# AliensFest

AliensFest, formerly TheTechFest, is an independent technology and career conference in India for students held by Praani Foundation, a non profit organization. It also refers to the independent body from Praani Foundation who organize the event along with other social initiatives and Outreach programs throughout the year. Events include tech talks, management talks, inspirational talks, workshops, project expo, experience zones, competitions, and exhibitions.
AliensFest started in 2016 as TheTechFest to create awareness in tech students about the latest technologies and motivate them to start building and showcasing their talent. Now it has grown to be India's largest independent technology and career conference for students with a footfall of 5200.

## AliensFest 5.0

The fifth edition of AliensFest is scheduled with a gap of five years on 16 and 17 October 20243 due to the break after COVID-19 Pandemic in 2020 & 2021. Theme and Venue of the event to be announced soon.

## AliensFest 4.0 – Ignite the Spark - Gamify Edition

The fourth edition of AliensFest took place on 29 and 30 September 2019 at GITAM (Deemed to be University), Hyderabad. The theme for fourth edition is "Ignite the Spark".

## AliensFest 3.0 – The Transformation

The third edition of AliensFest took place on 6 and 7 October 2018, in collaboration with the Technology Business Incubator at BITS Pilani in Hyderabad. The theme for third edition was "The Transformation."
The inaugural function was graced by Jayesh Ranjan, IT Secretary, Govt of Telangana, Prof Sunder Director of BITS Pilani, Hyderabad; Prof Aruna Malapati of TBI (Technology Business Incubator, BITS, Pilani).
This edition of AliensFest have witnessed an attendance of about 5000 students; the team organised 30 techtalks, including for about 25 workshops on various topics covering different streams of engineering. 25 projects were displayed in the Prototype Expo, and students from about 132 colleges across India attended the event.

### Speakers at AliensFest 3.0

| Speaker | Designation | Company |
| Jayesh Ranjan | Secretary, Information Technology (IT) | Government of Telangana |
| Sandeep Kumar Srivastava | Principal Product Strategy Manager | Microsoft India |
| Lakshmi Abburu | Director, Automation | Accenture |
| Tilen Pigac | Head of Community | OnePlus |
| Rajendra Nimje | Director General | Center for Good Governance, Govt. of Telangana |
| Justice P Naveen Rao | Judge | High Court, Telangana |
| Satyarth Priyedarshi | Head of Product Marketing | JioChat |
| Ravi Devulapally | Vice President | SRIX |
| Balaji Venketeshwar | Researcher, Cyber Threat Intelligence | |
| Guruprasad Ramamoorthy | Senior Director | GTC at S&P Global |
| Madhusudhan Anand | CTO | Ambee |
| Rajat Ojha | CEO | Gamitronics |
| Saurav Kaushik | Data Scientist | Uber |
| Joy Mustafi | Director | Salesforce AI |
| Susurla V S Suresh | CTO | Startoon Labs |
| Ranga Rao Karanam | Author, Founder | in28minutes.com |
| Dr. S.M. Ahmed | Ex Scientist | VSSC ISRO |
| Vineel Reddy Pindi | Founder | Collab House |
| Deepak Lalan | Director – Blockchain Leader | Accenture |
| GR Reddy | Founder | Husys |
| Vishnu Saran | Founder | Voice Qube |
| Durga Naveen Kandregula | Founder | COIGN |
| Rahul Sachdev | Hardware Project Manager | rENIAC |

## TheTechFest 2017 – Awaken the Future

TheTechFest 2017 was based on the theme Awaken the Future, where students were introduced to the various aspects of technology and disruptive thinking. TheTechFest 2017 was powered by CDK Global and in association with Facebook. The emphasis at TheTechFest 2017 was on technology and its applications rather than just engineering know-how. Attendance exceed 3200 participants. Guest speaker Ankur Mehra, Head of Media and Partnerships from Facebook India, spoke about culture and its importance. Over 1600 students attended the twenty-two workshops on various streams of engineering. Twenty projects were displayed in the Project Expo. Students from 96 colleges in India participated in the event.

### Speakers at TheTechFest 2017

| Speaker | Designation | Company |
| Martin J Aichmayr | Former general manager – Data Centres | IBM Germany |
| Ankur Mehra | Head Media Partnerships | Facebook India |
| Shubhabrata Mohanty | Vice President of Engineering | CDK Global (India) |
| Aditee Rele | Director – Technical Solutions | Microsoft India |
| Arijit Bhattacharyya | Founder & CEO | VirtualInfoCom |
| Abhijith Naraparaju | Region Head | Blockchain Education Network |
| Dr. Vikas Kumar Saxena | Director | DRDO |
| Vineel Nalla | Founder | 50K Ventures |
| Susurla V S Suresh | Engineer, author, Inventor, Mentor | |
| Dr. S. M. Ahmed | Ex Scientist | VSSC ISRO |
| Amit Sharma | Sr Director – Data Science | ADP |
| Ritesh Modi | Principal Consultant | Infront Consulting |
| Hitesh Ramani | Product Head | GrabOn |
| Surya Medchalam | GM R&D Mechanical | Medha Servo Drives Pvt Ltd |
| Hemanth Satyanarayana | CEO | Imaginate |
| Dr. A. Govardhan | Principal | JNTUHCEH |
| Amit Kapoor | Assoc Director, Digital Marketing | Cigniti Technologies |

## TheTechFest 2016

The first edition of the AliensFest (TheTechFest) was in 2016 which started with the motto of promoting technology among the students and educate them by creating awareness among them to start working on the latest technology and happenings in the corporates and help them in building their own products during their graduation by connecting the technology experts to students and also encourage student startups by providing support.
Around 2600 students from over 30 colleges participated in the first edition of TheTechFest, which included an introduction to Tech Talks, Workshops, and a Project Expo.

### Speakers at TheTechFest 2016

| Speaker | Designation | Company |
| Shri. Konda Vishweshwar Reddy | Member of Parliament | |
| Shri. Jayesh Ranjan | Secretary, Information Technology (IT) | Government of Telangana |
| Pankaj Diwan | Managing Director | Idealabs |
| Aditee Rele | Director – Technical Solutions | Microsoft India |
| Ayyappa Nagubandi | Founder & CEO | Broadcast Wearables Pvt Ltd |
| Abhay Deshpande | Founder & CEO | Martjack |
| Krishna Tungaturthi | Segment Head – Airport (Domestic) | Larsen & Toubro Limited |
| Chandra Mouli Koduri | Vice President – Product and Technology | GrabOn |
| Naidu Darapaneni | Co-founder & C.E.O | MeraEvents |
| Dr. S. M. Ahmed | Ex Scientist | VSSC ISRO |
| Sai Venkatesh | Founder & managing director | Foudroyant Analytics |
| Vaishali Neotia | Co-founder & CEO | Merxius |
| K. K. Senthil Kumar | Cinematographer | |
| Anurag Rathor | Founder | Zify |
| Aditya Vuchi | Founder | Zippr |
| Dr. A. Govardhan | Principal | JNTUHCEH |
| Ravi Devulapally | Director | Numbers Only Informatics Pvt. Ltd. |
| Umashankar Adi Kotturu | CEO & Founder | CallAmbulance |
| Venkat Kumar Tangirala | President - India & South East Asia | WindStream Technologies Inc |
| Honey Bajaj | Research Assistant | MIT Media Lab |
| GR Reddy | Founder & Chief Facilitator | Husys Consulting Ltd – India |
| Prashant Jain | Director, Cloud and International Operations | CtrlS Datacenters Ltd |