The Scholars' Avenue

Fostering technological innovation and excellence has been IEEE’s core mission from long, and its 2,000 Student Branches worldwide have been known to conduct student conferences in the same spirit. The IEEE Student Branch, IIT Kharagpur, however, is the first branch in the world that has pioneered a full-scale symposium, the IEEE TechSym 2010. Held on the 3^rd and 4^th of April, the aim of the inaugural Symposium was to expose students to full-fledged international papers and the associated quailty control and selection procedures.

More than 150 papers were received in five tracks from national and international sources. The tracks were unique in that they had a social edge to them rather than being purely technical. ‘Women in Engineering’ was specifically aimed at promoting women’s involvement in research. Screened by a reviewer board, some seventy papers were selected for presentation by the authors, some oral and others in the form of posters. Submissions were from individuals from universities across India as well as industrial organisations such as IBM India and DRDO Labs. Well known names from within the IEEE presided over the sessions. The Symposium had lectures by plenary speakers from both academic universities and the industry.

Annexe programs included a Model Making competition promoted by Microsoft Student Partners and BeagleBoard.org which saw entries from school students from various Indian cities, a Technology Quiz and a cultural evening for the participants and IEEE’s Kharagpur members.  As a member of the Student Branch told us, expect more from the next TechSym. It will be spread over more days and will consist of a higher number of tracks and plenary speakers. Presently, the Branch is planning to host it sometime in the winter.