Three students from IIT Kharagpur have won the Young Engineer and Scientist’s (Y-E-S) Award for 2018-19. They are Lakshmi Vasanta Majety (3rd year, Chemical Engineering), Nirmalya Panigrahi (3rd year, Mechanical Engineering) and Sabyasachi Sen (3rd year, Mechanical Engineering). The Y-E-S Award, instituted by the Honda Foundation in India in 2007 and facilitated by Honda Cars India, is awarded each year to young students from premier institutes across India who have proven their academic brilliance in the area of science and technology and show the promise of leading society towards an eco-technological orientation.
Each student will receive a scholarship of cash equivalent of $ 3,000. The evaluation took into consideration their CGPA and individual essays. This was followed by two rounds of personal interviews with the selection committee of senior Honda Executives and prominent Indian scientists.
Lakshmi Vasanta Majety, who is currently General Secretary of Alumni Cell of IIT Kharagpur, and is a brilliant student, said, “This award is a big boost to my confidence and gives a positive thrust to my career prospects. I am eagerly looking forward to availing the Y-E-S plus award for pursuing a summer internship in Japan.”
Y-E-S award recipients become eligible for the Y-E-S Award Plus, a credit-granting internship program offered by a Japanese company or research institute’s summer program for two-and-half months. Internship participants will receive $ 7,000 for internship in Japan and$ 3,000 preparation fees for further study in Japan (for 10 weeks) or $ 10,000 for post-graduation studies in Japan (1-2 years).
Sabyasachi Sen, who has done an internship with Rakuten Inc, Tokyo, in 2017, and has been selected for an internship at the Dynamics, Imaging and Modelling of Environmental Systems (DIMENV) research group at CNRS Geosciences Rennes, France, for summer this year, said, “I truly enjoyed the work culture and social life [in Japan], so I will definitely use the second stage of the Honda Y-E-S award to go back to Japan for the summer of 2020.” Sabyasachi wishes to pursue studies in the broad field of transport phenomena.
Nirmalya Panigrahi is a bronze medallist in the Campus Sustainability Challenge at the Inter IIT Tech Meet 2018-19 and second rank holder in the Product Design contest held by Prakriti, the Agricultural and Food Engineering Annual Fest in 2018. An avid debater and blogger, he says, “This process was the most educative, humbling and honouring.… While I was waiting in a line, to witness one of the most memorable events of my life, I realised how a little bit of motivation is all you need to give a nitro boost to your dreams.”
Mr Kenji Hiramatsu, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Embassy of Japan, who presented the award to the students, said on the occasion, “India and Japan enjoy a fulfilling bilateral relationship and I hope that through this opportunity you will experience Japan’s advanced technological system and enjoy research which is aimed at contributing to social causes.” One of the objectives of the Honda Y-E-S award is to “promote dissemination of eco technology among the young generations and at the same time to strengthen interaction and exchange between Japanese youths and young people expect to lead science, technology and industry in their respective countries.”