Category Archives: Education

IMA branch to celebrate platinum jubilee tomorrow

Education, Science & Technology

The IMA branch of Vijayawada was first formed as the Bezawada Medical Association

The Vijayawada branch of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) is going to celebrate its platinum jubilee in a big way on Sunday. Union Minister for Textiles Kavuri Sambasiva Rao will inaugurate the celebrations which includes talks on various subjects by doctors and others. The celebrations will be held at the Sesha Sai Kalyanamandapam. Addressing a press conference here on Friday, president P.V. Ramana Murthy, Secretary Vellanki Sridevi, organising committee chairman Kamineni Pattabi Ramaiah and organising committee secretary V. Ram Prasad said that four distinguished speakers will deliver lectures on different subjects. Visiting professor to the Indian Business School (IBS) and corporate trainer Srinivasan Ranganathan will speak on ‘High Impact people skills for medical practitioners’. Former IAS officer and president of the Lok Satta party Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan will speak on ‘Health Care to all through Public Private Participation’. S.C.B. Medical College, Cuttack, Gynaecology department head P.C. Mohapatra will speak on ‘Medical profession — an introspection’ and Anaesthesia professor Meenakshi Sundaram will speak on “Shall we worry about Consumer Protection Act”.

The lectures will be followed by felicitations to former national president, State president and branch presidents.

The IMA branch of Vijayawada was first formed as the Bezawada Medical Association. In 1938, medical practitioners Koka Chalapathi Rao, V. Hanumantha Rao organised a meeting of doctors. Another medical practitioner D.S. Rama Rao presided over the meeting. A resolution was made to form an association and named it the Bezawada Medical Association. As Dr Rama Rao was leaving town, D.L. Charles was elected president and Dr Hanumantha Rao the secretary. To begin with the association has eight members and they all met at the secretary’s house. Today the branch had over 1,200 members.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Vijayawada / by Special Correspondent / June 29th, 2013

Tie me up, tie me down

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education

If you thought ear cuffs are meant for your hipsters or teenagers, think again. The accessory which got a posh makeover on the runway from designers Rodarte, Chanel and Marchesa is showing up on a lot of celebrity ears and is a favorite among the college goers.

If you want to make a statement, the ear cuff is right up your alley as they are designed to hug the upper portion of the ear fitting snugly around the outer ear, giving a pierced look. “It’s perfect for those who don’t have pierced ears. I have them in the shape of a vine which has chains hanging from the upper end. It looks very feminine,” says Anahita Sharma, an MNC employee.

Ear cuffs don’t necessarily mean a rock-chic look, as they are available in various styles and designs suited for different age groups. If you want to wear them to work, you can choose from clean, subtle designs in gold and silver with your hair down to create that feminine yet glamorous look. “Go for formal western wear with pants and a blazer teamed with ear cuffs for a polished look. One should be able to carry it off with confidence,” says Shoba Uppe, head of fashion and apparel department, National Institute of Fashion Technology, Hyderabad.

For those willing to experiment, one can play around with ear cuffs which come with dangling chains and pendants at one end or can be hooked to your hair with the other end cuffed to your ear. Opt for heavy embellished ear cuffs that look like diamonds adorning your ears for a rich, dramatic look. “Pull back your hair while wearing them and they become a cool accessory for a night out or an evening event,” says Ramya Kamineni, a former student of Hamstech Institute of Fashion and Interior Designing.

Ear cuffs are that small detail which give a bit of edge and glam without much effort.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Hyderabad / by Kota Saumya – Hyderabad / June 26th, 2013

IIIT-Hyd develops Heritage App

Education, Science & Technology

One can take picture at a heritage site or monument and obtain associated annotations on a mid-end mobile phone instantly

The Centre for Visual Information Technology (CVIT) , a research centre at the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-Hyd), has developed  Heritage App , a computer vision application on mobile phones. Using this app, one can take a picture at a heritage site or monument and obtain associated annotations on a mid-end mobile phone instantly.

Cellphone image via Shutterstock
Cellphone image via Shutterstock

For instance, if a tourist or a student visits a heritage monument and is interested in specific artistic details of the structures, he/she can query the app with concerned images and the relevant information is returned as text or audio.

“The app, which is all about taking large number of pictures, extracting information and storing in a condensed form, is still in a lab-prototype stage. It should be available for the common man for free download hopefully in a year from now,” Anoop M Namboodiri, assistant professor at, IIIT-Hyd, told Business Standard.

CVIT, which has four faculty members and over 60 research students including a couple of PhDs working on different projects, has already demonstrated the app on Golconda Fort in Hyderabad and Hampi Temple in Karnataka with a dataset of around 5,000 images covering most parts or locations at these sites.

“We can also package this app with face-recognition algorithms etc. These, however, are future directions,” Namboodiri said, adding that CVIT was also working on areas like medical image processing, primarily focusing on analysis of retinal images for diagnostic purposes.

Ties up with Polycom 
Polycom Inc, a Nasdaq-listed, over $1.5-billion company that provides unified communications and collaboration (UC&C) solutions, on Tuesday signed an MoU with IIIT-Hyderabad for collaborative research and development of new video collaboration products and solutions.

The MoU envisages joint research in developing video technology solutions, which will be commercialised by Polycom globally. The company is also looking at other institutions in India for similar joint research collaborations, Balaji Iyer, general manager (R&D), Polycom India, told mediapersons here.

According to Vasudeva Varma, dean of research at IIIT-Hyd, working with Polycom will give the institution access to a much bigger playground to harness its research capabilities, especially in potential technological areas like computer vision, pattern recognition and cloud computing.

“At present, around 40 per cent of our revenues are flowing in from externally-funded research projects. Our goal is to further increase this so that students get to pay lesser fees,” he added.

source: http://www.business-standard.com / Business Standard / Home> Technology> Personal Technology> Mobile / by K Rajani Kanth / Hyderabad – June 18th, 2013

Vizag lad presents paper on Mars project at ISDC

Education, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Ramesh Reddy Nidrabangi, son of an auto driver from the city, presented a research paper on Martian Atlantis Rover and Space Exploration (MARSE) project at the recently concluded International Space Development Conference (ISDC-13) at San Diego, California.

The conference was organised as part of space development contest by National Space Society (NSS) in association with NASA. The MARSE project was conceived in the context of the under-design Atlantis Mars Rover. Although he attended similar conferences in US twice, this was the first time his research paper was accepted. Elaborating on the MARSE project, Ramesh told The Hindu “Almost 40 per cent of the project is completed and it took me 18 months to achieve this. The project report was submitted to NSS-ISDC 2013, San Diego, and it was one of the selected 120 research papers.”In appreciation of his presentation he was offered a challenge to design a nano-satellite by a Los Angeles-based company.

The Nano-Sat designing programme is being carried out worldwide where the assigned teams are required to design a satellite of 10 cm triangular dimensions. A private firm is planning to launch 27 Nano-Sats to Mars to develop a complete GPS system of Mars, and provide information for the future Mars missions. He started the project in December 2011 while studying bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Designing at National Aerospace University in Russia (Khai-Kharkov Aviation Institute).

In the second year of bachelor’s degree he moved to the Rocket and Space Technology department. Ramesh Reddy said he was launching a space organisation called DCube Space for the benefit of students worldwide and to give them exposure to space science. The organisation involves 300 scientists, 600 professors, 1,200 teachers and 1,000 contributors who will enrich the 12,000 strong student DCube Space club. Also 160-200 Indian schools spread in 25 Indian cities and 7 international cities, including Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, and Hyderabad will get access to a galaxy of space scientists.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Visakhapatnam / by Ravi. P. Benjamin / July 26th, 2013

Two girls break into IIT’s top-10 club

Education, Records, All

For the first time in history, two girls have ranked in the top 10 in the Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) for admission to the prestigious Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).

Aditi Laddha from Ratlam in Madhya Pradesh ranked sixth, while Leena Madhuri from Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh placed eighth. Both small-town girls want to study computer science.

Pallerla Sai Sandeep Reddy of Andhra Pradesh has topped the IIT JEE 2013 exam, scoring 332 marks out of 360.

While the first two ranks are from the IIT-Madras zone, the next two ranks are from the IIT-Delhi zone. Kartikeya Gupta of Delhi placed fourth becoming the North India topper. “I would choose computer science at IIT-Delhi. Besides reading, I love to play the tabla,” he said.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Images/Popup/2013/6/22_06_13-pg01c.jpg

The gender swing however continues to be still weighed heavily in favour of boys, with only around 11% of girls being called for counselling, almost similar to that of last year.

The total number of girls in the top 100 this year is four, up by one from last year.

“This is a positive trend. We have two girls in the top 10 this year,” HC Gupta, organising chairman, JEE (Advanced) 2013, said.

“I would like to study computer science at either IIT-Bombay or IIT-Delhi,” Laddha told HT.

Madhuri said she was very happy to see girls performing well.

“I used to study for 12-14 hours,” Madhuri, who scored 97.9% in her boards, said.

Talking to HT, Reddy, who wants to become a robotics engineer, said he was happy to note that two girls have secured a place in the top 10.

While 21,110 candidates qualified  in the exam, 14,336 have actually been  called in for counselling. The filling of courses is scheduled from June 24-30.  The first round of seat allotment is expected to be announced on July 4.

Nearly 1,15,000 candidates appeared for the JEE (Advanced) exam for 16 IITs and the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad, on June 2.

This year, selection was a two-stage process – IIT (Main) and IIT (Advanced). Aspirants have to be in the top 20 percentile of their boards to finally get admission in an IIT.

source: http://www.hindustantimes.com / Hindustan Times / Home> News / by HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times / New Delhi – June  22nd, 2013

Teenager with Hyderabadi roots wins US Spelling Bee

Education, Nri's / Pio's, Records, All

Hyderabad :

A teenager with Hyderabadi roots claimed the top spot at a prestigious international spelling contest in USA on Thursday night.

Arvind Mahankali, 13, from New York, managed to correctly spell the word ‘knaidel’, which denotes a small mass of leavened dough, to win the 86th Scripps National Spelling Bee. Mahankali, who had finished third in 2011 and 2012, fought hard this time to outlast 11 finalists from across the country.

He later revealed that in the last two years, he was eliminated due to German-derived words, but this time, although the winning word was from German-derived Yiddish, he spelled it with ease, causing the audience to erupt in loud applause and cheers. “The German curse has turned into a German blessing,” he said.

Arvind’s immediate family members, who live in the US, were overjoyed at his victory. Although his relatives in Hyderabad remained unavailable for comment, sources said the mood was celebratory at their house as they watched him win the contest on live television.

Reports said that when Arvind’s name was announced as the winner, he looked up at the falling confetti and cracked his knuckles, which had come to be his signature gesture at the contest. The prize includes $30,000 in cash and other gifts, along with a huge cup-shaped trophy. Arvind, an aspiring physicist who admires Albert Einstein , said he would focus on the subject more now that he has conquered the spelling bee.

Arvind is the sixth consecutive Indian-American winner and the 11th in the past 15 years. Pranav Sivakumar from Illinois finished second, fumbling on “cyanophycean”, the word for a blue-green alga. Sriram Hathwar, 13, of New York, came third, and Amber Born, 14, of Massachusetts, stood fourth.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> US & Canada News / by TNN / June 01st, 2013

Mississippi University team visits Osmania University

Education

Hyderabad (INN):

A team of Professors and academicians from Mississippi State University visited Osmania University here on Wednesday.

The visiting team discussed various issues on academics and research with Osmania Vice-Chancellor Prof. S. Satyanarayana. Mississippi State University team led by Jerome A. Gilbert, expressed the desire and interest to develop partnerships with Osmania University in teaching, research, student & faculty exchange programmes. The team explored the possibilities of starting joint degree and joint post-graduate programmes with a study of two or three years in India followed by two or three years study at Mississippi State University. Osmania University Vice Chancellor Prof. S. Satyanarayana explained to the team about the various courses run by O.U. and the exemplified quality of research work. He promised all support to the visiting team from Mississippi State University.

With a view to developing Fuel efficient cars, Unmanned vehicular system, Aerospace Engineering Aircraft design, computational engineering – fluid dynamics, the Mississippi State University team visited University Engineering College, Centre for Plant Molecular Biology (CPMB), University College of Technology, O.U., and interacted with the staff and students. Jerome A. Gilbert said that he was very much impressed by the ongoing research at Osmania University. The visiting team interacted with the Principal of CBIT, Prof.B. Chennakeshava Rao and Vasavi Engineering College, Prof.E.S.Rao, and elicited their views on the latest trends in Engineering.

Mississippi State University team comprises K. Raja Reddy, Professor, Dept. of Plan & Soil Sciences, J.Mike Phillips, William Benjy Mikel, Gregory A.Bohact, David R.Shaw, John P.Rush.

Osmania Register Prof. M.S.N. Reddy, Prof. V. Dashavanth Reddy, Prof. V.S.S. Kumar, Prof. T. Sankarshana , Prof. M. Kumar, Prof. Ch. Sailu participated in the deliberations.

source: http://www.newswala.com / News Wala / Home> Hyderabad News / INN / Hyderabad – May 29th, 2013

IIT Hyderabad Receives $174.8 million financial aid from Japan

Education, Science & Technology, World Opinion

Japan is all set to aid financial support to IIT Hyderabad (Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad). It will provide $174.8 million i.e. around 870 crore as a loan for development purpose. The IIT Hyderabad is receiving a biggest-ever amount aided to IIT’s by foreign countries.

 

Experts of higher education and development say that it need a lot more effort on the standards of higher education in the state in order to boost infrastructure. With the strongest support received the Institute is all set to raise nine state-of-art buildings, including special technology centre, new academic blocks and a research centre. According to the sources, Authorities will also use some portion of money to acquire lab equipment, and officials said they would expand its current capacity and student strength from existing 1000 plus to more than 7,500 by 2018. According to the experts, the biggest hurdle in the higher education sector across India is the shortage of well-trained faculties.

 

Senior official of IIT Hyderabad said, they will increase the number of faculties over 100 by 2018 which will be more than 750. A senior academic at the University of Hyderabad told “The talent pool is highly exciting in Hyderabad, and for Japan it is a truly exciting market as they are looking at more and more investments in education,” said professor G Haragopal.” IIT officials said they were overjoyed that the deal has been formally announced.

IIThyderabadHF05jun2013

The institute has been functioning at a temporary campus in Medak, and further development will happen in the new campus spread across 200 acres. CP Chandrasekhar, professor at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, said “The Japan agreement is boost for higher education in India and will definitely give a big boost to technology and development of institutions.”

source: http://www.education.oneindia.in / Home> News / by Ashwathi / Friday – May 31st, 2013

Integrated Common Entrance Test topper from Vijayawada

Education, Records, All

Warangal :

Bitra Venkata Balaji, a student from Vijayawada, stood first in the Integrated Common Entrance Test (I-CET) for admission into MBA and MCA courses, results of which were announced on Friday.

M Narasimha and Oruganti Phani Pavan of Hyderabad bagged the second and third ranks respectively while S Santosh of Visakhapatnam stood fourth in the state.

Kakatiya University conducted I-CET this year. Prof B Venkatratnam, vice-chancellor of Kakatiya University, released the results. He told reporters here that 95.70% of students had qualified. In all 1,23,296 candidates were declared as qualified out of 1,28,838 students appearing for the test.

Candidates may download their marks now and rank cards from June 2.

Students may apply for recounting of marks and also for photocopy of the OMR sheet on or before June 15, the fee for which is Rs 1000 and Rs 2000 respectively.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / June 01st, 2013

Kids, get ready for a fun-filled week

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Sports

Hyderabad :

After a successful season of fun and learning last year, The Times of India is back with its Hyderabad for Kids campaign, this time with a fresh round of activities for thebaccha party.

The one-week long drive is all set to kick off on June 3 with an adventure-packed kayaking session on the Hussainsagar at Tank Bund. Perfect for kids aged between 8 and 15 years, the activity will be conducted by founder president of the Yacht Club of Hyderabad, Suheim Shaikh.

Later in the day, young drama enthusiasts from across the twin cities will be given an opportunity to showcase and hone their on-stage talent in a theatre workshop conducted by famous theatre personality Mohammed Ali Baig (June 3-June 5). Baig will also hold an ad film making workshop on June 7 and 8, exclusively for kids between 10 and 15 years of age.

Those looking to shake a leg while on their summer break also have reasons to cheer. This year’s campaign brings to you a power-packed four-day session with fitness guru Dinaz (June 3-June 6). Apart from twisting and turning to peppy numbers, the workshop will also be peppered with doses of aerobics for the health conscious.

Considering the roaring success of last year’s badminton session with Pullela Gopichand, which not just gave 100 children a chance to be trained by the ace coach but also enroll in his future camps, the campaign has ensured that the ‘game is on’ this year too. The difference is that this year the coach will be joined by his protege P V Sindhu who recently bagged the Grand Prix gold title in Malaysia. The duo will conduct a workshop on June 7 at the Gopichand Academy for talented and aspiring badminton champs.

The campaign also has something for kids who cannot stop talking in class. Allowing them to put their gift of the gab to good use and perhaps become the next big radio jockey, TOI will organize a trip to the Radio Mirchi station on June 4. The ‘outing’ will give kids an opportunity to interact and pick up a few tips from the city’s top radio jockeys (RJ).

Adding a dash of glamour to the campaign will be actor Rana Daggubati who will conduct a three-day acting workshop from June 7 to June 9 for kids aged between 12 and 16 years. Also on the calendar is a ‘magical’ session (well, literally) with Murali Krishna on June 8.

Children who have been in awe of the men in khaki will get a chance to step into the ‘dream’ role for a day as part of the ‘Be a police officer’ event scheduled for June 6 and 7. Hyderabad police commissioner Anurag Sharma and his team will take the kids along with them to show what it really takes to keep the city safe and secure.

Last year’s visit to TOI’s press at Nacharam turned out to be a great experience not only for the 50 excited kids, but also their parents who accompanied them. The press visit makes a comeback this year on June 7 for a fresh batch of children who want to understand what goes on behind the scenes in bringing out a newspaper.

So kids, gear up for an action-packed week of fun, learning and memories to last you a lifetime.

Week of fun and learning

June 3: Kayaking on Hussainsagar

June 3-June 5: Theatre workshop by Mohammed Ali Baig

June 3-June 6: Dance and fitness session with Dinaz

June 4: Trip to Radio Mirchi station

June 6-June 7: ‘Be A Police Officer’ with police commissioner Anurag Sharma and team

June 7: Badminton workshop by Pullela Gopichand and P V Sindhu

June 7: Visit to TOI’s press at Nacharam

June 7-June 9: Acting workshop by Rana Daggubati

June 7-June 8: Ad film making workshop with Mohammed Ali Baig

June 8: Magic session with Murali Krishna

For registration and other details, read The Times of India

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Hyderabad / TNN / June 03rd, 2013