Young research scholars at Utkal University got an opportunity to present their findings to experts while sharing their learning with their peers from various departments at the day-long Utkal Scholar Conclave on April 30. Higher education minister Pradeep Panigrahi spoke on the occasion and gave away the best paper awards to the scholars. About 125 research scholars showcased their works in 10 categories of thematic research at the event that witnessed participation of experts from various fields. The papers were grouped into physical sciences, life and environmental sciences, earth sciences, social sciences, language and literature, commerce and management, political science and law. The varsity has around 300 PhD scholars.

Friends in need

Students of educational institutes in the capital, including Utkal University and Temple City Institute of Technology and Engineering (Tite), visited flood-hit regions of the state to distribute relief materials. Utkal students visited some of the worst-affected villages in Cuttack, Puri, Sonepur and Nimapara districts. They distributed food, drinking water, candles, matchboxes and other materials among the people. Fourth-year students of Tite collected money from their classmates, juniors and teachers and visited flood victims of Kanash block in Puri. 

Bollywood moves

Students of NIT-Rourkela grooved to Sunidhi Chauhan at a special event organised at the institute on April 29. The singer and her band members performed for more than two hours. She crooned all her hit numbers for the enthusiastic crowd and also sang a few numbers on the students' request. She was supposed to perform on March 22 but failed as the Air Odisha plane in which she was travelling could not land due to bad weather. The students were quite happy that the singer came back to keep her promise. She was felicitated after the event and also interacted with the students.

Product designing

Young artists from the applied art department at B.K. College of Fine Arts and Crafts showcased their creative designs at an art show - Kalpana - that concluded on May 1. The artists displayed their skills in designing product campaigns for advertisements at the exhibition held at the Lalit Kala Academy Regional Centre. Each of the 11 students chose different model products, gave it a name and designed different styles of campaign for its publicity such as installations, flexes, posters, calendars and many other forms of promoting the item. Department head Gajendra Padhi said the exhibition was an annual exercise and aims to give the young artists a forum to interact with viewers and experts in the field. 

Participatory governance

The Central University of Odisha, Koraput, organised a lecture in social sciences on the Participatory Governance - Issues and Challenges on its permanent campus at Sunabeda last week. Mentor and co-founder of Centre for Youth and Social Development Jagadananda delivered a lecture on the occasion. He discussed with the students how asking right questions in the right manner was an important form of citizen participation and a way to exercise their democracy. A Q&A session was also held where he advised students to get connected with society and people residing in it. P. Anchal, a student from the economics department of the institute, anchored the event. 

Art camp

The students of Balasore  Art & Crafts conducted a week-long training camp for schoolchildren on the institute premises. Around 123 students from Nursery to Class X took part in the camp. The art college students and the faculty members taught the students, who came from different schools, various forms of art, including spot painting, glass painting, terracotta, clay modelling, colloid painting, flower making and soft toy making. They were also briefed on the idea of modern art. The camp gave the art students a brilliant  opportunity to hone their teaching skills along with promoting art and culture among the enthusiastic youngsters. This was the seventh edition of the art camp.

Noble initiative

The students of NSS unit of Dhaneswar Rath Institute of Engineering and Management Studies group of institutions have set up a jala chhatra (free water kiosk) at NH-16 near Tangi Bus Stand. Pramod Chandra Rath, founder chairman of the institute, inaugurated the kisosk in presence of students of the institute. It will be set up till the Raja festival and aims at providing safe drinking water to the commuters. The students have decided to start more such kiosks in the nearby areas.

Student achievers

Three student achievers — sprinters Amiya Kumar Mallick, Dutee Chand and chess star Aparajita Gochhikar were felicitated at KIIT University on May 2. Varsity founder Achyuta Samanta felicitated them in the presence of students and other faculty members. They brought laurel to the state of Odisha and India by winning medals in different events organized recently. International cricketers Debasis Mohanty, Noel David, S. Saikia, S. Mukherjee were also present on the occasion. Meanwhile, Sports Authority of India (SAI) has approved the proposal for establishment of an Extension Centre of STC/SAG at Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences, in athletics and archery from the next academic session. The centre will have 20 trainees to start with. Infrastructure and facilities will be maintained on a regular basis and upgraded from time to time and sports equipment will be supplied to the students.

Result time

The students of the colleges under the Sambalpur University were seen celebrating in their campus after the result of Plus Three final year examination was declared on April 29. The girls topped in 16 subjects while the boys topped in four. Of the 24,229 students who appeared in the examination, 19,314 students passed. The pass percentage in arts stream was 84.91 while that of science was 65.96. The pass percentage for the commerce stream stood at 66.03.

Patent filing

A workshop on patent filing was organised at Gandhi Institute for Technology, Bhubaneswar last week. Bijoy Kumar Sahu, the patent officer of National Research Development Corporation, New Delhi delivered his talk on importance of filing patents by researchers. He interacted with the students and gave a demonstration on patent filing. Extensive discussions were also held on issues such as types of innovations eligible for patent, procedures of patent writing and the process of granting patent. A number of students of the institute and other engineering colleges took part.