Why did i participated ?

Hi friends!
I am writing the following summary of my experiences in order to share what
I learned in participating in various events during my B.Pharm. VIth Semester.
I was introduced to the concept of paper presentation, poster presentation and
taking part in various technical events by my faculty and was exposed to its
intricacies by my engineering field friends but as there are hardly any such
events being organized for the pharmacy undergraduate students, so I never got
a chance to take part in them.

This semester I got what I was looking for, a chance to participate in a state
level paper presentation competition, organized by Gujarat council of science
and technology (GUJCOST) for under graduate and post graduate students. I with
the help of my friends Janki Bhatt and Priyanka Madia and my faculty guide Dr.
Avani Amin zeroed on the topic “Services provided by various pharmacies
in various countries – A survey” Here, the survey part
was something we were keen to try but, it also had a certain uncertainty, whether
we would get enough responses to present a clear picture of the dispensing pharmacy
practice in various countries. But we managed to get a decent no of responses
from various parts of the globe. The survey technique was simple; we prepared
a questionnaire and mailed it to as many pharmacies as possible. Then based
on their answers we prepared a statistical output and got the results based
on them. Although the survey was a success and was appreciated, we didn’t
bag a prize in the competition. Even then the experience I got was useful in
knowing my weakness and I worked on them. The results showed soon when I and
a friend of mine Krupa Kambdar bagged the second prize in poster presentation
competition at ‘Chemozale’, a national level event. The poster was
on “Nanoscience and Nanotechnology – Applications and Societal
implications”. This time I got to know a new aspect of presentation,
importance of picturesque of a poster. In a paper presentation more emphasis
is on the slide presentation along with data, as its main aim is to get the
listener to understand it. Whereas, in a poster what matters is how attractive
have u made the poster using figures and diagrams, cause a poster should leave
an impact on the viewer. We did just that and won.

At this point an important question that will come in your mind is ‘How
will taking part in such events will help us?’ Well the answer is simple,
participating in such events refines a student’s skills of data collection,
interpretation, presentation and moreover we get to improve our public speaking
skills (which will help us in long run, working in firm or running one’s
own business etc.) and ya! it also adds a certificate (participation or winning)
to our CV and enhances it.

Taking the pick and realizing the importance of such events, we at the Institute
of Pharmacy are in process of organizing a national level event in near future.

Bye

Take care

Himanshu Mishra, Semester VIth,

Institute of Pharmacy, N.U.S.T,

Ahmedabad, India.