Freshmen Orientation at BITS Pilani – Its different

Oct. 6, 2009 - PRLog -- It is indeed a matter of pride that for the year 2009, the Birla Institute of Technology and science popularly known as  BITS Pilani has been ranked among the top ranking universities along with IITs in various Magazine surveys such as India Today, Outlook, LiveMint etc. BITS offers degrees in various disciplines presently at Pilani, Dubai, Goa and Hyderabad campuses.

BITS is well known for its transparency in selection criteria based on the online BITSAT examination for all its degree programmes. One special feature of BITS admissions for the past several decades has been the Direct Admission to Board Toppers from different Central and State Boards which has given year after year, a very vital input of highly meritorious students from all over India.

The two-day orientation programme which has four sessions for all freshmen at Pilani campus is organized by the Dean Student Welfare Division and presently Prof N V Muralidhar Rao holds the post. The venue is the majestic auditorium of the institute.

The first session typically covers highlights of BITS Model of Education focusing on Academic Structure; Teaching and Evaluation; Academic Flexibilities such as Dual degree, transfer etc; University Industry Linkages and Practice School. The second session covers Campus Life and Co-curricular activities. The third session is specially designed for higher degree students who enroll for M.E., M.Pharm, etc. The fourth session is on Academic Registration and Counselling.

The evening before the two day orientation starts, Vice Chancellor meets all parents / guardians along with the freshmen for a welcome session and introduces the various officers of the Institute which include Deans, Assistant Deans, Unit Chiefs, Assistant Unit Chiefs, Wardens and Group Leaders as well as other senior faculty members. For the year 2009, for the first time same was done accompanied by a slideshow anchored by Prof BR Natarajan Dean Work Integrated Learning Programmes at BITS Pilani.

BITS Pilani has a strong alumni network and the alumni are spread over various continents from Australia to America. BITS Pilani has a unique relationship with alumni. There are only a handful of institutions that evoke the same level of passion among alumni and as compared to other institutions, the Passion Quotient “PQ” is the highest for BITSians which is an outcome of the all round transformational experience they undergo during their student years at BITS Pilani.

For the first time for the year 2009, the Vice Chancellor’s welcome address included a slideshow presentation on the alumni of the Institute who are dreamers, performers and achievers and who firmly believe that when a mission is taken up with passion, there are no dreams too large, no goals unattainable and no frontiers beyond reach.

The alumni slideshow anchored by Dr BR Natarajan Vice President BITS Alumni Association covered a whole galaxy of BITS Alumni starting from ex Wipro veteran ITFundas Vivek Paul, Stanford Dr Krishna Sarasawt, Janaagraha Ramesh Ramanatahn, Sierra Atlantic Raju Reddy, Dabur Sunil Duggal, NASA Mapgen Kanna Rajan, Mason School Ram Ganeshan, Sundaram BNP Srividhys Rajesh, Infinite Computer Upinder Zutshi, Police Official Kalpana Nayak, TIFR G Ravindra Kumar, Kenya Honorary Consul R A Goenka, Bain Capital Samonnoi Banerjee, Boston Marathon Kishen Baheti, Water Man Vijay Kedia, Industrialist P K Rajgarhia, Oregon State University Pavan Kumar Hanumolu, Indian Navy three pole mission Raj Kumar, University of Buffalo Abani Patra, Mahamaza Vishal Anand, Intoto Subramanyam V Dronaraju, Cabinet Minister Prithiviraj Chavan, eInfochips Pratul Shroff, ITW Signode R V S Ramakrishna, IBM Manoj Saxena, Writer Shashi Warrier, Georgetown University Reena Aggarwal, Samsonite Ramesh Tainwala, University of South Florida Autar Krishen Kaw, Techie & Corporate Advisor Hitesh Bhatnagar, Techie Balaji Krishnamurthy, Techie Rajendra Khare, i-flex – Oracle Rajesh Hukku, Symantec Agendra Kumar, Coast Guard officer V Natarajan, ISHANYA Mall I S Narula, HR expert Rashmi Datt, Bharat Forge Baba N Kalyani, Aviation Expert Kishu Techchandani, Washington State University Yogendra M Gupta, netCustomer Punita Pandey, University of Minnesota Ramesh Harjani, IAS topper Srinivasan Nagarajan, Times Private Treaties C V L Srinivas, Air Jamaica Subodh Karnik, Suzlon Arvind Mathew, Nuclear Physicist Muthuswamy to Entrepreneur Raj Mohan Neervannan.

It also included ESPN Star Sports Manu Sawhney, Arizona State University Sudhir Kumar, UTV New Media T N Prabhu, H1Bees Srivatsa Srinivasan, FedEx Delivers Madan Birla, Animation Expert Jai Natarajan, Stroer Media Indrajit Sen, Techie Sharat Jain, esys Pavan Gupta, Axcend Uma Balakrishnan, FoodKing Pepsi MTV Youth Icon Sarath Babu, Siemens Venture Capital Anupendra Sharma, Serial entrepreneur Vivek Pendharkar, VNUS Medical Technologies Mohan F Sancheti, Convergys Paresh Shah, Onida Gulu Mirchandani, 3i Infotech Anirudh Prabhakaran, NetApp Vikram Shah, Denali Raju Pudota, XORA Pramod Jajoo, Cellebrum Saket Agarwal, IXIA Atul Bhatnagar, ESI Oregon R A Srinivas, Ginger Hotel Prabhat Pani, Actress Kanika – Divya Venkatasubramaniam, SIFY P J Nath, Steel Man SAIL Sushil Kumar Roongta, Elfit Arabia Keasr Kothari, IDBI Yogesh Agarwal, Trip Advisor Sharat Dhall, Perot Systems Anurag Jain, WatchGuard Sunil Sapra, BPCL Seetharaman Mohan, National Award Winning Film Critic Baradwaj Rangan, Trivitron Metropolis GSK Velu, Quest Diagnostics Janak Singh Bajwa, Intel Sunit Rikhi,  Jammu Kashmir IAS Officer  Khurshid Ahmad Ganai, Indium Kannan Panchapakesan, MapmyIndia Rakesh Verma, TCS Ajoy Mukherjee and Financial Expert Ratnesh Kumar.

The last round of alumni slideshow covered MindTree N S ParthaSarathy, Splendours of Royal Mysore Vikram Sampath, Verizon Wireless Ajay Waghray, Radix Learning KRV Subramanian, Crosby Medal winner Bijay Kumar Jayaswal, Hexaware Rajiv Chandra Pant, Founding President BITSAA SVC Chapter Chandra Bhople, JSL N C Mathur, Multimedia Expert Adil Mistry, VIT Vellore Vice Chancellor D P Kothari, Museum Expert George Jacob, Honeywell Anil Gupta, Multi talented media queen Anu Hassan, Bollywood Film Director Mani Shankar, Purdue Prof Aditya P Mathur, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Prabhu Pingali, Padma Shri D Balasubramanian, HEC Ranchi G K Pillai, President BITSAA International Barclays MIT Sloan School Professor S P Kothari, Motorola Vikram Bhargava, Magma Yatin Trivedi, Axiowave Mukesh Chatter, Advisor Aditya Birla Group Higher Education Projects Kris Ramachandran apart from medal winners at Robogames USA (Robolympics) as well as winners of coveted Aditya Birla Group Scholarships.

This year the Vice Chancellor of BITS Pilani Dr LK Maheshwari also administered a pledge to all new admission students to commit themselves to the highest ethical and professional conduct by not using any unfair means in the examinations and other activities of BITS as well as to respect human rights of others and not indulge in any form of ragging.

The details of industry university symbiosis of BITS Pilani in terms of Practice School as well as the Work Integrated Learning programmes as against conventional distance learning models and the passion which BITS Alumni bring to the alma mater were highly appreciated by the audience at the freshmen orientation.

At BITS Pilani nothing is static – it’s always in the dynamics of goal setting.

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The Birla Institute of Technology and Science - BITS Pilani is a Deemed to be University established vide Sec.3 of the UGC Act, 1956 under notification No. F.12-23/63.U-2 of June 18, 1964. NAAC - National Assessment and Accreditation Council reaccredited BITS with 3.71 CGPA out of 4 and awarded “A” grade “Very Good” status.