Board of Governors Meeting was held in the college. Principal Secretary and Commissioner of Technical Education as Chairman of the Board visited the institution and shared his views on how higher education and research should be the focus of GCE in the next few years. He suggested that the best talent be lured to take up PG studies as they would get a stipend of Rs.10,000/ and also go in for research to improve the quality of teaching. He suggested close interaction with the alumni in order to foster development . He also strongly advocated Industry-Institution interaction to lead to better infrastructure and better student resources. The best part of his talk was that he wanted GCE Salem to emerge as a Centre of Excellence in the region, as it is well located with industries in its vicinity.
Can GCE students work the magic? I believe they can.

We bump into so many of our past students every day that it almost seems as if they haven't left us at all...I sometimes feel Time steals memories too, for I always forget whether the students I meet in the corridors and lounges are from the first, second, third or fourth year. It never strikes me that sometimes these are students who have left the classrooms for distant lands and new jobs.
And then, there are those who give me news of their classmates and sometimes, siblings who had also been my students. There's the P.D. brothers (as I like to call them), both of Mech, both with brilliant musical talents and while one is still in the final year, his elder brother is already in TCS, where he is working away at debugging and left his keyboard and guitar clean and shiny in their cases. There are some who come back with news of their wedding..some from boys who had vowed to remain bachelors till eternity! There are some who call up to say that the rough course of love that they had had to weather was now all good and promising and that life was good after all. There are children who lose their parents in accidents or to illnesses and I see them determined to take up their new responsibilities as the young shoulders on whom everything at home rests with a smile and my heart melts. There are those who have had to search for jobs and on successfully bagging one or on successful completion of a year or appreciation from a manager call up to share in their happiness.
I see in GCE life itself...there are the experiences of life in its diverse moods and it all moves forward and backward like the eddies of the ocean. God bless GCE.

8 of our students, 2 from Civil, 2 from Metallurgy, 1 each from CSE, ECE and EEE were the proud recepients of the O.P.Jindal memorial Scholarships awarded by JSW Steel Works as part of its social commitment. This is an annual award and is an inspiration for many students.

The selection of the candidates rests with a committee that selects students with several selection parameters - academic performance, NSS and NCC achievements, voluntary blood donation, participation in sports and paper presentations. All the eight students deservedly won the scholarships - there were two first generation learners, two wrestlers, gold, silver and bronze medallists, winners at paper presentations, a tennis player, an Under Secretary of NCC, a Rajya Purashkar President award winner and all were academic performers.

The function was organised in the Metallurgy seminar Hall. Dr.Vijay Sharma, JMD and CEO, JSW Steels was the Chief Guest. Mr.Jayant Sathaye,Executive Director of JSW, Salem Works, Mr.Alok Mehotra and Mr.Kannan were the other JSW executives. It was a pleasure to introduce the Chief Guest to the gathering.

Dr.Vijay Sharma reminded students about the mission of O.P.Jindal who wanted to help the society with what he had. He exhorted them to do their best at whatever they did. He wanted them to adapt themselves to changes - a reference to the economic recession. He asserted that it was a temporary phase and that India had weathered the recession much better than most countries. He assured the gathering that JSW was committed to its recruitment of students from GCE this year too. That drew a loud round of applause. His brief three minute speech was noted for its simplicity, conviction and reassurance.

The press, The Hindu and CTN, were there to cover the presentation of scholarships. I think that more such acknowledgements from the industry of the value of GCE as a partner in social responsibility and commitment will benefit the student community and open up possibilities of industry - academia interaction in enhancing the quality of life for the society we live in.

The north-east monsoon is bringing in some breath-taking showers...it really pours in sheets of white and everything becomes hazy and misty when it does. For the past two days, we have been having some glorious showers that have given a freshness to the campus.
The college is alive with some refurbishment in the conference hall going on...the Board of Governors' Meeting is slated for the 21st and the new hall is being spruced up for this.
I truly feel that GCE is catching up with technological developments, what with smart classrooms, video-conferencing and other facilities coming up.
I keep praying that the children get recognised for their merits and companies take them in in good numbers.

From last week, I've been beleaguered by a task I've taken on myself...generation of listening tasks by using text to speech tools. Muthuraman has been spearheading this effort of mine with his research of the net to find suitable tools. Shankar of CSE also gave me three tools - TalkIt and two other tools. As I always say, our kids are always there to help out with the technology.

Anyway, coming back to Muthu, this afternoon he brought another one called, TextSound. The problem with all these is that they pose a few hitches and features that do not meet our requirements. I am at it and hope that some solution will come up with help from theWizards of GCE.

If I can find a free software that will help me construct a conversation based on which I can design questions, I shall be the happiest person.