It is the season of old friends coming together at various colleges and universities across Bhubaneswar, as educational institutes are hosting their alumni meets. The Alumni Association of Utkal University, Vani Vihar, had their annual gathering on December 13 where the alumni of the 1980 batch participated enthusiastically. The chairman-cum-managing director of Nalco, Tapan Kumar Chand, who was a former president of the University Students’ Union, lauded the association’s publication, Sahitya Samparka, which promotes Odia literature, besides establishing network among the members. 

The former varsity student said Nalco would include Utkal University in its Industry-Institution Interaction Scheme. Distinguished alumni from varied arenas of the society graced the occasion. The meet rekindled memories, strengthened old connections and created new ones. The students of the 1994 batch of Rajdhani College met at a temple on December 15. The alumni members had also invited the students of the present batch to highlight the achievements and initiatives taken up by the college in the preceding years and invite suggestions for the betterment of life on the campus. Similarly, the students of the 1973 batch of BJB College got together and shared their experiences and memories and pledged their support for the development of the college.

Science camp

The third Inspire science camp was organised by National Institute of Technology Rourkela between December 7 and 11 for 300 school students from various parts of the state. Innovation of Science Pursuit for Inspired Research is a programme sponsored by the department of science and technology to attract more talent to science. 

Students of the institute utilised the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience with the schoolchildren. The five-day-long event included talks by eminent professors from across the country as well as abroad, including physicist Bikash Sinha, scientist Duk Young Jeon of KAIST, South Korea, M.J. Allen of Washington State University, in the United States. The programme also included a series of laboratory visits and hands-on experience in different laboratories on advanced chemistry, physics, biomedical sciences, biotech, robotics, life science and electron microscopy. 

An industrial visit was organised to Rourkela Steel Plant for the students. A number of cultural events were also organised during the camp including theatre, dance and musical programmes.

Sports event

A two-day inter-college sports event was organised at Remuna College in Balasore on December 11 and 12. Around 726 students from 138 colleges all across the state took part in the annual event. Competitions were organised in 30 sections such as athletics, yoga, gymnastic, lawn tennis, badminton, table tennis, roller skating, swimming, hockey, volleyball, cricket, basketball, football, handball, archery, shooting (both rifle and pistol), boxing, judo, kho-kho and kabaddi. 

On the concluding day, the students presented various cultural programmes, including dance and musical recitals. The event was an enriching experience for the students, who interacted with each other. 

Exhibition

An inter-college science exhibition, The Quest 2015, was co-ordinated by students of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose College in Sambalpur last week. Students from seven colleges of the district took part in the exhibition. 

They exhibited several models on various themes, including environment, climate change, agricultural equipment and use of solar energy. Pritimayee Behera and Surpiya Senapati of Gangadhar Meher Junior College stood first. Rajat Sahu and Anita Nayak of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose College finished second and Pratyush Seth of Gangadhar Meher Junior College came third. Regional director of higher education Prashanta Mohapatra attended the closing ceremony as the chief guest and interacted with the students on various topics related to science and technology and current trends.

Conference

The International Management Institute, Bhubaneswar, held a two-day international conference on Global Business Environment: Strategies for Business Analytics and Cyber Security Management in collaboration with EGADE Business School, Mexico. Students taking part in the event focussed on the myriad business practices and emerging challenges faced by industries, along with innovative solutions academia can offer through industry-relevant application-based research. The event witnessed enthusiastic participation from faculty, research scholars and students of various institutes and universities such as Sam Houston State University, USA, EGADE Business School, Mexico, Defence University, Ethiopia, Symbiosis University, Pune, L.N. Welingkar Institute of Management, Mumbai, Punjabi University, Patiala, International Management Institute (IMI), New Delhi and Bhubaneswar, BIMTECH, C.V. Raman Institute of Management, KIIT School of Business Management and Sri Sri University. On the occasion, IMI Bhubaneswar also signed MoUs with EGADE for collaborative research, faculty and student exchange and joint certification programmes.

Entrepreneurship summit

Around 600 students from various engineering colleges of the state, including CV Raman College of Engineering, Silicon Institute of Technology, Institute of Technical Education & Research and College of Engineering and Technology, will participate in the Global Entrepreneurship Summit to be held at IIT Kharagpur from January 8 to 10. The summit plans to bring together academicians, new-age entrepreneurs, eminent business personalities, venture capitalists, so that they can share their entrepreneurial endeavours and experiences with the students, and discuss on ways to take entrepreneurship in India to greater heights. 

Book release

Students and faculty members of the Department of English, BJB (Autonomous) College, organised a seminar on the contribution of Odisha to Indian writings in English and brought out an anthology of critical essays on the topic. The essays have been chosen from papers presented at the seminar. They address the issues relating to Odia identity, language and culture as represented in texts from Odisha. Eminent writers such as Jayanta Mahapatra, Bibhu Padhi and Subehndu Mund attended the seminar. A number of topics such as Odia poets writing in English, interventions by Odia academics in new discourses, contributions made by magazines and periodicals in furthering the cause of Indian writing in English have been taken up in the anthology. The book has been edited by Sailendra Narayan Tripathy and Chittaranjan Misra and will help scholars and students.