The students of planning participated in the Annual NOSPLAN Convention 2019 held at UPES Dehradun and secured the "Second Runners Up" amongst all the educational institutions in planning across the country. In terms of formal events, SPAV students secured First Prize in the competitions of 'Current Practices', Second Prize in 'Showcase Pin-up' and 'Wall Painting'. The NOSPLAN Annual Convention had over 1500 planning students delegates participating this year in over 15 competitive events.

B.Planning student Mr. Leelavamsi Chadarajupalli (2015-2019 Batch) was recipient of the Best UG Planning thesis award for the academic year 2018-19 by the Institute of Town Planners, India (ITPI). The award is a prestigious achievement where each of best planning theses of all planning institutes in the country is examined by a national level jury to identify the best thesis of the year 2019.

A team of four students from the Department of Planning have been recognized as the top winner of Wipro Earthian 2019 Challenge, which was themed this year on intelligent and sustainable management of "Water, Food and Waste". This national level competition had participants from various universities representing different disciplines across the nation who submitted entries on innovating on aspects of management of water, food, or waste.

University of Melbourne and SPA, Vijayawada undertook a Joint Studio Programme on Humanitarian Design from 19 January - 04 February 2020 with second year students of University of Melbourne and second year B.Plan. and B.Arch students of SPA Vijayawada. Dr. Adinarayanane R, Head (Dept of Planning) was the Joint Studio Programme Coordinator.

Urban Green Spaces using Geo-spatial Techniques for City Planning: A one-day seminar by Dr. RAAJ Ramsankaran, Associate Professor and Head of Hydro Remote Sensing Applications Group (H-RSA), Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay, organised by Dr. Adinarayanane R, was conducted on 20.08.2019 for final year students of Master of Planning, Bachelor of Planning, M.Arch programmes.

Urban Design and Public Space Management: A Special Lecture by Uwe S. Brandes, Professor of Practice and Faculty Director, Urban and Regional Planning Program, Georgetown University organized by Dr. Adinarayanane R and Mr. Prasanth Vardhan on August 2nd, 2019. As a part of lecture series hosted by U.S. Consulate General Hyderabad.

World Town Planning Day 2019: The Department of Planning organized a half-day event on November 7th 2019 to celebrate with the theme 'Sustainable & Healthy Communities'. Prof. Dr. Eric Leclerc, visiting Professor from University of Lille, France, was the guest speaker.

Project Kick-off meeting at SPA Vijayawada dated February 11-15, 2019

Project Meeting and Site Visits:

1. Dr. Minakshi Jain, Dr. Adinarayanane and Dr. Faiz Ahmed participated in a 6-day symposium and project meeting during August 23 – September 01, 2019 at Danube University, Krems, Austria.

2. Dr. Ayon Kumar Tarafdar and Mr. Karthik G. attended symposium with focal theme on 'Informality and Resilience to Climate Change' at Danube University, Krems, Austria from October 23-35, 2019, and delivered a presentation on 'Traditional Settlement Design in Hilly Regions with specific focus on earthquake resilience'.

3. Dr. Ayon Kumar Tarafdar delivered a presentation on "The Formation of Urban Heat Stress Zones and Urban Heat Islands and its implications on Land Use Planning in the Future" in Mumbai on December 4, 2019.

Recently, SPA Vijayawada successfully completed a research project funded by the European Union titled 'Building Inclusive Urban Communities (BINUCom)' in collaboration with University of Krems, Austria, which aims to critically look at architecture and planning education in India terms of how much inclusive the syllabi.

Key Events:
• National Conference under Building Inclusive Urban Communities (BinUCom) was organized at SPA Vijayawada on February 6, 2019.
• Local Dissemination Workshop (LDW-II) was organized at SPA Vijayawada on September 26-27, 2019.