The campus of National Institute of Technology (NIT)-Rourkela is currently abuzz with budding scientists talking about chemicals and experiments with the DST-Inspire Internship Science Camp that has started on December 17. Around 450 students of various schools of Rourkela are attending the programme, organised by the department of science and technology. Inspire, or Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research, is a unique initiative of the Centre to motivate youths to pursue a career in basic sciences because of the popular perception that opportunities in the field were limited. However, Inspire has assumed the form of a movement in the country after it was launched in 2007, said an official, adding that over 70,000 students in various states had been covered under this internship programme through 200-odd camps. This camp includes technical sessions in physics, chemical, biological, biotechnological, earth and environmental sciences apart from featuring scientific, visual displays and lab activities by students on various subjects. Earlier, on December 14, NIT-Rourkela had invited industrialists, businessmen and entrepreneurs for a special programme in which institute director Sunil Kumar Sarangi talked about the facilities available on campus for local industries to conduct their research work and upgrade products. Youth carnival nEuphoria fest for college-goers hosted since 1998 in Baripada has been announced for 2014. The festival will feature contests for youngsters, particularly in debate, group discussion in English and Odia. Other highlights of the annual event would be creative writing in English, poetry, painting, cartooning, light vocal, extempore, mime, mono play, folk dance, classical dance, record dance, drama, script enactment, arrangement of flower bouquets, antakshari, jhoti and alpana. At the end of the cultural programme, winners for Mr Euphoria and Miss Euphoria would be announced. President of the festival Tapas Parhi said this would be the 17th edition of the state-level inter-college event. “Student participants from various premier institutions of Odisha come down to Baripada to take part in this four-day carnival of action and excitement to show their talent on this platform,” he said. Organiser Ankur Khurana said the fest would be hosted at the Chhow Padia of Baripada from January 9 to 12. Best engineers nThe annual convention of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) was held at the SoA University, Bhubaneswar, on December 13. On the occasion, former chairman of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission, Colonel S.P. Wahi, and former head of physics department of IIT-Delhi, K.L. Chopra, were conferred with the lifetime achievement award in engineering. The INAE, the highest body of engineers and technocrats in India, gives away several awards in recognition of excellence in the field of engineering every year. Academy president Baldev Raj, a distinguished scientist and former director of the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, gave away the awards. The Professor Jai Krishna and Professor S.N. Mitra Memorial Awards for 2013 were presented to M.L. Munjal and N. Balakrishnan from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The outstanding teachers award, instituted this year, were presented to deputy director of IIT-Kharagpur Souvik Bhattacharyya and mathematics professor of SoA University J.C. Misra, a former teacher at IIT-Kharagpur. Besides, 11 young engineers below the age of 35 were presented the INAE Young Engineer Award for excellence in design and technology transfer, innovative development and engineering research work. The Innovative Student Projects Awards were presented to 10 students at the BTech level, and five each at masters’ level and doctoral level. Academy officials announced plans of organising an “Engineers Conclave” from the current year to be jointly organised with department of atomic energy, department of space, Defence Research and Development Organisation and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Chemical equation nA two-day national conference on “Chemistry in the 21st Century” was organised at the College of Modern Engineering and Management Studies, Balasore, in association with the Odisha Chemical Society. In the inaugural session, former health director Nayan Mohanty and additional director of Integrated Test Range, Binay Das, addressed the students on the recent scientific breakthroughs. On the occasion, the best teacher and students were felicitated. Web application nThe international conference on web engineering and applications began at the College of Engineering and Technology, Bhubaneswar, on December 18. The four-day event, third in the series of such conferences, has brought together researchers and practitioners from the world over to share their experiences and discuss technology trends and innovative results. There will be keynote addresses, in-depth tutorials, interactive workshops, demos and tech talks at the programme. Emilia Mendes, professor in software engineering at the Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden, would address the delegates on “Improving web effort estimation using an expert-centred approach”. Athula Ginige from Australia would talk about “Social life networks: Next generation mobile social networks for people in developing countries.” Other distinguished faculty members from Birla Institute of Technology-Ranchi, IITs and NITs and others will also deliver lectures. Fifteen papers will be presented on the first two days, which will cover design of secure web applications, patterns and classification of web services, e-learning and geo-applications. The last two days would see a conference to address security issues related to the industry in web engineering domain.