Jammu, Sep 2: A proud moment for Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), as Team “Major” (comprising Harsh Raj – Team Leader, Amit Kumar Amar, Aman Singh, and Nitesh Kumar Dubey) students from the School of Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE), represented the university at the IEEE YESIST12 2025 Grand Finale hosted at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM), Malaysia.
A statement issued here said that earlier, Team “Major”, mentored by Prof. Sumeet Gupta, had won first position in the Innovation Challenge Track and secured third overall position in the IEEE YESIST12 2025 Prelims, earning national recognition and a cash prize of Rs 5,000 In the Grand Finale, Harsh Raj presented the team’s project “Gesture Speak” – an assistive hardware innovation powered by Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) to translate sign language into speech – and received a Certificate of Appreciation for his presentation.
Harsh Raj expressed gratitude to SMVDU for financial support towards registration and international travel, without which participation at the international level would not have been possible. He also extended heartfelt thanks to his mentor Prof. Sumeet Gupta for continuous guidance, Dr. Anil Bharadwaj (HoD, School of ECE), Prof. (Dr.) Pragati Kumar (Vice-Chancellor, SMVDU) for their encouragement, Mr. Karan Vohra, TA for assisting with 3D printing, and Bhawani Singh, STA for support in prototype development. He also acknowledged his teammates, and international dignitaries including Dr. Gunjan Varshney (Chair, Innovation Challenge Track), Dr. Norhana Arsad (IEEE UKM SB Counselor), and Dr Ramalatha Marimuthu (General Chair, IEEE YESIST12 2025). Special thanks were also conveyed to IExplore Foundation, IEEE Malaysia Section, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, and the entire YESIST12 organizing team for providing the global platform. This achievement highlights SMVDU’s continued commitment to nurturing innovation and preparing students for global recognition in science, technology, and engineering.
