Campus news

Children's art festival held

Children's art festival was held on October 24th, 2003 at Osmani Memorial Hall. More than five hundred children belonging to three age groups have participated in the festival. Environmental & Social Club of East West University organised the event. The program was inaugurated by Dr Mohammed Farashuddin, President, East West University. Syed Marghub Murshed, chairman BTRC and a popular environmental activist was present and distributed prizes. Mustafa Monwar eminent artist of the country was the judge for the competition.

A total number of nine prizes were given. The first prize was taka five thousand and a medal, the 2nd prize was taka three thousand and a medal and the thrid prize was taka one thousand and a medal. Malida Tasnem, Avin Narayan Kunda, & Mahin respectively secured first, second and third prizes from group A.

Md. Safayat Hosain, Esika Chodhury and Sharna respectively secured first, second and third prizes from group B and Tammana, Nusrat Alam and Rumki Sutrdhor respectively secured first, second and third prizes from group C. Among others Syed Ferhat Anwar, Pro VC, EWU, Firdous Ali, Registrar and S S Masudrul Huda, Assistant Professor and Moderator Environmental and Social Club were present at the occasion.

A dream

We see our parents going to offices and doing various types of business and banking activities. We all feel like to do that even for a short period of time to taste how it feels like to earn raw hard cash and make profit. For most of us it remains a dream. But for some AKS students it was full filled sooner than they expected. In one week they have experienced what it is like to set up, manage and run a successful business.

The business club of AKS had organised a business week for grades 9 to 12 business students. The students in group had to set up offices, firm, shops and stalls, following every essential steps from taking loans to start their business, buying shares from stock exchange, to ensuring security through the insurance companies. All this had to be done and at the same time they had to advertise their business through the media and agencies.
The first day of the business week was 19th September, Sunday. Insurance companies, ad firms, and banks were set up before that. Participants had to attend a 30 minute interview, where projects and business plans were approved. On the first day everyone was tensed and also very excited. The business activity was done during the tiffin break, which was extended from 20 to 35 minutes.

Just before the break all the food items arrived and delicious aroma filled the atmosphere. As soon as the bell rang all the participants rushed towards their stalls and were ready to sale. There was everything in the shops, jewellery, clothes, CDs, posters, paintings, sketches and surely lots of food. There were mood rings, skull rings, bracelets, earrings etc in the jewellery store.

The CD stores were filled with CD's of games, songs, movies etc. the paintings and sketches were simply awesome. And food was simply marvellous. There were chatpati, chicken fries, brownies, cakes, ice cream, kabab and nan, cold drinks of all sorts and what not. Wherever you look you will see people eating and eating and eating. Well that was what the customers saw. But behind the scenes there was a lot of hard work to be done. That was the accountancy work.

They had to keep a record of all their sales and purchases. They had to show this to their auditors (a student from grade 11) these records. They were to judge if they were in the right track.

The students were very busy the whole week. They didn't only work in the school, after school they had to go shopping everyday. Some changed their product everyday. In their shops they were always busy. People were giving 100 taka bills and they had to rummage through their money bags for change. Even after all this hurry they had to keep the record of every thing.

The ad firms did great. They had put up TVs in which they advertised the stalls and also the other firms (bank, etc). They also put up posters for the different stalls and used microphones. But the most unique was the mobile ad. A guy dressed in red and blue hung posters with the name of the stalls over his neck. He walked around the whole school and advertised about the stalls. Everybody enjoyed this. The banks, the insurance company and the stock exchange were having its usual features like interests, loans, shares etc.

After a whole week of business our business week ended on Thursday, October 19. The classes were dismissed at about 12 noon. After that the business teachers evaluated the participants on how well they did their business. This went on for about an hour or two. The rest of the students at this time were busy preparing for the open house.

As the day ended some students were found to be having some loss, but that was a few. Most of them could be seen having pocket full of profit! For all these students this was a big event. The idea was really great. Whatever we learn in school we learn. But when we learn like this we are able to experience the future, our future. We are shown the reason to learn, so that then we will be able to do it ourselves. We are all very grateful to the organising committee, all the business teachers, the auditors, our vice-principal and our principle. We really have lived a part of our dreams.

By Taseen Zaman

1.New tallest building of the world
There is a new structure to claim the honour of being the tallest in the world. The Taipei 101 office block, at 1667 feet, is at present the only building that can look down on the Petronas Twin Towers. At a ceremony witnessed by officials and business leaders of the city, a 197 feet spire was capped on the 101 story structure, officially making it taller than the 1483 feet twin towers in Kuala Lampur. The mayor of Taipei was also present on the occasion.

The ceremony was abuzz with one topic security in the face of a terrorist attack like the one that destroyed the World Trade Center. A recent survey shows most New Yorkers do not want a new "world's tallest" to be built on the site of WTC. Architects claim that Taipei 101, as the building is known, will be much better able to withstand a similar attack, allowing people more time to escape. However, most Taiwanese are more fearful of an earthquake than a terrorist attack. In the event of a big earthquake striking, even if the building does not collapse, it will still be a rather frightening sight.

Taiwan lies on a seismically active stretch of the pacific basin and was hit by an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale back in September 1999. The tremor killed more than 2400 people and destroyed or damaged 50000 buildings.

The Taipei 101 tower is designed to absorb earthquakes above seven on the Richter scale and also very strong gales. Made of steel, concrete and glass, the skyscraper will house a shopping mall, offices for 12000 people and the Taipei stock exchange. It is due to completed by 2004.

Taipei 101 has the world's fastest lifts: 34 double decker shuttles that can zoom at 37 mph and take passengers to the 90th floor in under 39 seconds.

Taipei is not the only city after the coveted title of the
host to the world's tallest building- Shanghai is building a skyscraper that may top Taipei 101by 2007.

2.A brand new treatment for phobia
Are you scared of spiders? Horrified by heights? Terrorised by close spaces? A recent study reveals that playing video games might help.

According to new study releases last Friday, regular, off-the-shelf pc games are an effective method of treating people's fears, using a style of therapy that exposes people to what scares them the most but in a controlled environment. The study, published in the October issue of the "Journal of Cyber psychology and behaviour", was conducted at the Universite du Quebec en Outaouais in Quebec, Canada.

The researchers found that pc games allow users to construct and change game environments, and with a headset that lets wearers simulate virtual reality, can be just as effective at stimulating phobic responses as dedicated simulation machines that can cost four times as much.

People with phobias are often treated with exposure therapy, where they gradually spend more and more time in the very type of environment that scares them, in an effort to reduce the fear response and get them to relax and get over their phobia.

The researchers used the game "Half Life" to generate a spider-laden environment for arachnophobic people, and "Unreal Tournament" to simulate heights for acrophobics and tight spaces for claustrophobics.

The study tested thirteen people with phobia as well as thirteen non-phobic people. The team used a low-end pc and a head-mounted display. The study subjects were run through the simulation and then tested on a series of scales to measure their responses. According to the researchers, the results demonstrate that despite their low cost and flexibility, pc games can be phobogenic. Moreover, these game environments can also produce the levels of anxiety that are most useful in therapy.

By Mohammad Hammad Ali