Solving the Grand Challenges of Humanity

By Prof. Vivek Wadhwa, Distinguished Fellow at Harvard Law School and Carnegie Mellon University’s College of Engineering at Silicon Valley, and author of Your Happiness Was Hacked: Why Tech Is Winning the Battle to Control Your Brain—and How to Fight Back; The Driver in the Driverless Car: How Our Technology Choices Will Create the Future;  The Immigrant Exodus: Why America Is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent; and of Innovating Women: The Changing Face of Technology

 

Introduction: Shri M. Hari Menon, Director, India Office, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Chair: Shri K.N. Shrivastava, Director, IIC

 

Prof. Wadhwa will speak about how tomorrow’s general intelligence and superintelligence, enabled by advancing technologies, are making it possible to solve the grand challenges of humanity – including energy, education, food, health, shelter, and clean water

 

(Collaboration: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, India Office)

 

‘Breathe, You Are Alive’: A Half Day of Mindfulness

With Teachers from Thich Nhat Hanh’s tradition from Plum Village Monastery, France and India

 

The half day seminar/retreat will include talks and Q & A, as also experiential mindfulness practices of breathing, walking eating and deep relaxation. Mindfulness is the energy of being aware of what is happening inside and around us in the present moment that promotes a sense of well-being, decreases stress and enhances inner resilience

 

Facilitator: Shatum Seth, Dharmacharya

 

(Collaboration: Ahimsa Trust)

 

Exploring the Edge of Experimental Creativity

Data Visualization, Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Live-Coding, and Music and Technology

Curated by Shankar Barua and organised in collaboration with Academy of Electronic Arts

 

FROM 14:30 TO 17:30

Presentations by Shankar Barua (shankarbaba.com), multiple media artist, musician and writer who will present an experimental performance; Natasha Singh & Mike CJ – Natasha Singh is Creative Head of Time Blur (timeblur.io), a Digital Experience Studio; and Mike CJ is a technocrat from Bengaluru; Anirudh Gautam, founder of Morph Digital Solutions (getmorph.com), uses technology across AR, VR, Holography, Projection Mapping, IoT and AI; and Soham Sarcar, Co-Founder of Transhuman Collective (transhuman.in), a collaborative multidisciplinary think tank coalescing traditional mediums and new frontier technologies to weave gripping Transmedia stories

 

FROM 18:30 TO 20:30

Presentations by Saurabh Babbar (ikigaiproduction.com), a.k.a. Jimmy Syrup, a self - taught singer/guitarist, Oversoul Sky  is a psytrance project by Sourabh Babbar ; Chintan Kalra (chintankalra.in), internationally acclaimed musician and co-founder of the indie band, Parikrama, and multi-media design & technology expert; Arsh Sharma (https://Inkfi.re/ETWYW&https://youtu.be/T9u3VVoGhWE), multi-faceted Producer, composer arranger and songwriter who has dabbled in a variety of media including television, films and advertising; and Abhinay Khoparzi (khoparzi.com), a multidisciplinary creative technologist who maintains a practice across film, video, music and web technologies; Khoparzi has performed live coded music and visuals with TidalCycles and Hydra at Fat Finger Mayhem (Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai, 2018 and 2019), Algorave Sheffield (UK, 2018), International Conference of Live Coding (Madrid, 2019) etc.

 

Women in Science & Technology in India

 

 

 

Disease Diagnostics and Tissue Engineering: A Chemist’s Perspective

 

Speaker: Dr. Neetu Singh, Associate Professor, Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
Introduction: Ms. Omita Goyal

 

 

 

Among myriad of health issues of global populace today, the problems associated with better means of diagnosis, and repair and regeneration of organs, bones, cartilages, etc. remain a big challenge. The prospect of using nanoscience and nanotechnology as a tool to answer questions arising out of these healthcare issues are exciting and form the basis of this talk. Nanostructures, due to their similar size scale as bio-macromolecules and cellular components, provide an unprecedented opportunity to target and potentially modulate important biological processes. Some of the key nanotechnology based scientific and technological contributions from our laboratory that are impacting disease diagnostics and tissue engineering will be discussed. Briefly, examples illustrating how knowledge of chemical science & nanotechnology has enabled us to develop platform technologies for easy quantification of cell growth and for spatially controlled differentiation of stem cells on a single substrate without addition of any exogenous enhancers will be highlighted. The technologies developed allow detecting diseases faster and achieving complex cell organization as seen in real organs

 

(Collaboration: Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser, Govt. of India; and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi)

Recent Development in Nepal – China Relations: Assessing President Xi Jingping’s Visit

 

Speakers: Ambassador Jayant Prasad, former Indian Ambassador to Nepal and Afghanistan and former Director-General, Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses; Maj. Gen. Rajiv Narayanan, AVSM, VSM (retd.), Distinguished Fellow, United Services Institute of India; and Prof. Srikanth Kondapalli, Chairperson, Centre for East Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

 

 

 

Moderator: Prof. Sangeeta Thapliyal, School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University

 

 

IIC Winter Festival of Dance

 

AT 18:00

Sattriya Recital

By Meenakshi Medhi from Delhi, disciple of the late Guru Adhyapak Jibanjit Dutta and Adhyapak Haricharan Bhuyan Borbayan

 

AT 19:00

Kuchipudi Recital

By Vidhya S.  from Chennai, disciple of Guru Kalaimamani Sailaja

 

 

IIC WINTER FESTIVAL OF MUSIC AND DANCE: 27 AND 28 DECEMBER 2019

 

IIC Winter Festival of Music

 

At 18:00

Rudra Veena Recital

By Sharada Mushti from Delhi, disciple of Pandit Arvind Parikh 

 

AT 19:00

Hindustani Vocal Recital

By  Adarsh Saxena  from Dehradun, disciple of  Pt Arun Bhaduri

 

The Homeland

An exhibition by Moutushi Chakraborty who interrogates the idea of home. What is a ‘Home’? A three dimensional space to seek physical respite and emotional solace perhaps…or maybe an architectural splendor to boast of…a tattered bunker to hide from grenades or bullets…a magical cocoon to build dreams on…

 

On view are works in mixed media on paper

 

Inauguration on Monday, 23 December 2019 at 18:30

 

 

Human Origin, Health and Disease: Contemporary and Ancient DNA Perspectives

Speaker: Prof. K. Thangaraj, Senior Principal Scientist, CSIR - Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad

 

Modern India is a region of remarkable cultural, linguistic and genetic diversity with over 4,500 anthropologically well-defined groups. How did such a huge human diversity arise in India? Genetic studies over a period of two decades unveil the origin, admixture and its implications of the people of Indian subcontinent