Emergent Futures - Regions First Emerging Tech + Design Conference

Chandigarh.28^th  February,2020: Society for Promotion of IT in Chandigarh (SPIC) under the aegis of Department of IT, Chandigarh Administration and IxDA Chandigarh organised a one-day conference in the city on the theme of emerging technology under the Centre of Humane Artificial  Intelligence (ChAI)@SPIC  initiative for fostering  innovative ideas and discussion on the design and impact of emerging technologies on society. The event titled “Emergent Futures”, was held today at the EDC Building  located at Chandigarh IT Park.

Emergent Futures featured thought-leaders from industry, academia and public sector for a day of informative talks and workshops on emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, AR/ VR , and User Experience (UX).

Back in November  2019, Society for Promotion of IT in Chandigarh (SPIC) had announced a launch of platform  entitled ChAI@SPIC to  focus on emerging technologies with a view to initiate discussion and knowledge sharing. The inaugural events in the series, “AI for All” was held on 20th November  at the SPIC, EDC , IT Park, Chandigarh. 

Now the Society for Promotion of IT in Chandigarh (SPIC) and IxDA Chandigarh have broadened the scope of this discussion to include a basket of emerging technologies like Blockchain, AR/ VR, IoT  in addition to AI and ML. Emergent Futures held today was the first event of it’s kind in the region that provided a platform for industry practitioners, academia and public service professionals to come together and  discuss the challenges and opportunities that are inherent in emerging technologies.

Mr. Vinod P Kavle, IAS, Secretary Information Technology, Chandigarh Administration said during the conference session “ Emerging  technologies like Artificial Intelligence & blockchain  have the potential to impact the society and  e-governance delivery system in a big way.  Cognitive technologies like AI  and deep learning  could eventually revolutionize every facet of government operations. A blockchain-based digital solutions in government can protect data, streamline processes, and reduce fraud, waste, and abuse while simultaneously increasing trust,  and accountability. Emerging technologies  has the potential to solve legacy pain points and makes possible achieving the process speedily. All citizens, and not only technology practitioners, should be aware of these technologies and how they are being utilised to ensure that technology is used in a ethical, inclusive, and sustainable manner.

Ms. Nazuk Kumar, IAS, Director Information Technology said “ She urged to hold such events on  a regular basis which gives an opportunity to exchange ideas with startups  and IT community on a real time basis so that  government can keep  pace with rapid expansion in emerging  technologies happening in IT industry which would enable government in  incorporating emerging technologies  like;  Artificial Intelligence &  blockchain to develop innovative e-governance solutions for the citizens.” 

 The conference\ featured many prominent speakers from the local IT community. Among them one of the speaker  Mr. Navdeep Singh Gill who is the founder of XenonStack which is based in  STPI, Mohali gave a presentation entitled  ‘Building the Future’ AI.  Mr. Harjeet Gulati of Millipixels, a design startup gave an overview of  the landscape of various AI based technologies and their applications.  Mr Vineet Raj Kapoor who is a Dean at Chitkara University, spoke on the subject of Immersive Technologies,  opportunities and challenges.

Mr Neeraj Kumar Rajput who is the founder of an AI based startup, Alephi.ai,  spoke on the subject of AIN healthcare. The combined experience of these speakers in the field of technology is over 100 years. Mr. Amit co-founder of Miracle group  spoke on Agile and emerging Technologies. He gave insight to the audience how to incorporate the Agile way of working while developing some of these emerging technologies.

In addition, SPIC also organised a unique hands on code along workshops in the morning session of the conference. The first workshop was on  getting Started with Machine Learning which was  facilitated by Dr Kajal Rai, who is Phd. Computer Science from Punjab University. The participants got  opportunity to learn some of the frameworks that are used to start coding in machine learning. The second workshop was on  with Blockchain which was  conducted by Mr Iqbal Singh who introduced the participants on how to start using  blockchain technology through the process of Basic Blockchain Structure and Code. Workshop was attended by IT professionals and IT students.