February 1
Workshop on Social Media Accessibility
The Centre for Accessibility in the Global South (CAGS) at IIIT-Bangalore organised a workshop on Social Media Accessibility on February 1. It was a part of Saksham’s campaign that sought to raise awareness on what accessibility means and build capacities on both sides, persons with disabilities and other stakeholders – government agencies, media, academia, influencers, young adults etc. – on how to use accessibility features in day-to-day communication.
Below are fundamental tips from the workshop on making social media content more accessible to people with disabilities:
February 3
Silver Jubilee Lecture by Prof. Vijay Varadharajan
As a part of Silver Jubilee Lecture Series, Prof. Vijay Varadharajan, Global Innovation Chair Professor, Chief Cyber Strategist, The University of Newcastle, delivered a talk on ‘A Journey in Technology and Cyber Space’ at IIIT Bangalore.
In his talk, he explained about the technology scenario in cyber security and its challenges and he emphasised on some specific cyber technologies in the areas as cyber and AI, autonomous systems and 5G infrastructures. He concluded the talk by mentioning the shortage of talent and skills in the cyber security space.
February 4-5
Police Hackathon
The International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB) co-hosted a 30-hour POLICE HACKATHON with the Karnataka State Police Department on Feb 4th and 5th at the institute campus.
The 2- day long hackathon saw 150+ participants, with some outstation participants as well. Participants comprised students, start-ups, corporate employees, concerned civic-tech enthusiasts. The hackathon started on 4th Feb morning with an inaugural function and got over by the 5th Feb evening by 5pm with a prize distribution ceremony.
The hackathon, which was organised in hybrid mode by the Karnataka State Police aimed at fixing issues like crowd-sourcing of records, missing person identification and fraud app detection using technologies like Data Science, AI and Machine Intelligence.
The Chief Guest of the inauguration was Sri P S Sandhu, IPS, DGP, CID and Guest of Honour was Prof. Debabrata Das and Ms. Irina Ghose, GM, Microsoft.
February 15
Mock Fire Drill
A fire mock drill was held to address the emergency preparedness and to teach standard operation protocols that would help concerned people to act in accordance with the emergency situation to safeguard life and property. It was attended by the faculty, staff members, students and housekeeping staff.
February 23
Awareness Conclave on Assistive Technologies
In association with Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled, the Centre for Accessibility in the Global South (CAGS) at IIIT Bangalore organized a one-day Awareness Conclave on Assistive Technologies (AT) on February 23. The Conclave saw a large participation from persons with disabilities, caregivers, special schools, DPOs and disability NGOs along with technology start-ups, social/impact investors, corporates, government and the academia. The Conclave sessions focused on developing better insights into the contextual realities of persons with disabilities, from an Indian/Global South perspective, as well as their specific needs with respect to appropriate AT designs and delivery mechanisms.
