Theme: Solving The Unsolved

As universe holds many mysteries and theories waiting there for us to be unraveled and discovered upon, likewise our life's problems, which are there within us to be solved and pondered upon... TEDxVSSUT provides the perfect platform for everybody to find the mystery within us and Solve the Unsolved problems in our life.
TEDxVSSUT conference will be a platform for various speakers to innovate and promote talks on different and varied sub-themes as per the rules and regulations of TED.

Sir Viswesvaray Auditorium, Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Burla, Odisha
Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Burla, Odisha
Burla, Sambalpur, Orissa, 768018
India

Arun Krishnmaurthy

Enviornmentalist

Arun Krishnmaurthy is an Indian environmental activist who has initiated the campaign of cleaning various lakes across Indian. He is known for founding the NGO, Environmentalist Foundation of India (EFI) in 2011 based in Chennai. Having cleaned an astounding number of 17 lakes and that too after having his job at Google resigned speakes volume of his character. He was chosen as among the five people for prestigious Rolex Awards for Enterprise in 2012 for scientific lake restoration in Chennai.

Ashesh Padhy

Sr. Vice President & Director, Reliance Power, Nagpur

Ashesh Padhy, Sr. Vice President & Director, Reliance Power, Nagpur, a 92 batch alumnus of UCE Burla, is a known face in power industry. Already a hotshot in establishment of large power plants, transmission lines as well as operating plants at benchmark level. He is a maestro; at building teams, selling his dream; solving problems and empassioning everyone to deliver.With an apprehension of 25 years from Hindalco, Vedanta and now a senior VP and Director in Reliance Power, Nagpur, he has played a crucial role in transformation of UCE to VSSUT. This is however not the only attributes his associates remember him for.

Athar Shahab

CEO, Nabha Power

Athar Shahab, CEO of Nabha Power Limited (Wholly owned subsidiary of L&T), is a veteran graced with excellent management acumen, policy & financial advisory, business development and consulting ingenuity. His ability to understand propositions from macro to micro level, identify solutions, lead by example and delegate coupled with his broad domain expertise makes him distinctive and special. With all the adequate industry knowledge, he takes keen interest in probing into the power crisis challenge and the trend of converting to non-conventional energy. Nabha power has been globally recognised for building a coal-fired power plant as one of India's most efficent and best performing coal plant aiming to alleviate chronic power shortage. The future threat of the depletion of coal resources has raised questions which are in dire need to be addressed.

Bodhisattwa Sanghpriya

Innovator, Entrepreneur

Bodhisattwa Sanghpriya is an innovator, inventor and entreprenure based in Odisha. The diversity in his domains of innovation has won him the acclaim of "Serial Innovator". A two times Chief Minister Awardee, founder of the startup InventGrid, Youth Star awarded by the Russian Federation for his contribution to space science, the founding member of VSSUT student satellite team, founding secretary of Govt of Odisha Innovation Cell established in VSSUT, Burla are the laurels that stands testimony to him and his repute. Having bagged many prestigious national and international awards for his team from NASA, ISRO, BRICS etc., he has made his case clear as that of a leader. With all the laurels, he still prefers the tag of a social worker with humility. With so much in his radar, he has embarked on his journey to detect Breast Cancer using Infrared Mammography from an early stage by the use of a mobile application and low cost screening device.

D Prakash Rao

SOCIAL ACTIVIST - TEA SELLER

D Prakash Rao, elevated from the mere status of a tea seller in the slum areas of cuttack to a good samaritan after featuring in Narendra Modi's talkshow "Mann ki Baat" for more than one reason. Being forced to opt out of formal education in his Intermediate due to financial constraints, Praksh Rao is aware of the importance of education and thus has been running a primary school called "Asha o Aswasana" catering the need of 75 students' education, food and health facilties out of what he earns from his tea stall. Apart from this wonderful feat, he donates blood in the Medical alongside providing milk and water for free to patients. While the recognition have come to him lately, he has been restlessly working for betterment of the children for the past 5 decades, an unmatchable instance to the essence of empathy.

Dhiraj Sinha

VP, Capgemini

Dhiraj Sinha, an alumnus of VSSUT, Burla and IIM Calcutta has been a part of Indian IT industry since mid-90s and has contributed to and benifited from tremendous growth witnessed by this industry. He was part of the core team of Globsyn technologies that set up the first IT finishing school in the country, lead some of the most complex and transformational programs for Infosys, acted as Chief Technology Officer for the Application Services business of Perot Systems and lead multiple technology practices at Dell Service. Currently he leads the India and APAC testing practice at Capgemini. Keen observer of human behavior, Dhiraj believes in drawing inspiration and happiness from ordinary, the small things that often get overlooked in the quest of achieving something big.

Jagdish Mahapatra

MD-ASIA, CROWDSTRIKE

Jagdish Mahapatra, Managing Director for CrowdStrike Asia region, a profound personage in the province of TED talks, who has managed to motivate and inspire many lives in the world and is a rudiment of digital startups. With his focus on providing next Gen Cybersecurity solutions and immense knowledge on digitalisation, he has an apprehension of 25+ years. Has previously served as Chief of channels and alliances APAC in McAfee, Managing Director, McAfee India & SAARC and previously as Sr VIce Presidemt in Cisco India. He has spent a big part of his career in building the Internet Networks in India for Govt. And Banks and then later in securing them. An electrical engineer with MBA in marketing and finance, loves blogging about hot topics on social media, visions indian mythology as a tool to fulfill present day's dream. Recognized as one of the top 40 under 40 Executives in India in 2011, and has delivered TED talks for "TED talk nayi soch" and for "TEDxGATEWAY".

Krishna Trilok

WRITER

Krishna Trilok, Author of the fantasy novel Sharikrida, Novel Writing Workshop captain of The Climber, studded the already illustrious track with his recent release of "Notes Of A Dream" - The Authorized Biography of A.R. Rahman - the celebrated composer, producer, singer and a legend in his own right. Hailing from the city lights of Chennai, Krishna's sensational story-telling is an inheritance of his family passed on like a baton.The nagging interest of history and mythology coupled with his love for movies and fairy tales brought him to the art of writing. He is a virtuoso capable of both creative hardwork demanded by a fantasy novel with intricate characters as well as the portyal of a stalwart beyond the achievements without barring the rhythm and melody.

Pinakiranjan Mishra

Partner and Sector Leader, Consumer Products and Retail in Ernst and Young

Rakesh Barik

MD, Deloitte

Rakesh Barik, an UCE, Burla alumnus, Director & Consulting Technology Leader, Deloitte India, is a pioneer in the skills of comprehending the necessity to spark digital transformation within the organization and the subsequent results achieved using it. The subjects of cloud computing, reimagining the core, dark analytics, mized reality, machine learning, exponential technology and so on. He also is a proponent of the emergence of digital era unrestricted by particular technology or process, rather a phenomena encompassing the gamut of any organizational boundary.

Rashmi Ranjan Mohapatra

MD, Kemppi India

Rashmi Ranjan Mohapatra, a 92 batch alumnus of UCE, Burla, Managing Director of Kemppi India, a Finnish Company dedicated to welding excellence. He has shouldered managerial positions at sales and marketing as well as a panelist in Confederation of Indian Industry. He has been an requisite part of the Skill Development in India since 2011 by setting up center of excellence with 20 colleges and universities. His girth in insight has also extended in creating skillful wage earners in the central prison of Jahmundry and Vizag. The rebelious nature further sees itself by bringing girl welders to industry, a first time in India. Adding to that he is also passionate about football, IOT, Robotics, Automation and much more - both in and beyond his domain.As part of his philanthropic interests, he has adopted 9 villages in Bolangir district, his native

SAGARIKA NATH

IPS Officer

Sagarika Nath, Odisha Cadre IPS Officer RR 2016, stands testimony to the genuine pedigree of feminism, shutting all the naysayers without shunning any of the barriers - dismissig the status of policing as a masculine job or triumphing an examination with unbelievable grit against the mental barriers. Her contribution has managed to cross the conventional roles assumed by armchair idealistic officers and enter into the multifaceted issues like human trafficking, drug abuse, paranoia stemming out of the hopelessness and lack of belief in the system. She has raised the bar by engaging in community policing, rescuing 19 female victims, and multitude of other field activities. While the issues stand difficult to surmount, the added stigma of the masculine dominance can only be faced by a selected few and she has managed to clearly send the message of women power back.

Sreekumar Chatra

Partner, Edelweiss Infrastructure Fund

Sreekumar Chatra, a 1991 mechanical engineering alumnus of UCE Burla, is currently a partner at Edelweiss Infrastructure Fund. He has an extensive experience in principal investment, investment banking, financial advisory and management consulting. Sreekumar has worked on transactions in different geographies such as India, UK, Middle East and South Asia, and mainly focuses on investments in the infrastructure sector comprising roads, power, ports, utilities & urban infrastructure. He is also an alumnus of highly coveted IIM Ahmedabad. In his previous roles, he worked with Macquarie Capital, PwC and KPMG. Sreekumar is also a fitness enthusiast and a long distance runner. He has run several marathons and an ultra marathon in the last 10 years and is currently preparing for the Comrades.

Suraksha Jain

Child Speaker, Entrpreneur

Suraksha Jain, a budding social entrepreneur, has managed this credit at the age of 16 which is no mean feat. She encompasses diverse activities such as the designing of an e-bicycle to avert pollution, operation of a non-profit organization of sanitary pads to spread awareness, ensure menstrual hygiene and make the product cost-inexpensive, encouraging tobbaco sellers to engage in healthier professions and by teaching in the slum areas at the weekends. Whilst the achievements might sound huge already, the journey that enabled her to develop a vision that can sense opportunity from problems is even more magnificent. The education system post her matriculation pushed her into dysthymia and further anaemia. The cruel methods of teaching that are far from educational led her into these phases, which when she recovered made her unstoppable. A period of ups and downs made her to ponder over our educational system and the myth of direct correlation between grades and knowledge.

VSSUT STUDENT SATELLITE

INNOVATION

This Mega-Project is a Student Initiative under the aegis of Idea & Innovation Cell (VSSUT, Burla) where a team of budding technocrats take on a herculean task by venturing into Rocket Science, through a series of ten arduous missions. We aim to build, launch, test and recover indigenously developed Launch Vehicles and Prototype Satellites and to provide an educational experience to students in the design, flight and data analysis of a space experiment. This program is intended to prepare students for an exciting, technical challenge that may lead to launching space experiments into low earth orbits and beyond.

Yogesh Chopade

Corporate Trainer

Yogesh Chopade, V. Faculty at Symbiosis & Corporate Trainer has led the multiple journeys of Consultant, Business Process Architect, Lead Consultant, Project Manager, Trainer, Coach etc. He also has 17 years of Industry experience with SAP implementations in SAP APO, Supply Chain & Logistics. Having authored two books that discuss designing of career and life, he understands the weaving patterns of professional and personal life that enables one to transform oneself by life coaching.