The 18th Annual General Body Meeting of Amrita Alumni Association – the alumni association of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University was conducted with much fanfare in the Amrita University Campus headquarters in Ettimadai, Coimbatore on 20/12/2015.
Around 300 Alumni from all walks of life including Entrepreneurs, Civil Service employees, Social Service and Non-Governmental Organization executives and industry professionals from US to Middle East attended the joyous event. The meeting started with a Prayer and Lighting of the lamp by Prof. Parameswaran, Director-CIR, Dr. Sasangan – Dean Engineering College, Prof. Subba Rao – President Amrita Alumni Association, and Pradeep Menon – Principal Organizer Amrita Alumni Association.
Prof. Subba Rao, welcomed the alumni to the alma mater and expressed his pleasure in seeing his old students and the joy of meeting one another.
Prof. Parameswaran talked on how the alumni act as the ambassadors of the university and expressed his pleasure in the accomplishment of the alumni in general in such a short time. He expressed his views on how he want to see the alumni’s achievements grow from strength to strength.
Dr. Sasangan, expressed his pleasure in meeting all the alumni members who have come. He expressed that irrespective of the social media connects we have, there is no more joy in meeting your friends, faculties and staff members face to face. He asked all the alumni to keep returning to the college whenever they feel to relive their campus life.
Distinguished Alumni Awards were presented to three Alumni who have excelled in their area of work.
• Dr. Vijayaragavan Viswanathan – Scientist at European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Switzerland in the Research and Academic Category
• Mr. Girish Kumar P R and Sreejith B Nair – Cofounders Gadgeon Systems USA and India in the Entrepreneurship Category
• Team Pradnya– a NGO started by Amrita Alumni for serving orphanage children in the Social Services Category
In his award acceptance speech, Dr Viswanathan dedicated the award to his parents and expressed his deep gratitude to the Staff and Professors of the University in molding him and imparting the much needed scientific enquiry skills, which he finds quite useful in his day to day life as a scientist.
In their award acceptance speech, Girish Kumar and Sreejith B Nair talked about the inspiration and the knowhow on IoT they received from the University and how it has led them to create a startup company of 100 plus people with officers in US and India.
Team Pradnya members in their acceptance speech thanked the university in expanding their world view and inculcating the values of serving the under privileged unconditionally. They stressed that at Amrita they have not only received education for living but an education for Life.
The program also included election of new office bearers of the association for the year 2016-2018. Dr. Jayakumar, Chairperson Electronics and Communication Department was elected as the President of the association and Badri Krishnan, Business Analyst – Atlas Healthcare Systems was elected as the Vice President of the Association.
The event was also marked by cultural programs and games from the current student community. It was followed by a gala networking lunch at the guest house garden and interaction with their department staff at the respective departments.
