Vadodara: Eminent alumni of M S University, most of them belonging to the 1980 batch of Faculty of Technology and Engineering (FTE), on Friday launched MSU Vision 2020 project.
The project, launched virtually by the alumni, a majority of whom are working at the Silicon Valley, aims to give back to their alma mater by encouraging, grooming and mentoring the current students of the university.
The launch programme witnessed presence of the likes of Ajay Bhatt, co-inventor of USB, Haresh Kumbhani, Rajesh Mathrani, Raj Joshi from Silicon Valley, Sunil Mehta from Washington DC – to name a few.
MSU Vision 2020 has three aspects – merit awards, student mentoring programme and the flagship programme of tech incubator.
In almost all universities, meritorious students are recognised when they complete final year of their graduation or post-graduation. But MSU Vision 2020 merit awards programme will cover students of all year of all departments — right from their first year of college.
The cumulative marks of two semesters will determine the awardee in each department and each year. The merit award will consist of Rs 10,000, a merit certificate and a place on the MSU Vision 2020 honour roll of scholars.
“Similarly, through the mentoring programme, each alumni of the network will continuously mentor three to five students providing them one-to-one guidance for their professional development,” said Dr Sanskriti Mujumdar, director of office of Alumni Affairs and Donors Relations which has coordinated all the efforts.
The incubator programme will fund five top teams and is modelled to foster “startup” culture. Each of the selected five teams will get a seed funding of Rs 50,000. The programme encourages multi-disciplinary teams of two to five students. Vision 2020 alumni will conduct a series of webinars while each team will also be assigned alumni and faculty mentors as guides. At the end, a grand prize of Rs 1 lakh will be awarded to the best among the five teams.