Youth Connect

With Teachers’ Day around the corner, a few youngsters tell NT KURIOCITY which teacher or teachers have had a significant impact on their personal growth and why RAMANDEEP KAUR | NT KURIOCITY As another Teachers Day (September 5) draws close, it is a perfect time to reflect on cherished memories and impactful instances that underscore the profound influence teachers have on their students. From life lessons in the classroom and heart-warming interactions beyond textbooks, NT KURIOCITY highlights the enduring teacher-student relationships that leave an indelible mark.   “During my college days at Don Bosco College, Panaji, I gained more exposure to extra-curricular activities because the teachers were so supportive and always pushed us to do something new! One such professor was Ma’am Avril Antao. Not only did she teach us from books and syllabus but she taught us life lessons which I will remember for the rest of my life. She believed in me when I couldn’t believe in myself. One such incident was a college event that led me to take responsibility, be accountable, and learn from my mistakes.” – Lilly Dias, sales and marketing, Panaji   “The turning point in my life was when I participated in a patriotic […]

Schools and teachers need to recognise the most suitable learning style for each student ABHISHEK KARMALI Our education system has always emphasised on Intelligence Quotient (IQ), more so, on the ability of students to memorise concepts and reproduce the same in their examinations. The pedagogy and teaching style have long focused on lecture methodology. Students with higher IQ are more likely to have a higher grasping power and higher level of adaptability which automatically puts them at a huge advantage over a student with a lower IQ. This is where understanding the most effective learning styles of different students comes into play. The one-glove-fits -all type of approach in schools needs to go.   Intelligence Quotient (IQ) IQ is mostly measured through standardised tests. It is a numerical representation of an individual’s cognitive abilities which include, mental capabilities like reasoning, problem-solving, abstract thinking, language, attention, and memory. IQ tests were developed in the early part of the 20th century and were sold as the great invention which can assess an individual’s intelligence. In spite of the criticism faced by some quarters for using one standard method for accessing intelligence for everyone, IQ continues to be the most widely used and […]

US-based student Daffny Cardoso along with her high school’s robotics team, the Steel Hawks, designed a two-week curriculum, under Project India 2.0, aimed at teaching mechanical engineering, electrical engineering and programming to the students of the Regina Martyrum High School, Assolna RAMANDEEP KAUR | NT Daffny Cardoso has always been interested in building robots be it for school projects or when constructing Lego kits. Recently, she worked on Project India 2.0 at the Regina Martyrum High School in Assolna, wherein she taught mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science to 12 students from Class 6 to 8, ultimately guiding them to build a drivetrain robot. “I was truly amazed by the skills showcased by the students and proud of their end result of building a working drivetrain robot. The robot performed the functions of moving forward, backwards, and turning,” she says. Born and raised in New York, USA, Cardoso’s parents hail from Goa; her dad is from Assolna and her mom is from Velim. A student of Townsend Harris High School, New York, her robotics team, the Steel Hawks, builds robots that compete for First Robotics Competitions, a competition where the robots are put up against each other to complete […]

‘Kaleidoscope of Life’, a daycare and activity centre initiated in 2016 in Panaji has been filling a gap in the childcare system. RAMANDEEP KAUR | NT In today’s world of gadgets, ‘Kaleidoscope of Life’ tries to build a no-gadget zone for kids and help them to achieve three forms of intelligence like the Intelligence Quotient – IQ, the Emotional Quotient – EQ and the Social Quotient – SQ. The initiative was started in 2016 by Nayantara Ray, a Bengali who made Goa her home in 2009 after her husband had to move for work. Having lived in Delhi for a long time, she says that daycare or childcare facilities were easily found and were also commonly chosen by young working couples. However, when she moved to Goa in 2016 and wanted to start working, she noticed a lack of such facilities. “This highlighted a gap in childcare options for working women in Goa. Despite being independent and working, Goan women often relied on traditional methods of childcare, such as leaving their kids with grandparents or relatives. To address this gap and provide a formal daycare facility, I decided to open ‘Kaleidoscope of Life’, she adds. The name reflects their goal […]

A wrong choice of college can not only put a major financial strain on the parents but can also hamper the career progression of the student ABHISHEK S. KARMALI Having worked at the higher education level for over two decades, I have observed that a vast majority of students have little idea on how to choose the right college to pursue a degree of their interest. Educational institutes today charge lakhs of rupees as fees and a wrong choice of college can not only put major financial strain on the parents but can also hamper the career progression of the student. If you leave out the top-notch premier institutions like the IITs, IIMs, NITs, AIIMS, etc. where a select few smart students get admissions, the vast majority of students complete their education in relatively lesser-known institutions. Hence, there is a need to do thorough research on the institutions before committing your money and future to it. Here is a ready-to-use checklist for choosing the right college/university for admission: 1. Understand yourself and define your career goals: Based on the career you seek to pursue, chart out the educational roadmap which will help you get there. It’s also important to understand […]

A group of students from Goa are all set to represent India at the First Global Challenge 2023, an international robotics competition that will be held in October in Singapore By: KALYANI JHA A young robotics team from Goa, Team LegoGoa is all set to represent India at the First Global Challenge (FGC) to be held from October 7 to 10 in Singapore. The five-member team which includes Sai Pranav Gandhi, Apurva Katkar, Atharv Sakhalkar, Venkatesh Dempo, and Viraj Marathe are mentored and groomed by LegoGoa, a six-year-old community club pursuing robotics and inspiring tech-savvy kids to aim higher. First Global Challenge is an international robotics competition held in Olympic style, featuring participation from the world over. The contest, which sees participation from over 180 countries every year, intends to bring sports and science and technology together to inspire youth to pursue STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields and develop relevant skills required in solving current pressing problems of the planet with an edge of science and technology. STEM Education Trust, the official partner of First Global for selecting Team India floated the application for teams interested in participation at the global event some months ago and received around […]

There is a huge demand for Artificial Intelligence (AI) experts in the industry owing to growing desire by people for automation in every sphere of life Abhishek S. Karmali What comes to our mind when we think about Artificial Intelligence? The most obvious examples are of Siri, the virtual voice assistant on Apple devices, and Alexa which is the virtual voice assistant that drives Amazon devices. In more recent times, Chat-GPT is the most recognisable AI system that has revolutionised the way we use AI in our day-to-day lives. Chat-GPT is an open-source language model which generates human-like text responses to any questions posed to it. The growth of AI, the recreation of human intelligence in machines programmed to think and learn like humans, has been significant in the last decade. There is a growing demand for AI technologies across different sectors. The two major factors driving this growth are the advancements in AI-related technology and willingness of the industry to adopt AI because of the ever-increasing demand by consumers for automation in every sphere of their lives. This growth of AI has also led to a huge demand for AI experts in the industry. Roles and responsibilities for AI […]

The paper on ‘Empirical Analysis of Oral and Nasal Vowels of Konkani’ won at the 10th Language and Technology Conference (LTC 2023) in Poland. NT KURIOCITY gets you the details RAMANDEEP KAUR Konkani is a highly nasalised language which makes it unique among Indo-Aryan languages. The research paper, ‘Empirical Analysis of Oral and Nasal Vowels of Konkani’ investigates the acoustic-phonetic properties of Konkani oral and nasal vowels. The research by Swapnil Fadte (assistant professor, Computer Science and Technology Discipline, Goa Business School- Goa University), Edna Vaz (Government College of Arts Science and Commerce Quepem, and Department of Linguistics, University of Mumbai), Atul Kumar Ojha (adjunct lecturer and postdoctoral fellow at the College of Science and Engineering, University of Galway, Ireland), Ramdas Karmali (assistant professor at Goa University) and Jyoti D. Pawar (professor and dean of Goa Business School) was recently presented by Fadte at the 10th Language and Technology Conference (LTC 2023): Human Language Technologies as a Challenge for Computer Science and Linguistics held in Poznan, Poland. For this study, speech samples from six speakers (three male and three female) were collected. A total of 74 unique sentences were used as part of the recording script, 37 each for oral […]

The students and faculty of the Goa Institute of Management (GIM), Sanquelim, recently organised a ‘Sustainable Expedition’, an educational walk through campus, in order to spread awareness about the various sustainable initiatives undertaken on the campus related to energy, water, waste, and biodiversity. GIM has always been conscious of the impact of its decisions on the ecosystem around it and has continuously strived to reduce its carbon footprint. Along with measures like rainwater harvesting, solar-powered street lamps, treatment of water for reuse, tree plantation drives, and more, the institute has expressed its commitment to this philosophy through its mission statement which talks about sustainable business and inclusive society for India and the world. The GIM campus has also gained global recognition for the several path-breaking sustainability measures taken by the institute, in collaboration with the students, to meet the UN sustainable development goals. Chair of Centre for Excellence in Sustainable Development (CESD), associate professor at GIM, Arpita Amarnani says, “Initially, we focused on documenting the existing biodiversity on the campus with the help of the Goa State Biodiversity Board and other local experts in the field. This year, we plan to focus on developing awareness and creating a plan to […]

As a career counsellor one of the most common questions, I am faced with, especially by students who complete their Class 1 in commerce is whether they should opt for the BBA (Bachelor of Business Administration) degree or the BCom (Bachelor of Commerce) degree at graduation level. Unfortunately, instead of making informed decisions, the common reasons for choosing one programme over the other is because of parents’ influence, depending on where one’s friends take admission, or still worse, just because one degree appears to be more glamorous than the other. In the Indian context, both BBA and BCom are popular undergraduate degree programmes in the field of commerce and business. While there are certain similarities, there are also some major differences between the two. Curriculum The BBA programme focuses primarily on management and business-related subjects like marketing, finance, human resources, operations, entrepreneurship, organisational behaviour and other general management courses. The programme focuses more on practical learning through internships in organisations, and on personality building of the student. A lot of emphasis is on making the student a good communicator with the ability to handle real organisational situations rather than just rote learning. The BCom programme on the other hand provides […]

Rosary High School at Cujira-Bambolim recently staged its annual school fete at the Taleigao Community Centre. The event saw students put up various entertainment programmes. In addition, there were game stalls, and food and mocktails counters organised by teachers along with the PTA members. There was a photo booth with attractive masks and signs that people could take photos with while the lucky dip counter was a favourite. The fete also had a counter where students’ artworks were exhibited and sold. A jumble sale counter also sold items at very reasonable prices. RJ Ayesha Barretto, an ex-student, compered the event and appealed to all the ex-students to join the Ex-Students Association.

Mayur Uday Deshpande conducts workshops for students in drone making. NT KURIOCITY learns more about him and drones KALYANI JHA | NT  An electronics and communication engineer from the KLE College of Engineering and Technology, Belagavi, Mayur Uday Deshpande is an entrepreneur, who also has three years’ experience in drones and robotics. He is the co-founder of Mouserise, a start-up developing new-age smartphone charging accessories, which takes up most of his time. But on weekends and during his free time, he shares his expertise in robotics and drones by conducting workshops for students. “This started in 2017. I had good knowledge of robotics and Arduino programming and side-by-side engineering was going on. Along with my friends in engineering college, I used to organise workshops in robotics and drones. I started again in 2022 after a gap of two years, taking classes on weekends and during the summer,” says Deshpande. When he was a student, drones were not commonly used. They had just been introduced in the market and had a reputation as a luxury asset. “In foreign countries, there are RC (remote control) groups that make remote control aircraft models. A company called DJI had just started building professional-level videographer […]

Tourists from India and abroad who come to Goa on holiday get to savour global and Indian cuisine in the coastal state. Goa appears to be the choice for young Indian students and those who have returned to India to follow their culinary goals professionally. Someone like 19-year-old Gadha Seema Gireesh, who left for Saudi Arabia at a young age, is pursuing her second year in B.Sc. Culinary Arts at V. M. Salgaocar Institute of International Hospitality Education (VMSIIHE), Raia. She dreams of learning culinary skills under a Michelin-star chef and maybe open a restaurant of her own but for now, she chose Goa to learn culinary craft. She says, “Cooking has always been my passion and I realised I could turn it into my profession. I aim to work in a restaurant and learn under a Michelin-star chef, ultimately opening a restaurant of my own.” Gireesh is not alone in choosing Goa for exploring culinary dreams. And there’s a reason for it. Goa is already on the international tourism map and its profile as a tourism and culinary destination has been beefed up in recent times, thanks to the explosion of world-class cafés and restaurants that have mushroomed. Aleena […]

In a bid to bring to the fore, ordinary individuals and their extraordinary stories and achievements, The Navhind Times organized a talk with body positive campaigner, Sabreena Shah who shared her amazing story of her trials and tribulations of living with Polycystic Ovarian Disorder (PCOD) and overcoming the same. Sabreena began with a brief introduction about herself and recounted the onset of the disorder at age 15. She narrated how the first panic attack made her realize something was amiss. From the initial misdiagnosis to learning about the condition, she spoke from her heart. “When the doctor finally diagnosed I had PCOD, I was clueless about the disorder. I was terrified and thought I was going to die since I had never heard of it. There wasn’t much information about it then,” she said and went on to explain about the disorder and syndrome through a PowerPoint presentation. From the symptoms to the treatment, she spoke knowledgeably from her personal experience and in-depth study. She then spoke about the humiliation and ridicule she faced as a bearded girl and said,” It was extremely traumatic. The stares, the whispers, the grins and laughs were often just too much. There were days, […]

The next step college students have to face in their lives is facing job interviews. It is very important for them to be prepared for this as it can enable them to get their dream job. These skills can be very beneficial later on in life. At St. Xavier’s College, Ms Runa Menezes conducted an ‘Interview Facing Skills’ workshop for some final year students from different courses.  She is the founder of Speaking Studio which is a persona and skill development centre.  It was an interactive session where students took part in activities like sharing their concerns about interviews. Ms Menezes used video clips to show the students how to answer certain interview questions. She spoke about the significance of body language and taught them about good/ bad posture, proper eye contact, how to give proper handshakes, and so on. The students also got other tips like researching the organization they want to join and what to wear on the day of the interview.