IFEST 2K19 MGR CELEBRATION
The inauguration of the week-long Innovation Campaign at Dr. MGR Educational and Research Institute lead by MHRD and the Institute Innovation Cell was kick-started by a talk by Ms. Lakshmi Subramanian, Life Coach Global Adjustment Foundation. Dr. Rama Vaidyanathan, Director (R & D) welcomed the gathering and introduced the Innovation Day celebrations to mark the 88th birth anniversary of Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam.
Ms. Lakshmi spoke on the theme “Innovate your future”. She started her talk with a warm-up activity – she gave some activities and asked for an AI or a Boo. The students responded with vigor as she gave terms like cycle test, holiday due to rain, assignment, cultural and so on. She then discussed the difference between a school atmosphere and the University atmosphere. While there is more freedom at the University, it requires students to use their discretion on how they can make the most of the 4 years so that their future career will be the best. She started with the importance of good Attitude, aim for a brilliant Bachelor’s Degree, develop Confidence in themselves and distancing from Distractions – the ABCD for college life. She kept the students engrossed and involved in her talk by getting interactions from the students. Two students gave their feedback on her talk.
Dr. N.S. Shubhashree, Dean (Engg. And Science) gave the vote of thanks. She thanked the President of the University the academic freedom and the teachers and students who together are paving the way for an excellent and knowledgeable year.
The inauguration was followed by Selfie Treasure Hunt where we had 316 students all from Physiotherapy, Dental, Nursing, Catering, Food Science, Fashion Technology, Engineering and Technology, Medical and Pharmacy had participated. All the teams registered with a selfie uploaded on Instagram and tagging us with #ifestmgr2k19. The final round was selfie treasure hunt which was planned for teams. Hence to eliminate a mass number of teams, we had some activity rounds lie paper race, ball and rope and sketch the map. In the final round, head from all the finalists were added in the group where they were supposed to upload a selfie with their team at the place where the clue was kept. This way the winner and the runner-up were chosen. The chits containing the clues were placed in some common areas of the campus. The last clue was given on Instagram by uploading the logo of our campus company where the final clue was kept. This was all about the selfie treasure hunt.
Debate Prelims in both English and Tamil language was conducted before 5 days of the final. The participants were given on spot topics during prelims where they were supposed to talk on the topic for a minute. They were judged on the basis of fluency, presentation, content, grammar coherence and vocabulary. The topic for the finals were already given to the finalists through whatsapp and Instagram. The topic for Tamil and Debate was same, which was, “Is online teaching a boon or a bane”.
Essay writing competition was conducted online. Around 71 essays were submitted by students. The topics for essay writing competition were – “Problems are common but attitude makes a difference“ , “Learn to see problems as opportunities”, “Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower”, “Winners don’t do different things, they do things differently”, “Your life doesn’t get better by chance, it gets better by change”.
The Caption Contest was again an online event where students of our institute shared captions for the pictures shared. Few of them are added for reference. The winners were selected for the best English and Tamil Caption.
