Mock medical entrance test
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, October 27
A group of students and alumni of Punjab Engineering College, Sector 12, and Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, will organise a ‘mock engineering and medical entrance examination’ at various centres in Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.

According to a press note issued by Mr Akhil Verma, convener of the examination, more than 6,000 students are expected to appear in the examination to be held on February 8 and April 11 next year.

‘‘We will provide free preparation material — books, notes, tips and tricks, time savers, solved previous years papers and question bank to the students’’ said Mr Verma, ‘‘a multi-media CD containing virtual tests based on major entrance tests is also being provided free’’. According to him the students and parents could seek free counselling and guidance from the “top — rankers’ of engineering and medical colleges.

Jury for teachers’ awards constituted
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 27
The Teacher’s Achievement Awards 2003 which will be given next month promise to set standards for excellence and achievement.

According to a press note, the jury for the awards comprises of personalities. The panel includes Mr Shammi Kapoor, Mr O.S. Kanwar,Chairman Apollo tyres, Mr Subodh Bhargava, Chairman, Eicher Group, Pritish Nandy, Piyush Pandey, Michael Firrera-Billards player, Pt Jasraj, Mr Jerry Rao, MD, Mphasis, Louis Banks, renowned Jazz artist.

The categories for this year’s awards are: Teacher’s Achievement Award in Sports, Teacher’s Achievement Award in Business, Teacher’s Achievement Award in Communication, Teacher’s Achievement Award in Entertainment, and Teacher’s Lifetime Achievement Award

Instituted in 2001, the award endeavours to honour individual talent and encourage them to scale new heights in excellence.

Achievers in three fields of entrepreneurship, photography and science were felicitated with the award in 2001.

The winners were selected on the basis of the nominations received by the company from people across the country. The winners featured in a print campaign.

PEC student wins national competition
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, October 27
Prashant Chadha, a final-year student of Punjab Engineering College, (PEC), Chandigarh, has won the All-India Programming Competition called ENIAC -1 organised by the faculty of Engineering and Technology, Jamia Millia Islamia, in collaboration with Student Branch, Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (IEEE) in New Delhi.

Prashant, a Production Engineering student, was awarded for his unique software for eight-tile puzzle which analyses 1 lakh 81 thousand 440 unique combination and produces a solution in just 1.5 seconds. “I was working for a college project on Artificial Intelligence and that is when I the idea to work on this particular puzzle problem struck me. It took me two months to complete this software,” he said.

The contest was held at the national level where the contestants had to send their entries through mail. The top 10 entries were called for demonstration at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, on October 21 and 22 and out of which the winner was selected. The award consists of a certificate and a cash prize of Rs 2,000.

“My aim is to now bring out some practical application of this software” says Prashant. “I have started discussing with my teachers about how to go ahead with its implementation,” he adds.

COURTS

Novel released
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, October 27
‘Khushbu Khushbu’, a novel written by Mr B.D. Kalia Humdum, president of the Ehsas Adabi Society, was released by Justice N.C. Jain at Panchkula recently.

Dignataries like writer Dr Sansar Chandra, Mr R.S. Chaudhary, former Vice-Chancellor, Kurukshetra University, Dr G.S. Kalkat, former VC of Punjab Agricultural University, Mr N. Bala Bhaskar, Financial Commissioner, Haryana, besides distinguished academicians and litterateurs spoke on the occasion.

CULTURE

Sculpting image of cooperation
Parbina Rashid

Chandigarh, October 27
Uniting the finer points of North and South Indian art of sculpting, 30 students from the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai, and Government College of Arts, Chandigarh, are working hard to give shape to their dream project — a 18-feet Stucco sculpture at the gate of the college in Sector 10 which will immortalise the first students exchange programme carried out by the local Government College of Arts.

The sculpture that comprises two artistically curved ‘C’s to symbolise Chennai and Chandigarh is joined by a human figure to be done in bricks and cement. “Since this is the first ever exchange programme of its kind, we 14 students from Chennai and the third year students of this college designed this model to suit the occasion,” said Mr G. Selvaraj, the teacher who is leading the group of students from Chennai.

The 15-member team from the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai is in the city as a part of the exchange programme which was started last year by the College of Arts. “We have been learning the technicalities of Stucco sculpture and stone carving for the past eight days,” said Mr Selvaraj. The team had arrived in the city on October 18.

Talking about the differences of working modality as far as sculpture is concerned, Mr Selvaraj said while Chennai College of Fine Arts focuses on abstract variety that has its origin in traditional monumental type of sculptures, in Chandigarh nature has a prominent impact on sculpturing. “Though both follow the same curriculum but the working methods are different in both the places as in South India we are used to work with hard rock like granite while students here work with the soft rocks,” he added.

The students who are already feeling at home in Chandigarh are enjoying not just the working module but their outings too. “We have gone around the city as well as had a trip to Shimla,” they said. In the meantime the Government College of Arts, Chandigarh, has chalked out a detailed work schedule to keep the exchange students engaged for the rest of their stay.

“We have organised a series of lectures for the exchange students that started with veteran architect of the city Prof Aditya Prakash delivering a talk on the architecture of the city and today we have world renowned Art Historian Padamshree Prof. B N Goswami presenting the history of art of this region through a slide show. We are also planning to invite famous sculpturist Shiv Singh for another interactive session” says Prof Brahm Prakash, Principal of the college.

The college will also organise an exhibition of the sculptures created by the students of both the colleges on the concluding day of the exchange programme on October 31.

Another major attraction of the exchange programme is a show which will present Mr. Saini, one of the exchange programme students, who will demonstrate his skill that includes letting 101 cars pass over his hands. The show is scheduled to be held on Wednesday.