HabituX, the student association of the School of Human Settlements (SHS), XIM University, Bhubaneswar, hosted its annual student fest UNNOVATIONS’25 on 25th October 2025. This “festival of urban ideas and innovations” invites college students to engage and ideate on urban sustainability challenges through a variety of academic and cultural competitions.
The Inaugural Address was presented by Dr. Fr. K. S. Casimir, SJ, Vice Chancellor of XIM University. He urged students to reflect on the dehumanized state of cities today and how they could contribute to making it humane, equitable and just. He highlighted that students from all disciplines and fields can contribute to resolving urban resilience and sustainability issues. The Vice Chancellor also stressed the need to develop urban areas for health, safety, community interaction and relationships.
Dr. Kajri Misra, Dean of the School of Human Settlements welcomed the participants and spoke about the genesis of SHS, and XIM University’s vision of nurturing expertise for a sustainable urban future through its unique MBA-Urban Management and Governance programme. She highlighted that global sustainability depends largely on changing current patterns of urban development, as cities are largely responsible for many of our environmental issues today.
Over 250 students from across the country participated in the various competitions, including ‘The AI@Urban Hackathon’, ‘The Mayor’s Discourse’, and ‘Quizzite’, developing ideas for greener and sustainable habitats. The urban photography event, ‘Shutterbug’, and other creative events like ‘Face it On’ (face painting) and ‘Rhythm’ (performances) were also ways of stimulating urban thinking and ideation among the participants.
Students who won the first prizes in various events include Team Wonder Women from KITS Telangana (Hackathon), Sonam Priyadarsini from RCM Bhubaneswar (Mayor’s Discourse), Pushkal Chatterjee from BGU Bhubaneswar (Shutterbug), Team Covalent Crew from OUTR (Quizzite), Ipsita Sahu and Priyadarshinee S. Mahapatra from OUTR (Face It On), and Do-U Crew from KIIT Bhubaneswar (Rhythm).