Bhubaneswar: The weeklong fiesta Elysium-2025 concluded at the Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER), faculty of engineering and technology of Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan (SOA) Deemed to be University here on Wednesday.
The festival, which showcased the potential of ITER students, featured 70 events — 40 technical and 30 cultural — as well 32 sports events.
The range of activities spanned coding to business, literature to art, music to dance, fitness and fashion, providing students a platform to give expression to their talent.
The sports disciplines which were part of the festival were Futsal, Cricket, Volleyball, Basketball, Kabaddi, Badminton and Kho-Kho.
More than 350 students participated in the programmes ‘Business Decoded’ and ‘Founder’s Arena’, which were held at the Atal Innovation Centre (AIC) and presented students with real-world business challenges while exposing them to expert mentorship.
Around 400 prizes were presented to the students.
“Each event was designed to challenge, inspire and push the boundaries and the students rose to the occasion while embracing the challenges and demonstrating remarkable skills,” said Prof. Renu Sharma, Additional Dean (Student Affairs).
Prof. Damodar Acharya, Chairman of SOA’s International Advisory Board and former Chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), was chief guest at the concluding function. He urged the students to think differently and make an endeavour to start something on their own.
“If you are studying to get a degree and then find a job, it’s not right. You have to be innovative and creative and excel not only in your chosen technical domain but in the socio-cultural arena as well,” he said, adding both were important.
Observing that the job market was shrinking, Prof. Acharya said it could shrink further with the arrival of Artifiial Intelligence (AI).
Bijay Kumar Sahoo, Regional Manager and Head, National Research Development Corporation, Bhubaneswar and Dr Manisha Acharya, Project Director, Ernst and Young, also encouraged the students to be innovative and launch their own start-up.
Among the speakers was SOA Vice-Chancellor Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda.
