“Once you walk out of college, you step into the real world. There is no fixed syllabus, there are no regular classes and there are no teachers... Yet there are grades! If you fail, you lose your job and start looking for another,” said Prof S Sadagopan, founder director of Indian Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore (IIIT-B).

Speaking at the first graduation day of  National Institute of Engineering (NIE), he reminded the maiden batch of 640 students of the autonomous scheme about the challenges they would have to face after stepping out of academics. Continuing he said, “Behind success or failure in a job is internalised knowledge, not merely assimilated knowledge... All the knowledge learnt in this institution must be internalised in a way that is contextually relevant.”

He advised students that success would be for those who are constantly hungry for knowledge.

“Money is important, but there is an unwritten protocol between the Goddess of Wealth (Lakshmi) and Goddess of Knowledge (Saraswathi) - Lakshmi is after you if you are after Saraswati; more important, Lakshmi runs away from you, if you are madly after her,” he concluded.

Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) vice-chancellor Prof H Maheshappa said, “Transition from college to work environment is important. But there is a continuous process of learning as we are in a stage of high knowledge intensity.”

Awards

Nirjanjan M N of civil engineering received six awards and Apoorva R Shastry bagged five awards. 

List of ranks

Rank holders (starting with first rank and in decreasing order): Civil - Apoorva R Shastry, Sumaraj, Ullas U; mechanical - Ashwin J Baliga, Denim Dheeraj D Costa, Sanath Kumar M, Chethana J, Keshava Chaithanya S; industrial and production engineering - Asha P, Mahadevaswamy B; electrical and electonics - Pratheek Michael, Shaifali Jain, Shalini; electronics and communication - Shreepada M S, Sarayu S, Ashwini K; computer science - Sachitha Rao C, Rashmi M C, Sanath Kumar M, Sonal G Kalra; information science - Rashmi S N, Srikanth J, Ankit Maskara.

M Tech: Information technology - Shreyas M L, Madhukar K; power systems - Anjani Gangadhara, Mohan N; computer application in industrial drives - Pramitha Udupa and Ozwin Dominic D Souza;  production engineering and system technology - Sreejith T V; information technology - Kruthika K R, Jafar Sotakanal; power systems - Divya S, Adlin Shyni A; computer application in industrial drives - Neelofar Naheed, Preetha Prabhakaran; production engineering and system technology - Prashanth N; MCA - Srinivas Kowndinya I V, Anil Kumar (2007-10 batch), Ravindran G and Sanghamitra (2008-11 batch).

Endowment awards

Various endowment awards were presented to the following students: Akshay Joshi D, Anup Kumar D D, Apoorva Shastry, Arjun Byrappa M, Aruna H B, Ashwin Kumar M P, Ashwini Sawanth, Gangadhara Mallappa, Harish Goutham J, Harsha A R, Karthik N, Kumaresh R, Manasa B Athreya, Manoj Kumar S Patil, Namitha T R, Niranjan M N,  Nithin Kumar M, Pooja K, Raghavendra K B, Raghavendra T, Sahana S, Sampreeth N, Sandeep Prabhu, Saveena J M, Shreepada M S, Shreevidya M R, Shruthi M R, Sreeram Sarja, Uzma Tabassum, Vinaya Prakash D, Vishwas Daniwas, Vrunda Monappa, Rashmi S N, Anusha S N, Manjula K, Shamshuddin Urf Manawarsha Goruw, Sriharsha M, Sachith P, Manjunath A N and Prabhunandan J P.

NIE president S R Subba Rao, honorary secretary S L Ramachandra, principal G L Shekar, controller of examinations Prof T Ananthapadmanabha, dean Prof B K Sridhara and others were present.