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Under the “Ishan Vikas” scheme of MHRD, IIT Bhubaneswar hosted 42 school students, including 5 of their teachers from north-east region of India, representing the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, and Mizoram, from 7th – 21st December 2016. The participating students had a great experience at IIT Bhubaneswar over last 15 days of the program, which included several scientific talks, laboratory visits and interaction with faculty members of school of electrical sciences, school of basic sciences, school of earth ocean and climate sciences, school of mechanical sciences, school of infrastructure, and school of mineral, metallurgical and material engineering at IIT Bhubaneswar. The program was inaugurated on 7th December, by Prof. R. V. Raja Kumar, honourable director, IIT Bhubaneswar and the very first lecture of the day titled “What is Engineering” was also delivered by himself. Further, on 13th December Prof. V. Chandrasekhar, director, NISER also delivered a talk titled “Science: Some Inspiring Stories”. In addition, the student-teacher teams were exposed to the undergraduate admission process, merit based financial support and general academic life at IIT Bhubaneswar.

The students also visited various laboratories and interacted with the students and faculty members of the nearby institutes such as AIIMS, NISER and ILS Bhubaneswar, where they were exposed to physical, chemical, biological and anatomical aspect of living organisms. Apart from academic activities, the students were also entertained with screening of the movie titled “The Man Who Knew Infinity” and were also involved in friendly sport activities at the hostel premises. The students were also introduced to the basics of yoga and its benefits at an early morning session. Various day trips were arranged in and around the city of Bhubaneswar to educate the students about the history and heritage of golden triangle of Odisha. The trips included visit to the Nandan kanan zoological park, the ancient caves of khandagiri-Udayagiri, and the Dhauli Shanti Stupa, where students enjoyed the evening with a light and sound show illustrating the life experiences of the “Samrat Ashoka”. The students also visited the 13th century sun temple, credited as UNESCO world heritage site, located at Konark and the world-famous Shri Jagannath Temple, Puri. On their way, the students immensely enjoyed the vast but serene coastlines of the Odisha. The students enjoyed the architectural marvel of the Lingaraja temple, credited as one of the oldest temple of the city, also visited Ram mandir, and the regional museum of natural history, Bhubaneswar. The students were taken to seasonal “Toshali Crafts Mela” and various market places for pleasure shopping.

The 15-day long program was concluded on 21st December with great enthusiasm, in gracious presence of Prof. R. V. Raja Kumar, honourable director, IIT Bhubaneswar at Argul campus. Prof. Rajakumar encouraged the students and teachers to share their experience at IIT Bhubaneswar over the duration of the program and later inspired them with the example of Dr. S. C. Jamir, honourable governor of Odisha, to fulfil their individual goals and dreams, by accessing the opportunities and the phenomenal facilities available in many nationalized institutes, including the IITs throughout the country. He not only stressed upon the importance of learning and expressing oneself in mother tongue, but also explained the students the advantages of being multilingual by citing his own example and further presented mementos to them and their teachers. He also thanked the “Ishan Vikas” team of IIT Bhubaneswar for conducting the event with great enthusiasm and passion. Finally, he thanked ministry of HRD, Govt. of India for giving the north-east school students such an exceptional platform to experience the IIT culture and IIT Guwahati for organizing the program. The concluding session was attended by Prof. P. R. Sahu (Acting-Dean, Student Affairs), Dr. S. Rana (Convenor, Ishan Vikas), Dr. S. Sil and Dr. K. Samanta, who on behalf of team “Ishan Vikas” delivered the vote of thanks and the event was concluded with a happy note by taking informal group photographs and screening of short movies related to north-east regions, provided by the participating students and teachers.