By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 23 Oct: UPES has inducted the ‘American Society of Civil Engineers’ (ASCE) Student Chapter’ to its list of official student chapters. An inaugural ceremony for the launch of the chapter was organised under the aegis of the ‘Department of Health Safety & Environmental and Civil Engineering (HSE & CE)’, School of Engineering (SOE) at the Bidholi Campus of the University. The Chief Guest was Gursharan Jit Singh Rosha, President, ‘American Society of Civil Engineers, India Section, Northern Region (NR), while Prof Har Amrit Singh Sandhu, Secretary – ASCE India Section, NR, was the ‘Guest of Honour’. The ‘ASCE-UPES Student Chapter’ is the 22nd in India and 1st in Uttarakhand. ASCE represents more than 150,000 members of the civil engineering profession in 177 countries. Founded in 1852, ASCE is the oldest engineering society of USA. Welcoming the guests, Dr Nihal Anwar Siddiqui, HOD – HSE & CE Department, emphasised the need for ‘ASCE Student Chapter’ as one of the necessary platforms for overall development of civil engineering students. “Over 500 students of the HSE & CE Department shall benefit from this association,” he declared. Delivering his Keynote Address, Chief Guest Rosha updated the students on the benefits they could derive from Brand ASCE in terms of their academic and co-curricular development. He advised the students to venture into higher studies and undertake courses in various specialisations of civil engineering. “An engineer should not only be reality-driven but also imagination-driven. This will help him to connect his imagination with the reality,” he said, while guiding the students on use of social media platforms cautiously. Guest of Honour Prof Har Amrit Singh Sandhu emphasized on the importance of proper documentation of all events that are organized under the ASCE Student Chapter umbrella. The inaugural event was coordinated by Anand Kumar Singh, Assistant Professor – HSE & CE, who is also the ‘Faculty Advisor for ASCE Student Chapter’, with active support of the student body, faculty and staff of his department. The Vice President – UPES ASCE Student Chapter, Utkarsh Arun (BTech – Civil Engineering) delivered a presentation highlighting the Technical & Cultural events to be organised under the umbrella of the chapter at UPES. He also introduced the newly formed team of the chapter. Mopi Devi Vijai Kishore, Assistant Professor – Civil Engineering, was instrumental in establishing this chapter. Former students Dhruv Pratap Singh, Twarit Basant and Neeraj Kumar Singh helped. A ‘Plantation Drive’ was also undertaken by the guests at UPES campus. The HSE & Civil Engineering Department utilised the afternoon session to celebrate Engineer’s Day with various technical and non-technical events. Over 100 participants were shortlisted. In the technical category, ‘Yogyata’ with three-stage competition including Logo competition, Machine Photography & Technical extempore witnessed enthusiastic participation, while fun events such as Crossword, etc., were hugely popular with the participants. The ‘Winners’ & ‘Runners-up’ were awarded prizes.
