Theme: Metamorphosis of Indian Culture

TEDxNirmaUniversity is being organized independently by Nirma University. We believe ideas have the power to change attitudes, lives and ultimately, the world. In line with the spirit of TED conferences held world over, we aim to provide a platform that brings together people from all walks of life under one roof. TEDxNirmaUniversity is to be held at Nirma University on January 23, 2016.

Nirma University
Sarkhej-Gandhinagar Highway
Chandlodia, Gota
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, 382481
India

Abhishek Jain

Filmmaker

Abhishek Jain is a 28 year old film maker and the founder of CineMan Productions Ltd. Under him works a bunch of young filmmakers who help him realize his vision of making CineMan Productions - the finest production house in the industry. He is also consider to be pioneer of Urban Gujarati films. The belief, conviction and passion of Abhishek has now been shared and celebrated by millions of Gujaratis as his path breaking film 'Kevi Rite Jaish' has set a benchmark for the Gujarati film industry, with its theatrical run of more than 100 days. Abhishek has always believed in potential of Gujarati Cinema and his passion and love for the language inspired him to make another Gujarati film "Bey Yaar". In this film he connected bridge of Gujarati film Industry and Main Stream Bollywood.

B V Doshi

Architect

He is a pioneering architect, a teacher and an influential architectural thinker of modern India. His studio, Vastu-Shilpa (environmental design), was established in 1955.Doshi worked closely with Louis Kahn and Anant Raje, when Kahn designed the campus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Doshi is a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, and has been on the selection committee for the Pritzker Prize, the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture. He is also a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Architects. His buildings include NIFT Delhi, IIM Bangalore, CEPT University, Ahmedabad, Amdvad ni Gufa and many more. He has been awarded the Padma Shri ,Honorary doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and France's highest honour for arts the 'Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters', 2011. Introducing our eighth speaker, Sir BV Doshi, India's finest architect!

Beena Rao

Social activist

Inspired by her father, Beena Rao is one such person who is changing the lives of thousands of slum children around her with her simple initiative. She introduced 'Prayas', a free coaching institute for slum children, with the help of her husband in 2006. initially having started with teaching 2-3 children herself she now has a team of 34 volunteers who teach around 1200 students at eight different coaching centers across Surat, Gujarat. Rao, with the help of various volunteers, conducts coaching for the students o classes 3rd - 8th standard at various locations for free. She pays rs. 1000-1500 to various volunteers out of her own pocket or some donations that prayas receives.

Dr. Ashok Khosla

Environmentalist + Chairman of the Development Alternatives Group

The question whether growth automatically leads to better well-being for all is fundamental and huge. Chairman and Founder of the Development Alternatives group. Development Alternatives Group, a consortium of social enterprises based in India whose mission is to create technologies, businesses and markets for large scale generation of sustainable livelihoods. He pursued his M.A in Natural Sciences from Cambridge University and later PhD from Harvard! He is the chairman of Club of Rome, WETV, IUCN United Nations, National Advisory committee and many more. He has addressed at 25th Anniversary of UNCHE in the Swedish Parliament, Stockholm and has published more than 300 professional papers. His honours include UN Sawakawa Environment Prize, Schwab Foundation Outstanding Social Entrepreneur, Stockholm Challenge Award and several more. Dr. Ashok Khosla, environmentalist and social entrepreneur who is working hard to make this world a sustainable place.

Dr. Ketan Kotecha

Vice Chancellor of Parul University

Dr Ketan Kotecha is an Educationist and a passionate teacher with 18 years of teachingexperience. He has guided several Masters and Doctoral Thesis. His Research interests include Artificial Intelligence, Computer Algorithms & Machine Learning and he has more than 50 papers published /presented in international conferences around the world,to his credit. Currently he is leading Parul University as a Vice chancellor. He is also a Dean, Faculty of Technology & Engineering and the Director of Academic Development & Research Cell of Nirma University. Dr.Kotecha has been nominated as a Governing Council Member of the USA based Global Engineering Dean's Council India Chapter and is also a member of national Advisory Council for Confederation of Indian Industry's (CII) Engineering and Management Curriculum Restructuring Task Force. He has also worked as a Member in the Technical Advisory Committee of BRTS, Ahmedabad. He has revolutionized the Institute of Technology by implementation of ICT.

Navaneeth Unnikrishnan

Astronomer and Astrophotographer

Navaneeth Unnikrishnan is an Indian Astronomer and Astrophotographer from Kerala. He started photography as a hobby using a basic Canon DSLR and later specialized in imaging Deep Sky Objects. His images are published in Magazines and websites including National Geographic BBC Earth, Space.com and also the winner of photography competition conducted by National Geographic Traveller India and National Students Space Challenge 2014 hosted by IIT Kharagpur.

Nitesh Chaudhary

Professor of Political Science

" Political Science is way more difficult than quantum science! " He has completed his education in the discipline of Political Science from The Maharja Sayajirao University of Baroda. As a appreciation for his achievements he was awarded two gold medals by the University. In his Masters exam he worked on a dissertation entitled "In the Face of Violence: Revisiting Hobbes, Locke and Kant" and is also awarded Junior Fellowship by the Centre for Contemporary Theory, Vadodara for the month of November 2007 Since 2009 he has been serving as an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Institute of Law, Nirma University. As a teacher he has been pivotal in designing courses which raises difficult questions about reality and critiquing the established mainstream framework by rigorously debating the ideas by close reading of texts and epochs. He is also editor of Nirma University Law Journal. Mr. Nitesh Chaudhry- A professor at Institute of Law, Nirma University.

Pratik Agarwal

Entrepreneur + Innovator

Born in Bombay and a commerce graduate from Narsee Monjee and pursued MBA from the Indian School of Business.With a keen insight into behavioral change and user experience enhancement, especially with use and application of technology, He comes with expertise in system operations and optimization. They deep dived into Wi-Fi ,providing free internet to end users. He created experiential products over Wi-FI like ordering your cinema food directly at your seat while watching a movie etc. At one such festival, in 2013, ThinkScream created the WiFi Trash Bin. Basic concept was to give people what they want by getting them to do what they would ideally desire to. It was an insane hit.In 2015, the product got featured on CNN IBN’s Networked India initiative in top 5 innovative products.

Tapan Misra

Scientist + Director of ISRO-SAC

He started his career as digital hardware engineer and involved in Microwave Remote Sensing payloads in SAC.He was involved in design for the development of C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) of the RISAT-1. He wrote an algorithm for real-time processing of SAR data during his stint as a guest scientist in the German Aerospace Agency in 1990. He is currently heading the ISRO Space Applications Center as the Director.He heads the Office of Innovations Management, ISRO, Bangalore.He received Vikram Sarabhai Research Award in 2004 and ISRO Merit award in 2008 for his contribution of development of SAR technology. He was elected as Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering in 2007. He was elected Corresponding Member of International Academy of Astronautics in 2008. He holds two granted patents, six pending patents. He has five copyrights and more than twenty five papers to his credit.

Tushar Lall

Producer + Composer

The brains behind Indian adaptations. He picked up keyboard at the age of 4. He has done is schooling in Delhi. He also has a diploma in Music Production from SAE and Dubspot (NY) and has trained and worked under grammy award winning engineers in New York. Apart from that, he also holds a diploma in Sound Design, Mixing and Mastering! He has performed in clubs like Pacha, Karma (NYC) as well as Bluefrog (Bombay). The Indian Jam project is a collaborative platform where Indian Classical and Western Musicians come together and perform Indian adaptations of western theme music of famous tv series/movies . Starting with Game of Thrones cover, they've recomposed Interstellar, BBC Sherlock, Harry Potter and many themes, they are on almost everywhere on the web gaining a million views on YouTube to 9GAG, HuffPost including appreciation from Michael Price (Emmy winner) and Mark Gattiss (BBC Producer/Actor of Sherlock).