Rourkela: At its 10th Convocation, the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela has awarded 30 Ph.D. on 19 January while it had just conferred 2 Ph.D. in its first convocation in 2004.
In addition to this the institution has also conferred 31 M.Tech.(R), 219 M. Tech., 130 M. Sc., 08 M.A., 20 MBA and 452 B. Tech. degrees on its 10th Convocation. Besides this the coveted Institute Gold Medal winners for this year are:Ms. Tithy Sahu of Computer Science & Engineering Department: the Best Graduate of the year, Ms. Bijay B. of Civil Engineering Department: the Best Post Graduate of the year,Mr. Chandan Kanta Das of Life Science Department: the best among M. Sc. & M. A, Mr. Animesh Kumar Srivastava of School of Management: the best among the MBAs, Mr. Bikash Mohanty of Mechanical Engineering Department: Professor Bhubaneswar Behera Gold Medal for the Best all-rounder of the 2012 undergraduate batch, and Ms. Swetalina Panigrahi of Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering: Institute Gold Medal for the Best B. Tech. Project of 2012.
Prof. Deba Kumar Tripathy, 1968 batch B. Sc.(Engg) in Mechanical Engineering, Mr. Sandip Das, 1977 batch B. Sc.(Engg) in Mechanical Engineering, and Mr.Madhusudan Padhy, IAS, 1984 batch B. Sc.(Engg) in Metallurgical Engineering will be awarded the Distinguished Alumnus Award in the Convocation for their significant contribution to the Society.
At the convocation Dr. V. K. Saraswat, Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri & Secretary, Department of Defence R&D, DGR&D, Government of India awarded the degrees as Chief Guest and Sri B. S. Sudhir Chandra, Chairman, BOG, NIT Rourkela presided over the function.
The director of NIT, Rourkela, Sunil Kumar Sarangi, said that the institute would start a series of new courses, including a B.Tech. in food process engineering, an M.Tech. in industrial design, an integrated M.Sc. in life science, an M.Sc. in earth and atmospheric science, a B.Arch. and an M.Arch. from the next academic year.
He further said the Govt. Odisha is urged for allocation of 2.5 acres in the state capital for establishing an extension centre to run its various distance education programmes from there. He also said NIT has also approached the government for the allotment of 400 acres in Rourkela for expansion of its present campus and for establishment of a second campus as well.