The day-long Alumni Day event witnessed a hugely satisfying participation from Alumni across different batches. The total footfall count was more than 400. The event hosted Alumni ranging from the 1957 batch to that of 2022.
The programme for the day kicked off at 9:00 am through Registration of the participants followed by networking and “adda” over several rounds of tea/coffee and snacks. At 10:00 am the event formally began. Good numbers of Alumni, as well GAABESU officials were present during the inaugural programme. Inaugural session was anchored by Biswajit Sengupta (1981 EE) who welcomed on the dais GAABESU President Amitabha Datta (1974 CE) with a request to accompany the Honorable Director, Prof. Parthasarathi Chakrabarti to the dias. Then the following persons were call upon the dias: Shri Amitabha Ghoshal (1957 CE) the senior most Alumni present during the event, Prof Sudipta Mukhopadhay, Dean of Student Welfare, Sitansu Sekhar Ghosh and Vinod Kumar Singh, Co-chairperson of 10th Alumni Day and Prosenjit Chakraborty, Secretary, GAABESU.
The inaugural programme started with observing one minute of silence in the memory of our beloved alumni who left us forever this year. Amitabha Datta welcomed all the present dignitaries, alumni, their families, and students and briefly explained about the beginning of Alumni Day with it’s links to the traditional Annual Re-union, a joint venture program of past & present students with the total support of the institution. He also appealed to all the alumni to bring in more and more of their alumni friends / participants in days to come to spread the popularity of the Alumni Day program, a flagship event of GAABESU. Shri Sitansu Sekhar Ghosh, Joint chairperson of the 10th Alumni Day, spoke about the event, its legacy, and its purpose. Prof Sudipta Mukhopadhya, Dean of Student welfare gave his address and shared future plans for the institute. Prof. Parthasarathi Chakrabarti, in his address briefly mentioned about the current scenario of the IIEST and expressed his happiness about the way the new Chairperson of the BOG of IIEST, Smt. Tejaswini Ananth Kumar has showed her interest about the revival of the institute. He also mentioned about the urgent need for opening up new and modern academic disciplines with a shift from our typical core disciplines. On this, he appealed to the alumni for extending possible help & guidance in the matter of launching such advanced disciplines, like AI & ML. Lastly, he mentioned about his extended tenure as Director-IIEST and the ongoing search process for a new Director to replace him.
For the next stage, we planned to felicitate 4 Project team members of ISRO’s Chandrayaan-3 Mission who are our alumni. They are:
1) Mr. Debajyoti Dhar – 1987 CST, Outstanding Scientist and Deputy Director of Signal and Image Processing in ISRO.
2) Dr. Rintu Nath – 1995 EE, Principal Scientist in the Department of Science and Technology, an expert in Data Acquisition Systems (DAS).
3) Mr. Sumitesh Sarkar – 1987 ETC, Outstanding Scientist and Deputy Director of Satcom and Navigation Payloads.
4) Mr. Jayanta Laha –2009 ETC. Scientist/Engineer, ISRO
During the day’s program, Debajyoti Dhar & Jayanta Laha attended personally for the felicitation.
Once the felicitation part was over, Secretary GAABESU Prosenjit Chakraborty presented a brief of GAABESU activities with a main focus on Scholarship, Fellowship of Excellence, Research Award programmes.
After that Sushanta Sinha & Piya Mukherjee (both ‘88 ETC) announced new donation & research awards donated by ‘Class of 1988’. During the year, 1988 passout batch has raised funds for Research Award and announced 2 Research Awards from this year to the current students of IIEST.
“Alumni Link 2023” a special hardcopy magazine for the Alumni Day program was released to commemorate this special occasion. Manoj Kar and Syama Prasad Datta handed over one copy each to all the dignitaries present on the dais.
Here is an electronic copy of the Alumni Day 2023 Magazine:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GdnM1RZx19rFEMfk_3wr4TK8nhSIOvNH/view?usp=sharing
The inaugural session ended with a vote of thanks from the Joint-Chairperson Vinod Kumar Singh.
The main sponsors of this year’s Alumni Day programme are given below:
1. Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL)
2. GPT Infraproject Ltd.,
3. International Combustion (India) Ltd.
4. Industrial Energy Solutions
1. MAGEBA Bridge Products Private Limited
2. CESC Limited
3. Reinforced Earth India Pvt. Ltd. ( Terre Armee)
- There were some more supports we received for the event:
1. Vijay Nirman Co. P Ltd., Sponsored the Welcome Gate
2. IIEST Qatar Chapter, Sponsored the Cultural Program
3. Nuvama, Provided a display stall in the ground
As many as 36 agencies supported this grand event through sponsorship. Total 32 donors donated for this programme. Their names are listed in the Alumni Link, special publication.
As the inaugural session concluded, it made way for the Down the Memory Lane from 11.25 am, anchored by Debal Banerjee (1984 EE). The programme was started with audio recording messages from two very senior out-station alumnus Sri Jyoti Sengupta, 1954 CE (CANADA) and Sudhansu Sekhar Chakraborty, 1957 CE (DELHI). Many alumni shared their nostalgic memory/thoughts at the session. Among the speakers were Shri Arun Deb (1957 CE), Shri Amitabha Ghoshal (1957 CE), Shri Achyut Ghosh (1961 ME), Shri Shyama Prasad Datta (1967 CE), Smt Anjana Ganguly Roy (1977 ETC), Subol Ch Bhowmik (1970 CE), Prof Tathagata Roy (1966 CE), Shri Anjan K Ghosh (1976 ETC), Shri Amit Samanta (1976 CE), Shri Suhas Mukherjee (1963 CE), Shri Shyamal Chakraborty (1972 ME), Shri Mukul Ray (1964 MIN), Shri Debasish Kar (1985 ARCH), Shri Usha Shankar Bhattacharya (1987 ME) shared their memories.
There was a Fun event after Down the Memory Lane hosted by a professional event manager. The event was enjoyed by the little audiences.
A Gala Lunch with ethnic Bengali dishes topped up with some of Kolkata’s most famous sweets, was relished by the attendees, following the conclusion of the Fun Activity.
GAABESU encouraged the alumni who has authored various literary works and put a stall for all books with the books for display and sale from this stall.
GAABESU also encouraged students of different departments and several student societies of IIEST to put up stalls to showcase their talents and recent achievements. The Photography club was among those who put up their stall, as it successfully interacted with eminent alumni with a photographic inclination.
Before and after lunch, many alumni enjoyed a tour of the Campus with their family members, riding the Totos kept at their service. Like every year, 45-50 IIEST students worked enthusiastically as volunteers, to make this event successful.
The afternoon session in Institute Hall started with a musical performance by IIEST College Band- Euphony, followed by spellbinding performances by alumnus Tapan Kumar Saha (74ME) - Khilte Hai Gul Yahan, Pralay Chakrabarty (81ME)- Remembering Manna Dey, Indranil Sen, (80Arch)- Saaz Aur Awaaz- Songs of Mohd. Rafi. A Skit / Dramaticule by College Students Drama Club, conceptualised by Alumni- Egaror Balcony (Balcony of Hostel 11)....a reminiscent flavour of BEC of 70s - 80s. The musical band by Magic of Sudhin Dasgupta: Performance by Soumya Dasgupta (Class of 1984, B. Arch. & son of Sri Sudhin Dasgupta) & his band presented a memorable performance.
The anchor for the Cultural programme was Sri Santanu Bhattacharya (1983 MIN).
The show at the campus ended with some phuchka, tea, coffee, Pakora and adda. As sunset approached, the alumni community was brought back to the reality of the present and with a heavy heart, it was time to bid adios to their beloved alma mater and the amazing company they had enjoyed through the day. After a day filled with Fun, Fraternity, and Food, it was time to say goodbye, but not without a promise to come back again on Sunday, 29 December, 2024.
Please provide your feedback of Alumni Day 2023 organized on 30-Dec-2023 at IIEST Shibpur Campus:
https://forms.gle/AEhN4AxZwtqEFEjH7
The recording of the programme can be viewed here: (From Part 1 to Part 12)
