ARC Update

The Annual Exhibition at the Department of Architecture


The architecture week exhibition which took place from 6th -13th July 2010, was a special occasion where students of architecture had the opportunity to exhibit their creative works and to get peer appreciation on a wider scale. The exhibition was inaugurated by Professor Ainun Nishat, Vice Chancellor, BRAC University. Dr. Md. Golam Samdani Fakir Pro-Vice Chancellor and Mr. Ishfaq Ilahi Choudhury Registrar of BRAC University were present at the in inauguration. A wide range of projects were contributed by the students which provided interesting insights into fresh pools of creativity to the more practical, innovative design ideas. All these projects were representatives of the how these young carefree minds can turn something ordinary into extraordinary.


The Rafiq Azam Travel Bursary for Architecture

Eminent Architect, Principal and Owner of the design practice Shatotto - architecture for green living, Md. Rafiq Azam has generously provided a travel bursary for students of architecture of BRAC University. Architect Azam has also been a visiting faculty here on a number of occasions.

This will be awarded to a student completing his or her third year of studies here. 

The primary purpose of such assistance is to give the students an opportunity to travel across Bangladesh and overseas (as appropriate) to develop an in-depth understanding of local culture, heritage, climate, context and materials to produce better architecture.

This will be in the form of travel costs to and back from destination and subsistence allowance for two weeks.

For its first instance this year the selected student will be traveling to Malaysia and will be hosted by one of Rafiq Azam's associates there.

The department is grateful to Md. Rafiq Azam for this generous gesture, the first of its kind at the Department of Architecture. 

Arch.kids 2010 : The Dream School of Tomorrow

The ArchKids-- Architecture for Kids 2010 was arrange on 8th July, 2010 by the Department of Architecture, BRAC University. It is the outreach programme of the Department of Architecture, BRAC University that began in 2005 .The objective of this programme is to encourage creativity in kids and open their minds to architecture and their surroundings. This year ArchKids commenced with a song "Amra Sobai Raza" under the guidance of the renowned singer Sadi Mohammad, the Special Guest at the occasion. The theme of this year's ArchKids was "Dream School". Children selected were from different schools and their ideas, integrated as one, were to come up with a school of their dreams.

25 youngsters between the ages of 5-12 years participated from Nalonda (Chayanaut), Auronee Biddalaya, T&T Ideal Girls' High School, South Breeze School, Cherry Blossom School, Play Pen School, Australian International School and The City School International. Activities involved giving them a tour of the department where the senior students' work were exhibited, painting masks and finally designing the school of their dreams. At the end of their designing activity, each group presented their work in front of everyone. The message they all had is they all wanted open spaces, be it fields or swimming pools. They realized that harmony can be achieved with a blend of both indoor and outdoor spaces. In the end Sadi Mohammad awarded each child with a certificate while photo shoots ensued in full swing. Professor Zainab F. Ali thanked the children and their parents for encouraging their children to participate.

Senior Lecturer Returns from Haiti 

Khondaker Hasibul Kabir, Senior lecturer, Department of Architecture, rejoined the department after completing his responsibilities in Haiti. After the devastating earthquake in Haiti on the 12th January 2010, BRAC and the Department of Architecture, BRAC University assigned him the responsibility to help initiate housing project in Haiti as instructed by the Chairperson of BRAC. During his four-month stay in Haiti he studied and documented the strengths and weaknesses of houses of rural Haiti, organized training and workshops with Haitian builders and built demonstration houses. Now BRAC Haiti has embarked on an 18-month long housing project in the southern part of Haiti. One of the former lecturers of the department, Sayem Khan, is working as an architect for the project in Haiti.

ANGAN LECTURE

Ar. Mohammed Emran Hossain delivered ANGAN Lecture on 20 July 2010. He graduated from the Department of Architecture, BUET in 2004 and completed his M.Arch from Gradute School of Design, Harvard University in 2007. Upon graduation he worked for the renowned practice of Steven Holl Architects, New York for more than two years. At present he has started his own practice in Dhaka and is also a visiting faculty of a studio at the Department of Architecture, BRAC University. The title of the lecture was "My Scribbles". The lecture was very successful and lively.

The following week, on 27 July 2010 Professor Irtishad Ahmad, Ph.D., P.E. was the guest speaker in ANGAN. He is the Chairperson of Department of Construction Management, College of Engineering and Computing, Florida International University, Miami, Florida, USA. The topic of the lecture is "Construction Engineering and Management Education: A New Paradigm." It was the 81st event of ANGAN lecture series. He talked about the "Construction Engineering and management Education" trend and available education in US at present and also necessity and potential in Bangladesh.

BDI Update 

Participation in International Sociological Association 17th World Congress in Sweden

A partner of the Pathways Programme in South Asia, Ayesha Khan from Collective for Social Science Research (CSSR) in Pakistan, attended the International Sociological Association 17th World Congress in Gothenburg, Sweden held during July 11-17, 2010. At the conference, Ms. Khan presented the Lady Health Worker paper on a panel organized by Akosua Ampoko of University of Ghana, who is also part of the Pathways Consortium. Their visits were sponsored by the Pathways Programme.

Launching of book "Mapping Women's Empowerment"

BDI launched a new book titled 'Mapping Women's Empowerment: Experiences from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan' on 8 July, 2010 at the CIRDAP Auditorium. The book is a collection of articles from eleven authors from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, examining the enabling factors and barriers to women's voice, work and bodily integrity in the South Asia. The volume is edited by Firdous Azim, Chair of the English and Humanities Department of BRAC University and Lead Researcher of the Pathways Programme, and Maheen Sultan, Coordinator of the Pathways of Women's Empowerment Programme at BDI. University Press Limited (UPL) has published this book.

"Mapping Women's Empowerment" was launched by Taherunnesa Abdullah, Social Activist and Governing Board Member of BRAC. Binayak Sen, Research Director, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and Ainoon Nahar, Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology, Jahangirnagar University engaged in a discussion of the book after the launch. The floor was then opened up for discussion with the audience, which was chaired by Hameeda Hossain, Founder of Ain-o-Shalish Kendra. Mohiuddin Ahmed, Director of UPL, and Syed Hashemi, Director of BDI, also spoke at the event.

Book Launch featured in Daily Star Weekend Magazine

The Daily Star highlighted the launching of the BDI book "Mapping Women's Empowerment" in its magazine issue on 16 July, 2010. The write-up also featured a review of the book. The article can be read at: http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2010/07/03/event.htm 

Article "Trinamoole Narir Agrojatra" published in Samakal newspaper

An article written by Dr. Amena Mohsin, Lead Researcher of the Pathways of Women's Empowerment Programme at BDI and Professor of International Relations at Dhaka University, was published on 11 July, 2010 in the Bangla daily Samakal. The article "Trinamoole Narir Agrojatra" shares insights from the research findings on women in local governance, conducted as part of the Pathways Programme in 2008-2009. The article can be read at this URL.

Fundraising and Proposal Writing Workshop

A workshop was organized by the Citizenship DRC at BDI during 19-22 July, 2010 to hone researchers' skills in fundraising and proposal writing. The workshop was facilitated by Catherine Gee, Development Officer and Hazel Reeves, Programme Manager of the Pathways Consortium, both based at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at Sussex. The four day workshop enabled participants to brainstorm about how to present oneself/one's projects and think about your fundraising needs and objectives and make a case. It also provided an overview of contexts and current issues in funding for research and explored different strategies for accessing funding. 
Participants of the workshop were from the Citizenship Programme, Pathways Programme and the Local Governance team at BDI and from the School of Public Health. 

Participation in Strategic Planning Meeting of Citigen Program

Sohela Nazneen, Principal Researcher of the BDI research titled "ICTs, Gender and Inclusive Citizenship: The Bangladesh Case" attended the Strategic Planning workshop for the Gender and Citizenship in the Information Society (Citigen) Program coordinated by IT for Change. The meeting was held in Bengaluru during 26-29 July, 2010. At the meeting, advisors and partners of the Citigen Programme discussed the proposals submitted, set some of milestones and shared benchmarks of the projects, and provided useful feedback regarding the scope and methods of inquiry proposed for the researches.

CfL Update

Workshop Conducted by Pro-VC Dr Golam Samdani Fakir

On 17th of July, Pro Vice Chancellor of BRAC University Dr Md Golam Samdani Fakir conducted a whole-day workshop for the faculty members of Centre for Languages. The title of the workshop was "The Art of Questioning in Creative Teaching" where the main focus was to foster discussion on the importance of asking different types of questions to students so that learning objectives are met and students can become independent learners and critical thinkers. The participants involved in the interaction on "Why ask questions?", "How to elicit responses?", and "How to respond to students' responses?" in such a way that they forgot when the clock struck four, though the session was supposed to be end by 3:30 pm. There was also debate and conversation on convergent, divergent and evaluative questions. Ms Samina Anzum Chowdhury, a Junior Lecturer in the Teaching and Learning Centre BRAC University assisted Dr. Samdani in the workshop. At the end of the workshop, Lady Sarwat Abed, the Director of Centre for Languages, thanked the facilitators and requested for another workshop at his convenience.

Workshop on Curriculum Development

A workshop was conducted in 3 parts by S.M. Anwaruddin, a CfL Lecturer studying on a Scholarship at Loyola University, Chicago who is currently back for the Summer semester, on Understanding by Design (UbD) which is also known as Backward Design (BD). In this approach, the teacher has to start planning the lessons with the end in mind i.e. focus on student learning and outcomes upon the completion of the topic. In this approach the duration of a teaching unit is for 2-3 weeks which is centered on a particular topic and the teacher has to focus on the transferability of knowledge. The teacher also has to be careful in designing the activities because not all 'interesting' activities lead to learning outcomes which the teacher wants to achieve. Plus, the assessment criterion needs to be part of the question in the teaching unit plan. 

CfL Faculties Attend BELTA-AIUB-THT English Language Teaching Seminer-2010

CfL faculties attended a two day long workshop on "Bringing Innovation into the ELT Classroom" which was jointly organized by the Bangladesh English Language Teachers' Association (BELTA), American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) and Teachers helping Teachers (THT) of Japan. The workshop was jointly facilitated by Dr. Patrick Thomas Dougherty, Faculty, Higher Diploma Foundations of the Higher Colleges of Technology, Abu Dhabi Men's College UAE and Dr. Steve S. Cornwell, Professor, Department of International & English Interdisciplinary Studies, Osaka Jogojuin College, Japan. A number of important issues including: "Building a learner-centered classroom in the 21st century", "Assessment for Learning", "Classroom Management: A Velvet Approach", "Creative writing in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and English as a Second Language (ESL)", "Vocabulary Learning: Theory and Techniques", "Grammar Dictation and other Grammar Fun"; "Preparing Students for Exams", and "Second Language Acquisition for Classroom Teachers", "Using Student Heritage and Native Culture in the ESL Classroom" and "Classroom Assessment Techniques and Five-minute Activities" were covered in this workshop. The workshop was followed by a panel discussion where participants got the opportunity to share their teaching experience and classroom problems with the prominent figures of ELT of both home and abroad. Certificates were handed out to the participants at the end of the workshop.

ENH Update

ENH joins International Research Consortium 

On July 3rd ENH Department signed a MOU with IACSS (Inter Asia Cultural Studies Society) to become a member of the consortium for Inter Asia Cultural Studies Institutes. (CIASCI) This consortium is composed of universities from the South, South East and East Asia region including University of Tokyo, National University of Singapore, University of Indonesia, Jakarta, Yonsei University, South Korea, Lingnan University of Hong Kong and Shanghai University. This consortium is housed in the institute for East Asian Studies, Sungkonghoe University in Seoul, South Korea.
The purpose of this consortium is to develop academic exchange in education and research for students and academic staff and to promote joint research activities and exchange of academic material. Importantly, it wishes to design joint post graduate courses in Inter Asia Cultural Studies and to work towards post graduate degree programs. This is the first time that ENH joined a research consortium.

Guest Lecture in ENG 333

Asif Saleh, the executive director of Drishtipath, a global human rights organization focusing on Bangladesh, came to enlighten the students of "Globalization and Media" as a guest lecturer on 7th July, 2010. His personal experiences on the power of alternative media and its possibilities to give an alternative view to mainstream media gave a new outlook of the new media to the students. He also inspired the students to speak their minds, share their thoughts and question whatever gets highlighted in the mainstream media. 

Guest Lecture in ENG611

On 25th July Samia Huq, senior research associate BDI came as an invited speaker to the course entitled "Basic Readings in Feminist Literary Criticisms." She spoke about contemporary Talim and Tafsir groups that women attend in Dhaka. This is part of her PhD research. M.A. students were introduced to a new way of looking at social phenomena in the city. 

ENH arranges Shomokalin Bangla Shahittyo Conference

The Department of ENH, BRAC University arranged a 2 day international conference on contemporary Bangla Literature titled "Srijone O Monone: Shomokalin Bangla Shahittyo" between 29-30th July, 2010. Prime Bank Limited helped to sponsor this conference. Through his keynote address, Dr. Hasan Azizul Haq, prominent writer and critique shed light on what 'contemporary' meant and "unlocked" the conference's main theme. The opening session was chaired by Professor Emeritus Anisuzzaman of DU who is also a member of the governing board of BU. The honourable Vice Chancellor Professor Ainun Nishat also spoke about his interest in contemporary Bangla literature. The conference had four academic sessions namely "Anubad Shahittyo", "Shomokalin 
Bangla Natok", "Shomokalin Bangla Kathashahittyo" and " Shomokalin Bangla Kobita". Besides, there was a poetry reading session and a prose reading session in which poets and fiction writers read aloud their work followed by an animated discussion. 

The 2 day seminar discussed many issues, including the problems of translation, folk and urban theatre, and the common features of the poetry and prose of the 2 Bengals.

ESS Update

Seminars/Presentations/Conferences attended by ESS Faculties:

Dr Shahidur Rahman's (Assistant Professor, ESS Department) research on "Return Migration of High Skilled Professionals in Bangladesh" was presented in the XVII ISA World Congress of Sociology at Gothenburg University, Sweden. Dr Douglas T Gurak, Professor of Cornell University presented Dr. Shahidur's research findings in the Conference held from July 11-17, 2010. The abstract was published in the CSA Sociological Abstracts by ProQuest and the full paper in IJIMT, Singapore. 

Dr. Farzana Munshi, Assistant Professor, ESS Department presented a paper on "Capital Mobility and Tax Competition: Panel Data Evidence from South Asia" in Annual London Business Research Conference held in Imperial College, London, July 12-14, 2010.

Dr. Manjur Karim, Associate Professor, ESS Department attended a Conference titled "Nirjatitoder Pokhkhe Antorjatik Shonghoti Dibosh" Organized by Adhikar on June 26, 2010, where he gave a speech on "National and International Human Right Violation. 

Seminars/Presentations/Conferences Organized by ESS Department: 

A seminar was organized by the Department of Economics and Social Sciences on 8 July, 2010, entitled, "Global Defense Expenditure and Bangladesh Scenario" was presented by Ishfaq Ilahi Chowdhury, Registrar, BRAC University.

GDLN Center Update

e-Learning Course on Food safety management Food Traceability

This course was organized by Asian Productivity Organization in collaboration with National Productivity Organization (NPO) Bangladesh Global Development learning Center from 20th July to 23rd July 2010. Engr. Horendra Nath Ghosh coordinated the event for Bangladesh participated by 23 participants of different Public and Private Enterprises invited by NPO, Dhaka.

This workshop intents to a) Enhance participants' understanding of the key concepts in a modem food safety and food traceability system and the food traceability standard IS022005:2007 intent, requirements, and applications and b) Equip the participants with the knowledge and skills to implement a modern food traceability system to meet IS022005:2007 requirements and with critical success factors in the food industry.

Food safety and quality are increasingly becoming more important concerns in agriculture and food trade. The increasing number of food safety crises and food scandals occurring worldwide in recent years has heightened consumers' food safety awareness and has caused public distrust of the increasingly complex and globalized food production and trading systems. Consumers are also becoming more sensitive to production processes and practices and demand greater quality and safety assurances from agribusiness and food companies with reliable information. To ensure the safety of the domestic and global food supply, government regulations and brand protection demands from customers are on the rise. Putting sound food traceability systems in place could improve consumers' confidence and address the documentation requirements under international trade agreements. Food traceability systems are therefore becoming critical for the food industry and the public sector, as well as for consumers. 

To address these increasing requirements, policymakers and the public in many countries are considering mandatory traceability systems to manage wide-ranging food-related issues such as bioterrorism, country-of-origin labeling, food-borne disease outbrealcs and genetically engineered foods. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) issued a new standard in 2007, known as IS022005 :2007, which establishes international standards for traceability in the food and feed sectors, complementary to 18022000:2005. The latter standard outlines requirements for food safety management systems, based on Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) principles. Food traceability refers to recordkeeping systems that provide the ability to identify the path and the history of an animal, food product, or food ingredient through the food supply chain. 

Food traceability is important for both the consumers and suppliers. Consumers gain mostly hidden benefits from traceability such as more effective management of food safety and increased effectiveness of recalls in emergencies. Traceability also promotes consumer choice as it verifies product labels and ingredient history. Food producers, processors and distributors have three motives for establishing traceability systems: supply-side management, product differentiation, and food safety and quality control. The benefits associated with these motives include lower-cost distribution systems, expanded sales of high-value products, increased brand equity, prevention of food safety crises and food scandals and reduced recall and liability expenses. These benefits are driving the widespread development of traceability systems along the food supply chain in developed countries. Building effective traceability systems is equally important for developing Asian countries, in particular exporters of agrifood products, for integration into the global food trading system and achieving greater access of their agrifood products to the food markets of industrialized countries. 

The main faculty comprising four resource speakers delivered presentations, Mr. Yong Kok Seng, Dr. Jenn-Kan, Mr. Toshifumi Tashiro, Mr. Jun Sakai. The Countries connected by Video Conference were Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

MNS Update

Novartis Biocamp 2010, Bangladesh

Ms. Salma Mir, an MS Biotechnology student participated in the Novartis BioCamp held from 23-24 July, 2010 at BRAC CDM, Savar. The Novartis Bangladesh Ltd. Organizes Biocamp every year and selects participants from a large number of nominations received from both public and private universities to encourage entrepreneurship development in young biotechnologists and there is tough competition among the candidates nominated for selection in the Biocamp. Salma was one of the nine participants selected finally for biotech project development. This year judges included Dr. Imran Ahmed, Pro-Vice Cchancellor of ULAB, Professor Ferhat Anwar, IBA, Dhaka University, Mr. Sarwar Ahmed, Managing Director, Syngenta Bangladesh Ltd. and Professor Haseena Khan, Dhaka University. Dr. Imran Ahmed and Dr. Ferhat Anwar made a presentation each on business plan and Dr. Haseena Khan and Sawar Ahmed introduced some facts of Biotechnology. The participants were divided into three groups with three members in each group. Each group was given a different topic (Group 1 - A new Biotech product; Group 2 - A new Edible vaccine; Group 3 - A new generation Jute seed) and asked to discuss the needs of a new biotech product with a business plan, from Bangladesh prospective. Salma's group presented the business plan on new generation jute seed and the plan was highly appreciated by the judges.

New Joining

Dr. M. Mahboob Hossain joined as Associate Professor in Microbiology in the Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences on July 4 2010. He did his Ph. D from Shinshu University school of Medicine, Japan. 

10th Asia Pacific Regional Conference of WAGGGS, Paradise Island, Maldives

"Plant, grow, share", with this slogan the 10th Asia Pacific Regional Conference of World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS) was held in Paradise Island, Maldives from 4th July to 8th July, 2010. Ms Lopamudra Chakravarty was one of the five participants from Bangladesh Girl Guides Association. Ms Chakravarty is also a young leader and member of the National Executive Committee of Bangladesh Girl Guides Association (BGGA). At this regional conference various issues concerning women and young girls were discussed. Also the problems, success and work plan of different countries of this region were shared by the member organizations. Asia Pacific Region also celebrated 100 years of Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting of WAGGGS. BGGA had a presentation on recruitment and retention of membership, which was highly acclaimed by other member organizations. And it is a success of BGGA to get an award on recruitment and retention of membership in this regional conference. As WAGGGS wants to raise the voice of young women, young leaders like Ms Chakravarty are working so that another 100 years of changing the lives of people can be celebrated. 

MS Biotechnology Research at CNRS, CEA, Grenoble, France

Sadequa Sultana, MS Biotechnology student returned from Grenoble, France in the first week of July 2010 after finishing her Master's Thesis project at CEA starting from January 2010 to June 2010. She conducted her laboratory work at Laboratoire Chimie et Biologie des Metaux, CEA Grenoble, France, under a joint collaboration programme between BRAC University and CEA-CNRS. The CEA is the French Atomic Energy Commission and is very active in three main fields: energy, information & health technologies, and defense & national security. It is performing its research with the collaborative support of CNRS (The Centre National de la Recherch Scientifique), which is a government-funded research organization, under the administrative authority of France's Ministry of Research. Professor Naiyyum Choudhury, Coordinator of Biotechnology programme, arranged for Sadequa Sultana's placement and fellowship through correspondence with the CNRS. 

Sadequa Sultana worked on the project entitled "Optimization of hydrogen photoproduction by the bacterium Rhodobacter capsulatus: Role of Pyruvate Formate Lyase", under the supervision of Dr. John Willison, a Senior Researcher of CEA. The aim of this project was to investigate the factors influencing the production and utilization of hydrogen using anaerobic photosynthetic bacteria, Rhodobacter Capsulatus. Hydrogen is a clean and efficient fuel, considered as a potential and more sustainable energy substitute for fossil fuels. It has been predicted that the contribution of hydrogen to global energy consumption will increase dramatically, to approximately 50%, and it will possibly become one of the main sources of energy.

Seminar on Bioethanol Production as Biofuel

Mr. Md. Riajul Hossain, Lecturer of Biotechnology, MNS Department, presented a seminar on 8 July 2010 in the MNS Conference Room. The topic of the seminar was "Production of Ethanol Using Yeast Isolates on Water Hyacinth and Azolla". It was a one hour long seminar describing the alternative fuel generation by searching alternative cellulosic feedstocks to be used as biomasss instead of the existing expensive substrates used for ethanol fermentation. Chairperson of the MNS Department Professor A.A.Z Ahmad conducted the proceedings of the seminar. Faculty members from different disciplines were present. The seminar was well appreciated by the audience.

Lunching on "Biodiversity National Assessment and Programme of Action 2020"

Professor Naiyyum Choudhury, Coordinator, Biotechnology programme, Dr Mahbub Hossain, Associate Professor in Microbiology and Dr. Aparna Islam, Assistant Professor of Biotechnology attended the launching and dissemination ceremony of the book "Biodiversity National Assessment and Programme of Action 2020". The programme was organized by the Department of Environment (DoE), GOB. The meeting was held on 14 July 2010 at the LGED/RDEC Auditorium, Dhaka. Dr. Hasan Mahmud M.P, Hon'ble State Minister of Environment and Forests, GoB launched the book. The programme was chaired by Mr. Monowar Islam, ndc, Director General, DoE. Dr Islam was one of the contributors of the document and participated in various national workshops that led to make this document.

Workshop on the Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Genetically Engineered Plants

Dr. Aparna Islam, Assistant Professor of Biotechnology attended weeklong hands on Workshop on 'the Safety Assessment of Foods Derived from Genetically Engineered Plants'. The workshop was organized jointly by the Department of Environment (DoE), Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) and the South Asia Biosafety Program (SABP). The workshop included introduction of the of concept & principles of GE food safety, regulation of GE food, production & molecular characterization of GE event, protein expression assessment, bioinformatics, assessment of nutritional quality, potential toxicity & allergenicity of novel proteins etc. Finally compositional analysis of the data for decision-making on the safety of GE food was discussed. In the workshop various case studies were discussed and participants were given a specific case for decision-making. The workshop was conducted by faculties from abroad namely, Professor Dr. Flerida Arsciwals Carino, Dr. Vasanthi Siruguri, Dr. Vibha Ahuja, Dr. Donald J. MacKenzie and Dr. Robert H. Potter. At the end of five day long workshop certificates were presented to the participants by Mr. Monowar Islam, ndc, Director General, DoE at the concluding ceremony.

Regional Forum on Intellectual Property for the Policy Makers of the Least Developed Countries of Asia and the Pacific Region

Professor Naiyyum Choudhury participated in the above-mentioned Forum on invitation by Dr. Kiffe Shenkoru, Director, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Geneva, Switzerland to present a paper on the theme: "Linking Universities and Research Centres to the Public and Private Sectors for the Management, Promotion and Commercialization of IP Assets." The Regional Forum was organized by the WIPO in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Industries, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. It took place in Hotel Pan Pacific Sonargaon, Dhaka on 19-20 July, 2010. Hon'ble Prime Minister, Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh was the Chief Guest at the inaugural ceremony. Ministers, Deputy Ministers and other high level officials from the least developed countries (LDCs) participated in the Forum. Professor Choudhury presented a paper entitled "Academia-Scientists- Public- Private Sectors Interaction- from Laboratory to Public and Private Domain- Bangladesh Perspectives". He recommended for freedom for the scientists of the R&D organizations to interact with the private sectors directly and also for the development of entrepreneurial skills of the scientists. He emphasized on training of the scientists in different aspects of intellectual property, opening of IP units in different research organizations and inclusion of IP in the curricula at the tertiary level education. The WIPO informed the audience that all the presentations would be available in the WIPO website.

MS Biotechnology Students Visit SWTP

A group of seven students of MS Biotechnology programme, visited the Saidabad Water Treatment Plant (SWTP) on 25 July 2010. The group was accompanied by five faculty members. The whole group of students and teachers was led by Dr. Mahbub Hossain, Associate Professor of Microbiology. Professor Naiyyum Chowdhury, Coordinator, Biotechnology Programme arranged the visit communicating with his former student Dr. Alamgir, Chief of Microbiology Division, SWTP. The SWTP started functioning on 27 July, 2002 and had been operated and maintained by a foreign company for four years and after that local engineers and experts took over the responsibility of operation and maintenance in 2006. The SWTP collects water for treatment from two rivers, Shitalakhya and Balu. The group was shown around different steps of water treatment after collection, like clarification, addition of chemicals, filtration adjustment of pH etc. before the final potable water is supplied to the zonal distribution channels.

The treated water from the storage tank is supplied to the transmission network from the treated water pump station. The plant does not provide water directly to the consumers. This is because very high pressure is maintained for supplying water through the transmission network to the entry of zonal distribution channel, which is about 36 km away from the plant. The treated water finally goes to the consumers through different zonal distribution channels. The Saidabad Water Treatment Plant in its Phase II project meets only 30 percent of total demand of water supply, which is 225 million liters per day. DWASA (Dhaka WASA) is furthermore looking into the possibility of increasing the capacity to 450 million liters per day in the third phase of this project. The Executive Engineer told the visiting team that two other water treatment plants were going to be established - Meghna Water Treatment Plant near the River Meghna and a Mawa Water Treatment Plant near the Padma River to meet the increasing demand of water.

SECS Update

CARG update

The month of July has been a very successful month for Control Application Research Group (CARG). A lot of development of the CARG project "Automatic Solar Hot Water System" occurred. The whole control system has been implemented along with temperature sensors and level detectors, which are also made by the thesis group (both undergraduate and graduate students). 

Alongside, Md. Raied Hasan, the project engineer of CARG went to USA to attend a seven-day solar camp, which was attended by lots of researchers, investors and learners of solar energy.

BRACU Faculty and Students attend Seminar on Nanoelectronic Materials

On July 20, 2010, the IEEE student members of BRAC University along with the faculty members attended the seminar on "Nanoelectronic materials and devices for beyond-Si". The main talk was given by M. Abul Khayer of Department of Electrical Engineering, University of California at Riverside, CA, USA. The event was arranged by IEEE Bangladesh Section, EDS Bangladesh Chapter and it took place in BUET, Dhaka. The talk stated how to reduce standby power without compromising device performance, and thereby sustaining Moore's law for post-CMOS. Numerical modeling challenges of the low dimensional structures were also discussed.

M. Abul Khayer is a Ph.D. candidate in the department of electrical engineering at University of California at Riverside, CA, USA. He received the B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical and electronic engineering from BUET in 2003 and 2005, respectively, and the M.Sc. degree in electrical engineering from the University of California at Riverside, CA, USA. He served as a faculty member in the EEE department of BUET from 2004-2006. He has published more than 20 peer reviewed journal and conference papers and presented the research results in more than 25 international conferences, seminars and meetings. He has been awarded with the Dissertation year program fellowship from the Bourns College of Engineering, University of California Riverside, for his outstanding research activities.

SPH Update

Academic Programs
MPH Program

Courses
The MPH course Health Systems Management (MPH 531) was taught by Dr. Anwar Islam; and Owasim Akram, Research Associate, was the Teaching Fellow. 

Centre For Gender, Sexuality And HIV/AIDS

Sexuality and Rights July Meeting
The monthly sexuality and rights meeting was held at the Centre on July 3, 2010. The meeting was attended by various representatives from the LGBTI coalition, Bandhu, Naripokkho, independent activists, and Dina Siddiqi, Tisa Muhaddes, and Anuradha Hashemi from the School. 

Gfatm Project - 913

JPGSPH, BU consortium under GFATM program developed and published a training manual on "Reducing HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrimination" 
Though the number of people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA) at present is low in the country, they face still face extreme stigma and discrimination. The adversity spreads across family, society and healthcare provisions leading to low self esteem of the PLHA affecting their quality of life and well-being. Therefore, it is extremely important to create awareness regarding HIV and AIDS, educating the public on the facts and dispelling the myths surrounding it for creating supportive environment to scale up HIV prevention, treatment, care and other support services for PLHA. In view of that Population Council, an associate partner of James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University consortium, has developed this training manual in collaboration with the staff of JPGSPH to build skilled human resources for reducing intensity of stigma and discrimination against HIV and AIDS. The consortium activities are supported by the Global Fund under the supervision of National AIDS/STD Programme of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and Save the Children USA acts as management agency. 

The manual is designed for five days training. Three days are scheduled for intensive sessions on respective topics as per sessions plan while two days are devoted for practice sessions. The practice sessions are included in the manual to create more room for the participants to exercise acquired knowledge on this new issue so that they develop skills to deliver appropriate, uniform information at field level. 
It is hoped that the participants as well as their organizations will get enough information through this training manual and will use this for creating supportive environment for PLHA, MARP and other vulnerable groups. It is expected that the attitude of the participants will be changed and they will be able to act as change agents for eliminating discriminatory behavior related to HIV and AIDS from the society.

This is the first manual in Bangladesh on "Reducing HIV/AIDS related stigma and discrimination" 

Besides, JPGSPH continue providing technical support to PIACT Bangladesh & Concerned Women for Family Development (CWFD), associate partners of JPGSPH in forming District AIDS Committee (DAC) and organization level training program. One DAC has been formed in Shatkhira district in July/2010. A total of 17 DACs have been formed till July/10. All the activities have been carried out under Global Fund (GFATM) supported project entitled 'Building and strengthening the technical and institutional capacities of government, NGOs and implementing partners', a collaborative project between National AIDS/STD Programme (NASP), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Save the Children Federation Incl. and JPGSPH, BRAC University consortium. 

School Events And Other Activities

Knowledge Fair 2010
James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University organized its annual Knowledge Fair for the students of Master of Public Health, academic year 2010-11 on last July 8, 2010 at Sasakawa Auditorium, ICDDR,B. Professor Md. Samdani Fakir, Pro Vice Chancellor, BRAC University kindly attended to grace the programme as chief guest. After the inauguration of the programme by the respected chief guest, Professor Dr. Anwar Islam, Associate Dean and Director, James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University addressed the audience by his welcome speech. Dr. Sabina Faiz Rashid, MPH Programme Coordinator and Associate Professor, James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University also addressed the audience by her short power point presentation on the objectives of Knowledge Fair. Later the students were invited to introduce themselves by stating their educational background and field of interests of the future study. As soon as the students finished their introduction, respected faculty members and potential supervisors were requested to come to the dais and introduce themselves. A total number of 20 potential thesis supervisors from different academic and professional backgrounds kindly attended the programme with the students and made the fair finally successful. 

Second Public Health Seminar at Savar 
The second Public Health Seminar was organized by CFL at BRAC University Savar Campus on July 10, 2010.It was a daylong seminar where physical and mental health as well as sexual and reproductive health concerns were addressed by the faculty members of the James P Grant School of Public Health and guest speakers. The seminar was attended by 333 undergraduate students, three counselors and faculty members of BRAC University. Dr. Nasima Selim, Lecturer II of JPGSPH did a presentation focused on general and mental health issues. She conducted a relaxation exercise with both male and female students. The second presentation was titled "Introduction to Health Club at BRAC University" where the importance, objective and probable activities of a Health Club were addressed by Ms Anuradha Hashemi, Research support staff and Ms Nuzhat Chowdhury, Research Associate at JPGSPH. At the end of the second presentation, students interested to join in Health Club were asked to sign up for registration. Altogether 115 students expressed their interest in being members of a Health Club. 62 of them were girls and 53 of them were boys. 

The third session was on "Basic Self Defense for Girls" was conducted by guest speaker, Mrs. Gabi Jaschke, Consultant for Bread for The World. In this session, she discussed the basic concepts of self-defense and conducted demonstration exercises. The fourth session was titled "Reproductive & Sexual Health" and was conducted by Dr. Sabina Faiz Rashid, Associate Professor and MPH Coordinator at JPGSPH. In this session, general reproductive concerns, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual harassment and other gender related issues were addressed. This session took place in two separate groups. Session for girls was held before lunch and session for boys was arranged after lunch break. During the session the other group watched a documentary film addressing important environmental issues, titled 'An Inconvenient Truth'.

The final session after each "Reproductive and sexual health" session was followed by a question and answer session facilitated by guest speaker Dr. Jannatul Ferdous Rimu, Registrar, Chittagong Medical College Hospital. Students asked their questions in a written form and these were answered by Dr. Rimu, Sabina and Dr. Nasima. The BRAC University counselors were introduced at the session as future contact for guidance and counseling. All of the sessions were participatory sessions where students got opportunity to share their views and feeling and concerns related to Health and Wellbeing. 

The Public Health Seminar was an initiative to encourage the students to address their health and wellbeing issues in an interactive manner. Students and the Facilitators enjoyed the seminar as it maintained an edutainment approach.

Academic Study Groups (ASG)

ASG film screening: Miss Evers' Boys
This is a television film starring Alfre Woodard and Laurence Fishburne, based on the true story of the decades-long Tuskegee experiment. This movie was directed by Joseph Sargent and adapted from the 1992 stage play written by David Feldshuh. The film tells the story of the Tuskegee experiment, a U.S. Federal Government secret medical experiment on poor African Americans in the years 1932-1972, designed to study the effects of untreated syphilis. The ASG was held on July 1, 2010. 

Qualitative Methods to study Vulnerable Groups
Application of qualitative methods to study special/vulnerable groups: conception to publication by Rukhsana Gazi, Associate Scientist & Head, Health Systems and Economics Unit, Health Systems and Infectious Diseases Division, ICDDR,B. The ASG was held on July 5, 2010. 

Faculty News

Sabina F Rashid, Associate Professor & MPH Coordinator, participated in the Vienna AIDS Conference 2010. She presented a paper titled "Sexuality & HIV/AIDS" on July 22, 2010. 

Sabina F Rashid, Associate Professor & MPH Coordinator, also attended the RPC meeting on Challenging Orthodoxy in HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health. She presented a paper titled "Sexual Reproductive Health of urban slum dwellers in Dhaka". 

Dr. Farah Mahjabeen Ahmed, Sr. Lecturer and Coordinator of the Continuing Education Programme, attended a training course on Quality Management in Health Systems at University of Heidelberg, Germany from July 5-16, 2010.

Dr. Nasima Selim, Lecturer 11, participated in the training on "Interpersonal Psychotherapy" organized by Sangath, India in collaboration with Columbia University, USA. The training course was divided over two weeks covering the different aspects of interpersonal psychotherapy and its adaptation in primary healthcare, e.g., the MANAS model by Sangath. The conference took place on July 19 - 30, 2010 in the International Centre in Goa, India

Tanvir Hasan, Research Associate, attended a Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) training organized by CREPHA, Nepal, from July 11-16, 2010 under CREA's Violence against Marginalized Women research project. 

Nuzhat Chowdhury, Research Associate, and Anuradha Hashemi, Research Staff, participated in a Proposal Writing Workshop organized by the BRAC Development Institute from July 19-21 at BRAC Centre. Facilitators from IDS conducted the three day workshop with a combination of lectures, group discussions and group work. Participants discussed and worked on fundraising strategies, understanding donors and writing a successful research proposal.

CSO Update

Seminar with Bangladesh Navy

A seminar with Bangladesh Navy has been organized by the Career Services Office (CSO) on July 12, 2010 from 10:30 am to 12:30 pm. The seminar was about recruiting commissioned officer for 2011 batch. Mr. Ishfaq Ilahi Choudhury, Registrar, BRAC University inaugurate the program with a welcome note and handed over the floor to Commander Nasarullah, Bangladesh Navy. He explained a brief overview of Bangladesh Navy and handed over the floor to Lt. Commander Sharif for a detail presentation. Mr. Sharif explained detail about Bangladesh Navy, career opportunity in Navy, how and where to apply, responsibility and importance of Navy, wages & other facilities. A number of 44 students participated in the seminar. The seminar ended with an interactive question and answer session.

Workshop on Personal Development: (Batch-3)

A series of workshops have jointly been designed by The Teaching & Learning Centre (TLC) and Career Services Office (CSO) of BRACU based on Stephen R. Covey's article, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.

The title of the workshop was Personal Development: Habits of High Performing People which was held on the 24th of July, 2010 for all administration and staff members. The sessions were conducted by Professor Md. Golam Samdani Fakir, Pro-Vice Chancellor, BRACU. The other facilitators were Mr. Ishfaq Ilahi Choudhury, Registrar, Sabrina Shahidullah, In-Charge, CSO and Ms. Samina Anzum Chowdhury, Jr. Lecturer, TLC. The objective of the workshop was for all participants to be able to rediscover their personality and to define the concepts of habits and effectiveness. The program started with an Introduction session followed by socialization of all the participants. The main objective of the session was how to gain private victory & finally, gaining Public Victory or, Journey towards Interdependence. The code of conduct expected of the staff of BRAC University was discussed by Mr. Ilahi. The session ended by a reflection on the workshop and finally an evaluation of the workshop.

Job updates, July 2010:
1. Md. Hasan Sajib Nestle 
2. Shorab Hossain OTOBI 
3. Hemayet Uddin The City Bank 
4. Tania Chowdhury BRAC
5. Sathy Dorothy Biswas Amra Networks
6. Jenifer Hossain Standard Chartered Bank
7. Sahrmin Suravi Salahuddin Lakeshore Hotel and Apartments

Students Affairs Update

Blood donation programme held at BRAC University

A voluntary blood donation programme was held at BRAC University campus on Wednesday. Thelasemia Foundation, in collaboration with BRACU Film Club and Social Development Forum, conducted the programme.

Professor Ainun Nishat, Vice Chancellor of BRAC University, Professor Golam Samdani Fakir, Pro Vice Chancellor, and Ishfaq Ilahi Chowdhury, Registrar of the university visited the blood donation programme and encouraged the donors. 

A total of 65 packets of blood was collected at the programme beginning 10am till 5pm. Mustafizur Rahman, advisor to the Bangladesh Thrlassaemia Hospital, said the response from the BRACU community in donating blood is praiseworthy. The Foundation also tested blood grouping, Hepatitis B and C free cost.

Computer Club (BUCC) welcomes newest co-advisor

On Wednesday, July 14th, 2010 Nabila Naushin joined as the co-advisor of the BUCC. She has recently been appointed as a Junior Lecturer at the CSE Department. Besides her, current advisor is Annajiat Alim Rasel and other current co-advisors are Abdussamad Ahmed Muntahi, Mr Tarem Ahmed, and Farazul Haque Bhuiyan.

BUCC GBM and Freshers Orientation Held

On 19th of July, the event started with a video on how information technology and related media are evolving using the Google EPIC followed by a presentation on how Google search and related free services can help at different stages of life. In the next part, Shammur Absar Chowdhury, Shiblee Imtiaz Hasan, Md. Imran Hossain Shaon, Mahbub Zaman Ananda and Amit Kumar Dey expressed their involvements and experience with BUCC. 

In the two hour long event held in UB222, members proposed several events to be held in Summer 2010. Imran Farid Shuvo and his team proposed will be working on organizing a Gaming Contest. Md. Imran Hossain Shaon will be volunteering to conduct a Workshop on Facebook Application Development. Besides them, the event was made successful by Imran Mehedi, Sayma Jasmine, Md. Eftakhairul Islam Rain, Nasrat Sharif, Syeed Chowdhury, Prosunjit Mallick, Abu Dana Mohammad Khaled, Fahim Al Hasnaeen, Dipankar Chaki (Joy), Onishim Hasdak, Sinchan Pal Joy, Md. Imranul Islam, Shahriar Kabir and Ehsanul Alam Sabbir and others.

The audience was introduced to existing BUCC wings which work as virtual meeting places e.g. bucc for announcements, discussion and sharing thoughts, buacm for programming contests, buccphp for PHP workshops, bucclamp for web development using Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, bucclinux for Core Linux / FOSS related discussion, buswe for Software Engineering and Development , buccworkshop for C# (C Sharp) workshop, buccoracle for Oracle Database, and buccxml, a Special Interest Group (SIG) for working with XML.

Meeting on BUCC-BUNSC Joint Olympiad held

Members of Computer Club (BUCC) and Natural Sciences Club (BUNSC) are trying to organize an Olympiad. A meeting discussing the possibility, syllabus, and coordination was held on Wednesday, July 21st at UB1127. Primarily the syllabus will include Biology, Physics, Mathematics, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and Computer Engineering. Besides many others, Anik Momtaz, A.K.M. Nazmul Islam, Shammur Absar Chowdhury, Mahbub Zaman Ananda, Tanjina Islam, Amit Kumar Dey, Sayma Jasmine, Syeed Chowdhury, Prosunjit Mallick, Fahim Al Hasnaeen, Dipankar Chaki (Joy), Onishim Hasdak, Sinchan Pal Joy, Anik Hasan, Tanvir Roushan, Imran Mehedi, Iftekhar Mahmud Chowdhury, Sreoshee Rafiq, Iffah Chowdhury participated. The Olympiad is aimed to be held using moodle. Md. Shamsul Kaonain Noman, Co-Advisor of BUNSC, Nabila Naushin, Co-Advisor and Annajiat Alim Rasel, Advisor of BUCC were present as well. Another follow up meeting was held on the 25th of July, Sunday. The Olympiad is expected to be held in Fall 2010.

Computer Club attends Bontu-Mintu'r Adda at University of Dhaka

BUCC members have attended a very large gathering of Ubuntu and Linux Mint users on July 23rd 2010, Friday. Ehsanul Alam Sabbir, Amit Kumar Dey, Imran Hossain Shaon and Md. Eftakhairul Islam Rain were accompanied by the club advisor Annajiat Alim Rasel, junior lecturer, CSE. The event went on for more than 4.5 hours at R.C. Majumdar Auditorium, Dhaka University. Imran Hossain Shaon went to stage to express his concerns about lack of Linux kernel developers at Bangladesh and invited the community to get involved and to inspire others. He is also coordinating with the organizers seeking an opportunity to organize an event at BRAC University. Further details about the event can be found at this URL.

BUCC starts Workshop on Facebook Application Development

Staring on Saturday, July 24th, Md. Imran Hossain Shaon, is conducting a pilot Workshop on Facebook Application Development. Most have us have used one or more Facebook Application. However, many of us do not know how to create these types of Application, not even a simple one! Here Shaon shows participants how to get started with creating very simple Facebook applications. The workshop started with very basics like HTML, CSS and JavaScript and aims to go through FBML, REST API, and the latest Facebook Graph API. Among many others, Mohammad Mushfiqul Amin Takib, Rumman Bin Ashraf, Sayma Jasmine, Fahim Al Hasnaeen, Amit Kumar Dey, Syeed Chowdhury, A.K.M. Nazmul Islam, Anik Hasan, Shreya Sarker, Onishim Hasdak, Ehsanul Alam Sabbir were there.