EVOKE’19 : Pre-Event Workshop

STEPS Initiative

Date: January 2019

Venue : Various schools in kollam district

Category:Educational,Social

1st,2nd and 3rd of the February is gonna witness the much awaited event , EVOKE’19 . IEEE SB TKMCE and IEDC TKMCE combinely presents EVOKE’19 revolving on the theme “DAWN OF GREEN INTELLIGENCE”.

As part of this event, STEPS TKMCE conducted some pre Evoke programmes at 13 Schools in and around Kollam. The young minds were ignited with the thoughts imparted by the volunteers of STEPS who created an air of enthusiasm among the little buds to work for the society and the environment. Discussing on Green intelligence , several environment issues and the ways to tackle them were discussed. The thought that necessity is the mother of innovation was discussed ideally and the young minds were urged to come up with new ideas. The program became a great success with response from the children of these schools.

PES Workshop

Date : 20th January 2019

Venue : TKM Centenary Public School,Kollam

Category : Educational

Attendance:40

As part of EVOKE’19 a pre-event was conducted in TKM Centenary Public School on 20th January 2019 for the budding engineers of tomorrow.The session was a workshop on design and fabrication of solar lantern. It started by 9:30 am. It was organized by AIR Innovations,a company incubated by IEDC TKMCE. The students were taught about the various products used and the need for using them. They were left to experiment with the circuitries and to build the prototype up. Tinkering with machines and finally seeing the light glow up left an even brighter glow on the young faces. The session concluded by 2 pm.

EVOKE’19 : The Green Summit

Date : 1-3rd February,2019

Venue : TKM college of Engineering

Category: Technical,Educational,Competition

Evoke’19 is a tech summit jointly organised by IEDC TKMCE and IEEE SB TKMCE, at TKM College of Engineering, Kollam, in association with the diamond jubilee celebrations of TKMCE.

The inauguration of the summit took place in the college auditorium on 1st February, 2019 at 10 am. The proceedings began with the principal, Dr. S.Ayoob addressing the audience. The summit was inaugurated by Dr. Saji Gopinath, CEO of Kerala Startup Mission and Mr.Satish Babu, chair of APRALO-ICANN and the President of InApp Infotech. Over the course of next two days, a plethora of events were organised, including four workshops, seven cells, two mini workshops, coding competitions and informal events. A 24-hour hackathon was held, that focused on green solutions for the problems of today, and was the highlight of the summit.

The second day of Evoke’19 kickstarted with 5 events happening concurrently around the college. 3 Workshops – Mixed Reality, Electrical Vehicle and Cyber Disease: Introduction to Ethical Hacking, a Project Competition cum Exhibition and the Paper Presentation competition started at 9 A.M.

The workshop on the futuristic technology of Mixed Reality was taken by Tiltlabs, the official Indian partner of Unity gaming studio. It was conducted in the FOSS Lab, and attended by 50 people. Prashanth Kumar, from Haritha Techlogix conducted the workshop on Electrical Vehicles in the Electrical Engineering Seminar Hall in which 60 people took part. The flagship workshop was the one on Cyber Disease – Introduction to Ethical Hacking. It was conducted by E. Rahul Naidu, from IIT Bombay, and had a whopping 100 attendees.

The Project competition had 12 participating teams, showcasing projects from colleges all over Kerala. There were some truly wild innovations like Organic Bandaging, Fusion 3D and a voting system that leveraged the emerging technology of Blockchain. The Paper presentation competition had various research papers shown at the Computer Science Seminar Hall. A mini-workshop was taken by Rahul Raj, from BIM Labs, Trivandrum. It focused on ‘Sustainable Practices in the Construction industry’. Nishal S, also from BIM Labs, introduced students to ‘MEP using AutoCAD’, teaching them about 2D and 3D plans. The attendees got hands-on training and closely interacted with Mr.Nishal to enhance their knowledge.

The 24-hr Hackathon – “Hack-hazard”, started at 10 A.M. UST Global, the international software solutions firm, organized the event. 10 teams put their brains to work a solution to the problem statement – “Technological solutions to Natural Disasters”.

Various talks were also held throughout the course of the day. The first one was “Dreams to Fulfill – the Entrepreneurial Path”, by Abhilash R, a well-known serial entrepreneur. As the founder of She-Taxi, E-Toilet, BloomBloom etc., shared his experiences and thoughts on how entrepreneurs are changing the world. Ajith Gopi, head of the Solar Power Plant Technical Consultancy Programme in ANERT, held a talk on “Renewable Energy and Energy Trends”. He emphasized on how Kerala is a prime location for utilizing renewable energy to meet our ever-growing demands. Dr. Sindhu Suresh, the recipient of the Edison patent award, held a talk on “Patenting and Research Opportunities”, by way of video-conference. She imparted valuable insights on starting off on the path of research and stressed on the importance of practical experience in becoming a qualified engineer. She also talked about the Impact Factor in research and how to convert research into market opportunities.

A Startup-Expo was held in the APJ Park from 10 A.M onwards. Ten Start-ups showcased their products and services in stalls. Many of them attracted students and attendees with their innovations. The virtual reality start-up Vrook and the art venture Krafty K, both held interactive sessions with everyone present.

Evoke’19 has pioneered the concept of ‘CELLS’ – an exclusive session that provides intensive interaction with experienced speakers. Four cells were held in different venues around the college. “Social Entrepreneurship” was taken by The Gulmohar Foundation. It focused on the concept of empowerment being more effective than charity in the realm of social work.  A cell on “MEAN Stack” was conducted by Techlytx. The session focussed on the latest trends in web-development frameworks. Starting Trouble, a start-up which helps start-ups, held a cell on pursuing the entrepreneurial path and overcoming the difficulties faced therein. Aisha Nazia, an alumnus of TKMCE, held an interesting cell on the professional world. As a professional engineer herself, she imparted insider information that is worth more than any bookish knowledge.

The finals of ‘Semicolon’, the coding competition, was held in the Software & Networking Lab. The fourteen finalists hacked their way through, building up ingenious solutions to logical puzzles. Community meetups were held in the APJ Hall in the afternoon. Mehar from TinkerHub and Mufeedha from the PEHIA foundation held interactive sessions with attendees. It was held with a small crowd and individual experiences and stories were shared.

The day concluded with an interactive session between the students and renowned alumni of TKM College of Engineering, who have made a difference and accomplished wonders in their respective fields.

The third and final day of Evoke’19 began on a positive note with a cell on Women In Tech by the PEHIA Foundation, which, as the name implies, focused on the increasing role women can have,  and are taking, in the arena of technology. Collaboration is key for software development. Keeping this in mind, a cell on API and GitHub taken by Ms. Keerthana Gireesh was also conducted. Three workshops, namely, Mixed Reality, Cyber Disease and Electric Vehicle entered their second day. They picked off from the first day, continuing to teach the participants specialized knowledge, and augmenting it with a truly hands-on experience. Each of them had small projects or competitions, to help the attendees grasp the concepts taught and to learn to apply it. The Energy Auditing workshop began on the 3rd of February at the PTA Hall at 9 A.M. This was taken by K M Shanavas, and sponsored by the Kerala Energy Management Centre. Mr. Shanavas shared his expertise in the field, focusing on methods to conserve energy without reducing output, as well as utilizing eco-friendly methods of energy production.

Mr. Rejin Narayanan delivered a very informative and interesting talk on consumer robotics, which proved to be immensely useful to the participants. To add a bit of adventure to the tech-summit, an informal treasure hunt, which began at 10 A.M. was also included in the day’s programme. The Ideathon competition focused on “Intelligent Energy Usage for a Greener Tomorrow”, which was in accord with the overall theme of the summit. Many interesting ideas were presented, like Saltwater Energy generation and Cams fuel. An interactive game session, ‘AAVEGAME’, was organized by the students of the department of Chemical Engineering. It proved to be an exciting experience for contestants and spectators alike.

The afternoon session kicked off with the Augmented Reality Treasure Hunt which offered the contestants an immersive experience into the realm of gaming. Mr. M. Krishnakumar, conducted a cell introducing the participants to the world of Hardware Product Development and Research, drawing on his decades of experience in the field. Emerging technology being a hotly discussed area, Mr. Gokul B Alex, the ambassador of ZCash and Hashgraph, gave an immersive talk on Blockchain and how it can be used for social impact and its potential for disrupting several industries.

The summit concluded with an Informals session, where students showcased their unique talents to entertain and engage crowds. Padma Shri Meenakshi Amma Gurukkal, showcased on stage a demonstration of the martial arts form Kalaripayattu, on stage. This was followed by a colorful Culturals night, where both the Music Club and Dance Club held everyone enthralled with their performance. Evoke’19 witnessed the coming together of some of the brightest minds in Kerala and stayed true to its theme, “The Dawn of Green Intelligence”. It marks the first step of TKMCE’s transition into a truly ‘Green Campus’.