Engineers Day 2012 Celebrations at Sangam University Bhilwara Rajasthan

Online, September 19, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Whenever there is talk about Engineers, the quote of Albert Einstein "Scientists investigate that which already is; Engineers create that which has never been'' and the quote of Scott Adams "Engineers like to solve problems and if there are no problems handily available, they will create their own problems" immediately comes to everyone's mind.

Sep 15 is observed as Engineers Day in India as a mark of respect to Bharat Ratna Sir Mokshagundam Visvesvaraya who was born this day in 1860 and died on April 14, 1962. The celebrations at Sangam University started off with an innovative e Lamp Lighting by various officers. Prof NK Mathur Principal ITM Bhilwara gave a talk on the life history of Sir Visvesvaraya.

Prof BR Natarajan President - Vice Chancellor Sangam University gave an overview of the theme of the year stressing on issues pertaining to Climate Responsive Technologies, the meaning of inclusive growth and sustainable development and their interrelationships as well as resulting challenges and opportunities for the engineers of India today. Prof Natarajan also highlighted the recent moves by Government of India to introduce Urban Transport Tax and Congestion Tax like the way London Singapore etc have done in their central business districts.

The distinguished expert who shared his thoughts on the theme for the day was Prof Arvind Krishan who is a top ranking architect and planner for 'Green Buildings - Climate Responsive / Energy Efficient Architecture' and structural engineer with a Master in Architecture from University of Washington USA, PhD in Energy Efficient Architecture from, Indian Institute of Technology - IIT Delhi, India. He was former Dean, Head Department of Architecture and presently senior Professor Department of Architecture, School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, India. He is also an international consultant to World Bank for their projects in China & India.

Prof Arvind is a recipient of International award - Jeffrey Cook Award 2010 for Desert Architecture awarded at UNESCO supported 3rd. International Conference on Dry-lands, Deserts and Desertification, Israel. He was invited panel member / speaker of Yale University delegation to UNFCCC- COP16, World Summit on Climate Change 2010 at Cancun, Mexico. His internationally acclaimed book Climate Responsive Architecture, published by Tata McGraw-hill, has been translated in Chinese language, published by McGraw-hill and Chinese Architecture & Building press.

Prof Arvind pointed out that as per United Nations Environment Programme - UNEP report 2005 Cities (human habitat) covered 1% of the earth surface, consumed 75% of total world energy and generated 80% of total world Carbon dioxide. He cautioned that we live in an era of scarcity and urged the engineers to convert the crisis in hand into an opportunity by taking up ecologically based climate responsive planning, design and execution.

He minced no words in driving the point that with every such celebration comes a responsibility which rests fairly and squarely on the shoulders of professionals: Architects, Engineers, Planners, Execution bodies and equally on governance of our society / country and last but not the least on Teachers. He urged the budding engineers to "Tread Softly on this Beautiful Blue Planet."

The celebrations also included paper presentations, face painting competitions and poster / collage competitions relating to the theme for celebrations. Prof Nesamoorthy Registrar proposed the vote of thanks and urged the students to be eco friendly in all their endeavors.