Actress Archita addresses the students of IBCS, Bhubaneswar, during Convergence-2012, the annual function of the institute and (right) the team from ITER, Bhubaneswar that made it to the semi-finals of the SAARC Nations Robotics Championship in Mumbai. Telegraph pictures

Bowled over by stars

Defending champions Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, stormed into the semi-finals of the SoA Premier League (SPL) being conducted by Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SoA) University, Bhubaneswar, after defeating Gitam University, Visakhapatnam, by six wickets in a group match. The third edition of SPL was inaugurated on February 18 by former international cricketer Sanjay Raul amidst a scintillating cultural show and fireworks. The tournament has attracted seven universities from outside the state while five teams from the state are spearheading the local T-20 extravaganza. The teams from Odisha in the fray are Ravenshaw University, Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) and VSS University of Technology, Burla, Utkal University and the host university. The outstation teams are Andhra University, Gitam University (both from Visakhapatnam), Calcutta University, Punjab University, Chandigarh, SRM University, Chennai, Sikkim Manipal University, Sikkim and Vinayaka Mission University, Salem. The teams have been split into four groups. They will play on a round-robin basis and winners of each group will proceed to the semi-finals. Besides Utkal, Andhra University has also qualified for the semis.

Robot race

A team of engineering students from the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), Bhubaneswar, have done the state proud with their performance at the Saarc Nations Robotics Championship held in Mumbai recently. Techies from India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka competed against each other in the event. It was organised by IIT-Bombay on February 5 in which the four-member team participated. Four teams each from Pakistan and Sri Lanka completed the Saarc line up. This was the first time that ITER students participated in a robotics competition where accelerometer control had to be used to drive robots across a twisted path that had obstacles. The team, comprising Piyush Routray, Ghanshyam Bhutra, Subrat Rath and Sandeep Kumar Palo, all students of final year BTech, topped in their pool of six teams with a timing of 64 seconds to complete a lap in the final round. Three teams from India, including ITER and one from Pakistan, topped their respective pools to enter the semi-finals. The boys from ITER, however, lost to the Pakistan team in the battle for a place in the final.

The Delhi University team that emerged winner in the All-India Inter-University Baseball championship in Cuttack and (right) students of Ravenshaw Business School, Cuttack, participate in a blood donation camp. Pictures by Badrika Nath Das

Rhymes and reels

Legendary poet Jayanta Mahapatra and veteran academic and Odia poet Soubhagya Misra addressed students at the annual seminar of the English department, BJB (Autonomous) College, Bhubaneswar, last week. The seminar was marked with poetry readings both by the poets and the students of the department. Principal Susama Tripathy felicitated the eminent personalities and office bearers and prizes were distributed to winners of various intra-departmental competitions held earlier. In another event, the journalism and mass communication department conducted an interactive seminar and workshop on February 14. Leading Odia actors Sabyasachi and Archita and film director Chakradhar Sahu were present. Clippings from Sahu’s latest release — Kebe Tame Naha, Kebe Mu Nahin — were screened. Sahu shared his ideas on prospects of Odia cinema and his experiments in editing technology while the actors interacted with the excited crowd of more than 100 students. Play to win nDelhi University emerged champion in the men’s division in the All-India Inter-University Baseball championship that concluded at Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, in the second week of February. In the girls’ category, Gurunanak University, Amritsar, and Punjab University were joint champions. In all, 37 universities in men’s and 33 in women’s section participated in the five-day tournament. The Odisha Olympic Association and the Odisha Cricket Association (OCA) took care of the logistics, accommodation and other facilities for the participants. Ravenshaw hosted the prestigious tournament for the first time. A blood donation camp was organised by the students of Ravenshaw Business School on February 14. Around 102 units of blood were collected against 101 units collected last year, said academic coordinator of Ravenshaw, Munmum Mohanty.

Starry, starry night

Reigning stars of the Odia film industry Archita, Sabyasachi and Harihar Dash scorched the stage at Convergence-2012, a two-day annual extravaganza of the Institute of Business and Computer Studies (IBCS), Bhubaneswar. The event came to a close on February 11. The event was marked by a spectacular cultural programme and a ramp show by the students of the institute. This was interspersed with dance performances by the actors, especially those by dancer-turned-actor Harihar Dash, who left the crowd hooting with his signature pop-and-lock dance. Sabyasachi and Archita, who were promoting their upcoming film Kebe Tume Nahan, Kebe Mu Nahin, shared their experiences of shooting for the film outside the state. Inspector general of police Lalit Das was the chief guest and distributed prizes to students who excelled in different competitions held earlier.

Responsible corporates

The Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB), in collaboration with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, hosted National Conference on Corporate Social Responsibility-2012 from February 9 to 11 on its campus. The event celebrated the platinum jubilee of TISS and silver Jubilee of XIMB. The event was marked by paper presentations and inspiring talks by corporate bigwigs on their CSR (corporate social responsibility) achievements over the years. The main tracks of the conference were models of CSR implementation, CSR implementation in public sector companies, and emerging management issues in CSR. The speakers concluded that there was a need to structure CSR activities, manage such efforts and collaborations were required. Corporate bigwigs from Airports Authority of India, Tata Steel, Vedanta Alumina, Hindustan Aeronautics, Rourkela Steel Plant, Mahanadi Coalfields, Nalco, and academicians from reputed institutes from India and abroad attended the summit, which was facilitated by the Centre for Resettlement, Rehabilitation and Corporate Social Responsibility, and the Social Responsibility Cell at XIMB, along with Centre for Development Studies at TISS.

MoU inked

The C.V. Raman College of Engineering (CVRCE), Bhubaneswar signed an MoU with CoreEL Technologies India to start the latter’s university programme on its campus from this academic session. CoreEL will provide state-of-art products of Xilinx, a digital programmable logic device, with multi-year application and support, and conduct faculty and student training while providing industry-specific inputs to update curriculum. It will also establish a Centre of Excellence in Embedded System. CVRCE would get access to latest tools and give an industry perspective to academics, enabling students to secure better jobs, said institute chairman Sanjib Kumar Rout.

KIIT convention

The School of Management, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar organised its National Management Convention on the theme “Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises: The Way Forward” on February 17. Entrepreneurship and the ways to promote it through better infrastructure, policy changes and capital and knowledge infusion was the underlying focus area of the convention. Earlier, the Asian School of Business Management (ASBM), Bhubaneswar, also hosted its annual National Management Convention (NamCon’12) on the theme “Envisioning Future Business: Redefining Strategies for Excellence”. Chairperson of the State Human Rights Commission Justice R.K. Patra, chief guest on the occasion, said India had successfully gained the ability to combat the ills of globalisation and future managers needed to cultivate intuition, inspiration and knowledge, which would ultimately lead to achieving excellence. A book on the theme of the event was also inaugurated at the event attended by the who’s who of the corporate and business world.

SHILPI SAMPAD AND VIKASH SHARMA