UrbaneXT’23 and UNNOVATIONS’23
Bureau,Odishabarta
Bhubaneswar, hosted two Student Fests UrbaneXt’23 and UNNOVATIONS’23 on 6th and 7th October 2023.
The two annual urban ideas fests invite school students and college students respectively to engage and ideate on urban sustainability challenges through a variety of academic and cultural competitions. Dr. Kajri Misra, Dean of the School of Human Settlements, opened the events by explaining the crucial role of cities for achieving global sustainability, and the need for youth to consider the ways in which they could contribute to resolving urban resilience and sustainability issues.
Over 200 students across the country registered in the various competitions, including ‘Mayoral Speech’ and ‘Mayor’s Discourse’, urban quizzes ‘Quizzite’ and ‘Urban Trivia’, essay writing in ‘Urban Saga’, developing ideas for greener and sustainable habitats in the ‘Dream City’, and ‘Solve for Tomorrow’ exercises, and making products out of waste in ‘Re-Use’. Competitions like urban theme and issue-based photography, face painting and dances were also creative ways of stimulating urban thinking among the participants.
The Fest was organized by the Habitux Organizing Committee comprising Ms. Baivaba Swikruti Dash (HabituX Student Co-ordinator), Mr. Siddharth Dash (Deputy Co-ordinator and Treasurer), Ms. Nadiya Chloe Heinriques (Student Secretary, SHS), Ms. Saujanya Rout (Class Representative MURP 2022-24), Ms. K. Divya Jyoti (Class Representative MBA UMG 2022-24), and Ms.Debzane Pati (RMT Representative, SHS). Students of the Masters in Urban and Regional Planning programme and students of the MBA-Urban Management and Governance programme provided support in coordinating the fest. Prof. Annam Sai Kiran, Prof. Shraddha Kumar and Prof. Tiyali Bose were the Faculty Advisors.