Category Archives: Education

Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University to honour 7 eminent persons

Education, Leaders, Records, All

Lucknow :

Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University will give awards to seven eminent people on its convocation on December 15. The Academic Council meeting held on Wednesday decided to award Vidhi Ratna to chairman, Central Administrative Tribunal, Justice Permod Kohli, and senior advocate HC Ganeshia.

While president, Indian National Science Academy (INSA) Ajay Sood and chairman, University Grants Commission, VS Chauhan will be given Vigyan Ratna; Guru Nanak Dev University vice-chancellor Jaspal S Sandhu will be given sportsmedicine award; and senior RSS leader Krishna Gopal and former chairman, Indian Council of Social Science Research, SK Thorat will be given social science award for their social service.

The convocation will be held in two parts. The first one will begin from 10.30 am which will see President Ram Nath Kovind’s participation. After giving away medals to four toppers and delivering the convocation address, the President will leave at 11.30am. Sharing the dais with chief guest Kovind would be UP chief minister Aditya Nath Yogi, governor Ram Naik, deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma and medical and technical education minister Ashutosh Tandon.

In the second shift, the other gold medal awardees will accept it from the vicechancellor.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News> Schools & Colleges / TNN / December 14th, 2017

Youngest PhD girl gets pat from President Ramnath Kovind

Education, Records, All

Lucknow :

At 17, Sushma Verma is used to earning accolades for academic excellence. She is India’s youngest girl to enrol in a PhD programme, that too, at 15. She was also recognised by the Limca Book of Records as the youngest student to pass class X at the age of 7 years, 3 months and 28 days old, in 2007. Yet, being called ‘extraordinary’ by President Ramnath Kovind was an experience in itself.

So stunned was Sushma that she couldn’t focus on whatever else Kovind said about her. “This was so unexpected. I feel humbled and blessed to have him compliment me,” said Sushma.

TOI has been following her since 2005 when she was just five and had enrolled in class IX at the UP Board-affiliated St Meera’s Inter College. Post her graduation, she joined MSc in Microbiology at BBAU. Not only did she complete her course but was the topper and was given medal by PM Narendra Modi in 2016 at the university’s convocation.

Lauding Sushma and Neelu Sharma, who in April won the UGC’s Swami Vivekanand single girl child scholarship, Kovind said, “Babasaheb (Ambedkar) samaanta ke paksh me the, par betiyan aaj unke sapno se aaagey nikal rahi hai (Ambedkar called for gender equality but girls are surpassing his expectations).” Neelu said, “I felt so important when people from President’s secretariat inquired about my work.”

Neelu enrolled in BBAU’s PhD in mass communication in 2015.

She is also a recipient of ‘Films for Change’ fellowship by a London-based Television Environment.

Both Sushma and Neelu were chosen by the university to share their experiences with the President.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News / by Isha Jain / TNN / December 16th, 2017

IIT Kanpur graduate launches new company in Seoul

Business & Economy, Education, Nri's / Pio's

Seoul :

Pankaj Agarwal, a 35-year-old IIT Kanpur graduate, has founded a start-up company, TagHive, with a few like-minded professionals in Seoul to pursue his passion for improving education. His mission is to revolutionise everyday experiences with a smart tag solution — a combination of a button type tag, a smart app and back-end analytics that are targeted at reinventing interactions for kids at play and at school.

Based in South Korea since 2004, he had earlier worked with Samsung Electronics. Samsung encouraged him with support for his endeavour. TagHive is a technology company that was spun off from Samsung Electronics in April this year.

TagHive’s new solutions are TagPlus and LEAP. While TagPlus, an award winning solution, is the world’s first toy-centric social network for kids, LEAP is a low cost clicker (Classroom Response System) along with an app (iOS and Android) that will keep students engaged, parents informed and help teachers effectively manage their classrooms.

Speaking to TOI, Agarwal said that TagHive will commercialise LEAP in South Korea in the first half of 2018 and enter the Indian market in the second half of 2018. “We are looking to partner with schools in India willing to ride the new wave of affordable smarter classrooms,” he said.

TagHive pilot tested the LEAP solution in Ambience Public School in New Delhi, as well as in South Korea, with encouraging response.

Some of the key features of LEAP are “one-click attendance” which reduces the morning chaos of recording attendance with students simply clicking their tags. Teachers can now utilise the time saved more productively in teaching more, Agarwal said.

LEAP allows teachers to have an accumulated score for their students on a daily basis and the students will be given incentives to improve their behaviour. It further allows teachers to create their own quizzes and polls for various subjects. Students can record their responses by clicking their tags.

“Teachers can view all student records like attendance, score and quiz/poll results for one day, one week, one month or for the whole semester,” said Agarwal. It also automatically sends students’ performance updates to their respective parents. Parents will also have an app where they can track their kids’ progress in real time.

“I have a 10-year-old son, and I want the best for him,” said Agarwal.

Agarwal is the founder and President of IIT Alumni Association of Korea (IITAAK). He also has an MBA degree from the Harvard Business School. He said IITians have left their mark in most parts of the world and IITAAK wants to replicate that in South Korea and strengthen the reputation of brand IIT.

“We hope that this will not only make our lives here more meaningful but also help in forging more productive cooperation between South Korea and India,” he said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> NRI> Other News / by Oinam Sunil / TNN / December 11th, 2017

Agra university plans uplift of ‘men of metal’

Business & Economy, Education

The long neglected nomadic ironsmiths or ‘gadiya lohar’ in the Taj city can now hope for a better life, courtesy Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar University, which is planning to bring them into the mainstream of society.

The university is working on a pilot project for their rehabilitation through various government schemes and is also planning to arrange for education of children belonging to this deprived community.(HT Photo)

The long neglected nomadic ironsmiths or ‘gadiya lohar’ in the Taj city can now hope for a better life, courtesy Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar University, which is planning to bring them into the mainstream of society through skill development programmes, apart from giving them access to housing and education.

These ‘gadiya lohar’ or ‘loh-pita’ (blacksmiths), who move from place to place in search of livelihood, are said to have a historical past and it is said their ancestors chose this nomadic lifestyle of their own volition. Earlier, they fashioned swords and javelins but with changing times, they now make axes, kitchen ware and iron tools. But the community still adheres to the old life style and can be found on the pavements during transit.

Ironically, while most other tribes have progressed, this community still languishes at the bottom.

The university is working on a pilot project for their rehabilitation through various government schemes and is also planning to arrange for education of children belonging to this deprived community. Through the project it aims to address problems like illiteracy, low income generation and use of obsolete technology in economic activities .

“We will begin by preparing a pilot project and conduct a survey about the status of these deprived families who live a nomadic life and settle on the road side while moving from one city to another. They work hard with their obsolete instruments to make iron tools and are yet to join the mainstream of society,” said Dr Girija Shankar, spokesperson of Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar University.

The university’s attention was drawn towards these iron smiths during preparations for its convocation scheduled in December, because a number of such ironsmiths are stationed along the outer wall of the university campus in Khandari, which encloses the venue for the convocation.

A close look at their plight gave the varsity administration the idea to work towards their uplift.

“We are working on possible measures which include education for children of these iron smiths, who can be part of the Modern School run by the university. They can be given access to various government schemes, including housing and their skill can be used as skill development initiative of the university. Various departments and faculties in the varsity can play an active role in this initiative,” said Dr Girija Shankar.

“Dr Arvind Dixit, vice chancellor of Dr BR Ambedkar University, is relying on departments, particularly those of sociology and social science, conducting courses like MSW (Master of Social Works) for taking up the cause as social responsibility of the university,” he said.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> Cities> Lucknow / by Hemendra Chaturvedi, Hindustan Times,Agra / November 28th, 2017

Samsung Innovation Awards 2017 held at IIT-Kanpur to recognize young innovators with path-breaking ideas

Business & Economy, Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

New Delhi [India] (ANI-NewsVoir):

Samsung India conducted the 7th edition of the annual Samsung Innovation Awards at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur in association with Entrepreneurship Cell.

Samsung Innovation Awards aim to recognize and reward innovations that have the potential to revolutionize everyday living and enable students to take their ideas to the next level.

The first prize went to the team that included Kshitij Jaggi, Kumar Shivang and Rishabh Sahu who worked on a peer to peer financial transaction app using Blockchain technology in a distributed environment. The vision of the team is to enable financial inclusion of chit fund subscribers with Circle, a mobile ?rst solution for organisers to easily manage the members, bringing in transparency in the whole process and creating credit history for all Indians.

Insomniatec, comprising students Kaustubh Mundra and Sankalp Rastogi, won the second prize for proposing a project that uses an infra-red camera coupled with computer vision technology to detect drowsiness in a vehicle driver while in motion and provides in-time alerts.

One of the projects, Muskan Solid Waste, consisting Hari Shankar and co-founder Mewa Lal found a special mention at the awards. This is a start-up that converts organic waste into high yielding compost. The technique used reduces time for composting and produces more efficient manure compared to artificial fertilizers.

The awards were presented by Dr. Aloknath De, Chief Technology Officer, Samsung R&D Institute, India Bangalore (SRI-B). The winners were given cash prizes worth Rs. 2.5 lakh while the five finalists received merit recognition from Samsung.

Samsung Innovation Awards 2017 saw an overwhelming response, with eight teams getting an opportunity to present their ideas to the jury comprising Dr. Aloknath De from SRI-B and professors from IIT-Kanpur – Dr. Amitabha Bandyopadhyay from the Department of Biological Sciences & Bioengineering (BSBE), Prof. Sandeep Shukla from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering from IIT Kanpur.

Samsung R&D Institute Bangalore will engage with the award winners to further develop their innovations.

“Through the platform of Samsung Innovation Awards, we want to encourage students to work on innovative ideas in evolving areas of artificial intelligence, computer vision and IOT. When we see diverse and quality projects in these emerging technology areas, we can sense the pulse of our youth. Novelty of ideas, comprehensiveness in execution and impact of solution are yardsticks in selecting the winners. Samsung has been supporting deep-tech innovation at large and this year’s event in IIT-Kanpur is one such initiative,” said Dr. Aloknath De, Chief Technology Officer, Samsung R&D Institute, India – Bangalore.

Cutting-edge innovations were showcased at the competition. The innovative product ideas and solutions presented this year ranged from a cloud-based healthcare data management system to an intelligence platform for law enforcement and defence agencies.

“Innovation and entrepreneurship ought to become an integral part of institutions of academic and higher technical learnings. We must quickly transform into an innovation driven society where young minds understand societal needs, carve out opportunities and take calculated risks to become job creators and leaders. We are happy that corporates such as Samsung are coming forward to help us create the desired ecosystem at IIT Kanpur,” said Sameer Khandekar, Associate Dean, Innovation and Incubation, IIT Kanpur.

The 2017 edition of the Samsung Innovation Awards was initiated at IIT-Kanpur campus six months ago through an open entry process, where students submitted their innovative ideas. The shortlisting process was led by professors from IIT-Kanpur and researchers from SRI-B, who also selected the eight finalists.

The final teams presented their ideas to the jury at the IIT-Kanpur campus. The winning project was selected based on the degree of innovation, feasibility, usability, relevance and overall impact on masses.

Conceptualised in 2011, the Samsung Innovation Awards seek to support and encourage young talent who have an innovative approach and look to improvise different systems and processes. Further, it aims to develop indigenous products and services for fulfilling mass needs thereby transforming lives and creating sustainable solutions for the benefit of the society at large.

Over the years, Samsung Innovation Awards have become one of the most eagerly awaited ideation contests at IIT’s due to enthusiastic participation from the student community.

The first edition was conducted at IIT Delhi and since then Samsung Innovation Awards have been held at other major IITs. The last edition in 2016 was held at IIT Bombay and had witnessed great interest and enthusiasm from students. Samsung continues to provide the next generation of Indian innovators and entrepreneurs an avenue to showcase and advance their engineering skill sets. (ANI-NewsVoir)

source: http://www.aninews.in / ANI / Home / November 16th, 2017

Saurabh from AKG Engg College bags Chancellor’s Award at AKTU

Education, Records, All

Lucknow :

Saurabh Verma, a student of electronics and communication engineering from Ajay Kumar Garg Engineering College, Ghaziabad is the recipient of the Chancellor’s medal at APJ Abdul Kalam Technical University. The medal, awarded to the best performing student among all courses, will be given on AKTU’s 15th convocation slated on December 12.

AKTU on Tuesday also announced the medal awardees for its various courses.

In private colleges, in civil engineering, the topper is Anjali Tiwari. In computer science and engineering, Mohit Agarwal is the topper while in electrical engineering, Shivani Singh stands first. The topper in electronics and instrumentation engineering is Vaibhav Garg, in electronics and communication engineering is Saurabh Verma, in mechanical engineering is Anmol Agarwal, in textile engineering is Arunima Singh, in agriculture engineering is Anshuman Vatsa, in information technology is Aashruti Kaushik, and in chemical engineering is Komal Sharma.

In biotechnology, the highest scorer is Virendra Singh who has 86.2% marks. The bachelor of pharmacy (BPharm) course is topped by Harshita Gupta. The topper in bachelor of hotel management programme (BHMCT) is Rahul Sharma. Rahul Kumar Tomar has topped the bachelor of architecture (BArch) course while Vinita Juneja has emerged as topper in bachelor of fashion designing (BFAD). The MBA programme is topped by Laxmi Rajput.

The University also declared the list of medal winners in its five government colleges.

Top three engineering students of each government autonomous college, across different engineering branches are in the medal list. The gold medal at Madam Mohan Malviya Engineering College, Gorakhpur, which is now MMM University of Technology, is won by Sheena Garg from civil engineering with Bhumika Sadhwani from the same department winning a silver medal. The bronze medal is won by Monika Bajpayee of electrical engineering.

At Lucknow’s Institute of Engineering and Technology, Rajat Kumar Singh, a chemical engineering student, who secured 86.76% is the recipient of gold medal.

The gold medalist at Kamla Nehru Institute of Technology, Sultanpur is Priya Sisodia, a student of electronics engineering who scored 87.66%.

At Bundelkhand Institute of Engineering and Technology, Jhansi, the gold medal winner is Manisha Agarwal (86.64%) from chemical engineering.

Shivani Gupta from Harcourt Butler Technological Institute, Kanpur’s chemical engineering has bagged the gold medal by scoring 87.32%.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News / by Isha Jain / TNN / November 21st, 2017

Lucknow University declares medal list, 84% in girls’ kitty

Education, Records, All

Lucknow :

Girls once again roost the rule in Lucknow University’s medal tally, with Ayushi Kapoor, MSc Mathematics student sweeping with 12 medals.

In the list of 179 medals released by LU on Friday, 84% winners who will awarded on the convocation ceremony to be held on December 9 are in girl’s kitty.

According to the list, 150 medals have gone to 74 girls while 22 boys have won only 29 medals. LU will award around 192 medals at its convocation. Remaining medal winners are expected to be announced after November 25.

Securing 96.62% in MSc Mathematics, Ayushi Kapoor has won the maximum of 12 medals. With 67.54% marks, LLb student Asha Tiwari will be awarded nine medals.

Four students – Prasansha Mishra who scored 80.27% in MSc Physics, Megha Walecha who scored 76.23% in MCom, Ankita who secured 67.90% in MA Political Science and Gulshan Jahan who secured 67.95% in MA History – won six medals each.

Students can raise objections, if any, in the medal list, till November 21. According to university officials, applications for the award of Chancellor’s medal and Chakravarti medal have already come, and interviews with the students are most likely to be held after November 25.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Lucknow News> Schools & Colleges / by Isha Jain / TNN / November 17th, 2017

IIT Roorkee creates ‘low-cost’ fuel from algae

Education, Green Initiatives / Environment, Nature, Records, All, Science & Technology

Roorkee:

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee have come up with a new method for production of biodiesel from microalgae (‘kai’ in indi), which they claim is low-cost and more effective.

Elaborating on the research, professor BR Gurjar, head of centre for transportation systems of the institute said, “Microalgae are considered to be one of the superior resources for production of biodiesel due to the species’ ability to produce higher biomass and accumulate more lipids, which are the target material for biodiesel production. To increase the rate of production and to make it cost-effective, we used heterotrophic cultivation of microalgae using low-cost organic carbon-based feedstock such as agro waste, molasses, municipal and industrial wastes. This resulted in an automotive quality in biodiesel production.”

The cost of feedstock and expense of operation are two crucial cost components in biodiesel production. The cost of feedstock alone accounts for about 60–70% of the total cost while the cost of the substrate is also a huge factor. The method employed by IIT Roorkee considerably reduces the cost of the substrate.

IIT Roorkee researchers used the algal-based crude glycerol in the production, which is a low-cost organic carbon source and the main byproduct of the biodiesel production process. Crude glycerol works as a media feedstock for cultivation of microalgae, thereby reducing the cost of the substrate to a negligible point.

Research showed that the use of crude glycerol enhanced the accumulation of the total lipid in the algal cells. Various analyses after the production of the fuel proved it was better in terms of quality and quantity. The fuel was also comparable to the existing vehicular fuel standards.

“The method used by the team is beneficial to the environment as there is no biodiversity loss attached to it. Moreover, it minimizes waste production by using materials like agro-waste and is able to produce an enhanced quantity and quality of biodiesel,” said Richa Katiyar, an associate in the research project.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Bareilly News / by Tapan Susheel / TNN / November 03rd, 2017

2 new medals forLucknow University’s law faculty

Education, Records, All

Lucknow :

After a gap of three years, Lucknow University has introduced two medals this year. They will be awarded during its convocation on December 9. LU has received Rs 5 lakh each for the new medals which will be conferred to the high scorers in law faculty .

“The medals will be constituted in the name of former legislator late DP Bora and Justice (retired) BK Dhawan. The amount of Rs 5 lakh for each set by the university has been given by MLA Neeraj Bora and Daya Dhawan respectively,” said LU VC SP Singh.

He added that Neeraj Bora had given Rs 11 lakh to LU for the constitution of a medal in the name of his father DP Bora. While Rs 5 lakh was for the medal, the remaining amount will be used for development work at the university.

The medal in the name of Justice Dhawan will be awarded to the high scorer of LLB (three years).

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City News> Lucknow News> Schools & Colleges / TNN / November 02nd, 2017

Lucknow girl tops PCS-J exam

Education, Records, All

Allahabad :

Swarangi Shukla of Lucknow bagged the top slot in PCS (J) exams-2016, the result of which was announced by the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission (UPPSC) here on Friday evening. Vinod Joshi of New Delhi stood second while an IAF ex-sergeant Vinod Kumar Pandey of Pratapgarh clinched the third spot.

Talking to TOI, Swarangi Shukla credited her success to her parents. “I had not expected to top the exams as this was my first attempt,” said an elated Swarangi.

Swarangi had completed her schooling from Lucknow’s City Montessori School in science stream before joining the five-year degree course from Gujarat National Law University . “I think it is hard work and dedication which pays and not the years that one dedicates for preparing the exams,” she said.

Third ranker Vinod Kumar Pandey was motivated by Mumbai blast case proceedings in court to become civil judge (junior divi sion).Vinod had served as a sergeant in IAF for 19 years before superannuation.

“I used to closely follow the Mumbai blast case of 1993, in which public prose cutor Ujjwal Nikam made appearances.

This motivated me to study law and I started taking night class of LLB at Mumbai University ,” said Pandey, who is serving as an entertainment tax inspector at Allahabad.

Similarly , second ranker Vinod Doshi belonging to Uttarakhand is presently employed in CBI in New Delhi.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Allahabad News / by Vinod Khanal / TNN / October 14th, 2017