Celebrating the graduation of its latest batch by hosting the sixth convocation ceremony, JK Lakshmipat University, Jaipur, felicitated more than 123 students for successfully completing their graduate, post-graduate and PhD courses.

Anil Kakodkar, president, National School of Sciences, was the chief guest on the occasion. More than 123 students were felicitated for successfully completing their graduate, post-graduate and PhD courses.

Four students were awarded gold medals to recognise their excellence and hard work – Tanushka Jangid was recognised as Best Student in MBA; Tanuj Kumar as Topper in Computer Science Engineering; Gaurav Mishra as Topper in Mechanical Engineering and Karan Gupta as Best Student in Bachelor of Technology.

Congratulating the graduating students, R L Raina, vice chancellor, JKLU, said, “We have come a long way since 2011, when this experimental model first began. Quality higher education contributes to economic growth and human development simultaneously. Based on this principle, we will strive to develop world class research and learning exercises that will directly impact society and remain globally relevant,” he said.

Kakodkar in his address at the convocation observed that contrary to Western beliefs, India had been producing innovators and creative thinkers throughout its history.

“There exists a market willing to absorb fresh graduates with new and radical ideas. The students need to get passionately involved in converting challenges into opportunities and find ways to use technology and innovation in alleviating human suffering while creating wealth and prosperity for all,” he said. He urged students to persevere in their studies and search for solutions because learning is a lifelong journey whereas giving up is a permanent state of stagnation.

On the occasion, the university also inaugurated its two new Centres of Excellence — The Centre for Operations Excellence and the Centre for Data Sciences. The former will be a multi-disciplinary centre with capabilities in supply chain, manufacturing and service operations. To begin with, the centre will offer expertise in four areas such as powerful diagnostics, capability building workshops, operations excellence assessment and benchmarking and facilitation for global awards like Deming Grand Prize and TPM Excellence Award. The centre will be led by associate professor Yugal Nauhria, who brings versatile experience of consulting with clients in leading organisations.

The Centre for Data Sciences will focus on emerging areas which are impacting business and work across sectors. It will explore data cataloging, capability building for data-driven culture, analytics solutions and data science approaches in areas such as fraud analytics, sensor analytics, business intelligence, resource optimisation, investment modeling, marketing analytics, big data technologies, predictive analytics, machine learning, IoT streaming analysis among others. It will be led by associate professor Alok Kumar who is efficient in dealing with various aspects of data.