On 6th of March, 2019 the Department of the Mathematics and Natural Sciences and Institute for Developing Science and Health Initiatives (ideSHi) jointly organized a blood screening programme to know the frequency of thalassemia carrier at Brac University. Two hundred and one person (mostly students of various department) were screened on that programme.
MNS department has organized a three-day long workshop on Audio Engineering titled “Discovering the Art of Audio” and was held in 21-23 March at UB21913. There were 23 participants from different universities which includes BracU, NSU and DU participated in the workshop.
The workshop was facilitated by Aynus Tazwar Haque, a professional Audio engineer and a Brac University APE alumni. Two other professional trainers Abdul Wazed Charu from NTV and Abdullah Al Masud from LRB also conducted short sessions. Three main components of audio engineering; studio production, live mixing and mastering audio were covered in detail in the workshop. The workshop of this kind is believed to bring back the lost charm of Physics and Applied Physics to the students and can create new placement opportunity for the students in the industry. Mr. Mohammad Mosaddidur Rahman, Senior Lecturer of MNS department coordinated the whole program.
Two students of BS in Biotechnology program defended their undergraduate theses on 7 March, 2019. Romi Marina George presented her work on microbial characterization tiled “Isolation and Characterization of Low Density Polyethylene Degrading and Biosurfactant Producing Bacteria from Soil” and other student Tanzir Rasul Taman presented his work on “Analysis of Envelope Glycoprotein E of West Nile Virus as an Epitope for Vaccine Development”.Six students Mutebi John Kenneth, Kisuule Gordon, Maliha Tabassum Rashid, Rifaquat Ahmed, Samiha Ashreen and Rose Prema Gomez presented their Industrial attachment presentation on the same day.
The Viva-Voce Examination for the presentation was chaired by Professor AFM Yusuf Haider, Chairperson, Department of MNS. Dr. Mahboob HossainDr.Iftekhar Bin Naser , Ms. Romana Siddique and Mahbubul Hasan Siddiqee of the Biotechnology program , Department of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, were also present as members of the Examination Committee.
Another thesis presentation was done on 28 March 2019 where Abrar Nadeem has given his thesis presentation on “Microbial Risk Assessment of Surface Waters in Dhaka city”. On the same day four students Ritwika Shamshad, Jannatul Sumaiya, Kazi Ruksaad and Sajid Ahmed have given their Industrial attachment presentation.
Two students of BS in microbiology program defended their undergraduate theses on 28 March, 2019. Olema Taj Rahman and Niaj Mohammad Tanvir presented the results of their study in the field medical microbiology titled “PCR based analysis of single nucleotide polymorphsim in beta casein A1 and A2 gene of bovine in Bangladesh”” and “Immunionformatics approaches towards developing vaccine/therapeutic agent against Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus by targeting nsp3 protein” respectively.
The Viva-Voce Examination for the presentation was chaired by Professor A.F.M. Yusuf Haider, Chairperson, Department of MNS, Professor M, Mahboob Hossain, of the microbiology program and Ms Fahareen-Binta Mosharraf, Senior Lecturer of the microbiology program were also present as members of the Examination Committee. The committee highly commended the work carried out by the students.
The monthly seminar talk of the MNS department for the month of March, 2019 was presented by Mohammed Abdus Samad, Senior Scientific Officer (SSO), Food Safety Laboratory, Animal Health Research Division, Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute, Savar, Dhaka on Thursday the 21st March, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. The topic of the seminar was “Prevalence of Multi-drug Resistant Salmonella spp. in retail meats of Super Shop: a food safety risk”. Faculty members and students of MNS department were present in the seminar.
Brac University Natural Sciences Club organized the first ever nature carnival at BracU premises, on 31st of March, 2019. The main objective behind organizing the event was to raise a sense of awareness with regard to using artificial and synthetic products and encourage everyone to use more products of nature. The carnival was inaugurated by Dr. Mohammad Rafiqul Islam, Advisor of the club. The carnival had famous vendors from the city selling organic food, cosmetics, handicraft items, jute products, ornaments, accessories and home decor items. It also had various food stalls from many famous food hubs across the city. The carnival was a day-long event which had the students of the BRAC University as well as the faculties and many distinguished guests visiting the stalls all through the day. Natural Sciences Club also arranged an interactive talk session at the carnival where the speakers for the event comprised entrepreneurs of many stalls who participated in the carnival. The session was interplay between the fellow speakers and the audience where many aspects of the carnival were discussed, questioned and answered. Lady Syeda Sarwar Abed, the chairperson of MNS, Professor Dr. A.F.M. Yusuf Haider, , Dr. Mohammad Rafiqul Islam and Mr. Md. Saddam Hossain (co-advisor of the club) were present in the interactive talk session, prize and certificate giving ceremony. The carnival was brought to a close with a cultural program where the performers treated the audience with performances of songs and dances. The event partner and the print news media partner for the Nature Carnival was Styline Cosmetics and Daily Star respectively.