BULLETIN BOARD

English in Action 2015 at AIUB

The Department of English of American International University – Bangladesh (AIUB) organised a day-long event under the banner of "English in Action 2015" involving students of A-Level schools and colleges in Dhaka. The grand finale of the events was held on 10 December, 2015 at Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Building, AIUB. The events in the fest included contests in five different categories: Debate, Impromptu Speech, Spelling Contest, Poster Presentation and Expository Writing from Prompts. The event was inaugurated by M. Hamidul Haque, the Head of the Department of English and after the contests, the prizes were distributed to the winners by Professor Dr. Tazul Islam, the Dean of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. The following five Colleges and Schools participated in the event: Viqarunnisa Noon School & College; Maple Leaf International School; South Point School and College; Notre Dame College and Turkish Hope International School.

Faculty members, other senior officials, students of AIUB and students including representatives of the participating institutions were also present on the occasion.

FSindex launches at EMK Center

FSindex.co, Bangladesh's first comprehensive platform to discover startups, entrepreneurs, and investors, launched recently in Dhaka in a press and startup networking event held at the EMK Center. Supported by EMK Center and strategically developed by Future Startup, a startup and entrepreneurship focused media platform, FSindex aims to be the home for information and data about Bangladeshi startups, entrepreneurs, and investors.  
The platform, a social enterprise by nature, is open and collaborative; anyone can add and edit profile(s) of startups, entrepreneurs, and investors and contribute to make the platform better and it will remain so.  
To contribute to FSindex, one just requires registering through their existing social media accounts: Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or LinkedIn — this helps ensure user authentication and high quality contributions to FSindex and do the job.  
Managing Director of BD Venture, Shawkat Hossain; Founder of Doctorola, Mohammad Abdul Matin; Founder of Styline, Khobaib Chowdhury; and Founder of SmartKompare, Ron Mahbub attended a panel discussion on "Startup, challenges of early stage founders, and startup ecosystem in Bangladesh" during the launch event moderated by M.K. Aaref, CEO of EMK Center. Around 40 startup founders, entrepreneurship enthusiasts attended the event.

DIU VC accepts WITSA Merit Award

Santiago Gutierrez, President of World Information Technology Services Alliance (WITSA) visited Daffodil International University (DIU) on December 08, 2015 and officially handed over the Global ICT Excellence Award, "WITSA Merit Award" to Prof. Dr. Yousuf M. Islam, VC of the university which DIU won in World Congress on Information Technology 2014 (WCIT 2014) on September 30, 2014 in Guadalajara, Mexico. Md. Sabur Khan, Chairman, BOT, DIU and Chairman, Global Trade Committee of WITSA welcomed him at the university.
During his visit to DIU, Santiago Gutierrez, held a discussion with the top management of the University. Hamidul Haque Khan, Treasurer; Prof. Dr. Engr. A K M Fazlul Haque, Registrar; Dr. Mostafa Kamal, Director (Permanent Campus) and Prof. Dr. Md. Fokhray Hossain, Director (International Affairs); Mominul Haque Majumder, Director (Finance and Accounts) and other high officials were present during his visit.  
The award was given to DIU for setting an example as the "Digitized University in Bangladesh", for contributing to the ICT sector by inspiring community to the use of ICT, developing human resources in the ICT sector, for the inclusion of rural students, the "One Student One Laptop" programme through which every student are getting free laptop for academic purposes, for organising events and contests to encourage IT talents, job tracking systems, learning feedback systems, online teaching evaluation systems, degree of effectiveness of ICT, level of innovation used in implementing ICT application, etc.

Seminar on Parenting at BRACU

The Counseling Unit of BRAC University organised a seminar on "Parenting" on December 12, 2015 at BRACU premises. The main objectives of the seminar were to gather information about parents experience of dealing with their adolescent children and promote and convey the significance of parents' and family members' contributions to students' success and well-being, particularly during their first year at the university.
The speakers at the seminar were renowned psychologist Dr. Mehtab Khanam, Professor, Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology, University of Dhaka, and Sumaiya Anwar, Psychosocial Counselor and Lecturer, Counseling Unit, BRAC University. During the session, Sumaiya Anwar, discussed about the developmental changes faced by young adults between the age of fifteen to twenty four, different types of parenting styles and how parents and significant other family members can contribute to the progress of the adolescents. Later on, Dr. Mehtab Khanam facilitated an interactive session with the parents, where she focused on how the couple relationship can have significant impacts on a child's development and discussed about effective ways that parents can apply to deal with the challenges positively so that they can support the well being of the students.
Khan Ahmed Murshid, Director, Strategy and International Program, BRACU concluded the seminar by conveying thanks to the organizers for the seminar as well as to the parents. Since the session was very experiential and interactive, the parents also expressed a great deal of contentment.

Nobel laureate speaks at IUB

Winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize for Medicine, Dr. Harold Varmus delivered a talk recently at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) campus in Bashundhara, Dhaka. Dr. Varmus is also the Co-Chair of President Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. In his brief talk on the topic "The importance of science", he mainly focused on the disease cancer. He discussed on cancer as part of global health. He mentioned, cancer death toll is rising globally and specially in the less developed countries. The treatment of cancer should focus on patterns, pathways and physiological changes, he said.
Later he was inducted as the Scholar-in-Residence of IUB for 2015.
Dr. Gowher Rizvi, International Affairs Advisor to the Prime Minister of Bangladesh attended the programme as the chief guest and spoke on the occasion. Rashed Chowdhury, Chairman, BOT, IUB and Prof. M Omar Rahman, VC delivered the introductory remarks.
Dr. Rita Yusuf, Dean, School of Life Sciences, IUB, delivered the welcome speech while Prof. Milan Pagon, Pro-VC (designate) the formal vote of thanks.

Workshop on debate at SEU

Southeast University Debating Club (SEUDC) organised a workshop titled "Essential Skills of Debate" on December 9, 2015 at Southeast University (SEU) permanent campus. Dean (Acting), School of Science & Engineering Prof. Syed Fakhrul Hassan; Chairman, Department of Architecture, Prof. Meer Mobashsher Ali; and Associate Professor and Chairman, Department of EEE, Dr. Mohammad Quamruzzaman discussed on different issues of debating skills at the inaugural session  of the workshop. The resource personnel of the workshop were Moderator of SEUDC and Assistant Professor of School of Business Studies, M. Abdullah Al Mamun; Lecturer of Dept. of Law & Justice, Kazi Parvez Jibon and President of SEUDC as well as student of Dept. of Law & Justice Md. Tanvir Niaz Shakil.
Among others, Senior Lecturer, Dept. of Architecture, Jubaida Gulshan Ara and Executive Committee Members of SEUDC were present. Students from different departments participated in this workshop. The workshop was followed by distribution of certificates among the participants.