Mr B K Chaturvedi Member Planning Commission inaugurating APOGEE 2009
One among the top ranking universities in India today, the Birla Institute of Technology and Science popularly known as BITS has campuses in Pilani Rajasthan, Dubai, Goa and Hyderabad. Recently the National Assessment and Accreditation Council NAAC reaccredited BITS with 3.71 CGPA out of 4 and awarded “A” grade “Very Good” status to BITS.
APOGEE stands for “A Professions Oriented Gathering over Educational Experience”. This TechFest of BITS Pilani which has ISO Certification has always been a jewel in the crown among Tech Fests of various T Schools in India today.
APOGEE which saw its silver jubilee two years back is in its 27th year and is scheduled from 23 March to 27 March 2009. This year over hundred institutions which include overseas ones also are participating and close to thousand participants have invaded the campus in Pilani Rajasthan.
Title sponsor for APOGEE is Vedanta – Hindustan Zinc while Air India and Steel Major SAIL are the Gold Sponsors. The Silver Sponsors include ONGC, Contact Singapore, Infosys, Cognizant, IBM, BSNL, RPG, nVIDIA, Google, NTPC, CSIR and National Instruments. The Prize sponsors are IDA and Sun Microsystems.
This year APOGEE has Technophilia as Robotics partner, National Geographic Channel as Green Partner, UNDP as Knowledge partner, Pearson as Academic partner, GupShup as SMS Partner, Mockint as Interview partner and ICC as Commerce partner. The Media partners include New Scientist, digit, LINUX and electronicsforu. The Exhibition partners include Indian Army and DRDO.
Online Media partners include Web Newswire, Freshersworld.com, Let Me Know, NNE, CRAZYENGINEERS, btechguru.com and pagalguy.com. Food & Beverages partners include Power Horse, BARNIES, DR DOSA and Domino’s Pizza.
On Monday 23 March 2009, in a glittering function held in the majestic auditorium of BITS Pilani, Mr B K Chaturvedi Member Planning Commission Government of India inaugurated APOGEE 2009. In his speech, highlighting the growth and export statistics of India, he talked about the rate of savings and investment rate in India. He urged the students to acquire the ability to identify and seize an opportunity as well as the ability to work in a team. He laid particular stress on ethics, social accountability and gave a clarion call to the young generation to do their best to the society.
Mr PK Chaturvedi after an interaction with senior faculty members and students of BITS praised the path breaking BITSAT model of online examinations for admissions, the dual degree scheme which allows science students of BITS to acquire an engineering degree, the Practice School method of education and the work integrated learning programmes of BITS for addressing the HRD needs of industries
The inaugural function started with the lighting of the ceremonial lamp after which Mr Vijay Sharma President BITS Students Union welcomed the gathering. Prof L K Maheshwari Vice Chancellor BITS called APOGEE as a mini science congress and wanted the participants to make the very best out of it. Mr Ravi Teja General Secretary BITS Students Union proposed the vote of thanks.
APOGEE 2009 has a series of lectures by eminent persons who include Dr SK Jain, Chairperson & Managing Director Nuclear Power Corporation India Ltd, Michael A Cremo author of Forbidden Technology, Rakshat Hooja CEO of IDA Systems, John C Mather Nobel Laureate Physics, Prof SP Kothari Managing Director Global Head of Equity Research Barclays USA, Dilip Chhabria Automobile Style Guru, Jimmy Wales Founder Wikipedia, Michael Hogedal Managing Director & Vice President Vestas R & D, M C Mehta Environmental Lawyer and Magsaysay award winner.
Photo:
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