Date & Time
April 8, 2026, 8:30 am
Venue
St. Joseph's Institute of Technology, Chennai
SAMUDHAYA 2026
One Day Conference on Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
SAMUDHAYA 2026 was not just another conference, but a vibrant meeting ground where academia and industry sparked real conversations across the auditorium. In its inaugural year, the event went beyond traditional talks and panels, inviting students and professionals to bring their toughest, unsolved challenges from the field. Industry leaders and domain experts rolled up their sleeves to tackle these problems side by side, turning the conference into a live laboratory of ideas and solutions.
With its spotlight on artificial intelligence and machine learning in life sciences and enterprise, the conference became a dynamic crossroads where learning flowed both ways. Practitioners discovered new insights from rising talent, while students walked away with hands-on wisdom that went far beyond textbooks. The forum was built on a simple conviction: the most meaningful progress in AI happens where curiosity meets real-world experience.
Organized by ACL Digital Life Sciences & St. Joseph’s Institute of Technology
Theme
Transforming Tomorrow with AI
Innovate. Integrate. Inspire.
What Was in Store
| 3 Industry talks | 2 Panel discussions | Hands-on workshop | Group activity | Networking |
| Pfizer, Hexaware & SAAMA on real AI in practice | AI & humanity · campus-to-corporate transition | ML, NLP, GenAI, Agentic & Explainable AI deep dive | Business problem solving — theory to practical | Connect with industry leaders & researchers |
Agenda At a Glance
| Time | Tracks | Session Details | Duration |
| 08:30 AM – 08:45 AM | Track – 1 (Audio Visual Theatre – II) | Registration & Welcome Refreshments St. Joseph’s Team (Organizing Committee & Volunteers) | 15 minutes |
| 08:45 AM – 09:10 AM | Inaugural Ceremony Welcome Address Dafni Rose (Head) Dept. of Computer Science, St. Joseph’s Opening Remarks Nishanth Nalan, ACL Digital Practice Head – Life Sciences, ACL Digital | 25 minutes | |
| 09:10 AM – 09:50 AM | Industry Talk 1 Beyond Prediction: How GenAI and Knowledge Graphs are redefining Pharma Dr. Rit Pratik Mishra Principal Data Scientist – AI/ML, Quantitative & Digital Sciences, Pfizer | 40 minutes | |
| 09:50 AM – 10:30 AM | Industry Talk 2 The Era of Rapid Prototyping: Building Ideas at the Speed of Thought using AI & IDE Agents Varun Sethuraman Practice Manager – Domain & Solutions, Hexaware | 40 minutes | |
| 10:30 AM – 11:10 AM | Panel Discussion 1 (Industry – Associates) Theme: Campus to Corporate: Navigating the Transition from Academia to Industry in the AI era Moderators – Akshita Sawant & Lavanya Devi (ACL Digital) Panel Members 1. Ben Stanes, IT Security Consultant, Larsen & Toubro 2. Calvin Davis S R, Digital Specialist Engineer, Infosys 3. Sakthi Thiruchengottaian, Associate Statistical Programmer, ACL Digital 4. Piriyadharshini Manogaran, Statistical Programmer, Sensan 5. Anandu P Venu, Statistical Programmer, Oryxion 6. Maria Susan Zachariah, Principal Biostatistician – Biostatistics, Pfizer | 40 minutes | |
| 11:10 AM – 11:30 AM | Morning Break | 20 minutes | |
| 11:30 AM – 12:45 PM | Track – 1 (Audio Visual Theatre – II) | Panel Discussion 2 (Industry – Leaders) Theme: AI and Humanity: Redefining Personal and Professional Landscapes Concepts Industry Expectations – Human-AI Collaboration Ethical Concerns – Towards Ethically Adaptive Systems Human+ AI: Shared Future or at War? Moderator – Dr. Subbiah (Consultant, ACL Digital) Panel Members 1. Bhaskar Subramanian, Director – Statistical Programming, AstraZeneca 2. Rajalakshmi Srinivasan, Director – Product Management, Zoho 3. Piyush Bhattacharya, Director – Strategy, ACL Digital 4. Rajagopalan Varadarajan, Co-Founder, Surren Technologies Private Limited. 5. Dr. Jeba Sonia, Associate Professor – School of Computing, SRM | 1 hr 15 minutes |
| 12:45 PM – 1.15 PM | Industry Leaders & Department of CSE Felicitation (Invited delegates only) Facilitation By 1. Dr. C. Rajathi, Assistant Professor, St. Joseph’s 2. Dr. D. Menaga, Associate Professor, St. Joseph’s 3. Mrs. A. Vani Lavanya, Assistant Professor, St. Joseph’s | 30 minutes | |
| 12:45 PM –2:00 PM | Lunch Break | ||
| 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM | Track – 2 (Audio Visual Theatre – I) | Group Discussion Activity Explore Business Problem – Theory to Practical (Ideapreuner + Dataprenuers) Building a Simple AI Solution | Prompt Engineering Basics | AI Tools for Students Dr. Subbiah Consultant, ACL Digital | 2 hours |
| 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM | Track – 1 (Audio Visual Theatre – II) | Hands-on Workshop from ACL Digital (Technical Deep Dive) Machine Learning |Deep Learning | NLP (Natural Language Processing) | Computer Vision | Generative AI | Agentic AI | EDGE AI | XAI (Explainable AI in Regulated Industries) | Transfer learning | Sustainable AI
| 2 hours |
| 4:00 PM – 4:15 PM | Evening Break | 15 minutes | |
| 4:15 PM – 4:45 PM | Track – 1 (Audio Visual Theatre – II) | Q&A Session Memento Distribution Vote of Thanks Dr. Dafni Rose Nishanth Nalan | 30 minutes |
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