Nazneen P. Kotwal, the final year student from the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham was the winner of the coveted TCS Best Student Award for the year 2015. List of nominees comprised contenders from Aerospace, Chemical, Civil, CSE, Information Technology, EEE, EIE and Mechanical engineering disciplines. Despite the stiff competition, Nazneen with her consistently good academic grades of 9.98 CGPA, managed to get the award. The winning criteria was not just confined to academic performance, but also included parameters such as participation in technical forums, contribution to the department and the institution as well as other achievements. She had managed to excel in co-curricular and extra-curricular activities by scoring consistently first place in all semesters of B.Tech. ECE examination, presented a paper titled “Polyphonic Audio Detection and its Impacts in the Near Future” at Vidyut 2013(National level Technological Festival held at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri) and secured Second Place, presented a Business Plan titled “Bon-voyage- For life and beyond” during Gravitas 2014 (National level Technological Festival held at VIT University, Vellore) and secured First Place and secured Second Position in the event Contraption conducted as a part of Vidyut’14 (National level Technological Festival held at Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri during Jan 30 – Feb 1, 2014). The award was presented by Mr. Ayyappan L, Senior Consultant Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) and Prof. C. Parameswaran, Director, CIR, Amrita University included a cheque for Rs. 10,000/-, a medal and certificates from TCS and CIR. In her acceptance speech, Nazneen thanked her parents, teachers, friends, department, the university and TCS for the award.

In his talk, Prof. Parameswaran underscored the long-standing relationship of TCS with Amrita. He traced the association to the MoU for instituting a chair professorship in German language, followed by the TCS – Amrita Sangam in 2006, and finally to the present day Academic Interface Program envisaging the best student award, best student project award, FDP’s, student workshops and internships. He also spoke about TCS as a favorite company in the campus and the research scholar program. Prof. Parameswaran said that Amrita was keen in furthering its relationship with TCS in future. He concluded his speech with a key advice for success “Whatever is your branch you must focus not only in your area of interest but also look at where the technology is taking you tomorrow, but don’t chase two rabbits as you would lose both”.

Dr. Sasangan Ramanathan, Dean, School of Engineering, Amrita University shared his thoughts on how year after year TCS had continued to motivate and inspire students through this award. He encouraged the junior batch students to strive hard and learn every day and concluded his speech by saying “Aim high and make sure you have a plan to achieve that”.

Mr. Ayyappan L. addressed the crowd and conveyed that his organization was proud to be associated with Amrita mainly “because of the kind of students this great institution produces”. He emphasized more on cherishing our own Indian brand and shared his association with TCS. He briefed the students to widen up the horizon with his example as he is a chemical engineer but currently working in IT industry and in this process learning daily.

Wg. Cdr. (Retd.) A. Balachandran, Senior General Manager (Corporate Relation), CIR, Amrita University gave the welcome address as well as briefed the audience about the nominees for the award and the selection process. The vote of thanks was proposed by N.R. Mohanan, Senior General Manager (Career Development), CIR, Amrita University.