ASME, ASHRAE and IMechE give their prestigious certifications to some of 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, including guest lectures from distinguished personalities cutting across various fields, megashows, and a wide-ranged workshop series. 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 30 January to 2 February 2015 and had incorporated the theme of “Celebrating 100 Years of Relativity”. It had hosted 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 had 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, a physicist at CERN. The megashows by The Viral Fever, Parkour and Slackline and Pyrobatics too were very well received.

Kshitij 2016 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 such as 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 such as 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.

The 14th edition of Kshitij was held from 27th to 29th January 2017. This season of Kshitij had guests lecturers from all the fields, from director Mr. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Brigadier Stephen Tetlow to ISRO space scientist Dr. K.Radhakrishnan. For fun, Kshitij 2017 had various informal events like Bull ride, Water Zorbing, Drone simulation and Bahubali VR. Kshitij 2017 experienced Infinity Mirror Clock from USA, Robyn Inmoon from Sweden, 3D printed robots from USA, Molecular VR form UK, U Gears Mechanical Models from Ukraine and indeo from India in its exhibitions. Workshops from tech giants like Toyota, Oracle, LIGO were conducted this year. PRAKRITI and ASTITVA were 2 of the social initiatives taken this year by Kshitij. PRAKRITI was about managing the increasing solid waste and ASTITVA was for helping students tackle mental depression which was introduced by Indian actress Tisca Chopra.

Organized from 19th to 21st January 2018, the 15th season of Kshitij experienced workshops from Philips, Microsoft, Nvidia, Worldquant, Google Developers Group, IBM, Prana Studios, HPE, Intel, Mahindra And Mahindra, KLA Tenor and Asteria Aerospace on the topics like Animation & Visual effects, Silicon to semiconductor, IOT, Quant Finance. Among the guest lecturers were the movie director Mr. Imtiaz Ali, Former head of DRDO Mr. Vasudev Kalkunte Aatre, former deputy director of Investigation Bureau Mr. Dhanushkodi Sivanandhan, Mathematician and Computer Scientist Dr. Janos Pach, Director of change.org Ms. Nida Hasan and Stockholm Water Prize winner Dr. Rajendra Singh. For fun, this season had Standup comedy by Anirban Dasgupta & Karunesh Talwar, Nalayak band, EDM by DJ Sartek & Sara Santini and a new gaming event Krypton was started this year in which teams played various PC games.

Certifications

Many of the events in Kshitij 2018 have certifications from organizations and institutions. These are:

  • Association for Computing Machinery (ACM): ACM, the world’s largest and oldest scientific and educational computing society, which develops resources that advance computing as a science and profession, certifies Overnite ACM ICPC Multi-Provincial Programming Contest. The society serves as a membership of computing professionals and students in many countries in all areas of industry, academia, and government.
  • Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers: The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) is the world’s largest professional association dedicated to advancing technological innovation and excellence. IEEE certifies the event Eureka in Kshitij.
  • American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME): ASME, a professional body known for setting codes and standards for mechanical devices, certifies the Kshitij event ASME Student Design Competition. Through this event, ASME provides a platform for budding technocrats to touch the horizons in the field of robotic design and intelligent automation.
  • Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE): The Institution of Mechanical Engineers certifies the events Laws of Motion and Nightshift. The association of IMechE with these events aims at improving the world through engineering and nurturing new talents, helping them build their careers and take on the challenges that, when solved, will make a difference to all.

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.

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.

Robotix events

There is a complete genre called Robotix, which has many events based on amateur robotics. The events for Kshitij 2018 were:

Robowars: Build a robot and get it in the arena to fight and win from other robots.

Fortress: Build an image processing robot that can recognize useful patterns by pattern recognition while avoiding other obstacles.

Poles apart: Build a manually controlled robot, which is capable of picking and placing blocks with accuracy and changing its interaxial distance to make a guide through a series of hurdles.

Stax: To build a bot which rearranges blocks of different colors while moving across the stacks using line following.

Sand Rover: Build a bot which can surf over uneven terrains with minimum spillage of sand stored in it.

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 organizes elucidatory workshops during and in the days before the festival. The workshops are organized in association with reputed organizations 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, Philips, Nvidia, World Quant, Google Developers Group, Prana Studios, HPE, Mahindra and Mahindra, Intel which provide technological breakthroughs and promote innovative solutions to the most pressing global challenges of our time.

The Kshitij Team organizes external workshops in cities like Kolkata, Indore, Nagpur, Lucknow and others before the festival.

Activities

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

  • TechQuila: the energetic stage amidst the Arena
  • Snappit: photography event
  • Krypton: Gaming event

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/
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