Innovation Station

We welcome our guest speaker Mr Unmesh Kulkarni, Founder Member Of OceanicCircles & A Former Director Of Honeywell User Experience, Philips Design.    Social innovation is the practice of using creativity to develop solutions which improve the well being of people & society. It promotes collaborative action, creative thinking & innovative action to address social need. It uses the experience & insight of those impacted & those concerned to come up with new solutions & approaches. Social innovation is a way of making change. How you make that change is as important as what change you want to bring about. Successful social innovation is informed & characterized by the values of empowerment, fairness, inclusion & well-being. In fact, the purpose of social innovation we believe is to bring about a fairer, more equal world! Social innovation can help to address local, national & global challenges in our world. Our belief is that by learning social innovation - how to innovate for social good - we give people the tools to bring about the change that is needed.    Unmesh is a founder member of Oceanic Circles, a collective for social innovation & impact. Previously he has handled global & regional design leadership roles at Honeywell & Philips, working across continents, living in India & China. Prior to that, he co-founded a multi-disciplinary design consultancy & appropriate technology lab, Design Matters.    Unmesh has designed physical & digital solutions globally across sectors, technologies, & regions, successfully bringing branded product & service solutions to markets at scale across healthcare, industrial IoT, life-safety, consumer appliances & electronics, lighting, FMCG, crafts, appropriate technologies etc.    A firm believer in the power of simplicity & creative empowerment in solving complex, real-world problems, he has a number of design awards to his credit including- 2009 INDEX: Award, Red-Dot, Design for Asia, IDEA Eco-Habitat Award, iF Award etc.   

We welcome our guest speaker Mr. Tal Catran.    Mr. Tal is a prominent figure in the global innovation ecosystem.    Founded 14 startup accelerators since 2012, in both Israel and abroad, has rendered him a Guru on building accelerators, hubs and startup ecosystems.    He serves as Advisory Board Member in various companies and technology startups, mainly in CyberSecurity, IT, AdTech, Retail, Drones, Home Land Security and others.    His active involvement with hundreds of startups, accelerators, incubators, innovation hubs, tech parks and other major players in the entrepreneurial ecosystems, stretches from Israel to Eastern Europe and Asia.    Mr. Tal is also a busy Keynote Speaker and TEDx Speaker, on tech startups, innovation, and entrepreneurship, sharing his professional toolbox to mentor, motivate and inspire entrepreneurs around the globe.    Corona world Lockdown made Mr. Tal perform his own adaptation and added a new title to his name Webinar Guru, sharing his experience worldwide. 

We welcome Mr Praveen Juyal, Senior Consulting Partner, MIT ID Innovation Programme. He is a Global Design Driven Innovation & Digital Transformation strategist & practitioner with 2 decades of industry experience. He has held senior leadership & management positions at Barclays, Deutsche Bank and Societe Generale.  In his last role as a Head of Design-Driven Innovation with Societe Generale, Praveen was instrumental in conceiving, developing & institutionalizing the Design-Driven Innovation Center of Excellence that worked at a strategic confluence of Technology, Business and Design. At MIT ID Innovation Programme, he contributes to the academia space by equipping the young student-innovators with industry-readiness. 

We welcome our Guest Speaker, Innovator Mr. Anjan Biswas, he leads the Innovation charter at Amdocs, India. With a career of 18+ years, he has experience in domains ranging from systems programing in a startup to development and scoping for telecom BSS solutions and further leading large teams of developers and architects for projects across the Globe. Anjan brings rich experiences in driving Innovation , Engagement, Leadership and Knowledge building for a CoE within Amdocs and also enabling the “Innovation in Practice” culture across all the business units across Amdocs India. Prior to joining Amdocs, Anjan was instrumental in building a webserver from scratch using the FSM framework in a startup. 

We welcome our guest speaker Mr. Ankit Kukadia, Co-head of Team Avishkar Hyperloop, the 28 member student team of IIT Madras (#NIRF Ranking 1) doing indigenous research and development for building the First-Ever Self Propelled, Completely Autonomous Hyperloop Pod of India.    He has worked extensively on system-level design and optimization of the Hyperloop Pod and has played an instrumental role in establishing a strong network between Alumni, industries, and the team.    He has been the Chief Strategist in laying down the business plan for raising funds amounting to INR 1.2 Crores for the project and successfully executed it within 3 months without a dedicated Sponsorship and marketing team.    He is a TEDx Speaker and in the past has also been invited by IIT Madras Foundation to deliver a talk in Silicon Valley on Hyperloop Technologies.    Avishkar Hyperloop is among the Top 22 teams out of more than 1600+ globally. Their designs had been approved by engineers from Tesla, SpaceX, and Boring Company for finals of SpaceX Hyperloop Pod Competition held in July'19 at its Headquarters in Hawthorne, LA.    It is the only team from India as well as Asia to have been able to achieve this feat. 

We welcome our guest speaker Mr. Chinmay Vadnere, Director - Outreach & Operation, Jagriti Yatra.    This curated series will feature a variety of industry thought leaders who are a part of the global MIT ID Innovation ecosystem.    Jagriti Yatra is a 15-day long, national train journey that takes you 8000 kilometres across the length & breadth of India, to understand & build the India of smaller towns & villages through enterprise. You meet role models, change-makers, leaders that started out on a journey just like you & made a difference to thousands of lives. You forge bonds with like-minded young leaders, your co-Yatris & complete strangers. They become your closest friends & comrades for life.    You will be exposed to role models who are building India through enterprise; through them you will find inspiration to undertake your own building journey.    500 youngsters, selected from thousands of applicants, many from smaller towns and villages, join the Yatra every year, with the goal of creating awareness & start a movement of 'building India through enterprise'.    Mission : to nurture 1 Lakh entrepreneurs by 2022 & create 10 Lakh jobs in this process. 

Launching BOOKMARKED, an intellectually-stimulating series of book-reading sessions, hosted by MIT ID Innovation Programme.  About the Bestseller and the Author :   We live in a time of unprecedented upheaval, when technology and so-called progress have made us richer but more uncertain than ever before. We have questions about the future, society, work, happiness, family and money and yet no political party of the right or left is providing us with answers. So, too, does the time seem to be coming to an end when we looked to economists to help us define the qualities necessary to create a successful society. We need a new movement. One defined by a young historian who can tell us the truth about how we got here. They'd be a political outsider, the voice of their generation, one who doesn't harness rage or agitate grievances but who provides us with the answer's for which we've been looking. That person is Rutger Bregman and his vision is Utopia for Realists.  Prof. Harshit Desai, Director, Innovation Programme will be in conversation with our Guest reader, Mr. Shekhar Badve, founding Director of Lokus design, a leading Strategy & Design company. A NID alumni with 17+ years of diverse experience in Strategic Design, Innovation, Design Research. Jury at GOI's India Design Mark, Member of CII's National Committee on Design, Design Interventions in Smart City, Member of Board of Studies, MIT Institute of Design.    So, tune in to BOOKMARKED & let's learn.innovate.lead 

Launching BOOKMARKED, an intellectually-stimulating series of book-reading sessions, hosted by MIT ID Innovation Programme.  About the bestseller :  Topping bestseller lists for almost ten years, Thinking, Fast and Slow is a contemporary classic, an essential book that has changed the lives of millions of readers.  - Major New York Times bestseller  - Over two million copies sold  - Selected by the New York Times Book Review as one of the ten best books of 2011  - Selected by The Wall Street Journal as one of the best nonfiction books of 2011  - 2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient  - Daniel Kahneman's work with Amos Tversky is the subject of Michael Lewis's best-selling The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds  In his mega bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, world-famous psychologist and winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, takes us on a groundbreaking tour of the mind and explains the two systems that drive the way we think.   System 1 is fast, intuitive, and emotional;   System 2 is slower, more deliberative, and more logical.   About the Author :   In 2015, The Economist listed Daniel Kahneman as the seventh most influential economist in the world.    Prof. Harshit Desai, Director, Innovation Programme will be in conversation with our Guest reader, Mr. Shekhar Badve, founding Director of Lokus design, a leading Strategy & Design company. A NID alumni with 17+ years of diverse experience in Strategic Design, Innovation, Design Research. Jury at GOI's India Design Mark, Member of CII's National Committee on Design, Design Interventions in Smart City, Member of Board of Studies, MIT Institute of Design.    So, tune in to BOOKMARKED & let's learn.innovate.lead 

MIT ID Innovation Programme is pleased to announce MIT ID's first-ever week-long Virtual GradShow, which will showcase. Innovation projects by students of the Foundation Batch, while they hand over the baton of Innovation to Class of 2020.  One of the industry-interactions in the GradShow, provides a glimpse into our collaboration with collaboration with LinkedIn, and LinkedIn Learning.  Our Guest speakers, Innovators Rakesh Gaur, a competent professional with 14+ years excelling in Key Account Management, Team Management, Business Development, Market Analysis & Campaign Management.    Ritu Pal, Learning & Development professional with 15+ years in top global firms. Ansuman Mishra, leads New Business Development & Strategic Client Acquisition for India, West for LinkedIn Learning. First-movers MIT ID Innovation Programme strategically partnered with Linkedin Learning as an optimal onboarding tool in the virtual era, by which students can upgrade their business, creative & technology-related skills. Student-innovators further gain an edge that empowers them to shine amidst competition. 

Welcome to Innovation Grad Show 2020, hosted by MIT ID Innovation Programme.    MIT ID's first-ever week-long Virtual Grad Show, will showcase the Innovation projects by students of the Foundation Batch, while they hand over the baton of Innovation to the Class of 2020.    One such session in the week, provides a glimpse into our collaboration with Mural.    Our guest speaker Ward Bullard leads education and non-profits at MURAL, working closely with academic institutions and community groups worldwide to bring visual collaboration to the classroom.    He is an adjunct instructor at Stanford University's Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (the d.school), where he developed and teaches the course, “Testing at Scale.”    Ward previously worked at Verizon, SAP, Google, Mertado (acquired by Groupon), Microsoft and Harrah's Entertainment in product, business and marketing leadership roles.    Ward is the Past Chair of the Stanford Athletics Board and co-founded the Athletic Department's Technology Advisory Committee. He is the Co-Chair of Stanford's Class of 2000 20th Reunion Campaign.    He is on the Menlo Park-Atherton Education Foundation Board, serves on the Parent Teacher Organization boards for both Oak Knoll Elementary School and Hill view Middle School.  He is an advisor to the Positive Coaching Alliance, Team Snap, the Portada and the Aspen Institute's Project Play Initiative.    Ward graduated with degrees in both economics and history (with Honors) from Stanford University and holds an MBA from Harvard University. 

MIT ID Innovation Programme invites you to MIT ID's first-ever week-long Virtual Grad Show, which will showcase Innovation projects by students of the Foundation Batch, while they hand over the baton of Innovation to Class of 2020.    One of the industry-interactions in the Grad Show, provides a glimpse into our collaboration with Mr. Rasagy Sharma, Principal Designer, Gramener    In this short 2 hour workshop, we'll explore why data needs to be narrated as stories, look at some case studies by Gramener & learn the process of going from data analysis to narrating a story. We'll learn how design thinking's user-centricity & encoding principles based on visual perception enable us to visualize insights that are useful & engaging.    The workshop will be beginner-friendly, aimed at designers who need to visualize data or anyone who needs to communicate insights. No prior knowledge of data analysis/data science is needed for the workshop. This will be open for all.    Our Guest Speaker & Innovator : Rasagy is the Principal Information Designer at Gramener, with a focus on narrating business insights through storytelling. His areas of interest include Information Visualization, Data Art, Creative Coding & Sketch noting. Prior to his current role, he worked on designing data visualization & interactive applications at Map box, Barclays, Microsoft & Capillary, and helped kickstart the Information Design Lab at IDC, IIT Bombay. He holds a M.Des. in Information & Interface Design from NID, Bangalore and a B.E. (Hons) in Computer Science from BITS Pilani, Goa Campus. 

On the occassion of MIT ID Innovation Programme completing it's 1st year of educating & nurturing innovators, we are pleased to invite you to the the first-ever, virtual Innovation Grad Show.   The week-long GradShow will have several industry-interactions lined up for our Foundation Cohort, and the Innovators Class of 2021.   A virtual send-off where the Foundation Cohort hands over the baton of Innovation to the next batch to keep the creativity and energy flowing into the most impactful journeys ahead.  One of the industry-interactions in the Grad Show, provides a glimpse into our collaboration with Guest speaker, Innovator Mr. Deepak Menon, Partner Director, Microsoft, who will preside as the Guest of Honour.    Warm welcome to Deepak who has spent 15+ years across 3 stints at Microsoft, prior to working at Jabong, Myntra.com, Google India, LYCOS Asia & mentoring many start-ups during his illustrious career. He is an Alumni of Stanford University Graduate School of Business, The Ohio State University, Indian Institute of Management Bangalore. He leads Product Experience across all Products at Microsoft India R&D. This includes all of Office on Android (Word,XL,PPT and OneNote), Visio, Visual Studio, Bing.com, Cortana, Azure Services and Kaizala. Leads the design team of MicrosoftSurfaceDuo.  

Launching BOOKMARKED, an intellectually-stimulating series of book-reading sessions, hosted by MIT ID Innovation Programme.    About the Bestseller : The Hidden Connections  The Hidden Connections has the author proposing a holistic alternative to linear and reductionist world views. He aims to extend system dynamics and complexity theory to the social domain and presents "a conceptual framework that integrates life's biological, cognitive and social dimensions.  The book is divided into a theoretical part (chapters 1 – 3) and a more practical part with application examples (chapters 4 – 7).  The book has been widely successful and translated into 8 languages.   It has been appraised by reviewers as “a great introduction both to the nature of the problem and the logic of the response” and “a marvelous synthesis, so far in advance of any work along similar lines, that it will set the standard for the development of sustainable thought for some time to come.”    Prof. Harshit Desai, Director, Innovation Programme will be in conversation with our Guest reader, Mr. Shekhar Badve, founding Director of Lokus design, a leading Strategy & Design company. A NID alumni with 17+ years of diverse experience in Strategic Design, Innovation, Design Research. Jury at GOI's India Design Mark, Member of CII's National Committee on Design, Design Interventions in Smart City, Member of Board of Studies, MIT Institute of Design.    So, tune in to BOOKMARKED & let's learn.innovate.lead 

Launching BOOKMARKED, an intellectually-stimulating series of book-reading sessions, hosted by MIT ID Innovation Programme. In The Culture Code, internationally revered cultural anthropologist and marketing expert Clotaire Rapaille reveals for the first time the techniques he has used to improve profitability and practices for dozens of Fortune 100 companies. His groundbreaking revelations shed light not just on business but on the way every human being acts and lives around the world. Rapaille's breakthrough notion is that we acquire a silent system of codes as we grow up within our culture. These codes—the Culture Code—are what makes us Indian, American, or German, or French, and they invisibly shape how we behave in our personal lives, even when we are completely unaware of our motives. What's more, we can learn to crack the codes that guide our actions and achieve a new understanding of why we do the things we do.    Prof. Harshit Desai, Director, Innovation Programme will be in conversation with our Guest reader, Mr Shekhar Badve, founding Director of Lokus design, a leading Strategy & Design company. NID alumni with 17+ years of diverse experience in Strategic Design, Innovation, Design Research. A jury at GOI's India Design Mark, Member of CII's National Committee on Design, Design Interventions in Smart City, Member of Board of Studies, MIT Institute of Design.    So, tune in to BOOKMARKED & let's learn.innovate.lead

Welcome to yet another exciting initiative by MIT ID Innovation Programme. Welcome to BOOKMARKED, an intellectually-stimulating series of book-reading sessions of Innovation Bestsellers. The virtual book-reading sessions will take place, every Friday, 4 pm - 5 pm.    About the Author of this Innovation Bestseller :  Writer, historian, and activist Rebecca Solnit is the author of 18+ books. Here are a few commendations

We welcome you to the Launch of yet another exciting initiative by MIT ID Innovation Programme. Welcome to BOOKMARKED, an intellectually-stimulating series of book-reading sessions of Innovation Bestsellers. The virtual book-reading sessions will take place, every Friday, 4pm - 5pm.    Here is the line up for July & August 2020 : #savethedates  :  July 24 : Where Good Ideas Come From ( Steven Johnson )  July 31 : Hope in the Dark ( Rebecca Solnit )  Aug 07 : The Geography of Bliss ( Eric Weiner )  Aug 14 : The Hidden Connections ( Fritjof Capra )  Aug 21 : Thinking, Fast and Slow ( Daniel Kahneman )  Aug 28 : Utopia for Realists ( Rutger Bregman) About the Author of our Launch Book : Steven Johnson,  Steven is an author of 12 books   is a leading light of today's interdisciplinary & collaborative approach to innovation.   He is known as one of the top ten brains of the digital future &   The Wall Street Journal calls him "one of the most persuasive advocates for the role of collaboration in innovation."     Where Good Ideas Come From :   The book advances a notion to challenge the popular story of a lone genius experiencing an instantaneous moment of inspiration. The author instead argues that innovative thinking is a slow, gradual & very networked process in which "slow hunches" are cultivated & completed, by exposure to seemingly unrelated ideas & quandaries from other disciplines & thinkers. He lists the themes he has identified from studying which environments & conditions have been correlated, historically, with high innovation. The printing press, the pencil, the flush toilet, the battery–these are all great ideas. But where do they come from? What kind of environment breeds them? What sparks the flash of brilliance? How do we generate the breakthrough technologies that push forward our lives, our society, our culture? Steven Johnson's answers are revelatory as he identifies the seven key patterns behind genuine innovation, and traces them across time and disciplines. From Darwin and Freud to the halls of Google and Apple, Johnson investigates the innovation hubs throughout modern time and pulls out the approaches and commonalities that seem to appear at moments of originality. Head of the Innovation Programme, Associate Professor Harshit Desai, a PHD Research candidate, an Industry professional who has spent a decade+ in the Education domain will be in conversation with our Guest reader & Innovator, Mr. Shekhar Badve,   founding Director of Lokus design, a leading Strategy & Design company.   Shekhar is a NID alumni with 17+ years of diverse experience in Strategic Design, Innovation, Design Research.   He is also a Jury at India Design Mark, by Government of India,   a Member of CII's National Committee on Design,   Design Interventions in SmartCity.  For those who are joining us for the first time today, I'd like to inform you that :  MIT stands for the 4 decade old Maharashtra Institute of Technology.   ID stands for MIT's 15 year old pioneering Institute of Design.  MIT ID's 1 year Innovation Programme focusses on the 4 pillars of Design, Business, Technology, Humanities.   The key features & differentiators of this 1 year course are Immersions, Project based Learning and Humanities. This is our 28th Industry interaction this season and I, Priya Dhawan, Head of Collaborations, Branding & Outreach for the MIT ID Innovation Programme, welcome you all once again, to this thoughtfully curated Innovation journey.     We encourage you to connect with us, via our social channels, to know more about the MIT ID Innovation Programme and upcoming engagements and online courses. - https://linktr.ee/mitidinnovation

We pleased to introduce our guest speaker and Innovator, Mr. Sameer Aggarwal, India Head of LinkedIn Learning Solutions   Sameer started off as a dot-com entrepreneur while in college.   His first venture was "Email-as-a-service" (picture this - most people did not have internet access in those days, a few had no computer either. He helped manage their email and delivered prints of important communication).   Next up, he self-learnt coding for the web, built a few corporate websites and then partnered with a leading ad agency to create visually appealing experiences.   Ended up building the first ecom experience in India. Followed it up with some invaluable experiences at A.T. Kearney, Genpact and HP building a diverse set of skills in Technology, Operations and Sales.   Then, he came back to his first love - the Internet with an ongoing stint at LinkedIn which is truly transforming the world. He has been at LinkedIn for more than 6 years and the experiences just keep getting better. In his current (and third) role at LinkedIn,he has the privilege to run the Learning Solutions business in India. His purpose is to help companies transform their skills assembly while helping future-proof the careers of professionals in India.   An alumni of Delhi University., he completed his BSc in Mathematics, Computer Science.   He is a Silver medalist MBA in Finance, Marketing from Amity Business School.

We pleased to introduce our guest speaker and Innovator, Mr. Kapil Rathee, President, Junglee Games.   At Junglee, Kapil spearheads the Business Strategy, Product Strategy, Business Intelligence and Revenue Growth/Optimization from the current products while creating new product lines.   He strongly believes Innovation, Automation, Data Science, Business Intelligence and Effective Business Processes are pillars of any high growth business such as Junglee Games.   Prior to Junglee,  he founded FoodTech startup - Tap&Eat, to provide operation efficiency and customer delight.   Previously, he has held roles of Strategy and Business Consultant roles to cater to business needs of fortune 500 companies globally.   He is passionate about providing strategic data-driven solutions to complex business problems for growth and sustainability.   Focussed to help and build businesses by leading teams with collaboration, customer focus and organisational culture focus.

We are pleased to introduce our guest speaker and Innovator, Ms. Meeta Malhotra, Founder, The Hard Copy.   Meeta is a strategist, storyteller and serial entrepreneur.   She was one of two partners at Ray+Keshavan, India's leading brand and design consultancy, acquired by WPP in 2006.   She then co-founded Kinetic Glue, a SaaS enterprise collaboration platform, acquired by Fortune 500 company, BMC Software in 2013.   She launched her current venture, The Hard Copy, in December 2019. The Hard Copy is an online publication that chronicles the design and innovation ecosystem in India.   Through her career, Meeta has helped to create industry-leading brands like Airtel, Kotak, Thoughtworks, Indian School of Business, Ashoka University and Vistara Airlines.   She is also an angel investor with companies like YourStory and LetsVenture in her portfolio.  

We pleased to introduce our guest speaker and Innovator, Mr. Anay Pathak, Senior Technology Consultant - Data Protection Solutions. Dell Technologies - Global Alliances.   Anay Pathak has 15+ years of experience in DC virtualization, public cloud, data management (which includes protection & business continuity) & Cyber Recovery.    Currently, Anay contributes as Global Pre-sales Consultant with Dell EMC Data Protection, is responsible for Architecture and Design discussion with Alliance Partners.   He has worked with some of the large enterprise organizations & customers as Trusted Advisor providing consulting around IT and creating mindshare around next gen technology trends. Prior to Dell, Anay has worked with HP, DXC, Orange, & HCL. He has got couple of IEEE papers in his name & has participated in various Technical conferences across the world. Anay has also written Technology blogs & is passionate about speaking on trends in Technology in multiple Industry events and Universities.    Anay completed his B. Tech in Electrical & Electronics from KIET Ghaziabad, which is a part of Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Technical University, Lucknow. He has been a Merit holder all along his school & college days. He has multiple Industry certifications including – Cloud, Virtualization, Storage & Data Protection.

We are pleased to introduce our guest speaker and Innovator, Ms Parvathi Menon, Managing Director, Innovation Alchemy Consulting Pvt.Ltd. Founder CEO - Fresh Harvest Pvt.Ltd.   Parvathi Menon has followed an unconventional career path, making conscious choices to pursue challenges that leveraged her passion for effective business management, strategy and teaching. She is a serial entrepreneur, having set up her first business venture in film production when she was just out of University. Thereafter a 10-year stint in the corporate world to learn business management and in 2009 she set up a successful consulting practice to focus on social innovation. Under Parvathi's leadership, her team delivered large projects for the World Bank, Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Marico Innovation Foundation, amongst others. In 2014 she set up an agri-business and decided to venture into the difficult sector of farming and horticulture, opting to become a farmer to try and establish a model for financially viable small scale farming.   Parvathi is on the Board for the School for Social Entrepreneurs in India, a Programme supported by PWC, which has a focus on building social entrepreneur leaders across multiple domains. She is a specialist Facilitator with Harvard Business Publishing moderating courses on Strategy, Innovation, Change Management & Leadership Excellence for business leaders across India, south-east Asia and the Middle East.   She runs both the consulting practice and the agribusiness, working across Bangalore and the neighbouring district of Krishnagiri in Tamil Nadu where her farm unit is located, and her passion is to create a bridge between real strategy, learning, teaching & practice.   Parvathi has a Masters in Communication from Hyderabad University and is an alumnus of the Management Programme for Women entrepreneurs from IIM Bangalore. She is actively involved in mentoring entrepreneurs in the early stages of enterprise development.

We are pleased to introduce our guest speakers and Innovators, the Founding team of Advent Lab. Creative Design Strategist, Maitri Bhardwaj Principal Innovation Consultant, Eshan Dubey Principal Business Consultant, Sarthak Chandra About Eshan, Alumni of the foundation batch of MIT ID Innovation Programme, 2019-20, he understands Research, Design, Philosophy and Business predictions. Eshan used to be an electronics and communication engineer back in 2014.  He is a telesales caller turned software testing engineer turned placement expert in the USA turned Design Curator, who then headed towards Innovation.  As a design curator, he has worked for clients like Gala, Havells, Cello Industries, Birla Group, Aco, Palm line, Remi Group, Grazia and CII.   A dog whisperer, a pureblood magician, Tea addict and avid reader, his love for flutes and Indian classical music jam sessions are eternal. Storytelling sessions, Urdu-Hindi poetry, Sahaja Yoga Meditation.   About Maitri : Alumni of the foundation batch of MIT ID Innovation Programme, 2019-20, she specialized in Critical thinking, User Research, and Business design. She aspires to resolve, explore, and create solutions to various problems. A major inspiration for her Ideations is based on proactive observations and insights gained during the research humane centric approach to it. She puts great emphasis on imparting practical and hands-on knowledge to converge together into various diverse frameworks of business studies, social sciences, design thinking, and technology.   She is an Electronics & Comm. an engineer from Indus University and has worked with PRL Ahmedabad (ISRO)  as Scientist Engineer on an ongoing experiment. She has work experience of 2 years with Industrial IoT Automation firm as Field Application Eng. and also has worked as Design Engineer at HYT Pune.  A musician and artist by heart, a chocolate lover, and an admirer of a futuristic visionary blend of a creative mindset with a passion for developing strong Ideas. About Sarthak  A Commerce Graduate, with MBA & Design Thinking Certification from Stanford University:: Graduate school of Business. He is an AGILE Scrum Master. SAP SD SCM Certified Consultant. (TSCM) Oracle Financials Certified Consultant Microsoft Dynamics 365 Certified consultant Salesforce Sales Cloud Certified Consultant Has corporate experience of over 20 years, in varied industries. He has a very rich Indian and Overseas Experience, having worked for companies like HDFC Bank, ICICI Lombard GIC Ltd., Max group, IBM, and Infosys, and International Clients like Airbus, BP, Vodafone, Shell, SITA, Amazon, Walmart, Harley Davidson, Apple, and a few more, across 3 continents and 10 countries, give him an exposure of the business environments, markets, clients, consumers and behaviour of people around the globe. He understands Businesses, Products, and Processes and has designed and implemented new products and processes around the world.    A trainer, a Brand Coach, a Storyteller, a traveller, a foodie, has a youtube channel ... with close to  1 lakh followers and about 15 million views on the channel. 

We are pleased to introduce our guest speaker and Innovator, Mr. Aroon Khatter, Founder & CEO of Vendekin Technologies Pvt. Ltd. He is also a Former International tennis player.   Aroon started his entrepreneurial career at the young age of 22 after graduating with a Bachelors degree in Finance & Economics from the Lenoir-Rhyne University, North Carolina. Aroon is the Founder & CEO of disruptive unmanned self-service retail technology startup Vendekin Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which in three years has established a presence in more than 4 countries with its patented technology for unmanned automated vending machines and self-service kiosks.    In the past, Aroon had founded a start-up Virrea Technologies in the e/m/Governance and virtual and augmented reality solutions space with a focus on projects with impact on society and has also worked and collaborated with various start-ups in the past.     Aroon is an avid sports fan and has formerly played tennis competitively at the national and international level being a former top 15 player in India and top 800 in the world. 

Dr Kaustubh Dhargalkar, Author - “It's Logical: Innovating Profitable Business Models”. He is an entrepreneur-turned-academician & Innovation evangelist. He founded three companies from 1990 to 2005 in the domain of productivity enhancement technologies for manufacturing. He exited all his companies in 2005 and took a year off to learn the science of Yoga.     He holds a PhD in Corporate Innovation & Design Thinking.    Currently, Kaustubh consults large corporates on ‘How to Enhance their Innovation Quotient'.    His views on innovation and strategy are sought by publications such as Knowledge@Wharton, Springer, E&T-Europe etc.     Kaustubh has been recognised as the Top Seven Global Innovators at the Smart City Congress, Barcelona for his paper titled, “A collaborative business model for reducing the REAL carbon footprint of electric vehicles”     He has been a runner-up at the Wharton School's prestigious Global Innovation Tournament.    He has two TEDx talks to his credit.    He has trained more than 5000 individuals over 50000+ hours of training in the space of Design Thinking, Creative Problem Solving, Breakthrough Ideation, Concept Creation.     A teacher at heart, Kaustubh is a visiting faculty at leading universities.    He is a mentor at various startup incubators and has mentored more than 150+ startups over the last decade, helping them scale by building robust business models.     He is the recipient of the ‘Entrepreneurship Educator & Mentor Award by the Ministry of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship- Government of India jointly with Intel, British Council, EDII & NEN.   He has been featured as a ‘Changemaker' on the Dr. Subhash Chandra Show (Zee Business)   He is a keen yoga enthusiast. His article on ‘Pratyahara and the Creative Thinking of Nobel Laureates' has been published in the ‘Universal Brotherhood through Yoga', a compendium of 75 influential minds in the field of Yoga.   

Today's speaker Sameer Dhanrajani, CEO & Founder at AIQRATE Advisory & Consulting, a bespoke global AI advisory & consulting firm.   Author of AI and #Analytics: accelerating business decisions. He has   - 20+ years of industry experience Sameer was Chief Strategy Officer at Fractal Analytics.  Global Business Leader at Cognizant analytics and data sciences business unit at Cognizant Technology Solutions Country Head at Fidelity National Financial Vice President, Analytics at Genpact. - four times TEDx speaker, a keynote expert, moderator, speaker.   - writes regularly for Forbes, YourStory Media, BW Businessworld & is a prolific blogger with trendsetting, topical coverage on AI strategy & consulting spectrum.   - frequently quoted across business media & news publications & is the recipient of multiple awards & recognitions.   - Sameer is an MBA from IIM – Bangalore and pursued Strategic Management program from London Business School & Digital Innovation & Design program from MIT.   Sameer is a globally recognized AI advisor, business builder, evangelist and thought leader known for his deep knowledge, strategic consulting approaches in AI space.     He has consulted with several Fortune 500 global enterprises, Indian corporations, GCCs, startups, SMBs, VC/PE firms, Academic Institutions in driving AI-led strategic transformation and innovation strategies.    He has a rich and proven experience of building and scaling AI businesses and practices, securing large AI engagements & deals and creating significant client impact.   An AI advisor on AI policy matters with state governments & is instrumental in leading the effort for positioning India as a premier destination in AI.

Today's speaker, Shekhar is a founding Director of Lokus design, a leading Strategy & Design company. He brings more than 17 years of diverse experience in Strategic Design, Innovation, and Design Research. Understanding how design drives systemic results has been his passion since graduating from NID.   He is a tool designer and industrial designer by training and a system designer, simplifier, biker and cook by passion. He loves to combine and mix a bit of chemistry, thermodynamics and physics with Indian philosophies and design thinking to solve complex systemic and brand challenges.    Shekhar is a Jury at the prestigious India Design Mark, Government of India; a member of CII's National Committee on Design and CII's Committee on Design Interventions in Smart City; and member of Board of Studies, MIT Institute of Design.   He has been invited to speak on a variety of topics such as business design, brand strategy and strategic innovation, design thinking, innovation management and communication design. Being passionate about grooming the next generation of design & communication professionals, he guest lectures at premier design and management institutes across the country.   Shekhar is in the pursuit of reducing Entropy- the level of disturbance, chaos, and complexity at systemic, organizational, brand, and individual levels.    Systems, organizations, brands and individuals expend and waste most of their energy (time, money, effort, and potential) in battling Entropy, hyper competing, or overcoming anxieties and fears. Shekhar strongly believes that only if such Entropy is reduced, can they have any energy left to create substantial value or larger good. And so, he helps them to: distance themselves from Entropy; discover their Positive Valence; steer towards the subject before its object; identify fundamental human needs; create enduring relationships, and inspire positive action.

Todays Guest speaker & Innovator Dr. Shivananda Koteshwar, Group Director, DG Digital Implementation Site Leader and R&D Head, at Synopsys. He is responsible for releases and technology engagement from the region and also responsible for digital-implementation-wide collaboration with customers.   He is a versatile technology leader with 25 years of career-long record of challenging tapeouts, design team setup & strategic operation management.   Across his multiple stints, he has displayed proficiency in establishing a strategic vision, leading through transformational challenges & influencing both directly (organizational) & indirectly (global ecosystems).   Dr. Shivananda with expertise in full-chip and complex IP implementation, Verification, and Design Methodologies is instrumental in delivering multiple first-time-right silicon ASICs. Prior to Synopsys, as a Site Head and GM he was instrumental in setting up MediaTek, Bangalore site, and defining growth strategies, creating innovation capabilities, enable ecosystems and building breakthrough business models.    He enjoys building performing teams and takes pride in having guided and mentored a strong bench of future leaders. From being the Founding Director of a school, to being a Professor in E&C, to serving  as a Board of Studies Member and being a part of the Advisory Board in leading academic institutions, he has contributed to the Academia space as well.    As an author, he derived inspiration from real-life stories all around him and has published two books titled “50 Shades of Life” and "50 Colours of Love"    Dr. Shivananda is a recipient of the  Employee Excellence Award in Recognition of efforts as an outstanding Synopsys Employee and was awarded Distinguished Alumni of Malnad College of Engineering [MCE].   A doctorate in Management, he is - an alumnus of IIM Bangalore, - completed his Masters Degree in Electrical Engineering from OGI, USA, - completed BTech (in E&C) from Mysore University. He has Certifications in relevant courses from : - Columbia Business School, - Wharton School, - University of Virginia, - MIT Sloan School, - IIT Bombay & - ESADE Spain

We pleased to introduce our guest speaker and Innovator, Mr Philip Varughese, Vice President & Global Lead - Applied Intelligence, Analytics & Innovation, Accenture Security.   Philip is an Industry recognized Analytics veteran, entrepreneur, thought leader and a visionary digital transformation & innovation executive.   Prior to his current role, he was the Co-founder & CEO of Datum Informatics Pvt. Ltd, a BigData Analytics & AI firm, with deep focus into Contextual Intelligence using Artificial Intelligence & Machine learning on unstructured data.   He brings around 17+ Years of rich and extensive cross-functional experience and expertise in the fields of Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Intelligence, Future Systems, NextGen Cyber Defense, Digital Transformation, Disruptive Innovation and Cognitive Decision Systems.   Philip has handled key business management roles with IBM, CSS Corporation, Chimera Technologies, Seventhsense Technologies and Socratic Learning Inc. at Domestic and International level.   A Post Graduate in Mathematics, Master of Philosophy in Mathematics and Diploma in Computer Applications, he is an invited Key-Note Speaker in more than 200 National & International Conferences and Leading Academia.

This session will be presented by, Ms. Rajashree Rao, Head of Partnerships & Ecosystem (APAC) at R² Data Labs, Rolls Royce.   Shree, as she is known, is a globally acclaimed Industry Thought leader, visionary, advisor, principal consultant & mentor in next-gen technologies - AI, CloudComputing, Data Analytics, Robotics, Industry 4.0, IoT, IIoT, Blockchain, and Smart Cities/Nation across industry verticals.   Awarded Top100 Women B2B Global Thought Leaders - 2020   Awarded Top20/50 Global Thought leaders and Influencers in AI, Blockchain, Cloud, 5G, AR/ VR, and IoT, by Thinkers360.   Alumni of IBM, Intel Corporation & SAP with 20 years in the corporate world, across India, US & APAC, Shree is instrumental in leading & influencing the technology adoption within the Singapore Government and Public Sector for building the SmartCity & SmartNation Initiatives in the APAC region.   Shree is a passionate technologist who challenges the industry and technology providers to innovate and think out of the box since she believes that Technology's principal goal is to enable an individual, organization, city, or a nation to retrofit their existing system/business model/solutions/infrastructure, which will empower and transform the way people live, and work in the era of digital transformation.   Shree has developed an innovation strategy for restructuring and reconstructing existing business models.   Shree is a radical who is known for breaking the glass ceiling in her professional and personal life to evolve into who truly she wants to be.   Shree is a Graduate (Hons.) from Bangalore University in Business Management and has a diploma in Computer Science - Ecommerce. She enjoys international travel, cooking and is in the constant pursuit of the spiritual. She is also passionate about women's empowerment and spends her free time working with women and women's organizations. Note: You can check her articles on technology at www.techutzpah.com  She has also recently submitted her proposal to the GOI on building National Health Registry -https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/effectiveness-aarogya-setu-app-post-pandemic-proposal-rajashree-rao/

Join us in this exciting journey of Rhythm Panchal- Designer & Innovator at MIT ID Innovation Programme. Rhythm Panchal will take us through how is he collaborating with some of the best design and technology companies with is a unique business-first approach to design. Rhythm has founded his strategic design and innovation consulting venture WHYBOX and will present his innovation story.

The story of TeamTwine, a virtual avatar-based office innovation A very warm welcome to our Guest speaker Sabu Francis, B.Arch (Hons), Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur alumni. He has been at the forefront of use of #computers in #architecture. He was among the first associates of Architect Hafeez Contractor before starting his own practice in the 80s. He went on to #design many works for KONKAN RAILWAY CORPORATION LIMITED & others. He has an in-depth knowledge of both the bricks 'n mortar architecture as well as architecting #Information #technology solutions. A useful crossover that leads to a lot of insights in many different aspects of work & life. His latest creation is teamtwine, a software that allows your entire team to work on graphical floor layouts, from their remote locations. Yet, every team member notices the presence of everyone else. Group chats are visual & intuitive! Drag your avatar to the room in question. The context gets set. 

We have some real food for thought for you. MIT ID Innovation Stories proudly presents Ruhgra. Rughra is an initiative by Arihant & Aniket- student innovator from the MIT ID Innovation Programme. They have built a platform that promotes healthy lifestyle by meaningful and thoughtful food. Food for your body. Food for your mind. Food for a better future. After all, you are what you eat. Listen to the Innovation story of Aniket & Arihant- student innovators of the MIT ID Innovation Programme.  

MIT ID Innovation Programme brings you a session on Innovation in the time of Crisis by Amitabh Ray. Amitabh Ray TEDx speaker. LinkedIn India Power Profiles for 4 years. Alumni - Columbia University - Columbia Business School. 3+ decades of leadership roles in Ericsson, IBM, and PwC.  Listed as 30 Young and Dynamic Entrepreneurs. Amitabh specializes in building large ICT organizations and has been instrumental in establishing global hubs for top fortune 500 companies in the areas of R&D, product development, sales support, and service delivery.  I spent years working in Silicon Valley, USA, and Europe.

MIT ID Innovation Programme brings you an information session on India 4.0 by Neeraj Athalye Neeraj is responsible for strategy, revenue, and customer success in India for SAP's digital & innovation portfolio. He has anchored several leadership roles in SAP India since 2003. He is a passionate leader & drives SAP's growth and innovation strategies across the Indian Sub-Continent. Apart from championing several customer initiatives he also works with academia and industry to promote new technology adoption. Neeraj is a recognized thought-leader on technology & innovation and has been a speaker in several Indian & International industry as well as academic forums. He is a mechanical engineer from the University Of Pune and an avid motorcycle rider. He has been an entrepreneur and is a mentor for several startups in India. 

Meghana Pote has rich experience in the areas of technical leadership, Project Management, Product Management, Innovation Management. Her skills and experience in conflict management, business development and scaling for competencies have accelerated the success of projects she has been associated with, enabling her to lead geographically distributed, multicultural teams, spanning across different continents namely Asia, Europe, and USA. Currently, she leads stakeholder management and technology explorations for business and product innovations.

LinkedIn Top Voices in India for three years in a row (2016, 2017, 2018).  Alumni - IIT, IIM, Tata Steel 3+ decades of rich work experience with 18+ years of building agile & high-growth start-ups, with successful exits/acquisitions, advising accelerators, mentoring VC funds.  Co-authored  1) Cut the Crap and Jargon – Lessons from the Startup Trenches,  2) Cutting the Gordian Knot – India's Quest for Prosperity,  3) Saying No to Jugaad – The Making of Bigbasket.  4) slated for publication in August “From Pony to a Sustainable Unicorn”

MIT ID Innovation Programme brings an informative session on " Technology, Startups and Innovation- Emerging Technologies and Innovations. " The guest speaker for this session will be Mr Nikhil Malhotra. Nikhil Malhotra is the global head of innovation and creator of Maker's Lab, a unique Thin-q-bator space within TechMahindra with over 20 years of experience. He holds a masters degree in computing with specialization in distributed computing from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne. He has been a researcher all his life and is now leading the growth of AI, machine learning, robotics and quantum research within TechMahindra. Nikhil's area of personal research has been how quantum computing and neuroscience has inspired the growth of AI and how the two fields can merge in the future. He has also designed an indigenous robot in his lab, as a personal assistant. He and his team are also researching on Sanskrit to enable machines to talk in local Indian dialects.

MIT ID Innovation Programme brings an informative session on " Technology, Startups and Innovation- New Data for New Innovations. " The guest speaker for this session will be Mr Bhushan Patil. Bhushan Arun Patil is an IIT Mumbai Alumni with 21 years of Product and business leadership experience. Recently worked as President at Paytm & Paytm Mall, Director for international business at Alibaba, China and earlier led product and business roles at Zapak, Yahoo, Talisma & Vendio. Has experience of working in various international and Indian markets building consumer businesses, raising funds and global partnerships.

MIT ID Innovation Programme brings an informative session on " Technology, Startups and Innovation- Innovation in times of disruption. " The guest speaker for this session will be Mr Amit Salvi.  Amit is working as a Senior Scientist at Tata Research and Development and Design Center (TRDDC), TCS, Pune. He has earned his MS in Aerospace as well as in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA. Currently, he is working across the domain of materials and computer science in the area of knowledge engineering which is at the core of industrial AI. Amit has worked in the area of Academic Research and Industrial Innovation for the past two decades across various industries like Aerospace, Automotive, Energy, Defence, Bio-Medical, Surgical, Tissue Culture, etc.

MIT ID Innovation Programme brings an Information Session on Healthcare Innovations For Today : Part-3, with our guest speaker Dr. Jagdish Chaturvedi. Dr. Jagdish Chaturvedi is an ENT Surgeon, Medical Device Innovator, Author and Stand-up Comedian. His core expertise lies in the process of identifying and analysing unmet clinical needs for quick development of low-cost and high quality medical devices, and teaching/ training the Biodesign process. Since 2010, he has co-invented and developed 18 affordable medical devices addressing the unmet needs in the Indian healthcare system. He is recognised as one of the 35 innovators under the age of 35 by the MIT technology review 2016. He is also a stand-up comedian, popularized by his YouTube channel “Jagdish Chaturvedi” and is the author of the best selling book on medical device innovations called “Inventing Medical Devices – A perspective from India”, “The benefits of failing successfully” and “One year of Stand up comedy”.  

The topics for today's discussion will be How innovations in healthcare are important in today's world. The webinar will help you understand the pre-COVID world and what are the lessons that we can learn from it to be prepared for a post-COVID world. Nitin Sisodia is today's speaker who is the founder & CEO of Sohum Innovation Lab, a social enterprise to develop novel solutions to improve health & income of people living in underserved regions. He is a 2010 Stanford India Biodesign fellow, among the top 20 Indian innovators by MIT Tech Review and President of India Awardee for Innovation and Technology. Nitin did his Bachelors in Electrical Engineering from NIT Bhopal and Master in Industrial Design from National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. He has been associated with organizations like Maruti- Suzuki, Zeiss- Germany, Mckinsey & Co to name a few. He loves to jam with people, cook, brew coffee, write and travel during his free time.

Healthcare Innovations for today - Part 1 Pushkar Ingale Founder and Director of Cohesive Labs has earned his master's degree in Design from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai & bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. He has also worked as a responsible Manager at Laerdal Global Health where he had setup and operated the India based Design and Implementation team. Pushkar has been rewarded with CII Design Excellence Award & Stanford Medicine and American Indian Foundations - Most innovative medical device innovation award 2016 for his design excellence. The topics for today's discussion will be How innovations in healthcare are important in today's world. The webinar will help you understand the pre-covid world and what are the lessons that we can learn from it to be prepared for a post-covid world.

Prof. Harshit Desai will help us understand the term innovation and will explain Design Driven Innovation in more details. Prof. Harshit Desai heads the Industry relation at the MIT Institute of Design and he also heads the MITID Innovation Programme. The session will cover the following points 1) Frameworks of innovation 2) Design thinking and design-driven innovation 3) Case studies and examples 4) Business success and design-driven innovation.