26th Indian Engineering Congress concludes

BANGALORE:  The 26th Indian Engineering Congress (IEC) concluded on Sunday, after two days of activities, exhibitions, research and development conclaves and a unique alumni meet. The IEC saw participation from over 500 engineering colleges from across the country and more than 100 organisations exhibiting research and development opportunities. Dr L V Muralikrishna Reddy, core organising committee member and director of National Design and Research Forum (NDRF) of the The Institute of Engineers (India) hailed the IEC as a unique assembly of engineers cutting across all disciplines. “What we have done here is to get engineers from academia, research and industry together. Also, we wanted to cut across engineering disciplines by involving various fields,” said Dr Reddy. The 26th IEC had many firsts. For the first time in its 91-year history, the IE(I) organised an alumni meet that brought together some illustrious names who have passed out of the instutute. Also, a Women Engineers meet was organised. “As many as 20% of our alumni output (around 6,50,000) are women. With this meet, we wanted to get women engineers to the mainstream,” said Dr Reddy. Also, the 26th IEC honoured several universities and institutes for their contributions to the field of engineering. University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) was recognised for its offerings to engineering research and education. “The best part about the IEC is that it gets engineers together. That is when ideas generate. It is an irrefutable fact that engineers are the backbone of this nation,” said Dr K R Venugopal, Principal, UVCE. Dr Reddy informed reporters that work on the 27th IEC had already started, and that it would be bigger. “We wanted to make the 26th IEC a big event. The next one will be 20% bigger and will be mostly held in one of the metro cities,” he said. He said that the IE(I) was also looking at undertaking internship programmes for its students with the help of Department of Science and Technology and  Defence Research and Development Organisation. “A Micro Satellite Programme has been planned, which will include 4-5 institutions,” he said.