IEEE Women in Engineering Kharagpur Section, India organized WIE track "WIE @ 2016 TechSym" at 2016 IEEE Students' Technology Symposium on Friday, 30 September 2016. The event started with a heart-warming video message from R10 WIE Coordinator Dr. Celia Shahnaz. An insightful Keynote Talk, a challenging 3-minute "Talk-it-Up" challenge for female authors and an interactive Panel Discussion garnered healthy participation from TechSym attendees.
Keynote Talk: The speaker for this segment Dr. Uday Shankar, Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, IIT Kharagpur gave a beautiful and insightful keynote talk on "Women Empowerment". He interacted with attendees too and answered their queries. In his talk Dr. Uday touched upon the importance of gender-neutral perspective towards Women empowerment. He highlighted rights, laws and policies made for Women Empowerment.
Talk-it-Up: The 3 minute "Talk-it-Up" challenge was introduced for the first time in the history of IEEE WIE AG KGP activities, Kharagpur. The challenge was to give a scintillating 3 minutes talk either on the work presented in the Symposium or on the research domain in which the participants work. The objective was to impress the intellectual lay audience. The contest was meant only for female TechSym participants. Eight participants faced the challenge. Best of the three won. The winners walked away with cash prizes (First prize of 3000.00 INR went to Manjula Raja, Subhasmita Sahoo won second prize of 2000.00 INR, and third prize of 1000.00 INR went to Yogita Nafde) and certificates along with WIE goodies. The event was judged by Dr. Alok Kanti Deb, 2016 Chair, IEEE Kharagpur Section and Dr. Karabi Biswas, Electrical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur.
Panel Discussion: A Panel discussion on the topic "Women: A Journey to Becoming a Frontrunner" was held. The Panelist consisted a mix of top notch senior academicians Dr. Sushmita Mitra, IEEE Fellow, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata and Dr. Sudeshna Sarkar, HoD, Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, young and dynamic Dr. Chetna Singhal, Electrical and Electronics Communication Engineering, IIT Kharagpur and Working Moms on leave Mrs. Shriya Khare and Mrs. Sharmila Lakkaraju. Several points were raised during the session. Participants shared their views and commented on certain issues which made the discussion session intriguing.