21^st CSI KARNATAKA STUDENT CONVENTION

The CSI Karnataka Student Convention is a unique academic activity of CSI-BC.This annual convention is hosted by an Engineering college situated in Karnataka normally alternating between Bangalore and a location outside Bangalore. Earlier 18 colleges had hosted this convention. The 21st convention was hosted by M.V.J College of Engineering, Bangalore on 21^st & 22^nd September 2007.

The convention provides a professional platform for students of various streams of IT to showcase their talent. Invited talks from practicing professionals provide the students an opportunity to learn about the current industry trends. The convention also provides an opportunity for networking between the students, professionals and academicians. The convention includes Technical Paper Presentation, Invited Talks, and Panel Discussion on the theme of the convention, Technical Quiz, Cultural Programs, Career Development Programs.

R.M.O Gemson, Principal, MVJCE, gave a warm welcome to a the delegates and participants.

The convention was inaugurated by J. Partha Sarathy, Director, SPTI, Bangalore .In his talk, he mentioned that there are many challenging projects for the Development of ICT in rural areas.

The proceedings was released by Prof. Ranganatha Setty, Regional officer VTU, Bangalore.He extended thanks to the delegates and participants and appreciated M.V.J College of Engineering for conducting the conference.

Prof. Y. Vrushabhendrappa, Director, M.V.J College of Engineering, appreciated CSI-Bangalore Chapter for conducting such conferences in the colleges to update the knowledge of the students.

The Theme of the convention has been chosen to be “ICT for Rural Development” which is a topic of national interest today. This topic is of importance in order to address the problem of “Digital Divide”

“Computer Graphics and Visual Intelligence for Rural Development” by M/s AutoDesk.

This talk showcased how farmers have instant access to facility management data, land use, crop and soil analysis, equipment status, design information, and disaster management tools. All this information is available anywhere, any time on computers, laptops or mobile devices.

“Knowledge Based Villages”, A popular lecture in Kannada by Dr. Chidananda Gowda, Former VC, Kuvempu University, Shimoga.

This talk highlighted how Knowledge Connectivity of rural areas by ICT can make India a developed nation by 2020, which was very informative.

“Significant Advancements Using ICT for Rural Knowledge Connectivity” by Dr. Swarnalatha. R. Rao, Professor and Head, Department of Computer Science and Engineering (PG), M.V.J College of Engineering, Bangalore.

The talk highlighted how India has made significant strides in rural Knowledge connectivity using the ICT, which has lead to the knowledge revolution in India. There are larger number of rural areas in our country and ICT developments and advantages do not reach rural areas, which would face a serious problem of  “Digital Divide”

“Indic Computing” by B.Pavanaja, General Manager Academics-Manipal University Learning.

The talk showed how to develop OS supported fully integrated Indic solutions, like using computers for Indian Languages. Since the environment considered is Unicode one can have Indian Language text in menus, textboxes, error messages etc.

30 papers were presented in 6 sessions. The papers covered different topics like Telemedicine for a Healthier Rural India, Wi-Fi Security, Parallel and Distributed Computing, Image Warping, Light and Touch Sensor activated Robotics Arm, Face Recognition, ICT as an enabler for the development of efficient low cost hearing Aid for hearing Impaired, Highly Secured Bank Transactions using Blowfish, Data Warehouse and Data Mining for Rural Development and a Novel semantic network based method.

The Chief Guest of the Valedictory function was Dr. S.Ramani, Director for Science & Technology, HP abs India. She delivered the Valedictory Address and distributed the awards.

The occasion was graced by Mrs. Sudha Raju, Regional Vice- President (Region-V), CSI & Principal Officer Cooperate Affairs and Strategy, Manipal Education.

Dr. Swarnalatha R. Rao, PC Chair &HOD CSE (PG) gave the proceedings of the 2-day conference.

AWARDS

MVJCE students have won two awards.