NCL-TEC Announces Business Plan Workshop for Students!

NCL-TEC is happy to announce a Business Plan Workshop for Students. This workshop will be open to NCL and IISER students.

When and Where:

• This is a 10 week workshop
• Classes will meet every Thursday between 5.30 and 6.30 pm
• First class be on 10^th March, 2011
• Venue will be PAML Lecture Theater, NCL

What will you get out of it?

• Learn to assess technology ideas
• Learn to write business plans
• Work in team to turn ideas into business plans
• Get trained to present it for a professional audience
• And win Rs. 10,000 doing this and having fun!
• All active participants will get a certificate from Venture Center

The best team from this workshop will win a prize money of Rs. 10,000!!

All active participants will get a certificate from Venture Center

Registration:

• Workshop fee is Rs. 100 (for NCL-TEC members)/Rs 150 (others)
• Register at room A207 (Mrs. Chandanaa Roybardhan) or at Venture Center Reception

For further details please visit the workshop website: http://www.venturecenter.co.in/ncltec/Business-plan-workshop.pdf

Application form for the workshop can be accessed here:http://www.venturecenter.co.in/ncltec/Application-Form.doc

If you want to become a NCL-TEC member, please visit: http://www.venturecenter.co.in/ncltec/membership.php

NCL-TEC VISIT TO E-SUMMIT 2011

A group of 18 students from NCL (all of them NCL-TEC members) attended the E-summit 2011 held at IIT-Bombay on Sunday 6th Feb2011. E-Summit, also called Entrepreneurship summit 2011 was based on the idea of connecting like minded people, who are interested in entrepreneurship and innovation. The group started from NCL at 7 am in morning, after refreshing journey through highway (Lonawala) arrived IIT-Bombay. It was an energetic & crowded spot as lots of young and budding entrepreneurs were there.

Students registered for the event, and were given a brochure and goody bags at the help desk. Students attended lectures by their favorite speakers; parallel sessions were going at 5-6 different venues. Personalities from different backgrounds with decades of experience in various industries spoke at the Summit. Topics from broad categories were discussed. Some of the speakers are listed below:
Mr. Tulsi Tanti (Chairman and Managing Director, Suzlon Energy),
Ms. Shaheen Mistri(Founder and CEO, Akansha Foundation),
Mr. R. Sriram(Crossword).
Mr. Jay Prakash Gupta(Founder and MD, The Loot India Pvt Ltd),

Speakers gave an Insight into the present scenario, the challenges, and opportunities of various sectors in India. We attended various workshops, seminars, stalls & had brief discussions with speakers. Some startups showcased their products like Easy Secured: develops software and market solutions for online authentication and identity management, Faith Designs: pioneer in exhibition stall designing, Attero Recycling: electronic waste recycling company, Mydala: a platform that provide great deals in your city by the “power of group buying”. Few Designs by Renowned automobile designer Dilip Chhabaria were also showcased outside the seminar hall. NCL-TEC students approached and interacted with many speakers – some of whom have promised to guide the students and visit NCL in the future. E-summit was an unforgettable experience and the attendees got glimpse of the successful entrepreneurs – the whole event was inspiring.

Posted by: Sanjay

NCL-TEC Students visit Praj Matrix

18 members from NCL-TEC visited Praj Matrix Innovation Center located in Pirangut, near Pune on 4^th Jan 2011. They spent about three hours in Praj Matrix, which is a R&D center dealing in bio and environmentally sustainable solutions. This was part of the industry visits organized by NCL-TEC.

More information on Praj Matrix: http://www.praj.net/matrix_innovation.asp

The students met with senior scientists at Praj Matrix and were given a short presentation about Praj Matrix and its research activities. Then the students were divided into two groups, and both the groups visited the highly advanced labs at Praj Matrix and met with scientists and researchers there, who were very generous in answering all the questions posed by the students. The students visited other pilot scale facilities and labs as well. Students got introduced to Praj’s efforts in ethanol production from biowaste, biofertilizers and other products. At the end of the visit, students felt that this visit was really useful and it was a great opportunity to learn by touring live-plants and an industrial R&D center. Students felt that such visits really help them understand industrial research and gave them a first-hand exposure to industrial processes and research initiatives.

- Posted by Omkar

Science communication workshop for researchers and students by NCL-TEC

A science communication workshop was successfully organized by NCL-TEC on January 5^th , 2011 at PAM building auditorium in NCL, Pune. The theme of this event was to make aware young researchers and students about science communication. Over 50 Students from NCL and IISER actively participated in the event. He was introduced by Gouri and was presented a bouquet by Shraddha, both NCL-TEC Executive Committee members.

The speaker argued that there is a need to communicate science beyond our academic community because it is important to:

o Make it accessible to the common people

o Helps to communicate well even with your scientific collaborators

o Becomes easier to get funding for your research

o Reach wider audience

Science communication can be done by various means – journals, news media, blogs (increasingly popular), blogging is the most easiest way to communicate these days

He gave a 30 min talk, in which introduced his PhD work, and spoke about how initially he had difficulty effectively communicating his work to people with non-science background- he was not able to communicate the essence of this research in a straightforward way

His talk was followed by a Q&A session, during which students actively interacted with the speaker. Then there was a short break, during which tea and samosa was served. This was followed by a participatory workshop for about an hour. During the workshop, the speaker discussed about the various elements in a scientific article. The speaker distributed a scientific paper among the participants, and asked them to summarize it in their own words, and give it an attractive title. At the end of the workshop, the participants read out their write-ups. There was enthusiastic response from the students for this.

Some of the tips that he gave was:

§ Have an attractive headline

§ Keep the article short and crisp

§ Avoid grammatical errors

§ Use active voice

§ Use graphics as much as possible

§ Avoid jargon

The speaker also provided other resources (like blogs, websites etc.) which students can use in the future. NCL-TEC members presented the speaker a memento as a token of their appreciation. Even after the workshop was over, students encircled the speaker and questioned, interacted with him about science communication and other issues. The event was a grand success!!!

Posted by:Sanjay & Nidhi