30^th Convocation

Nirma University held its 30^th Convocation Ceremony on Dec 17, 2021 in hybrid mode where 2,383 students from various institutes of the University received their degrees. The Chief Guest for the occasion was Mr Shrikant Madhav Vaidya, Chairman, Indian Oil Corporation Limited. Dr Karsanbhai K Patel, President, Nirma University, presided over the event. This year Nirma University conferred degrees to 48 PhD, 758 postgraduate, and 1577 graduate students. Among the graduating students, 1548 were male students and 787 were female students. Of the 48 PhD students, 29 were male students and 19 were female students. The University also presented 60 medals to 53 students for their exemplary performance in academics. Out of these 25 were male students and 28 female students.

Republic Day Celebrations

On the occasion of Republic Day, Dr Anup K Singh, Director General, Nirma University hoisted the National Flag at the university campus in the presence of Head of Institutions, Heads of Departments, and Section Heads. Owing to the ongoing pandemic, Covid appropriate protocols were followed and the gathering was kept minimal.

Celebration of National Youth Day    

The NSS Unit and Students Welfare Board, Nirma University celebrated the National Youth Day, and the Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda on Jan 12, 2022, as part of the ?Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav? on the theme of ?Suryanamskar@Home?.

National Youth Summit     

The NCC Unit of Nirma University affiliated to the NCC Ahmedabad Group, Gujarat Directorate celebrated the National Youth Summit as a part of the National Youth Festival on Jan 13, 2022. This celebration was a part of the nation-wide National Youth Festival inaugurated by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The celebration was organised virtually where all the NCC cadets of the university participated. The programme included presentations on various topics like ?National Values, History and Mindfulness National Character Building?, ?Future Skills, Technology, and Entrepreneurship Global Superpower?, ?Indigenous Wisdom, Knowledge-Economy Building to establish material value Traditional Futures?, and ?Social Innovation and Sustainable Development led Growth and Equitable Economy.? All the participants were informed about the importance of youth day and encouraged to inculcate the learnings of Swami Vivekananda. Finally, an online quiz on the life journey of Swami Vivekananda was organised.

Parakram Diwas Celebration    

The NCC Unit of Nirma University under the aegis of 9-Gujarat NCC Bn, Ahmedabad celebrated the 126^th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose as Parakram Diwas on Jan 23, 2022. The main theme of the event was ?Remembering Netaji?s Selfless Services.? A total of 43 NCC cadets (34 boys and 9 girls) of Nirma University participated in the webinar. A presentation on Subhash Chandra Bose was presented by CPL Aaditya Gill.

Pragaman 6.0

Pragaman 6.0, a one-day Conclave for young aspiring entrepreneurs from the student fraternity was organised by the Institute of Management on Nov 26, 2021. Speakers during the conclave include Padma Shri Sanjeev Bikchandani, co-founder, Info edge; Mr Anubhav Dubey, Founder, Chai Sutta Bar; Mr Aditya Gadge, Founder & CEO, Equalifi; Mr Anurag Asati, co-founder, The Kabadiwla; and Mr Arjun P Gupta, Founder & CEO, Smart Joules Pvt Ltd. The event saw the participation of 900 students.

ANVESH 2021

ANVESH, the annual doctoral conference for scholars in business management research was organised by the Institute of Management on Dec 17-18, 2021. The inaugural address was given by Dr Rishikesh T Krishnan, Director, IIM Bangalore. Chief Guest for the Valedictory session was Dr Bhimaraya Metri, Director, IIM Nagpur.

Felicitation by the Ahmedabad Red Cross Society

The NSS Unit of Nirma University was felicitated by the Ahmedabad Red Cross Society (Blood Bank) for organising Star Blood Donation Camp and for their invaluable contribution in saving the lives of needy patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. The event was organised at Ahmedabad Management Association (AMA) on Dec 30, 2021. The Chief Guest of the event was Shri Narharibhai Amin, a Member of Parliament. Prof Jayesh Patel, Officer-in-Charge, Students Welfare Board, and Dr Bhavesh Parekh, Programme Coordinator, NSS received the award on behalf of the Nirma University.

Workshop on Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Pharmaceutical Sciences

Institute of Pharmacy, Nirma University, Ahmedabad organised a workshop on ?Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Pharmaceutical Sciences? from Dec 31, 2021 to Jan 1, 2022. Resource persons included Dr Shripati Rao Kulkarni, Principal Scientist, Business Development-Intellectual Property Unit, CDRI-Lucknow; Mr Sanjay Patel, Founder, Principal IP Attorney EXCELON IP-Patent, Trademark Attorneys, Ahmedabad; Dr Neeraj Kumar, NIPER-Hyderabad; Ms Taruna Jakhar, Assistant Professor, Institute of Law, Nirma University.

Workshop on Sophisticated Instruments       

The Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis, Institute of Pharmacy, and Centre for Advanced Instrumentation, along with the Centre for Continuing Education, Nirma University organised a workshop on Sophisticated Instruments on Jan 4, 2022. A total of 25 students from various academic institutes participated in the workshop. Prof Priti Mehta, Head, Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis; Dr Hardik Bhatt, Head, Centre for Advanced Instrumentation and, Dr Nrupesh Patel, Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Analysis were the resource persons.

Workshop on Building Information Modelling (BIM) using Revit

The Department of Civil Engineering, Institute of Technology organised a workshop on Building Information Modelling (BIM) using Revit under the banner of the Centre for Continuing Education during Jan 4-5, 2022. A total of 29 students and 7 faculty members participated in the workshop conducted by Mr Keval Shah, Geo Designs & Research (P) Ltd; Dr Aritra Dasgupta, Mr Dinakar Thakur, and Mr Soudip Chakraborty from Zuru Tech India Pvt Ltd.

Seminar on Nano Drug Delivery                          

The Department of Pharmaceutics, Institute of Pharmacy in association with the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation (CAI) and Centre for Continuing Education (CCE) organised a seminar on Nano Drug Delivery on Jan 29, 2022 where about 120+ delegates participated from various pharmacy institutes across the country. Prof S P Vyas (Former Vice-Chancellor, Dr Harisingh Gour Vishwavidyalaya, Sagar) was the Chief Guest for the Inaugural function. The seminar comprised five technical talks from eminent resource persons including Dr Sanjula Baboota (Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi), Dr Saurabh Srivastava (NIPER, Hyderabad), Dr Vikas Jain (JSS, Mysuru), Dr Namrata Jain (Horiba, New Delhi), and Mr Srinivasa Reddy (Inkarp, Mumbai).

Workshop on Speech Processing using Python

Faculty members from CSE Department, Institute of Technology, Nirma University in association with the Centre for Continuing Education, Nirma University organised a workshop on Speech Processing using Python for students during Jan 29-30, 2022. The workshop conducted by Dr Sapan H Mankad, Dr Dvijesh Bhatt, and Dr Ajay Patel focused on providing exposure to the recently trending field of Audio and Speech Processing with conceptual sessions where the use of Python was covered with demonstrations and hands-on practice sessions.

Training on Biomedical Waste Management

A training programme on Biomedical Waste Management was organised on Dec 21, 2021 at the Institute of Pharmacy. Biomedical waste needs to be discarded with care to prevent cross infections. Dr Pallav Shah, Consultant Pathologist and Quality Manager, Zydus Hospital, Ahmedabad delivered training to the faculty members of the Institute of Pharmacy and Institute of Science, PhD scholars, and laboratory assistants.

Other Events 

• The fourth edition of the webinar series of Institute of Law, Nirma University in collaboration with the Faculty of Law, University of Johannesburg, South Africa was organised on the theme ?Law, Technology and Social Justice? on Nov 20, 2021. The speakers at the event were Dr Usha Ramanathan, Senior law researcher; Dr Arun Prasad, Assistant Professor, Institute of Law, Nirma University; Dr Samantha Huneberg, Senior Lecturer, Department of Mercantile Law, University of Johannesburg; and Dr Louis Koen, Assistant Lecturer, Department of Public Law, University of Johannesburg.
• A guest lecture on ?Applications of Nano Drug Delivery Systems for Cardiovascular Diseases? by Dr Yashwant Pathak, Professor, School of Pharmacy, Material and Advanced Technologies for Healthcare, Tampa, USA was conducted by the Institute of Pharmacy on Nov 30, 2021.
• A talk on ?The occurrence and monitoring of contaminants of emerging concern? by Prof Sudarshan Kurwadkar, Professor, California State University, USA was conducted by the Institute of Technology on Nov 19-20, 2021.
• Dr Arun Somani, Associate Dean of Research, Iowa State University visited the Institute of Technology on Nov 10, 2021 as part of an ongoing MoU between the two institutes. He provided counselling on higher studies and internships at ISU.
• The campus recruitment cell of the Institute of Law organised an online training session on ?How to prepare for judiciary? by Ms Anshu Sharma, Ex- Addl Civil Judge, Gujarat Judiciary and Pioneer of MOVE law Academy on Nov 11, 2021.
• An expert session on ?Public-Private Partnership in Highway Projects’ by MrAditya Jain, Advocate on Record at the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India was organised by the Institute of Law on Nov 19, 2021.
• An expert session on ?Foreign funding in India? by DrMukul Shastry, Vice President, Welspun Group, and Legal Head, Welspun Enterprises Limited was organised by the Institute of Law on Nov 27, 2021.
• A webinar on ?Green Patenting? by Ms Vindhya Gupta, Assistant Professor, ILS Law College, Pune was organised by the Institute of Law on Nov 27, 2021.
• As part of the Expert Lecture Series on AI & Law organised by the Institute of Law on Nov 27, 2021, Dr Antonio Bernardi, Visiting Researcher, Heidelberg University, Germany spoke on ‘Financial Markets & AI’, and Dr Maitreyee Wairagkar, Postdoc Research Associate, Biomechatronics Lab spoke on ‘AI & Ethics in Healthcare & Related Areas’.
• A distinguished lecture on ?Custody and Guardianship? by Justice Roshan Dalvi, Former Judge of Bombay High Court was conducted by the Institute of Law on Nov 15, 2021.
• An expert lecture on ?Indian Judiciary: Firewall to Indian Elections? by Shri Parindu K Bhagat who holds vast experience in the field of electoral laws and practices was organised by the Institute of Law on Nov 23, 2021.
• An expert session on ?Practice of Writ Petition before High Court and the Supreme Court? by Hon’ble Mr Justice C K Thakker as part of the Constitution Day celebration was conducted by the Institute of Law on Nov 26, 2021.
• A webinar on ?Diversity and Inclusion? by Ms Smriti Handa, Global Talent Acquisition Director, Reckitt was conducted by the Institute of Management on Nov 15, 2021.
• A webinar on ?SERB Funding Schemes available for Women Researchers? by Dr Shilpi Paul, Scientist F, Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB), DST, Government of India was conducted by the Directorate of Research and Innovation (DRI), Nirma University on Nov 20, 2021.
• Institute of Architecture & Planning along with its 16 partner institutes organised the first International Conference on ?Future is Urban?: Livability, Resilience & Resource conservation from Dec 16-18, 2021.
• A national webinar on ?Transportation Geotechnics? was organised by the Department of Civil Engineering, Institute of Technology with support from GUJCOST, Government of Gujarat during Dec 20-24, 2021. A total of 15 sessions of 2 hours each were conducted in the 5-day programme through online mode.
• Prof Prosenjit Ganguly, Animation Screenwriter, Designer, Voice Artist, and Mentor presented a talk to the Institute of Design students on Dec 3, 2021. The talk revolved around storytelling, stories converted to visuals and vice versa, and how images communicate a thousand things.
• The Institute of Law organised an online Panel Discussion on ?Changing Terrains of Fundamental Rights Protection in India? on Dec 4, 2021. The panellists for the discussion were Dr Uday Shankar, Professor and Registrar, Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur; Dr Yogesh Pratap Singh, Professor and Registrar, National Law University, Odisha; and Dr Afroz Alam, HoD, Department of Political Science, Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad.
• An expert session on ?Infrastructure Law: Electricity Sector? by Mr Prabjot Singh Bhullar, Independent Legal Counsel, Infrastructure Law was held on Dec 8, 2021 at the Institute of Law.
• A lecture on ?Changing Contours of Public Policy in India? by Ms Binsy Susan, Partner in the Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Company was organised by the Institute of Law on Dec 9, 2021.
• The Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Institute of Technology organised a Scopus Indexed ‘4^th International Conference on Futuristic Trends in Networks and Computing Technologies’ on Dec 10-11, 2021, technically collaborated with Springer Nature.
• Mr Mrugen Rathod, a Sculptor by profession, had an interactive session with the students of the Institute of Design on Dec 14, 2021. With his drive to protect nature and make people aware of the life that is being destroyed, Mr Mrugen talked about his projects in different areas of the world involving the use of different materials, but the common factor of them all was their message, to protect the wildlife and its habitat. The students were not only inspired by the art but also deeply moved by the thought.
• In the ongoing Nirma University – SUNY Binghamton University alumni lecture series, a session was conducted by Dr Tian He, Operations Research Engineer, Intel Corporation on Dec 17, 2021. The title of her talk was ?Pick-and-Place Machine Optimisation in Semiconductor Industry?.
• Institute of Commerce organised a ?Faculty development workshopon Research methodology? during Jan 6-8, 2022. Resource persons Dr Dhaval Maheta, Assistant Professor-Department of Business and Industrial Management, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat; and Dr Hitesh Parmar, Assistant Professor, Department of Business Management (MBA), Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar conducted sessions on topics including Formulating a Research Problem, Identifying Variables, Constructing Hypotheses, Hypothesis Testing and Parametric and Non-Parametric Tests.
• As part of the ?Urban Resilience and Adaptation for India and Mongolia? – URGENT Project, the Institute of Architecture and Planning organised a Lecture series on ?Urban Greens in City Development Plans? by Shri Lovelesh Sharma, Sector Lead, Water and Infrastructure National Institute of Urban Affairs (NIUA), New Delhi, and Dr Neeru Bansal, Associate Professor, CEPT University on Jan 22, 2022.
• A lecture on ?Exploring Integrated Planning & Urban Design Metrix for a City and Society – A case of Auroville? was conducted by Ar Lalit Kishor Bhati, an Architect and Urban Planner on Jan 28, 2022 at the Institute of Architecture and Planning.
• The IGBC Student Chapter and Department of Civil Engineering, Institute of Technology organised webinars on ?Building Services? on Jan 25 and Jan 27, 2022. The first session was conducted by Mr Nimit Sheth, CEO and Managing Director, Ramana Safety Systems (I) Ltd, Ahmedabad on ?Fire Safety in Buildings?. The second session was conducted by Mr Bhavin Shah, Founder, SQVe Consultants, Ahmedabad on ?Overview of MEP Services for Civil Engineers?.
• Dr Madhushree Basavarajaiah from NVIDIA; Mr Shubham Patel from INTEL; and Mr Sahil Shah from Google conducted expert talks for BTech and MTech students on Jan 11, 2022 on Artificial Intelligence with NVIDIA JETSON; Preparing for interview; and Progressing steadily in the era of Study from home/Work from home,  respectively.