Theme: The Other End of the Line

Humans have always had an unexplainable drive to excel in every aspect of life. Mankind has come a long way, from discovering fire to creating complex machines and technologies that are an integrated part of our lives, advancement has been universal. Infinite possibilities generate as the creativity of the human mind is unleashed, breaking away from the chains that hold back our imagination as we gaze upon the multitude of possible futures and work towards one.

Humanity has an inner critic, prompting it to slow down when deemed necessary, to avoiding the risks and opting for the safe route forward. This inner critic poses various questions to our conscience, a few of great importance before we jump across the barrier, the actions related to which cannot be rewound. For us, the path to the realization of an idea and the associated costs are equally crucial as the idea itself, for you cannot walk across thin air to seize the fruits you fathom to have born out of your own perseverance. As we leap across these barriers, do we take into consideration, a backup to cover the consequences of the mess we have regretfully created?

A line can be metaphorically used as a timeline as we pin along with the various events that have brought about a change in the to be history of humankind, but does this line seem to have an end? Is this advancement limitless, and if it is, where does it lead to? Can we reach a point where this steep graph of growth finally plateaus and the humility of satisfaction finally extinguishes these ambitious desires?

Virtual Gathering
Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati
Guwahati, Assam, 781039
India

Aashish Chandratreya

Photographer & Videographer

Aashish’s love for the camera began when he was 15 and since then he has come a long way. Today he is a professional photographer, videographer and a vlogger who graduated from the New York Film Academy. It was then that Aashish’s love for short roll clips and time lapses gave birth to his Youtube channel Vlogging. It was his effort to document his journey as a foreign student in the United States of America, he hoped it would help many more aspiring students like himself. Three months and few videos in, he received his Silver Play button along with a hundred thousand subscribers to his channel.

Aditya Gupta

Entrepreneur And Adventure Traveller

Aditya Gupta is the owner of The Furniture Republic and an avid mountaineer. An alumnus of IIT Roorkee and FMS-University Delhi, he took a keen interest in trekking during his college days at IIT Roorkee. Starting with the Pindari Glacier, he has now successfully climbed Mount Everest. There are many aspects and lessons to be learnt from his Everest climb that can be applied to our daily lives.

Bhagvan Kommadi

Founder Quantica Computacao

Founder of the first Quantum Computing startup in India, one who truly defines the theme, always at the helm of steering and investing in outgrowing technologies as diverse as AI, robotics, Nanotechnology, drones. Driven by ideas and a clear vision of market and Business, his logical mind serves the best. He goes by “ There is no I in the team”, a team worker in spirit, a problem solver who has written an elaborate book on Quantum Computing Solutions.

Bidisha Som

Professor of Linguistics

Bidisha Som is an associate professor of Linguistics at IIT Guwahati. She has a keen interest in language processing, culture and cognition, social linguistics. She has shared her ideas through more than ten publications and done around four projects funded by CIIL, DST, IITG etc. She has presented her perspective on Cognitive Neurolinguistics and linguistics at various National Conferences. Som has shown great passion for linguistics by conducting successful conferences like the National Symposium on Cognitive Science, ICOLSI, HLS etc.

Nisha Bora

Social researcher and entrepreneur

Nisha Bora is a visionary and inspiring social entrepreneur from Assam who has made valuable contributions to various social causes. She is a dynamic personality whose contributions towards preserving the ecosystem are truly inspiring. In her Corporate Career spanning over 15 years, she has worked in multiple qualitative research sectors as a research consultant for social impact projects. Presently she is spearheading the award-winning social enterprise ‘Elrhino Paper’ as a co-founder.

Prabhagaran Rakkiappan

Product Manager & UX Designer

Prabhagaran is a Product Manager & User Experience Designer who’s passionate about designing solutions that are user friendly. He has a zeal towards building product experiences from ground up and challenging existing paradigms of interface design. His recent escapades have been centered around typography, primarily working on a Tamil font. His work has been featured in Pantone Gallery and published in the design magazine Creative Gaga.

Rudy Wallang

Blues Musician

Rudy Wallang is a Blues vocalist, guitarist and songwriter, an active member of the blues rock band Soulmate based in Shillong. Strengthening the roots of Blues in India, his passion towards the genre has helped it give the recognition it deserves while breaking what have long constricted the boundaries of music. He has been felicitated with the title of the best guitar player in India at the 2009 Jack Daniels music awards.

Seema Gupta

Professor of Digital Marketing

Seema Gupta is an associate professor of Digital Marketing at IIM Bangalore. She is also an author and digital marketing trainer. She has won multiple prestigious awards including the EFMD Best Global Case Writing Award and ISB-IVEY Best Case award alongside being published in leading international journals. In a world being dominated increasingly by technology, it is crucial to understand the motivations and techniques used in digital marketing, in order to understand the world better.

Shiva Sah

Student, Architect

He brings his creative mind to every field be it design, architecture or photography in which he works intricately, with a purpose of bringing worlds closer, fascinated by the virtual world, his desire to design it well thrives. ”Creating paths through the challenges of always looking ahead for the future” is his motto, for which our theme is proud.