Next Tech Lab is a proven successful experiment in student-led innovation. Starting at SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRMIST), Kattankulathur, the lab has an impeccable track record of winning Hackathons, publishing in top journals and prototyping unprecedented ideas, and receiving validation and guidance from the finest professors worldwide. Next Tech Lab is the only organisation from India to win the QS Reimagine Education 2018 award for its work in pioneering the student-led innovation lab model in India. The award was presented to the founders of Next Tech Lab by Nunzio Quacquarelli at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Next Tech Lab provides a platform for students to learn, research and implement their ideas and develop skills to disrupt industries and build future companies.
What Do We Do
Next Tech Lab (NTL) is where similar intellectual minds meet, interact, and ideate to bring solutions to world-class problems cost-effectively using cutting-edge technologies. We at NTL-AP try to create an environment to harness the feeling of community and togetherness.
Next Tech Lab’s environment has seen a ton of inspiring feats that will make you soak up motivation and take a leap towards your passion and career.
Events such as - Paper Reading Sessions, Game Jams, and Workshops on Booming Technologies can be seen regularly in the lab. Individuals are highly motivated to accomplish their dreams and interests in the lab with the highly advanced equipment. We’ve also been given an award for the accolades received.
This QS-ranked student-run laboratory has its wings spread across various cutting-edge technologies like Deep Learning (Machine Learning / Artificial Intelligence), Human-Computer Interaction (AR/VR), Game Development, Computational Biology, Electrical Systems, Cryptocurrency (Blockchains/Cryptography), UI/UX(Designing), Web and App Development and Internet of Things.
Events and Activities
Next Tech Lab can proudly say that it has organised events that have helped individuals expand their thinking in knowledge across various horizons in the field of technology. These events have proved that “DREAMS CAN BE ACHIEVED”. Next Tech Lab members who have been a part of the Semester Abroad Programme at UC Berkeley were inspired by the work culture and environment there and were equally motivated to reverse brain-drain the enthusiasm into the lab.
Events by NTL-SRMAP
After the Summer break, the core community of Next Tech Lab has organised a meetup for all the members and associates. The purpose of this event was to spark up the community's connection with each other and further be able to plan project collaborations based on the individual skillset. A movie and a gaming night followed the meetup. The event led to many collaborations between the members for various projects and hackathons.
The session was organised by Utkarsh(3 Year NTL member). The event focused on explaining the importance of building a project, the significance of promising projects in resumes, encouraging people to work on cross-domain projects, how to get started with building projects, the Tech stack required, How to deploy, GitHub, and discussions about popular projects by NTL's alumni, Open Session (People come in and discuss their projects in front of an audience).
The session was organised by Karthikay (4th Year NTL Board member). Increased demand for associates' interest in writing research papers created a necessity to guide them. NTL board has decided to organise an event that would answer the basic yet essential questions "How to read a research paper?", "How to find and make collaborations?" and "How to research and write a paper?". Having experience in making collaborations and publishing, Karthikay came forward to take the session. It was a success, and requests have come in for another in-depth session.
Interest in data science was growing among new and old lab members. However, there existed an ambiguity as many only know the syntax of ".fit" and ".predict". To sort this out and to provide a sense of direction, a session on "Maths Behind Data Science" was organised by Sri Harsha (MBA- Data Science NTL member). The session gave a complete road map for machine learning and deep learning. An in-depth focus was on maths used in various ML and DL algorithms. Moreover, the event also focused on ways to master these algorithms and have a deep comprehension of their work.
More Events
Members of Next Tech Lab showcase their projects that promote learning about the tech stack and have a one-to-one knowledge transfer. It ignites individuals' passion for working towards their dream projects and encourages individuals to join Next Tech Lab to pursue something they are fascinated about.
Smart India Hackathon is a nationwide initiative to provide students with a platform to solve some of the pressing problems we face daily and thus inculcate a culture of product innovation and a mindset of problem-solving. Next Tech Lab provided an opportunity for the students of this college to participate in this nationwide hackathon by organising Smart India (Internal) Hackathon, which acts as a qualifier round in every regional area all over the country. SRM-AP, selects the top teams to announce their win in a college-level competition to the committee members of SIH.
An open-to-all hackathon - NexT Tech Lab conducted HackSRM on Devfolio to encourage budding developers and engineers. It is a 48 hours hackathon with a group of mentors looking to help the developers. We screened over 100+ compelling submissions to filter out the top 10 Finalists whose projects were pitched to decide on a winner. There were multiple tracks with a prize pool of more than 1,00,000 INR and internship and part-time opportunities with further connections.
Members of their respective labs meet, discuss and share knowledge about domain-specific topics and technologies. We have divided this session into two. One is the paper reading session, where everyone is welcome to discuss and talk about research papers specified in the field of interest. The other is Field study, where discussions take place on tech news and recent advancements across various places.
Dawn of Data, organised by Next Tech Lab, was an interactive and live seminar on applying tools and statistical models to vast amounts of data. We ensured that we touched on the basics in the session we held.
- How can Python help do different data operations?
- Discussion and revamping of various Python libraries like numpy, scipy and matplotlib.
- How do we visualise and analyse the data to give proper insights?
These events ensured that individuals had hands-on experience on the above-said things. Students enjoyed a lot in learning and implementing it side by side.
The members of the Next Tech Lab organised this event with the help of the ACM women chapter and IEEE women chapter. This women-only event was conducted to share their knowledge of python. The tasks were given accordingly, and students were encouraged to perform and get involved in the activity. The students were taught the basics of python, and the mentors resolved the issues they faced while learning the language from Next Tech Lab.
- Basics of python in a very beginner-friendly way
- Different assessments with prizes for the ones scoring the highest
- Games and fun learning using Kahoot!
- Pizzas served to students as refreshment
It is a signature hackathon conducted every year, post the recruitment drive every year at Next Tech Lab-AP for the members in the lab. This is an amazing opportunity to introduce the community to the industrial standards of hackathons - think of the current problems, make a basic fast prototype and think of its scalability. It is an offline, internal lab hackathon where all the lab members participate and dig to find new innovative ideas that solve real-world problems. It is generally their first team activity as members of the lab. This event helps to bridge the gap between the seniors and juniors, as the seniors act as mentors during the entire process. Additionally, sense of community and the scope of new collaborations among the newbies. The fun side of the event is to share stories and experiences of the hackathons by existing lab members, some snacks and fun games as icebreakers.
Not only do we promote technical events, but we also encourage the new members to grow life-long connections with their seniors and other members of Next Tech Lab. We promote such events by doing a few fun activities in leisure times like Movie watching sessions, Gaming nights, Pitch sessions, games, and many more fun activities.