The IEEE Robotics and Automation Student Chapter of PES University, in association with cRAIS (Centre for Robotics Automation and Intelligent Systems), has established ‘ReRo Lab’- India’s first 24/7 remote robotics lab by an educational institution. It offers students and researchers remote access to real robots, allowing users to upload code and perform tests in a safe, controlled environment. The lab is equipped with the latest hardware and software required for remote programming, and a web platform that provides clear visual representation of the robot's movements and actions during the programming process.

Prof. D. Jawahar, Pro-Chancellor, PES University, inaugurated the lab on March 27, 2023. Prof. D. Jawahar in his address praised the efforts of the student and faculty team in establishing the lab and suggested developing the lab to global standards. He extended support and motivated the team to make the most out of the funding and all necessary resources provided by the university. He spoke about opening the lab to school students for learning. The stage was a space for conversations on potential opportunities and collaborations.

Dr. Amit Kumar Pandey, Chief Robotics and AI Officer at Rovial and ex-President, CTO, Chief Science Officer at Hanson Robotics, attended the event virtually. The live demo of the fully functional lab was showcased to everyone.

In the recent event at Bangalore Tech Summit, one of the most reputed tech expos globally, PESU Venture Labs entrepreneurs demystified student entrepreneurship by sharing their journey and experience of becoming an entrepreneur and building a venture.

Pallavi Gopinath of Fond, Abhilash Madabhushi of Consuma, Yousha Mahamuni of Physi.fit, Ananya Mungara of Smart Chakra, Akshay SP of Zeru, Hritin Kedage of Assert, and Ajay Hegde of Greenifly participated in a panel discussion to share their experiences, learnings, and why they wanted to become entrepreneurs in the first place.

The audience was very impressed with the knowledge and passion these young entrepreneurs demonstrated. While each entrepreneur spoke about the problem they are trying to solve and how they are doing it, they also spoke about the immense opportunities present for student entrepreneurship and how pursuing entrepreneurship has positively impacted them. The event saw an extremely positive response from the startup community, academic circles, VC community and was powered by Karnataka Digital Economy Mission (KDEM)

Earlier in the day, Suresh Narasimha, Managing partner of PESU Venture Labs and Cocreate Ventures spoke about the need to promote student entrepreneurship, especially in the higher education system in a fireside chat with Suresh B and Prof S Sadagopan. He spoke about how starting entrepreneurship early and the learnings from it is unmatchable. Even if the startup doesn’t succeed, the growth and experience from the startup journey add immensely to the entrepreneur. He highlighted the importance of entrepreneurial thinking in each and every person regardless of whether they are going to be an entrepreneur.

PESU Venture Labs has been on a pursuit to help bright students pursue their ideas and build them to scale and promote student entrepreneurship. There are many startups that have successfully reached the market and are generating revenue.

Business management software makes business owners efficient and empowered that enables them to focus on what matters most to their business. Ms. Aishwarya D, the guest speaker, gave an overview of a leading business software package called Tally and talked about its importance. She described the many industries in which the Tally Software might be applied and related it to the lessons being taught to help the students better comprehend the idea behind the software. She concluded the session by encouraging the students to utilize and test the software solution to understand better. Guest Lecture on Tally Software was organized by the department of BBA on November 10, 2022 at the RR campus.

The team of K S Ramalakshmi, Kingshuk Karmakar, Krishna Bajaj and Kumar Abhimanyu bagged the first place with a cash prize of Rs 50,000 in the Microsoft Future Ready Applications Hackathon. Their entry, built and deployed using Microsoft Azure, was a product focussed on sustainability helping farmers in weed detection and crop recommendation in a given piece of land.

The hackathon aimed at coming up with solutions for the healthcare sector that strengthen coordination across health care institutions leading to robust ecosystem, enable forecasting of communicable diseases and identification of hotspots utilizing various vector indices, provide health related information through eHealth portal using AI based chat system, make aware-help-act to handle mental health issues, realize off the shelf distribution for medicines, relieve stress and fight deep procrastination. Dr. Surya Prasad J, Vice Chancellor, Dr. Sridhar K. S, Registrar and Dr. Krishna V, Dean Student Affairs inaugurated the event. Prof. Sathya Prasad and Vijendra Kumar judged the top three teams based on innovativeness, feasibility, creativity and future scope.

First prize was won by team HackMeIfYouCan of Sahana Parasuram, Adeeba Saher, Bhuvan Vijay Kumar and Saransh Mehta. The second prize was won by Team.sol of Rohan Goud, Anusha Naik, Rohan Kumar, Sarvesh Sudhan and third prize went to team PotatoPower by Swapnil Nair, Shashank Varma, Shreyas Kaundinya and Gagan P. Thirty four teams from RR and EC campuses participated in the 24-hour Health Hackathon organized by Club Weal of PESU in association with Devfolio on September 16-17, 2022 at RR campus.

Equinox- The Space Club of PES University organised an Educational Trip to the 7th Edition of BSX 2022, organised in association with ISRO, Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACE), and New Space India Limited (NSIL) on September 6, 2022, at BIEC in Bengaluru, India.

The trip was a success under the guidance of Prof. Jayasimha. The exhibition has over 100+ countries showcasing advanced technologies and products for the space sector, in an exclusive hall. It also provided an ideal platform for Indian and International space agencies and companies in this sector, to showcase their strength & capabilities in the space arena; network and explore opportunities for partnerships.

It provided a great opportunity for the space enthusiasts of our university to learn more and get more exposure from this event. 

We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Krishna V, Dean of student affairs, Prof. Jayasimha and our mentor Dr. Manikandan to provide the students with this wonderful opportunity to visit BIEC and making this event a successful one.

The aero design Team Avions, students of 7^thsem Siddhant Baroth, Rahul C, and Mallika Sirdeshpande, under the guidance of Dr. S V Satish - bagged 1st place in overall performance under the Micro Class at the SAEISS Aero - Design competition, which saw over 60 universities from across the country participate in the final round which was held between the of September 1 and 3 at SRMIST, Chennai. 

Following the win across all 3 rounds I.e., Technical Inspection, Technical Presentation, and Flight Round - the Panel of Judges lauded the contribution of the student team at PES University’s EC Campus while also acknowledging the efforts of all participating universities for upholding the academic and industrial sophistication, the UAV design event has cultivated the years. The team acknowledged PESU Management for its constant support and encouragement.

Prof. M R Doreswamy Chancellor of the PES University heartily congratulated on the Achievement.

LinkedIn Workshop was conducted on July 31, 2022. The session helped the students to understand and use LinkedIn as a professional platform. The session also helped LinkedIn users (existing and new) to set up and professionally structure their accounts in order to leverage the opportunities provided by the platform (LinkedIn) in finding jobs, networking with users worldwide, sharing posts, etc. Around 300+ students registered for the workshop.

The speaker, Mr. Chetan Umapathy guided the students on how to develop an ideal LinkedIn profile. From making our LinkedIn profile attractive to forming connections and using the platform to provide us with what we seek, the workshop was really enriching and informative. With around 150 participants, this workshop was successful and helped in clearing all our doubts regarding LinkedIn. The participants were interactive throughout the session.

The Bootstrap session featured interactions on technical, social responsibility and personality development topics. Dr. Keshavan B K, Dean Engineering, Guest of Honour gave the welcome speech and advised the students to work on inter-disciplinary projects. Dr. K S Sridhar, Registrar, PESU and Dean, Placements presided over the function. He advised the students to consider their inception as a countdown and not the beginning of making a great career. Dr. Veena S, Chairperson, Dept. of Computer Applications, briefed about the 3-day Bootstrap activity. Prof. CNR Rao Scholarships and Prof. MRD Scholarships were awarded to the program toppers of the MCA 2020. Mr. Manish Singh, Founder and CEO, Innovators Bay Technologies, alumnus of PES and chief guest of the event spoke about the technology trends and how the curriculum would help the freshers in making a better career. He also stressed upon innovation and at the same time, pursuing one’s hobbies. The event was followed by bridge course on computer fundamentals conducted by Mr. Santosh Katti, Asst. Prof., Dept. of Computer Applications which covered simple logic building skills, Algorithms and Flowcharts. It was followed by session on Academic Excellence – Motivation to Success, by a professional trainer Mr. Pramod Nataraj, from Disha, a NGO that provides training to students and faculty. He illustrated experimenting with truth. The sessions included Time Management, Stress Management, physical activities and interactions leading to academic excellence and motivational thoughts. The second day of the Bootstrap event included a bridge-course on Data- Structures using C, by Dr. Lekha, Assoc. Prof., Dept. of Computer Applications. It was followed by a visit to an Ashram, Sawan Durbar, off Uttarahalli-Kengeri Road, Bengaluru. The inmates of the Ashram conducted a session on Values of life and demonstrated the concept of service. A group of students were made to till the land for harvesting the rain water and plantation. Another group of students assisted construction of the road using mud and jelly stones. Another group of students cemented the water leakages in the water passages. The students were introduced to honey bee cultivation and the honey extraction process. A workshop on building and hosting online resume was conducted by senior students Mr. Atishay Jain, Ms. Soundarya J and Mr. Tushar Ankit. The students were introduced to web hosting technologies and WordPress. The third day of the Bootstrap activity started with bridge-courses on Data Structures using C, conducted by Dr. Lekha and Introduction to Operating Systems”, by Dr. Thenmozhi, Assoc. Prof., Dept. of Computer Applications. The motivational session Mr. Veerendra R. Sachin, a Corporate Trainer Beyond all limits touched upon preparation for placements and confidence building. He also spoke about ethics during interviews, Team and Time Management and Dreaming big. In conclusion he said, “thinking out of the box and hard work, can make anyone an entrepreneur”. Students, Mr. Siddharth and Ms. Suhruta conducted an IT- Quiz on Kahoot platform. Mr. Parikshit and Mr.Pallav conducted a workshop on Computer Hardware assembly and laptop upgrading challenges. The Department of Computer Applications organised the Bootstrap program for the fresh batch of students of MCA program on November 25, 2021.

The theme of the 27 hour long overnight hackathon was Open Innovation, which challenged the participants to select a problem across any domain and devise an efficient solution. In the ideation phase, participants submitted the problem statement and proposed solution. After rigorous review of all submissions, 25 teams were selected to proceed to the hacking phase in the offline mode. The opening session featured Mr. Suresh Narasimha, alumnus of PES and Director of JustBooks, talking on the growing importance of entrepreneurship in colleges and higher educational institutions. Mr. Kiran of Covalense Digital touched upon the technological advances and the expectation from students to continuously adapt to the dynamic infrastructure. At the end of the first day participants had built the basic models and prototypes or gained a strong understanding of their product. The evaluation before the shortlisting of teams for finals was conducted on the second day. The judges interacted with the teams and shared insights related to the solution they were building. The six finalists were given the opportunity to pitch their ideas after an hour of preparation to the panel of judges. The top spot was clinched by HackStreet Boys who came up with a solution for overcrowding in common areas of colleges especially during the breaks. The Repeaters proposed a Blockchain based voting system to win the second spot. The Roots presented a solution for helping people suffering from dementia and won the third spot. The panel of judges comprised of Mr Venkata Nagaraju, member of the Covalense Digital Team, Mrs. Padmalatha Giridhar of IGS, Mr. Akshay Kumar of Marsview Inc, Mr. Pranav Sathish of Webknot Technologies, and Mr. Madhukar Narasimha of CIE in PES University. Hackloop 2021, the flagship event of the C.O.D.S. Community was held at RR campus on October 16-17, 2021.

The competitive programming contest, organized by CP club on Codechef/Hackerreank platform on September 26, 2021 was won by Manzood Naqvi followed by Aryan V S and Mukund Dubey.

The Lensopedia ’21 event exposed the participants to AR technology and how to make AR filters in Snapchat. Although primarily a multimedia messaging app, the app’s famous feature is its filters. From animations to a variety of facial effects, Snapchat’s filters are widely used. The students submitted filters they had created and the winners included Anupama K Patil as the Best Overall, Joyen Benitto for Best Creativity and Harshit Jain as Public Favourite. Lensopedia ‘21 was organized by Parallax club of EC campus from September 17-19, 2021.

Game of Knowledge contest was won by Rakesh C Sarode and Sushmitha G. Sneha A and Varshini K were first runner-up followed by Deepika H Y and Esha G. The quiz competition was organized by Kauthiki club of HN campus on September 6, 2021. 

The online symposium highlighted the efforts and success of the Indian entrepreneurs in using digital technology to overcome problems unique to our country with innovative solutions. Dr. Mohandas Pai spoke on India as a nation of start-ups and painted the picture of the large canvas of opportunities that await entrepreneurial minds due to the rapid evolution of technology and the thriving start-up ecosystem that is being built in India for which Bangalore is the hub of activity. Aprameya Radhakrishna, spoke about Koo’s launch and its growth amidst the pandemic and the importance of the role that Indian regional languages have to play in the penetration of digital technologies. Vivekananda Hallekere, talked about how Bounce a dockless self-drive scooter service uses a patented keyless technology that lets a user pick up the nearest Bounce scooter and drop it off at any legal parking zone near their destination. Dr. M R Doreswamy, chancellor, PES University stressed that students must be encouraged to go beyond academics and explore the depth, dimension and opportunities that future technologies hold for their career advancement. The on-line symposium was organized as a part of the course on Digital Transformation by the students of the Department of Management Studies, MBA Program on Aug 14, 2021.

Digitorama brought forth interesting stories of digital transformations by industry practitioners. Mr Meka Venkata Chalapathy of senior director at Virtusa Consulting explained how the ease of doing business has vastly improved in India and technologies like machine learning are benefiting the common man. Mr. Arun Kumar, Director at Wizr Wealth Pvt. Ltd and alumni outlined the trends in the field of finance and the skills needed to convert the challenges into opportunities. Ms Priyanka M B co-founder, of Inspiron Psychological Well Being Center observed that making conscious effort to introspect, experiment and seek feedback can enable us to learn new skills. The session ended with a panel discussion on insurance claim rates and risk analysis in pandemic and post pandemic days, difference between psychiatry and psychology, financial investments in India and technology intervention in these service experiences of customers. Mr Arvind Giri, Director, MBA Program set the tone for the session by pointing out that customer experience is the driving force behind digitalization and India’s future as technology powhouse. Digitorama, on-line symposium on digital transformation was organized by the students of MBA program on July 31, 2021.

The 15 day online mentorship program was aimed at teaching the fundamentals of AI and building a strong community of students to fight the atrocities against women and create a safe place for everyone in society through the means of AI. The programme consisted of 100+ mentees guided by 7 student mentors ensuring a fun and knowledge-filled learning experience with hands-on tasks and projects. Mentor-mentee group communicated through a WhatsApp group supervised by the organising team. The mentors were also given a GitHub repository link for their mentees to upload the code and any other tasks and assignments through the course of the next two weeks. The mentees set up their environments based on Anaconda, Tensorflow, and Keras. Over four days the mentees were taught about functions and data structures. They were further given lessons about the various libraries like pandas and scikit-learn following which they learnt about linear regression and evaluation metrics - accuracy, MSE, Bias-variance trade-off, overfitting, underfitting and the idea of a neuron. The final days were filled with understanding complex concepts and the mentees were assigned their final projects which required them to implement a simple ANN using Tensorflow marking an end to the learning track. The online mentorship program which was held from June 20 to July 5, 2021 was organised by MahilAI, a community that leverages the use of AI to prevent violence against women under the guidance of Dr. Shikha Tripathi, PES University.

Discord is gaining more users as the easiest way to talk over voice, video, and text and provides a platform for building new features. Following an introduction to the platform, libraries to be used and methods for coding and testing a basic bot from scratch using Python, the teams got down quickly to coding their own bots. Volunteers and moderators helped teams solve doubts and answered questions. Each team demonstrated the bot and explained the idea behind the various features of the bot. PES Innovation Lab organised the workshop on May 30, 2021.

Innovative working models to combat the pandemic were presented at the virtual hackathon, Build Against the Virus. The expert panel of mentors and judges included Mr. Krishna Balaga, Ms. Priya Rao, Mr. Utkarsh Srivastava, and Mr. Apish Malhotra in the first panel and Mr Suresh from PESU Venture labs, Mr. Manjit S Sodhi, and Ms. Ann Thomas in the second. It was a privilege to have experienced leaders from IBM, and the founders of PESU Venture Labs, and PESU I/O on the jury. The winners were Team Vertigo of Keshika Shankar, Vaishnav Gautam and Team In the Cloud of Meenakshi Suresh, Naveen Nikhilesh, Mannav Dhamija, Nikhil Kunjoor), followed by the runners-up award which was won by Team MASK of Shrikar Madhu, Kruthika Suresh, Mayuri Patil and Team CoviHope of Manali Tanna, Milinda K N, Thilak S Shriyan, Janavi Srinivas. ACM-W PES University Chapter conducted the event on May 16, 2021.

Raghav S K and Sujith of PESU EC bagged the top prizes at the coding contest that was based on algorithms, data structures and problem solving. The programming challenge was hosted on Codechef platform jointly by PESU EC Campus Chapter on Feb 16, 2021.

The problem statements for the hackathon included domains such as online education, trust in donation systems, applications of Geofencing, Virtual Private Network (VPN) detection, collaboration, and improving customer service systems. The jury members from Red Hat, Mr. Rishiraj Anand, Mr. Ajay Pratap, Ms. Parul Sharma, and Ms. Manaswini Das, addressing the participants touched upon open-source, building communities, emphasized the need for it and explained how it can help students in their careers. Representatives from Nokia on the jury, Mr. Rajat Duggal and Ms. Indumathi Sandirane spoke about 5G technology and the future and the opportunities for software engineers in the telecom industry. 652 students in over 200 teams from various universities across India submitted their solution proposals in the first phase of HashCode 2020. 20 teams consisting of more than 65 students were shortlisted to participate in the online final phase for a chance to win the coveted prize money of up to Rs. 1,30,000. Team Flode of Varun MK, Spandan Sar, Surya Raj, and Prithvi Anil Kumar walked away with the first prize. The 24 hour hackathon, ninth edition of HashCode, was organised by PES Innovation Lab on Discord platform was held on 23-24 Jan, 2021.

The hands-on workshop was a great opportunity for participants to learn how to build Android apps in the Kotlin programming language, using the curriculum provided by Google. The community organised study group facilitated by Shubham Gupta and Syed Irfan Ahmed was live streamed on YouTube on 7,17 and 21 Jan, 2021.

Amidst lockdown students of the second and fourth semester of the MCA programme took up the challenge of coming up with Java based solutions in less than four hours. The contesting teams in Javathon 2020, interacted with the mentors on the university’s Impartus video platform on text and audio chat and desktop sharing. Amrutha D won the first prize followed by Zain Baig in the Convert IP challenge. Vishal Prajapat won the first prize followed by Rahul Rajpoot in Resistor Resistance. The event was organised under the guidance of faculty member Mr. Santosh Katti, who also mentored the teams along with other members Ms. Archana and Ms. Deepti. JAVATHON-2020 which was set up on Hackerrank platform and held on April 16, 2020 was conducted smoothly and drew enthusiastic participation amidst the lockdown and interaction challenges. The response has encouraged the students and organising faculty to conduct more such events at the state and national levels.