Tag: undergraduate students

The 2020 Winners

Finally a Winning Feat in 2020: Recent Graduates Bag Third Prize in Global Business Challenge 2020

“EcoDabba”, a startup team by IIT Kharagpur graduates comprising Bindu Sancheti and Sourav Kundu from the Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Nikita Agrawal from the Dept. of Agricultural and Food Engineering, has secured 3rd position in the Global Business Challenge 2020.

The challenge for 2020 was to ‘develop novel and sustainable solutions to aid in resource recovery and promote the circular economy’. 153 teams from 23 nations participated in this competition. Ecodabba, a sustainable food packaging solution, conceptualized by these 2020 graduates provided a solution in the reduction of waste in food packaging in the post-pandemic world. The Kgpians who have achieved this feat as a team from India after several years have been awarded AUD 10000 for their innovative business concept.

The Global Business Challenge is a graduate business case competition to design sustainable solutions to global problems. The Global Business Challenge (GBC) is being conducted as a partnership between QUT, The University of Queensland and Griffith University and with the support of government and industry. It is sponsored by the United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) through its WIPO GREEN initiative.

IIT KGP among Toppers at Asia-Pacific Global Conference

Students from IIT Kharagpur have finished among the toppers in the CoreNet Global Academic Challenge 5.0 organized by CoreNet Global Summit Singapore. The Asia-Pacific global conference which was held in March 2020 had participation from 24 leading universities across 18 countries. Among the other toppers are University of Sydney and Delft University of Technology, Netherlands. 

The competition involved the role play of an internal corporate real estate team and develop a proactive strategy towards firstly ‘Recession-proof’, to the extent possible, the corporate real estate portfolio, secondly continue to support the business objectives of the corporation, and thirdly ensure that such a strategy does not negatively impact the company in the unlikely event that a recession does not materialize. The teams proposed innovative solutions to problems faced by real estate professionals linked to top global MNCs.

The team from IIT Kharagpur comprised third-year undergraduate students Vikrant Gupta (Mathematics and Computing), Krishnam Kapoor (Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering), Amrit Goswami (Industrial and Systems Engineering, Financial Engineering), and Eknoor Malhotra (Civil Engineering). Their problem statement involved preparation of a comprehensive action plan for the recession-proof real estate portfolio of an American multinational manufacturer of home applications. The team emphasized on minimizing the negative impacts of such recession proofing in case the anticipated economic downturn does not materialize. 

“We prepared and presented a detailed action plan for each of the components in the company’s real estate portfolio including Offices, R&D spaces, Manufacturing Plants and Distribution centers followed by a thorough lease management strategy. Our focus was on leveraging recent technologies including RFID, Blockchain, Advanced Analytics, etc. to enable the company to properly optimize space, inventory, and performance. The goal was to reduce expenditure along with incorporation of flexibility and sustainability in their real estate portfolio to prepare the company for the upcoming recession without hampering its growth potential,” Eknoor. 

The competition was open to undergraduate and graduate students all across the world. The first round witnessed a participation from 42 universities across the globe. In the subsequent round, teams had to develop an efficient real estate strategy for a given company in either the financial services, IT, or manufacturing sector. Finally, the top 3 teams presented their solution strategies to an expert panel of senior professionals from organizations including Standard Chartered, HSBC, EY, etc. during the conference.

Prof. Bhaskar Bhowmick from Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship, who mentored the four-member team from IIT Kharagpur said, “I congratulate the team for their podium finish. It is a proud moment for IIT Kharagpur. I encourage them to continue their endeavors in this domain and wish them luck for the future. Tackling real-world problems is not a piece of cake. Competitions like Corenet provide a great learning curve and I’m glad to be a part of this team. This performance of the IIT Kharagpur team will encourage many such competitors on the campus.”

CoreNet Global is a non-profit association, headquartered in Atlanta, GA, representing more than 11,000 executives in 50 countries with strategic responsibility for the real estate assets of large corporations. The organization’s mission is to advance the practice of corporate real estate through professional development opportunities, publications, research, conferences, designations and networking in 46 local chapters and networking groups globally. Visit the website to learn more.

Round India Winners

IIT Kharagpur Students among the Winners of India Finals of CFA Institute Research Challenge 2019-2020

A five-member student team from IIT Kharagpur has qualified for the Asia Pacific round of the CFA Institute Research Challenge 2019-2020. Along with IIM Ahmedabad and IIFT Delhi, the team from IIT Kharagpur have been won the India Finals of this Global level competition held on February 8, 2020. The Asia Pacific round is scheduled to be held on March 18-19 2020 in Seoul, South Korea. The AP Challenge will consist of one winner from each Member Society of the Asia Pacific Region, typically about 16-18 countries.

The final year students Shubham Maheshwari (Dual Degree, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering), Satwik Bansal (Dual Degree, Agricultural and Food Engineering), Daksh Thakkur (Dual Degree, Aerospace Engineering), Ritika Agarwal (Dual Degree, Agricultural and Food Engineering) and Tanay Jagani (Dual Degree, Agricultural and Food Engineering) who are all currently pursuing M.Tech. in Financial Engineering were mentored by Prof. Abhijeet Chandra from Vinod Gupta School of Management, the business school of IIT Kharagpur.

“A rigorous multi-disciplinary academic curriculum along with industry-ready skill-training has helped our students achieve this success at CFA Research Challenge India leg, along with other top b-schools of the country. IIT KGP’s team being only an undergraduate team has stood out in the competition mostly participated by MBA students. Financial Engineering, our unique interdisciplinary program run by the departments of Mathematics, Humanities & Social Sciences and Vinod Gupta School of Management, has always been appreciated by the industry. With our students competing with the best teams of Asia-Pacific region, we will mark our global footprints in financial research and valuation as well,” said Prof. Chandra.

The other finalists for India round included IIM Udaipur, IIM Calcutta, IIM Trichy, IIM Kozhikode, NMIMS. The teams qualified through the respective zonal rounds which witnessed participation from 59 leading business schools from across the country. The finalists presented their equity research on Reliance Nippon, HDFC Life, BATA and Oberoi Realty. The judges panel consisted of industry luminaries viz., Mr. Pankaj Tibrewal, Sr. Vice President & Equity Fund Manager, Kotak AMC, Mr. Varun Gupta, MD, Duff & Phelps (Asia Pacific Leader, Valuation Advisory Services and Country Leader, India) and Mr. Namit Arora, CFA, Managing Partner, IndGrowth Capital.

“It has been a thorough learning experience for us to participate in the CFA Institue Research Challenge. The competition has provided us with a platform to perform equity research under the able guidance of industry leaders of the investment management industry. We are looking forward to the Asia Pacific Regional round in Seoul, South Korea ,” opined partcipants Daksh Thakkur and Shubham Maheshwari.

The CFA Institute Research Challenge is an annual global competition that provides university students with hands-on mentoring and intensive training in financial analysis. Students work in teams to research and analyze a publicly-traded company — sometimes even meeting face-to-face with company management. Each team writes a research report on their assigned company with a buy, sell, or hold recommendation and may be asked to present and defend their analysis to a panel of industry professionals.

 

With content contributions from CFA Society India, CFA Institute Research Challenge in India

Placement Begins

It is the time of the year when all eyes are towards the IITs – as December hits, so does the placement season at IITs. At IIT Kharagpur with 282 PPOs the Institute is aiming to secure 1000+ placements in less than a week’s time. Already three PSUs have recruited and more are expected in the coming months.

This year several first-time recruiters will visit the IIT Kharagpur campus including top corporate brands like Sony Japan, PayPal, P&G India, Nestle India, Nomura. The Institute will also be welcoming back international recruiters like Apple, Microsoft Redmond, Uber, Amex, Qualcomm, Mercari Japan among others. 

“We have taken almost all the last year’s companies on board and some prominent Japanese companies along with two US companies. We are expecting double the offer in international profiles,” said an official at the Career Development Centre of IIT Kharagpur.

Apart from the prominent players which recruited last year, seven more companies are on board for the phase one recruitment at the Institute. Most of the profiles are in the areas of software development and consulting. Though there were apprehensions regarding market conditions, the internship and preplacement offers were highly promising touching all time high figures. Read More

Talking about the current market scenario and its potential impact on the recruitment, Prof. G P Rajasekhar, Chairman at IIT Kharagpur’s Career Development Centre remarked, “The PPO rate is very encouraging. We took proactive measures to attract companies by reviewing our Company Relation Index (CRI) and then upgraded a few companies. We are stretching our wings to accommodate more companies on a given day so that companies do have enough pool of students each day.”

A supposed challenge of 2.30 hours distance from Kolkata airport is also being addressed.

On day 1, thirty companies will be recruiting for fifty different profiles. The students are hoping for a high number of shortlisted candidates during the first week which will indicate the final number of offers made. The phase 1 will continue for 3 weeks in December.

An increasing trend in salary also was observed. 

“This was expected especially with software and quant companies offering higher packages,” said an official.

A total of 220 companies have registered for recruitment in the phase one who will be interviewing more than 2000 students who have registered for placement opportunities in 2019-2020. By the end of the second phase about 500 students from Undergraduate, Postgraduate and Dual Degrees are expected to opt out from the placement process.

 

 

Do-It-Yourself

India Today

IIT Kharagpur is ready with the DIY Laboratory to inculcate innovation spirit among the first-year undergraduate students through the concept of Do-It-Yourself. The Lab which is located in J C Bose complex was inaugurated on October 22 by Prof. Sriman Kumar Bhattachayya, Officiating Director.

This lab will act as a playground for technical work where instruments and consumables can be accessed in domains of electrical, mechanical and electronics engineering. To begin with 350 first year students will be working on projects selected by students. Students will be supported by technical staff and senior students who will act as design mentors and guide them in their projects.

The initiative will be led by Prof. Vikranth Racherla of the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, who has recently launched the indigenous Make-in-India electric auto DESHLA.

We will start with first-year undergraduate students but moving on the lab will be accessible to all. There will be some fixed slots for 1st year undergraduate students and some open slots where anyone can walk in and work. Projects can be selected by the students – said Prof. Racherla.

Every semester some selected faculty members will be associated with the lab. In the upcoming semester around ten faculty members will join the lab from various disciplines.

The students will be working towards independent product innovations. They will have access to facilities and multidisciplinary guidance and technical assistance to reach their goals – added Prof. Racherla.

The activities were spearheaded by a Committee under the mentorship of the Deputy Director. The committee included Prof. Racherla from Mechanical Engineering, Prof. Debalay Chakrabarti, Dept. of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Prof. Nilanjan Mitra, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Prof. Santanu Kapat. Dept. of Electrical Engineering (former faculty member), Prof. Sandeep Saha, Dept of Aerospace Engineering, Prof. Chirag Kalelkar, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering among others. Several other faculty members will be part of this initiative.

Another lab going to be launched soon where Bioscience activities will be taken up confirmed Prof. Sriman Bhattachayya.

The country is aiming to develop manufacturing hubs to pick up pace in the industrial sector. IIT Kharagpur has taken leadership role in eastern India to support MSMEs and industry leaders in advanced manufacturing and healthcare technology commercialization. We are creating an ecosystem towards this and this would also involve inspiring the next generation of innovators who would take off their flight from tinkering laboratories such as the IIT Kharagpur DIY Lab – opined Prof. Bhattachayya.