| IIT Kanpur came into existence on November 02, 1959 and it has now completed 55 years.
The Foundation Day function, organized on 2nd November, 2014, was presided by
Professor M. Anandakrishnan, Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Kanpur.
The Chief Guest for this event was Dr. Baldev Raj, Director NIAS and former Director,
IGCAR, Kalpakkam. Prof. S G Dhande, former Director, IIT Kanpur, Prof. N Sathyamurthy, Director, IISER Mohali,
Professor of Chemistry at IIT Kanpur and Prof. T V S Ramamohan Rao,
former Professor of Economics in HSS at IIT Kanpur, were inducted as Institute Fellows on this occassion.
IIT Kanpur also conferred Distinguished Alumnus Award to Prof. D D Sarma (MSc5/PHY/77) of IISc Bangalore, Prof.
Vijay Kumar (BT/ME/83) of University of Pennsylvania and Prof. Jayadev Misra (BT/EE/69) of University of Texas at Austin.
Foundation Day Lecture was delivered by the Chief Guest, Dr. Baldev Raj and this
program ended with performance by students.
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| IIT Kanpur Scientist bag Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize |
| Professor Sachchida Nand Tripathi, Department of Civil Engineering, has been awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar prize for the year 2014 in Earth, Atmosphere, Ocean and Planetary Sciences. |
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| Pan IIT Deans' Group Meet on Alumni and International affairs |
A two day conference on Alumni Relations and International Affairs was inaugurated by the Director of
IIT Kanpur, Professor Indranil Manna, on 20th September, 2014. The Deans of IIT Bombay, Kharagpur, Madras,
Guwahati and Kanpur, along with their team, participated in the conference. Miss Lisa Marshall,
Director Outreach, North Carolina State University, USA was a guest speaker.
The aim of conference was to explore ways to enhance non-governmental funds in order to make IITs self reliant. The conference also discussed ways to increase the participation of international students in IITs in academic & non-academic programmes.
An MoU was signed for the exchange of students between IIT Kanpur and North Carolina State University, USA in the presence of Prof. M Anandakrishnan, Chairman BoG, IIT Kanpur.
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| SURGE |
| Summer Undergraduate Research Grant for Excellence (SURGE) Program was successfully completed recently.
Nineteen undergraduate students from IIT Kanpur, 24 non IIT Kanpur students and 3 students from Melbourne University,
Australia participated in the 10-week program at IIT Kanpur. These students carried out research at the
frontiers of engineering and science under the mentorship of IIT Kanpur faculty members.
Three students of IIT Kanpur also participated in a similar programme at Caltech,USA.
For details, please visit http://www.iitk.ac.in/surge/
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| IIT Kanpur becomes District Shooting Championship |
| IIT Kanpur has won the 'Overall Championship' in the "Kanpur District Shooting Championship"
by bagging the highest number of medals in the tournament. The event was held on 6th and 7th September.
Fifteen students from IIT Kanpur took part in the championship in categories of Air Rifle and Air Pistol.
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| IIT Kanpur becomes Overall champion in aquatics |
| IIT Kanpur has won the 50th Inter IIT Aquatics Meet which was held at IIT Bombay from 1st to 4th October, 2014.
IIT Kanpur emerged as the Overall Champion in the Aquatics Meet winning Gold in Water Polo and Bronze in Swimming.
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| Alumni Achievements |
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Dr. Viney P. Aneja(BT/CHE/71) has been appointed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to serve as a member of its Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC), and to chair the "BOSC Subcommittee for Air, Climate, and Energy (ACE) research program". |
| Dr Anil K. Rajvanshi (BT/MT/ME/72/74) has released his book "Romance of Innovation - A human interest story of doing R&D in rural setting".
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Professor Ashoke Sen (MSC2/PHY/1978) has been awarded the Dirac Medal 2014. |
| Professor Prabuddha Ganguli (MSC2/CHM/71) has been given the "Lifetime Achievement Award for Intellectual Property Rights (IPR)" by the Legal Fraternity in India called "Legal ERA".
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Dr. Pawan Kumar Goenka (BT/ME/75) has been appointed Chairman of the Board of Governors at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
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| Distinguished Lectures Series |
| R R DASARI DISTINGUISHED LECTURE SERIES |
| Dr. Stanley E. Whitcomb, the Chief Scientist of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave
Observatory (LIGO) Laboratory gave a talk titled, ""LIGO: On the Threshold of Gravitational-wave Astronomy" on 24TH SEPTEMBER 2014. In his talk Dr. Whitcomb said the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory is a project to develop ultra-sensitive
optical interferometers for the detection and study of gravitational waves from astrophysical sources. First detections are expected in the next few years, and they will offer new information about some of the most energetic events in our universe. The challenges of using interferometry to detect gravitational waves and how LIGO is meeting those challenges will be described. In conclusion, there will be a short discussion of the importance of international networks for extracting the full potential from gravitational wave observations.
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About the Speaker:Dr. Stanley E. Whitcomb is currently the Chief Scientist of the Laser Interferometer
Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) Laboratory. The LIGO is operated by Caltech and MIT through funding from
the National Science Foundation. Dr. Stanley received his undergraduate education at Caltech. He had one year of
graduate study at Cambridge University before completing his Ph. D at the University of Chicago in far-infrared
and submillimeter astronomy. He returned to Caltech in 1980 as an assistant professor of physics,
near the beginning of Caltech's entry into the field of gravitational wave detection.Over the years since then, he has been involved in nearly every
phase of the effort to build LIGO-concept development, prototype sensitivity demonstration,
detector design and installation, commissioning, data analysis, and management.
He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the Optical Society of America. |
| About the Donor:Dr. Ramachandra Rao Dasari currently oversees project coordination and
facility developments of the MIT Laser Biomedical Research Center which is supported by the
National Institute of Health, and also coordinates research programs associated with the Laser
Research facility which is supported by the National Science Foundation. Prof. Dasari received his
B.Sc. from Andhra University, M.Sc. from Benares Hindu University and Ph.D. from Aligarh Muslim University.
He joined the faculty of the Department of Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1962.
Prof. Dasari's major accomplishment at IIT Kanpur was the establishment
of one of the largest Laser laboratories for university research in India. He joined MIT in 1980
as a visiting Professor of Physics and in 1981 he was appointed Principal Research Scientist in
the Spectroscopy Laboratory. In 1984 he was appointed as Assistant Director of the Spectroscopy
Laboratory and later promoted as Associate Director in 1992.
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| Professor Arabindo Nath Bose Bioentrepreneurship Distinguished Lecture |
| Dr. Ramesh Hariharan, Adjunct Professor at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore gave a lecture on "Diagnosing Genetic Diseases: An Entrepreneurial Journey" on 21st August, 2014. In his talk, he described how computer science and molecular biology combines to enable a ubiquitious diagnosis of genetic disease and cancer. The talk also described various opportunities, scientific and entrepreneurial, that are available in this area.
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About the Speaker: Dr. Ramesh Hariharan is founder-CTO at strand Life Sciences and Adjunct Professor at the Computer Sciences and Adjunct Professor at the Computer Science Department of the Indian Institute of Science. He got his Bachelor's degree from IIT Delhi and Ph.D from the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University and post-Doc at the Max-Planck Institut fur informatik in Saarbrucken, Germany. |
| About the Donor: Dr. Arindam Bose (BTech/ChE/1975), Currently Vice-President, External Affairs & Biosimilars Strategy
Biotherapeutics Pharmaceutical Sciences - Pfizer, Inc, USA, has instituted the Professor Arabindo
Nath Bose Bioentrepreneurship Distinguished Lecture in the Department of
Biosciences and Bioengineering in memory of his father Professor Arabindo
Nath Bose. Prof. Arabindo nath Bose received his Ph.D in Nutrition and Food Science
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Upon returning to India in the early 1950's,
he established the Department of Food Technology at jadavpur University, Calcutta.
He later served as the Director of the Central Institute of Fisheries Technology in Kerela.
Upon his retirement, Prof. Bose devoted his attention to establishing a primary school based
on vedic principles for children from families of modest means. Emrollment at Shri Ritam Vidyapith, which he founded, has now grown to over 750 students and encompasses Kindergarden to Grade X.
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| Support from Alumni & Friends |
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| Dr. Prateek Mishra Memorial Scholarship |
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Family & friends of late Dr. Prateek Mishra (BT/EE/2006) have donated Rs.5,22,907/- for instituting a scholarship in memory of Dr. Prateek Mishra for a 2nd year UG student in Electrical Engineering Department on need basis.
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| PSB Prasad Memorial Scholarship |
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Mrs. Rekha Rani Prasad, sister-in-law of Dr. Ajay Bhushan Pandey (BT/EE/1983) has donated Rs. 5,00,000/- for instituting a scholarship in memory of her husband late shri Shashi Bhushan Pandey for a student in MSc (Physics)/ B.Tech(Electrical Engineering) on need basis. |
| Chair Professor for Education & Research in Technology and Science |
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The Ministry of Labour & Employment (MoLE) has donated a sum of Rs 100 lakhs towards the setting up of a Distinguished Chair Professorship for Education & Research in Technology and Science related to "Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution, Wiring and Electrical Equipments" at IIT Kanpur. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed by MoLE and IIT Kanpur on 29th July 2014. |
| Udghosh & Antaragni 2014 |
| Udghosh |
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| Udghosh, the Annual Sports Festival of IIT Kanpur was held from 25th to 28th September, 2014. The event 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. Besides, there were many informal events like Motivational Talks, Gymnastic Shows, Sport Quizzes, screening of movies and live matches. The four-day event gave an opportunity to students to showcase their sporting talents, and to compete against some of the best teams from across the nation. The special attraction was "RAETH" - the internationally acclaimed Sufi-Rock Band.
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| Antaragni |
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| Antaragni is the Annual Cultural Festival of IIT Kanpur. Antaragni, literally meaning the 'Fire Within', is a celebration of the creative spirit and youthful energy inherent in the country's college students. IIT Kanpur celebrated Antaragni 2014, from the 9th to 12th of October. The theme was 'Aham Bhokalam'. It perfectly portrayed the spirit of Antaragni - the unfathomable power of the human will - of unleashing the power within. It saw an overall participation of around 1500 students from some of the top-most colleges of the country. The opening night of Antaragni's journey started with a soulful performance by the Agnee-an Indian band. The Kavi Sammelan reached a new height this year with the extremely popular poets gracing the stage in front of a completely packed OAT Ground. 'India Haat', which showcases diverse art-forms from different parts of the country, was also highly successful. This year for the first time in Road-trip, the events were held in 11 cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Bhopal, Chennai and Kolkata, which got national media coverage from media house giants.
The usual attractions of Antaragni, highly appreciated by all included: Synchronicity (Rock Band Competition) Jitterbug (Group dance), Tour de Force (Street dance), Nukkad Natak (Street Play), Quiz events and Antaragni leadership Initiative (ALI). A number of workshops were also held during the four-day festival. Ritambhara-the fashion show and Mridaksh the personality contest were some of the high points of the festival. Several teams displayed their acting skills and touched upon many social issues in street plays which were conducted in the open at the student activity centre (SAC). International Carnival included the Israeli Folk Band the Yemen Blues and Ana Sofia from Portugal. The function ended on a high note with the Blitzkrieg show by Vishal-Shekhar, who made all dance to their tunes through their power packed music performance
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| Dr. Arun Kumar Shukla (BSBE) has been awarded the Wellcome Trust/ DBT India Alliance Intermediate Fellowship for the year 2014. |
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Professor Animesh Das (CE) book titled "Analysis of Pavement Structures" has been published by the CRC Press - Taylor and Francis Group. |
| Professor C Venkatesan (AE),book titled "Fundamentals of Helicopter Dynamics", has been published by the CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group.
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Dr. Kumar Vaibhav Srivastava (EE) has been selected for the IEI Young Engineer Award in Electrical Engineering. |
| Professor Manindra Agrawal (CSE) has been selected for the ACCS-CDAC Foundation Award for 2014 by the Advanced Computing and Communications Society. |
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Professor P K Bharadwaj (CHM) has been selected for the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) Silver Medal in recognition of his outstanding contributions to research in chemistry. |
| Dr. Raju Gupta (ChE) has been selected for the IEI Young Engineer Award in Chemical Engineering and the IAAM Young Scientist award at the International Smart Materials and Surfaces Conference. |
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Professor S P Rath (CHM) has been selected for the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) Bronze Medal in recognition of his outstanding contributions to research in chemistry. |
| Professor S N Singh (EE) has been chosen for the 2013 IEEE Power Engineering Society (PES) Chapter Outstanding Engineer Award for exemplary service to the Chapter and for the outstanding contribution to the power engineering community in teaching, training, research and industrial collaboration.
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Professor Sandeep Verma (CHM) has been chosen for the OPPI Scientist Award 2014 for his research work in modelling protein aggregation in the area of neurodegenerative disorders and for the discovery of small molecule inhibitors of such processes. |
| Dr. Tanmoy Maiti (MSE) has been selected for the IEI Young Engineer Award in Metallurgical and Material Engineering. |
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| Appointments |
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Prof. Ajit K. Chaturvedi , Department of Electrical Engineering has been appointed as Deputy Director of the Institute. |
| Prof. Shobha Madan, Department of Mathematics and Statistics has been appointed as the Head, Department of Mathematics and Statistics. |
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| New Faculty |
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Dr. Arghya Das joined the Department of Civil Engineering. He obtained his PhD from the University of Sydney, Australia. |
| Dr. Faiz Hamid has joined the Department of Industrial and Management Engineering. He obtained the Fellow in Management from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, India. |
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Dr. Indranil Saha has joined the Department of Chemical Engineering. He obtained his PhD from the University of Michigan, USA. |
| Dr. Kaushik Bal has joined the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. He obtained his PhD from the Universite de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour, France. |
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Dr. Nitin Gupta has joined the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering. He obtained his PhD from the University of California, USA. |
| Dr. N P Sudharshana has joined the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. He obtained his PhD from The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. |
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Dr. Rajdip Mukherjee has joined the Department of MSE. He obtained his PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, India. |
| Dr. Shilpi Gupta has joined the Department of Electrical Engineering. She obtained her PhD from the University of Maryland, USA. |
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Dr. Saurabh Mani Tripathi has joined the Department of Physics. He obtained his PhD from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India. |
| Dr. Shankar Prawesh has joined the Department of Industrial and Management Engineering. He obtained his PhD from the University of South Florida, USA. |
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Dr. Vaibhav Arghode has joined the Department of Aerospace. He obtained his PhD from the University of Maryland, USA. |
| Workshops, Conferences and Meets |
| A short-term course on Facility Layout and Process Optimization was organised by the
IME Department on September 26-28, 2014. The objective was to show how process optimization can be
a key factor in the success of a company, continuous changing environment in manufacturing,
along with on-going globalization. Money can be lost daily through poor process optimization
(inefficient schedules, local instead of global optimization, inefficient resource allocation,
poor productivity and improper facility layout). |
| A short-term QIP sponsored course on RF Circuits and Systems for Industrial Applications was organised by the Department of Electrical Engineering on September 8-12, 2014. The objective of the course was to provide the participants state of the art knowledge in the field of RF circuits and systems. It explained various methodologies presently prevalent in the industry for the design of RF filters, various RF active and passive circuits, industrial microwave systems, etc. In addition, the participants were exposed to state of the art modeling and simulation schemes currently being used for the design of RF circuits and systems. A working demonstration of experimental setups for various RF testing applications was also provided. |
| A short-term course on Convex Optimization for Wireless Communications was organized by the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Kanpur in association with the BSNL IITK Telecom Center of Excellence (BITCOE) on September 15 - 17, 2014. The aim of this course was to provide an indepth exposure to practising engineers, faculty members and graduate students to the latest research in and applications of convex optimization techniques, specifically in the area of modern wireless communications, signal processing and networking research. A key purpose of the course was to enable students to recognize convex optimization problems arising in these areas and show them how to develop low-complexity solutions for problems frequently encountered in practical scenarios. A MATLAB based demonstration session introduced the participants to the tools and techniques available in modern convex optimization solvers for the above applications.
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| The Research Foundation, IIT Kanpur organised a mini-workshop on Neurons and Consciousness on 29 August, 2014 . The brain is the implementation for the mind; and it is a product of evolution. Its only output are motor signals ("you can only move or drool"). The primary force in evolving the nervous system was the need for planning and predicting the consequences of actions. As the neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinas has suggested, much of what we call thinking is "a premotor act". In this mini-workshop, neuroscientists and cognitive scientists were brought together explore the ways in which the brain defines us. The question was looked at from several points of view. Starting with the view that knowledge is itself a product of evolution, we shall be progressing from insect cognition to brain development in vertebrates. Brain oscillations and how they define higher-level functions such as attention were considered lively discussions and interaction followed as these issues and related topics in Cognitive Neurosciences - one of the fastest growing areas in cognitive science today, were explored. |
| Institute Lectures |
 | Professor M.V.S Valiathan , National Research Professor,
Manipal University gave a lecture on Ayurveda and Modern Science on 26th September, 2014. In this lecture, he said that after
uninterrupted practice from the time of the Buddha, marked by ups and down, Ayurveda remains a major
national enterprise today. It continues to provide health care to millions, accounts for a large segment
of professional education and growing herbal drug industry, and is recognised worldwide as Complementary
and Alternative Medicine. It has become a bandwagon attracting cosmetics, dietetics and even tourism.Its encounter with Western Science began in the 16th century and the initial approach of European
scientists and physicians to Ayurvedic practice was shaped by taxonomy which loomed large till 19th century.
This period witnessed the endeavour of remarkable men such as Garcia da Orta, Van Rheede, Roxburgh,
Ainslie and others and the birth of several scientific institutions in Kolkata. In the 20th century,
a new window of exploration opened through pharmacological and toxicological studies of medicinal plants
by RN Chopra followed by the rapid growth of natural products chemistry which gave India a leadership
position in the World.Towards the end of the 20 th century, molecular biology and immunology cast their mantle
on Ayurveda, and these disciplines have placed powerful tools in the hands of investigators to study ancient concepts
and procedures, which could not be done earlier. Ayurvedic biology is a new initiative comprising
research projects which adopt this strategy and shows high promise. Sponsored by the Department of Science and Technology,
the Task Force in Ayurvedic Biology supports projects which employ basic sciences such as molecular biology,
immunology and biological chemistry to study the concepts, procedures and the mechanistic basis of therapeutic
activity in Ayurveda. |
| Obituary |
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Professor Himanshu Hatwal (MT/PHD/ME/76/82), Department of Mechanical Engineering passed away on September 24, 2014. Unfortunately, he was diagnosed with cancer in 2001 when he was at the peak of his career. Despite undergoing brain surgery, chemo and radiation therapies, he performed his academic activities to his best and will be remembered for this. The Institute expresses its deepest condolences to the bereaved family of Prof. Hatwal and prays for the peace of the departed soul.
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