CAMPUS DIARY - January 2004

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY BOMBAY

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Mood Indigo, 2003
I came, I saw, I conquered!

A riot of colours and a sea of smiles, Mood Indigo just proved that youth is the best time of one's life. Mood Indigo 2003 embodied the very spirit of youth: the spirit of competition, the spirit of hard work, the spirit of working in a team to make something magical and the spirit of learning something at every step of life.

The Mood I Team

Pre - Indigo Preparations
Preparations for the fest kicked off in April itself, when the MI team was chosen, comprising two Overall Coordinators (OCs) and the Core Group members. The hard work started after the end sems. The summer was at its peak and so was the enthusiasm. The media files had to be made, sponsors had to be contacted, the festival needed a theme, a catch line…the work seemed endless. Work continued in full swing, till the last few minutes of the fest. So when so much hard work goes into something, what do you get?? Read on for an account of the four days of the biggest college festival in India. What makes a college festival?

Competitions. MI offers a plethora of competitions for everyone. From the born orators to the born Picassos. There were regular events like debates, extempore, word games, quizzes, dramatics, vocals, instrumental, dance and what not. Even the old events came with a slight twist. The new events this year included Bharat Ek Khoj: the India Quiz, which quizzed the participants on all facets of India from history to mythology, from politics to Bollywood, from north to south.

Another new event this year was Bhaasha Bhaskar, the all round Hindi Lit event, which had crosswords, dumb charades, pictionary and trivia: all in Hindi. This year, other new events were - face painting, film poster designing and the photography contest which was accompanied by a photography workshop and a photography exhibition. IIT Bombay consistently performed well in all events and saw to it that the MI trophy does not leave the IIT backyard.

One of the unique features of MI is the host of workshops it offers. This year the workshops were: The Jive and Salsa workshop, conducted by Rahul Saxena, taught people how to burn up the dance floor with grace and agility. The Photography workshop by Girish Mistry, former editor of the Times journal of photography, dealt with object composition, brightness, depth, contrast and the other nitty-gritties of photography. The Acting workshop, by Jayadev Hattangady, also doubled up as a personality development workshop, with its strong emphasis on confidence and the art of presenting yourself. The Dhrupad workshop, conducted by Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar by the placid waters of the Powai lakeside, is just one of the many facets which sets Mood I apart from the clutter of college fests.

The morning of the 21st was ushered in by Rahul da Cunha's superb play - 'Class of '84'- A play about the reunion of college friends after many years appealed to all students present. This introspective play explores the intricacies and complexities of human relationships. The play boasts of an impressive cast with Rajit Kapoor, Shernaz Patel, Rituraj, Radhika Da Cunha, Joy Sengupta, Sohrab Ardeshir, Dipika Ray and Zafar Karachiwala.

Another play staged during MI was 'Helpdesk'. Written and directed by Shivani Tibrewala, the play is produced by Aban Davar, and the cast is a promising mix of first-timers and well-knowners including Uday Chandra, Shamath Mazumdar, Quasar Thakore Padamsee, Meenal Patel, Vishal Patel, Isabella Rodricks, Vismay Shroff, Sukeshi Sondhi and Satyajit Vetoskar.

Another pro-show at MI 03 was the 'Hasya Kavi Sammelan'. Surendra Sharma and his entourage ensured that all ribs were tickled and nobody left without a smile.

There were plenty of people at MI who came not to jog their grey cells or learn new skills, but just to have pure unadulterated fun. Aquagames and Informals catered to such people. For the easygoing laidback types, the informals stage was Mecca. A slew of fun filled wacky games and loads of freebies and prizes, what more can one ask for? Plus there were lots of veejays and models to rub shoulders with. When the sun got overhead, and the mercury started rising, the crowds flocked to the poolside where Aquagames took place. Wacky games and lots of water to splash around in, and of course many prizes to be won.

A new feature of Informals this year was XXXtreme Sports: the adventure sports workshop. Rock climbing, river crossing and rappelling lured many a boy and girl.

Vogue - the fashion competition too had an added zing to it this year, with an inspiring stage setup Vogue enthralled the audiences with a mind blowing display of creativity and style.

• The overall Mood I trophy was won by IIT Bombay.
  
• Xaviers came second.
  
  
• Individual Trophies -
  
  
• Speaking, literary arts and fine arts were won by IIT B.
  
• Music and Dance - Xaviers.
  
• Dramatics - KMC.
  
  

What is probably the biggest thing about the four days of Mood Indigo are the four professional nights.This year the four nights were something like this: SBI Classical Nite: Classical music aficionados were mesmerized by the music of Pt. Rajan and Sajan Mishra. Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasiya transported them to a different world with the notes of his flute.

DHL Fusion Nite: As day fused with the night, the east and the west blended that evening with the music of Sivamani, Pt. Vikku Vinayakram, Louis Banks, Taufiq Qureshi, V. Selvaganesh, Niladari Kumar and Karl Peters.

Bajaj Pulsar Popular Nite : The audience swayed to the lilting melodies of Bangalore-based band Antaragni followed by Lucky Ali who belted out all his popular numbers living up to the name of the night.

Siemens Livewire: The finals of one of India's largest, an amateur rock competition was followed by a full-blown rock concert. Rock band Zero and Canadian band QED, along with laser shows and fireworks, rocked the OAT with 30000 watts of pulsating music and raw energy.

At the end of the rock show, most people went their own ways, but the IITians lingered around, trying to soak in the last few drops of the fest they had given their sweat and their hearts to.

All in all, Mood Indigo was as huge a success as it was touted to be and even the rest of the city acknowledged this as various news crews and newspapers had come to campus to get a bit of the action.

Congratulations to all those who made Mood I the success that it was!

(Based on a report by Ram Kakkad, Core Team Member, Mood I)

MoU with Goa University

The institute has entered into an agreement for Cooperation with the Goa University that was signed by Prof. P.S. Zacharias, Vice-Chancellor, Goa University and Prof. Ashok Misra, Director, IITB on December 4, 2003.

The purpose is to develop academic exchange and infrastructural cooperation in respect of satellite based Distance Education Programme (DEP) in Information Technology. The satellite receiving station will be based at the Goa University premises and the courses will be made available to the participants from the industry, teachers and students of the academic institutions. As per the agreement, the Goa University will be the nodal centre for all activities relating to courses provided by the institute that will also provide support in installing satellite receiving station equipment as a part of and from the resources made available under the MoU.

Workshop on Model Credit Based Semester System

A workshop on "Model Credit Based Semester System", was conducted at IIT Bombay, on December 4, 2003.

The National Policy of Education (NPE)-1986 laid down that technical, and management education programmes including education in polytechnics should be flexible having modular pattern based on credits with provision for multi-point entry.

Looking at the academic excellence achieved by IITs and some deemed Universities by following the Credit Based Semester System, it was felt that technical institutions in India should adopt the same. Accordingly AICTE in coordination with IITs decided to organize four workshops to deliberate the issue.

The Workshop commenced with the Welcome Address from Prof. R.S. Gaud, Adviser, UG Bureau, All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE), New Delhi. He reiterated that the feedback and suggestions of this workshop would be forwarded to the MHRD Steering Committee set up for this purpose.

In his opening remarks, Prof. Ashok Misra, Director, urged the need for Model Credit Based Semester System in all technical institutions. The aim of all Engineering Colleges is to provide the best education to make a student "think out of the box". Teachers also play a pivotal role, thus autonomy should be given to them in formulating their own curriculum, teaching methods etc., which would help teachers to grow. "There is also an overabundance of students and a shortage of teachers. It is a dichotomy that we do not have the brightest minds to teach bright students!" he added.

The Chairman of the Western Regional Committee, Prof. V. N. Gupchup, felt that this Model Based Credit System could only be implemented in all technical institutions, if autonomy is given to them. He pointed out, "Maharashtra took the bold step of giving autonomy to a few polytechniques, and they have done very well. Autonomy gives flexibility. The strait-jacketing of the system has to change."

Prof. N.L. Sarda, Dean, Academics explained the Philosophy and Benefits of the Credit-Based System, and the evaluation system followed at IIT and also the requirement of an open environment to get full advantages of the system.

In the following session, Prof. H. Narayanan, Electrical Engg, explained the design of B.Tech.Curriculum and the credit based system followed in IIT Bombay, while Prof. N.B. Ballal, MEMS, presented the structure and framework of M.Tech programme.

In the Session III, Prof. R.S. Gaud emphasized on the fact that the institutions should have an optimistic approach towards this system. Overall it was felt that faculty training was a major requirement in all-technical institutions. Teachers first and foremost should have the autonomy while interacting with the management, the students, the Principal and then comes the autonomy to the Institution, which is secondary. Above all autonomy within the institution was of utmost importance.

ACM Programming Contest Held

The Asia-Pacific regional finals for the 28th edition of the ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest were conducted by the Department of CSE on Dec 6 and 7, 2003.

The ACM International Collegiate Programming Contest (ACM ICPC) is one of the largest computer programming contests in the world. ACM ICPC is an activity that provides college students with an opportunity to demonstrate and sharpen their problem-solving and computing skills. It also invites Asian students to meet, establish friendships and promote fair competition in programming. The winning team of each of the eight sites in Asia is eligible to participate in the world finals. Winning team also received travel support from ACM ICPC sponsor to participate in the finals.

Students during the contest

About 34 teams were short listed from among over 100 teams in the preliminary contest held on November 3, which had participated in the event. These included 24 from India, three from China, one from Korea, two from Singapore, and four from Bangladesh. The team from Shanghai Jiatong University (http://www.sjtu.edu.cn/) won the finals.

Director Prof. Ashok Misra, and Dean RM Prof. Dipan K. Ghosh graced the concluding ceremony and gave away the prizes. The organizing team consisted of several students and faculty of the CSE department under the stewardship of the contest director, Prof. S. Biswas, CSE.

Workshop on Rain-Water Harvesting

A two day Workshop on Rain-water Harvesting, Jal Sangrah Shibir, was organized jointly by Pan-IIT alumni of Mumbai and Maharashtra Nature Park on the December 6 & 7, 2003 at IIT Bombay.

Shri Mohan Dharia, Ex Dy. Chairman, Planning Commission delivered the inaugural address and Shri Rajendra Singh of Tarun Bharat Sangh also addressed the Workshop. The keynote address was delivered by Shri V. Ranganathan, Ex-Chief Secretary, Government of Maharashtra. Many leading non-government organisations working in the area of water conservation in different parts of the country participated in the Workshop, including CSE, Delhi, Dhan Foundation, Madurai, Vanarai, Pune, and CPR Environmental Education Trust, Chennai.

As many as 500 enthusiastic participants expressed a sense of deep concern over the growing imbalance between the demand and supply of water leading to recurring devastating water crises in the country. At the end of the two-day deliberations, the participants passed the resolution titled Powai Jal Sandharan Sankalp 2003.

Powai Jal Sandharan Sankalp 2003
[ Powai Water Conservation Pledge 2003]

They resolved to think globally, act locally and respond personally in the manner indicated herein below: -

1. The key to water resources management is through locally managed, decentralized systems thus, a massive public awareness and education campaign should be taken up using electronic and print media and permanent exhibits to make people aware of the importance of Rainwater Harvesting and the ease with which it can be done.
   
   
2. There should be networking of all agencies working in Rainwater Harvesting; Rainwater Harvesting Cell cum Advisory Service should be set up in all cities and at all district headquarters.
   
   
3. A manual on Rainwater Harvesting to be prepared in English and Indian languages and disseminated widely.
   
   
4. A large number of engineers, architects, masons, plumbers and contractors should be trained so that they can undertake Rainwater Harvesting measures with confidence and precision.
   
   
5. Rainwater Harvesting should be incorporated in the curricula of all schools and colleges and in all training programmes of public functionaries.
   
   
6. The Central, State and local Governments should take active measures to promote, assist and accelerate Rainwater Harvesting and should execute rainwater harvesting in all public buildings and public places on a campaign basis. This would have an excellent demonstration effect.
   
   
7. A part of the funds for local development allotted to elected representatives should be earmarked for Rainwater Harvesting.
   
   
8. An appropriate rebate in Municipal Taxes should be given to all buildings harvesting rainwater.
   
   
9. All water supplies should be metered. Water rates should be increased and fixed on an exponential basis.
   
   
10. Rainwater Harvesting should be made obligatory with immediate effect in all buildings under construction and within a period of two years in all existing buildings.
11. In order to promote and achieve Rainwater Harvesting on a sustainable basis, Rainwater Harvesting Fund and Rainwater Harvesting Research Fund should be established. Awards should be instituted for rewarding and showcasing outstanding performance by individuals and institutions.

    The Institute Participates at Convergences 03
    
    An International Conference, Convergences 03, on 'Convergence of Knowledge, Culture, Language and Information Technologies', was held at the heritage site of "Bibliotecha Alexandrina", the library of Alexandria, on December 2-7, 2003.
    
    The objective of the conference, as described by Prof. T. Della Senta, the conference Co-Chair and President of the UNDL Foundation Geneva, on the opening day of the conference, was to bring together researchers and the professionals from IT and CS, linguistics, sociology and other areas of intellectual pursuits. IIT Bombay had a significant presence in the conference.
    
    The keynote address of the conference was delivered by Prof. M.G.K. Menon, former Chairman, BOG, IIT Bombay, who emphasised the need for convergence of disciplines in today's world of decreasing knowledge boundaries. He mentioned two events- the World Summit on Information Societies (WSIS) and the Research Summit on Information Societies (RSIS) that were to be held in Geneva in December 2003- where deliberations were held on the issue of due credit being assigned to research on fundamental science. It is this kind of research that has made it possible for the marvels of technological developments- like the internet, fibre optics, laser and even transistor - to come into existence today.
    
    Four research papers- based on the work done in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering were presented on the following topics (i) Multilingual, Meaning Based Search (ii) Automatic Generation of Multilingual Lexicons from Source Texts (iii) Improvement in Case Retrieval through Sematics and (iv) Analysis and Generation of Bengali to and from the Universal Networking Language (UNL) Representation of Text. The first presentation was accompanied by a demonstration of the system. Prof. Pushpak Bhattacharyya, CSE, delivered the talks.

    "Was Satyendra Kumar Dubey's Death in Vain?"
    
    ",,, and we IITians declare to act." an IIT Bombay representative
    
    "Where do we go from here?' was the common question aired at a meeting chaired by Ashok Misra, Director, comprising of speakers like Sucheta Dalal, eminent columnist, Deepak Satwalekar, IIT Bombay Alumnus and Head of HDFC Insurance and Dilip D'souza, established author and Bits Pilani Alumnus.
    
    

    Students of all IITs paying rapt attention to the speakers

    The meeting titled "Was Satyendra Kumar Dubey's Death in Vain?" was organised by the Alumni Association at the IIT Bombay Open Air Theatre on December 15, 2003.
    
    Prof. Ashok Misra, Director, stated that this was the meeting of it's kind to show how IITians can make a difference towards progress achieved without corruption. "That is what Satyendra Dubey stood for and what IIT stands for. We at IIT are totally dedicated to merit. Lets uphold the IIT system."
    
    Sucheta Dalal urged that, " We must ensure that his death does not go in vain. There must be some value attached to work done honestly. If we are serious about the issue, we should lobby for cancellation of contracts and the enactment of the Whistle Blower's Act and set-up a Whistle Blower's Counselling Centre to provide guidance to others fighting corruption and to ensure that Dubey's death does not go in vain."
    
    Deepak Satwalekar pointed out that there must be a systematic change at the highest level. "It is not the system that works, but people who work." he added. In joint support, Dilip D'souza said "We must do a lot more than naming a highway after him."
    
    Shailesh Gandhi, President of the IITB Alumni Association, held that "There is a possibility of creating a mass movement out of this, we must sustain it for leaving the future generations with a much better India."
    
    Many student representatives from all IITs took the opportunity to speak impromptu about the embryonic movement under the crisp winter sky. Prateek, IITB, urged that this incident is a chilling reminder that we have two ways to act. "One is to not do anything and the second is to use this incident as an opportunity to change - and we IITians declare to act."

    Honours and Distinctions
    
    Prof. D. Bahadur, MEMS, has been invited to be a member of Editorial Advisory Board of Transactions of Indian Institute of Metals. He was also invited to be a member of Six Member Indo-French Committee (with equal membership from Indian French side) for creation of Indo-French Laboratory of solid State Chemistry (IFLaSc). The term of the joint committee is for four years. Prof. Bahadur chaired one of the first sessions of the first committee meeting that took place at Bordeaux, France on December 3 and 4, 2003. Moreover, Prof. Bahadur was also honoured with the 'Man of the Year - 2003' award for his overall accomplishments by the American Biographical Institute.
    
    Prof. Deepak P. Nandedkar, Electrical Engineering, has been awarded an 'International Peace Prize (2003)' from UCC-The United Cultural Convention, Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
    
    Dr. C. S. Harendranath, RSIC, has been nominated for the Membership of the Task Force on Application of BioTechnology for Biodiversity Conservation and Environment, Department of BioTechnology (DBT), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. The Duration of the Task Force is for a period of three years.

    Student Awards
    
    Vaishali Moharir, M.Tech student of IEOR Programme, won the 'Best Student Paper Award', for her presentation titled "A Model for Equilibrium Fares and Frequencies for Competing Modes of Transport on a Network", at the Seventh Annual International Conference of The Society of Operations Management held at IIM Indore, during December 19-21, 2003.

    Visitors
    
    Dr. Muneendra Kumar, Chief Geodesist, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA, formerly Defense Mapping Agency), USA, and Mr. Robert Anderson, Geodesist, NGA, visited the Institute on December 9, 2003. They held discussions with Prof. Madhav N. Kulkarni and other faculty of Civil Engg. Dept., regarding proposed joint collaborative research projects between NGA and IITB.

    SecNet-2003
    
    SecNet2003 - a four-day workshop on Security and Networking was organized by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in association with the Computer Science and Engineering Association from December 6-9, 2003. SecNet 2003 is fifth in a series of SecNet workshops, which started off in the year 1999.
    
    The primary goal of the Workshop was sharing information regarding various aspects of security and networking and providing its participants with insight into the theory behind network security measures, providing hands on experience to the open source tools, and an exposure to the industry standard implementations of network security solutions. The topics covered in SecNet2003 included: Secure Electronic Transactions, IPSec, Traffic Analysis and Privacy, Security in Wireless Networks. Several demonstrations were also given.
    
    

    Sandeep Deshmukh & Rodney Martis of Mtech2 were the co-ordinator of the event with 30 more organizers from the Mtech2

    The workshop began with a Network Security Primer by Prof. G. Sivakumar, HoD, CSE. Talks during the workshop included Theory of Cryptography, Cryptography Applications, Ethical Hacking and Secure Programming, Digital Certificates, Cryptographic File System and on Intrusion Detection System, Cyber Crimes and Cyber Laws, Security Auditing and Policy Making, Security Issues in Smart Card and demo.
    
    The fourth day had a panel discussion on Management Perspectives of Security. The panel members included Prof. G. Sivakumar, Head CSE, Mr. Vinod Kulkarni, Associate Vice President, Persistent Systems Pvt. Ltd., Pune, Dr. Sundeep Oberoi, Head Information Security and Language Processing Division, Tata Infotech Ltd., Mumbai, and Mr.Nandankumar Saravade, IPS officer who also heads the bank and securities fraud unit of the CBI.
    
    The workshop provided hands on experience to the participants which included tools like Nmap, Nessus, PGP Tripwire, Snort and general overview of all the tools that hackers or crackers usually use.
    
    A case study on IIT Bombay network infrastructure was also presented followed by a visit to the DEP studio, KReSIT and the Computer Center at IIT Bombay. A visit to Aero Linux Cluster was also arranged on the last day of the workshop.
    
    The above talks were covered by speakers from IIT Bombay as well as from industry including Prof. G. Sivakumar, Head, Dept. of CSE, IIT Bombay, Setu Choksi, MTech student, Dept. of Chemical Engg., IIT Bombay, Mr. Atul Kahate, iflex Solutions, Pune, Mr. Mayur Naik, Internet Trends, Mr. Ravindra Jaju, Persistent Systems Pvt. Ltd., Pune, Dr. Pradnya Saravade, Head, Cyber Crimes Investigation Cell of the Mumbai Police, Mr. K. K. Mookhey, Network Intelligence India Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, Prof. Bernard Menezes, KReSIT, Sayyapparaju Sunil, MTech Student, KReSIT, Sandeep Deshmukh, Amarnadh, Kameswara Rao, MTech students, CSE, IIT Bombay.
    
    The lab sessions were conducted by D. Siva Kumar, K. Santhosh, Harsha Mahuli and Vishal Mamania, MTech students of CSE. The case study was presented by Meghana Mande, of CSE.
    
    On the concluding day, an open session was conducted for feedback. The participants appreciated the overall organization and conduct of the workshop. Prof. G. SivaKumar, and Prof. Uday Khedker, Vice President, CSEA distributed Certificates of Participation to the participants.
    
    SecNet workshops have always attracted people from both industry as well as academia. SecNet 2003 primarily targeted IT managers, Network managers, Software professionals and System administrators from various organizations like Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Software companies, Banks and Financial Institutions, and Educational Institutions. This year the workshop was attended by people from the industry and academia. The industry participation included professionals from Persistent Systems Pvt. Ltd., Pune; GSec1,Chennai; HDFC Bank, Mumbai, etc, where as the academic participation included students from Sarvajanik College Of Engineering and Technology, Surat; C.K.Pithawalla College of Engg. and Tech, Surat, etc and faculty from VJTI, Mumbai; Sardar Patel College of Engineering, Mumbai; PICT, Pune; R. J. College, Mumbai, etc.
    
    (Based on a report by Sandeep Deshmukh, Coordinator,SecNet 2003)

    Faculty News
    
    Prof. S A Khaparde, Electrical Engineering, gave a invited lecture "Modelling of Electricity Markets", in the Winter School at D Y Patil Institute of Engineering and Technology, Pune, on December 26, 2003.
    
    Prof. Karunamay Subuddhi, Humanities and Social Sciences, had attended the XXIX All India Sociological Conference held at Maharana Pratap University of Agriculture and Technology, Udaipur from December 21-23, 2003 and participated in the conference deliberations and presented two papers entitled (1) Capitalist Globalization, the Coutertrends and the New Social Movements: Towards a New Modernity, as part of Technical session RC:1 Theory, Concepts and Methodology and (2) Transnational Exploitative Practices, Transnational Harms and the problems of Social Justice - as part of Technical session- Rc:29:Social Problems and Marginalized Groups. The focal theme of the Conference, as organized by Indian Sociological Society, was 'Social Policy, Governance and Mobilization'.
    
    Prof. Balwant Singh, EE gave two lectures on "The Cohen Structure Theorems for a Complete Local Ring", at IISc, Bangalore, on December 22 and 24, 2003. He had also participated in the India-AMS Mathematics Meeting held at IISc Bangalore, and gave a talk at the meeting entitled "On a question of Huneke Concerning Seminormality", from December 17-20, 2003.
    
    Prof. H V Sahasrabuddhe, KReSIT, attended the seminar on "Music Education in the Universities of India", at SNDT Women 's University, Mumbai and presented an invited talk on "Computer Application to Music Education", on December 22 & 23, 2003.
    
    Prof. Pushpak Bhattacharyya, CSE, had delivered an invited presentation "Interlingua Based Machine Translation- a Prespective", at the recently concluded International Conference on Natural Language Processing in Mysore, India from December 19 to 21, 2003. He also presented a research paper on "Better Document Representation"- jointly with Chirag Shah, CSE. The highlight of the conference was an Indo - French pre-conference Workshop on "Natural Language Processing", on December 18, to discuss joint endeavour on machine translation and other language processing tasks. He also delivered a seminar on "Environmental Issues and Development", at Ratnam College, Mumbai on December 11, 2003.
    
    Prof. Harish Hirani, ME, had presented a research paper on "Optimization of Journal Bearing Groove Geometry Using Genetic Algorithm", in 11th National Conference on 'Machines and Mechanisms', held at IIT Delhi on December 18-19, 2003. He also Co-chaired a session on "Noise and Vibration", and was one of the reviewers at the conference.
    
    Prof. Pushpa Trivedi, HSS, was one of the Expert Panelists for the technical session on 'Equity markets: Integration, Efficiency and Microstructure', at the Seventh Annual Conference on Capital Markets. The Conference was organised by the Indian Institute of Capital Markets, Navi-Mumbai, on December 18 and 19, 2003. Prof. Trivedi was also one of the referees for awarding the outstanding papers presented in the conference.
    
    Dr. Y.S. Rao, CSRE, presented his paper on "PC Based Raw Data Processor for Interferometric Radar Applications", at the first 'International Conference on Microwaves, Antenna, Propagation and Remote Sensing', held at Jodhpur during December 17-19, 2003.
    
    Prof. A. K. Verma was the Conference Chair and Prof. A. Srividya was the Conference Co-Chairperson at an 'International Conference on Quality, Reliability & IT', which was held at INSA, New Delhi from December 18-20, 2003.
    
    Padma Shree Dr.C.P.Thakur, Union Minister of Small Scale Industries was the Chief Guest who inaugurated the conference.
    
    Prof. S. S. Gaur, SJM SOM, chaired a session and made an invited presentation. Awards for 'Leadership in Reliability Engineering Education and Research', instituted by Society of Reliability Engineering, Quality and Operations Management were conferred onto Prof. A. K. Verma & Prof. A. Srividya in their respective fields.
    
    Prof. A. K. Rastogi, Civil Engineering, was invited to deliver the Key Note address entitled "Numerical Modeling of Groundwater Systems", at the 'International Conference on Water and Environment 2003', held at RRL Bhopal from December 15-18, 2003. He chaired two sessions on "Groundwater Pollution and Watershed Hydrology". He was on the panel of experts along with those from UK, USA, Australia, Italy and France to discuss issues about water resources research with the delegates. 250 delegates including 40 foreign delegates representing all continents participated in this event.
    
    Prof. S. Narayan Rao, SJM School of Management, presented a paper on "Risk Factors in the Indian Capital Markets-vs-Asia Pacific Markets", at an 'International Conference on Business and Finance', held at Hyderabad on December 15-16, 2003. The conference was hosted by ICFAI University and co-sponsored by Philadelphia University. Another paper by Prof. Rao on "Does Price Momentum Strategy Work in the Indian Stock Market?", jointly authored with Vrijesh K Gupta and Rama Niwas Jha, final year students of WP programme, was presented by Vrijjesh K Gupta at the 7th Capital Market Conference held at Indian Institute of Capital Markets, Vashi, Navi Mumbai, on December 18-19, 2003. Prof Rao's joint paper with Jijo Lukose P J, student, on "An Empirical Study on the Determinants of the Capital Structure of Listed Indian Firms", which was listed on SSRN web site is among the top ten 'Emerging Markets: Finance Recent Hits'.
    
    Prof A. Subash Babu, Mechanical Engineering and IDP IE & OR, had organised a three day Course on 'Productivity, Quality and Maintenance Management', for Enterprise Excellence under CEP from December 11-13, 2003. He delivered a lecture on "Managing Quality in Projects", for the executives of Reliance Industries Limited on December 5, 2003. He had earlier, organised a three-day programme on 'Production Management', under CEP at Bajaj Auto Limited, Akurdi, from November 27-29 and delivered an invited lecture on "Improving Competitiveness through Productivity Initiatives", at a seminar jointly organised by ILO and Employers Federation of India on November 21,2003. Moreover, Prof. Babu delivered an invited lecture on "Total Quality Management", during the Management Development Programme organised by NTPC for its senior managers, on November 18, 2003.
    
    Prof. Atanu Ghosh, SJM SOM, presented a paper on "Globalization and Strategy for New Global product development", at a National Seminar on 'Management of Global Product Development Projects', held on November 28, at SOM. He also presented a case study on 'Airtel - A Case Study on Brand Building', jointly authored with Vineet Gupta, Kiran B. Pillai, SOM, and Nitin Dewan, EE, at a National Seminar on 'Building Brands in Indian Markets', held at IIM Kozhikode on December 13-14, 2003. He presented a paper on "E-Governance in Indian Perspective", co-authored with Saurabh Lahiri, 3rd Year B.Tech. Student, CE, IT-BHU, Varanasi, at the 'International Conference on E-governance', held at IIT Delhi on December 18-20, 2003 and chaired a session on 'Government-Citizen Relationship'. The paper was published in a book form titled, 'Promise of E-Governance', edited by Prof. M. P. Gupta, published by Tata McGraw Hill and released during the Conference. Furthermore, Prof. Ghosh, presented a paper on "Challenges in Silk Product Exporting", at a Seminar on 'Silk Technology', held during 'SILK WEEK', at New Delhi, and organized by the Development Commissioner (Handlooms), Govt. of India, Central Silk Board and Indian Silk Export Promotion Council, from December 15 to 17, 2003. He also delivered talks on (1) "On Supply Chain Management Issues in Fashion Industry", at NIFT Delhi, on December 15, 2003 (2) "On Changing Indian Retail Environment: Challenges Ahead ...Can Information Technology HELP?", at IILM (Institute for Integrated Learning in Management), New Delhi, on 16th December 2003.
    
    Prof. S. B. Kedare, Energy Systems Engineering, presented a paper titled "Renewable Energy Systems for Industrial Applications", in the All India Seminar on 'Energy Conservation and Energy Audit', organized by Academy of Resource Management, at IITB, on December 12-13, 2003.
    
    Prof. Kushal Deb, HSS, presented a paper titled "Social Construct of World class/ Global City", at a seminar on the Document Vision Mumbai, organized by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Deonar, Mumbai, and prepared by Bombay First and McKensy Group, on December 9, 2003.
    
    Prof. K. G. Rao, Civil Engg., presented his paper on "Artificial Neural Networks and Spatially Distributed Approach in Runoff Modeling", at The Indian Society of Remote Sensing (ISRS) Symposium - 2003 and the International Society for Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) Workshop, held at Techno Park, Thiruvananthapuram, held during December 9 to 12, 2003. He also participated in The Annual Convention and Annual General Body Meeting of the ISRS, representing the ISRS Mumbai Chapter as its Chairman, during the symposium/ workshop.
    
    Prof. Malhar Kulkarni, HSS, delivered a lecture on "Grantha Script", at a 'Workshop on 'Manuscriptology', organised by the K.J.Somaiya College, Mumbai on December 9, 2003. He delivered two lectures on "Voice" at the Dr. N. P. Shah English School, Agashi , Thane , on December 13 and 14, 2003. He read a paper on "Karaka Definitions", at the 5th session of the Brhan Maharashtra Pracya Vidya Parishat , at Kundai, Goa, on December 1, 2003.
    
    Prof. Karunamay Subuddhi, Humanities and Social Sciences, had presented a paper entitled "Globalization, Transnationality and Democracy beyond borders", at a National Conference whose focal theme was 'The Challenges to Democracy in India: From Critique to Construction '. This was organized by Indian Academy of Social Sciences at Kharagpur IIT from December 3-7, 2003.
    
    Prof. P. Ramadevi, Physics, was an invited speaker at the 'Workshop on Geometry and Topology Inspired by Physics', held at Cochin University December 4-8, 2003. Prof. Ramadevi gave a seminar on "Chern-Simons Field Theory Invariants and Topological Strings".
    
    Prof. D. Bahadur, Metallurgical Engineering & Materials Science, has been invited to be a member of Editorial Advisory Board of Transactions of Indian Institute of Metals. and been invited to be a member of Six Member Indo-French Committee for creation of Indo-French Laboratory of solid State Chemistry (IFLaSc). The term of the joint committee is for four years. One of the sessions of the first committee meeting was chaired by Prof. Bahadur, which took place at Bordeaux, France, on December 3 and 4, 2003.
    
    Anand Patwardhan, SJM SOM, was part of the official delegation from the Government of India for the 9th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework convention on 'Climate Change (COP-9)', in Milan, Italy, from December 1-12 and the 21st plenary meeting of the Intergovernmental Panel on 'Climate Change (IPCC)', from November 17-19 in Vienna, Austria. He was an invited participant in an international Research Workshop on 'Adaptation to Climate Change', in New Delhi, held from November 5-7, 2003. He has also been nominated as a member of the Governing Council of the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune.
    
    Prof. Mamata Mukhopadhyay, Chemical Engineering, was invited by the Institution of Engineers, India, the Chemical Engineering Division of West Bengal State Centre to deliver a lecture on "Supercritical Fluid Extraction of Herbal Medicines and Nutraceuticals", at an All-India Seminar on 'Emerging Trends in Herbal Technology', held in Kolkata on November 28-29, 2003. She was also invited to chair the session at which the key-note address was delivered by the Director of Indian Institute of Chemical Biology, Kolkata and deliberated in the session on 'Emerging Trends and Needs in Herbal Technology'.
    
    Prof. A. Subash Babu, Mechanical Engineering and IDP IE & OR, had organised a three-day programme on 'Production Management', under CEP at Bajaj Auto Limited, Akurdi during November 27-29, 2003. Prof. Babu also delivered an invited lecture on "Improving Competitiveness through Productivity Initiatives", at the seminar jointly organised by ILO and Employers Federation of India on November 21 and delivered an invited lecture on "Total Quality Management", during the Management Development Programme organised by NTPC for its senior managers, on November 18, 2003.
    
    Prof. Rajkumar S. Pant, Aerospace Engineering, had participated in the 3rd ATIO Technical Forum of American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics held between November 17-19 at Denver, CO, USA. He presented a paper titled "A Methodology for Arriving at the Baseline Specifications of a Non-Rigid Airship", in a session on 'Lighter-Than-Air Technologies'. He visited the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at M.I.T., Boston, MA and made presentations on "Teaching Aircraft Design to Undergraduate Students" and "Experience with Design Delta Game at IIT Bombay". He also discussed possibilities of collaborative research work with Pennsylvania State University, Virginia Polytechnic and State University and SUNY Buffalo.
    
    IE and OR Inter Disciplinary Programme
    
    Prof. Narayan Rangaraj, ME, gave an invited talk titled "An analysis of Operations, Mode Choice, Pricing and Network Economics of Container Movement", at an International Workshop on 'IT-Enabled Manufacturing, Logistics and Supply Chain Management', held at Bangalore during from December 15-16, 2003. He presented the following papers at the 6th Asia Pacific Operations Research Society Meet organised by the OR Society of India, in Delhi from December 8-11, 2003: (1) 'Timing of Discount Offers for Perishable Inventories' co-authored with Chandrashekar Konda, Nitish Dave, and N. Hemachandra (2) 'Simulator for Railway Line Capacity Planning' co-authored with A. Ranade, K. Moudgalya, C. Konda, M. Johri, and R. Naik. Furthermore, Prof. N. Hemachandra, ME, gave an invited talk titled "Robustness of Inventory Control Policies", at the same workshop.

    Student News
    
    Vasant Matsagar, RS, Ashish Mehta, Kunal Kislay, Civil Engineering and Harsh Roy, Chemistry Department were the representatives of IIT Bombay, one of the few distinguished institutions invited to attend a seminar on "Role and Relevance of Rajya Sabha in Indian Polity", as a part of the celebrations of the '200th Seating of the Rajya Sabha' held on December 14, 2003. The seminar was inaugurated by Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Vice President of India and Chairman of Rajya Sabha. The eminent speakers who talked on the occasion include Mrs. Najma Heptullah, Prof. Madhu Dandwate, Mr. Manmohan Singh, Mrs. Rama Devi, Mr. Ranganath Mishra, Mr. Kuldeep Nayyar with others.
    
    P. K. Raghavendra, 5th year DD student, Aerospace Engg, presented a paper titled "Nonlinear Dynamic Inversion and Aircraft Dynamics", co-authored by Prof. N Ananthkrishnan, AE, at a seminar organized by Aeronautical Society of India, Bangalore on December 17-18, 2003.
    
    S. B. Dugad, Research Scholar, Civil Engg., presented his research paper titled "Scour Caused by Jets: Application of FLUENT software", co-authored by Prof. B. S. Pani, Civil Engg., in the 'FLUENT CFD Conference 2003 for India & South East Asia', held at Pune from November, 18-20, 2003.
    
    Four fourth year students of Aerospace Engineering Department attended the '37th National Conference on Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Power', at NIT, Suratkal from December 10 to 13, 2003. They presented a paper on "Bidirectional Centrifugal Fan Design", jointly authored with Prof. Bhaskar Roy, AE. The students were: Pradeep Kumar, P V R Srivastava, Satish Reddy and V Prasad.
    
    Vaishali Moharir, M.Tech student of IEOR Programme, presented a paper titled 'A Model for Equilibrium Fares and Frequencies for Competing Modes of Transport on a Network' at the Seventh Annual International Conference of The Society of Operations Management held at IIM Indore, during December 19-21, 2003. P. Subramaniam, M.Tech student of IEOR Programme, also presented a paper titled "VRP Models for Personnel Pick-up Activities in Service Industry", at the same conference.

    Staff News
    
    Dr. Nandkishore Rathi, Asst. Placement Officer delivered two expert lectures on the topics "Understanding Professional Ethics" and "Developing Engineering Graduates as Successful Professionals in the Present Business Environment: Challenges before the Academic Community", at G. H. Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur on December 16, 2003, as part of the AICTE sponsored Staff Development Program for the faculty members of various engineering colleges.

    The Institute at World Youth Peace Summit at Bangalore
    
    The Cell for Human Values, IIT Bombay, had deputed IIT students Vasant Matsagar, RS, Civil Engineering and G. Arvind Rao, RS, Aerospace Engineering., to attend The World Youth Peace Summit (WYPS) held at Bangalore, from December 7-9, 2003.
    
    The Summit held in India for the first time consisted of plenary sessions, in-depth presentations, discussions, film shows, etc. covering various topics related to world peace. The summit was inaugurated by H.H. Sri. Ravi Shankar. The Chief Guest on the occasion was H'ble Justice BN Srikrishna, Supreme Court of India and the Guest of Honour was H'ble Minister Sreepad Naik, Minister of State for Finance.
    
    Some of the panel discussions held were on Education, Literacy and Youth Empowerment: The Key to a Developed India, Entrepreneurship: Turning Job Seekers into Job Creators, Women's Empowerment, Youth Participation in Decision Making and Governance, Globalisation, Spirituality and the Indian Youth, Sports in India, Leisure Activities and Culture, Youth Participation in Media and Social Responsibility, and Youth Involvement in Peace Building and Conflict Resolution.
    
    This World Youth Peace Summit was first of it's kind held under the auspices of International Association for Human Values (IAHV). The objective of IAHV is to develop and promote programs of personal and social development to encourage the practice of human values in everyday life.
    
    Leading personalities from the corporate industry such as Vijay Mallya, Rajit Pandit, MD, McKinsey & Co.; from the Media such as Malvika Sanghvi Consulting Editor, TOI; from Sports such as Geet Sethi; spiritual leaders from different beliefs and M.P.s and officials from the government, police and courts like Renuka Chaudary, K.P.S. Gill, Mahesh Ram Jethmalani along with actor Abhishek Bachhan and actress Tabu were present.
    
    The institute representatives actively participated in all the panel discussions. Some specific topics discussed by the students were on Culture and Media, Technology, Politics, Terrorism, Spirituality, Development/Education and Business.

    IIT Bombay Wins Silver at the Inter-IIT Sports Meet
    
    The institute won the second position, sweeping many golds at the 39th Inter-IIT Sports Event that was held from December 14 to 19, 2003. IIT Madras led for the Overall Championship followed by IIT Bombay.
    
    The chief Guest during the Opening ceremony was Padma Bhushan Shri Ramanathan Krishnan, former international tennis champion, who said, "In many ways, IITians are like sportspersons - with a competitive spirit and fighters to reach the highest level there is to reach."
    
    The 39th Meet was unique in the history of IITs, as, for the first time, the Directors of all seven IITs attended the inaugural ceremony to encourage their participating teams.The Directors namely Prof.R.S. Sirohi, IITD, Prof. G. Baruah, IITG, Prof.S.K. Dube, IITKgh, Prof. S.G. Dhande, IITK, Prof.Prem Vrat, IITR, Prof. M.S. Anant, IITM and Prof. Ashok Misra, Director, of the host institute were present to witness the opening ceremony.
    
    IIT Bombay won the leading place in Cricket, Table Tennis (men's and women's); Tennis, Weight Lifting, Athletics (5000 m and1500 m) and Shot Putt (women's)- The silver in Discuss-Throw Athletics (100m) and Relay (men's 4X100m and 4X 400m) and the Bronze in Long Jump (women) and Hockey.
    
    Dr. Reddy, Swimming Coach and Publicity-in-Charge of the Meet, stressed that psychological preparation is a must. He said, "One of the key reasons of winning in many games was the use of creative visualisation techniques."
    
    "This time though, IITB did a good job inspite of limited practice time. The tennis, volleyball, Track & field and basketball (repair of the court) courts were installed just a few days before the Meet. "Good infrastructure is crucial for a team to win with a sweeping lead. We now have one of the best tennis courts in India. The institute is one of the first IITs to install a synthetic tennis court, considered as on par with the international tennis courts. He stated, "IITB has also proposed to enhance its swimming facilities by constructing a 50 m pool shortly."
    
    IIT Delhi was in the third place, IIT Kanpur and IIT Kharagpur jointly secured the fourth place. IIT Roorkee secured the sixth place and was followed by IIT Guhawati.

    CONTINUE