The IIT Bhilai Newsletter Vol. 1, Issue 1, July – December 2017 Foreword ByVol.1 Prof. |Rajat IssueMoona 1 (Director, IIT Bhilai) IIT Bhilai: A Brief Background I feel extremely happy Indian Institute of to present to you the Technology Bhilai first edition of IIT Bhilai was inaugurated newsletter Ink. This is on Aug. 1, 2016 by one humble effort from the Hon’ble Minister us to remain of HRD and the connected with you. Chief Minister of Since its foundation in Chhattisgarh. The 2016, in this very short first batch of IIT span of time, IIT Bhilai Bhilai, comprising has witnessed excellent growth in terms of students, 117 students, were admitted into three engineering faculty as well as infrastructure development. When you branches – CSE, EE and ME. Currently, 19 full-time visit us, you will be elated to see our campus vibrating faculty members are teaching at IIT Bhilai. round the clock with myriad activities – stimulating Our temporary campus is located in Sejbahar, lectures from renowned experts, fiery debates on topics Raipur. 442 acres of land -- spread across of current interests, cutting-edge research, sports, and Kutelabhata, Sirsa khurd and Naya Raipur -- will soon many other scholarly expeditions. We hope to sustain this become our permanent abode. A vibrant academic strong growth and excellence in the future too. and research environment -- supported by various A significant progress has been made toward building modern research facilities, including a state-of-the-art the new campus at Bhilai; construction work is expected 3-D Printing lab – is the bedrock of IIT Bhilai in these to kick off soon. Plans are also underway to expand our formative years of its existence. academic programs. The institute incessantly strives to speed up the As always, we count vehemently on your support and wheels of national progress by imparting solidarity in our endeavors to build a great institute. technological cognizance of highest quality. Jai Hind. Institute Highlights Interaction with The Chairman of ISRO Visit of former US Ambassador to India On August 21, 2017, Shri A. S. Kiran Kumar, Chairman, ISRO visited IIT Bhilai and interacted with the students and the faculty. The session titled Manthan: A Vision for New India 2022 was jointly hosted by IIM Raipur and IIT Bhilai at its temporary campus. Other dignitaries in attendance were Prof. Rajat Moona, Director, IIT Bhilai, Prof. Bharat Bhaskar, Director, IIM Raipur, and Prof. Sheo Kumar As a part of his visit to many leading institutes Pandey, Vice Chancellor, Pt. Ravishankar Shukla throughout the country, Mr. Richard Verma was University. hosted jointly by IIT Bhilai, IIM Raipur and GEC Raipur. The proceedings of the session were followed by an In his address to the students, the former US introduction presented by Prof. Moona. In his address Mr. Ambassador to India threw light on the intricacies of Kiran Kumar described the accomplishments of the Indian the Indo-US relationship including foreign policies. He space mission with ISRO at its helm. He emphasized the also shared his experience of working in India; in the supreme importance of the youth in building the nation process, opened up quite candidly on his ancestral by giving examples from his personal experiences. Post connection with India. This was followed by an the talk, he interacted with the students and addressed interactive session with the students, in which various diverse queries and doubts faced by them while making aspects related to Indo-US agreements, and the role choices in their career. The audience found the session of the students for a better future bilateral enormously enlightening. The session ended with a vote relationship, were also discussed. The programme of thanks presented by Prof. Bhaskar. was concluded with a vote of thanks. In the end, he was presented a memento as a token of gratitude for our guest of honor. Contact: [email protected] 1 Institute Highlights (Cont.) Partnership of IIT Bhilai with NRDA Vol.1 | Issue 1 In March 2017, IIT Bhilai entered into an MoU with the Naya Raipur Development Authority (NRDA) over providing technological and research based solutions in the development of Raipur into a “Smart City”. The signing of this MoU is expected to open new opportunities for the IIT Bhilai students. They can not only enhance their practical knowledge, but also play a role in their city’s development and prosperity. Initial discussions suggest that the students will be working principally in two fields: Smart Traffic Management and Accident Prevention. The second one provides solutions in the field of Optical Fibre Net Connectivity, which will potentially result in a strong internet connectivity in the city of Naya Raipur. Lectures and Workshops Lectures Workshops • Android Bootcamp by Abhinav Manchanda – Trainer and Consultant, IIT Kanpur Graduate, 4th - • Photonic Topology of Moving Media and Negative 5th Nov. 2017 Frequency Modes by Dr. Sarang Pendharker - Ph.D. • Basics of Programming by Codificaso – The Coding Fellow, University of Alberta, Canada, 16th Aug. Club of IIT Bhilai, 13th Aug. 2017 2017 • Workshop on Arduino Basics by Electromos – • Understanding of the Electronic Voting Machines Electronics Club of IIT Bhilai, 30th July 2017 (EVMs) by Dr. Dinesh K Sharma – Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay, 16th April 2017 • Interaction with Prof. R. Sangal from IIT BHU Varanasi, 23rd Sept. 2017 • Interactive Session with Akash Keshav Singh, Lead India Sales at Mojo Networks, Inc., 1st Aug. 2017 • Motivational Lecture by Dr. Sanjay Kumar, VC ITM University Raipur, 29th July 2017 • Inspirational Speech by Prof. D.B. Phatak, IIT Bombay, 27th July 2017 Prof. D.B. Phatak, IIT Bombay Student Activities Tech Maitry 2017 – “Come Ally With TechnoloGy” Tech Maitry, the first technical event of IIT Bhilai, was organized by the Sci-Tech Club on Nov 11, 2017. The inaugural event was graced by the presence of Hon'ble Mayor of Raipur Mr. Pramod Dubey, along with Prof. Rajkumar Thareja and Dr. Veena Bansal. The event had various technical events ranging from Robotics to Coding, IoT and beyond. The highlights of Day 1 included various gaming events, a 3D printing display, an IoT workshop, and the Rapid Quizzfire. Day 2 expanded the level of creativity with a bunch of more interactive activities like Fireball, a Hon’ble Mayor of Raipur at the Inaugural Event virtual gaming competition, Code Crusade, a fully automated maze solving competition, and a Robotics workshop. For hard-core gamers, Tech Maitry had organised RELOAD, a gaming fiesta having Arms Affair, NFS Most Wanted and Mini Militia competitions. In a nutshell, events at Tech Maitry catered for the interests of all, while it always upheld the spirit of technological inquisitiveness. 2 Contact: [email protected] Student Activities (Cont.) National Social Service (NSS) Sports News In the true spirit of providing social INTER IIT 2016 services, the NSS The 51st Inter IIT department of IIT Sports Meet was Bhilai is working organized by IIT actively to help Kanpur, and IIT alleviate the Bhilai participated conditions of those in this prestigious in need. Every year meet for the first the NSS organizes time. The a number of activities that involve healthy student contingent engagement. The following are some of the main consisted of 10 athletes; our team participated in highlights of the NSS activities in the last year. the athletic events only. In spite of being there for • Cleanliness drives supporting the Swachh Bharat the first time, IIT Bhilai team managed to secure the Abhiyan 3rd position in the March Past. • The NSS team conducted various academic and extra-curricular activities in various government INTER IIT 2017 schools. This year our team consisting of 40 athletes • Development of nectar gardens in the campus participated in athletics, volleyball, badminton and enhances the natural greenery. It also adds to the table tennis. The highlight of this year’s meet was the overall campus aesthetics. the Inter IIT Impact League, in which IIT Bhilai secured the 1st position. Faculty News The Pioneering Batch of Faculty Members The following is the first set of faculty members who joined IIT Bhilai between July and December 2017. # Name Designation Doctoral Inst. Date of Joining Department 1 Veena Bansal Visiting Associate Professor IIT Kanpur 2017-Jul-30 Comp. Sc. & Engr. 2 Rishi RanJan Singh Assistant Professor IIT Ropar 2017-Aug-25 Comp. Sc. & Engr. 3 ViJay Duryodhan Assistant Professor IIT Bombay 2017-Sep-04 Mechanical Engr. 4 Sudhanwa Patra Assistant Professor PRL, Ahmedabad 2017-Sep-21 Physics 5 Soumya Gangopadhyay Associate Professor IIT Kharagpur 2017-Sep-08 Mechanical Engr. 6 Nikhil Chander Assistant Professor IIT Delhi 2017-Sep-14 Electrical Engr. 7 Souradyuti Paul Associate Professor KU Leuven 2017-Oct-04 Comp. Sc. & Engr. 8 Arup MukherJee Assistant Professor IISER Kolkata 2017-Oct-06 Chemistry 9 Anshul Faye Assistant Professor IIT Kanpur 2017-Oct-09 Mechanical Engr. 10 SreeJith T V Assistant Professor IIT Hyderabad 2017-Oct-10 Electrical Engr. 11 Dhriti Sundar Ghosh Assistant Professor ICFO, Barcelona 2017-Oct-18 Physics 12 RaJ Kumar ThareJa Visiting Professor Delhi University 2017-Nov-03 Physics 13 SanJib Banerjee Assistant Professor IACS, Kolkata 2017-Nov-01 Chemistry 14 Arzad Alam Kherani Associate Professor IISc, Bangalore 2017-Oct-30 Electrical Engr. 15 SatyaJit Gupta Assistant Professor IISc, Bangalore 2017-Dec-04 Chemistry 16 Asrifa Sultana Assistant Professor IIT Madras 2017-Dec-12 Mathematics 17 Aniket Singha Assistant Professor IIT Bombay 2017-Dec-27 Electrical Engr. 18 Sk Subidh Ali Assistant Professor IIT Kharagpur 2017-Dec-29 Comp. Sc. & Engr. Contact: [email protected] 3 Faculty News (Cont.) Vol.1 | Issue 1 Honorary/DistinguishedStaff News Professors Recipient of the Padma Shri Award, Shri A. S. Kiran Recipient of Padma Shri and Kumar, is an extremely Padma Bhushan awards, Shri accomplished space scientist Vijay Kumar Saraswat is one of and engineer, with a India's most gifted scientists distinguished career spanning with more than four decades more than four decades in of experience in several fields ISRO (including the term as its spanning both basic and chairman).