KOCHI: EMERGE 2018, the technology conference organised by the Govt Model Engineering College as part of its techfest Excel, was held the other day at Palarivattom. The event was supported by Tata Consultancy Services and Osaka group. It was aimed at hosting a forum where discussions on a wide range of emerging technologies, as well as prev a i l i n g p o l i t i c a l a n d environmental issues could be held.
There was also a special track that brought people from the industry to talk about how to rebuild a sustainable Kerala. The speakers included TV anchor Rekha Menon, MLA Roji M John and former Justice of Kerala High Court B Kemal Pasha. Other sessions that were featured included ‘The road to success: Follow your dreams’ by Bose Krishnamachari, the cofounder of Kochi-Muziris Biennale and ‘Hatching your ideas: How to build your company’ by IAS officer-turned-entrepreneur C Balagopal. Various ideas like blockchain, transportation and entrepreneurship were discussed. The highlight for many was when there was an interactive session with the humanoid bot Saya.
They were delighted in witnessing the growth of AI and its manifestation in the form of the human- sized robot, asking questions for a good hour or so. The event also featured an idea pitching session where participants could share their innovative thoughts on how to shape the future. The first prize went to Lares, the team led by Mohammed Zakeer from Universal Engineering College with the second prize going to Gyro-Glove represented by Vaishakh Menon and team from GEC, Thrissur. The third prize was taken by MIS (Master Intelligent system) with Mayukh and team from Universal Engineering College.