The Department of Chemistry at St Aloysius College (Autonomous), Mangalore has been organizing intercollegiate competitions for PU students over the last 10 years, and this year the department organized ChemConnect – ‘Igniting Young Minds’ a 3-day online competitions from 5th to 7th November, 2020 to create interest and awareness towards Science - Chemistry in particular. In order to felicitate the winners of Chem Connect the valedictory programme was organized on 30th January 2021 at Fr L F Rasquinha Hall, LCRI. 

The programme began with a prayer led by the St Aloysius Post Graduate students, followed by welcome address by Dr Ronald Nazareth – HOD of UG and PG Chemistry Department where he said “This College is known for all round development of the individual,  promoting extra-curricular activities, along with achieving academic pursuits and with your presence in our campus for the first time after 10 months we are sure that we are gradually creating more and more opportunities for the students to come into the campus. Department of Chemistry, St Aloysius College, Mangaluru believes that the basic science especially Chemistry is the way ahead in research and every other walk of life. The Department is involved in Chemistry Popularization programmes in the past few years.  As a result of this, there increasing trend in the students opting for Basic Sciences and this year the science courses in the College reached the full strengths in all the sciences departments for undergraduate programmes. It is heartening to observe that many academically oriented students take up basic scienceand also the college continuously organize programmes to give them a direction to choose their career in science”.

Dr Nazareth further said,” I feel proud to say that St Aloysius College is ranked 22nd at the All India Level for Science programmes and these programmes are ably guided by our Directors Dr John D’Silva at the UG level And Dr Richard Gonsalves at the PG level. Today a lot of debate is going on the concern that basic Science seems to be losing out to other disciplines, particularly the professional courses in attracting students. Even though the basic science stream has ample career opportunities, the widespread impression among students is that unlike professional courses, a career in basis science is not lucrative.Pre-University students are the right beneficiaries of a programme that can help them think beyond professional courses as a career”.

Prof Shivarama Holla, Professor, SDM College, Ujire was the Chief guest. Fr Dr Praveen Martis SJ, Principal St Aloysius College (Autonomous) presided over the programme; Dr Ronald Nazareth, Head of the Department of UG and PG Chemistry and Dr Roshan D’Souza, Coordinator were present on the dais.

Addressing the young minds chief guest Prof Shivarama Holla said, Igniting the young minds is the most important that is what we have been doing all these years right from the year after completing MSc. After which I began my teaching profession. Professional courses such as engineering, medical, etc. is one of the setbacks for chemistry education. He encouraged the students to take up basic sciences and have career in the same. Moreover, various Nobel Laurette’s inspiring stories were shared by him as how people took interest in day-to-day life where you have science coming in.

Rev Fr Praveen Martis SJ, in his presidential remarks said, “COVID-19 has taught us lot of things. In spite of having advances in chemistry, science and technology we still have a long way to go. I am sure young youngsters like you in the near future can make a difference. We are proud to be chemists and chemistry is part of our life and the ones who have chosen chemistry we are truly enjoying we know that everything part of our life is Chemistry. We have great personality Alfred Nobel, Michael Faraday who inspire us to take up the field of science and do a wonderful work.I compliment the department of chemistry for their great efforts in organizing this Fest, which has received tremendous response this year with 15 colleges participating online mode. Chem Connect is indeed a name kept for all the budding scientists here. Many more attempts like this will boost students to consider basic science as a career and will definitely combat the general decline of students taking basic science.”
“Chem Connect – Igniting Young Minds” - three-day online competitions for Pre-university students which was held from 5 to 7 November 2020. Students from different PU colleges from in and around Karnataka participated in various competitions during these three days.  About 250 participants from different institutions participated through Zoom platform. Dr Pavan Kumar N, Assistant Professor at the Newcastle University in Singapore was the chief guest for the program. Dr Pavan Kumar inaugurated the event and delivered keynote speech by firstly highlighting the significance of research guided teaching and hands-on research and recommended some crucial research areas in Biochemical areas. 

Over the three days, students from different PU collegeswere engaged in various creative and thought-provoking competitions. A total of twelve online activities ranging from singing, photography, videography, creative writing, quiz, video juggling, mock press, comedy, seminar and other interactive sessions were meticulously organized and conducted by the staff of Department of Chemistry. 

The overall winners was won by Little Rock Indian School, Brahmavar and overall runners were backed by Expert Pre-University College, Mangaluru.

The programme was concluded with National Anthem.