The Amrita IEEE Student Branch received the prestigious Outstanding Student Branch Award during the Annual General Meeting of IEEE Kerala in Trivandrum on January 14, 2012.
The Amrita Student Branch was adjudged to be the most outstanding of all 63 student branches from colleges in Kerala.
In addition, Amrita final-year student of B.Tech. (Electronics and Communications Engineering), Ramesh N. Nair, won the Outstanding Student Volunteer Award.
Br. Rajesh Kannan, IEEE Student Branch Counselor, was felicitated with an Award of Appreciation for the Best Branch Counselor.
With this triple recognition, the Amrita student branch came into the limelight, even as the large number of research papers published by its student members were lauded and appreciated.
“This is the first time Amrita is winning these awards,” proudly shared Br. Rajesh Kannan. “It was our Principal’s dream that we should win this award.”
“Our student members have 14 research publications to their credit as well as a chapter in a book on robotics published internationally,” he added.
Not only were the Amrita student members encouraged to participate in original research, which led to these publications, they were also motivated to host several technical events with wide student participation.
During December 8-17, the students organized a Project Camp that saw participation from colleges around the state. Workshops on PIC Microcontrollers in October and March also attracted widespread interest.
IEEE Day Celebrations during October 14-15, were preceded by Engineers’ Day Celebrations in September; both events invited student members from other IEEE student branches, as well.
Ramesh N. Nair was one of the Amrita students at the forefront of coordinating and organizing these activities. Small wonder then, that he was chosen from among 5000 student volunteers from all over Kerala for the Outstanding Student Volunteer Award.
Ramesh also served as the Student Technical Coordinator of IEEE Kerala during 2011.
At Amrita, he was a key member of the team that built the prototype of the much-acclaimed Gesture Based Wheelchair for the Physically Challenged. This project received funding from the IEEE Foundation, US, for $7520, in addition to several other awards.
Ramesh was also a member of the team that wrote the chapter on Intelligent Home Navigation System for the Elderly and Physically Challenged which was included in the book titled Autonomous Robots: Control, Sensing and Perception published by Cuvillier Verlag.
January 21, 2012
School of Engineering, Amritapuri
