Monthly Coverage Dossier January 2020 IIT Madras is a campus of choice for high ranking JEE students Date: 1st January 2020 Publication: Shiksha Edition: Online Journalist: NA Headline: IIT Madras organizes alumni reunion day URL: https://www.shiksha.com/b-tech/articles/iit-madras-organizes-alumni-reunion- day-blogId-27837 IIT Madras organizes alumni reunion day IIT Madras joined forces with IIT Madras Alumni Association to organise the yearly alumni reunion on its campus recently. During the reunion, the organization also offered the Distinguished Alumnus Awards for the year 2020. Alongside the event, “IITM: A Tech expo” was also prearranged with a number of student teams and IIT Madras-reared startups displaying their innovation to the alumni. The event brought out 12 Project Teams and four Competition Teams from the Centre for Innovation (CFI), a 'Student Lab' at IIT Madras founded with resources from alumni. The organisation also laid a foundation stone for a new Institute Chair supported by Distinguished Alumnus Awardee (2004) - Professor Marti G. Subrahmanyam. Prof. Subrahmanyam, an alumnus of 1967 batch (B.Tech., Mechanical Engineering), contributed $1,00,000 to establish “Marti Mannariah Gurunath Institute Chair” in the Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Madras Prof. Raghunathan Rengaswamy, also an alumnus of IIT Madras (1990, BTech (Chemical Engineering)) and presently a faculty in Department of Chemical Engineering, is to be the first inhabitant of the Chair. Moreover, BTech batch of 1994 also vowed more than $1 million to IIT Madras. This amount will be funded throughout a period of two to three years. This will be utilised for merit-cum-means scholarships, cultivating the emotional wellness of students and specific engineering departments. A Distinguished Alumnus Award for 2019 was also given to Dr. Parthasarathy Ranganathan (1994, B.Tech, (Electrical Engineering)), an eminent Engineer at Google. Prior to this, he was an HP Fellow and Chief Technologist at Hewlett Packard Labs where he managed their research on systems and data centres. Apart from this, many CFI teams and startups participated in 'IITM: A Tech expo', which include Avishkaar Hyperloop, Envisage, Electronics Club, Horizon, Involve, E-Plane, Ghost Vision, Anveshak, Abhiyaan, CVI, iBot Club, and the Pre-Incubation Cell Nirmaan along with e-cell. Date: 7th January 2020 Publication: The Telegraph Edition: Kolkata Page No: 13 Journalist: NA Headline: Auld land syne at IIT Madras Date: 22nd January 2020 Publication: Forbes India Edition: Magazine Page No: 50-52 Journalist: Naandika Tripathi Professor: Prof Mahesh Panchagnula Headline: A New Play at Drawing Foreign Students Date: 23rd January 2020 Publication: Down To Earth Edition: Online Journalist: NA Professor: Prof. Shweta Agarwal Headline: IIT Madras student to improve algorithms in lattice cryptography URL: https://www.downtoearth.org.in/news/science-technology/iit-madras-student- to-improve-algorithms-in-lattice-cryptography-68927 IIT Madras student to improve algorithms in lattice cryptography Shweta Agrawal from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, has become one of the 14 recipients of the Swarnajayanti Fellowship 2020. It was instituted by the Centre to commemorate the golfen jubilee of India's independence and is funded by the Department of abd Technology. Agarwal said she would like to use the fellowship to conduct a deep study on one of the most promising approaches for post-quantum cryptography — lattice-based cryptography to improve algorithms and understand gaps between theory and practice. Lattice-based cryptography, resistant to attack by both classical and quantum computers, is the leading candidate for post quantum cryptography and design of a cryptographic system for the future. Cryptography is a branch of theoretical computer science that seeks to provide guarantees to the art of secret keeping. This field balances itself on the tightrope of mathematical beauty on one side, and practical importance on the other. The scientific charm of this field lies in the deeply paradoxical questions it poses. The simplest goal of cryptography is to hide information so that learning a message from a cryptographically sealed envelope implies a solution to some well known mathematical problem. By suitably choosing the underlying mathematical problems to be difficult, we may rest assured that an attacker’s chances of learning secret information are extremely small. Typically, an attacker is modelled as a classical computer. However, recent times have seen significant advances in the construction of quantum computers, which are based on the laws of quantum rather than classical physics. Most modern-day cryptography relies on the difficulty of problems which, while difficult for classical computers, are efficiently solvable by quantum computers. Thus, most modern-day cryptography breaks down if quantum computers are used by the attacker. A few weeks ago, Google claimed to have demonstrated “quantum supremacy” by constructing a quantum computer that can experimentally demonstrate a massive speedup over a classical computer. Soon after, Chinese researchers claimed that they expect to demonstrate quantum supremacy by next year. Thus, the advent of quantum computers has crossed the realm of scientific fantasy and looms as a real threat in the near future. Therefore, it is imperative to redesign cryptography ground up to resist quantum computers — that is, to design post-quantum cryptography. This is the focus of Agrawal’s work. (DST media cell) Developing expertise in post-quantum cryptography is of national importance. Aside from its practical importance, this is a rich and emerging area of cryptography, and construction of state of the art systems in this field can significantly enhance the visibility of India in the global arena. Not only does her proposed work help create intellectual property, but it also creates expertise within the country that will lead to intelligent post-quantum cryptography design for the use of our government, military, industry and society alike. In her current work, Agrawal has provided constructions of advanced cryptographic protocols that are believed to be resistant to quantum computers. She has particularly focused on the emerging field of ‘computing on encrypted data’, which may allow (for instance), machine learning algorithms to be run on encrypted genetic data, leading to advances in the field of personalized medicine. Such algorithms, if realised efficiently, can have wide applications in areas as diverse as medicine, governance, social sciences, and many others, leading to an elegant synthesis of disparate sciences. This is a young field, and there are significant gaps in the understanding of this area. Her research agenda is to tackle fundamental questions in lattice based cryptography, to endeavour to fill in these gaps. She hopes to create national expertise in lattice based cryptography that will benefit society by creating knowledge and applications alike. Date: 26th January 2020 Publication: Hindustan Times Edition: Online Journalist: NA Professor: Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthy, Prof. Venu Srinivasan, Prof. Pradeep Thalappil Alumni: Mr. Prem Watsa Headline: IIT Madras congratulates its professors, alumnus on being conferred with Padma awards URL: https://www.hindustantimes.com/education/iit-madras-congratulates-its- professors-alumnus-on-being-conferred-with-padma-awards/story- lZHypBXbqONVYnAMxCEWgK.html IIT Madras congratulates its professors, alumnus on being conferred with Padma awards The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras on Saturday congratulated its professors and an alumnus who have been conferred with Padma awards. In a statement, IIT-Madras Director Baskar Ramamurthy said, “The institute congratulates all three awardees for the well deserved honour in recognition of their work and contributions”. Noted industrialist and TVS Motor Company Chairman, Venu Srinivasan who is an honorary professor at the premier institute was conferred with the Padma Bhushan -- the third-highest civilian award in the country. While Pradeep Thalappil, a professor in the chemistry department of the institute and Prem Watsa, Founder-Chairman of Fairfax Financial Holdings and IIT-Madras alumnus (1971 batch) were awarded the Padma Shri-- the fourth highest civilian honour of the country. Date: 26th January 2020 Publication: NDTV Edition: Online Journalist: Maitre Baral Professor: Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthy, Prof. Venu Srinivasan, Prof. Pradeep Thalappil Alumni: Mr. Prem Watsa Headline: IIT Madras Faculty, Alumnus Conferred With Padma Awards URL: https://www.ndtv.com/education/padma-awards-2020-iit-madras-faculty- alumnus-conferred-with-padma-awards-2169827 IIT Madras Faculty, Alumnus Conferred With Padma Awards The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras on Saturday congratulated its professors and an alumnus who have been conferred with Padma awards. In a statement, IIT-Madras Director Baskar Ramamurthy said, “The institute congratulates all three awardees for the well deserved honour in recognition of their work and contributions”. Noted industrialist and TVS Motor Company Chairman, Venu Srinivasan who is an honorary professor at the premier institute was conferred with the Padma Bhushan -- the third-highest civilian award in the country. While Pradeep Thalappil, a professor in the chemistry department of the institute and Prem Watsa, Founder-Chairman of Fairfax Financial Holdings and IIT-Madras alumnus (1971 batch) were awarded the Padma Shri-- the fourth highest