Students from IIT Kharagpur have come here to invite students from Gujarat to participate in the premier tech-schools annual event called KSHITIJ 2010. The event is Asias biggest techno-management festival with an average 30,000 participants (a huge bulk from institutes like the MIT in the US),and prize money of over Rs 45 lakh. Besides,a number of events have certification from international bodies like ACM,ASHRAE,ASME and IMechE,meaning that the winners of such events get opportunities to present their works at conferences abroad,and for job offers and incubation. The reason why students from IIT-Kharagpur are coming here this year is that not many students from Gujarat have participated in the previous years. They usually do not participate because they feel Kharagpur is too far away. But we want the students to know that participation could make their lives and careers, said Pratik Vora,a member of the organising team. The team is at present visiting various campuses,talking to students and putting up posters inviting them to take part in any of the competitions including robotics,industrial design,and aero-modelling. KSHITIJ 2010 will take place between January 28 and 31. Expected speakers include Nobel laureates Klaus von Klitzing and Paul Crutzen,co-founder of Wikipedia Jimmy Donal Wales and first Indian cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma.
