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Grade 12 students of BDU-STEM Center, SOS Bahir Dar and Blessed G/Michael Catholic high school students paid a visit to various laboratories and workshops of Ethiopian Institute of Textile and Fashion Technology (EITEX), BIT (Bahir Dar Institute of Technology), EMTI (Ethiopian Maritime Training Institute) and courts of Sport Academy.

 

The visit was organized as part of the year long Diamond Jubilee celebration of Bahir Dar University. During their visit, students were briefed about the history of the university and its present status by Tamiru Delelegn, Alumni Affairs Coordinator of the University. Besides, inspirational stories of its notable alumni were also imparted to the high school seniors.

 

A similar event is planned to be organized by the exhibition committee of the anniversary celebration on monthly basis for similar groups of students from other secondary schools in the city.

The 3rd Annual Sports Festival of Bahir Dar Correction Facility commences
The 3rd Annual Sports Festival of Bahir Dar Correction Facility started today. The festival was organized by the Sport Academy of Bahir Dar university in association with the City's Correction Facility.
During its 3rd annual opening ceremony, the administrator of the facility Commander Abraham Tesfa expressed his deepest gratitude to the City's municipality for improving the quality of the playing grounds and the university's Sport Academy for maintaining its commitment in organizing the annual sport festival.
The festival's organizing team leader, Ato Daniel Getinet from Sport Academy, BDU has forwarded his recognition to individuals & organizations who sponsored the event covering cost of sport kits.
Besides, he presented his appreciation for the inmates for their discipline and the facility for the keen support in hosting the event each year.
Dr. Gashaw Tessema, Vice Dean of the Academy's Research and Community Service Office, stressed the importance of building the youth mentally, physically, socially and emotionally during their correction periods in the facility and reiterated his office's commitment to its realization.
Following the inaugrative speeches, friendly volleyball matches were played between BDU's Business and Economics College and the Facility's best team that lifted the inmates trophy cup. Moreover, rope pulling (Tug of war) competition was held between Zone 1 & zone 2 inmates in which the latter became triumphant. The last match of the opening day ended when Zone 5 beat Zone 4 inmates 3-0 in soccer.

Daniel Mebrhatu founder and owner of Dan-Technocraft company that specialized in the production of escalators and elevator is seen standing right with a hat along with his classmate  Engineer Wubishet Hailu founder and owner of WATT Electromechanical and Pile foundation and Water Well Drilling Enterprise.They both belonged to Electrical Technology graduates of 1965 E.C. Technologist Daniel Mebrhatu was the first of Poly Technic Institute/PTI/ graduates to be an entrepreneur starting with curving letter templates for offices of the Ministry of Education and remain being unemployed by any  company other than developing his own. Engineer Wubishet started his business life being employed with 100 birr  in a governmental company during summer breaks right before joining PTI as a freshman. He managed to buy his first employing company 25 years later, during privatization periods of the late 1980s.

Alumni Celebration

Our alumni held their first conference

Poly-Peda-Bahir Dar university alumni held their first conference today at the National Alcohol hall celebrating BDU'S Diamond Jubilee in the presence of the University’s president. The conference was opened by head of the organizing alumni committee, Engineer Gizachew who emphasized the importance of Alumni Associations to maintain ties among former graduates and to contribute to the development of their universities. Guest of honor of the program Dr. Firew Tegegne, President of the university, presented about the development of the university  from the 5 pioneering technology programs of PTI to the 430+ curricular programs currently run by Bahir Dar university. He remembered the professional discipline and practical skills of PTI graduates with their everlasting fraternal relationships.

The other major event in the conference was sharing of success stories of the former graduates. Engineer Shewaferaw presented the works of some notable PTI technology graduates like Daniel Mebrhatu who established his own private companies, Dan Technocraft, which are on the eve of celebrating their own Golden Jubilee. Similar presentations were made by Engineer Ashenafi Desalegn on achievements of PolyTechnic Engineering graduates like Engineer Melak who is working at NASA. Besides, former graduates like Engineer Wubishet Hailu had presented success stories of his "WATT International PLC" which has worked in 70+ cities of Ethiopia on water related projects. Ato Yonathan Menkir also shared his ventures on aviation consultancy and volunteerism.  Engineer Aysheshim presented about the development of PAN (Poly Alumni Network) from sharing friends' pain to a registered graduates association in the USA.

Finally, Dr.Zewdu Emiru, BDU's Vice President for Information and Strategic Communications, closed the meeting thanking all who committed themselves to the realization of the conference. He promised that the university will recognize Alumni who had uniquely contributed to the development of the scientific profession and national development. At the end, he called for all former graduates to come and celebrate BDU'S anniversary closing ceremony and Alumni Day events to be celebrated at Bahir Dar in the first week of June.

Lastly, the 3rd director of PTI, Ato Million Belete and Dr. Hailu Araya who was among the earliest instructors of English language at the institute extended their gratitude and pleasure for the group for inviting them honorably at the event.

 

 

Anniversary Memories

Poly's craft of teaching: Learning by Doing!

Industrial chemistry, Textile Technology, Electrical Technology, Woodwork Technology, Metal Technology and Agromechanics students of the former Poly Technic Institute (BIT-BDU now) mastering technical skills in their workshops during the early 1960s (Courtesy: BDU Museum).

The pictures speak volumes!

Click for the pictures: https://www.facebook.com/bduethiopia/posts/pfbid0cjA5p3yBeknH5HfBubzZR88...

The Minister of Ministry of Education Professor Birhanu Nega and the Minister of State for Education Dr. Samuel Kifle held discussion on the topic of making Bahir Dar University Autonomous in the presence of senior officials of the university including the president.

Opening the discussion, Dr. Frew welcomed the guests and mentioned that the university has been doing a lot to make the university a research university by forming a seven-member committee. The chairperson of the committee, Dr. Dagnachew Aklog, introduced in detail the activities carried out and pointed out that the university would do better in many ways with an autonomous administration.

Prof. Birhanu Nega on his part said that unlike other government institutions, universities are required to be autonomous with an ambition to help create a society that seeks knowledge and truth, as well as a generation that thinks freely and is devoted to the country. The professor explained that change is needed to become autonomous and the restructuring will be done in a way that doesn't affect anyone and hence the society should not be afraid of the change.

Minister of State for Education, Dr. Samuel Kifle in the paper he presented explained the criteria used to become an autonomous university. He added the government’s support and supervision doesn’t stop because of autonomy. Expressing that the discussion is the first to be held with universities concerning autonomy, Dr. Samuel said the team from the Ministry will come back after 6 months and take a look at the university's capacity and the activities carried out according to the directions given and make decision.

Bahir Dar University and the Amhara Regional Agricultural Bureau in collaboration with Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA), a humanitarian organization, signed an agreement to provide new curricula to rural development station workers. The parties entering into this memorandum of understanding will enable them to provide training to rural development station workers in four new curricula.

Dr. Bimrew Tamrat, Scientific Director of Bahir Dar University Institute of Technology, who signed the agreement on behalf of Bahir Dar University, stated that Bahir Dar University is one of the largest in the country offering various programs up to PhDs. However, Dr. Bimrew added, much is expected from institutions like BDU to focus on solving community problems through research based knowledge.

Signing the agreement on behalf of the Regional Agriculture Bureau, the Deputy Head of the Bureau, Dr. Almaz Gizew said that the Sasakawa Africa Association is working together with the universities and the Agriculture Bureau to achieve the national goals set by the government.

Dr. Almaz said that there are more than 31,000 rural development station workers in the region. She added that if proper work is not done by revising the current curriculum to match the number of workers, it will not be able to bring about change. The head of the office emphasized that it is difficult to see changes in agriculture through campaign based moves; it rather requires scholars to support the sector with research and technology inputs.

Dr. Getachew Alemayehu, Dean of the College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences at Bahir Dar University told the participants that despite the purchase of machinery to modernize the agriculture in the region, machineries are still not in use and are broken due disuse because of the lack of manpower to operate them, so Dr. Getachew called for all concerned to cooperate and train experts to be able to use the machineries at disposal.

Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) Country Director, Dr. Fentahun Mengstie, explained how Sasakawa was founded. He recalled that since 1986, the productivity of Ethiopia's agriculture has decreased in all crops, and the country's total production was 54 million quintals. At that time, there was drought and food security problems, so Sasakawa was brought to life by a Japanese investor in 1993.

Mentioning the fact that Sasakawa has been doing great work in research and training since its establishment, Dr. Fentahun said it will continue working hard to modernize agriculture in the country.

The four curricula under review were: Crop Science extension, Animal Science extension, Natural Science Management extension and Horticulture Science extension.

The College of Education and Behavioral Sciences held an international workshop commemorating its 50th anniversary.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of Bahir Dar University's College of Education and Environmental Sciences, a discussion was held in the main campus auditorium on the theme “Promoting international partnership for sustainable institutional development” in the presence of UNESCO representatives, international education experts, other stakeholders and the university community.

In his opening speech president of the university, Dr. Firew Tegegne said that the role of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the college to emerge as a strong institution that maintains the quality of education in Africa by supporting its research and teaching activities in the field of education since its establishment has been paramount.

Dr. Firew added that the college is in a good position in the journey to become one of the 10 research universities in Africa through its strengthened effort to living its central establishment objective of education since its inception. Dr. Firew gave a brief account of the major accomplishments of Bahir Dar University, a focus being on the College of Educational and behavioural sciences.

Promoting international partnership for sustainable institutional development: UNESCO in Focus panel discussion with UNESCO delegates and other stakeholders

 Mr Firmin Matoko, Assistant Director-General for Priority Africa and External relations at UNESCO on his part expressed that the work done by his organization in the field of education with College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Bahir Dar University since its inception has been successful.

He said that for the continuation of the researches done by the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences of Bahir Dar University in the field of education, UNESCO, together with partner institutions, has provided various resources, starting with the capacity building of teachers and the installation of smart boards in the college's classrooms. Mr Firmin Matoko said that his organization (UNESCO) is working with Bahir Dar University in education, culture, information exchange and science. The director added it has recently been communicated with UNESCO's Addis Ababa branch office to collaborate with the college to run two projects related to education.

In the event, Dr. Manendante Mulugeta, External Relations and Partnership Director of the University presented a brief on the successful partnership between Bahir Dar University and UNESCO. 

Graduating students are taking training

The University’s ICT directorate in collaboration with the training Directorate of the university is offering training on the needed skills and knowledge on Learning Management Systems/LMS/ for class of 2023 for them to be able to take the national exit exam online. Mr Yibeltal Maru, Director of the ICT directorate and one of the trainers said that the training is given to the graduating students for them to practice and be familiar with the LMS before they actually sit for the national exit exam.

In accordance with the government's guidelines for the undergraduate students (both government and private) graduating in 2023(2015 E.C) to take the exit exam online, an online exit exam will be administered for a total of 5,169 graduating students in our university through the Learning Management System (LMS).

Ethiopian Fisheries and Aquatic Science Association held its 14th conference

The Ethiopian Fisheries and Aquatic Science Association held its 14th conference under the theme “Environmental Protection and Food Security Improvement through Management” for two consecutive days (from February 25-26/2023) at the Wisdom Hall, Bahir Dar University.

In his opening speech Dr. Firew Tegegne introduced the university's various engagements in learning, teaching, research, community service and cooperation with international and national partners.

The president added that the university has various centers that make it unique from other universities in the country in that it is carrying out extensive works in the field of aqua-culture, and that it is the only in the country in training marine Engineers by establishing a Maritime Academy. The university has also done commendable community services to Bahir Dar and other places in a close radius from the university one of which can be the structural plan of Bahir Dar city which the university submitted to the municipality.

President of the Ethiopian Fisheries and Aquatic Science Association, Mrs. Berhan Mohamed, stated that it is 16 years since the association is established. The president said that the main objective of the association is to ensure that water and the biodiversity in the water are protected and properly taken care of to facilitate economic growth for the surrounding communities. The conferences convened contributed highly in scientifically identifying the prevailing problems, and proposing policy solutions to solve the problems.

It is not only the water that is lost due to improper handling of water, but also fishes and the general aquatic biodiversity as well as the surrounding communities benefit, so the President emphasized that everyone should develop the habit of protecting and preserving rivers from any kind of pollution and water resources such as fish in the water unconditionally.

In the conference where members of the association, senior officials and fishermen participated, many research papers were presented by scholars with vast experience in the field.

Among the presenters, Professor Broock Lemma teacher and researcher at Addis Ababa University pointed out that the main and visible problem responsible for the depletion of water and fish resources is the farming of the receding land which resulted from the ever growing population in our country. On the other hand, the invisible problem is the release of various chemicals into the water bodies. The professor emphasized that measures should be taken to preserve the biosphere and the biodiversity.

 

Among the participants of the conference, Mrs. Zewdie Alamirew, who is a fisher herself, said that in addition to siltation, the use of large nets in Lake Tana by illegal fishermen exhausted small fishes of various species making the life of legal fishermen very difficult as the amount of fish is decreasing with time.

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