Fine arts festival

Thanthai Hans Roever College won the overall championship at the BDU Festival, the annual fine arts festival of Bharathidasan University, recently. The college won the “Fine Arts Championship” and the “Theatre Arts Championship,” thereby securing the overall championship, according to a press release from the college. K. Varadharaajan, Chairman of Roever Educational Institutions, and John Ashok Varadharaajan, Vice Chairman, felicitated the students.

 Chemistry competition

St. Joseph’s College, Tiruchi, emerged winner and Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Institute of Research and Technology, Perambalur, finished runner-up at TECHEMTOPIA’26, an inter-collegiate competition, hosted by the Department of Chemistry, Seethalakshmi Ramaswami College, in collaboration with Rotary club of Tiruchirappalli Gems Innovators. Chem Quiz, Chem Connection, Chem Charades, Chem Burst, Chem Poster, and Chem Draw, were among the competitions held, testing the participants’ scientific knowledge, creativity, problem-solving abilities, and innovative skills.

Faculty development

The expanding landscape of geospatial sciences was explained in detail by Mohamed Kasim Khan M, National Coordinator & Senior Research Scientist- Space & Geospatial FOSSEE at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, at a Faculty Development Programme (FDP) at Jamal Mohamed College. The FDP on “Opportunities in open source software and geospatial science & technology,’ was hosted by the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of the college in association with the FOSSEE project, IIT  Bombay under the aegis of the National Mission on Education through ICT.   Addressing the gathering under the theme “Space for a Sustainable Tomorrow,” Dr. Khan highlighted how open-source software can be effectively leveraged for advanced academic research, regional planning, and developing sustainable technological solutions. The programme aimed to equip faculty members with contemporary digital competencies and encourage cross-disciplinary research in space technologies.

Technical symposium

The School of Engineering and Technology of Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan University, Perambalur, organised the national-level technical symposium ‘ZORYNX-26’ to enhance students’ technical knowledge, creativity, innovative thinking, and research skills.  D. Dinakaran, Assistant Engineer, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd., Tiruchi, R. Brinda, Assistant Professor Anna University,  BIT Campus; B. Ramesh, Professor, Annapoorna Engineering College, Salem; and N. Moradanch, Assistant Professor, SASTRA Deemed University, shared their expertise in diverse engineering disciplines. A. Srinivasan, Chancellor, Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan University, presided over the programme.

Signal processing

Researchers, academicians, industry professionals, research scholars, faculty members and students from various institutions came together to discuss recent developments and emerging technologies in signal processing, computer vision, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and their applications at an international conference on signal processing and computer vision hosted by the National Institute of Technology Puducherry. About 110 research papers were received for the conference and 30 of these were selected for presentation and publication. The selected papers are scheduled to be published through Atlantis Press, part of Springer Nature, in its computer science publication series, subject to the publisher’s final review and indexing processes.

The importance of communicating scientific and technological developments to farmers in Tamil, their mother tongue, was emphasised by N. Felix, Vice-Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Dr. J. Jayalalithaa Fisheries University (TNJFU), Nagapattinam, while inaugurating the 11th national conference on Agricultural Scientific Tamil hosted by the varsity in association with The Agricultural Scientific Tamil Society, New Delhi. Disseminating scientific knowledge in a language familiar to the people would enable them to understand and apply scientific information more effectively, Dr. Felix said, underlining the need to develop Tamil as a language of science globally. The Agricultural Scientific Tamil Society has been organising the conference at agricultural universities to promote the use of Tamil in scientific disciplines such as fisheries science, crop science, and veterinary science. It also seeks to communicate scientific discoveries, innovations, and technological advancements in agriculture, animal husbandry, and fisheries to farmers, fisherfolk and rural communities in their mother tongue.

Farmer outreach

Farmers at Athikarapatti and Poovampatti in Pudukottai district were distributed natural biocare products at an outreach programme of the Jenner Club and Department of Microbiology at J.J. College of Arts and Science recently. M.Sc. Microbiology students and faculty members had prepared the biocare products, namely Panchagaya and Amirthakaraisal, under faculty guidance, and distributed them to farmers to promote sustainable agriculture and enhance the well- being of the rural community by distributing eco-friendly farming inputs.

Top scientists

K. Ravichandran, Principal of Thanthai Hans Roever College, and M. Govindarajan, Assistant Professor, Department of Zoology, Government Arts College, Kumbakonam, have been included in the Stanford University and Elsevier Ranking 2025 list of top 2% of scientists in the world for the seventh consecutive year.  Dr. Govindarajan has made significant contributions to the eco-friendly control of mosquitoes using medicinal plant extracts. They are also useful for controlling pests. More recently, he has been working on marine biopolymer-based hydrogels for healing diabetic wounds and controlling drug-resistant microbial infections, according to a college press release. Dr.Ravichandran has published over 250 research articles in reputed international journals, which garnered more than 7000 citations, a release from Thanthai Hans Roever College said.

Published – October 12, 2026 04:46 pm IST