Nano Satellite JUGNU launched successfully

It was a historic moment for IIT Kanpur when Jugnu, a nano-satellite developed by the students of the institute under the guidance of Prof. N. S. Vyas,was successfully launched into space from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on 12th October, 2011. For the first time in its history of nano-satellite launching, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) used an indigenously built separation mechanism (ejection system), also designed by IIT-Kanpur, to release a nano-satellite into space. At 11 am, ISRO scientists and the team which developed Jugnu erupted in joy as the satellite was launched, a joy which knew no bounds when Jugnu gave its first radio signal at 12.48 pm. Jugnu's first beacon blinking signal was recorded by Israel. After this, ISRO's satellite tracking and command network in Bangalore tracked Jugnu and started receiving its radio signals. The ground station for Jugnu has been established on the 6th floor of the faculty building of IIT Kanpur. Jugnu will pass over Kanpur five times a day and will be visible to the ground station for 5 – 8 minutes each time. During this period, it will send signals to the ground station. The satellite carries an infrared camera, a GPS system and a MEMS based Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) to provide information on vegetation and water bodies on the ground and on atmospheric vibrations. It will also provide data on its own health. Jugnu is expected to work

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PAN IIT 2011 - A global IIT conference hosted by New York

More than 1500 IIT alumni, many of them being distinguished business executives, government officials, academicians and leading entrepreneurs from around the world, descended upon New York City for the global IIT conference. The Meet was held from 30th September to 2nd October, 2011 at the New York Hilton Hotel. PAN IIT 2011 marked the 60th anniversary of the IIT System. The theme of the conference was “Solutions for a Better World”.

The conference opened with a Torch Lighting ceremony. The Torch, symbolizing the contribution of IIT alumni towards enhancing the bilateral trade ties between the US and India, was lit by distinguished dignitaries from the US and India.

The opening night ceremony began with a passionate invocation by Grammy-nominated singer Chandrika Tandon, who, along with her ensemble, combined Vande Mataram and America the Beautiful for an inspiring Indo-American medley. The next day, Dr. Nicholas Negreponte, founder of MIT Media Labs, elaborated on his vision of the future technologies which may evolve as a result of innovation. Prof. Nitin Nohria, Dean Harvard Business School, and Prof. John Sexton, New York University President, presented their views on the economic turmoil in the world markets, the business opportunities to increase bilateral trade between the U.S. and India, the impact of China on business, and the economic growth in the U.S. and India. The CEO of Infosys, Mr. Narayan Murthy, voiced his displeasure at the quality of engineers graduating from the IIT system. Several panel discussions ranging from U.S.-India geopolitics to investing in turbulent global markets to women leaders in business also took place on the second day. On the final day Mr. Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, spoke about favoring an open and transparent e-auction system for all government auctions and tenders, followed by a keynote speech by the Indian Ambassador to the U.S., Ms. Nirupama Rao. This was followed by the presentation of the prestigious PAN IIT USA American Leadership Awards, which recognize outstanding achievements and accomplishments of IIT alumni who have made significant contributions to American society and throughout the world. The awardees were:

• Academic Accomplishment Award - Dr. Nitin Nohria, Dean of Harvard Business School
• Lifetime Achievement Award - Mr. Arun Sarin, former Chief Executive, Vodafone Group plc
• Social Entrepreneurship Award - Mr. K. Sridharan, President and Founder, Sankara Eye Foundation
• Technology Leadership Award - Dr. Arogyaswami Paulraj, Professor Emeritus Stanford University
• Entrepreneurial Achievement Award - Purnendu Chatterjee, President, The Chatterjee Group
• Corporate Excellence Award - Mr. Manoj Singh, COO, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited
• Global Pan IIT Award Award - Mr. Arvind Kejriwal, Indian social activist.
  

The members of the IIT Kanpur contingent were: Prof. M. Anandakrishnan (Chairman), Prof. Sanjay G. Dhande (Director), Prof. Kripa Shanker (Secretary Alumni Association), Prof. Ajit Chaturvedi (Dean, R&D), Prof. Manindra Agrawal (Dean, RPG), Mr. Mohammad Shakeel (AR, DRPG), Mr. Sanchit Singhal (President, student gymkhana), Mr. Aditya Gupta (Convener, student senate).

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Faculty News

New Chair Professors

• Prof. Debashish Chowdhury, Department of Physics was selected for the Dr. Jag Mohan Garg Chair Professorship. Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~debch/index.html
  
• Prof. Kalyanmoy Deb, Department of Mechanical Engineering was selected for the Dr. Gurmukh D. Mehta and Veena M. Mehta Chair Professorship.
  Homepage: http://www.iitk.ac.in/kangal/deb.shtml
  
• Prof. Goutam Deo, Department of Chemical Engineering was selected for the Indian Oil Corporation Chair Professorship.
  Homepage: http://www.iitk.ac.in/che/gd.htm
  
• Prof. Onkar Dikshit, Department of Civil Engineering was selected for the Prof. B. B. Lal Chair Professorship. Homepage: http://www.iitk.ac.in/ce/CIVIL/faculty/onkar/onkar.html
  
• Prof. S. Ganesh, Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering was selected for the Joy Gill Chair Professorship. Homepage: http://www.iitk.ac.in/bsbe/Ganesh.html
  
• Prof. A. Joshi, Department of Electrical Engineering was selected for the Pradip Sindhu Chair Professorship. Homepage: http://www.iitk.ac.in/ee/power/faculty/ajoshi/joshi.html
  
• Prof. M. Katiyar, Department of Material Science and Engineering was selected for the SBI Chair Professorship. Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~mk/
  
• Prof. Deepak Kunzru, Department of Chemical Engineering was selected for the Chevron Corporation Chair Professorship.
  Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/che/dk.htm
  
• Prof. S. P. Mehrotra, Department of Material Science and Engineering was selected for the Umang Gupta Chair Professorship.
  Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~spm
  
• Prof. J. N. Moorthy, Department of Chemistry was selected for the Lalit M Kapoor Chair Professorship. Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~moorthy/
  
• Prof. R. N. Mukherjee, Department of Chemistry was selected for the Poonam and Prabhu Goel Chair Professorship.
  Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~rnm/
  
• Prof. T. K. Sengupta, Department of Aerospace Engineering was selected for the Pandit Ramchandra Dwivedi Chair Professorship.
  Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~tksen/
  
• Prof. Arvind K. Sinha, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences was selected for the Prof. S. Sampath Chair Professorship.
  Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~aks/
  
• Prof. R. K. Thareja, Department of Physics was selected for the Gireesh Jankinath Chair Professorship.
  Homepage: http://www.iitk.ac.in/phy/New01/profile_RKT.html
  
• Prof. Sandeep Verma, Department of Chemistry was selected for the Sri Deva Raj Chair Professorship.
  Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~sverma/

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New Deputy Director

Prof. S. C. Srivastava, Department of Electrical Engineering is the new Deputy Director. His research interests are in the areas of power system dynamics & voltage stability studies, wide area monitoring and control of power system, optimal power dispatch and state estimation, security analysis and control, energy management systems and distribution automation and power system restructuring.
Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~scs/

New Heads

Prof. Vinay Kumar Gupta is the new head of the Civil Engineering Department. His research interests are in the areas of random vibrations and earthquake engineering.
Homepage: http://www.iitk.ac.in/ce/CIVIL/faculty/vinaykg/vinaykg.htm

Prof. M. K. Harbola is the new head of the Development of Technical Education Centre. He is a theoretical physicist. His research interest are in the areas of electronic structure of atoms, molecules and solids using density functional methods.
Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~mkh/

Dr. Kamal K. Kar is the new head of the Materials Science Program . His research interests are in the areas of carbon nanotubes, nanostructured materials, functionally graded materials, fuel cell, solar cells, li-battery, polymer, thermoelectric materials, nanocomposites and biomaterials.
Homepage: http://www.iitk.ac.in/msp/Kar.htm

Prof. Debasish Kundu is the new head of the Mathematics and Statistics Department. His research interests are in the areas of statistical signal processing, non linear regression, survival analysis, generalized exponential distribution and statistical computing.
Homepage: http://www.iitk.ac.in/math/faculty/kundu/

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New Faculty Members

Dr. Tanika Chakrborthy joined the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. She obtained her PhD from Washington University, St. Louis, USA.
Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~tanika/

Dr. Ashoke De joined the Department of Aerospace Engineering. He obtained his PhD from Louisiana State University, USA.
Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~ashoke/

Dr. Anirban Mukherjee joined the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. He obtained his PhD from the University of British Columbia, Canada.
Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~anirban

Dr. Rajesh Sathiyamoorthy joined the Department of Civil Engineering. He obtained his PhD from IIT Bombay. Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~hsrajesh/

Dr. Shashank Shekhar joined the Department of Material Science and Engineering. He obtained his PhD from Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA.
Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~shashank/

Dr. R. Vijaya joined the Department of Physics. She obtained her PhD from IIT Madras.
Homepage: http://www.iitk.ac.in/phy/New01/profile_Vijaya.html

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Faculty Honours and Awards

The Distinguished Teacher Award was instituted by IIT Kanpur in the year 2002 in order to acknowledge the contribution of the faculty to teaching. The following faculty members were awarded the Distinguished Teacher Award for the year 2011 on the occasion of Teachers’ Day:

Prof. Arvind K. Sinha, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.
Homepage: http://home.iitk.ac.in/~aks/

Prof. Swagato Kumar Ray, Department of Mathematics and Statistics.
Homepage: http://www.iitk.ac.in/math/faculty/skray/

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Distinguished Lecture

Dr. Devendra Shukla Distinguished Lecture: Mr. Kamal Meattle, an entrepreneur and chief executive officer of Paharpur Business Centre and Software Technology Incubator Park since 1978, gave a lecture titled A road map for energy-efficient built environment on 10th October, 2011. In his talk Mr. Meattle spoke about the need to construct energy efficient buildings. He said that devising sustainable ways to tackle the energy crisis is one of the important issues that needs to be addressed in today’s world. Buildings the world over, play a crucial role in the emission of greenhouse gases. As a result, retrofitting existing buildings and making new buildings green is something that needs immediate attention. With the available clean and emerging technologies energy can be conserved and money saved by taking these initiatives. Innovation plays a very important role in the entire process. He said that Paharpur Business Centre, New Delhi, sets an example in this respect.

Mr. Kamal Meattle did his MS in Management from the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Mr. Meattle has been an environmental activist since 1983 and has more than 20 years of real estate experience and over 40 years of experience in diverse industries. Since 2001, he has also been a developer and promoter of Green Spaces which is targeted to be the world’s most energy efficient commercial building. He is the Chairman of the northern region of the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce and the founder of several NGOs such as Save the Tree Organization, Save Two Wheelers on Polluting Delhi and Nehru Place Greens. Mr. Meattle has received the Asia Pacific Entrepreneurship Award 2009 for Outstanding Entrepreneur and the MIT Distinguished Alumus Award in 2007.

Dr. Devendra Shukla Distinguished Lecture in the Department of Civil Engineering has been made possible from the donation by Dr. Devendra Shukla (BT/CE/67). Dr. Shukla did his PhD in structural engineering from the University of Delaware, USA. He is the founder President and CEO, Innovative Technical Solutions, which is now a part of the Gilbane Construction Company.

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Seminars

Seminar on Micro Solar Energy Generation and Utilization was held on 3rd and 4th September, 2011. The seminar was organized jointly by the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Kanpur and the Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE), Kanpur Centre.The theme of the seminar was making solar energy viable for domestic and commercial use. Different events like tutorials on solar energy, exhibition of solar products, and a solar working model, a panel discussion and poster paper contests were held during the two days. About 10-15 companies/vendors dealing in solar products exhibited their products in an Exhibition near the New Lecture Hall Complex. A souvenior of the seminar was also released. Lectures, tutorials and other details are available at the seminar site: www.iitk.ac.in/soarenergy.

National Seminar on Aerospace Structures (NASAS) was held from 22nd to 24th September, 2011. NASAS is held periodically under the aegis of the Structures Panel of the Aeronautics Research & Development Board (AR&DB). It is a major forum for discussion on topics of importance in the field of aerospace structures. This seminar provides a platform to a large number of academicians, scientists, engineers, students and users to present their research work, exchange notes and share ideas for future growth of the field. The theme of the conference was Aerospace Structures. The research topics and research areas that were covered in the conference were composite structures, smart and adaptive structures, damage and failure analysis, structural health monitoring, structural dynamics and aeroelasticity, highly flexible structures, experimental methods, qualification and certification. To encourage and promote research in aerospace structures among young minds, the XVII NASAS had a session dedicated to poster presentations of student papers. The posters had to be authored solely by students with no faculty co-authorship and the best poster was given the AR&DB "Best student paper award". The National Seminar attracted more than 100 participants from Industry, R&D labs, academic institutions and defence services. More than 70 papers were presented, including five invited lectures by eminent designers, scientists and academicians.

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Student News

Udghosh 2011, the annual inter college sports festival of IIT Kanpur, was held from 22nd - 25th September, 2011. Udghosh 2011 witnessed participation from over 20 colleges from all over the country, competing in Athletics, Badminton, Basketball, Chess, Cricket, Football, Hockey, Squash, Table Tennis, Taekwondo, Tennis, Volleyball and Weightlifting. There were also many informal events such as Mechanical Bull and movie screening for the entertainment of the students. The four-day event gave an opportunity to students to showcase their sporting talents, and compete against some of the best teams from across the nation. Mr. R. P. Singh, Mr. Piyush Chawla ( from the Indian Cricket Team ) and Mr. Ritwik Bhattacharya ( Indian Squash Team ) were the guests of honor at the closing ceremony on 25th September, 2011. The following positions were won by IIT Kanpur:

Athletics: Men ( Team A ) – First position, Women (Team A) - First position, Women (Team B) - Second position; Badminton: Men – First position; Chess: Men – Second position; Cricket: Second position; Hockey: First position Squash: Second position; Table Tennis: Men – Second position, Women – Second position; Weight Lifting: First position.

Antaragni, the annual cultural fest of IIT-Kanpur, was held from 13th to 16th October 2011. The themes of this years Antaragni were the Kryptonian spirit of Superman and the juvenile rebellion of Charlie Brown. It honoured the legends of caped crusaders and wild phantoms, of freckled American teenagers and talking stuffed tigers. Around 1,500 students from 150 different colleges across the country participated in the cultural event. The opening night, showcased the talents of critically acclaimed actors such as Rajat Kapoor, Yashpal Sharma, Anu Menon and many others in a play titled 'One on One'. This year Antaragni brought in SWANEE RIVER, the upcoming Irish sensation, to rock the grounds of IIT Kanpur with a mixture of rock, soul, funk and metal and A BACKWARD GLANCE ON A TRAVEL ROAD from France who took the audience to a universe of deep and dark ambience with their stunning music. An event called Director's Cut was held for the first time, where the audience were given a glimpse of the process of movie-making by Mr. Sanjay Gadhvi and Mr. Onir. A number of workshops were also held during the four-day festival. Ritambhara, the fashion show, Mridaksh, the personality contest, and a Kavi Sammelan, were some of the high points of the festival. Several teams displayed their acting skills and touched upon many social issues in street plays conducted in the open at the student activity centre (SAC). Arvind Jayashankar, a street magician from the Netherlands was another crowd puller. Blitzkrieg 2011 stunned the crowd of 15000 when the singing sensation Sunidhi Chauhan rocked the stage with many of her hit Bollywood songs.

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Obituary

Prof. Arawind Sripad Parasnis passed away on 16th October 2011. Prof. Parasnis was born on 18th August 1928 at Ahmadnagar. He obtained his PhD from the University of Bristol in 1960 and joined IIT K the same year. He became a Professor in 1968 and superannuated in August 1988, but continued to serve the Institute till December 1989. Professor Parasnis was one of the first faculty members to join the Institute, when it was still operating from HBTI. He played a major role in the building of the Institute. He served as the Head, Department of Physics and was instrumental in starting the CELT and Laser Technology Programmes. He also championed the need for the position of Dean, Academic Affairs. Professor Parasnis started his career in crystallography, but quickly moved on to become an acknowledged authority on Holography. He trained several students in holography, and was responsible, together with his colleagues, in establishing a vibrant and highly acclaimed Optics group at IIT K. He was also instrumental in establishing the Undergraduate Physics Laboratories. An excellent teacher, his lectures were always interspersed with vivid experimental demonstrations. Even after his retirement, he continued to enthuse young students, in schools and colleges by showing them demonstrations and experiments. Prof. Parasnis is survived by his wife, Meira Parasnis, and two sons Kaushik and Gautam.

The Institute expresses its deepest condolences to the bereaved family of Prof. Parasnis and prays for the peace of the departed souls.