IIT Madras hosts international conference in memory studies | Education

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras Centre for Memory Studies is organizing an international conference on ‘Memory in a Digital Age’ from August 23 to 25, 2022.

The conference, conducted in hybrid mode, is featuring over 160 speakers from the UK, USA, Israel, Poland Australia and India, the institute said.

The conference was inaugurated on Tuesday by Tamil Nadu’s Finance Minister Dr. Palanivel Thiaga Rajan.

“The conference also saw the release of ‘MemoryBytes,’ the first AR-based mobile app capturing the history and life of the transnational Anglo-Indian community across 500 years. The app will provide an interactive, animated, and augmented experience of photographs, maps, and archival documents during the physical-cum-digital exhibition held during the conference at the IC&SR Building of IIT Madras,” an official statement said.

Addressing the inaugural event, Dr. Thiaga Rajan, Hon’ble said, “We are in the age of universal memory and so much common information is available to anybody, anytime. It has greatly enhanced the intellectual capabilities of the common people. Now, we live in the age of infinite external memory. However, there are issues in engines of storage and retrieval. Conferences such as these are very important since universalization of memory has still not translated to universal access.”

“Tamil Nadu is within the top 3 States where we have instituted a computer in every MLAs’ desk. Every single debate, bill and budget will be made available so that MLAs can extract it in real time and contribute to the debate so that they do not have to rely on their internal memory,” he added.