Mangaluru: Commemorating the Nineteenth Anniversary of laying the foundation stone of St Joseph Engineering College (SJEC), the Ninth Annual Foundation Day Lecture was held on 11th February 2020 at 3:30 PM in Prerana Auditorium of the college. Mr. Deepak Gadhia, a Social Entrepreneur and Chairman of Sunrise CSP India Pvt Ltd, delivered the Foundation Day Lecture on the topic “Evolution of Solar Concentrator: Journey of Social Entrepreneur in Innovations in Solar Energy”.
In his lecture, Mr. Deepak Gadhia shared the challenges involved in the life journey of an entrepreneur. While saying an individual can achieve anything with limited opportunities, he remarked that an engineer’s job is to solve problems rather than look for readymade solutions.
He recalled his days when he started to work on problems of deforestation in India and from his experiences, over the years he realized that any solution must always be need-based.
The guest speaker said opined that the people who really in need of a commodity are usually the ones who cannot afford it. He also shared the difficulties he went through with his inventions and the measures he had to take to overcome them.
Mr. Deepak Gadhia called upon all teachers to just show the problem to the students and let students solve them applying their own skills. He compared our minds to a parachute that works only when it is open and requested the teachers to find a way to open the minds of their students. He wished that the gathering could work on solving the problems of the rural people and to empower them. He also mentioned that when an entrepreneur develops a product, the poor and the needy must be able to afford that product.
Rev. Fr Wilfred Prakash D’Souza, Director of SJEC, Rev. Fr Rohith D’Costa, Assistant Director, Dr. Rio D’Souza, Principal, Mr. Rakesh Lobo, HR Manager, were present during the occasion. Dr. Rajesh Kumar PC, Associate Professor in the Department of Physics moderated the lecture. Ms. Supreetha R, Assistant Professor in the Department of CSE, was the Convener of the event. Ms. Eden Sequeira compeered the program.
The day also witnessed SJEC felicitating Ms. Mahima S Rao for securing the First Rank in Civil Engineering for the academic year 2018-19 in the University Examinations conducted by VTU, Belagavi.
Ms. Mahima secured this rank by scoring a CGPA of 9.38 in her Undergraduate studies in Civil Engineering. Along with this academic distinction, she also bagged a record tally of 13 gold medals for related achievements. The First Rank was conferred on Ms. Mahima, along with all the gold medals, by Prof KK Aggarwal, Chairman, National Board of Accreditation, in the presence of the Vice-Chancellor and other dignitaries, during the Nineteenth Annual Convocation ceremony on the 8th February 2020, at VTU.
The following gold medals were secured by Ms. Mahima:
- Sri Nijagunappa Gurulingappa Hakkapakki Gold Medal to the student who secures highest marks with first class in BE Civil Engineering
- N Krishna Murthy Memorial Gold Medal to the first rank holder in Civil Engineering branch
- Sir M Visvesvaraya Co-operative Bank Gold Medal to the student who secures the highest marks stands first in the BE degree in Civil Engineering course of VTU
- Jain University Gold medal to the student who secures highest marks in Civil Engineering branch
- Er. HS Siddlingaiah Civil Engineer Memorial Award (cash prize) to the student who secures highest aggregate marks in all the eight semesters of BE Civil Engineering
- Dr. MC Srinivas Murthy Memorial Cash Prize to the student who stands first in BE Civil Engineering
- Jyothi Gold Medal to the student who secures the first rank in BE Civil Engineering
- National Institute of Engineering Silver Jubilee Gold Medal to the student who secures the first rank in BE Civil Engineering
- Murty’s Gold Medal of Excellence to the student who secures the first rank in BE Civil Engineering
- RN Shetty Gold Medal to the first rank holder in Civil Engineering branch
- VTU Gold Medal to the student who secures the first rank in BE Civil Engineering
- Sri SG Balekundri Gold Medal to the student who secures highest marks with first class in BE Civil Engineering
- Dr. Malathi Kesaree Gold Medal to the lady student who secures highest marks with first class in BE Civil Engineering
Ms Mahima Rao was facilitated by the management of the college in the presence of her parents Mr. Sathya Sai and Ms. Shreedevi S Rao.
