Four students develop web software

BHUBANESWAR: Vice-Chancellor (V-C) of Utkal University Prashant Kumar Sahoo on Tuesday inaugurated a web software, developed by four varsity students, that would facilitate e-admission to PG courses from the ensuing academic session.Aspirants to PG courses, including self-financed courses, at Vani Vihar can now apply online for admission. They can download forms and deposit them with fees at the varsity counters physically. The process will, however, be phased out over the years, making the process completely paperless.The software has been prepared by four Integrated Master of Computer Application (IMCA) students __ Chandrasekhar Biswal, Kamalakant Pradhan, Javed Anwar and Abhinash Sahoo. On the occasion, the V-C said the e-admission would make the process much faster. Now, several students from far-flung areas would also be able to apply, he said.The university has put in place its own server for facilitating the e-admission and the existing server, to which the Utkal University website is connected, will not be used. The existing server is managed by ‘All India Online’ agency and was hacked just two days back. “The server that will be used in e-admission belongs to the Utkal University Computer Centre and is hack-proof. In another 15 days, we would procure a dedicated server for both the e-admission purpose and the varsity website,” said PG Council Chairman P K Sarkar. He added the varsity website will be upgraded in a few days.Congratulating the students, the V-C said hiring a professional agency for creating the e-admission software would have cost the varsity lakhs, but the students have done it for free. The four students developed the software in two months. They will be in charge of maintenance and development of the software for another three years. As part of the software, the students have also created a help desk to address students’ problems, if any, during the e-admission process. “We have developed a foolproof system and are hopeful that the students will not face any problems. But if there is any problem, they can contact us at the mobile numbers that will be provided in the website,” said Chandrasekhar.  The university authorities have also decided to standardise the application fee for all the courses from this year. The application fee has been hiked to ` 400.