Women In Technology Summit at NITK

By Samarth Bonthala.

Theme: Redefining the Defined

The Women in Technology (WiT) Summit in its maiden edition at National Institute of Technology Karnataka Surathkal aims to embolden delegates who are currently in the STEM fields to make a change in the community by lending enthusiasm and inspiration from successful women leaders. WiT Summit aims to be a journey into self-discovery and empowerment. A place for participants to discover their hidden talents and spark their technical innovations. It will be an experience like no other, combining the best of IEEE and the Industry network, with some amazing learning and truly fun events that will make the most memorable events so far.

Aim of the Summit is to make an energetic group of Women and Men, utilizing their assorted gifts to improve for the advantage of humankind.

 

OUR TRACKS:

All the delegates who registered for the summit selected the tracks based on preference. The tracks are as follows:

• Computing: Workshops, talks and engaging sessions to bring forth budding computing enthusiasts.:
• Electronics and Automation: Workshops, talks and engaging sessions to embolden the ones who wish to change the world using knowledge of electronics.
• Entrepreneurship: Skills to help women advance in their careers, Skills to elevate the actions to inspire others, communicate and effective leading, skills around startups, business models, venture funding, finance or leadership communication.

DELEGATE REPRESENTATION

Women in Technology Summit was the combined effort of 70+ volunteers from across the country who tirelessly worked for more than 3 months in various volunteer verticals such as Design, Documentation, Publicity, Public Relations, Website, Logistics etc.

Phase 1 Registrations saw 300+ registrations for the event. Phase 1 Registration was as simple as filling the registration Google form.

Phase 2 Registrations saw 110+ registrations which was the Payment Phase. Due to elections in various parts of the country and hence postponement of exams resulted in reduced conversion of Phase 1 to Phase 2 registrations but the number of delegates was appropriate for smooth and successful conduction of the event.

Women in Technology Summit saw delegate representation from various IEEE sections across the country namely, IEEE Bangalore Section, IEEE Madras Section, IEEE Hyderabad Section, IEEE Delhi Section, IEEE Kerala Section, IEEE Kolkata Section, and IEEE Gujarat Section with a total of 110+ delegates who attended various tracks – Computing, Electronics, and Automation and Entrepreneurship along with common track events with exact stats as follows:

IEEE Bangalore Section – 34 IEEE Madras Section – 48 IEEE Hyderabad Section – 18 IEEE Delhi Section – 8 IEEE Kolkata Section – 2 IEEE Gujarat Section – 1 IEEE Kerala Section – 2

26 NITK IEEE SB volunteers worked tirelessly during the entire 3 days of the event to give the delegates and speakers a good experience and hospitality during the stay at NITK.

There were 52 male delegates and 62 female delegates at the event.

ENTREPRENEURSHIP EVENTS

Design Thinking workshop by Aditi Chalisgaonkar – 22nd December 2018

Ms. Aditi Chalisgaonkar is a programmer analyst at Walmart Labs. Having completed her Masters in integrated innovation, she gave her invaluable insights into the design processes that any company should employ when coming out with a product. Her impeccable knowledge of the field gave the participants reliable methods and techniques to be employed in order to ideate, synthesis and execute their entrepreneurial goals.

“Entrepreneurship” by Dr. Sudeendra Koushik – 22nd December 2018

Dr. Sudeendra Koushik, based on his experience at working in various multinational companies throughout the course of his long and illustrious career spoke about how Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship have played a key role in driving the industry forward. He also spoke about the importance of creating value for customers as the chief strategy that every Entrepreneur should strive for and illustrated it with the help of several examples.

Entrepreneurship and Intrapreneurship by Ms. Pragya Dixit – 22nd December 2018

Ms. Pragya Dixit, a serial entrepreneur having established several successful ventures over the course of her long career spoke about Intrapreneurship and drew similar references to the previous speaker, Dr. Sudheendra Koushik on how creating value was the chief strategy each entrepreneur should have. She also spoke about how as a woman she had to make difficult choices with her career and her home and how she successfully overcame hurdles in her life to achieve success.

Talk by Arya Murali on Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs – 23rd December 2018

Through this talk, Ms Arya imparted some very important skills and lessons that she has learned over the years, that are required to make it big in the tech world. She brought to light the advantages of simply googling to find out about the myriad opportunities that await us. The one hour talk left all of us with a lot of food for thought and a renewed enthusiasm towards having a successful future.

Entrepreneurship and Financial Planning Workshop by Deepak K Rao (Founder-Director, Simplus) – 23rd December 2018

Acknowledging the fact that most people these days find a sense of peace and security only after they are financially stable, Mr Deepak shared his years of financial experience and impeccable knowledge with all those present, in a way that we could all relate to and enjoy. While stressing on the fact that a simple life is the best life, he encouraged us all to start thinking of investing smart from a young age, so that money is never a hurdle that any of us have to stumble across.

Feedback

A Google form was shared for the delegates to share their feedback regarding the event and 3-4 delegates were asked to share their feedback orally during the feedback session after the closing ceremony.

Most of the sessions received 5 star rating (Maximum rating) response by the delegates which indicates the quality of the talks and workshops that were organised.

All delegates and speakers / guests were very satisfied with food and also with the hospitality. Single rooms were provided to each of the delegate at the Institute hostels which came as a surprise to them and each of them enjoyed the stay at NITK campus for the three days.

IEEE Entrepreneurship Stall @ WiTS

A stall was setup with all IEEE Entrepreneurship Promotional Material and all the goodies sent were added to registration kit and distributed to all the delegates.