1
VSSUT, Burla
UCE Alumni felicitated with “Scientist of the Year” award
It is a matter of pride and im-
mense glory for VSSUT and every
VSSUTian that Dr. Sanjay Burman
(1985 UCE/ EL&TC) has been
felicitated with the Scientist of the
Year award.
Our newsletter team managed to
steal an hour of his valuable time
to be a part of his celebrations and
to hear from him more of his
success stories and nostalgic
memories of his days at UCE.
The result of the interview was
equally enthralling. Details on
Page 2.
Q2 2010 (April-June) Volume 1, Issue 2
Ins ide this is sue
From the Editorial Team.. Dear Readers,
At the outset, we would like to thank all of you for the good number of
feedback and suggestions on the first issue. We have tried to incorporate a few of them starting
with a new name for this quarterly newsletter-Anubandh, which means connection and signifies
the idea of connecting UCEans to UCE via this medium.
Monsoon is here. Every year with Monsoon, a fresh batch of aspirants stop in front of
South and Ladies Hostels, 1st year students get a chance to come out of their shell after a year in
South Hostel; 2nd year students move to the most happening year of Engineering, the 3th year
students move to final year and enter their final lap in this glorious journey and last but not the
least Hirakud Dam opens its flood gates and is a spectacle to watch! We have given a green theme
to this issue to blend with the color that nature brings with Monsoons.
In this issue, we celebrate the spirit of constant struggle and excellence. It‟s a matter of
immense pride that our esteemed alumni Dr. Sanjay Burman has been felicitated with the
“Scientist of the Year” award. We got a few glimpses of his life with an exclusive interview in
Page 2. Things were different in the 1960s for the first Lady Engineer of our state Smt. Renubala
Mohanty. She talked to our editorial team with a few of her memories, and, her journey of con-
stant struggle and perseverance. An interesting fact that surfaced recently is that there has been a
small group at our college who work under cover for the benefit of the society. They have been
helping the students at Kirba with their time and small contributions, and there could be no good
news bigger than that all the 10th class students whom they mentored cleared their CHSE board
exams! A big pat on their back as we get a few glances of „Sanskar Kendra‟ in Page 4. We also
take a look at the T&P figures of last year so that we can scrutinize and plan to better the numbers
this year. In the last page, we congratulate the final year pass out students who have burnt the
midnight oil and topped their respective branches. Through all our cover stories, we salute the
spirit of courage and excellence shown. Happy Reading!
Dr. Sanjay Burman receiving the award from Honorable PM Dr. Manmohan Singh
We asked our alumni and our students:
In the list published by the popular ranking web-
site livemint.com, on the Top 50 Engineering
colleges in India, VSSUT (UCE) Burla, bags the
50th place. We make a survey to find out how
important or unimportant it is for a College to be
among the top league in the surveys:
YES: It is important. A good rank boosts the
morale of the students and the teachers. It
attracts more attention from media and indus-
tries.
NO: It is not that important. These surveys
are sometimes motivated by other interests as
well, and might not be accurate. As long as
the students are taught well and they secure a
good job, everything is fine.
Your Say..
Your Say 1
Talk with Er. Sanjay Burman 2
T&P figures 2009-2010 3
Giving it back to the Society 4
Talk with Er. Renubala Mohanty 5
Infosys conducts Spark program 6
Yet another footprint on the
Global map
6
Branch Toppers 6
Total votes:65
2
Q. Dear Sir, being one of the youngest members of DRDO at the rank of a Director, how do you feel today? It is lonely at the top! Primarily be-
cause, you have a lot of responsibilities. The
decisions that you take not only have immediate
implications, but they also have future implica-
tions. Moreover, every time it is difficult to take
a right decision, because it involves and impacts
a lot of people. So it is challenging, lonely and
difficult at the top.
Q. Sir, what was your first reaction when you re-ceived this news? Were you expecting this or was it something that really came up as a surprise?
No, I wasn‟t expecting it. It came as a
pleasant surprise. I was very elated to hear this
and it brought joy to my entire team, my family
and especially to my mother.
Q. Sir, how has been your journey with DRDO so far? Has it been a constantly challenging one with numerous ups and downs or have you been lucky enough to get a smooth ride?
DRDO provides you with a very chal-
lenging environment where you are just provided
with an opportunity to work. You progress as per
your performance. I was lucky to have been at
the right place at the right time guided by right
mentors. There have been more ups than downs
in my career. Downs were when I failed, but I
came back quickly on the fast track and my re-
sults have been good.
Q. Working in Indian defence research must be encasing u with a sense of immense pride. Sir, can u share with us any moment when you were filled with a real sense of pride of being an Indian?
There are many occasions when we
take pride in our successes. Unfortunately very
few of our successes are reported and most of the
time, the failures are exaggerated. One such in-
stance I still remember is, when we had devel-
oped a communication device and the Army
service headquarters was in favour of an im-
ported system. Ours was a state of the art system.
To demonstrate its capabilities and to assess
which was better, we asked them to carry out a
hands-on comparative evaluation with the im-
ported system. Our system performed far better
than the imported system and was finally se-
lected. We did not win because we had manufac-
tured it indigenously, but because, the perform-
ance was far superior.
Q. DRDO awards are given to commemorate the National Technology Day, to DRDO Scientists and laboratories in recognition of their outstanding contribution towards developing a strong indige-
nous technology base. Sir, what role do you think VSSUT (earlier UCE), your alma mater has played in this notable contribution of yours towards the Nation?
UCE provided me the bed rock and
that is where I stand today. I would like to spe-
cially mention Prof. G. S. Rath and Prof. G.
Panda, whose guidance and mentorship proved
invaluable in my journey till date.
Q. Sir, we always look around for motivation to learn from them and propel ahead. Sir, you are now our motivation. However, we are eager to know, who has been your constant source of moti-vation? Has there been any one who has had a significant impact on your life to move ahead and strive for excellence?
Ever since the late 70s there have been
3 people who have been my role models.
Dr. M. S. Swaminathan (Father of Green
Revolution in India)
Dr. Kurien Verghese (Father of White
Revolution in India)
Knowledge and telecommunication evan-
gelist Sam Pitroda, currently advisor to the
Prime Minister on Public Information Infra-
structure and Innovations.
All these 3 people took up a challenge to do the
unthinkable and because of these 3 we have ade-
quate food grains, milk for every child and supe-
rior telecom connectivity which was unimagin-
able a couple of decades before.
Q. Sir, as they say VSSUT (UCE) is a happening place and memories collected from VSSUT are cherished for a life time. Sir, if you were to share one incident from the memory pool, what would that be?
There are a lot of memories. If there is
one incident that I had to share, that would be the
unfortunate accident leading to the sad demise of
13 of our students. I am deeply saddened by the
fact that neither I nor any of the final years could
do anything to prevent it. I do feel guilty about it.
Another incident which brings a smile
to my face is the mass ragging in my first year.
Someone tried to test the strength of my wrist
against a T-Square and as a result I broke my
wrist. This incident brings a smile to my face
because that person became one of my very close
friends later.
Q. Sir, as you know that UCE has now become
the youngest varsity of the state, VSSUT. This is just the beginning and we have a long way to go. Sir, how would you envision VSSUT 10 years down the line?
I would like to see VSSUT graduate
into a Centre of Excellence and a pioneer re-
search centre in India. Push should be given from
every department to promote research and every
faculty should come forward to get into some or
the other form of modern day research. Q. Sir, please suggest a few innovative ways for the progressive growth of this budding University.
I would like to make a couple of points
here:
First would be to get into sponsored re-
search through AICTE, industries or the
Government.
Secondly, VSSUT should try to leverage
active collaboration with other Universities
for really good courses. The course develop-
ment has to be very current if VSSUT has to
graduate into a real pearl in the field of tech-
nical education. This system was not present
a few years back, but now this has become
very prevalent.
Q. Finally, Sir, any message to all UCEans and VSSUTians out there.
A couple of messages:
Believe in yourself. Nothing is impossible!
Everybody should go through the talk “You
and your Research” given by Richard W.
Hamming to a team of engineers from Bell
Communications. http://pages.cs.wisc.edu/
~markhill/hamming_86_03_07.pdf
Dr. Sanjay Burman is an alumni of 1985 batch.
He is currently the Director of Center for Artifi-
cial Intelligence and Robotics lab, DRDO, Ban-
galore
...Continued from page 1
“UCE Provided me the bedrock
and that is where I stand today.”
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P l a c e m e n t S t a t i s t i c s o f A c a d e m i c S e s s i o n 2 0 0 9 - 1 0
SL. NO.
Department ELEC CIVIL MECH MFG SC COMP SC IT ETC MCA TOTAL INDUSTRY BREAKUP
Company
1 TCE 2 4 2 8 Engg. Consultancy
2 Tata Motors 1 2 3 Manufacturing
3 Vedanta 6 11 3 20 Manufacturing
4 Infosys 5 4 5 17 13 19 63 IT & ITES
5 Visa steel 2 5 2 Manufacturing
6 Adani Power 3 1 1 2 1 8 Power & Energy
7 L&T (ES) 2 4 3 9 Manufacturing
8 Pradan 2 2 3 3 2 12 Miscellaneous
9 Tata Power 3 2 3 8 Power & Energy
10 Hindalco 2 2 1 2 7 Manufacturing
11 NetHawks 2 2 IT & ITES
12 OCL steel 1 1 1 3 Manufacturing
13 JSPL 1 5 2 8 Manufacturing
14 Bhusan 5 4 3 12 Manufacturing
15 Lanco 3 2 2 7 Power & Energy
16 Vodafone 1 1 Telecomm. Networks
17 OM Soln. 1 1 Power & Energy
18 TCS 20 16 17 19 13 8 93 IT & ITES
19 Aptel 13 5 18 Telecomm. Networks
20 Videojet 2 2 Consumer Electronics
21 L&T (IES) 1 1 Engg. Consultancy
22 Sankalp Semiconductor 1 1 Consumer Electronics
23 Viraj Projects 3 3 Cons. & Infrastructure
24 Simplex Projects 3 3 Cons. & Infrastructure
25 Mindfire Sols 1 1 IT & ITES
26 TACO Systems 7 1 1 9 Manufacturing
TOTAL NO. OFFERS 76 22 55 24 38 32 48 10 305
TOTAL NO. ELIGIBLE 54/66 18/28 40/63 25/27 30/35 28/35 30/37 10/30 235/321
Summing Up
TOTAL =(305/321) 95%
TOTAL (ELIGIBLE) =(305/235) 129%
B.TECH =(295/291) 101%
B.TECH (ELIGIBLE) =(295/225) 131%
The successful completion of placement session for batch of 2010
was a testimony to continued faith reposed by many companies on
our students. VSSUT enjoyed good placements despite the global
economic scenario due to the continued patronage of its recruitment
partners.
The number of recruiters who participated in this year‟s placement
stood at 25, an ascent from last year‟s 17 with a total of 282 offers.
Total no. of offers made to the students concluded at 305 as on July
2010. With a total of 235 eligible students registered in the place-
ment cell; this takes the placement percentage to 129%.
The no. of core industries that visited, saw a phenomenal upsurge to
21 from 11 in placement session 2008-09.
The institute attracted organizations across a variety of indus-
tries. An indicative breakup of industries like of Engineering Con-
sultancy, Manufacturing Houses, IT & ITES, Power& Energy and
Infrastructure, is indeed worth highlighting at this junction of time
when VSSUT is reaching many new organisations and looking for
a valuable barter for mutual benefit.
VSSUT has continued to maintain cordial relationship with many
significant recruiters of the country, like Tata Motors, Infosys,
TCS, Vedanta, Tata Power, L&T (ES) by virtue of its exceptional
academia, infrastructure, pedagogy and student quality.
The session also saw many traditional recruiters like Hindalco,
Simplex, Viraj, Bhusan, Sankalp, Vodafone, once again in the re-
cruiter‟s list after a brief discontinuity of late, emphasizing the trust
many industrial houses have put on VSSUT and its students.
In addition to our long standing partners we saw a surge of new
organisations, where Adani Group and Lanco Group, are worth
mentioning. A validation to recruiter perception was proven
through presence of these new organisations, who visited very few
institutes in Eastern India in 2009-10.
T r a i n i n g & P l a c e m e n t 2 0 0 9 - 1 0
Contact T&P Cell at:
Prof. (Dr.) P. K. Hota
Professor & Head,
Department of Training & Placement
VSS University of Technology
(Formerly UCE, Burla)
Sambalpur, Orissa - 768018
Tel: 0663-2430454(O), +91 9861056890(M)
Fax: 0663-2430204
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: http://www.uceburla.ac.in/
PL
AC
EM
EN
T P
RO
FIL
E 2
009
-10
With many public sector concerns
visiting nearby NITs, it is high time for our
university to take some special initiatives to
reach and discuss with their management
about potential prospects of holding a re-
cruitment drive at our campus.
Relationship to be established with
many corporate giants like - Jindal, ACC,
Essar and local groups like Adhunik, IMFA
who are either in a close vicinity of our uni-
versity or now entering Orissa with their
aspiring projects.
As presented in remarks from
many visited recruiters, infrastructure for
appreciable hospitality has to be upgraded
either through new constructions or renova-
tions of existing placement cell.
As discussed many a times re-
cently, off campus arrangement at Bhu-
baneswar is to be taken with special impor-
tance, keeping in view the logistic related
problems cited by many organisations in
turning to Burla. This issue is exemplified
by the success of 2 crucial drives at Bhu-
baneswar towards the last phase of the
placement session.
Assistance to be sought from our
alumni members who have earned formal
recognition from their companies in the
form of awards, special mentions, prizes etc.
This should focus on building a strong rela-
tionship with their companies in special
reference to recruitments.
Submitted By
Sourav Panda (T&P Coordinator, Non-Circuital Branches)
Sanket Mishra (T&P Coordinator, Circuital Branches)
N.Seetharaman (T&P Treasurer)
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They say that a candle loses nothing
by lighting another candle. We all know that
education is the indispensable requirement for
our Nation's development. One of the greatest
services one can ever do is to educate the de-
prived and the underprivileged and contribute
to the Nation's literacy program.
Championing the cause of nurturing
the poor children, students of our college have
been indefatigably working for the upliftment
of the tiny souls of Kirba and Panitanki, two
villages in the vicinity of VSSUT. These stu-
dents have started an initiative for the noble
cause and have been working hard to educate
the poor children of the working staff of hostels
and college. Their works are not only confined
to the academics of the kids but they also focus
on overall development of the children, be it
honing their talents or be it attending to their
special needs. They have been doing it all, orga-
nizing annual functions, pujas, competitions
and extra-curricular activities etc. They even
organize their sessional and annual ex-
ams assuring the children of a proper evalua-
tion of their knowledge.
It all began a few years back with 3
benevolent students who wanted to make a
difference. Inspired by their noble act, many
other students were motivated to join and the
number of members stand at 60 to this date.
These students undoubtedly have a
resolute mind to take this initiative to greater
heights but sometimes scarcity of funds limits
their travail. They have been managing with
meager funds that these 60 people contribute
every month and occasionally collect it from
some of our altruistic alumni to buy study ma-
terials for the children and organize functions
for them, which, otherwise they sparsely get a
chance to experience.
Giving it back to the Society - Sanskar Kendra
Recently, in the month of June there was a moment of ecstasy and bliss for the children
of Kirba and Panitanki along with the members of Sanskar Kendra when all the students of class
10 got through their High School Certificate Examinations. Even a few potential ones could make
it to a 1st division.
When the newsletter team interacted with these kids this was what they had to say:
“The moment we came to know of our results, we were overwhelmed with joy and our parents were
more than happy and proud of us. We truly owe a lot to our mentors, the students from VSSUT who
guided us and really changed the way we looked at life.”
For more details please
visit the following link:
http://sanskarkendra.ning.com
Activities of Sanskar Kendra
1. 5 days classes per week
2. 1 day Sanskar Karyakram
3. Celebration of Ganesh Puja,
Saraswati Puja, Matru Pitru
Pujan Divas, Children’s day
etc.
4. Conducting Regular Exams.
5. Conducting Competitions to
improve extra-curricular
activities.
6. Organizing Annual function.
7. Providing Library Facilities.
8. Spreading awareness among
parents about education.
5
The lady who faced all odds and proved
"nothing is impossible". Presenting before you
is the first lady engineer of our state as she talks
to our editorial team on her journey so far...
Q. Ma‟am, what really made you think to go for
engineering in an era where girls where re-
stricted to arts and science?
A: Few of my friends, took pride in their broth-
ers who were studying at UCE and boasted that
"no girl can ever make it to an engineering col-
lege ". I silently took these remarks as a chal-
lenge and made up my mind to become an engi-
neer.
Q. Ma‟am, please share a few memories of UCE
that you still cherish.
A: Getting into engineering was like a dream
come true. As there was no ladies hostel at UCE
in those days, I resided at the medical college
ladies hostel. Thus I had to travel a tedious 6-
7km four times a day for 1st half theory and 2nd
half drawing sessions. Every day my cycle tyre
would be punctured by my mischievous class-
mates. To add to my plight, in 1965 after the
Indo-China war, the NCC was made compul-
sory. After finishing my classes I had to join the
medico-girls for drills, in their field, on my way
back to the hostel. Boys and teachers were not
open to girls at that time, so there was no one I
was talking to at college. 2 years later in 1969
when Pritylata Rout joined UCE, I finally got a
companion. Engineering books were very costly
at that time and I couldn‟t borrow it from seniors
as the boys used to do. This inability to get
proper books alongside with so many problems I
was already facing, made me weak in my stud-
ies. On the brighter side, I had ranked 7th during
my admission and there was provision of schol-
arship for the 1st 5 of the new comers. Thanks to
the then Principal, who raised the number to 7,
thereby making me a recipient of the scholar-
ship.
Q. Ma‟am, how easy or difficult has been the
journey of the first lady engineer of the state?
A: Nothing I faced was as difficult that it could
not be handled. During the days of fight between
the engineering and medical students of Burla,
we two girls were forced to stay outside the
medical-ladies hostel in some relative‟s place at
night. After that our principal allotted a 3R quar-
ter to us. And a ward boy from boys' hostel
would bring meals for us and an old lady from
nearby village used to guard us at night. Back at
home my family was being humiliated by our
relatives for sending their daughter for engineer-
ing. Their point was, what would a girl do with
an engineering degree? After passing out from
UCE I joined as JE in the Lift Irrigation Dept. I
had to travel a long distance to Bapujinagar in
Bhubaneswar where my office was situated.
After working there for a short span of 2
months, I joined UCE as a teaching staff and
continued there for 5 years again as the only
lady. Then followed my marriage and the birth
of my first child. So I left UCE and joined L&T
Kansbahal works where my husband was work-
ing. A lady engineer being a rare commodity at
that time, not knowing how to utilize me, they
were planning to put me in maintenance of their
technical library. Thankfully my design manager
spotted me and I continued as the design engi-
neer on the collaboration drawings, designing,
attending design conferences, dealing with the
user department of SAIL‟s equipment. But I
would not fail to mention that wherever I
worked or whomever I dealt with, my training at
UCE weighed heavily. It was a fulfilling experi-
ence.
Q. Ma‟am, how do you see the journey of UCE
to VSSUT in the last 50 years?
A: Definitely UCE being the 1st engineering
college of the state has not progressed as ex-
pected. In the sixties and seventies UCE was at
the top of its glory. Utkal University used to
syphon out all its resources for the development
of UCE. A student of UCE would always have
his head raised. Then came the period of reces-
sion in nineties with privatisation of engineering
colleges. But UCE has been able to maintain its
uniqueness controlling the technical education
quality. But indeed our college has been ne-
glected a lot. There were long delays in every
aspect may be it in the gaining of autonomous
status or be it getting proper funds. But I believe
past is not to be regretted rather we all should
plan for VSSUT's future so that we can regain
the lost glory of the college and VSSUT can be
at par with other national technical institutes.
Q. Ma‟am, as per you what role can alumni play
in the steady growth of the university?
A: The 15000 alumni from our college spread all
around the world are UCE's prized possessions.
Definitely alumni can help the college not only
monetarily but also by extending their support to
the college when needed. With better alumni
base we can organise better seminars, we can
improve the placements of students and most
importantly can arrange students exchange pro-
grams to give the students a wider scope. But to
co-ordinate all the alumni activities at VSSUT
we need to have:-
1. Special committee under the T&P dept. of
the college which also controls & co-ordinates
the worthy utilization of alumni funds.
2. Hyper circulation of events in the college,
the missing link between the college and alumni
has to be replenished. This newsletter is defi-
nitely a nice start but for circulation we have to
start involving the representatives of every sub-
centre.
Q. To end this discussion, Ma‟am, a brief mes-
sage to all the VSSUTians (UCEians).
A: 1. Strengthen the alumni database with a full-
fledged office at the college for the alumni asso-
ciation.
2. Annual review of sub-centres on their an-
nual action plan, their execution and budget.
Last but not the least, we have always heard
that „every dark cloud has silver lining‟ and
definitely a day will come after a dark night but
the night for UCE has indeed been long, it has
waited long to get what it deserves. We should
not waste our time and efforts rather use it in a
proper way for our college's development in
every way possible.
Er. Renubala Mohanty is an alumni of 1967
batch, Mechanical and is the first lady Engi-
neer of Orissa. Currently she is a Senior
Manager at L&T ECC division.
There is an invincible power in you, and the same power is in the things you want. It is all
about bringing them to you and you to them. “ ” An exclusive interview with the first lady engineer of the state...
5
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Editorial Team:
Sandeep Kumar Mishra (2005 Mechanical Engineering)
Ashis Kumar Sahoo (4th Year Computer Science and Engineering)
Sritam Jena (4th Year Electrical Engineering)
Simpi Patel (4th Year Computer Science and Engineering)
Rituparna Mohanty (4th Year Computer Science and Engineering) Please send your suggestions and feedback at [email protected]
VSS University of Technology
Burla
Sambalpur, Orissa
PIN—768018
Phone: 0663 2430211
Fax: 0663 2430204
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.uceburla.ac.in
For the first time, in the history of the newly ac-
claimed university, around 220 students from all
the years got a chance to experience the real
professional world when they visited Infosys,
Bhubaneswar for the ‘Spark’ program which
comes under the Campus Connect banner of
Infosys.
The workshop and interactive sessions
that were the part of the program were very in-
telligently designed to evoke elements of profes-
sionalism in the undergrads. Especially a work-
shop on how a project is managed in an IT indus-
try was highly informative. People were given a
live project and were guided by Infoscions on
how to execute it successfully.
Spark program which was held on 6th
March 2010 at Infocity, Bhubaneswar was a great
success due to the unconditional and heartening
support of our resplendent alumni. On behalf of
all the students we would like to thank them for
taking all the pain to organize this event for us.
The whole program was given great im-
portance by the college authorities as well as the
students. This can be noted from the fact that
the mid-semester examination which was sup-
posed to be held on 6th of March was shifted for
this program.
The talk was not only enriched in knowl-
edge but also entertaining and exciting. The
Group Discussion and the presentation was the
most exciting part of the program. The whole
program was focused on the concept of team
work and prepared the students for the corpo-
rate world. It was a great experience to meet
some of the alumni, who were so encouraging
and made us feel at home. They also shared their
valuable experiences with us. They welcomed
queries from the students and enthusiastically
answered them all to their satisfaction.
Spark was a really good start for enlight-
ening our young minds. We definitely look for-
ward to participate in more such programs in
future.
brings Yet another footprint on the Global Map..
In the last issue of our newsletter we
showered accolades on the group
that got their paper selected in an
International conference.
Keeping that momentum going ,are 2
of our 2010 batch IT students, Nihar-
jyoti Sarangi and Sukant Kumar Bishi.
Recently one of their final year pro-
ject papers titled “A secured crypto-
graphic MD5 like hashing algorithm
for ultra-secure communications”
under the guidance of Prof. Rakesh
Mohanty, was accepted for publica-
tion at the “International Confer-
ence on Computer, Electrical, Sys-
tems Science and Engineering” or-
ganized by WASET (World Academy
of Science Engineering and Technol-
ogy). Kudos guys..!!
Nihar Sukant
6
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