Theme: Mavericks of the Millennium

TEDxAITP is an independently organised TEDx event under the license from TED. The event is organized and curated by the students of Army Institute of Technology, Pune. Sharing the same spirit as of TED, the day-long event focuses on bringing together contemporary ideas in the form of short, powerful talks to inspire, inform and spark deep discussions and connections.

Army Institute of Technology, Pune
Alandi Road, Dighi Hills
Pune, Maharashtra, 411015
India

Dr Snober Irani Sataravala

Educator + Storyteller

She is the lover of books and has lustre for words. Words that make the ugly beautiful, that coil around your heart and slither in till you just smile and surrender. She is also the lover of stories and teller of lies–lies that speak of the greatest truths that win your heart forever. The lover of passion, madness and intensity, someone who believes that either you die a little every day or dance with utter abandon. For the record she is a teacher at St Mira’s College for Girls.

Dr. Sanjiv M. Sansgiri

Professor

Professor and Head of the Mechanical Engineering department at the Army Institute of Technology, Dr. Sansgiri has more than a 25 year record of building capabilities and driving results. With strong abilities founded on overall management and technical excellence, he has led organizations dealing with engineered products to achieve milestone improvements. Recently, he was also conferred the award of ‘Best Professor in Mechanical Engineering’ at the Dewang Mehta National Education Awards. After a hard but satisfying day of teaching bright minds, he likes to unwind through music and theatre as he is an adept percussionist who has also performed Broadway.

Harish Iyer

Activist

Given the number of causes he champions, he has coined the all en compassing term “equal rights” activist for himself. A fierce activist for the rights of the subalterns, for the past twenty years Harish has fought for sexual assault survivors and against gender bias discrimination. He is also the recipient of the Zindagi Live Award and the Bharat Award for his work with survivors of sexual assault. On 29 June 2013, The Guardian, the British national daily named him in the list of the 100 most influential LGBT people in the world for 2013 and the only Indian on the list. His life inspired two films, director Onir's I Am and Ranadeep Bhattacharya and Judhajit Bagchi directed Amen. In I Am, Actor Sanjay Suri plays Abhimanyu, a child sexual abuse survivor, the character inspired by Harish's life and that of Hyderabad based fashion designer Ganesh Nallari. He is an ardent animal rights activist, naming his non-profit organisation “The Jimmy Foundation’ after his adorable pooch Jimmy.

Pankajj Ghode

CEO, Global Blockchain Foundation & Cyber Security Expert

Mr. Pankajj P. Ghode began his professional career at the young age of 16 when he was hired at Wipro as a technology professional. He led two corporate success stories with distinction, Wipro from 1999 to 2003 and IBM - Experis from 2006 to 2015. This IT magnate Was instrumental in providing high level of consulting to Vodafone, Idea, Bharti telecom, Sing-tel, Safari-com, AT&T and Reliance Jio. Currently, he is Founder and Chairman of Global Blockchain Foundation and also serves as Consultant to Maharashtra State Police, Ministry communications and information technology for Digital India projects. Apart from being a an expert on all things digital and an EDM connoisseur, he is a huge dog-lover and has a canine whose cuteness is incomparable. DJ, the amiable labrador, has a biography written after him where the talks of the unconditional bonding of the dog with his masters.

Priyanka Menon

Author & Lecturer

Her love for romance novels began almost two decades back, when she was gifted her first romance novel after her 10th grade boards, and there has been no looking back ever since. Now a lecturer and copyrighter by profession, she has also published three romance novels with Harlequin-Harper Collins and Juggernaut Books. When she is not teaching advertising to both undergraduate and postgraduate students, Priyanka is empowering women with her fiery slam poems having been a core member of the Pune Poetry Slam since the last three years.She gives credit to the red velvet pastries and white chocolate mochas at Starbucks for her prowess over words.

Sukanta Bose

Science Lead of LIGO-India Project, Professor at IUCAA, India

Sukanta Bose is a professor at the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Pune, India and the Washington State University, Pullman, USA. His primary research interest is to explore how gravitational waves, which were first directly observed in 2015 and predicted by Einstein more than a century ago, can be used to understand the cosmos in ways not possible before. He is a recipient of the National Science Foundation CAREER award (2003) and shared in the Special Breakthrough Prize with scientists in the LIGO Science and Virgo Collaboration in 2016.When not unravelling the mysteries of the universe, he unwinds by weaving magic through his sketches and playing the keyboard.

Vandana Vijay

CEO & Founder-Offbeat Tracks

A proud Army Officer's daughter and granddaughter, she has done her schooling all over the country, having changed about 10 schools from class 1 to 12. Equipped with a masters in Microbiology she was determined to follow her father's foot steps and join the Indian Army. After clearing her exams and standing first in All India UPSC CDS Merit, life had other plans for her. She took a leap of faith and decided that the Army wasn't her true calling. She went on to work with Facebook for 3 years and it was during this stint that she volunteered with a non profit in Ladakh. Having spent time in the mountains with rural communities trekking across villages, she realised that her true calling lied in working with people at the grass root level. it was then that she decided to put her passions together, travel, the mountains and working with rural communities. She loves dancing & meeting new people! A self confessed foodie,she loves exploring new lands and savouring the cuisine it has to offer!