A variety of seminars, workshops, conferences and training sessions are organised throughout the year for students and faculty alike to provide an opportunity to interact closely with the extended academic fraternity and doyens of industry. Such events also propel camaraderie amongst the students as they are instrumental in organising these events. It also helps build students’ confidence to present their ideas in front of an informed audience.

Over 30 such initiatives were held last year at UPES. The major ones include:

• Project Finance Management for the Energy Sector
  UPES conceptualized and organized a two-day conference on Project Finance Management for the Energy Sector on April 15 & 16, 2010 at the Taj Mahal Hotel in New Delhi. The response to the conference was overwhelming both from the participants as well as Distinguished Speakers and the Session Chairmen. The event brought together Chairmen, Directors and other Senior Management Professional in the energy, banking and financial sectors from Power Corporations and Consulting and Service organizations.

The event was organized in association with SCOPE and was supported by HPCL, OIL, CPCL and SBI Capital Markets Ltd. The knowledge support was from Ernst & Young and the media partnership was with Business Standard.

• Oil & Gas HR Roundtable
  Human Resource Management (HRM) is at the core of growth and development plans of every organization, be it marketing, R&D, finance or technical areas. The Indian School of Petroleum & Energy (ISPe) , a sister institution of UPES, designed the Oil & Gas HR Roundtable in 2002 and has successfully hosted six conferences since then. The event has, over the years, developed as an important forum for HR professionals from the Oil & Gas industry to discuss, deliberate and find solutions to some of the complex HR issues faced by the industry at large.

Spread over a day and a half in Mumbai, the event has a program director, who is either a practicing Oil & Gas HR professional from the industry or has worked in the HR function. HR Heads along with their teams from the top 5 PSUs, IndianOil, ONGC, GAIL, Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum, along with Reliance Industries are invited to speak at the conference on the theme chosen for that year. List of attendees include HR heads and professionals from Oil & Gas sector and allied service organizations. The professional wizards meet every every year to discuss and present view point on issues related to the theme.

The themes for the previous conferences have been:

• 2002 – Strategic HRM Challenges in the Deregulated Hydrocarbon Sector
• 2003 – Meeting HR Challenges through Organizational Transformation Processes in the Hydrocarbon Sector
• 2004 – Optimization
• 2005 – Competency Driven HR Systems & Processes
• 2006 – Leveraging Outsourcing for Competitive Success
• 2007 – Talent Management in Oil & Gas Industry
• 2008 – Talent Portfolio Management
• 2009 – Creating Genext Oil & Gas Business Leaders
• 2010 – Discovering New Talent

• Academic Research Report on ‘Space Tourism in India’
  An academic research report on Space Tourism in India conducted by students and faculty members of the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies (UPES), Dehradun in association with the Institute of Air & Space Law, McGill University, Montreal, Canada was released by Dr Nasim Zaidi, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India on 30 March 2011.
  
  Applauding the efforts of UPES on the accomplishment of this Report, Dr Zaidi, Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation expressed his belief that, “In the years to come, this Report, the first ever in the country, will serve as a basic report for future research reports in the rapidly emerging field of space tourism and hence a truly momentous occasion for the University”. He also stated that the Report was impressive in its contents and perspectives on the present and future challenges of this emerging industry.
  
  Speaking on the release of the Research Report, Dr Parag Diwan, Vice Chancellor, UPES said, “This is the first such Study in India in which a team of Research Assistants and Teachers from the fields of Management, Law and Aerospace Engineering have collaborated and brought their respective interdisciplinary perspectives to bear on an emerging area of commercial endeavour. It is hoped that the Study Report will bring about critical thinking and also serve as a basis for carrying out further research in this field”.
  To view the report click here
  
• National Conference on Emerging Trends in Communication
  Centre for Communication organized two- day National Conference on Emerging Trends In Communication : Corporate and Academic’on 03-04 Dec. 2010 at UPES campus, Bidholi, Dehradun. The purpose of the conference was to concentrate on efforts to analyze, understand and help, harnessing the potentials and overcome problems in communication. The conference draw the attention on the various issues and aspects pertaining to the effective communication and challenges.

• Conference on Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP)
  A Conference on “Employee Stock Option Plan (ESOP)” was organized by UPES in association with SCOPE on August 10, 2010 at SCOPE complex, New Delhi. Mr Sumit Bose, Secretary, Ministry of Finance (Dept of Disinvestment) along with Dr U D Choubey, Director General, SCOPE inaugurated the conference that aimed to enhance awareness on the importance of ESOP in PSUs along with experience sharing and good practices followed by the views of the private sector on ESOP and deliberated on the ideas and action plans for way forward.

• FICCI Higher Education Summit 2010
  A two-day FICCI Higher Education Summit 2010 was organized in NEW DELHI on November 11, 2010. UPES participated in the summit and contributed in understanding the demand of the higher education in today’s world. Delegates from many foreign countries including US, Canada and UK participated in the summit. The theme of the two day summit was "Renovations in Indian Higher Education: Renewed Focus on Autonomy, Accountability and Partnerships." Inaugurating the FICCI Higher Education Summit 2010, Mr. Sibal underlined the need for the government and the private sector to work out a framework for the higher education sector where private institutions have the autonomy they deserve and creation of a mechanism to develop accountability to deliver quality education. Dr Parag Diwan, Vice Chancellor, UPES also presented his views on Developing Talents: Canadian Higher Education Model. He focused on drives for Indo-Canadian partnership forum for higher education and need of appropriate modals of partnership among institutions.
   

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