GAABESU Scholarship, AFE Award, Research Award distribution ceremony 2024-25

Scholarship, Research & Alumni Fellowship for Excellence Awards Distribution Ceremony 2025

GAABESU Scholarship, Alumni Fellowship for Excellence Award, Research Award Distribution Ceremony was successfully held on February 08, 2025 at Alumni Seminar Hall, IIEST, Shibpur.

The video link of the programme : https://youtu.be/RDColYBF09g

The link of the photos: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-MH4ypuBrHnly2LbjlIlpJGcpMyUYTpS?usp=drive_link

The program was graced by the presence of Director of IIEST S, Prof. VMSR Murthy. Following GAABESU officials and eminent personalities were present at the ceremony:

• Mr. Amitabha Datta (1974 CE) – GAABESU President
• Prof (ex) Arabinda Roy (1976 ETC), Working President- GAABESU
• Mr. Prosenjit Chakraborty (1987/EE) Secretary - GAABESU Member-SSC & Donor of Scholarship
• Lt. Col. Anjan Kumar Ghosh (1976/ETC), former PICSA, IIEST, Chairman of S S C, GAABESU
• Prof. Sudipta De (1989 ME), Professor-JU and convener of Research Award Team
• Sri Malay Niyogi (1980/EE), Treasurer, GAABESU
• Sri Vinod Singh (1999 ME), Joint Secretary – GAABESU
• Sri Sukanta Roy (1977 ETC) - Member GAABESU EC (over ‘Zoom’ link) & Donor of Scholarships
• Sri Indranil Sen (1980 Arch), Member GAABESU EC
• Sri Debal Banerjee (1984 EE), Member GAABESU EC (over ‘Zoom’ link) & Donor of AFE Award
• Prof. Arun Deb (1957 CE), Ex-President – GAABESU & Donor of Scholarships
• Dr. Prabir Neogi, (1962/CE) Ex-Member GAABESU EC & Donor of AFE Award
• Mr. Syama P. Datta, (1967/CE) Ex-President, GAABESU
• Mrs. Anjana Ganguly Roy (1977/ETC), Ex-President of GAABESU (over ‘Zoom’ link) & Donor of Scholarships
• Mr. Sitangshu Ghosh (1980/ME), Ex-Secretary, GAABESU
• Prof. Gautam Bandyopadhyay, (1976/EE) Ex-Professor of Electrical Department
• Prof. Prasid Shyam, (1984/EE) Professor of Electrical Department & Donor of AFE Award
• Prof. Netai Chandra Dey, (1986/MIN) Professor of Mining Department & Member GAABESU EC

The program was conducted by Mr. Prosenjit Chakraborty.   He welcomed the dignitaries to the dais. Original plan was to start the program with felicitating the Director with an Hon. Membership of GAABESU. Though Prof. Murthy was sick, so he made it a point to attend the award program, but only a few minutes late. GAABESU President handed-over to him the GAABESU membership card and the Director gracefully acknowledged. In his speech, the Director thanked alumni & GAABESU for continuing the support and handholding the students for the last 25yrs. He also mentioned that the awards cover all aspects of student activities and left no fields unacknowledged.

At the start of the award program, Lt. Col. Anjan Kumar Ghosh welcomed the guests and talked about the GAABESU Scholarship Programme, explained in detail the background and purpose of the Scholarship awarded by GAABESU since 1998. He further expressed his sincere hopes that the recipient students will also feel for the needy students and extend meaningful help to them in future. He mentioned that this year total no. of Scholarship is 122.

Research Award Review team coordinator, Prof. Sudipta De (1989 ME), Professor of Jadavpur University, talked about research awards and highlighted the requirements of uncommon, apparently ‘Crazy’ ideas, which actually leads to great research work. He also advised the students not to take this award as an achievement but as a support for looking further.

GAABESU Research Presentations by Students are available here: 

• Day 1 : https://youtu.be/eQBQm3wRx0Y
• Day 2: https://youtu.be/Jmvspa39hc0

Before the start of the award ceremony, GAABESU Secretary described the major changes in the Scholarship process, those were formally adopted by GAABESU and used this year. Briefly, these are:

1.  All applicants have to become a GAABESU Student Member as a prequalification

2.  The scholarship amount has been increased from Rs.15000 to Rs.25000/-.

3.  Award amount for some of the AFEs has also been increased to Rs.25000/-.

4.  The whole application process was made online.

5.  No interviews were held for Scholarships. All AFE candidates were interviewed personally. All Research Award applicants were called for an online presentation.

6.  All Donors were requested for the hike in amounts. Some of them could not be contacted. Some of the Donors did not agree for the hike. So, we sought permissions for combining, i.e. awarding more than one scholarship to single candidates, so as to standardize the amount. But all the Scholarships & Donors names were included in the list.

Out of these, 36 scholarships, 6 AFE awards and 5 Research awards were funded by USA Donors through USA Scholarship Fund. Though the number of net scholarships awarded has been reduced by few, the total award amount is so far, the highest, unprecedented. All thanks to the Donors.

Thereafter the Scholarship award distribution ceremony started, at first Research awards followed by Excellence Awards and lastly Scholarships. Prosenjit Chakraborty and Vinod Singh called all recipients one by one.  The Director also handed over a few awards. All present dignitaries handed over the awards to the recipients. Some of the Donors attended over ‘Zoom’ link, online. For the award instituted by the Batch of 1984, many alumni from that batch were present. A new award, instituted by Batch of 1995, has also started this year and representatives from that batch, also attended and handed over respective scholarships. Mr. Sanat Ghosh (1964 CE), on his personal initiatives, pursued for five scholarships from his batchmates, including one from himself. He also handed over a few awards himself. Some of the Donors or their representatives were present and handed over the respective awards to the recipient. 

The ceremony concluded with a vote of thanks to the chair given by GAABESU Joint Secretary Vinod Singh. He thanked all present dignitaries, EC members, Students and IIEST Authority for making  the Scholarship Distribution Ceremony successfully. 

After the program a small refreshment was handed-over to all students and present dignitaries.