The Global Annual Alumni Meet of Punjab Engineering College (Deemed to be University) was organized by Punjab Engineering College Old Students Association (PECOSA) in association with Dean Alumni, Corporate and International Relations, PEC on 10th February, 2018. The Chief Guest, Dr. Vijay Vasandani, CTO GoProcure, USA graced the occasion with his presence.
Er. K K Vohra, President PECOSA explained that the theme of the alumni meet "Building Bridges Across Alumni" was purposefully chosen to meet the need of connecting and exchanging views in a better way if the alumni association is to reassert as a strong and vibrant Alumni body truly international in nature. The batches of 1943, 1947, 1968, 1983 and 1993 were honoured during this meet.
Er. K K Vohra added that Dr. Vasandani's presence in the meet as the Chief Guest would convey a strong message to the alumni across the world to associate themselves with the activities of PEC and PECOSA. He reminisced glorious PEC legacy and stated that their alumnus Er Jaspal Bhatti was awarded Padma Bhushan Award while two other alumni Er Chander Mohan and Er Satish Kumar were awarded Padma Shree Awards in recognition of their services to the nation by the Government of India. He further added that the alumni of PEC rose to very high positions in various Government Departments, PSUs, Private sector, Civil Services, Armed Forces, Railways, CEA and various Boards. He mentioned that efforts are being made to establish PECOSA Chapters in important cities of India as well as overseas so as to connect their more than ten thousand alumni across the world. He urged the alumni to pool their resources and talent for the benefit of the insititute.
Chief Guest Dr. Vasandani, an alumnus of 1983 batch and an engineer of international repute, shared his experiences about the alumni associations in the USA and inspired the alumni to remain connected to their roots. He added that the objectives of the alumni association should be broadened so as to raise the standards of the institute from time to time. He declared that a corpus of twenty lakh rupees would be established with the PECOSA through crowd funding among alumni of his batch for development of a web portal to facilitate the objectives of PECOSA and connect the alumni globally. He also announced to create a corpus of ten lakh rupees with PECOSA in the memory of his mother for the benefit of female students of the institute.
Financial assistance of Rs.50,000 each was given to three students of the institute by the 1993 Batch of Mechanical Engineering. Two awards of Rs.12,000 each were given to two needy and deserving students for books and equipment. Two scholarships of Rs.15,000 rupees were offered by Er Anil Bhatia of 1993 Electronics Batch.
Dr. Uma Batra, Deputy Director PEC presided over the function while Dr. K K Gogna, Dean Alumni Affairs was also present.
The meet was attended by more than 650 delegates including 60 from the USA, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Japan, Singapore and Nepal along with their spouses. A short movie was also shown highlighting various activities going on in the institute. The auditorium was packed to the capacity while a LED was installed outside the auditorium for the live telecast of the event for those who could not be seated inside the auditorium. Everyone present in the meet seemed to be enjoying.