Army Institute of Technology celebrates 28th Foundation Day

Army Institute of Technology (AIT) should focus on active participation in innovation and technology drives such as Atmanirbhar Bharat, Startup India and various schemes to promote new technologies in the fields of defence and space, said Lt Gen JS Nain, GOC-in-C, Southern Command and Patron-in-Chief of AIT.

He was addressing the audience virtually, on the foundation day programme of AIT.

Army Institute of Technology, Pune celebrated the 28th Foundation Day recently. Lt Gen Sudarshan Hasabnis (Retd) was the Guest of Honour for the occasion. The function was held in a hybrid mode.

AIT conferred the Life Time Achievement Award to Pradeep Bhargava, chairman, Automotive Systems and Assemblies Ltd and Independent Director of Persistent Systems.

The Successful Entrepreneur Award was presented to Sudhir Mehta, CMD, Pinnacle Industry. Young Entrepreneur Award was given to Vijender Yadav, CEO and Co-Founder, Accops Systems.

Brig Abhay Bhat, Director, AIT welcomed all the dignitaries, invitees and award winners.

Pradeep Bhargava highlighted the importance of contributing to the society and the environment.

Sudhir Mehta expressed confidence that AIT can play a vital role in nation building. He also mentioned that being army personnel children, these values are already ingrained in them.

Lt Gen Arvind Walia, Patron, AIT, in his speech, discussed the importance of AI and ML in weapon systems, surveillance systems, target acquisitions and military decision making. He expects AIT students and alumni to collaborate with armed forces, especially when the induction of technologies in the armed forces has been opened up to the private sector.

Awards were presented to the outgoing students, teaching and non-teaching staff at the hands of Lt Gen Sudarshan Hasabnis, Guest of Honour. The Chief of Army Staff Best All Rounder Trophy was awarded to Swagatika Sahoo of Computer Engineering 2021 batch. GOC-in-C Award for first in merit for each stream were awarded to Swagatika Sahoo of Computer Engineering, Saumyakanta Khatua from Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, Rishabh Kumar Singh from Information Technology and Vishal Nayak from Mechanical Engineering.

Among faculty, Prof Dr Seema Tiwari was felicitated with Best Teacher as well as Best research Award while Rohan Sonawane, Department of Information Technology was awarded as Best Technical Support staff. Sub B Pradhan was given the best administrative staff award.