KCG CONNECT

The objectives of the Alumni Association :

1. To Strengthen Alumni Connections with their Alma Matter and its community.
2. To provide a forum for the old students to KCG College of Technology to meet and discuss matters of common interest.
3. To develop interaction between the present and the future alumni on a common platform and on an ongoing basis.
4. To maintain a current and an up-to-date Alumni Database comprising details of their contacts, employment and qualification.
5. To liaison with the University and the members in order to update the Alumni Database every year after convocation.
6. To approve/ promote establishment of the Alumni Chapters at different geographical locations having adequate congregation of alumni.
7. Alumni Chapters across the globe and to document reports of all such events.
8. To develop a mutually supportive relationship with alumni to encourage lifelong learning and continued growth of the Alumni and at the same time provide opportunities to alumni, to contribute in their own way to their Alma Matter:

• • By delivering guest lectures/ Seminars/ Workshops.
  • By suggesting Laboratory and Software upgradation for different courses
  • By facilitating Industrial Visits, Training and Placement, Internship and Projects for current students

1. To publish KCGC Annual Newsletter containing details of the year long activities of the association.
2. To extend due support to the College during inspections by the Regulatory Authorities such as MHRD, UGC, AICTE, NBA, ABET and so on, and to ensure attendance of a minimum of 1/3 members of KCGC during such visits.
3. To contribute to the promotion and acknowledgement of the achievements of the college and its alumni
4. To raise funds for the development of the College and other activities taken up by KCGC.
5. To ensure that KCGC has sufficient funds to conduct and promote the activities and objectives of the association.
6. To systematically and steadily uplift the image and status of KCG College of Technology both nationally and internationally.
7. To project nationally and internationally University’s contribution to numerous fields of education.
8. To promote the interests of the College, its past and present students.
9. To promote goodwill and mutual assistance among the members of KCGC.
10. To become the voice of the alumni in all matters related to the betterment of the KCG College of Technology.
11. To foster continuing professional/ academic development of the College by soliciting support from achievers amongst the alumni in them by soliciting support from achievers amongst the alumni in their respective fields.
12. To maintain camaraderie and fraternity amongst the ex-students of the University by encouraging social and cultural association amongst themselves.
13. To institute awards for eminent persons and for those who have contributed to the Society locally, nationally and Internationally.
14. To accomplish all such things as may be deemed incidental or conducive to the attainment of the foregoing objectives.

KCG Connect Alumni Meet 2021

KCG College of Technology and KCG Connect Alumni Association held the first virtual alumni meet on 24^th January 2021 at 10 am.

The virtual nature of the Meet made it a wonderful opportunity for alumni abroad to come together with alumni at home in India. Alumni from different walks of life and from different parts of the world like US, UK, Australia, and Singapore were part of the event. For the first time, there was a comparative large presence of alumni (32 in number) from the first batch that passed out in 2002.  All in all, 378 alumni registered for the event.

The Meet honoured achievements of select alumni. Nominations had been invited for achievements in different categories like Professional (Private & Govt sectors), Academia & Research, Arts & Media, Community Service, Defence, Entrepreneurship and Sports. 111 nominations were received. The shortlisted nominations in each category were sent to distinguished members in various fields. The jury panel comprised General Bobby Mathews (decorated Army General), MrKirthivasan, (Campus Hiring Head, Virtusa), Mr Dorai Thodla (serial entrepreneur), Mrs Sumithra Prasad (Founder, Dorai Foundation), Dr Parvathy and Dr Muthkumaran(Professors & Heads, Hindustan University). Twenty seven alumni achievers were awarded Distinguished Alumni Award and Young Alumni Achiever Award. Five alumni were honoured for their year-long engagement with their Alma Mater and for their efforts to make the alumni meet a success.

The participants were regaled with musical performances by some of our alumni. There was Nalin and Ramkumar (alumni 2015) on the mridingam and drums respectively. It brought back memories of the days when the KMC auditorium used to reverberate as they jammed together. Jyothsana, Ranjini and Janani (Alumni 2006) gave a mesmerizing Carnatic rendition. The celebrity twins Arun & Aravind (Alumni 2011) gave a small talk.

Gowri Shankar (Alumnus 2010, Secretary KCG Connect ) presented a short report of the activities of KCG Connect in 2020. The video ‘Down the Memory Lane’ of the scenes from KCG through the years, was full of nostalgic moments. There was also live sharing of memories by alumni. One highlight was the interaction with the Special Guest Ms MB Bindu (HoD S&H) who has been with the institution from its inception.

Director Dr Annie Jacob announced an endowment of ten lakhs as pre-seed money for alumni start ups. To everyone’s happy astonishment Nitish Sairam (alumnus 2012, and recipient of Distinguished Alumni Award) announced a matching grant of 10 lakhs from his side. A great end to a wonderful reunion!

After the formal function, alumni met in break out rooms with their friends.

|Young Alumni Achiever Awards

|Special Awards

PITCH FEST – LIFT OFF ‘21

The culture of entrepreneurship has been nurtured at KCG College for a long time. This particular zeitgeist  received a major shot in the arm when during the Alumni Meet on 24th January 2021, the Director announced that CEO was giving a grant of ten lakhs as pre seed funding for alumni start ups. This generated a great deal of excitement, marking a wonderful opportunity for aspiring entrepreneurs among alumni.

After brainstorming, it was decided to conduct a Pitch Fest Lift Off ’21 for alumni and fourth year students to identify recipients for a grant of one lakh each. A workshop was held to show the aspirants how to frame a business model and create a pitch deck. The workshop was conducted by another alumnus start up Illumnii. A template was shared where the registrants were asked to fill in the market analysis, financial projections, the problem, the competition,  and the USP of their solution.

Twelve teams showed their grit and determination by submitting all the required information. From this, the illumnii team shortlisted seven teams. This included two student teams and five alumni teams.

The details are as follows:

Fourth Year Student Teams

PALFTEC (Mechanical & Fashion Technology): The plant leaves post agriculture harvest are dumped. The machine which we have fabricated is a one stop tool which extracts and processes the fibres from this waste. These fibres can be used to create multi-purpose antimicrobial fabric.

Team Members:

1. Nitheesh P (IV Year, Mech)
2. Felix Remigius M (IV Year, Mech)
3. Naresh S (IV Year, Mech)
4. Raghul K (IV Year, Mech)
5. Surya Bharth (III Year FT)

VAYU-RATHA (Aeronautical) : This is a service based and product based enterprise. They want to offer basic and advanced technological education about drones and UAV. They also seek to build Nano, Micro and Macro drones.

Team Members

1. Mathisharma G (IV Year, Aero)
2. Mohan Rishikesh M (IV Year, Aero)
3. AbishekVimal Kumar C (IV Year, Aero)
4. Thejishree (IV Year, Aero)

Alumni Teams

1. CDL SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS PVT LTD (Aero Batch 2011) :The main idea of FromFarm_AI solution is to connect farmers [Sellers] and consumers[Buyers ] by replacing the third-party vendors or traders. One USP is the addition of AI to create a more effective and will be completely different from other e commerce sites.

 Team Members

1. Adam Gilchrist Kuppuswamy, Data Scientist, SmartMind.Inc, SouthKorea [Founder CEO,FromFarm_AI], (Aero Batch 2011)
2. Kaviraj Sangeetharaj,Project Lead ,Caterpillar.Inc,Chennai [Founder CTO,FromFarm_AI], (Aero Batch 2011)
3. GnanadesiganSigamani ,Senior Software Engineer ,CTS,Chennai [Technical Lead , FromFarm_AI], (Aero Batch 2011)
4. Amrish , Senior Software Engineer ,CTS,Chennai [Developer, FromFarm_AI], (Aero Batch 2011)

3.SPACE ZEE (EIE Batch 2017): This is an edtech start up. Instead of the video based model used by others in the field, this start up offers to connect each student to a mentor and proposes a Build 2 Learn model of learning

Team Members 

1. Hariharan,( EIE Batch 2017)
2. Arun Raj, (EIE Batch 2017)
3. Aishwaryaa, (EIE Batch 2017)
4. Meghnasurana,(EIE Batch 2017)

2.SANDBIRD(Mechanical Batch – 2018, 2019) :Sand Bird is a smart electric semi-automated power tiller. That offers 10x lower operational costwith minimum manual intervention. This will be a boon t Indian farmers

 Team Members

1. Bala Surya S (CEO- Sand Bird), (Mechanical Batch – 2018)
2. Ajith Kannan R (CPO- Sand Bird), (Mechanical Batch – 2019)

4.MANDEC (Mechanical Batch 2020): The main theme of the project is to separate the mango kernel from the mango shell either in pulverized or in original state by using a decortications mechanism for extraction of oil for various applications mainly cosmetics

 Team Members

1. Sathish S, (Mechanical Batch 2020)
2. Sushmit Raj S, (Mechanical Batch 2020)
3. Vignesh K, (Mechanical Batch 2020)
4. Vinoth E, (Mechanical Batch 2020)

5.SNAG MOZHI SOLUTIONS PVT LTD (Mechanical Batch 2017): Snag Mozhi Solutions Pvt. Ltd is a service-based language and digital solution start-up. It offers its wide range of services like contextual subtitling, translation, video editing, voice over and various content and Digital marketing services

Team Members

1. Nandhakumar – Executive Head, (Mechanical Batch 2017)
2. SathishBabu – Operation Head, (Mechanical Batch 2017)
3. Anbumani – Creative Head, (Mechanical Batch 2017)
4. Gokul Raj – CTO, (Mechanical Batch 20

Three eminent Jurors were identified. The jurors were

1. Srinivasan Viswanathan, who has worked in various capacities like CEO of Citicorp Software and Managing Director of JP Morgan Chase. He is currently a Co-Founder of Ultimate Business Advisors LLP, India, and has mentored numerous start ups.
2. Narayanan Hariharan is a Growth Consultant, who has worked as business analyst and was theCo founder of NFN Labs, and Startup Mentor in Wadhwani Foundation.
3. NithishSairam, an alumnus worked at Tesla and Nextera Energy Resources before founding his successful start up Illumine i.

Brain storming with them, five criteria for the final selection was fixed

1. Validation of the Problem & quality of the Solution
2. Business Model
3. Social Impact
4. Growth Model
5. Presentation, Q & A.

Final Round

The final round of Pitch Fest LIFT OFF ’21was held on 9^th April 2021 at 3 pm.

Director & CEO of Hindustan Group, Dr Anand Jacob Verghese felicitated the jurors and finalists. He spoke of the establishment of TBI, the many start ups nurtured by the kCG TBI and saw the Pitch Fest as a natural escalation of the mentoring of start ups through the years.He spoke of the vision of the founder chairman Dr KCG Verghese who wanted the graduates to stay in India and serve the nation and also become job providers instead of job seekers.

After the felicitation the presentations began. The teams presented their pitch deck and answered the questions put to them by various jurors. At the end of the presentation at 6 pm, the jurors had arrived at a unanimous decision. It was clear from the score sheet that the Jurors had reached similar conclusions on their own.

The order of ranking for the top three was

1. SANDBIRD with a final score of 19. 33
2. SPACE ZEE with a final score of 67
3. SNAGMOZHI SOLUTIONS with a final score of 15.33

Out of the three, the jurors held that Sandbird had the clearest scalable business model. The jurors appreciated the Management and the college for creating such an opportunity for start ups. It was indeed a great opportunity for aspiring alumni entrepreneurs.

In a simple award ceremony held on campus, Director and CEO Dr Anand Jacob Verghese presented a cheque of Rs 1 lakh to each of the winners. As recommended by the jurors, the student team PALFTECH was awarded fifty housed to encourage them in their journey.

Congratulations to all aspirants for making use of this opportunity to turn their dream into reality.