eWIT's First Students' Convention 2013 - held at TAG Auditorium,Anna University on Sept 6th,2013

eWIT’s First Students’ Convention 2013 went off fabulously well! To view the photos, please click on this link - eWIT Students Convention 2013 Photos

The day started with all the eager beaver students lining up for registrations from all over Tamil Nadu.

The event themed as “Tomorrow is (Y)ours” drew over 300 women students from various colleges in Chennai and other parts of Tamil Nadu. The full day event enthused the participants with various activities such as Poster Competition, Paper presentation,  panel discussions, etc.

Kalyani Narayanan, President – eWIT and CEO, www.easyinsuranceindia.com said “eWIT, by far is the only forum in India that actively works towards helping women working in the IT/ITES industry. Recently, our focus on enlisting women students by visiting academic institutions across Tamil Nadu has given a wider scope for us to reach the women students who aspire to enter the IT/ITES sector after graduation. The overwhelming response from various colleges has been very encouraging. Having seen the huge response from the student community, we plan to organize such events regularly aimed towards helping women students to equip themselves for a successful career in IT/ITES.”

Ms. Indira Jagan, Exec Committee Member, eWIT & Academic Initiatives, Head, said, “Academic Initiative was started a year ago to better address eWIT’s goal ‘To increase Share & Sustainability of Women in IT’. eWIT would like to contribute positively to the development of  women students : starting from their entry in IT companies and right through their growth to leadership roles. Hence we felt we should start working with the students to increase the Share of women in IT.

The membership response has been good and  15 colleges as members in  just a year. As you can see most of our sponsors are our member colleges. It makes us feel good to see they are seeing value in the eWIT initiative.

For our academic  members we offer 2 programs at their premises and Faculty can attend any of the programs conducted for eWIT corporate members and colleges get networking opportunities with eWIT Corporate Members

We thank our eWIT Corporate Members for taking time to go to the colleges and address them.”

Mr.Ramaraj described interesting anecdotes as to how computing has transformed since he first saw a computer and so many other people along with him were made to do just a Namaste to one single computer – barefoot!  Now, it’s just mobile apps on the go!

He added that it’s not enough to just complete your academic curriculum, but all the more important to widen one’s vision especially with the advent of free online courses from prestigious institutions such as Standford, Harvard and many of the Ivy League Institutions.

Mr. Ramaraj addressing the audience and on stage are Ms. Kalyani Narayanan - President,eWIT, Ms.Indira Jagan and Ms. Jayalakshmi Thirugnanam - Exec Committe Members, eWIT 

The next session was the Power Panel  discussing the topic : ‘ Tomorrow is Yours’. The panel comprised of : Ms.Parvati Karthik, HR, TCS, Mr. Shivram – Director, Deloitte Human Capital services and Ms. Srimathi Shivashankar – Associate VP - Diversity & Sustainability, HCL with Ms. Latha Ramesh moderating the session. Ms. Latha Ramesh is Exec Committee Member – eWIT  and also Vice President, Classle Knowledge Pvt. Ltd.

This panel discussed how it is important to differentiate oneself to reach the top.

 Ms.Parvathi Karthick stressed that  - To be the leader for tomorrow one needs to have the following planning, prioritization, continuous learning, be expressive in writing and speaking as well being physically fit.

Mr. Shivram shared the success secrets of the World’s Most powerful women which are : Have a dream, Be persistent, Have a curiosity to learn, Lead by example, Delegate at Work and at Home, Remain disciplined and to  Be ethical

Ms. Srimathi shared that one must ask for rights and not be cowed down by what others’ say and be ready to explore any opportunity coming your way and retain the same confidence that one has in college right through one’s life!

Panel discussion on the topic : Tomorrow is Yours was followed by the session where the  Paper presentation on the topic : ICT Trends 2020 was discussed by the jury . The jury comprised of the leading lights across the board in the Corporate world such as Mr. Ramakrishnan, Senior Director, Testing Solutions,CSS Corp Pvt. Ltd.,Mr.K Anantharaman,Vice President,Classle Knowledge Pvt. Ltd. And Ms. Aparna Ramalingam, Senior Correspondent, Times of India

Over 50 papers were screened with 10 shortlisted for oral presentations and 3 were chosen as winners.

The papers explored various areas within the topic of ICT Trends 2020 and some were as varied as Green Computing to using technology for a mobile ambulance to using technology and enabling specially abled people use their prosthetic limb better.

The jury was happy see such innovative explorations by the students especially in an age where Technology is disruptive and Innovation is the name of the game. The jury stressed on the importance of taking the last semester project seriously as many large organisations such as Amazon provide offers to teams which work on live projects.

The winning team also showcased their ideas to the audience with a presentation.

An elaborate lunch spread was underway with all the students tucking in to their fill.

Lunch was followed by the panel discussion : Your Questions Answered. This session was planned to give an opportunity to the students to voice their thoughts and have their questions regarding working in an IT/ITES organization answered.

The panel comprised of representative from various organisations as well as the student community.  The panel was chaired by Ms.Namagiri Ramesh - Delivery Manager - Tech Mahindra & Joint Secretary - eWIT . The session was moderated by  Ms.Smita Venkataraman - Associate Director, Branding and Communications – AGS Health. The panel members from the Industry were : Ms. Vanipriya Jayaraman - MD – Director, Proyojana, Ms. Anusha Domnic - Manager, IT Security – Sundaram Clayton Limited, Ms.Suma Mathai - Sanpra Infotech Pvt Ltd., Sr. Manager – HR & Admin and Ms. M. Swetha Durga - Sales and Training Executive – Phaeros IT India Pvt. Ltd.

Some of the questions that were asked were :  What is expected from an Intern and as to how one manages to procure an internship from a Tier II college in Tamil Nadu. What it takes to be an entrepreneur especially in times of recession.

The panel answered the questions with a good dose of humor and also advising the students to have a fire in the belly to succeed and not wait for opportunities to land on their, rather to look for opportunities and strive to reach them. The key takeaway for the students was that : It is important to work for experiences and not for a salary!

Get Inspired was a session where as a part of eWIT’s initiative to help the students aspire and achieve beyond their limitations,a young woman achiever was selected to talk to them.

Ms. Sridevi Raghavan, CEO, Amelio Child Care Pvt. Ltd. shared her journey where she spoke about balancing her passion and talents along with details of setting up an organization. Her talk was very inspiring where she spoke as to what it takes to be a young achiever like her.

Some of the key points that were shared by her were: Don’t shy away from dreaming big! , Opportunity comes disguised as Hard Work and one will never have the right answers all the time

The highlight of the day was the Poster Competition on the topic : Gadgets for communication in 2020

More than 30 teams from colleges all over Tamil Nadu presented their posters on the topic.

The posters were evaluated by noted professionals in the Mobile communications space such as Mr.Cletus Pinto, Head of Product Engineering, Nokia India Pvt. Ltd.and Mr. Nandakumar - an experienced International Telecommunications expert and Dr.R.Gokulakrishnan – Deputy Director,STPI

The students presented their imaginative ideas for the Gadget that they plan to build. They presented to us a world of gadgets where communication to a person’s brain is possible by just transmitting our thoughts through a network! Other noteworthy gadgets were a Magic Chip which could achieve many things, a Finger phone where one could communicate using just their fingers as well as a gadget for tracking soldiers!

The day has turned to be the most memorable & fun filled moment for the participants and many of them felt wanting many such events in future that are informative & interesting from eWIT.

We thank all the Sponsors for making this event a success

Meet the Poster Jury for Topic - Gadgets for Communication in 2020

 
Meet the Poster Competition Jury for the Topic : Gadgets for Communication in 2020
 

Dr. R. Gokulakrishnan, Deputy Director/Scientist, Software Technology Parks of India
Dr.R.Gokulakrishnan MCA, M.Phil, MBA(Systems), Ph.D (Computer Science& Engineering) was appointed as Deputy Director of the Software Technology Parks of India, Department of Electronics and Information Technology., Government of India in August 2008.
He has worked for seven years on education in affiliated Colleges (JJ College of Arts and Science) in the role of higher education. Prior to the government and College service, he worked as a software developer and used PowerBuilder PFC (GUI)/Sybase for application development in M/s.Boston Management Services private Limited, Mumbai.
His special fields of interest are Datamining , Networking and the application of green computing.
He has been a member of the technical program committees for more than 20 International conferences. He has been a general chair, technical chair and session chair for more than 30 International conferences. Dr.R.Gokulakrishnan has more than 40 conference papers and book chapters. Dr.R.Gokulakrishnan is a member of IEEE education society.
His proceedings indexed by ulrich’s periodicals Directory, google scholar, EBSCO, proquest and world cat. Apart from his core area, during his college tenure, he was selected from Tamilnadu as a Heavy weight category “National weight lifter” and also succeeded in many state and national level chess tournament and gained FIDE chess rating.


Mr.Cletus Pinto
Mr. Cletus Pinto, Head of Product Engineering, Nokia India Pvt. Ltd.
Mr. Pinto has over 18 years’ of experience in Telecommunication & Power electronics industries in engineering stream.
Currently associated with Nokia for the past 8 years leading the New Product Introduction & Product Engineering department at Chennai manufacturing facility which is the key interface between the R&D and Manufacturing

Mr.G.Nandakumar, Senior Professional Leader - Mobile Communications 
Nandu - G Nandakumar is a Telecommunications IT professional who has worked with large European Telcos for over 12 years and within the IT industry for over 25 years.
He directs Strategic IT Architecture and CRM programmes and is a keen advocate of Customer Value and Relationship Management. He is a graduate of IIT Bombay and of Henley Business School in the UK, where he resides currently.

Meet your Chief Guest - Mr.Ramaraj

eWIT Students' Convention 2013 is proud to have Mr. Ramaraj as the Chief Guest who will deliver the Key Note Address

R Ramaraj is a serial entrepreneur who has been involved in ventures in IT cellular and Internet. His last venture was Sify, where he was the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, and was the first Indian Internet Company from India to list on NASDAQ National Market in the US (NASDAQ –SIFY).

He was recognized as the ‘Evangelist of the Year’ at the India Internet World Convention in September 2000 and was also voted the IT Person of the year 2000. 

Currently he is the Senior Advisor at Sequoia Capital. He is also associated with a couple of funds focusing in the social sector. He is a Member of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

He is on the board of Olympic Gold Quest (OGQ) a Not for Profit organization. OGQ is committed to bridging the gap between the best athletes in India and the best athletes in the world thus helping Indian athletes to win Olympic Gold medals. He is the Co-Founder and Director of Coaching Foundation of India, an organization that trains and certifies CEO Coaches.

He is the first Indian to be invited to the Board of Directors of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) where he served for 6 years as an Independent Director. He was a member of the Global Board of Trustees of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs).

In 2010, The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) recognized him with a Life Time Achievement Award for nurturing the Spirit of Entrepreneurship and inspiring and mentoring numerous entrepreneurs.

He worked in Johnson & Johnson in Sales & Marketing for over 7 years and subsequently co-founded Computer Point & Microland.

R.Ramaraj holds a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering from the University of Madras and a M.B.A. from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta

eWIT Students Convention 2013

Empowering Women in IT cordially invites you for its Student Convention 2013 The Theme for this Year Tomorrow is (Y)ours Date: Friday, 6th September 2013 Time: 8.30am - 5pm Venue: Tag Auditorium, Anna University , Chennai Program Registration Inauguration Key Note Address by Chief Guest Panel Discussion - Tomorrow Is Yours About Paper contest & Winners talk Your Questions Answered Get Inspired Announcement of Prize winners for poster competition Valedictory & Prize Distribution Vote of Thanks For latest updates of the event: Check -  http://ewitstudentsconvention.blogspot.in.  Click here for program details Event Sponsors Registration Fee 1. Members: Free with allotted seats. eWIT admin will confirm the registration with no. of seats allotted to Members 2. Non-Members: A registration fee of Rs.200/- is applicable to each person / student

No. 6, Kalakshetra Avenue , 2nd Street , Tiruvanmiyur, Chennai - 600 041, INDIA . Ph - 42120706 website : http://www.ewit.co.in/

Get Inspired - by Sridevi Raghavan, CEO - Amelio

GET INSPIRED - Speaker 

Sridevi Raghavan - CEO, Amelio

Sridevi Raghavan is co-founder and CEO of Amelio Child Care Pvt. Ltd. Sridevi returned to India upon her graduation with an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2008 to start Amelio along with her husband Raghavan.

Sridevi has a diverse work experience which enriched her exposure and thinking along businesses in India. Sridevi started her career in advertising with Ogilvy and Mather, and was part of the brand building of several national brands such as Brooke Bond Red Label, Club Mahindra Holidays and Reynolds. Thereafter, Sridevi shifted trajectory, and worked in a few non-profits such as CRY and CARE in India before her MBA.

Sridevi worked on the idea of creating daycares within Companies during her MBA at Harvard, and enrolled in the Business Plan Contest with her idea. Her idea greatly appealed to  a few HBS Alumni who are PE Investors in the United States, and with PE funding, she decided to return to India to start Amelio.

Today Amelio has seven centres across Chennai, most of which have been created in partnership with Companies and Institutions. Amelio is proud to be associated with leaders in various Industry leaders such as the Mahindra Group, Hiranandhani, HCL, Accenture and Arun Excello to name a few. Amelio plans to operate over 10 centers in Chennai by August 2013, and expand pan-India shortly afterward, through the owned and operated route.  Amelio has created a well-planned and researched early education curriculum and has the honor of having India’s best minds in early education on their advisory board. Amelio has been recognized by NASSCOM as a futuristic and international daycare provider, and Amelio has presented their study on the daycare market in India during the NASSCOM Gender Inclusivity Summit in Bangalore in December 2009.

Amelio was a finalist at the Business World Hottest Young Entrepreneurs feature in March 2013. In December 2012, Sridevi won the TiECon Chennai Award for entrepreneurship in recognition of the contribution of Amelio to the working women of Chennai. Sridevi is also the recipient of the Woman of the Year award for 2013 accorded by FICCI FLO.

A trained Bharatanatyam dancer,  Sridevi has performed in various cities in India and abroad. Sridevi also greatly enjoys travelling and reading.

MEET YOUR PROFESSIONAL PANEL - 'YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED' - contd.

Panelist

M. SWETHA DURGA   

Sales and Training Executive - Phaeros IT India Pvt. Ltd.

Swetha holds a BE degree from Meenakshi Sundararajan Engineering College, Anna University and has also completed her B2 level in French from the Alliance Francaise.

At present she works as a Sales and Training Executive at Phaeros IT India Pvt. Ltd. where she provides Software training to customers apart from a significant role in improving sales.

Before Phaeros, she had worked with Keane India as a software engineer, Allsec Technologies and IT Kids.

Swetha is a very dynamic person who is highly skilled in personal relationships. She has excellent verbal and written communication skills in French as well as English and has a passion for learning.

She is happily married and has one child whom she dotes on.

MEET YOUR PROFESSIONAL PANEL - 'YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED' - contd.

Panelist

SUMA MATHAI 

Sr. Manager – HR & Admin – Sanpra Infotech Pvt. Ltd.

Suma holds an MBA in Human Resource & Marketing from the Institute for Technology and Management, affiliated to New Hampshire University, USA and holds the distinction of being a Gold Medalist Winner for Best Outgoing Student of that batch.

She has rich experience in Strategic HRM, Recruitment, Resourcing & Development, Performance Management, Training, Compensation & Benefits, Welfare, Employee Engagement and general administration with well-known organizations.

She played a key role in devising and implementing strategies that streamlined employee performance and organizational deliverables fostered an environment for increased business and reduced operational costs.

Suma is a thorough professional who has enjoyed success in implementing new HR techniques as an effective Change agent.

Before Sanpra Infotech, she had worked with Extel Consulting, Chennai, Synova Innovative Technologies Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore, Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd., Puducherry, Melstar Information Technologies Ltd, Chennai, CoreTech Infosystems, Chennai

MEET YOUR PROFESSIONAL PANEL - 'YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED' - contd.

Panelist

VANIPRIYA JAYARAMAN

 Managing Partner & Director, Proyojana

Vanipriya Jayaraman is the Managing Partner & Director of Proyojana Business Consulting Private Limited, a product and SaaS start-up co-founded by herself.  She has experience in product development, process re-engineering and developing web & mobile strategies for enterprises , and of building ground-up applications for multiple industries like Media, Publishing, Financial Services, Engineering, Education etc. across functional domains like HR, Finance, Operations, etc.

Prior to starting Proyojana she worked as the Head – Technology / R&D with the US-based technology media company Arden Media and handled the all technology initiatives for the products Telecomcareers.com, RCRWireless.com.

She had worked in the Murugappa Group ITES company - Laserwords as a Product Manager for the Mobile / Web Products team and also headed the pre-sales team prior to Arden.

With a master’s degree in Computer Applications and  Bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and visual communication coupled with a keen business and functional acumen, she covers and front-ends all of Proyojana’s product initiatives in terms of technology architecture as well as the application’s UI/ UX. Vanipriya has also consulted various global companies to improve their web presence, and sales/marketing strategies. 

She takes special interest in interacting with students and ensuring the right training programs are provided to under privileged students and students in rural areas to make them employable in the IT industry. She is a regular in conducting seminars and guest lectures across various engineering colleges across the state. 

Recently Vanipriya was selected as one of the women entrepreneurs in India for a Business Education programme sponsored by Goldman-Sachs and conducted by ISB. 

Away from work, Vanipriya is also a classical Carnatic musician having performed at numerous venues in the city. 

MEET YOUR PROFESSIONAL PANEL - 'YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED' - contd.

Panelist 

ANUSHA DOMNIC

Manager, IT Security – Sundaram Clayton Limited

Anusha has over 14 years of IT experience in the areas of support, messaging platform, security, infrastructure management and networking.

She is a graduate in Electronics and Electrical Communication engineering from TCE, Madurai and holds multiple IT certifications from the US and India.

She started her career in Harita Infoserve Limited, TVS IT Company and then moved to various group companies within TVS.

Now she is with Sundaram Clayton Limited, Automotive production division as Manager – IT Security.

She is currently heading to manage group companies across India with 99.99% up time and to strengthen the security at all levels.

Anusha is a happy mother of an eight year old daughter and strength and backbone is her husband.

She likes traveling and trying out new dishes.

MEET YOUR PROFESSIONAL PANEL - 'YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED' - contd.

The Chair

NAMAGIRI RAMESH

Delivery Manager - Tech Mahindra.

Joint Secretary - eWIT

Namagiri Ramesh is a Post Graduate Engineer with 23 years of experience in the field of IT, primarily in the areas of delivery, operations, management, process and technical consulting. Experienced in product and services areas.

She has varied domain expertise such as BFSI, Manufacturing, Pharma, Telecom, Retail and TTL.

She has been an integral part of Change Management initiatives across the organization, including aspects of Mergers & Acquisitions.

She has been an Assessment Team Leader for CMMi reviews and a third party Quality Auditor for external organizations.

She has acted as visiting faculty for external institutions on soft skills as well as technology areas.

She headed resource management and SEPG functions and also served organizations of varied sizes from entrepreneurship to multi billion dollars.

She has presented papers in international conferences.

Currently she is heading the Testing Practice for Australia and New Zealand, Middle East, Africa and APAC regions in TechMahindra.

She is an accomplished performing vocal artist (Classical Music) and has specialized in thematic programs - published CDs and books.

She is also an executive committee member in a few musical organizations.

MEET YOUR PROFESSIONAL PANEL - 'YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED'

The Moderator

 SMITA VENKATARAMAN

Associate Director, Branding and Communications - AGS Health

Smita has over 13 years of HR leadership experience across BPO, KPO, Retail, Finance and Consulting sectors spanning recruitment, business partnering, talent management, branding and leadership development.

A graduate in English Literature, she holds post graduate qualifications in marketing and in general management from IIM Bangalore with numerous professional certifications from the US and UK.

She has worked in a range of senior leadership roles across companies such as Ajuba Solutions, McKinsey & Company, Tesco and RR Donnelley before joining AGS Health, where she is the Associate Director for Branding and Communications.

An avid reader and writer, Smita has also published articles in international journals and is a well-known speaker in colleges and corporates.

A happy mother of a three year old daughter, who she counts as her biggest motivator, she enjoys political thriller movies, writing fantasy fiction, traveling and gourmet food.

Block your Calendar for eWIT Students' Convention 2013

eWIT requests you to   Block Your Calendar for eWIT Student Convention – 2013 Theme : “Tomorrow Is (Y)ours” to be held on Friday, September 6, 2013 from 8 am to 5 pm at Tag Auditorium, Anna University, Guindy, Chennai 600032

STUDENTS' CONVENTION 2013 - TOMORROW IS (Y)OURS

'YOUR QUESTIONS ANSWERED' -  A QUICK PREVIEW

The session titled 'Your Questions Answered' would be conducted during the Students' Convention 2013, where there would be about 10 student representatives from colleges sitting on one side of the stage and 5-7 women managers representing Manufacturing, IT, ITES companies etc. on the other side.  

You, the students can ask a volley of questions about the industry, work and career.  The questions may be anything related to discrimination, performance evaluation, safety at workplace, type of jobs, handling bosses, gossip at work, timings, work ethic, work culture, discipline, etiquette etc.  

For the questions raised by students, the experienced young managers will answer the questions based on their experiences.

The women Managers will be able to spend time with you on the stage as well as off stage.

The criteria (for Student Representatives):

-            Preferably final year students

-            Must be able to articulate well

-            Must also be able to represent all relevant questions from their respective colleges

-            Fluency in English / Tamil

Represent your college by asking the right questions.

You could also send in your queries in advance.

Please input your questions in the form : Your Questions answered (click on this link)

Hope to see you all at the Convention on September 6^th at the TAG Auditorium, Anna University, Guindy, Chennai.

eWIT (Empowering Women in IT) presents the first Students' Convention – Tomorrow is (Y)ours

eWIT is proud to announce that it is conducting the first eWIT Students' Convention this year on September 6th at the TAG Auditorium in Anna University, Guindy, Chennai.

The Theme - Tomorrow is (Y)ours

It is a whole day event for women students from various colleges in Chennai and Tamil Nadu.

About eWIT eWIT (‘Empowering Women in IT/ITES’), is a professional forum for women in IT/ITES which was founded in 2006.  It was founded by senior women professionals from the IT/ITES industry with the objective to help the women to sustain and succeed in the industry. In order to achieve our objective, eWIT conducts various events that brings together the women from the industry for sharing their knowledge, network, and learn from like minded women from across the industry. Annual Student Convention Recently, our focus on helping the women students who are planning to enter into the IT/ITES industry has increased the academic institution membership by 300%.   Senior women of the forum are visiting the member colleges throughout Tamil Nadu and addressing the women students on various subjects and topics. This is the first year we are attempting to bring together women students from various colleges in Chennai as well as from other parts of Tamil Nadu including Kovai, Tiruchy, Madurai, Kanyakumari, Salem, Erode, Namakkal, and Sivakasi - both member colleges as well as non-member colleges. This whole day will be packed with various events that are both interesting and interactive.  Senior women professionals from different industries would be here to interact with you.  eWIT members from the companies would be at the venue for your students to connect with and make contacts. We are confident that the students who attend this program would have valuable takeaways which would greatly help them to succeed in their career.  Don’t Miss This Rare Opportunity – We will inform you with registration process soon. Get Ready To Learn and Have Fun!! Program Registration & Networking Invocation, Lighting the lamp Welcome address Key note address eWIT presentation Introduction to Student Initiative Power Panel  - Tomorrow is (Y)ours About paper contest & Paper Winners’ Presentation Your Questions Answered Get Inspired Announcement of Prize winners for Poster Competition Valedictory & Prize Distribution Vote of Thanks Please email admin@ewit.co.in or simply call Bhuvana at 044-42120706 for more information.