Inauguration of the IEEE Student Branch @ BRAC University

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2008/07/02/feature_BRAC.htm

Many thanks to Sahar for the report

Inauguration of the IEEE Student Branch @ BRAC University

Sahar Noor Abdal

THE Inaugural Session of the IEEE (Institute of Electronics and Electrical Engineers) Student Branch at BRAC University was held on the 6th of July at the Indoor Games room of BRAC University. The whole session turned out to be more interesting and informative than I had expected it to be. Members and non-members alike found the event to be educational and yet enjoyable with the range of different topics that came up in the speeches from the distinguished guests.

The event started with a warm welcome and a brief presentation by the President of the IEEE Student Branch at BRAC University, Mahdin Mahboob. Towards, the end of his presentation, he showed ‘IEEE Evolution’, a two-minute promotional video of IEEE showing the history of engineering, which, to budding engineers like me, proved to be a great source of inspiration!

Following that, the student branch was officially inaugurated amidst rounds of applause when Professor Saifur Rahman, Chief Guest of the event, launched the student branch website. Prof. Rahman is the Director of the Advanced Research Institute at Virginia Tech and is also the former Vice President of the IEEE Publications Board. The Special Guest on the occasion was Professor Aynal Haque from BUET who is currently the Chair of IEEE Bangladesh Section. Professor Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, the Vice Chancellor of BRAC University was also present in the event. Professor Sayeed Salam, Chairperson of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Professor Mumit Khan, and Associate Professor Dr. Akm Azad from the same department, were also present in the occasion and spoke about the importance of an IEEE membership and expressed their feelings about the new student branch at BRACU. Mr. Mahmood Hasan, Registrar of BRACU and faculty members from different departments of the university were also present in the occasion.

Afterwards, Prof. Aynal Haque gave a detailed lecture about IEEE and its background, which was followed by a power point presentation. His lecture had been very informative and the concept of IEEE was made clear to the audience. The next speech was delivered by Prof. Saifur Rahman and with his charming presence and interactive speech, the entire hall literally went into ‘pin drop silence’ mode. His speech was very interesting and informative to say the least. He caught everyone’s attention with his beautiful examples of why students should become members of IEEE and how they will be benefited from it and the important aspects of networking through such a large organization. He mentioned that IEEE is not only for nerds alone, but it also had businessmen, lawyers and even dancers as its members!

Afterwards, the Vice Chancellor’s encouraging speech also added up to the enthusiasm and he promised to provide the branch with financial help whenever it becomes necessary. It is also worth mentioning that without his support from the very beginning, establishing the student branch would not have been possible.

The event concluded with the ‘Vote of Thanks’ by the Secretary of IEEE student branch, BRAC University, Nabila Naushin. She specially thanked the Chief Guest and the Special Guest for making time from their busy schedules and being present at the event and thanked all others who helped establish the student branch. Finally, she called for refreshments and soon after that, a documentary titled ‘Future World’, was shown, thus bringing the event to an end.

The current Executive Body consists of Dr. Azad Akm, Faculty Advisor, Mahdin Mahboob, President, Sunjib Kumar Singha, Vice-President, Annajiat Alim Rasel, Treasurer and Nabila Naushin the Secretary of the branch. All of them, together with the help of a number of volunteers, worked day and night to make this event a total success. The IEEE Student Branch plans to arrange a host of events in the near future including industrial tours and seminars.

Entertainment Guaranteed!

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2008/05/03/fun.htm

Site Review for our site titled ‘bangladeshi cinemas’ : http://banglarcinema.blogspot.com/

Many thanks to Saushan for the review

Entertainment Guaranteed!

Saushan Rahman

OVERLOADED with work? Do not have the time to hang out with friends or watch a movie? Well here is your source of pure entertainment, satisfaction guaranteed.

http://banglarcinema.blogspot.com/ is here to give you a sneak peek at some of the most popular (fictional) Bengali movies of all time. The makers of the site Mahdin Mahboob, Nader Islam, Shabab Zaman and Nadim Naimur Rahman guarantees that after visiting this site, the viewers will definitely abandon their fascination for Hindi films and turn to their roots. They will certainly realise the eternal appeal of their beloved local movies.

The site has exclusive reviews of all the mega blockbuster films namely Apel keno Shobuj? (Why is knife sharp?) Labhlee Tumi Kar? (The Machine Gun), Phuler shubash (Mortal Kombat), Doyar Shorir (No mercy) among others.

This week the site gives you the chance to have a sneak peek at the year’s most anticipated blockbuster Urey Eshe Bukey Laththi – The first Love, sequel to Aaj Ghusha Khelam and Dupurer Khana Holo Latthi; starring Kuddus Kutubuddin as the hero Mintoo, Kukhkhato Jorina as the love of his life Tumpa and Patha Mia as Rubel the villain. Love, hate, action, dancing in the rain, social discrimination, you name it and it is there in this movie. The movie is about the true love of a poor boy and a spoiled little rich chick. The big obstacle in their love story is Rubel, the brat brother, who has egg noodles for lunch everyday (that speaks for his too good health).

What will happen to the innocent lovebirds and their love story? To know more log on to the site or watch the film. We assure you, you will not be disappointed.

Another smashing hit running in the theater is Potoldangar Mela – The Lost Brothers, starring Mota Mia as the twin brothers – Dablu and Tablu, who get separated at an early age; later reunited by the help of a song they both used to sing when whey were infants (Point of information: they learned that song way before they could even speak). But why were they separated, and how (why) did they get reunited? And who is the villain in the film? For further details, long on to the site that ensures 100% pure entertainment. We assure you, you will laugh till your tummy hurts.

Feedback (Letter to the Editor)

http://thedailystar.net/campus/2008/04/03/letter.htm

Dear Editor,
I am Farzeen, a regular reader of the Star Campus magazine and I must say that over time, it has become one of my most favourite magazines. Star Campus has truly established itself as the voice of today’s young generation and the variety of topics that are covered in the different articles continue to draw my attention. The fact that its content is pretty diverse and unpredictable makes it all the more interesting.

I used to read the printed version back home and now that I am in England for my Masters, I continue to read Star Campus on the online edition. Thanks for making Star Campus such a great magazine!

On an ending note, I would like to point out that the print version would have been much more enjoyable if better qualities of ink and paper were used.

Farzeen Mahboob
University of Portsmouth, England.

Dear Farzeen,
Many thanks for your mail. It is for readers like you that we(the Star Campus Team) continue to work hard to make the magazine better and better. Please continue to read Star Campus and send in your articles and stories and we will consider them for publishing. And about your observation about the print version, we’ll keep it in mind and will try to improve on its quality in the near future.
Star Campus Editor

“I wonder how many of your families get the Daily Star. I do hope some of you read at least parts of it. On Thursday, there is an inset for young people called Rising Stars and there is another for universities, colleges and schools called ‘Star Campus’. In ‘Star Campus’ a couple of weeks back, several students wrote who had been to get their Voter ID. Some of them are really pleased about being new voters. This is what Mahdin Mahboob wrote:

“..Many of us students will be able to cast our votes for the first time. As much as it is important for us to educate ourselves and lead our country in the future in all aspects, it must also be remembered that we should also involve ourselves in political matters, not move away from them in fear or disgust, or more sadly, indifference…”

Dear Mahdin,
Thank you for your article in Star Campus a couple of weeks back – I cut it out and filed it for possible use in my morning Assembly and the opening lines above are from an Assembly in the Girls’ Section at Bangladesh International Tutorial!

My morning Assemblies take me anything from half and hour to an hour and a half to write. It is terrific discipline but I like it – writing in extremely simple English for Class 2 to Class 9 for Assembly.

Anyway, thank you very much. I know how much I like to know that something I have done has produced ‘fruit’ in one way or another so I thought I would let you know. So much of what one does in life, one wonders at times whether it was worth bothering with!

Angela Robinson
Headmistress Girls’ Section BIT

Dear Ms.Robinson,
Thank you for your email. It was a pleasant surprise for us to know that you’ve talked about our cover story ‘First Time Voters’ in your school assembly.
I feel honoured knowing that you have quoted from my article in your assembly speech. I hope this inspires your students, who represent the future of our country, to actually get involved with our political process some day.

Thanks and Regards,
Mahdin.