CHENNAI: Actor Vivekh and badminton player PV Sindhu were conferred with honorary degrees at the 5th Annual Convocation of Vels University for their outstanding contribution towards respective fields on Saturday. “Opportunities are ample but students need to know how to make use of them. People recognise and appreciate when students do something different,” said Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, scientist with the Indian Space Research Organisation. “Only India has had the credit of sending spacecraft to Mars successfully,” he added. The university conferred degrees to 1,904 students, which include 33 gold, 24 silver, 21 bronze Medals, 145 M Phils and 16 PhDs. Dr Ishari K Ganesh, chancellor; Dr E Gopinathan, vice-chancellor, Dr A Jothi Murugan, vice-president (R&D) and Aarthi Ganesh, vice-president (Academics) were present among others. Speaking on the occasion, Ishari K Ganesh said that around 800 students were placed in various top companies last year. With the objective of providing an advantageous edge in employability, the university, to its credit, has introduced new courses like B Com (Executive), MBA (Finance and Business Analytics), MBA (Marketing and E-Business), M Sc (Green Chemistry), BE (Design and Manufacturing) and ME (Structural Engineering).