Amalthea (Technical Summit)

Amalthea, IIT Gandhinagar
Motto Prosperity Through Technology
Founded 2010 (2010)
Type Nonprofit organization
Location
Official language
English
Parent organization
 IIT Gandhinagar
Website amalthea.iitgn.ac.in

Amalthea is the annual technical summit of Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar. The first summit was organised in 2010 with the belief in spreading knowledge and since then it has been organised every year during the fall. With the aim to inculcate the spirit of innovation and technological development, this summit helps to bridge the gap that exists between the industry and academia. The summit's tagline is prosperity through technology.[1]

The summit started off with a conclave in its foremost year and has now grown into a wide array of different activities which include the Conclave, Symposium and Exhibition along with a wide range of technical events being organised in 2015. The summit also consists of a networking dinner which provides a platform for interaction between various dignitaries of the industry, pioneers of the scientific world and also students from manifold disciplines.[2]

About The Mascot

Amalthea, in its literal sense, is the goat who suckled the Greek God Zeus when he was a baby and is also the name of one of Jupiter's moon. The horn of Amalthea, which is the cornucopia, was broken off and filled with endless food and drink. Here, it symbolises Amalthea as spreading an abundance of knowledge and prospering the community through technology. It aims to touch lives and inspire creative thinking by showcasing ideas and thoughts through this event, the Annual Technical Summit of IIT Gandhinagar.[3][4]

Elements

Conclave

The Conclave of Amalthea has been held every year since its inception. A wide range of speakers are invited to speak up during the two-day-long event in which they share their experiences in their field of expertise.[5] According to the organisers of Amalthea, ‘the conclave aims to provide the listeners with illumination regarding industry and research prospects of various fields that exist today’.[6] Some of the previous speakers in Conclave at Amalthea are:

Symposium

The Symposium was organised for the first time during Amalthea’15.[10] The aim of the Symposium is to realise the vision of the summit of ‘Spreading Knowledge’. Symposium is an exclusive event that brings together various research scholars and technology enthusiasts of a particular field under one roof and serves as a platform for them to widen the horizons of their knowledge.[11]

Exhibition

The exhibition of Amalthea showcases the developments in the technology that happen over the years. The exhibition is held in a specially prepared dome which houses all the innovators that wish to showcase their ideas and projects related to different fields of engineering.[12]

Events

A wide range of technical events are organised during the summit that gives the students of various age groups chance to test their creativity, innovation and skill. Events like Robomiltitia, Seismism[10] alongside a variety of quizzes and online coding events are organised every year. In Amalthea’15, the first ever WCA Cubing competition, in association with the SCMU, was organised on October 24, 2015.[5]

Amalthea ’16

Amalthea ’16 is scheduled to be held on October 22–23, 2016.[13] This is going to be the second edition of Amalthea in the new campus of IIT Gandhinagar. Based on the theme ‘Technologizing Challenges’,[14] this edition of the summit aims to bring out the simple correspondence between technology and development[14]

The second edition of Symposium of the summit is based on the theme ‘Technologies in Defence and Internal Security’ and aims to address the issues with the country's defence frontier.[15]

The theme of Conclave in Amalthea ’16 is ‘Technologizing Challenges’ and is based on the principle- without challenges neither would technology be the same nor the challenges without technology.[16] The exhibition is based on the theme, 'Expediting Development Through Tech and Innovation’. The Exhibition promises to bring together some of the exemplary ideas that are increasing the pace of development and revolutionising lives - all under one roof.[17]

Over the years

Amalthea '15

This edition of Amalthea is the first summit to be organised in the new campus of IIT Gandhinagar.[18] Conducted on a large scale, this event was marked by its first ever symposium on ‘Bioengineering’,[19] it provided a platform for research scholars and technology enthusiasts to share and widen their knowledge in a common field of interest.[20]

The exhibition of this edition of the summit was based on ‘Energy and Eco-friendly Technologies’[21] and the displays were all those innovations that make the ecosystem a clean and healthy place to live.[22] The conclave was based on the theme ‘Building a Sustainable Future Through Vision and Technology’ and as the name suggests focused on enlightening the audience with ideas of technological advancements that help to achieve sustainable development.[23][24] The two day-long conclave was concluded by Mr. Saurabh Kaushal, an entrepreneur and space explorer,[25] who talked about the importance of cleaning space debris and proposed ways to achieve that.

Amalthea '14

With the theme ‘Ideate and Innovate’, Amalthea ’14 aimed to spread technical knowledge and to apply that technical knowledge along with ideas into innovation and transform the present world into a better tomorrow.[26] It achieved this aim with the help of its conclave (Inspiring the World Through Ideas and Innovation) and the ‘Design and Innovation Expo 14’.[27]

Amalthea'13

Themed Design and Innovation, Amalthea’13 took place on 19 and 20 October 2013.[28] The major highlight of this summit was the ‘Design and Innovation Expo 13’[29] that showcased various technological innovations such as iNDEXTb, Metalmate Robotics, Gridbot Technologies, etc. There was also a three-stage challenge ‘Innovation and Incubation in which the winning startup idea was awarded ₨ 50 lakhs by IIT Gandhinagar.[28] The theme of the conclave was ‘Innovation’. The conclave saw technocrats such as Mr. Alan Emtage, the founder of the first search engine, Archie[30] and Dr. Kazutaka Kurihara who has won the Ig Nobel Prize.[31]

Amalthea ’13 was inaugurated by Mr. Manu Seth (Director, Marketing, HTC India) and Shri Maheshwar Sahu (Additional Chief Secretary, Industries and Mines Department, Government of Gujarat).[32]

Amalthea '12

The conclave and exhibition in this edition of the summit were based on the automobile industry, its developments in the recent years and challenges it faces in the future.[33] The conclave included lectures by personalities such as Mr. Dilip Chhabria,Founder, DC Design Pvt. Ltd. and Mr. Tom Chackalackal, Executive Director of Ford India Pvt. Ltd.

The exhibition displayed automobiles that are considered engineering and design landmarks such as the Tata Nano, Audi, DC Design with Avanti.[34] This edition also saw a conference on worldwide safety being organised as a part of safety centre initiative at IIT Gandhinagar.[35]

S.B. Mathur,the director general of Factories Advice Services and Labour Institutes in India, had said that around 15% of factory workers in the country were working under ‘hazardous conditions’ as per Factories Act, 1948.In lieu of this, the international Conference on safety was organised as a part of the summit.[36] Sudhir K. Jain, director, IIT-Gn, said that the loss of lives during the 2001 earthquake in Bhuj was not merely caused by the earthquakes, but by human failure to construct safer buildings.[36] Therefore, the speakers discussed on safety measures across various sectors like fire, transportation and buildings, buildings in over various aspects such as design, regulation and economics, in where we lack and what we need to do in future to improve the standards of safety in the country.[37]

Amalthea '11

This second edition of the summit- Amalthea’11 was themed on ‘Infrastructure in India: Present Scenario and Future’. It was inaugurated by Shri Narendra Modi,[38] the honourable Prime Minister of India, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat.[39]

The summit witnessed its first exhibition in this edition and showcased various infrastructure projects. The conclave of the summit was organised on similar themes and consisted of a discussion on the successful and innovative infrastructural projects in India.[40]

Amalthea '10

The first edition of the summit was organised in October 2010 and consisted of an energy conclave on Non-Conventional Sources of Energy. The conclave was divided into four sessions: solar, wind, biofuel and entrepreneurship in the energy sector. The summit was concluded with an interactive session hosted by Ms. Yogita Limaye, senior correspondent at CNN-IBN at that time.[41]

References

External links

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