East Coast Alumni Meet Report: 13th Oct 2001

East Coast USA - Alumni Meet Report

1st East Coast USA Alumni Meet - 2001
Saturday, 13th, October, 2001
Edison, New Jersey, USA

The East Coast-USA Chapter of the International Alumni Association of USA, is pleased to announce that all of us had a wonderful and memorable Alumni meet in Edison, New Jersey, USA on 13th October, 2001. This was the first ever alumni meet in the US. All of us were honored by the august presence of our Dean Dr.B.S.Patro.

Most of us gathered at the residence of Mr. Debabrata Das (Piscataway, NJ) at 9:00 O' clock EST. Even some of the alumni drove for more than 10 hours to attend this occasion. At 12:00 Noon, we moved to Akbar Restaurant in Edison, NJ. The dean joined us around 1:00 PM.. Thanks to the confusing road signs of New Jersey :-) which baffled Debasmit and Tapan who was escorting the chief guest (the dean) from Pennsylvania.

The meet started with nostalgic moments of meeting 24 cetians after so many years. Dr. Patro inaugurated the formation of international alumni association in the US and he shared with us the developments at our new campus at Kalinga Nagar, Bhubaneswar. He also emphasized on the issue of strengthening CET alumni network. For this purpose, he has already allocated a room for the "alumni association" at our new campus.

Around 3:00 PM, we came back to Piscataway, New Jersey (the residence of Mr. Debabrata Das). At this time, we pleasantly surprised by the dean when each one of us received T-shirts bearing CET logo. This was just the display of how our great institute values its alumni. All of us were honored with the affection shown by our Dean and also the current students of CET who had prepared these t-shirts at a very short notice. (Thanks to Buddhadeb Mohanty and his team for the excellent team work).

At this time, we had an open forum, where all the alumni had a chance to interact with the Dean to enquire about the new campus, placements, administration and other issues. The discussion was quite worthy as a lot of suggestions came up during session. Dr. Patro appealed the alumni to help CET to build a good library. He also mentioned few good initiatives taken up by his administration such as putting a complaint box in CET. Everybody agreed to work together as a team and make CET one of the prestigious institute in the eastern region of India.

At 5:00 PM, some of the alumni along with the Dean went on with a tour of New York. Some of the alumni preferred to stay back and went ahead with another round of brain storming session to come up with feasible suggestions.

At 10:00 PM, many of us watched the video of 2nd Alumni get-together (Dec 2000)and Xtasy-2001 (March 2001) held at CET. It brought back the memories of CET to all of us and it was a wonderful feeling. During all these events, several photos were taken, which would be soon posted on the web-site. Finally at 3:00 AM, we went to bed.

Well, if you think, the alumni meet was over, the answer is no. On the very next day, we had another get-together of the CETians in Nikunj's residence at River court tower in Jersey City, NJ facing the Manhattan. This truly shows the spirit of CETians and their unity even after graduating from CET for so many years.

All of us had a gala time there at New Jersey and we dispersed to our destinations with big hopes and plans to bring glory to CET.

Special thanks to the Dean Dr. B.S. Patro who was kind enough to grace the occasion and spend time with us despite his hectic schedule. We also thank to Debasmit Mohanty( 1994, Mech ) and Debabrata Das (1992, Elect) for their effort in organizing this great event.

-Nishikanta Sahoo (1996, MCA)

On behalf of the East Coast Chapter of
the International Alumni association of CET

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Here are some of the suggestions by our alumni
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1. Research and Consulting:

The course curriculum should focus on research and consulting as it not only makes our curriculum sensitive to the industry, but also makes the students more marketable during the placement process. It would also enhance the brand image of CET in the eyes of recruiters.

A new elective (called "Consulting") should be floated and students can register based on the availability of real-life projects and should work under the direct supervision of an assigned faculty member.

Both the students and professors should be responsible for the project. At the completion of the project, the students would be evaluated based on the overall success/failure of the project as well their marginal contribution.

2. Course Curriculum:

Should be changed every 3 years to accommodate the changing needs of the market and industry. To make this process smooth, CET should get feedback from the recruiters, alumni working in industry and also benchmark institutes like IIT, Roorkee and BITS. (Some alumni suggested coursed on Bio-informatics, Bio-Technology, Telecommunication, Opto-electronics and VLSI)

3. Library:

Some suggested that library should be open for 24 hours to give more access to the students.

4. Computer Lab:

This is an issue that needs attention. Since from the next year, two new branches ( Computer Science and Information Technology) with 60 seats each is going to be opened in CET, we need to have the resources such as sufficient number of PCs, terminals in place. We are not quite sure about the status of this. We would interact with the authorities more on this. ( Some alumni suggested to focus more on Linux technology as it is cheaper as it comes under GNU license compared to expensive high-end systems)

5. Communication Skills:

Current CETians should be proficient in the communication skill as it is vital for the success and growth in their professional career. Hence there should be regular programs on aptitude test, group discussions, personality tests and communication skills.

6. Professors:

They are one of the crucial ingredient of the teaching process. So we must hire talented professors with excellent academic background. The same criteria should also be applied while recruiting visiting professors.

7. Students:

Recognition awards to students having good score( criteria to be decided by the committee ) either in GMAT, GATE or GRE.

8. Department:
Regular evaluation of each department with respect to growth, accomplishment, quality of education as well as active-ness of the department. Teachers should complete the course instead of completing few chapters and students should implement in practical if relevant.

9. Best teacher Award:

Honor the best teacher of the year with incentives from each department as per the feedback from the students

10. Seminars:

CET should organize seminars/talks by inviting professional from the industry. This would help students to gain understanding of the engineering and business applications.

This would also help CET's image as a research institution. Our alumni should be tapped and encouraged to give a talk on their expertise. If possible, we should also think about conducting engineering/science exhibition each year inviting other engineering colleges.