AliensFest, formerly TheTechFest, is an independent technology and career conference in India for students held by Praani Foundation, a non profit organization. It also refers to the independent body from Praani Foundation who organize the event along with other social initiatives and Outreach programs throughout the year. Events include tech talks, management talks, inspirational talks, workshops, project expo, experience zones, competitions, and exhibitions.

AliensFest (Formerly TheTechFest)
Logo of AliensFest
AliensFest Logo
Statusactive
GenreConference
Date(s)16 November 2024
Begins16 November 2024 (2024-11-16)
Ends17 November 2024 (2024-11-17)
FrequencyAnnually
VenueTBA (2024)
GITAM Hyderabad (2019)
BITS Pilani, Hyderabad (2018)
JNTU Hyderabad (2017)[1]
JNTU Hyderabad (2016)
CountryIndia
Years active8
Inaugurated30 July 2016 (2016-07-30)[2]
FoundersManoj Raj Dhondi
Most recent29 September 2019 (2019-09-29)
Previous eventAliensFest 4.0
Next eventAliensFest 5.0
Attendance3500 (2019)
4500 (2018)
3200 (2017)
2600 (2016)
ActivityTechTalks, Startup Talks, Management Talks, IceBreaker Zone, Project Expo, Experience Zones, Workshops, Competitions
Organised byPraani Foundation
Websitealiensfest.com
thetechfest.com

AliensFest started in 2016 as TheTechFest to create awareness in tech students about the latest technologies and motivate them to start building and showcasing their talent. Now it has grown to be India's largest independent technology and career conference for students with a footfall of 5200.

AliensFest 5.0

edit

The fifth edition of AliensFest is scheduled with a gap of five years on 16 and 17 October 20243 due to the break after COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 & 2021. Theme and Venue of the event to be announced soon.

AliensFest 4.0 – Ignite the Spark - Gamify Edition

edit

The fourth edition of AliensFest took place on 29 and 30 September 2019 at GITAM (Deemed to be University), Hyderabad. The theme for fourth edition is "Ignite the Spark".

AliensFest 3.0 – The Transformation

edit

The third edition of AliensFest took place on 6 and 7 October 2018, in collaboration with the Technology Business Incubator at BITS Pilani in Hyderabad.[3] The theme for third edition was "The Transformation."

The inaugural function was graced by Jayesh Ranjan, IT Secretary, Govt of Telangana, Prof Sunder Director of BITS Pilani, Hyderabad; Prof Aruna Malapati of TBI (Technology Business Incubator, BITS, Pilani).[4]

This edition of AliensFest have witnessed an attendance of about 5000 students;[5] the team organised 30 techtalks, including for about 25 workshops[5] on various topics covering different streams of engineering. 25 projects were displayed in the Prototype Expo, and students from about 132 colleges across India attended the event.

Speakers at AliensFest 3.0

edit
Speaker Designation Company
Jayesh Ranjan Secretary, Information Technology (IT) Government of Telangana[6]
Sandeep Kumar Srivastava Principal Product Strategy Manager Microsoft India
Lakshmi Abburu Director, Automation Accenture
Tilen Pigac Head of Community OnePlus
Rajendra Nimje Director General Center for Good Governance, Govt. of Telangana
Justice P Naveen Rao Judge High Court, Telangana
Satyarth Priyedarshi Head of Product Marketing JioChat
Ravi Devulapally Vice President SRIX
Balaji Venketeshwar Researcher, Cyber Threat Intelligence
Guruprasad Ramamoorthy Senior Director GTC at S&P Global
Madhusudhan Anand CTO Ambee
Rajat Ojha CEO Gamitronics
Saurav Kaushik Data Scientist Uber
Joy Mustafi Director Salesforce AI
Susurla V S Suresh CTO Startoon Labs
Ranga Rao Karanam Author, Founder in28minutes.com
Dr. S.M. Ahmed Ex Scientist VSSC ISRO
Vineel Reddy Pindi Founder Collab House
Deepak Lalan Director – Blockchain Leader Accenture
GR Reddy Founder Husys
Vishnu Saran Founder Voice Qube
Durga Naveen Kandregula Founder COIGN
Rahul Sachdev Hardware Project Manager rENIAC

TheTechFest 2017 – Awaken the Future

edit

TheTechFest 2017 was based on the theme Awaken the Future, where students were introduced to the various aspects of technology and disruptive thinking.[7] TheTechFest 2017 was powered by CDK Global and in association with Facebook.[8] The emphasis at TheTechFest 2017 was on technology and its applications rather than just engineering know-how. Attendance exceed 3200 participants. Guest speaker Ankur Mehra, Head of Media and Partnerships from Facebook India, spoke about culture and its importance.[9] Over 1600 students attended the twenty-two workshops on various streams of engineering. Twenty projects were displayed in the Project Expo. Students from 96 colleges in India participated in the event.

Speakers at TheTechFest 2017

edit
Speaker Designation Company
Martin J Aichmayr Former general manager – Data Centres IBM Germany[10]
Ankur Mehra[9] Head Media Partnerships Facebook India
Shubhabrata Mohanty Vice President of Engineering CDK Global (India)
Aditee Rele Director – Technical Solutions Microsoft India
Arijit Bhattacharyya Founder & CEO VirtualInfoCom
Abhijith Naraparaju Region Head Blockchain Education Network
Dr. Vikas Kumar Saxena Director DRDO
Vineel Nalla Founder 50K Ventures
Susurla V S Suresh Engineer, author, Inventor, Mentor
Dr. S. M. Ahmed Ex Scientist VSSC ISRO
Amit Sharma Sr Director – Data Science ADP
Ritesh Modi[11] Principal Consultant Infront Consulting
Hitesh Ramani Product Head GrabOn
Surya Medchalam GM R&D Mechanical Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd
Hemanth Satyanarayana CEO Imaginate
Dr. A. Govardhan Principal JNTUHCEH
Amit Kapoor Assoc Director, Digital Marketing Cigniti Technologies

TheTechFest 2016

edit

The first edition of the AliensFest (TheTechFest) was in 2016 which started with the motto of promoting technology among the students and educate them by creating awareness among them to start working on the latest technology and happenings in the corporates and help them in building their own products during their graduation by connecting the technology experts to students and also encourage student startups by providing support.

Around 2600 students from over 30 colleges participated in the first edition of TheTechFest, which included an introduction to Tech Talks, Workshops, and a Project Expo.

Speakers at TheTechFest 2016

edit
Speaker Designation Company
Shri. Konda Vishweshwar Reddy Member of Parliament
Shri. Jayesh Ranjan Secretary, Information Technology (IT) Government of Telangana
Pankaj Diwan Managing Director Idealabs
Aditee Rele Director – Technical Solutions Microsoft India
Ayyappa Nagubandi Founder & CEO Broadcast Wearables Pvt Ltd
Abhay Deshpande Founder & CEO Martjack
Krishna Tungaturthi Segment Head – Airport (Domestic) Larsen & Toubro Limited
Chandra Mouli Koduri Vice President – Product and Technology GrabOn
Naidu Darapaneni Co-founder & C.E.O MeraEvents
Dr. S. M. Ahmed Ex Scientist VSSC ISRO
Sai Venkatesh Founder & managing director Foudroyant Analytics
Vaishali Neotia Co-founder & CEO Merxius
K. K. Senthil Kumar Cinematographer
Anurag Rathor Founder Zify
Aditya Vuchi Founder Zippr
Dr. A. Govardhan Principal JNTUHCEH
Ravi Devulapally Director Numbers Only Informatics Pvt. Ltd.
Umashankar Adi Kotturu CEO & Founder CallAmbulance
Venkat Kumar Tangirala President - India & South East Asia WindStream Technologies Inc
Honey Bajaj Research Assistant MIT Media Lab
GR Reddy Founder & Chief Facilitator Husys Consulting Ltd – India
Prashant Jain Director, Cloud and International Operations CtrlS Datacenters Ltd

References

edit
  1. ^ "JNTU (Hyderabad) to host TechFest on Sept 17, 18". The Hindu. 11 September 2017.
  2. ^ "First Edition Dates". Stumagz. 10 July 2016.
  3. ^ "EngineersHub to host AliensFest from October 6". United News of India. 27 August 2018.
  4. ^ "Future belongs to Entrepreneurship and Start-Up: Jayesh Rajan, Principal Secretary, Govt of TS". 6 October 2018.
  5. ^ a b "AliensFest gets good response". 7 October 2018.
  6. ^ ""Future belongs to Entrepreneurship and Start-Up": Jayesh Rajan, Principal Secretary, Govt of TS". APN News. 6 October 2018.
  7. ^ "Theme Awaken the Future". City Air News. 17 September 2017.
  8. ^ "EngineersHub in association with Facebook and CDK Global to host India's largest Technology Conference in the city". indiaeducationdiary. 10 September 2017.
  9. ^ a b "Facebook still acts like a start-up: Ankur Mehra at 'TheTechFest'". Deccan Chronicle. 18 September 2017.
  10. ^ "City Air News Martin". City Air News. 17 September 2017.
  11. ^ "City Air News". City Air News Ritesh Modi. 17 September 2017.
edit