CHENNAI: The 17th edition of ‘graVITas’, the international techno-management fest of Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), will be held on the university campus in Vellore from September 18 to 20, featuring 227 events, including AI hackathons, technical competitions and a defence technology exhibition. 

According to a press release issued by VIT, Chancellor G Viswanathan, Md Alimuzzaman, Deputy High Commissioner of Bangladesh in Chennai, will be the chief guest at the inaugural function on Friday. Pawan Vadapalli and Prince Jayakumar, Corporate Vice-Presidents at HCLTech, will attend as guests of honour. 

More than 40,000 students are expected to participate in the fest. Of the 227 events, 76 have already been conducted, while 151 will be held during the three-day event. This year’s edition includes 157 new events, comprising 31 hackathons, 62 workshops, 57 technical competitions and 10 entrepreneurship events. Popular events such as Robowars, CookOff, Aerodominator and Quadcopter will also return. 

The fest has a prize pool of around Rs 25 lakh in cash and Rs 1.5 crore worth of prizes in kind. Capital Hunt 2.0, ForgeAI, a 36-hour artificial intelligence hackathon, and kARniVRse, an AR/VR gaming experience, are among the new events. MotoVault, an automobile expo, and an exhibition by the Combat Vehicle Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE) showcasing indigenous defence technologies will also be held. 

Students from over 300 institutions in India and abroad, including participants from 22 countries, are expected to attend. Special events have been organised for school students. An interactive session with Aman Gupta of Shark Tank India is also scheduled.