Category Archives: Education

Centres to Detect Hearing Defects Among Kids

Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Science & Technologies
Differently-abled welfare officer B Charles Prabhakaran inspecting the newly built facility in Vellore | express
Differently-abled welfare officer B Charles Prabhakaran inspecting the newly built facility in Vellore | express

The State government will soon establish Early Diagnostic Centres for the hearing impaired in 10 districts, to detect and treat hearing loss among children aged between 0-6 years.

The centres, which will be equipped with sophisticated equipment, can diagnose hearing loss from the first day of birth. They will be established at a cost of `1.98 crore. The centre has been designed to detect possible hearing disability during birth or acquired after birth.

The centre would be established in Vellore, Nammakal, Madurai, Tiruvallur, Kaniyakumari, Theni, Chengalpet, Dharmapuri, Erode and Virudunagar districts. Each centre would be established at a cost of `19.80 lakh.

Each centre would be equipped with instruments such as Pure Tone Audiometry, Brainstem Evoked Response Audiometry (BERA), Oto Acoustic Emission (OAE)(portable screener), Sound Treated Rooms, Diagnostic Audiometre with free field Audiometry/ Peep Show Audiometer with laptop and otoscope with light.

“Such centres are not available in government sector or even in several corporate hospitals in the districts,” district differently-abled welfare officer B Charles Prabhakaran said.

“If the congenital hearing disabilities are not detected and corrected within 4 to 5 years, they will become a victim of permanent disability. It will also affect their speech, language acquisition ability and developmental growth,” he said. The most sophisticated equipment like BERA, which costs `8.20 lakh, would help to measure responses in brain waves, stimulated by sounds. The OAE equipment, which cost `4 lakh, will help to monitor the vibration of hair cells in the ears.

“We have completed the construction of sound-proof room at a cost of `4 lakh and are waiting for installation of the equipment. The centre will start functioning from March next year,” Prabhakaran said and added that the existing audiologist-cum-speech therapist would man the centre.  “We will assist individuals with behind-the-ear hearing aid based on the intensity of hearing loss,” Prabhakaran further said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> States> Tamil Nadu / by J Shanmuga Sundaram – Vellore / December 12th, 2013

Best Teacher Award for Vellore Special Educator

Education, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Records, All
Selvi with children at the EIC.
Selvi with children at the EIC.

M Selvi, who is employed as a special educator at the Government supported-NGO run Early Intervention Center (EIC) for infants with hearing impairment at the Panchayat Union Middle School at Dharapadavedu, bagged the Best Special Educator Award instituted by the government of Tamil Nadu this year. She received the award from Social Welfare Minister P Valarmathi recently.

The EIC project was launched by the State five years back across the State with the NGO WORTH Trust being the implementing agency in Vellore.

Selvi completed a one-year diploma in Teaching Young Hearing Impaired offered from the NGO Balavidhyalaya in Chennai before being appointed in the first batch of trained special educators at the school. “We train hearing impaired infants of less than 3 years of age to utter words, weave them into sentences, using appropriate hearing aids and so far we have integrated 11 children from the centre into a regular school where they are doing very well” she said.

She trains the parents, especially the mothers, to understand the new approach. “The focus is to make the infants experience the words directly without which they normally resort to sign language. Sign language may be handy to communicate with other hearing impaired but not with the general public. We emphasise lip-reading despite using hearing aids,” she said.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Education> Student / by V NarayanaMurthi – Vellore / December 11th, 2013

With the Right Focus

Education, Science & Technologies

RajeshCF30dec2013

The co-founder of Focus Academy for Career Enhancement (FACE), B Rajesh, has over 3,000 friends on Facebook. This is not surprising, given that his company has trained more than 5.5 lakh students over the past five years. Rajesh grew up in Coimbatore, where he completed electrical engineering from PSG College of Technology in 2004. His campus job at TCS took him to Mumbai, which he left after a year to join IIM-Kozhikode.

This was where he met Venkataraghulan, a classmate who also hailed from Coimbatore, with whom he teamed up to win a number of business school competitions. Rajesh was fairly active on campus, as a member of the placement committee and a part of many sports teams.

Both Venkataraghulan and Rajesh had the entrepreneurial itch at college, but had to put it on the back burner after landing jobs at Deloitte and Citibank respectively. “We would meet from time to time to discuss a number of business ideas, trying to figure out the next big thing. We did not want to remain in the rat race for long,” remembers Rajesh.

The final push came when they attended the ‘Laboratory in Entrepreneurial Motivation’ workshop at IIM-Kozhikode, conducted by Prof Sunil Handa from IIM-Ahmedabad, and decided to quit their jobs the very next morning. “It was truly a life-altering experience,” recalls Rajesh.

They philosophised that instead of waiting for the big idea, they should convert any idea into something big. As luck would have it, they met a teacher from school, who was running a new engineering college. They started with providing communication and aptitude training to her students. CAT coaching is the low hanging fruit for any IIM graduate, so it was a logical progression for them. However, the market was crowded, with national players like TIME, Career Launcher and IMS in the reckoning. They pivoted the business when a college approached them to train its students for campus recruitment. It was a golden opportunity as there were no organised players in the market yet, and they haven’t looked back. They now have five offices in the south, and deliver all their programmes using in-house faculty.

Rajesh says, “Education is an interesting but difficult space to crack, given the number of regulations and the cadre of people currently in the sector. One needs a lot of perseverance along with nimbleness to keep adapting to the market needs and remain contemporary.”

Rajesh is a travel buff and a foodie, an interest that has taken him to many places in Europe and South East Asia. He also loves movies, Surya being one of his favourite actors. His mantra for success includes aggression, ambition and extremely good people skills. Visit www.focusacademy.in.

— rohit@learnbizsimulations.com

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Education> Edex / by Rohit Koshy -Bangalore / December 16th, 2013

Aiming for AIDS-Free Generation

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education, Science & Technologies

Asha Nivas and Queen Mary’s College organised an AIDS Awareness programme at the Queen Mary’s College on Monday. The program was themed ‘For an AIDS free generation’.

A Viluppattu presentation was given by the Asha Nivas Culture Group on HIV/AIDS, the way it spreads, the risks involved in it and the precautions one had to take to prevent contracting the disease.

The programme also had Kurian Thomas, director of Asha Nivas, G Bhaskaran, NSS co-ordinator, University of Madras, S Sridhar from the Men and Women Clinic, Anna Nagar, and Lilly Josephine, chief community development Officer, Asha Nivas, speaking to the students attending the program.

Eswari Ramesh, NSS programme officer, Queen Mary’s College, also added that the program was one of the hundred events that QMC was planning to conduct to celebrate the college’s centenary, which falls in  the academic year 2014-15.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service – Chennai / December 03rd, 2013

IIT-Madras students bag Nissan scholarship

Education, Science & Technologies

Chennai :

Suraj Vallamkonda and Sripriya Kalidoss, in their third year of mechanical engineering at IIT Madras, have won the Nissan Global Foundation scholarship for this year.

In its fourth year, the Nissan initiative, besides recognising two students of IIT Madras every year for their efforts in automotive engineering, also offers internships for students and assists young researchers. The winners get a Rs 1.2-lakh grant and training at the carmaker’s plants and research centres in Japan.

source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com / Business Line / Home> News> National / by The Hindu Bureau  bharani.v@thehindu.co.in / Chennai – November 29th, 2013

Save the blue gold

Education
(from left) Thirunavukkarasu, Sridhar, Vaishnav / The Hindu
(from left) Thirunavukkarasu, Sridhar, Vaishnav / The Hindu

Students of Loyola College have devised a model that recycles grey water.

It is amazing how water shortage in Chennai has sparked a raft of school and college projects aiming solely at saving this precious liquid. The latest in this attempt is the award-winning grey-water recycling project by Sridhar Shankar, Thirunavukarasu M and Vaishnav Vasudevan, second year undergraduate Chemistry students at Loyola College, Chennai. “It was a nation-wide competition,” they inform me, “on Reduce-Reuse-Recycle,” and was held at Women’s Christian College (WCC).” They decided to participate the minute they came to know of it. “We were also inspired by Lily Christina (she teaches Chemistry to high-school students at St. Theresa School, Pallavaram), whose project on renewable sources of energy won the State-level award!”

Everyday resources

Zoning in on the theme took some scouting. They looked around to see how everyday resources like water got wasted because of our lifestyle. Then came the Eureka moment. “We found that we used a lot of water at the kitchen sink — cooking, washing dishes. This then went to waste. We opted to develop a project that would reduce-reuse-recycle that water,” the students said. Whatever the project was, it had to encompass a method and equipment that could be easily set up and used by everyone in their homes.

Support came from Principal Rev. Dr. G. Joseph Antonysamy and the Head of the Department of Chemistry, Dr. V. Alexander. “With the guidance of Professor in-charge Dr. S. Anuja Manikandan, we finalised the project — a method to remove impurities that enter water without spending too much money.”

Through blue-printing to the testing the prototype, the students were steered by one major thought: implementation of the project in ordinary households. The average home-maker should be able to carry out the process easily. Well, it won the first prize in the competition-cum-exhibition held in connection with the diamond jubilee celebrations at WCC. The award, handed over by the Mayor was Rs. 3,000 as cash and Rs. 2,000 in books. “Our project was praised for its message: do not waste fresh water.”

Managing waste water

Use water carefully, they say. Use a shower head; it distributes water, they recommend. And explain how you can recycle the water flowing down the kitchen sink. “It has organic (food) material from the dishes as well as oil/grease from typical Indian cooking. It also contains phosphates from the detergents used to clean the vessels.” The first step is to build a tank to trap the water. Remove the oil that floats occasionally, confine it to the compost heap. Any food particle present settles down. Separate it from the water. The remaining water is oxygenated using a small aquarium bubbler that allows the growth of algae. With this, 80 per cent of the impurities are gone. Why algae? During its growth it uses some of the phosphates from the cleaning liquids. It competes with other micro-organisms present and either kills them or uses them as nutrients.

Now filter the water to remove algae, and pass it through a sand filter containing ‘vettiver’ to get rid of the rest of the phosphates and to allow better (95 per cent) purification. Remember, the sand-filtered water is the same that drained from the kitchen sink. You can collect it and use it for gardening. Or use it for a fish tank and watch the fish eat up mosquito larvae and other harmful microbes. Or let it drain into the ground as is done in the rainwater harvesting system to recharge ground water. Collect this cleaned water in an inlet, pass it into a reverse-osmosis (RO) unit to get clean drinking water. If you can manage an industrial scale, treat it using ozone to disinfect and again use it as drinking water.

The major by-product for this process is the algae. Use it as manure. Put it in an anaerobic digester and produce methane. Use solar energy to run the digester. Make the whole process green.

The boys wish to thank all their classmates for “coming up with the different processes, especially Roy Immanuel and Sujeeth Kumar for their ideas on how the model could be built to perfection.” The cost was shared by the core group. They have been approached by architects who plan to include the method in their housing projects. “We would like to take it further after graduation.”

This is waste-water management, they say. It converts grey water into clean water with minimum fuss, at minimum cost. All you need is the will and some physical effort.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Education Plus> Colleges / by Geeta Padmanabhan / December 01st, 2013

Anna University dances to the top

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Education
The fifth edition of The Hindu NXg Campus Jive saw 12 teams setting the stage on fire as they battled it out for the first place / The Hindu
The fifth edition of The Hindu NXg Campus Jive saw 12 teams setting the stage on fire as they battled it out for the first place / The Hindu

Pumping with energy, both on and off stage, the boys from Anna University had an edge over the other teams at the The Hindu NXg Campus Jive 2013.

With excellent use of props, they turned the stage — at Sir Mutha Venkatasubba Rao Hall in Lady Andal School — into a dance floor with a crew member playing DJ on stage. In the end, they walked away with the first prize that comprised a cash award of Rs. 1,50,000 and goodies from various gift sponsors, including textile and multiplex partners.

In the second and third places, and winning Rs. 1,00,000 and Rs. 50000 respectively, were defending champions Loyola College, who remained the crowd favourite, and MOP Vaishnav College for Women, who impressed with their global fusion performance.

Power-packed performances, new-age props, colourful costumes and well-rehearsed, synchronised choreography coupled with endless cheering from the audience, made sure the rains did not play spoilsport on Saturday evening.

Actors Nishanth and Misha Ghosal and Miss South India 2012 Rohini Subbaia were the judges for the day. They were generous in their praise for the teams, explaining how narrow margins separated the teams.

The 12 teams that made it to the finals were those from Anna University, Women’s Christian College (day college), Sastra University, SRM Medical College, SSN College, MOP Vaishnav College for Women, Madras Institute of Technology, Women’s Christian College (evening college), National Institute of Technology–Tiruchi, SRM University, Stella Maris College and Loyola College.

Shrivarsha from MOP Vaishnav College was adjudged the best female dancer and Pawan Alex from Loyola College was the best male dancer.

The title sponsor for the event was Glam by Nathella. The multiplex partner was Inox, fashion partner was Venfield, radio partner was Chennai Live 104.8 FM and dance partner was Choreo Culture Dance Company.

The gift sponsors for the event were Desi Basics, Landmark, Fitness One, Fruit Shop on Greams Road, RMKV, Motherhood, Cup of Cafe and Reebok. The event was managed by iads & events.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> NXG / by Archana Subramanian / Chennai – December 08th, 2013

‘Tamil for science’ seminar in January

Education

Coimbatore :

A seminar on ‘Tamil for Science’ will be held at Dr G R Damodaran College for Science in January. Jointly organized by the college and the linguistics department of Bharathiar University, the seminar will bring together professors and researchers who will deliberate on how to develop Tamil such that it can be effectively used to teach and communicate science subjects, both to students and the masses.

The seminar which will be held on January 8th and 9th will discuss measures to popularise science through the vernacular language. It is being organized as part of the centenary celebrations of Dr G R Damodaran. Teaching science and technology through the vernacular has been considered an effective way to take science and technology to the masses. Researchers say that though there have been several attempts to popularise science through Tamil, nothing has come to fruition. For one, there is a lack of standard vocabulary for scientific terms. For instance, computer is called ‘Kanini’, ‘Kanipaani’ or ‘Kanipuri’ depending on the region. This issue can be resolved by preparing a standard document comprising Tamil words for each specific scientific concept or object. These words should be simple which the general population can comprehend.

“We need to come up with equivalent Tamil words for electronic gadgets and scientific terms,” said C Sivashanmugam head of the department of linguistics, Bharathiar University. Such effort will help make the teaching of science in the vernacular easier, he added.

Popularising Tamil words is the key to its success. D Padmanabhan, correspondent of Bharathidasan University and editor of ‘Kalaikathir’ magazine, founded by Dr G R Damodaran to spread science through Tamil said that one of the major challenges they face is to take developments to the general population. Those interested in participating in the seminar should contact Sivashanmugam at 0422-2428401.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Coimbatore> Tamil / TNN / November 28th, 2013

Team effort and hard work can create wonders, feels Sakina

Arts, Culture & Entertainment, Business & Economy, Education

For Sakina N Olia, a BSc psychology student at Women’s Christian College, Chennai, the final-year of college is proving to be a year of “prioritisation and making the best of the time that is available”.

Sakina is part of Ayamara, which was initially conceptualised by Raghavendra Ramesh, Vineeth Ramesh and Srutanjay Narayanan, students of CEG, Anna University, Chennai. It is a student-run event management company that was started in August last year.

As a part of this 17-member group that manages various events across the city, she explains, “Our service charges are separate from the expenses incurred for that event. So we are able to manage our expenses pretty well. My payment depends on the kind of shows we do.”

They take care of events, both corporate and social. They have hosted a pan-Chennai car rally, launched a website called Paperhut, organised Secret Santa (Ayamara’s own initiative to give back to society in a unique way during Christmas), managed MYTF (a national-level theatre festival curated by Creashakthi), and organised and managed The Epic Show in association with 578 entertainments.

About the group Sakina says, “Each one of us are completely different individuals. But we work extremely well as a team. The advantage of having so many members with different talents is that we get the best product.”

Says Sakina, “I love being a part of Ayamara. I manage to find time to balance both work and studies. At times it’s hectic but equally fun and challenging. I want to pursue my master’s in human resource and in terms of Ayamara, we, the 17 of us hope to take it to larger and bigger heights!”

— kaviya@newindianexpress.com

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Education> Edex / by Kaviya Sanjeevi – Chennai / November 18th, 2013

Lady Wellington College won’t be renamed after leader: Tamil Nadu tells court

Amazing Feats, Education, Historical Links, Pre-Independence, Inspiration/ Positive News and Features, Leaders, Records, All, World Opinion

Chennai : 

There is no proposal either to rename Lady Wellington College after Singaravelar or to erect his statue on the campus, the Tamil Nadu government has informed the Madras high court.
In a counter-affidavit, filed in response to a PIL of A Gowthaman seeking renaming of the college after Singaravelar and construction of a memorial for the freedom fighter at the venue, which was his house, secretary, Tamil Development and Information (memorials) Department said: “The setting up of Singaravelar statue and renaming the college is a matter of policy to be decided by the Government and no such proposal is pending with the department.”

However, it told the bench comprising Chief Justice R K Agrawal and Justice M Sathyanarayanan that a bust-size statue of Singaravelar was to be erected in Singaravelar memorial in Royapuram.

Senior advocate A E Chelliah, who argued the PIL for Singaravelar memorial, had told the bench that the freedom fighter founded the first trade union in India and had vast swathes of land in several places including Thiruvanmiyur and Mylapore. His residence at Mylapore, is now known as Lady Wellington College. British governor Lord Wellington took over his property after Singaravelar participated in the freedom struggle.

In 2011, the government announced a memorial for Singaravelar at Foreshore Estate, but did not proceed due to Coastal Regulation Zone norms. The PIL wants a memorial adjacent to ‘Vivekanandar Illam’ and renaming of Lady Wellington College as ‘Sindhanai Sirpi Singaravelar Educational campus’.

The PIL is scheduled to be taken up for further hearing on November 21.

source: http://www.articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Chennai> TamilNadu / TNN / November 18th, 2013