Event

IT Festival 2007 at IBAIS University

It is well known amongst traditional economists that profit is a factor of capital and labor. However, the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IBAIS University proposed that today, information technology is also a factor of production. In order to promote this new economic theory, a 3 day long Information Technology Festival was recently organized, consisting of programming contests, IT quiz, animated movie shows, computer games, software fair, two workshops, a seminar and an electrifying cultural program. The theme of the festival was “Emergence of IT + challenges of globalization = the Future of Young Bangladesh”.

Day 1:
Honorable Acting Vice-Chancellor of IBAIS University Dr. Zakaria Lincoln inaugurated the festival as the Chief Guest. Immediately afterwards, a programming contest consisting of 16 teams started. Each team had 2 members. The contest ran for almost 4 hours. Later a workshop was conducted by Mr. Sohail Ahmad, Assistant Professor of CSE, IBAIS University. The topic was “Professional Software Design by Java Servlet and Apache Tomcat Server”. The workshop basically focused on how to develop web applications using 3-tier software architecture.

Day 2:
The second day started with an IT quiz (selection round) in which 6 people out of 56 were selected for the final round.

A workshop was organized by Praxis Training Technology and Consultancy, which basically focused on the key routing protocols of different CISCO routers. The workshop also included a demonstration of practical skills, which a country like Bangladesh needs badly.

The day ended with an animation movie show conducted by Sohel Afgani Rana, creative director of DiGiArt Multimedia Production (http://www.sarana.8m.com/).

Day 3:
The final day started with the final round of the IT quiz. Later 10 software teams took part in the Software Show. These software were developed using various software development tools and high level programming languages.

The Seminar started exactly at 03:00pm. The title of the seminar was “Artificial Intelligence and Its Tools in Designing Knowledge-based Expert Systems”. In this seminar, the eminent Bangladeshi computer scientist Dr Mohammad Shorif Uddin(website:www.geocities.com/shorif/), Associate Professor at Deparment of Computer Science and Engineering of Jahangirnagar University, discussed the problems and prospects of artificial intelligence (AI). He also highlighted the tools for AI in designing knowledge-based systems. Finally, an artificial neural network was described and demonstrated. The students were mesmerized by his knowledge of artificial intelligence and expert systems.

Day 3:
The prize distribution ceremony started at 04:30pm at the auditorium of campus building II. Dr. Zakaria Lincoln, Acting Vice Chancellor of IBAIS University, was the distinguished Chief Guest. Mr. Mizanur Rahman, Senior Software Engineer of Relisource and Chief Technical Officer of Informatix, was Special Guest. Dean of Faculty of Computer Science, Professor Dr. Md Matiar Rahaman Mian chaired the ceremony. Ms Tahsina Hoque anchored the ceremony.

Winners of IT quiz
Md. Ainal Hoque B. Sc in CSE secured 6th position
Md. Golam Rasul B. Sc in CSE (Evening) secured 5th position
Samiun Nasiffrin Bente Kamal B. Sc in CSIT secured 4th position
Asif Mahbub Ridoy B. Sc in CSE secured 3rd position
Md. Rashadul Islam B. Sc. in CSIT (Day) secured the position of Runner-up Rahad Arefin Amil Student of B. Sc in CSIT secured the position of Champion

Winners of Gamming Contest:
Contest event1 (NFS 2)
Proteek Mondal, student of BBA secured the position of Runner -up
Md. Omar Faruk, student of B.Sc in CSE secured the position of Champion

Contest event 2(cricket 2004)
Md. Bulbul Chowdhury, student of B. Sc in CSE secured the position of Runner-up
Rifat Rashid Adnan, student of Tourism and hotel management secured the position of Champion
The event concluded with a cultural program.

In his ending speech Dr Lincoln stated the key reasons why IT will make a big difference to students throughout their career. He concluded that the theme of the IT Festival 2007 should be a national call.

Sohail Ahmad
Assistant Professor, Dept of CSE
IBAIS University

An animated evening to talk on translation of Bangla literature

Munira Islam

It was a very different kind of evening at IUB when litterateurs were on the floor of a seminar room to talk on the difficulty of translation from a literary creation of one language to another. There was no class-room rigors or dry lecture of teachers on text-based topics. Dr Radha Chakrabarty, Professor of English, Gargi College, Delhi University, India raised the issues and problems of translation of a story or a novel from one language to another and she eloquently presented "the violence", as she called, "in use of vocabulary".

Dr Radha read out some passages from her own book "Crossings", a collection of twenty translated short stories from Bangla, ten each of notable Bangladeshi and West Bengal writers, who included Syed Shamsul Haque, Hasnat Abdul Hai, Rashid Haider, Selina Hossain, Shirsendu Mukherjee and others. She explained her experience in translation and struggle to keep the original quality of the story and the distinctiveness of the individual writers.

The presence of versatile writer-poet Syed Shamsul Haque, novelist and travelogue writer Hasnat Abdul Hai, woman activist-novelist Selina Hossain and a number of translators in the meeting animated the event and added to the intensity of discussions. The young students got an opportunity to meet their well-known writers and hear about their creativity.

Prof Niaz Zaman of Dhaka University, herself a writer in English, now advising faculty at IUB, conducted the programme introducing Dr Radha Chakrabarty, winner of Dr Radhakrishnan Award 2006 and translator of writings from several famous West Bengal and Bangladesh writers. Prof Shawkat Hussain, Professor of English, Dhaka University and now at IUB and Prof Bazlul Mobin Chowdhury, Vice Chancellor, IUB spoke on the occasion stating the necessity of good translation of Bangla literature into other languages so that the richness of our poetry, novels, short stories and drama can be made known and appreciated by readers of outside world.

Dr Radha said that emotive passages, different socio-cultural settings of the story, colloquial words, mind-set of characters pose the most difficult challenge to any translator of any language. Sensitivity in use of vocabulary was critically analysed by Dr Dr Radha in response to issues raised by participants. Interesting questions were asked by the students who were very enthusiastic to know more from the well-known writers of the country about our writers and poets over the tea-cup discussions which followed the presentation. The seminar turned into a literary "adda" and an animated atmosphere prevailed throughout.

The Language Centre at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB) which organized this literary evening last weekend at Baridhara campus has promised to hold such informal discussion seminar on literature regularly to generate interest of the younger generation about our rich repository of literature.

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