Students of SG Women’s College, Rourkela, take part in a fire safety demonstration camp at Rourkela Steel Plant. Picture by Uttam Kumar Pal

Of poems and fire safety

Around 15 students participated in the first edition of Kabi Katha (The Poet and His Poetry) organised by the Ravenshaw University on its campus on December 15. The participants read out some of their best creations in Odia, English and Hindi before a packed auditorium and drew huge applause. The head of the political science department, Niranjan Barik also read out one of his poems in English and another titled Kataka from the book Nila Saraswati penned by eminent poet and the first vice-chancellor of the university, Devdas Chhotray, who retired last month. The reason for introducing this literary event was to “express love and gratitude” to Chhotray who “shaped modern Ravenshaw” as its first vice-chancellor, said Netajee Abhinandan, reader in political science. Poems by Guru Prasad Mohanty and Soubhagya Kumar Mishra, the writer-in-residence of the university, were also read out.

Let’s meet up

The sixth alumni meet of Utkal University 1986 batch would be held on December 25 on the KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, campus. To mark the silver jubilee year of graduating of this batch, special functions for family members of the former students would be organised. The alumni have also decided to honour the faculty members of the university, who taught them from 1984-86. Some of the former students, who have made significant contribution to society and education, would also be felicitated. The alumni association has requested its members and non-members to call 94394-00800, 94374-77266 or 94377-75757 to garner more information regarding the silver jubilee meet.

A seminar on Vedic mathematics in progress at SG Women’s College in Rourkela. Picture by Uttam Kumar Pal

Fire drill

Eight days after the devastating fire at one of the AMRI Hospitals in Calcutta claimed more than 90 lives, the Sushilavati Government (SG) Women’s College, Rourkela, organised a fire safety demonstration camp and emergency response training for its students at the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) on December 17. The students were given basic tips on fire prevention, how to take correct action when one sees a fire or the fire alarm goes off, evacuation and practical fire fighting skills, including hands-on training in using a fire extinguisher. The session was organised by the Red Cross unit of the college in association with the fire service department of RSP, said principal Banani Roy. On the previous day, the college had organised a one-day seminar on “Vedic Mathematics” in which over 250 students took part. Popular Vedic mathematics teacher, P. Satyanarayan from Chennai conducted the seminar and enlightened the students about this ancient system centred on eight basic operations of mathematics like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, squares, square roots and cubes and cube roots. He solved various problems through digital root method.

Awards galore

A student of Ravenshaw University in Cuttack reads out his poem at the literary event Kabi Katha. Telegraph picture

BJB Friends, the alumni organisation of BJB College, Bhubaneswar, felicitated the college toppers of 2011 Plus Two science, arts and commerce streams during its annual meet on December 18 on the college premises. The toppers are Arya Prakash Padhi, Aishwarya Das and Sonakshi Das. At the Plus Three level, Sushma Sarangi (science), Nupur Changotia (arts) and Bibhuti Bhusan Rath (commerce) were also presented with awards. Besides, winners of debate, quiz and song competitions that were held earlier this month were awarded certificates and cash prizes. In debate, the first, second and third prizes went to Abhishek Acharya of Utkal University, Dipinty Ghosal of Silicon Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar, and Subhrasmita Behera of Royal Science College, Bhubaneswar, respectively, while BJB (Autonomous) College and Silicon bagged a consolation prize each. In the group quiz, Gokulnanda Mohapatra and Sushant Kumar Gochi of BJB (A) College won the first prize. Bivash Rath Attreya and Kalpit Mohanty of the same college stood second and Rahul Jain and Pushpendu Bikash Maity of Silicon came third. In the song competition, Sumanta Kumar Mohanty of Odisha Engineering College, Bhubaneswar, and Pratikshya Priyadarshini of Ravenshaw University, Cuttack, got the first and second prize, respectively. The third prize was awarded to Neelam Mohanty of Nalanda Engineering College, Bhubaneswar. Besides, seven consolation prizes were also given. A souvenir of BJB Friends was also released on the occasion. Film producer Subash Rath composed a “BJB Anthem” for the meet.

Fun station

Shine Group, a Cuttack-based voluntary organisation of college students, had organised a fun station for the students of the Sophitorium College, Jatni, last week. The young, dynamic members of the group entertained the students by conducting several innovative games in which about 117 students actively participated. The main idea was to initiate the concept of “learning through fun”. The participants were seen enjoying themselves thoroughly with games such as Light the Lights, Match With Match Box, Sink and Clink, among others. The games aimed at increasing the concentration level of students and providing them a refreshing break from regular classes. The college authorities said they would hold the “learning through fun” programme on a regular basis for their students. “We wanted to move from the traditional co-curricular activities like debate or painting where only few students, talented in that particular field, could participate. So, we developed these activities and games in which the entire college participated and enjoyed,” said Amit Kumar Tripathy of Shine Group.

B-School talk

The Amity Global Business School, Bhubaneswar, had organised a corporate meet on “Preparing Leaders for Tomorrow — Industry Academia Partnership for a hyper competitive Future” on December 18 at a city hotel. The objective of this meet, attended by 26 corporate leaders, was to understand and minimise the gap between expectations of industries from B-Schools and the way the students are groomed. The need of the hour is to collaborate industry and academia for creating managers to fit into the corporate culture that would help in developing course curriculum, pedagogy and academic strategies to make the students industry ready, said deputy general manager of Amity University, Vipin Sharma.

Living systems seminar

A two-day international seminar on ‘Living systems in post genomic era’ was organised by the biosciences and biotechnology department of the FM University, Balasore, on its new campus at Nuapadhi. Nearly 16 persons of national and international repute participated here, in which several research scholars presented their views on the topic. “The discussion was related to the gene system, synthetic gene, division of cell, microbiology, processes inside the living systems and their composition. It was quite an interesting session and useful for the teachers, students and research scholars,” said Bishnu Prasad Dash, head of the host department. Besides university vice-chancellor Kumarbar Das, former vice-chancellor of Sambalpur University Madhab Chandra Dash, Abhijit Chakraborty of Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics in Calcutta, additional secretary government of Odisha, P. Krishna Mohan and representatives from the Imperial College, London, and Wisconsin University of USA participated in the deliberations.

Shilpi Sampad and Sibdas Kundu