Outstanding Student Volunteer - Nupur Kulkarni

Nupur Kulkarni is a final year IT Engineering Student from Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering, Pune. To describe herself in a few words, she says that she is a Jack of all Trades. Nupur  is a highly  ambitious person and is always open to changes. She undertakes tasks that help her come out of her comfort zone and unravel my hidden skills. Coming to Pune from Nagpur (a city in Maharashtra) for Engineering was one such attempt where she wanted to come out of the nutshell and see if she could thrive well in the outside world.

Social Responsibility: Since my childhood, I have been inclined towards the social sector, especially childcare. Presently, I work with an NGO called ‘Make a Difference’ where I work for the children in shelter homes(childcare institutions) who have undergone adverse childhood experiences.

An IT student Nupur is very keen on developing software’s for the benefit of individuals and society. She has been inclined towards emerging technologies like Blockchain, IOT, etc. One of her hobbies, which has eventually turned into a skill, is writing. She is very passionate about writing, possibly because she is an avid reader and loves literature. As she loves reading and writing, she is eager to learn different languages and explore different cultures. In my Engineering, she has tried to hone my leadership skills through platforms like IEEE.

Talking about her research interests she says to have gained a deep interest in research and has also authored a research paper published by IEEE now and published a patent as well.

To summarize, Nupur is deeply interested in serving society with her skill set and being a better person each day by being balanced.

Her contribution in IEEE last year was as follows:

  1. Secretary, PCCOE IEEE Student Branch, Pune – She made sure that the students get maximum opportunities to participate in events at Section, India Council and R10. It was during her tenure as a Secretary that our Student Branch received “Student Branch of the year” Award in IEEE Pune Section Awards 2020.
  2. SSR, IEEE Pune Section: Her main focus has been on setting right processes in the Section, which can be leveraged by the upcoming Student Committees.
  3. She, along with my team, came up with the unique concept of youth-based podcasts, conducted interviews for the same and formed a Podcast team in the Pune Section.
  4. She initiated an activity called “IEEE Experience Diaries”, where active IEEE volunteers share their experiences of working at the Section level. This motivated a lot of members to take IEEE membership and also boosted our Section’s social media presence.
  5. She planned IEEE Membership Awareness Sessions in every Student Branch of Pune. This helped the membership retention.
  6. During her tenure, IEEE Membership Drive was successfully conducted, and we were able to become a Large Section from a Small Section.
  7. She was also the Student Coordinator of the National flagship event of Pune Section called Eu-Reka, and she and her team could bring in about 500 participants for the event, with their unique strategies like Instagram Live, quizzes to engage everyone, Eu-Reka volunteer program, Find your teammate program, etc.
  8. Networking Coordinator, IEEE India Council: She actively reached out to the SB chairs to talk about the events that they conduct, planned and executed networking sessions for the Student Coordination Team. Currently she is working for SB Associate Program in AISYWLC

Nupur has been an active IEEE volunteer from a very long time, her past years(2019-21)  contributions include:

  1. An active Volunteer at PCCOE IEEE Student Branch
  2. Design Team lead, IEEE Pune Section
  3. Newsletter Team member, IEEE Pune Section
  4. WIE Student Coordinator, IEEE Pune Section: Under the guidance of Mrs. Meera Thorat ma’am, she was able to organize a webinar on “Career Advancement with WIE Membership” and it was highly appreciated by all.
  5. Volunteer, WIE Symposium by IEEE Pune Section
  6. Participant: She is of the opinion that being an active participant in IEEE events is also a contribution. She has participated in Eu-Reka consecutively for 2 years in 2019 and 2020, IEEE Xtreme 14.0, PSYWC 2020, AISYWLC 2020, offline seminars in AISSMS, Pune before covid situation, etc.

She believes herself to be  suitable for the “Outstanding Student Volunteer Award” for the following reasons:

  1. She has been an active and consistent volunteer as well as an active participant in activities conducted at Student Branch, Section, India Council and R10 as well.
  2. During her volunteering, she completed every task assigned to her with dedication and perseverance, by equally balancing my academics and other commitments like internships, NGO volunteering work, technical courses, etc.
  3. She has been helping the society from the time where she participated in Eu-Reka 2019 organized by IEEE Pune Section. This event inspired her to work for the children and hence she joined an Indian NGO called Make a Difference in 2020.
  4. She is very keen on tracking the progress of my Student Branch by making them understand the Benefits of IEEE membership and encouraging them to get that. She also encourage her Student Branch members to participate in all the events, apply for project funding, sponsorships, internships offered by our Section and also encourage them to apply for awards in different categories.
  5. At Section level, she has been instrumental in providing volunteering opportunities to the volunteers in National Conferences like Returning Mothers Conference, etc, when they can get a great exposure and they can network with people across India. At the same time, she ensures that my team is taken care of from time to time and I keep checking on them often.
  6. She has been an active volunteer at the Section since 2020. She also received the “Student Member Volunteer of the year” Award in “IEEE Pune Section Awards 2020”.

An all-rounder, Nupur has made a plethora of contributions apart from IEEE as well:

  1. Her team “Techmogeeks” was the winner of Smart India Hackathon 2020 for problem statement CK146 proposed by DRDO – Captcha Authentication System for Visually Impaired people. It was a project for a social cause.
  2. She successfully completed German language A1 international certification and is currently guiding other students in her college for the same.
  3. She was recruited as an Academic Support Volunteer in one of the top NGOs in India which is “Make A Difference” in the year 2020, where she taught Maths to 5th and 9th std kids. She was promoted to Shelter Operations Fellow Role (“Pune City Manager”) in Make a Difference NGO in the year 2021. As a part of that role, she had to handle several projects like volunteer recruitment, fundraising, online classes for kids in orphanages, social media campaigning, etc.
  1. She authored a Book chapter “A Deep Dive into Blockchain Consensus Algorithms”, which is going to be included in the book “BlockChain for Smart Systems: Computing Technologies and Applications, CRC Press (Taylor and Francis)
  2. She has been invited as a speaker for different sessions related to Higher Studies, where she has shared my Experience related to GRE Exam and profile building and is also mentoring several students one on one regarding higher studies.
  3. She has worked as an “Institutional Social Responsibility Cell” Representative and conducted Kerala Flood Relief Drive as a part of the cell.
  4. As she is pursuing IT Engineering, I, along with my team, initiated a coding club called CodeZone for her juniors in Second year of Engineering, and she has conducted several sessions for them live as well as on YouTube.
  5. Shewas an active volunteer in a National Event of our college called “Techligent”, wherein she was the leader of the event ” Project Competition”.
  6. Her research paper “Doodling Based Captcha Authentication System” has been published by IEEE in IEEE Xplore. She presented the paper in ASIANCON 2021.