SCEE News-Letter Volume-4 | Issue-2 Electron Wave Editor: Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury Co-Editors: Dr. Manas Thakur & Dr. Srinivasu Bodapati School of Computing and Electrical Engineering INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MANDI NEWS CONTENT Message from the Editor:- It gives me a lot of pleasure to introduce before you volume-4 No- 2 of Electron Wave, the SCEE Newsletter. With the passage of time, our school has grown to a size of 46 no. of faculty members, with a diverse areas of focus including signal processing, communication, control systems, power electronics and drives, VLSI and microelectronics, embedded systems and IOT, human computer interaction, machine learning, artificial intelligence, computer networks, graphics to name a few. I am pleased to introduce the new faculty members who joined IIT Mandi over the past 5 months. Our director Prof. Timothy A. Gonsalves has kindly consented to give an interview sharing his views about the development of the institute and scaling its heights down the line. Sincerely, Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury 1. Message from the Editor- Dr. S. Roy Chowdhury 2. Face to face with Dr. Timothy A. Gonsalves 3. Awards, Recognitions, Publications and Patents 4. Distinguished lectures, Seminars and Workshops 5. Student Achievements and Statistics 6. Research Projects 7. Our Staff - New Faculty Details 6. 2 FACE TO FACE WITH THE DIRECTOR Professor Timothy A. Gonsalves, the current director of IIT Mandi, happens to be a charismatic teacher, a successful entrepreneur and a well-known administrator. Beginning his teaching career at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), Boston, he has spent more than 20 years at the department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Mandi. This time the Electron Wave is face to face with Prof. Timothy Gonsalves Q- Who are you and what do you do? A- I am Timothy Gonsalves, Professor, SCEE and Director, IIT Mandi. My academic work is in computer networks and applying computer networks and software technologies to improve the lives of Indians, particularly in rural areas. Q- You have taught in USA as well as in India how do you find the students in US versus Indian students? A- The students in the US are usually more self-motivated because they themselves pay for their education. Many of them take loans and after graduation they repay the loan. So when they register for a course, they make sure to get benefit from the course. The students here need a bit more of external motivation. Many of them, when get motivation, they do very well. In terms of overall capability, the students here and in USA are similar. So, motivation is the main difference. Q- Sir you have taught at IIT Madras for 20 years and at IIT Mandi for 10 years now, how much difference do you find between the two places with respect to academics and research? A- At IIT Madras, the students are those who typically topped in JEE or GATE, and those here have lower ranks. The best students here are as good as the best students in IIT Madras. In terms of motivation, I often find that students here are better motivated that's because having lower ranks they have to prove themselves. Also, some specifically chose IIT Mandi in order to get their preferred branch here. In IIT Madras, because they have higher ranks some students feel that they don't have to prove themselves, so they don’t work so hard. 3 Q- Sir, you have cofounded many start-ups. Did that experience help you in opening a start-up institute named IIT Mandi? A- Very definitely yes. In a start-up, there are no well-defined roles, and we have to do anything and everything. In a start-up, you have to keep adapting and try some ideas. Some work and some don’t work. So that experience certainly helped. Q- Sir, given that it is institute with lot of external interference and outreach activities, why did you choose to establish IIT Mandi at such a remote village? A- This decision was actually made before I joined, by the Government of Himachal Pradesh and the Central Government. I think, one reason for this is because for an IIT 500 acres of land are required and in Himachal Pradesh, it is very difficult to find 500 acres of contiguous plain Government-owned land. In flat areas like Sundernagar and Kangra, there is very little land available, that’s why they chose Kamand. In retrospect, I think it’s a good decision. It has given IIT Mandi a very peaceful campus, and is a unique attraction, which many people find beneficial. You can see the result is the very good academics that is being done here by faculty, students and researchers. Q- Sir, as a professor, how would you like to prioritize your responsibilities between academics, research and administration? A- Well, I would add one more to that and that is product or technology development for use by society. My priorities are primarily teaching, and product development. Basic research and administration are lower priorities. Of course, as a Director, administration takes higher priority. But I still make sure that I give enough time to teaching. Q- How do you like to ace IIT Mandi 10 years and 20 years, hence from now? A- Well, 10 years from now, IIT Mandi should be best in India in something and 20 years from now it should be the best in the world in something. What those areas are, will depend on the passion of the faculty and students. There are some areas where we have strength like Machine Learning, Condensed Matter Physics, Advanced Materials, BioX. Even in Humanities, as you know, Manu Devadevan has won the Infosys Prize. So, in one of these or some such areas, we will become the best in India and also the best in the world. 4 Q- Sir, you have chaired the committee of introducing supernumerary quota for women in B. Tech admission. While this endeavor will definitely change the demographics of IIT campuses, do you think that it will change the outlook of Indian society towards upbringing of women, in general, and in women’s education, in particular? A- It has already changed the demographics in IITs. Earlier, in B.Tech, we would typically have 5 to 8 girls, now we have 50 or so. Also, if you see the students around in campus, in the events, or so, you will see certainly a difference. Recently, a team of 2nd year BTech students won the first prize in the 4th National ACM-W Hackathon. So, second year students from here have done better than presumably fourth year students from other institutions and these are all women students. As far as change in Indian society is concerned, I think the changes will come once parents and school girls see that there’s a good chance of getting into IIT. Then they will put more effort into JEE advanced coaching and gradually do better there and get into IITs. Secondly, as more women graduate from B.Tech in IIT, some go on to become leaders in corporate companies, and some will do PhDs and become good faculty in universities in India. They will become good role models at the higher levels, which today is lacking and certainly schoolgirls will be motivated to go in for engineering. So, I think, there will be long term changes. Q- Sir, lastly please give a word of advice to faculty and students of IIT Mandi. A- You decide on a passion, decide how you want to change the world, and then work towards that, single mindedly. There will be obstacles, don't worry about them. Sometimes you will find that the passion is something that is not achievable for some reason even after a lot of effort. Then be willing to change your passion. But, have a passion, and work on it. 5 AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS Dr. Tushar Jain was appointed as program Chair in International Conference on Differential Equations and Control Problems: Modelling, Analysis and Computations (ICDECP19), IIT Mandi, 17-19 June, 2019. Dr. Shubhajit Roy Chowdhury was appointed as Associate Editor of IEEE Journal of Translational Engineering in Health and Medicine by IEEE in July 2019. Dr. Narsa Reddy was appointed as associate editor of IEEE Access Journal by IEEE in November 2019. PUBLICATIONS AND PATENTS 25 Journals 20 Conferences 2 Patents 2 Books 6 DISTINGUISHED LECTURES . Shashank Kumar (University of Duisburg-Essen, Duisburg, Germany). Title: Silicon photomultipliers and neutron detection. December 2nd. Dr. Aleksey Buzmakov (National Research University: Higher School of Economics). Title: Estimation of Individual Treatment Effect Estimation in Randomized Trials. October 31st . Dr. Abhishek Sharma (PhD, IIT Bombay). Title: Integrated Quantum transport formalism for spintronics and beyond. October 22nd. Dr. Mayank Pandey (MNNIT, Allahabad). Title: Software defined networks: The road ahead. September 16th. Anurag Pandey and Ajay Kumar (HCL Technologies). Title: Computer vision and NLP from an industry point of view. September 16th . Dr. Sudhir Pathak (Research Associate at University of Pittsburgh). Title: High Definition Fiber Tracking. August 27th. SEMINARS AND WORKSHOPS . The faculty members of Multimedia, Analytics, Networks and Systems (MANAS) Lab, School of Computing and Electrical Engineering organised a 5 day workshop on Applied Deep Learning at IIT Mandi during the period July 1- July 5, 2019. The Control Society hosted a 5 day workshop on learning and control (WLC 2019) during July 22 – July 26, 2019. Eminent speakers like Pramod P. Khargonekar from University of California at Irvine, M. Vidyasagar from IIT Hyderabad, Dr. Sanjay P. Bhatt from TCS, and Dr. Viswanadha Reddy Puduru visited the workshop and delivered their lectures.