Chandigarh, March 26
Punjab Engineering College has done the city proud. The All-India Council of Technical Education has adopted the college’s model of engineering education to be implemented in other engineering colleges across the country.

During a recent meeting of the All-India Board of Undergraduate Studies in Engineering and Technology (AIB-UG), the AICTE’s academic arm for BE/BTech programmes has adopted the academic model which was implemented for the first time at Punjab Engineering College, Chandigarh, when it became a deemed university in 2005.

One of the first acts of the academic senate of PEC, when it was formed in June 2005, was the adoption of an innovative academic policy which was a major deviation from the prevailing model of engineering education around the country. It brought in a new way of designing an undergraduate programme with emphasis on technology and design - the two very important components that are woefully inadequate in the traditional engineering programmes.

The AICTE’s board has also recommended to all universities to adopt a course titled ‘Introduction to Mechatronics’ of PEC as part of the core curriculum. PEC was perhaps the first college in India to introduce this in 2005 at the first-year level.

Some of the courses, including ‘Unified Mechanical Engineering’ and ‘Unified Electrical Engineering’ which were introduced for the first time at PEC, have also been recommended for adoption.

The board has adopted the same focus on laboratories that PEC has introduced with separate combined labs rather than labs with individual courses. In fact, the annexure on the ‘Design of Laboratory Courses’ appears to have been taken almost verbatim from a similar document of PEC. It marks a major departure from the traditional way of doing set experiments mechanically and recommends that design of experiments constitutes a major part of laboratory education and how to go about designing such laboratories.

Chandigarh, March 26
The annual prize distribution function of Guru Gobind Singh College for Women, Sector 26, was held here today. Anant Soodass, editor of a local English daily, was the chief guest.

Principal of the college Dr Harinderjit Kaur welcomed the guests and read out the annual report highlighting the achievements of students and staff in the past session. Soodass gave away the prizes to students and urged them to utilise their education and youth to do something fruitful for the country.

Gurdev Singh Brar, president of the Sikh Educational Society, appreciated the efforts of the staff of the college.

Around 500 students were felicitated for their outstanding achievement in academics, sports and cultural activities. Shikha Rana of BA-III was selected the best student of the college. Some 80 students were given academic awards for their performance in the university and college examinations. Awards were also given for cultural achievements. Divya Bansal, BCom III student, was awarded the college roll of honour for securing the first prize in rangoli competition at the PU inter-zonal youth festival.

More than 130 students were awarded for their achievements in sports. Harjeet of BA-III was selected the best all-round student. Two students, Harveen Sarao and Gurbinder of BA-II, were given the college colour for their outstanding performance in many national and international sports competitions. Manjot Kaur was selected the best outgoing student in sports for her achievements in volleyball.

Chandigarh, March 26
To provide quality education to students of educational institutions of Haryana through EDUSAT (education through satellite), 45 needy students, who had passed class XII examination, were offered scholarships worth Rs 9 lakh at Chitkara Saraswati Kendra today.

The programme included a 40-day training for All-India Engineering Entrance Examination (AIEEE-2007).

Through EDUSAT, live as well as recorded lectures are beamed to government schools, colleges and institutions across the state.

The Utkarsh Society (use of technology for knowledge advancement and reorientation of studies in Haryana) is spearheading the initiative across the state.

At least 218 government schools are linked through EDUSAT and training is being provided to engineering students. The beneficiaries get free coaching after school hours (from 2 pm to 6 pm) five days a week.

Haryana education minister Phool Chand Mullana inaugurated the training programme and gave scholarships to the students.

One of the students, Poonam Soni, from Mahendergarh said: “My father always wanted me to be an engineer so I tried to make it to this training programme. Now that I am here, I will try to get through the AIEEE.”

Also present was financial commissioner and principal secretary, education, Raminder Singh Gujral.

Chandigarh, March 26
A 21-day refresher course in education and psychology organised by the Academic Staff College and department of education concluded at the university here today.

Chandigarh, March 26
A five-day training programme on “Research Methodology and Methods in Research of Social Science” organised by the ICSSR, North Western Regional Centre, commenced today at the Panjab University, here, today.

P.K. Saini, director, ICSSR, welcomed the speakers and resource persons. Programme coordinator Prof Manjit Singh introduced the theme and dwelt on the importance of training the young social science scholars, teachers and researchers.

Prof D.D. Narula, former member secretary, ICSSR, New Delhi, in his presidential remarks, exhorted the course participants to sharpen their methodological skills and produce quality research in order to help policy planners to formulate policies beneficial for the country.

Mohali, March 26
Students of Chandigarh Engineering College (CEC), Landran, have topped Punjab Technical University (PTU), Jalandhar, in electronics and communication engineering (ECE), mechanical (ME) and electrical engineering (EE) while in CSE, a student of LIT, Phagwara, and in IT, a student of the BSBEC, Fatehgarh Sahib, has won the top position in the fifth semester exam held in January.

In all, 11 students of the CEC have secured positions in merit list. CEC, Landran, is followed by LIT, Phagwara (8), DAVIET, Jalandhar, ACET, Amritsar (5), BCE, Ludhiana, RIMIT, Mandi Gobindgarh, SVIET, Ramnagar (3 each), BEC, Fatehgarh Sahib, GGSCET, Talwandi Sabo, LCET, Ludhiana, SUS, Tangori, SBS, Ferozepur, SBBS, Padhiana, Chitkara, Jansla, (2 each) and BKSEC Amritsar, PCET, BGIET, SSIET, GGS, Kharar, DBEC, SBBSI, GNDEC, Ludhiana (1each).

All students in the merit list would be given scholarships of Rs 5000 per head and others with 80 per cent and more marks would be given cash prizes. — TNS