It’s a special day for both the brother and the sister, and so this little sis’ tries to tie the knot of the rakhi on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan on Monday. Picture by Pradip Sanyal

On August 13, Renewable Energy Club of Heritage Institute Of Technology went on a field trip to the WBREDA complex (West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency) in Salt Lake. The excursion comprised club members from the biotechnology and chemical engineering departments. The students got insight into non-conventional energy resources being used today.

Amitava Sen, superintendent engineer and T.K. Hazra, additional director, WBREDA, the nodal agency of MNRE (Ministry of New and Renewable Energy) explained the procedure for operating the power plants and spoke about projects in the pipeline.

Not many knew about the solar photovoltaic plant at Sagar Island, the 2MW power plant using wind energy at Frasergunj, the rice husk/diesel dual power plant at Bankura and Birbhum, and the biogas micro turbine at Purulia. All of these are under West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Agency.

From there the students proceeded to Rabi Rashmi Abasan, the first solar housing complex in the country at Rajarhat where WBREDA has set up a solar plant. Utpal Saraswati, the consulting engineer, explained the architectural techniques that will be used to keep the area air-conditioned through the year.

Tasneem Sayeed
Third yr, Heritage Institute of Technology

 

Future scientists

How about a green solution to water pollution? Or ways to prevent train accidents? These were some of the themes at the CBSE Regional Science Exhibition hosted by Birla High School for Boys, a two-day event that began on August 17.

The eastern zonal finals included 30 schools from West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa.

The theme this year was “Science and Technology for Sustainable Development”. The participants prepared exhibits on industry and environment, food and agriculture, education technology and mathematical modelling, energy, transport and communication.

Ravinder Pal Singh, assistant education officer, Central Board of Secondary Education, Allahabad, was the chief guest. A panel of scientists including Parthasarathi Majumdar, S.K. Bhaduri and Abhijit Chakraborti judged the exhibition.

There were 42 exhibits. Declared winners in the ‘transport and communication’ category, Amit Prasad and Atul Kumar’s project was called “A New Era in Indian Railways”. “The objective of the project was to prevent frequent collision,” said the duo, students of Class XII in Jharkhand, who had worked on the project for three years.

“A deep insight of pure science was observed in all the exhibits” commented Parthasarathi Majumdar.

The host school won first prize in the ‘industry and environment’ category with a project on “Low cost green solution to water pollution” (picture by Anindya Shankar Ray). It aimed to provide an alternative approach to the removal of arsenic in drinking water.

Raghav Bahadur Saxena, Abhilash Lakshman and Rohit Kedia were involved in the project.

The 15 winners will exhibit their projects at the national level later this year.

Anindya Shankar Ray

 

Preaching Hindi

The Hindi Jyotsna Club of La Martiniere for Boys organised an inter-school patriotic song competition on August 18 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Independence Day (picture by Anindya Shankar Ray).

It was held at Atmodaya Bhavan, the auditorium. D.P. Singh, additional SP (industrial), South 24 Parganas, was the chief guest for the day.

Nine schools including the host institution participated in the competition. There were two categories — solo and group song.

The first song for the day was Mera rang de basanti chola from the film, The Legend of Bhagat Singh, performed by a student of The Bhawanipore Gujarati Education Society.

Sayantani Bagchi of St Thomas’ Girls’ School, Kidderpore did a stirring rendition of the song, Aye malik tere bande hum from the film, Do Aankhen Bara Haath. Zindagi maut na ban jaaye from the film Sarfarosh performed by the host school earned loud applause.

Said Satvik Singhania, a Class XII student and the president of the club: “The purpose of the contest was to encourage Hindi among youngsters. The club has the same motto.”