The first honoris causa by the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar (IITBBS) will be conferred on US-based leading Non-Resident Odia (NRO) Bhakta B Rath during its maiden convocation on Friday. Rath heads the US’ Materials Science Directorate and is an Associate Director of Research of the Naval Research Laboratory.
Rath, who hails from Banki, pursued his undergraduate studies in India. Later, he passed out from Michigan Technological University, US. He was awarded Padma Bhusan in 2009.
One of the highlights of the convocation will be the presentation of awards to student achievers. The President of India Gold Medal, meant for the best student of the batch, will be awarded to the School of Mechanical Sciences student Raghav R.
Raghav is not only the best student but also received the highest offer during the placements. ‘’Rather than joining the job, Raghav opted to pursue further studies in his branch,’’ said IITBBS Registrar BK Ray.
Two branch-specific memorial awards have been instituted by the IITBBS after two of its students died in a train mishap. The awards are for the best thesis. The Dinesh Memorial Award for Mechanical Branch students will be given away to Rajkamal Sendha and Prabhat Chandra. The Tejaswi Memorial Award for Electrical Branch students will be presented to Vasu Gupta. The branch toppers will get the Institute Silver Medals. Vasu Gupta (School of Electrical Sciences), Anurag Raj (School of Infrastructure) and Raghav R (School of Mechanical Sciences) will receive the medals.
The Institute Proficiency Prize for the best B.Tech project will be given to Preetam Priyadarshi Nayak from School of Electrical Sciences, Rajneet Kumar from School of Infrastructure and Anand Nagarajan from School of Mechanical Sciences.
The first Ph.D of IITBBS will also be awarded during the convocation. Nithin V George will receive the Ph.D for his research thesis ‘Development of a class of adaptive algorithms for active noise control’. Ninety-three students will get their B.Tech degrees. Of them, 28 are from Civil Engineering, 36 from Electrical and 29 from Mechanical Engineering.
Around 50 students have registered and confirmed their participation in the convocation. Former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Anil Kakodkar will be the chief guest.