A two-day interdisciplinary startup expo and technical symposium organised by the Government College of Technology (GCT-Coimbatore) concluded here on Saturday (September 26).

Organised in association with the DCKAP Incubation Centre, ‘PORIKKALAM ’26 – An Arena for Engineers’ brought together over 600 students from engineering colleges across Tamil Nadu, besides faculty members, industry professionals and academicians.

The symposium featured 17 events under technical, flagship, premium and non-technical categories. The events included robotics, coding, hackathons, structural challenges, reverse engineering, business problem-solving, paper presentations and creative design.

Two initiatives, THULIRA and TECH THIRAL, were organised in association with DCKAP. THULIRA, a student startup challenge, provided students an opportunity to present their venture ideas and demonstrate their technical potential. TECH THIRAL, a startup and technology showcase, enabled students to interact with technology-driven companies and learn about real-world applications of technology.

According to the organisers, the event marked the first time in 25 years that all departments of GCT had come together to organise the institution’s flagship event.

GCT Principal T. Purusothaman, DCKAP founder and CEO Karthik Chidambaram and The Yellow Network co-founder and CTO Senthilvelan Natarajan participated in the inauguration.

Event convenor P. Ilamathi and PORIKKALAM ’26 core team member Jeevanagan were also present.