Rourkela: On the eve of the 16th Annual convocation national institute of technology(NIT) Rourkela Organised a press conference on Friday. Addressing the press the director of NIT Rourkela Professor Animesh Biswas said, ‘Dr. Kumar Mangalam Birla will grace the occasion. Along with him Chairperson, Board of Governors, Dr. Santrupt B. Misra will be the guest of honor. This year we are conferring the much-valued degrees of NIT Rourkela on 585 B. Tech., 22 B. Arch., 135 Dual Degree (B. Tech. and M. Tech.), 75 Integrated M.Sc. (5 years), 417 M. Tech, 126 M.Sc., 5 MA, 38 MBA, 11 M. Tech. (by Research) and 126 Ph.D. students’, said the Director.
‘For the record, we may note that the total number of Graduands in this Convocation is 1540 which surpasses the previous convocation by 120. We may also note that after being declared an Institute of National Importance in 2007, NIT Rourkela has produced 9998 engineers, scientists, masters, and graduates in addition to 613 PhDs’ he informed.
Gold medal to eleven graduates
This year eleven graduates will receive the Gold Medal. Chinni Rewant of the Department of Mechanical Engineering will receive the Best Graduate awards of the 2018 batch, Shri Madan Raj C from Safety Engineering Specialisation under the Department of Chemical Engineering, the Best Post Graduate in M. Tech. Programme, Miss Ankita Mohanty of the School of Management for Best MBA, Miss Trisha Kundu of the Department of Life Science for being the best among the M. Sc. and M.A. students, Shri Bharath A. B. of Department of Chemistry for being the topper in the Integrated M. Sc programme, and Miss Rajrani Patra from Transportation Engineering Specialisation under the Department of Civil Engineering for the best Postgraduate in the B. Tech. and M. Tech. Dual Degree Programme.
Apart from them Shivam Rai, a graduate of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, who has been awarded the Gold Medal for the Best Undergraduate project (B. Tech. & B. Arch.), Shri Bibhu Bhusan Sha of the Department of Mechanical Engineering for the best Postgraduate Project (M.Tech. & Dual Degree) and Shri Jiteshwar Dadich of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences for the best project from among M.Sc. and MA. Miss Kamalini Devi of the Department of Civil Engineering who has been awarded the Snigdhashri Patra Memorial Gold Medal for the Best Ph.D. Thesis of 2017-18.
Sports complex to be established
Addressing the press the chairman of Press and public relations committee and Dean academics Professor Kamalakanta Mohapatra said, ‘NIT Rourkela is in a process to develop a sports complex. Schemes have already been initiated for an indoor stadium housing multiple basketballs, badminton courts, center for yoga, music, dance and other recreations with a 1500 capacity open-air theatre’.
Outreach Centre at Bhubaneswar
‘We are planning to set-up an outreach center at Bhubaneswar. Boundary wall for NIT outreach center at Bhubaneswar is completed. Other facilities for NIT outreach center at Bhubaneswar are in pipeline. In this way, we hope we can connect links globally in a better way. We can also attract more people across the globe ‘ informed the director.
Counseling service to heal depression
Animesh Biswas said, ‘Last year we had started the much-awaited counseling service to take care of students’ emotional, academic and financial needs. Student Counselling Program has metamorphosed into an active student guidance medium. Programmes such as remedial classes, motivational workshops, counseling sessions, and student connection activities are enhancing student performance to a great extent. We have instituted the best teacher award, the lifetime achievement award, and best non-academic staff award so that the best talents of our campus are rewarded properly and this will ensure a growing environment at NIT Rourkela. We also have started undertaking research initiatives in organic farming. We have completed a fresh round of faculty interview after a long gap and have achieved milestones in recruiting candidates from special categories; two new drives for faculty recruitments are in pipeline; in addition, we have conducted interviews for the position of registrar and initiated consequential work on recruiting non-faculty positions including DPC’, he added
ANKCTEL started functioning
Professor Mohapatra said, ‘As a part of the Institute’s progressive strides in the teaching-learning process, the A.N. Khosla Centre for Technology Enabled Learning (ANKCTEL) has started functioning. This is the beginning of using the potential of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the Teaching Learning (T-L) process. The objective of the center (ANKCTEL) is to create e-content by recording the classroom lectures of the faculty members. Till now we have already recorded teaching lectures amounting to more than 1000 hours, participated by 30 faculty members covering 38 subjects. All the e-contents created till now have been uploaded in our Institute website for the reference of the students/research scholars/faculty members. Several GIAN (Global Initiative for Academic Networks) courses have been recorded for outreaching activities. We have conducted few workshops under T10KT project of MHRD, Govt. of India, in collaboration with IIT Bombay. Our students have successfully taken up a few online courses of Indian Institute of Remote Sensing (IIRS) with the help of the center. The parallel aims are the use of ICT for e-content generation and distribution, and encouraging creativity and innovation in teaching, instructional planning, and delivery. The Centre will provide exposure to the teaching community to the different pedagogical elements like active learning processes, flipped classrooms, MOOCs, Blended MOOCs and techniques like think-pair-share, etc. This is a small initiative from NIT Rourkela to sensitize the greater academic community of our country in the area of Technology Enabled Learning and to explore the potential of ICT in technical education’, said Professor Mohapatra.
Focus on Entrepreneurship
The director said, ‘Innovation and incubation related to engineering and technology have been internationally acclaimed as a vital component for job creation resulting in economic development. NIT Rourkela’s Centre for Technology Innovation and Industry Relations (TIIR) is an endeavor for inculcating the enthusiasm among Incubates to tap innovations and technologies for enterprise creation. It offers expertise and infrastructure to new enterprises that require an enabling environment like TBI to enhance the prospects of their success. In addition to incubation facilitates, TIIR supports industrial houses, specifically local industries to set up their R&D centers on our campus. NIT Rourkela as per the recommendation of DST has set up a Section-8, Not-for-Profit Company “Foundation for Technology Business Incubation (FTBI)” for supporting entrepreneurship and innovation which is housed in TIIR. It is being supported by the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (M/o MSME), Department of Planning and Convergence, Government of Odisha, GAIL and NITRAA to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship. It is also a recognized incubator under Startup India and Startup Odisha. NIT Rourkela is a recognized Nodal Agency under Startup Odisha. At present, it has housed 23 start-up companies and 26 plus teams in its pre-incubation, and most of them are either alumni or our present students involved in a vast range of activities from innovation, the creation of green tech solutions, manufacturing to engineering to e-commerce businesses. There are already few successful start-ups such as Phoenix Robotics, Estienne Energy, Penny India, Devotees, Awalk, SLR, Bookfount, etc., most of which have brought laurels to the institute and have got recognition from Startup Odisha and Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Government of India. The preincubation teams are also having very potential and innovative ideas. FBI and TIIR have received grants from multiple government departments such as NSTEDB, MSME, GAIL, Startup Odisha, DST to provide funding support for student and faculty entrepreneurship.
To promote the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation, FTBI timely organizes the ideation meetings, Incubatee Induction rounds, visits by Industry experts and Alumni, sessions on legal compliances to start an entrepreneurial venture etc. NITR hosted the Boot camp of the Startup India Yatra – Odisha on the 7th of February 2018 in TIIR’ he stated.
Distinguished Alumnus Award to four
Professor Animesh Biswas said, ‘Our Institute has been bestowing the “Distinguished Alumnus Award” on alumni who have made their alma mater proud by their professional and social achievements. This year, these awards are bestowed on four dignitaries: Dr. Swati Mohanty (1983 Batch B. Sc. (Engg.) Chemical Engineering alumnus) who is Chief Scientist at CSIR-IMMT, Bhubaneswar, India, and who has made significant contributions in the area of process modeling, simulation, optimization, and control; Ms. Soma Mondal (1984 Batch B.E. in Electrical Engineering alumnus) who in the capacity of a Member of the Board of Directors of NALCO, and SAIL, has made significant contribution to corporate governance, business planning, domestic and international sales, and marketing, logistics, and materials management, in the metals and minerals industries; Dr. Om Agrawal (1968 Batch B. Sc. (Engg.) in Electrical Engineering alumnus) for his outstanding contribution to research and product design in the semiconductor industries, particularly in the field of high performance Programmable Logic Devices, while working with AMD, Vantis, and Lattice Semiconductor, USA; and Mr. Sanjay Mohanty, (1980 Batch B. Sc. (Engg.) in Electrical Engineering alumnus) for his significant contribution to society through entrepreneurship, employment generation, wealth creation, and leadership in scientific aquaculture in the state of Odisha’ said professor Biswas.
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