National Institute of Technology-Tiruchi (NIT-T) has bagged University of the Year award at FICCI Higher Education Summit held in New Delhi on Thursday. Mini Shaji Thomas, Director, NIT-T, received the award presented by Anil Sahasrabuddhe, Chairman, All India Council of Technical Education, in the pres-ence of M. M Sharma, Professor Emeritus, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai. A NIT-T press release said that it had achieved a hat trick at the FICCI Educations awards. In 2015, the institute was recognised for excellence in social respons-ibility category. In 2016, it won two awards for excellence in employability and visionary idea. According to the release, FICCI adopts an elaborate two-stage screening process in selecting top institutes for
the awards. Consulting firm Ernst & Young is the knowledge partner for FICCI. The first stage consists of online application which leads to short-listing based on merits of the institute, followed by a final jury evaluation which is based on face-to-face presentation before a high powered jury chaired by R.A. Mashelkar, an eminent scientist. The institute scored high on many of the yardsticks set for the University of Year award, having undertaken a major academic transformation a couple of years back and figuring almost on top of the list in terms of research publications. NITT was ranked 11th amongst all technical institutions, including the older Ills and 1st amongst all NITs in the Ministry of Human Resource Development's National Institutional Ranking Framework during 2017.

The Student Centre for Innovation in Engineering and Technology or SCIEnt prides itself on being the first multi-disciplinary innovation centre in our campus. It was inaugurated almost two years ago, on the 24th December, 20I5. SCIEnt is an initiative by the alumni batch of 1990, who wanted to give back to their alma mater. The student head for SCIEnt. Adithyan a 4th year mechanical engineering student says is open 24/7 for all students on campus - undergraduates, postgraduates and PhD students from all departments, Including architecture."
Any student can use the Impressive range of equipment that are available at the lab, which is located behind the Sports Centre by the road leading to CCD. "Currently, students can register under two schemes to make use of the facilities provided at the SCIEnt explains Adithyan. Scheme One involves registering with the lab for 24/7 access to all the tools and services available at SCIEnT. This would be especially advantageous to students pursuing personal projects or if they want to try out an idea they had just had. Scheme Two Is for students who wish to register for a project under SCIEnt which, In addition to giving them full time access to their equipments, will also make the students eligible for mentorshlp and funding from the alumni. To register for this scheme, an abstract, outlining the idea must be presented to the alumni. who will not it and check its feasibility. If the alumni approve of the project, the student will receive adequate guidance and monetary help from the alumni. Reviews to show the progress of the project will be held every two weeks. An addi-tional clause exists under the scheme, where a student, if she/he wishes to market n product developed in SCIEnT, could receive initial angel funding from interested alumni. It Is to be noted that for registration under both the schemes, one can visit SCIEnrs Facebook page, www.facebook.com/scientnitt, or their website, www.scient.nitt.edu. 'The thinking behind SCIEnt has always been that any student can experiment and test their innovations without the fear of failure: he present facilities include equipment needed for projects in both circuital and non-circuital branches, from GPS, GSM and WIFI transceiver modules, LCD displays and Raspberry Pis to bench grinders, a chop saw, jig saw and a lathe. A list of their entire inventory has been published on their website. Outside of providing a workspace and resources, the SCIEnt team also hopes that students gain knowledge through the facility. "Members of SCIEnt have received extensive training from industrial personnel on how to use the machinery and equipment In SCIEnT. Soon, such training will be extended to all students," says Adithyan.

For more information, contact Adithyan at +919551870990.

Dr. (Mrs) Mini Shaji Thomas is currently the Director of National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli (NIT, Trichy). Dr. Thomas was the founder Director of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE), JamiaMilliaIslamia (JMI), from 2014-2016, and Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Technology, JMI. She was the Central Public Information officer (CPIO) of JMI from 2008-2014 and the Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering from 20052008. Dr. Thomas was a faculty member at Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi (now DTU), and at the REC (now NIT), Calicut, Kerala before joining Jamia. She graduated from University of Kerala (Gold Medalist), completed her M. Tech from IIT Madras (Gold Medalist, Siemen’s prize) & PhD from IIT Delhi, India, all in Electrical Engineering.  

Dr. Thomas has done extensive research work in the area of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, Substation & Distribution Automation and Smart Grid. She has published over 130 research papers in International Journals and Conferences of repute, has successfully completed many research projects. Dr. Thomas has set up the first of its kind SCADA laboratory and Substation Automation (SA) Laboratory at JMI, with Industry involvement. She, as the founder coordinator, drafted the curriculum, started a unique, first full-time, M Tech program in the Faculty of Engineering & Technology, JMI, in 2003 in Electrical Power System Management,  which has courses on power automation and  novel hands-on training. For these contributions, Dr. Thomas won the IEEE Educational Activities Board (EAB) Meritorious Achievement Award 2015 for 'Design and Development of curriculum and laboratory facilities for professionals and students in the electric utility industry". She is the author of the text book 'Power System SCADA and Smart Grids' by CRC Press, Taylor and Francis, USA and is a 'Distinguished Lecturer' of IEEE Power & Energy Society.  

As the founder Director of Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Jamia, Dr. Thomas had created an environment of Innovation and Entrepreneurship which has led to the setting up of a Design Innovation Centre, a Livelihood Business Incubator, doubling the number of patents filed, winning prizes at many innovation competitions and incubating a few student startups. 

  Dr. Thomas received the ‘Career Award’ for young teachers, Govt. of India, won the IEEE Power and Energy Society Outstanding Chapter Chair award 2013, IEEE  Member and Geographic Activities (MGA) Innovation award 2008, IEEE Outstanding Volunteer award 2005, IEEE Outstanding Branch counselor award 2002 and Power and Energy Society (PES) Outstanding Chapter Engineer award.   She is a certified trainer for ‘Capacity building of Women managers in higher education’, by UGC and has conducted many training session for Women empowerment. 

Dr. Thomas is very active in Professional societies and she is among a handful from Asia Pacific to be on the global boards of IEEE. She is currently a board member of IEEE PSPB (Publication Services and Products Board), a member of PES LRP (Long Range Planning) committee. She was a board member of IEEE EAB and served as the vice chair of IEEE MGA Board and was the Asia Pacific student activities coordinator.  She has experience of over a decade in international boards and committees of the IEEE.   Dr. Thomas has traveled extensively around the globe, delivered lectures in prestigious universities and has interacted with technical experts from all over the world.   

Investors helped shares of the Bay State's newest publicly-traded technology company soar by more than 30 percent to about $31 on its first day of trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

The Maynard networking technology firm is the first Massachusetts technology company to go public this year in a down-market for tech IPOs, and with total venture capital backing that's significantly lower than its tech-IPO counterparts. Cybersecurity company Mimecast (Nasdaq: MIME) was the last local tech firm to go public, but that was last November.

"It's a very difficult market environment and it's been slow for the past several months, but if you look at what our profitability and financial models look like, we have the top-line growth that investors look for," said CEO Raj Shanmugaraj in an interview.

Acacia's (Nasdaq: ACIA) 2015 revenue was $239.1 million, up 63.5 percent from $146.2 million in 2014. In 2015, the firm reported net income of $40.5 million, up from net income of $13.5 million in 2014.

The company offers networking technology that increases computing bandwidth. It supplies its technology to equipment makers, which in turn supply Internet service providers such as Comcast and Verizon with their products.

Shanmugaraj said that while it was a big day in the company's seven-year history, he sees major growth ahead.

Acacia is keeping the names of its customers confidential, but he says they are the world's largest network equipment manufacturers, including Chinese tech firm ZTE Corp.

"Going public gives (customers) the scale and transparency to get comfortable doing business with us," said Shanmugaraj, who is originally from India and has lived in the U.S. for more than 30 years. "For us, it's all about innovation and breakthrough technology, and we're going to continue to invest in it and distance ourselves from our competition so we can gain market share."

Shanmugaraj said the proceeds from the IPO might be used for mergers and acquisitions activity in the future, but there are no immediate plans for that yet. The company has 228 employees worldwide with offices in Maynard and New Jersey, and Shanmugaraj said there are no plans to move its headquarters out of Maynard.

Prateek Bajpai did his B.Tech from NIT, Trichy and then100 percentile in CAT in first attempt, along with a regular job in Algeria, North Africa.

He was away from his home, his family and his country, and had no source except for the internet to carry on with his CAT (Common Admission Test) preparation. With no coaching and the internet as his only source of preparation, Prateek Bajpai scored 100 percentile in CAT in his very first attempt.

In an interview with Anumika Bahukhandi, India Today Education, he said that although he was fully confident about his preparation, he was not expecting to obtain such an extraordinary score.

He believes that six months of disciplined, focused preparation along with a proper strategy, helped him achieve his target.