4th edition Whistling Teal Convocation Special Convocation Report from the Profiles of Profile of Honorary Mr. Shiv Nadar’s Address to the Agenda Vice Chancellor Guests of Honor Degree Recipient Graduating Class of 2016 Page 2 Page 3 Page 5 Page 6 Page 12 Editorial Welcome to the fourth edition of the Whistling Teal! An opportunity for a new beginning initiates a cycle of change, implies turning new pages, and pushes us to spread our wings. At Shiv Nadar University, the year 2016 has brought a lot of changes, and with it a surge of renewed hope, a hope that began in 2011 and is continuously soaring to new levels of excellence. The year 2016 began with aplomb when our Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, visited Shiv Nadar University, formally inaugurated the University and dedicated it to the nation. It was a historic day to be cherished forever. In this edition, we bring you the excerpts of the inspirational speeches from the event. The first quarter also saw a change of guard at the top leadership level. Our founding Vice Chancellor, Dr. Nikhil Sinha passed the baton to Prof. Rupamanjari Ghosh. The edition brings glimpses of the farewell organized in honour of Dr. Nikhil Sinha and some beautiful dedications by the poets extraordinaire Dr. Anannya Dasgupta and Dr. Akhil Katyal. This edition is combined with the Convocation edition. We bring to you the brief profiles of Guests of Honor, Dr. Raghuram Rajan and Ms. Vanitha Narayanan, along with Mr. Deepak Parekh, this year’s Honorary Degree Recipient. We also bring a special section on the Graduating Class of 2016, who will march proudly in their caps and tassels in the second Convocation Ceremony. The university is all set to give their second class a memorable good-bye, saluting their spirits and accomplishments. We wish them luck to move onto more successful endeavours in their lives. This quarter has marked the beginning of our admissions season. The launch of a new session of T.E.S.T, which begins in April by the Department of Education, is another highlight. In this edition, we bring you conversations with Dr. Shubhro Sen (Director, School of Management and Entrepreneurship, and School of Executive Education and Professional Development) and Prof. Maya Krishna Rao (Head, Department of Education, School of Humanities and Social Sciences). The quarter was packed with events, seminars, conferences and workshops re-emphasizing the breadth and depth of our multidisciplinary University. To savour the sheer joy of the great new heights that our University scales, keep reading and keep contributing! Editorial Team, Whistling Teal 01 Agenda of the Convocation Ceremony TIME PROGRAMME 10:30 a.m. Guests seated for the Convocation Ceremony 11:00 a.m. Entry of Student. Faculty and Chancellor’s Procession 11:30 a.m. Convocation Ceremony National Anthem Welcome address by the Chancellor Dr. S N Balakrishnan University Progress Report by the Vice Chancellor Dr. Rupamanjari Ghosh Address by Distinguished Guest Ms. Vanitha Narayanan Commencement Address by Chief Guest Dr. Raghuram Rajan Conferring of Honorary Doctorate Mr. Deepak Parekh Conferring of University Medals to Students Conferring of University Degree to Students Address by the President, Alumni Association Vote of Thanks by the President Mr. Rajiv Swarup 02:15 p.m. Lunch 02 Vice Chancellor’s Report (2015-2016) It is my honor and privilege to present the Vice-Chancellor’s Progress Report on the occasion of this Second Convocation of the Shiv Nadar University. Established by an Act of the State of Uttar Pradesh, the Shiv Nadar University began operations on the 18th of August 2011, with 265 undergraduate students pursuing degrees in five engineering majors and mathematics and a single masters student. Now in our fifth year, the University has grown considerably in scale and scope. Today we have 1,793 students enrolled at the University, coming from 27 States and Union Territories in the country – 1,534 undergraduates, 132 masters, 13 post-graduate diploma and 114 doctoral students, across four schools: School of Humanities & Social Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, School of Engineering, and School of Management & Entrepreneurship. The Schools host 16 academic Departments, ranging from Electrical Engineering to English, from Physics to Marketing and from Economics to Computer Science. We have recently launched a fifth school, the School of Extended Education and Professional Development, which is focused on extending the reach of the University by oering short-duration educational and Prof. Rupamanjari Ghosh training programs to individuals, companies, and governmental and non-governmental organizations. The Goal Shiv Nadar University is designed as a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, research-focused and student-centric university, which is unique in the country. The mission of the University is to develop and educate the path-shapers of tomorrow, who can shoulder the challenges of globally responsible, and ethical leadership in the 21st Century. The University is envisaged to be an enduring global center of excellence in higher education, which is anchored in research & innovation, driven by an outstanding faculty, supported by national & international academic partnerships. After a remarkable beginning, and a phenomenal growth in the first few years, the University can now boast of a truly multidisciplinary character, and in this setting, the academic programs have started flourishing on progressive interdisciplinarity and research-led learning. Innovative Curriculum & Research Focus The undergraduate curriculum at the Shiv Nadar University has a broad-based common core with the flexibility to allow students to explore -- for enhanced breadth of learning and engagement, and the students then acquire the depth in a major subject of their choice. Not only the curriculum, but the teaching-learning process followed at the University is forward-looking. A major component of the mission of the University is to actively engage faculty and students in the process of creating knowledge, not just disseminating it. Research is an integral part of the pedagogy at the University where the students "learn by doing”. This was echoed in the speech of the Honorable President of India, Shri Pranab Mukherjee, when he inaugurated the University and dedicated it to the nation on 18 January 2016: “The University has adopted a distinct curriculum to nurture students for the exciting opportunities of tomorrow. Its unique approach has the potential to positively influence the higher education landscape of our country in the next two to three decades.” All students are admitted on merit through a rigorous admission process conducted by the University. Over 85% of our undergraduate and post-graduate students receive some form of scholarship or financial aid, and all our doctoral students receive stipends and tuition fee waivers. Research at the University is not limited to faculty and doctoral students. We are now in the second year of our unique ‘Opportunities for Undergraduate Research’ (OUR) program, which has opened the door for our undergraduate students to conduct original research with faculty, outside the regular curriculum. In its second year, more than 70 projects have been funded, and the results will be presented in the second undergraduate conference to be held early next week. The University is now registered with the Department of Scientific & Industrial Research (DSIR), Government of India – this is a recognition of the fact that the University is indeed a research institution. The University facilitates research, scholarly and creative endeavors that contribute to the creation of new knowledge at the frontiers of specialized areas as well as at the interface of diverse disciplines. Several research Centers at the University are engaged in such interdisciplinary work, at the Center for Public Aairs and Critical Theory, the Big Data Analytics Center, the Center for Emerging Societies, and the Center of Informatics. The latest in the list is the Center for Environmental Sciences and Engineering, which will have a strong multidisciplinary thrust on research, education and outreach in environmental sciences, engineering, and sustainability, in keeping with global demand. Infrastructure On its sprawling 256-acre campus, the University has invested heavily on state-of-the-art laboratories, studios, classrooms, the library, student hostels, dining and sports facilities. This University never sleeps, and the research support facilities run 24x7. Our commitment to research is re-armed with an internal research investment of about ₹200 Crores to date, and an additional ₹550 Crores earmarked over the next three years. 03 Vice Chancellor’s Report (2015-2016) Faculty Excellence Our faculty members come from the best of Universities of India and the world. On joining the University, the system nurtures them and provides the best of opportunities, which has resulted in our faculty already publishing over 350 journal articles, 88 books and chapters in books, 381 conference papers, holding 85 exhibitions and performances, and having attracted a total external funding of ₹12.2 crores in 39 research projects. The Department of Mathematics, School of Natural Sciences, has received the FIST funding from the Department of Science & Technology. Some of the research work have become worthy news items already. A team of researchers led by Dr. Gouriprasanna Roy, Department of Chemistry, School of Natural Sciences, has discovered a compound that can