Correspondent
KOLKATA, July 08 2020 (HS): When the fate of millions of college and university students hangs in balance in the times of Covid-19 and social distancing, four engineering students of Jadavpur University and two from the Institute of Engineering and Management (IEM) here have together launched perhaps for the first time in the country an interactive social media app.
Called 'Virtual Campus ', this unique interactive social media platform is the new ‘in-thing’ among students not only in Kolkata butalso across many other colleges in West Bengal and other parts of the country.
Speaking to Hindusthan Samachar here today about their new initiative, Sagnik Mazumdar and Diganta Bhattacharya, two students of Production Engineering department of Jadavpur University claimed that more than 3000 students from various universities and colleges across the state had already downloaded the app from Google Play Store since its introduction only about two weeks ago.
They said initially four JU students began working on the app and they were later joined by two students from IEM.
'We have spent close to 1000 hours in virtual meetings, withouteven having met a single time physically in the last three months,” claimed one of the six students Sagnik.
“The App is going to be the next revolutionary virtual solution to simplify our college life,” added Diganta. He added that through this app students could now chat on various topics, share notes; get information about exam schedules, placement details and various other campus activities.
“We have also started various creative challenges to help the students keep their mind fresh and have tied up with a number of art, music, fashion, literature and sports clubs within the college and university
campus. We have been getting an overwhelming support from all of them', both Sagnik and Diganta claimed enthusiastically.
Both of them, however, expressed concern that campus recruitment process this year appeared doubtful.
Asked about the prospect of this app, both Sagnik and Diganta said, “Post-Covid, a dedicated virtual platform for college students where they can chat among friends, share necessary information, increase collaboration with other colleges and debate over topics, is going to be the new normal.”
They added that they would soon join hands with various other college clubs to reach many more students within Bengal first and then in other states. “We hope to get some support from the government as well in this endeavour,” they said.
Within two weeks of launching, the app has become the 9th most trending social app in India, Sagnik said and claimed that so far ten million interactions among over 1500 colleges and universities had taken place, creating a national record of sorts.