Category Archives: Education

They managed disability to enter IIM

Amazing Feats, Education, Records, All

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IIM-Bangalore attracts several students living with disabilities

The vast campus of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) is set to welcome a fresh batch of 400 Postgraduate Programme (PGP) students on Thursday. But a few students have arrived early for voluntary preparatory classes.

Two of them chat as if they are old friends, although they met only weeks ago.

What’s special about the duo? Bengalurean Kunal Mehta, 24, is visually impaired. After initial schooling in an institution for the visually impaired, his parents shifted him to a regular school in Class 8. His father is in the automobile spare parts business and his mother, a home maker. He shifted to management studies for undergraduate education after taking up arts in pre-university

Mr. Mehta was then recruited to a top multinational finance company. Two years down the line his thirst to learn more caught up with him. “I started preparing for competitive exams such as the Common Admission Test (CAT),” he says. He managed to clear it in his second attempt with an impressive 97.7 percentile.

Awareness challenge

For Himanshu Mittal, 23, who has spent all his life in Faridabad and is wheelchair-bound after an accident at home, IIMB is a dream. Mr. Mittal attended a regular school. “There is very little awareness about the needs of persons with disabilities,” he says on his experience.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by K.C.Deepika / Bengaluru – June 14th, 2017

2 B’luru students win national science contest

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology
Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar with Shrishti Kulkarni (third from the left in front row, wearing a brown shirt and trousers), Joel Tony (in blue jeans and white shirt, next to the minister) and other winners of a national-level science contest in New Delhi. PIB
Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar with Shrishti Kulkarni (third from the left in front row, wearing a brown shirt and trousers), Joel Tony (in blue jeans and white shirt, next to the minister) and other winners of a national-level science contest in New Delhi. PIB

Two students from Bengaluru have won a national-level science contest organised by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-backed outfit Vijnana Bharati in association with Central government institutions.

Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar felicitated the winners — Shrishti Kulkarni, a student of Gear Innovative International School, Koramangala, and Joel Tony, a student of Inventure Academy, Whitefield – at a function here.

The minister also felicitated 12 other winners of the ‘Vidyarthi Vigyan Manthan’ awards for 2016-17. Each of the winners of the contest was awarded a medal and certificate of merit.

“Physics is my favourite subject. It just fascinates me because I feel Physics has answers to every problem,” Tony, who will now be a student of Class IX, told Javadekar, when the minister asked him about his academic interests.

Tony, however, kept his cards close to his chest about future plans. “I wouldn’t mind,” he said, when Javadekar asked him if he wanted to become a physicist.

Shrishti, who has been promoted to class VIII, told the minister she aspired to become a scientist. “I have interest in Mathematics and Science,” she said.

Vigyan Bharati organised the nationwide contest in three stages in collaboration with the National Council of Educational Research and Training and Vigyan Prasar, an autonomous institution under the Centre’s department of science and technology.

A total of 1.4 lakh students from 1,472 schools, including 264 Kendriya Vidyalayas, participated in the contest. Out of them, 14 students were declared winners. The contest was held for students of Classes VI to XI.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City / DH News Service / New Delhi / June 15th, 2017

Research needs to be multi-disciplinary: Award-winning duo

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

Bengaluru :

The scientific landscape in India must move in an organic way towards an environment that encourages multi-disciplinary research so as to address the challenges that the country and the world face, scientists say.

G Mugesh from the department of inorganic and physical chemistry, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), said: “There is no doubt that people working with different interfaces need to be encouraged. The challenges before us have shown that just one discipline is not enough, for example, to tackle several diseases that the world at large and India face.”

Mugesh was conferred the National Prizes for Interfaces between Chemistry and Biology (2017), instituted by the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bengaluru, in collaboration with CNR Rao Education Foundation. The award is donated by AVRA Laboratories, Hyderabad.

This year’s award is also being conferred on Sandeep Verma of Indian Institute of Technology – Kanpur.

“Compared to 20 years ago, when I joined IIT-Kanpur after my PhD and postdoctoral research in the US, there is a lot of change. All my training in the US was on how to do multi-disciplinary research and when I returned I found that the scientific landscape in India was still very puritan. Researchers like working in their respective areas and seldom interacted with other disciplines.”

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City News> Bangalore News / TNN / June 06th, 2017

Karnataka homeopathic doctor to take part in world homeopathic conference at Leipzig

Education, Records, All, Science & Technology

Mangaluru :

Dr Shashi Kant Tiwari, director, Dr Tiwari Homeo Clinic , Bejai will present a scientific paper in the largest homeopathic conference scheduled to be held in Leipzig, Germany on June 14 and 15. The conference is being organized by world’s largest organisation of Homoeopaths, Liga Medicorum Homeopathica Internationalis (lmhi).

Dr Tiwari will deliver his lecture on strategies of prescription, wherein he will discuss the methodology of treating acute, chronic and pathological problems affecting different age group and demonstrate genuineness and efficacy of his methodology through treated cases in his own clinic at Mangalore.

He is the only person from Karnataka to get this opportunity to present and discuss his views in world homoeopathic conference wherein the dais will be shared by other two well-known authors on this special topic (prescription strategies). Dr Tiwari is well known in homoeopathic circle of Germany because of his famous book on prescribing and a book on child care.

Former principal of Fr Muller Homoeopathic Medical College, Dr Tiwari is also the former director of National Institute of Homoeopathy, Kolkata.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News > City News> Mangalore News / by Jaideep Shenoy, TNN / June 03rd, 2017

Civil engineer from Shivamogga bags 47th rank in UPSC exam

Education, Records, All
Dhyanachandra HM.
Dhyanachandra HM.
There was a festive atmosphere at the residence of Dhyanachandra H M at Vinobnagar in the city on Wednesday evening as he bagged the 47th rank in UPSC examinations of 2016.

He is the son of S L Haleshappa, an engineer with Karnataka Housing Board and Mamata K, a teacher at a government school in Shivamogga. Speaking to DH over the phone, Dhyanachandra said that though he was hopeful of bagging a good rank in the exam, he had not anticipated the 47th rank as it is a competition among ‘intelligent people.’

“I know that I have to work with politicians in our democratic set up. I am prepared for it. I am committed to working within the framework of law.”
Dhaynachandra who is currently working as an assistant engineer with Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department in Bengaluru, said that Insight Institute based in Bengaluru helped him do well in the UPSC exam.
He took personal guidance from Vinay, who runs the institute. His father motivated him to become an IAS officer. He had selected Kannada as an optional for the exam. He couldn’t clear the preliminary exam in his first attempt. Having studied the pattern of the exam thoroughly, he came out with flying colours in his second attempt.
A gold medallist
He studied at Swamy Vivekananda School at Ravindranagar in Shivamogga and PUC at Expert PU College in Mangaluru. He had bagged a gold medal in BE Civilfrom Manipal Institute of Technology.
source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> State / DH News Service , Shivamogga / June 01st, 2017

AIET students, faculty map 5,000 assets in Mangaluru taluk

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Records, All
Vineet Alva, managing trustee, AEF (right) hands over report of asset mapping of 55 GPs of Mangaluru taluk carried out by AIET staff/students to M R Ravi, CEO, DK ZP in Mangaluru on Saturday / Pic: Jaideep Shenoy
Vineet Alva, managing trustee, AEF (right) hands over report of asset mapping of 55 GPs of Mangaluru taluk carried out by AIET staff/students to M R Ravi, CEO, DK ZP in Mangaluru on Saturday / Pic: Jaideep Shenoy

Mangaluru :

A tripartite agreement involving NRSC-Isro, Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat and Alva’s Institute of Engineering and Technology (AIET) has seen students of AIET carry out asset mapping of 5,000 assets in Mangaluru taluk. The effort saw 55 faculty and 330 students undertake the mapping work in 25 days after AIET team trained gram panchayat members in 55 GPs in the taluk and panchayat development officers (PDOs) helped them in the endeavour.

With M R Ravi, chief executive officer of DK ZP, responding positively to the proposal from AIET, National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) and AIET team, trained PDOs of Mangaluru taluk about Bhuvan Panchayat android application at an orientation programme. The 55 GPs were divided in 11 clusters. Each cluster comprised 5 GPs, ans was allotted five faculty and 30 students from AIET. The cluster-level training was held on May 3 and 4.

Vivek Alva, managing trustee, Alva’s Education Foundation , who handed over the asset mapping report of the taluk to Ravi on Saturday, said that the work was an excellent learning process for both students and faculty of AIET. “This not only gave much needed rural exposure to students of AIET, but also encouraged them to carry out projects for villages,” he said, adding that the project has effectively used the application created by NRSC-Isro.

Ravi said such projects expose students to rural India and problems people face in urban areas. Noting that he had personally visited some of the gram panchayats where the asset mapping was going on, Ravi said that the report will help planners like him refix their priorities and work towards filling the critical gaps in local infrastructure. “The report helps the administrators draw critical inferences which can help people at large,” he claimed.

Referring to one such inference, he said that the mapping has identified presence of 34 churches, 131 mosques and 374 temples in the taluk. “This is an indicator of the religious harmony and peaceful coexistence of people,” he said. The presence of 111 bank branches gives one the inference that the taluk is commercially urban oriented society. It also throws light on shortcomings in administrative initiatives such as failure to promote rainwater harvesting and surfeit of borewells.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Mangalore News / TNN / May 28th, 2017

Global Swede award for Bengaluru student

Education, Records, All

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Bengaluru :

Saumya Ahuja of  WeSchool, Bengaluru, has been conferred with the Global Swede award by the Swedish government.  She will be the ambassador for Sweden, Malardalen University and higher education, in India.

Saumya is now studying about Sweden as a cashless nation and demonetization in comparison to India on a oneyear exchange programme at Malardalen University (MDH) under the LinnaeusPalme scholarship.

Sweden is the first European nation to issue bank notes and 80% of the transactions are done by cards. “It’s important to give people a choice and allow them to switch to living cash free gradually. Parallelism between cash and digital money is probably impossible to achieve, yet strategic moves like making cash more expensive and better enforcement may result in a positive outcome to get closer to being cashless,” Saumya said.

The study involves inter actions with executives and common people of Sweden.Linnaeus-Palme, a Swedish exchange programme, offers students an opportunity to showcase talent through innovation and design thinking in keeping with global trends. Saumya was presented the award by minister for EU Affairs and Trade Ann Linde and general director of Swedish Institute Annika Rembe.

“Acting as a link between India and Sweden, I’m expected to strengthen the relationship India and Sweden share not only in education field but also to be able to contribute to a culturally better world,” she said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Bangalore News / TNN / May 31st, 2017

Bengaluru boy Parmeet beats odds to score high

Amazing Feats, Education, Records, All

ParmeetBF29may2017

Despite missing two months of school after an open heart surgery, he scored 95% in class 12 board exams

Parmeet Baweja knew 2016 would be a crucial year. He was in class 12 after all and was fully aware of the importance of that academic year. But it was a different sort of a report that delivered a jolt to him. The Delhi Public School, Bengaluru (East) student was diagnosed with a hole in the heart, a defect that went unnoticed since his birth.

Although he was initially terrified and missed two months of school after undergoing an open heart surgery, his score card for the Class 12 board exams did not reflect any of that: instead, it has a proud 95% written on it. There was a celebratory mood at his house on Sunday. Recollecting his preparation strategy, Parmeet said: “When I got back to school after two months, I panicked. But I was prepared for working twice as hard to ace the race. Ultimately, with the help of my parents and the unending support of my teachers, I managed to score well.” Initially, home tuitions helped him, but the day he was given the all clear by his doctors, he turned to his books to make up for lost time. Parmeet credits his school teachers who made time from their busy schedules to conduct special classes for him.

His mother, a businesswoman, played a vital role too. She was not only a big support during his recovery process, but also helped him cope with his academic schedule. “My mother helped me unconditionally to come to terms with my health – physically as well as mentally,” he said.

Thrilled with his scores, he now plans to prepare for the CPT Exam to be held in December. He plans to become a chartered accountant someday.

While his parents knew that Parmeet would do well as he had secured a perfect 10 Cumulative Grade Point Achievement in class 10, they are thrilled with his scores. “My son was extremely brave and studied for almost 10 hours a day during the last four months,” said his father Harpal Baweja.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Bengaluru / by Roli Agarwal / Bengaluru – May 29th, 2017

Students go innovative, price of their drone dips

Amazing Feats, Business & Economy, Education, Records, All, Science & Technology
KNS Institute of Technology students display the drones designed by them at Eduverse, the ninth edition of Jnana Degula education expo organised by Deccan Herald and Prajavani, at Jayamahal Palace Hotel grounds on Sunday. DH photo
KNS Institute of Technology students display the drones designed by them at Eduverse, the ninth edition of Jnana Degula education expo organised by Deccan Herald and Prajavani, at Jayamahal Palace Hotel grounds on Sunday. DH photo

An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) at Rs 1,500? Students of KNS Institute of Technology have done it, without much fanfare. They plan to enhance the design to customise the drones for surveillance and transporting goods.

The makers of the plane – Inayatullah, Debabrata Mondal, Premkumar Singh and Syed Junaid – represented their college along with vice principal Nayeem Ahmad at Jnana Degula-Eduverse event organised by DH and Prajavani.

Inayatullah said the plane was made of simple polymer materials (expanded polyolefin and polystyrene) and can carry 350 gm payload. “It can fly for an hour at a speed of 45 km per hour. We have used a propeller made of composite material with aluminium coating so that it can fly at a height of 500 feet and withstand force of up to 85 newtons,” he said.

The team is also working on a plane specifically designed for surveillance.“While the 45 kmph plane can be improvised to make it a delivery drone, we are working on a plane that flies slower, at 36 kmph, providing opportunities for deeper surveillance of a particular area,” Mondal said.

Inayatullah said the cost of the UAVs will come down further if produced on a large scale. “The UAVs produced by government agencies cost a lot. Our planes are disposable. The army can use the surveillance drone and does not have to worry if one of them is lost or destroyed,” he said.

The planes can be controlled by a 2.4GHz radio frequency device, which has a range of 2.5 km. “The remote controller cost us Rs 3,500. Considering that it is the plane and not the device that is susceptible to damage, we think ours is the most affordable UAV,” he said.

“The turbo is imported from China for Rs 90 and sold in India for Rs 250. The same turbo can be made in India at a cost of Rs 40. Nearly 95% of the materials were imported from China. After a detailed study, we found the cost will come down to Rs 600, if we make these materials in India,” Inayatullah said.

source: http://www.deccanherald.com / Deccan Herald / Home> City / DH News Service / Bengaluru – May 29th, 2017

Mangaluru : Manipal Alumnus gets Global Fame

Amazing Feats, Education, Science & Technology, World Opinion
Kartik Mandaville has wide experience working with start-ups
Kartik Mandaville has wide experience working with start-ups

Kartik, 26, spoke at RecTech 2017 in Barcelona, one-of-a-kind forum

At 26, Kartik Mandaville, chief executive officer (CEO) and founder of SpringRole — a machine learning-based recruiting software in Bengaluru and Los Angeles — is the youngest to address the RecTech 2017, the only conference focused on innovation in recruitment advertising and technology outside of the US.

The event offers a one-of-a-kind forum for senior executives in publishing and technology companies that offer talent acquisition solutions.

The conference focussed on mobile transformations, “total candidate focus”, programmatic advertising, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Held from May 17-19, it played host to an impressive group of recruitment experts and influential speakers from around the world.

Sharing his experience with Bangalore Mirror, Kartik Mandaville said it was a wonderful experience to share the stage with leaders from top companies in the USA and Europe. “Moreover, I was probably the youngest there. There was immense learning from the conference, being part of the panel and conducting the workshop. I must admit, I was nervous, but the workshop was well received and I was surprised to find a queue of people waiting to talk to me, which was humbling. Mostly we discussed about the future of recruitment – how artificial intelligence is going to help in the process and make it convenient for HR (human resources) managers,” he said.

More than 100 high-level executives from recruitment advertising and tech companies attended the conference, mainly from Europe, the US, Latin America and Africa.

Mandaville is a serial entrepreneur who also serves as senior technical advisor at Science in Santa Monica, California, and other companies.

He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) with Masters from the Language Technologies Institute focussing on big data, machine learning, natural language processing and BioTech.

Mandaville has wide experience working with start-ups. At Science, he worked with early-stage start-ups to architecting out their technology, building the team and scaling.

He built the Science India team having 40-plus software engineers and product working across the portfolio companies.

Before joining CMU, he was a full-stack developer working at Shareaholic on the product distribution channel and different web properties. As a student at Manipal University, he launched ‘Autobudder’ in 2010 for Facebook, an application that automatically wishes friends on their birthdays.

The following year, he was part of the team that launched ‘Let Me Know’, a unique portal that helps students across India find opportunities of various kinds such as internships, workshops, seminars, conferences, tech-fests, literary events and much more.

source: http://www.bangaloremirror.indiatimes.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> News> State / by Deepthi Sanjiv, Bangalore Mirror Bureau / May 23rd, 2017