November 21, 2011
School of Engineering, Coimbatore

The Computer Society of India (CSI) has some 500 student chapters across the country.

Among all these student chapters, the Amrita student chapter at Coimbatore campus was recently adjudged the Best Student Branch by CSI.

Amrita representatives will receive the award at a CSI national convention at Ahmedabad during December 2-3.
“Most of the credit for this singular achievement goes to Mr. Prashant R. Nair, (Secretary, CSI, Coimbatore) and Ms. R. R. Sathiya (CSI Student Branch Coordinator),” proudly stated Prof. K. Gangadharan, Chairman, Department of Information Technology (IT) at Coimbatore.

Both Mr. Prashant and Ms. Sathiya belong to the Department of IT, as do many of the active students of the CSI chapter.
Over the course of the year, they have organized expert lectures, seminars, technical workshops, short term training programs and inter-college symposia on campus.

In October, the chapter invited Mr. H.R. Mohan, Chairman, Division 4, CSI, to deliver a talk to the Amrita student community on the importance of professional bodies.
In September, Mr. T.S. Rangarajan, Principal Consultant of Tata Consultancy Services, spoke to the students on how to become industry ready; this event was also facilitated by the CSI student chapter.
In February, the chapter played a key role in organizing Anokha, the national-level tech fest of the Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore. Over 7000 students attended from nearly 330 colleges from all over India.

Also in February, the chapter hosted the CSI Regional Student Convention with participation from nearly 300 delegates from universities and colleges all over South India.
In January, the chapter joined hands with the IEEE and ACM student chapters on campus to organize Code Crusade, a coding contest for students.
This was not all. Student members actively also participated in social outreach programs.
Computers were donated to two tribal schools in Chinnanpathy and Muruganpathy and classes on basic computer skills were taught. The Amrita students and faculty also worked with three additional government and private schools.
“The visits to the village schools were eye-openers; we became aware of our responsibilities,” the students later shared.
“We realized how privileged we are to have the facilities which many others lack.”
“Our main aim was to spread the knowledge of IT to benefit the rural masses,” explained Mr. B. A. Sabarish, of the Department of IT, who coordinated the social outreach program.