Lecture series:- Inspiring and enlightening all
Hello all
The role of science and technology in our lives is unparalled. From steam engines to space ships, we have surely come a long way. And the people who made it all happen are not extaordinary people. They just had the ability to think extraordinarily using ordinary ideas.
And every year in Techfest we have been inviting such genius people to enlighten us and inspire us to think
differently. And this year is no different.
No denying the fact that at Techfest 2009 we aspire to spread the illumination of knowledge far and wide to the very hearts and minds of young generation which happens to be our future. For this very cause legendary personalities in different fields of learning whose work has had a deep impact on our lives and the way we perceive the world are invited to deliver distinguished lectures in lecture series every year.
In previous versions of Techfest there were lectures from geniuses like Dr.A.P.J. Abdul Kalam (Former President of India), Dr. Rodney Brooks, Director, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratories (CSAIL), MIT, Mr. Sam Pitroda, Chairman and CEO of World-Tel Limited, Dr. Arun Netravali, Managing Partner of OmniCapital, previously, President of Bell Labs (1999 – 2001), Robert E. Kahn, Father of Internet and many more.
And this year Techfest is going to be graced by pioneers who have worked in various fields ranging from human ancestry to the most advanced robots in the world or from astronomy to development of computer simulation of human brain.
Let me tell you about the bigwigs of today’s science and technology who will be here to enlighten us with their words of wisdom:
Mr. SPENCER WELLS
Dr. Spencer Wells is a geneticist and anthropologist, an Explorer-in-Residence at the National Geographic Society, and director of the Natgeo’s Genographic Project. This lecture will be based on a study of human ancestry called the Genographic Project.
Dr. ERIC CHIVIAN
Dr. Eric Chivian, a Nobel Prize Winner, is Founder and Director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment,and an Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, at Harvard Medical School. He was senior editor and author of MITPress’ Critical Condition: Human Health and the Environment. He was also recently featured in the 2008 issue of Time Magazine’s top 100 most influential people in the world under the Scientists and Thinkers section.
Prof. DARIO FLOREANO
Prof. Dario Floreano (M.A., 1988; M.S. 1991; PhD 1995) is the Director of the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems in the School of Engineering at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. The lecture would include descriptions of some examples of bio-inspired robots that roll, fly, or jump and show how biological design principles can be translated into smart robotic systems and how such robots can be used to test scientific theories of biological life.
Mr. HENRY MARKARM
Henry Markram is the Founder and Co-Director of the Brain Mind Institute (BMI) at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and Director of the Blue Brain Project.In April, 2005, Markram launched the Blue Brain Project with the support of IBM. It is the largest single initiative in neuroscience to construct a simulation-based research facility for neuron science to create a computer simulation of the brain of mammals including the human brain, down to the molecular level.
Dr. MARTIN HENDRY
Dr Martin Hendry is Senior Lecturer in Astronomy and Director of Teaching in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow. The lecture will introduce the exciting new field of gravitational-wave astronomy, and the worldwide network of gravitational-wave “telescopes” which are designed to detect these ripples in space-time.
Mr. HAMID KELLAY
Hamid Kellay is a Professor of Physics at University of Bordeaux 1. He completed his B.A. at Harvard University 1988 and his PhD. at Ecole Normale Supérieure et Université Paris Sud, 2003. This talk will draw a few consequences of the findings for the properties of the random part of hurricane trajectories.
and many many more to come…
For more details, see http://techfest.org/lectures
So this is your chance to get face to face with living legends and to get inspired to be what you aspire to be.
