LT. GEN. JS NAIN; ARMY INSTITUTE CELEBRATES 28TH FOUNDATIN DAY
Pune : Army Institute of Technology (AIT) should focus on active participation in innovation and technology drives such as Atma Nirbhar Bharat, Startup India and various schemes to promote new technologies in the fields of defense and space, advised Lt Gen JS Nain, AVSM, SM, GOC-in-C, Southern Command and Patron in Chief of AIT.
He was addressing the audience virtually, in the foundation day program of AIT. Army Institute of Technology, Pune celebrated the 28th Foundation Day on Thursday, 24 February 2022. Lt Gen Sudarshan Hasabnis, PVSM, VSM, ADC (Retd) was the Guest of Honor for the occasion. The function was held in a hybrid mode, with many guests and award recipients joining online.
On this occasion, AIT conferred the Life Time Achievement Award to Pradeep Bhargava, Chairman, Automotive Systems and Assemblies Ltd and Independent Director of Persistent Systems. The Successful Entrepreneur Award was presented to Mr. Sudhir Mehta, CMD, Pinnacle Industry. Young Entrepreneur Award was given to Mr. Vijender Yadav, CEO and Co-Founder, Accops Systems.
Brig Abhay Bhat, Director, AIT welcomed all the dignitaries, invitees and award winners. He presented a brief review highlighting the achievements and progress of AIT made in the previous year. In addition to the report on academic, co-curricular and extra-curricular activities, he spoke about the excellent placements of AIT students this year. He added, it was the proactive strategy and methodical planning by the management which has resulted in record breaking success in placements this year.
Pradeep Bhargava highlighted the importance of contributing to the society and the environment. These contributions can be made at any time in one’s career and one must not wait till retirement for the same. He advised students to not only look for good living but for fuller life and giving back to society.
Mr. Sudhir Mehta expressed his confidence that AIT can play a vital role in nation building. He also mentioned that being army personnel children, these values are already ingrained in them. He mentioned that India is at a very important stage in its history. The economy of our nation is one of the fastest growing in the world. MoreoverIndia has a demographic advantage. Today’s engineers, especially AITians, therefore have unlimited opportunities.
Mr. Vijender expressed that his driving force behind becoming an entrepreneur was to be happy and spread happiness in the society.
Lt Gen Arvind Walia, Patron AIT, in his speech discussed the importance of AI and ML in weapon systems, surveillance systems, target acquisitions and military decision making. He expects AIT students and alumni to collaborate with armed forces, especially when the induction of technologies in the armed forces has been opened up to the private sector. Both, Patron in Chief and Patron, complimented all the stakeholders of AIT and also congratulated students for their excellent performance in Internships and Placements during these challenging times.
Awards were presented to the outgoingstudents, teaching and nonteaching staff at the hands of Lt Gen Sudarshan Hasabnis, PVSM, VSM, ADC (Retd), Guest of Honor. The Chief of Army Staff Best All Rounder Trophy was awarded to Swagatika Sahoo of Computer Engineering 2021 batch. GoC in C Award for first in merit for each stream were awarded to Swagatika Sahoo of Computer Engineering, Saumyakanta Khatua from Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Rishabh Kumar Singh from Information Technology and Vishal Nayak from Mechanical Engineering.
Amongst faculty, Prof. Dr Seema Tiwari was felicitated with Best Teacher as well as Best research Award while Mr. Rohan Sonawane, Department of Information Technology was awarded as Best Technical Support staff. Sub B Pradhan was given the best administrative Staff award.
During his address Lt. Gen Sudarshan Hasabnis advised AIT to enter into an MOU with Army Design Bureau as well as the nodal center of the Bureau in Pune for research and innovation related to defense technologies. He also encouraged more and more AITians to join the armed forces, where they can utilize their technical acumen for addressing technological challenges of the armed forces from within.
Various scholarships sponsored by organizations such as TATA, ZS Associate, Persistent Foundation, Horizon Group, Badve Group, Hashmap, Udchalo Group, and New Indian Express, were also distributed during the function at the hands of respective company officials.
Vote of thanks was given by Col. M. K. Prasad, Jt. Director, AIT. Present at the occasion were Principal Dr B P Patil, all Heads of the Departments, faculty members, technical staff and students.
