Dignitaries at the inauguration of KIIT University’s School of Architecture and Planning and (above) The Utkal University team which has qualified for the All-India University Volleyball Tournament. Telegraph picture

The NCC cadets in a rally to promote awareness on the country’s culture and heritage and (above) students of Swami Vivekanand National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research perform a street play to mark World Occupational Therapy Day on October 27. Picture by Sanjib Mukherjee and Telegraph picture

Dignitaries at the inauguration of KIIT University’s School of Architecture and Planning and (right) The Utkal University team which has qualified for the All-India University Volleyball Tournament. Telegraph pictureStudents of Swami Vivekanand National Institute of Rehabilitation Training and Research at Olatpur near Cuttack celebrated the World Occupational Therapy Day on October 27 by performing street plays across Bhubaneswar. The plays - performed at Old Bus Station, Pal Heights mall and Forum Mart - focused on making people aware about occupational therapy, its utility in maintaining health and making one self-dependent in their day-to-day activities. Besides, a health camp on work related musculoskeletal disorders and their intervention, in collaboration with Godrej, was organised at Pahala on the city outskirts. Ten students assessed and treated around 85 employees of the home appliances company. Anurupa Senapati, head of the department of occupational therapy at the institute, and lecturer Pragyan Singh addressed the employees. They said lack of public awareness and the government’s apathy towards the advanced science have discouraged students.

Entrepreneurship summit

X-Seed, the entrepreneurship cell of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar, hosted its first annual national entrepreneurship summit titled Ignite-2013 on October 20. The event saw students from various city institutes and local entrepreneurs coming together to share their ideas. Several industry experts addressed the participants. Rajinish Menon from Microsoft-India talked about the existence of an environment that is conducive to entrepreneurship and support that a budding entrepreneur could find on Wednesday in terms of money, infrastructure and technical support. He mentioned how innovation had invaded every aspect of our lives to the extent that we often took it for granted. Sanghamitra Jena, founder of the Eastern Treasure India Tours spoke about having enough conviction in one’s own ideas to stick it out. She said self-confidence and patience were keys to making it as an entrepreneur and a good entrepreneur learned how to create a demand for his or her product or service. Other speakers such as Ayaskanta Mohanty, managing director of Tatwa Technologies, and Rajeev Roy from IIM Raipur also inspired students with their speeches. This was followed by a question-and-answer session where participants asked about the opportunities and challenges in various fields.

Volleyball tourney

Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, stormed into the national inter-university volleyball tournament by trouncing Satvahana University of Andhra Pradesh in the final match of the central zone rounds held from October 14 to 17 at Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh. In the initial few matches, Utkal had defeated JNT University of Hyderabad, North Odisha University of Baripada and DAVV University of Indore. Utkal will take part in the all-India tournament to be held at Shivaji University, Kolhapur, Maharastra in January.

Heritage walk

Over 600 NCC cadets from 28 states and two Union territories took out a heritage walk on October 10 to promote awareness about the country’s culture and heritage. Carrying posters and placards on the need to protect our heritage, the cadets started the rally from Master Canteen Square and walked to Ram Mandir Square. The cadets, including over 200 girls, were attending a 12-day national integration camp, which was inaugurated on the SoA University campus on October 1. The campers had earlier been taken on a sightseeing trip to Lingaraj temple in Bhubaneswar, Jagannath temple in Puri, Sun temple at Konark, Dhauli peace pagoda and the Chandrabhaga beach.

Tech fest

More than 300 students from various colleges took part in Festronix-2K13, a tech fest organised by the Gandhi Institute For Technology (GIFT), Bhubaneswar, recently. Students from various engineering and management colleges had taken part in events such as autorobotics, manual robotics, Robowar, Lan games (NFS, Counter Strike), paper presentation, circuit simulator, quiz, roadies and divertimento over two days. A free android workshop was also conducted. Students of various schools and colleges took part in a science and painting exhibition organised on the sidelines of the fest. The Institute of Technical Education and Training (ITER), Bhubaneswar, won the Robowar event. In the autorobotics section, the Dhaneswar Rath Institute of Engineering and Management Studies, Cuttack, was adjudged winner. The total prize money was Rs 55,000.

KIIT’s new school

KIIT University has started a school of architecture and planning from this academic year. Arun Kumar Misra, secretary at the ministry of housing and urban poverty alleviation, inaugurated the new school on October 9. It has been recognised by the council of architecture and will offer a BArch degree with an intake of 60 students. “The country needs 40,000 planners, but produces only 3,000 every year. I am confident that this new initiative will go on to become a centre of excellence in the country,” said Misra.

Foundation day

The Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) celebrated its foundation day on October 19. Managing director of Apollo Hospital Preetha Reddy was the chief guest on the occasion. Speaking on the occasion, she said: “The future is not some place that we are going to, but one that we are creating. Move out of comfort zones, learn continuously and stay positive.” Reddy spoke about challenges and issues India was faced with and said large-scale changes could only be envisaged if innovations and appropriate provisions were made. Referring to the dynamism in the Indian youth, she said the interests of administrators and business leaders ran parallel and working in tandem was the key to success of a nation.

Data tools

A two-week programme on data warehousing, data mining and its research trends has started at the Balasore College of Engineering and Technology from October 21. Experts from IITs, NITs and other renowned technical institutes and industry leaders will make presentations at the programme that will continue till November 3.