IIT B Alumni Center Inaugurated

The IIT Bombay Alumni Center at ‘Gulmohar’ was inaugurated by Prof. Ashok Misra, Director, IIT Bombay on July 23, 2005. The center also houses the IIT B Souvenir shop. In a function organised after the inauguration ceremony, Prof. Misra spoke about various contributions by IIT Bombay Alumni. He said that IIT Alumni have played a significant role in development of Brand ‘IIT’ not only in India and but abroad also. He also spoke about IIT Bombay Golden Jubilee Year celebrations which will begin in March 2007.

The inauguration was followed by the Mumbai Monthly Meet (MMM) of the Mumbai Chapter.

He said that the plans for setting up various other such Knowledge Centers are in pipeline and also called upon IIT Alumni for their support in doing so. 

The function concluded with an informative presentation by Mr. Shailesh Gandhi, Chairman, IITBAA, on “Right to Information Act”. He said Right to Information Act is an empowerment of the citizens in the fight against corruption and mismanagement in the Government. He explained the importance of Right to Information and how it can be used.

After the Deluge... IITB gets into action

IITB Campus is beautiful in the monsoon.  But came July 26^th, and the unprecedented rains topped with what is believed to be a cloudburst, resulted in a deluge uncontrollable for a few hours.  The already overflowing drains and nalas and the very water-soaked earth could not hold any more water.  The water began to rise and fill every low lying area.  No one was spared. A1 the Director’s bungalow, was inundated and the ground floor was in three feet of water.  Several B type faculty quarters in Central area had the same fate.  The ground floor of Staff Hostel annexe, the Shishu Vihar, Hostels 6, 8, 9 and 11 and the entire kitchen and dinning facility of H-12 & 13, Kendriya Vidyalaya basement were flooded.  Several Academic buildings including MB, Convo developed leakage under the deluge.

That very evening the Estate Office and Health Office swung into action and were working the whole night and the next day to pump out water and clean up the flooded premises.  The Health Office provided from its own stock cleaning equipment and material and of course labour.

Who ever approached the Dean, Dy. Director, PRO & so on were quickly given temporary accommodation in the Guest House.  A number of off campus staff members stranded here were attended to immediately.

The fallen trees which blocked roads were cleared the next day.  How ever, much needs to be done.  The Estate Office and Health Office are still hard at work on the job.

Mr. Nilekani appointed on IIT BOG

The Minister of Human Resources Development, in his capacity as the Chairman of the Council of IITs has appointed Mr. Nandan Nilekani, Alumnus IIT Bombay, CEO and Managing Director of Infosys Technologies Ltd. as a member of the Board of Governors of IIT Bombay, for a period of three years w.e.f June 29, 2005. The Board now consists of :

Shri Rahul Bajaj - Chairman

Prof. Ashok Misra, Director/Member

Smt. Kumud Bansal

Prof. Balveera Reddy

Prof. P. Ramachandra Rao

Fr. Romuald D'Souza

Dr. N. B. Pasalkar

Shri Sunil Bharti Mittal

Shri C. L. Meena

Shri Nandan Nilekani

Prof. Raman Srinivasa

Prof. U. A. Athvankar

Mr. Sridhar, Registrar/Secretary

Awards and Distinctions

Prof. Ashok Misra, Director, IIT Bombay, has been invited to join the National Advisory Board established by the College of Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara for a term of two years. The function of this Board will be to assess and advice the college about their goals and how to make effective progress towards these goals.

The Board will comprise leaders from top-level industrial management, university and research administration. 

	Prof. L. M. Bhole, HSS Department, has been invited to be a honorary member of the Board of Editors of the Journal, ICFAI Journal of Monetary Economics published by the ICFAI University Press, Hyderabad.

Geographical Union (IGU).  The project aims at development of teaching materials on ICSU’s priority area of ‘Science and Technology for Sustainable Development’.  Prof. Asolekar visited the Home of Geography, Villa Celimontana, Rome, Italy for participating in the kick-off meeting during June 13-24, 2005. 

Mr. Ravish Kumar Tiwari, Senior Undergraduate, Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science, has been awarded prestigious Rhodes Scholarship to read for his higher studies at the University Of Oxford. He is the one of the six scholars elected from India for the year 2005. He will be joining Linacre College at the University of Oxford to read for MSc in Comparative Social Policy beginning October 2005. 

Every year the Rhodes Trust (UK) selects around 90 scholars from around the world (including 6 from India) to read for their higher studies at the University of Oxford. The scholars are selected on the basis of his/her all-round performances including academics, sports, and other extra-curricular activities. Some of the notable past Rhodes Scholars include Edwin Hubble, Larry Pressler, Bill Clinton, Strobe Talbott, Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Girish Karnad among others. Notably Ravish will be the first Rhodes Scholar from IIT Bombay.

IITB's aAQUA trimphs at Manthan Awards

aAQUA –IIT B’s web based query answering system that helps farmers with their agricultural problems has struck gold in the Innovative E-content (eInclusion) category at this year's Manthan Awards. The Manthan Award (www.manthanaward.com) is an initiative by Digital Empowerment Foundation, India and PlaNet Finance India to select and promote the best practices in e-Content and creativity in India. It involves representatives from each state and union territory of India and visualizes the bridging of digital divide and narrowing of the content gap as its overall goal.

The technology for Almost All Questions Answered (aAQUA) was developed by Developmental Informatics Lab, KReSIT, IIT B and was sponsored by Media Lab Asia and Development Gateway Foundation's R&T Center. Rural kiosk support was provided by Vigyan Ashram, Pabal, and agri expertise was provided by KVK Baramati.  The key contributors to the project are Prof. Krithi Ramamritham, HoD, KReSIT, Anil Bahuman, Project Manager, Developmental Informatics Lab, KReSIT, Dr. Ms. T. Kadarbhai, Director, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, and Yogesh Kulkarni, Director, Vigyan Ashram.

aAQUA (www.aaqua.org) is a multilingual (Marathi, Hindi, and English) system which provides online answers to questions asked over the internet and has been deployed successfully in over 10 kiosks covering 50 villages around the Pabal area in the 3 talukas of Rajgurunagar, Shirur and Haveli (Pune District). 60 farmers in Pabal and around use aAQUA forums on a regular basis in aAQUA clubs and over 300 users have sent about 475 questions.

Being a gold award winner, aAQUA is being nominated for the World Summit Award, an international competition in cooperation with the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) to be held in Tunis, Tunisia from November 16-18, 2005.

Alumni Awards

Prof. Radhakrishnan Poovendran (BTech '88 EE), Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department of the University of Washington at Seattle, has been awarded the 2004 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. This award is the highest honor for young research professionals in the US, and is awarded by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Prof. Poovendram along with other Fifty-Seven researchers were honored with this award on June 13, 2004 in a ceremony presided over by John H. Marburger III, Science Advisor to the President and Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

Anti-fungal drug may help treat cancer- IIT B Research

A collaboration between School of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT Bombay and the University of California - Santa Barbara may result in a possible new treatment for cancer. The antifungal drug, Griseofulvin, has been shown to inhibit the growth of cancer cells, and the results have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the US entitled “Kinetic Suppression of Microtubule Dynamic Instability by Griseofulvin: Implication for its Possible Use in the Treatment of Cancer.”

The work is the result of a collaboration between Prof. Dulal Panda’s lab in the School of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT Bombay and Prof. Leslie Wilson's lab, in UCSB's Department of Biochemistry, Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology,

According to the team the drug has remarkably few side effects and has been used for a long time. Griseofulvin is administered orally, and has been used for decades to treat ringworm and other fungal infections of the skin.

The team discovered that it has the ability to inhibit the growth of cancer cells, in a manner that is similar to much more powerful anticancer drugs such as taxol and vinblastine. Although the anti-cancer activity is weak, it is already approved for human use and could be used along with more powerful anticancer agents as an adjuvant in cancer chemotherapy.

The authors found that the drug inhibits the proliferation of cancer cells by affecting mitosis, or cell division, and mitotic spindle microtubule function. They conclude: "A mild suppression of microtubule dynamics by griseofulvin in tumor cells, combined with the effects of more powerful drugs working through other mechanisms, might provide a therapeutic advantage for treatment of certain tumors."

Workshop on Thermo-Analytical Techniques

A One day Workshop/Seminar on “Thermo-Analytical Techniques” was organized at SAIF (RSIC) on June 27, 2005. A large number of participants from Industry, University and Research Scholars from IIT Bombay attended the workshop.  

Dr. C. S. Harendranath, the Convener of the Workshop/Seminar, welcomed the participants and pointed out that the event marked the commissioning of a new Thermal Analysis System (Perkin Elmer Diamond TG/DTA) at SAIF, funded by DST, Govt. of India.

Prof. Ajit R. Kulkarni, the Head of SAIF, outlined the broad objectives of such workshops/seminars and expressed hope that a large number of users would regularly make use of the new Instrument.

Prof. Rangan Banerjee, Associate Dean (R &D), in his Inaugural address, spoke on the significance of SAIF in bringing Industry and IIT on common meeting points in the emerging areas of Technology.  Prof. Rangan Bannerjee appreciated SAIF for its invaluable service to the research community and also encouraged the Research students and Industry personnel to make use of SAIF and its services to the fullest potential.

The morning session of the workshop/seminar included three Lecture presentations.

Dr Jain, Perkin Elmer, India, provided an overview of the Diamond TG/DTA system and on Applications of Thermal Analysis in Pharma and Polymer industries.

Prof. Murugavel, Department of Chemistry, IIT Bombay, highlighted the Applications of Thermal Analysis methods in Molecular Inorganic Chemistry.

Prof. Dharwadkar, Institute of Science, Mumbai, and formerly with BARC, Mumbai, shared his experiences concerning the interpretation of Thermo analytical data.

The post lunch session was devoted to detailed Laboratory demonstrations on the TG, DTA, DSC capabilities of the newly commissioned system.

Faculty News

Prof. Ashok Misra, Director, IIT Bombay, took part in the Presidents/ Vice Chancellors Roundtable on “Globalisation and Universities”, as part of the meeting of the Presidents/ Vice Chancellors of Association of American Universities and Association of Pacific Rim Universities, held at Singapore on July 30 and July 31, 2005. This conference was attended by about 60 Vice Chancellors from all over the world and was hosted by the National University of Singapore in their centenary year. 

Prof.  A. K. Rastogi, Deptt. of Civil Engg., participated in the 2nd annual meeting of Asia - Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS 2005) held at Suntec City Convention Centre, Singapore from June 20 - 24, 2005. He presented a research paper entitled 'Application of Simulated Annealing and Genetic Algorithm for Inverse Modeling of Groundwater Systems'.

He also gave a talk on 'Importance of Groundwater Models as Tools for Effective Water Management' at Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University Singapore on June 24, 2005.

Prof. S. A. Khaparde, Deptt. of Electrical Engg., presented two papers entitled "Operating Strategies for Generation Deficient Power Systems" and "Operating Experience of Regional Interconnections In India" at IEEE Power Engineering Society 2005 General Meeting at San Francisco, USA held on June 12-16, 2005.

Prof. (Ms.) Karuna Jain, SJMSOM, was invited for a four day CIP Forum 2005 at Gothenburg, Sweden. This workshop was organized by the Center for Intellectual Property Studies (CIP), Charmer’s University of Technology, Sweden during May 22 - 25, 2005. The CIP Forum focused on increasing both strategic and instrumental understanding of how intellectual property capital can be used to create value for industry, universities and society.  WIPO and CIP jointly sponsored the visit of Prof. Jain as one of the developing countries participants.

Prof. Jain was invited to deliver a key note address on “RFID and its application” at Siemens Information Systems Limited (SISL) workshop on “Cost Optimized Innovative RFID Solutions” on July 8, 2005. 

Prof. Milind Malshe, Deptt. of Humanities and Social Sciences,  conducted two sessions of Communication Skills (Pronunciation and Dictionary Skills) for PG teachers of Kendriya Vidyalaya at their in-service training course held at KV No.3, Colaba on May 11, 2005.

His paper co-authored with Amith Kumar P.V., Research Scholar in H & SS Deptt., entitled "Translation and Bakhtin's Metalinguistics" has been accepted for publication in the international journal Perspectives: Studies in Translatology, edited by Centre for Translation Studies, University of Copenhagen, Denmark. The paper will appear in the October, 2005 issue of the journal.

Prof. S. Suryanarayanan, Deptt. of Mechanical Engg., attended the American Control Conference held in Portland, Oregon, USA between June 8 and 10, 2005 and presented a paper titled "On the Dynamics of the Pitch Control Loop in Horizontal-Axis Large Wind Turbines". The paper was co-authored with his student Amit Dixit. The paper received the "Best Paper/Presentation of the Session". He also presented this paper at Deptt. of Mechanical Engg, IIT Bombay on July 12, 2005.

Dr. Y. S. Rao, CSRE, gave an invited talk on "Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Interferometry for DEM Generation" and "Applications of SAR Polarimetry" in the seminar on "Advances in Image Processing Techniques" held at Defence Electronics Applications Laboratory, DRDO, Dehradun, during July 1-3, 2005. He also delivered two lectures with practicals on "Snow Mapping in Himalayan Regions with ENVISAT ASAR Data" and "Mapping Glacier Facies and Dynamics Using SAR Data" on July 7, 2005.

Prof. N. Ananthkrishnan and Prof S. P. Bhat, Deptt. of Aerospace Engg., delivered a 3-day invited lecture series on “Aerodynamic Modeling and Flight Dynamics of Aerospace Vehicles” at VSSC, ISRO, Trivandrum on July 4-6, 2005.

Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, Deptt. of Electrical Engg., delivered a IEEE Electron Device Society (EDS) Distinguished Lecture (DL) on "Sub 100 nm CMOS Device Design and Optimization for System on Chip Applications" at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo, Japan on July 19, 2005. The talk was delivered on the invitation of IEEE EDS Japan Chapter for the benefit of IEEE EDS members and other researchers in the Tokyo region.

Prof. Amit Agrawal, Deptt. of Mechanical Engg.,  has authored a paper titled "A Conceptual Model for Entrainment in Cumulus Clouds," which has appeared in the July issue of the Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Vol. 62, No. 7, Part 2, pages 2602-2606.

Prof. S. Narayan Rao, SJM School of Management, chaired a technical session on 'Dividend Policy' at the 16th Annual Conference of Asian Finance Association held on July 11-13, 2005 at Kuala Lumpur. He was also discussant for one of the papers on 'Dividend Policy'. His papers (Co-authored) on 'Dividend Policy' and 'Rights Equity Issues’ were presented in the conference. Prof. Rao also visited Faculty of Management, Multimedia University.

Prof. S. C. Patel, Deptt. of Earth Sciences, presented a paper entitled "Xenoliths of Orthopyroxene Eclogite and Celsian Corona-Bearing Kyanite Eclogite in Kimberlite from South India" at the Seventh International Eclogite Conference held during July 3-9, 2005 at Seggau, Austria.

Prof. Vijay G. Ukadgaonker, Deptt. of Mechanical Engg., presented a paper on "Stress Analysis of Door and Window of Boeing 777 Aircraft" in the Third MIT Conference on Computational Fluid and Solid Mechanics organised by Prof. Bathe of MIT at MIT, USA during June 14-17, 2005.  In this conference there were 8 plenary sessions and 30 parallel sessions for paper presentations.  More than 350 delegates from various countries were present.

Prof. Pushpa Trivedi, HSS Department, was invited to deliver a lecture on 'Sampling Methods' by the Bankers Training College, Mumbai, as a part of their programme on Research Methodology on June 27, 2005.

Prof. L. M. Bhole, HSS Department, has published the following papers: 1) “Romesh Chandra Dutt’s Contribution to Indian Economic Thought” in a book titled Foundation Fathers of Indian Political Economy edited by Prof. D. M. Nachane published by Himalaya Publishing House, Mumbai and 2) “Determinants of Foreign Capital: A Dynamic Analysis”, The ICFAI Journal of Applied Economics, July 2005 with Jitendra Mahakud.

Prof. Siddhartha Ghosh, Deptt. of Civil Engineering, presented a paper titled, "Life Cycle Cost Optimization of a 20-Story Steel Moment Frame Building" in the 9th International Conference on Structural Safety and Reliability (ICOSSAR), in Rome, Italy, during June 19-23, 2005.

Prior to the conference, Prof. Ghosh visited the Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, as a "visiting fellow" during May 03-June 18.

Prof. Atanu Ghosh, SJM SOM, was invited by UCLA to present a paper and take part in a panel discussion at the Conference on “Globalization in the Information Economy - The Technology Perspective" held on July 22-23, 2005 at UCLA.

He also visited and interacted with faculty members at Northwestern University, Chicago (Kellogg's School of Management), Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.

Prof. A. G. Rao, IDC, gave an invited talk on ‘Design and Technology Options for Bamboo Craft in Tripura’ organised by Confederation of Indian Industry at Agartala on July 5, 2005.

Prof. Rao gave a talk on ‘Design and Technology Strategy for Tripura Bamboo Crafts’ at a one day seminar on Strategy for Bamboo Sector in Tripura organized by the Department Of Industries And Commerce, Government of Tripura on July, 7. 2005.

Prof. Madhav N. Kulkarni, Deptt. of Civil Engg., attended the meeting of Natural Resource Development & Management Service of DST, as Expert Committee Member, at Tirupati, during July 21-22, 2005.

Prof. Shyam R. Asolekar, Centre for Environmental Science and Engineering (CESE) was invited by the Indian Environmental Association to deliver a lecture entitled “Technological Options and Design Considerations for Recycle and Reuse of Effluents” at the two-day skill-building workshop on ‘Membrane Technologies for Recycle and Reuse of Domestic and Industrial Effluents’ in Mumbai during July 15-16, 2005.

Prof. T. S. Rathore, Deptt. of Electrical Engg. and Vice-Chairman of ISTE IIT Bombay Chapter, has been appointed as an ISTE Visiting Professor for the academic year 2005-06. Under the scheme, he will be required to spend time to teach and interact in a minimum of two and maximum of four institutions (other than his own institution) in his own State or in an adjoining state only. He will participate in various academic activities  which help to improve the teaching-learning environment in the institution.

Prof. Pushpak Bhattacharyya, Deptt. Computer Science and Engg., went as Professeur Invite' to GETA-CLIPS (Groupe D'Etude en Traduction Automatique-Communication Langagiere et Interation Personne-Systeme, i.e., Laboratory for Automatic Translation at the Center for Language Communications and Human Computer Interactions) and Universite Joseph-Fourier, Grenoble, France in the period May-June, 2005. The visit involved research in "Computational Semantics" and a series of lectures in "Empirical Natural Language Processing". Additionally, Prof. Bhattacharyya delivered two talks titled "Multilingual, Meaning Based Search of Digital Information" and "Semantically Relatable Sets: Building Blocks for Representing Semantics" at GETA.

Prof. S. P. Mahulikar, Dept. of Aero. Eng,, has co-authored a paper entitled 'Effect of Atmospheric Transmission And Radiance On Aircraft Infrared Signatures' with  his PhD student, Shri. Arvind Rao. The paper has been published in Vol. 42, No. 4, pp. 1046-1054, Jul-Aug'05 issue of AIAA Journal of Aircraft.

Prof. Mahulikar has also published a technical note entitled 'Aircraft Plume Infrared Signature in Nonafterburning Mode' in Vol. 19, No. 3, pp. 413-415, Jul-Sep'05 issue of AIAA Journal of Thermophysics & Heat Transfer.  This note is jointly authored by Prof. S.K. Sane, Prof. A.G. Marathe, and Shri. Arvind Rao.

Student News

Kumar Molugaram, Research Scholar, Deptt. of Civil Engg., presented a paper entitled " A Stated Preference Experiment On Attractiveness Of Residential Location Choice" at CUPUM-05 International conference at London, UK, during June 29 – July 1, 2005,

Pradip Gundaliya, Research Scholar, Deptt. of Civil Engg., presented a paper entitled "Simulating Single And Two Lane Heterogeneous Traffic Using Cellular Automota" at CUPUM-05 International conference at London, UK, during June 29 – July 1, 2005,

Ms. Amrita Joshi, Research Scholar, Deptt. Of Humanities and Social Sciences, presented a paper titled “The Generic Position of New Media Poetry and its Impact on Communication Aesthetics” at a conference titled “Re-visualising Writing: Page, Canvas, Screen” organized by the Centre for Cultural Poetics, University of Southampton, U.K on the June 10, 2005.

Mr. Vikram Singh Nanda, Research Scholar, Department of Metallurgical Engg and Materials Science, attend International Conference On Recent Advances In Mechanical & Materials Engineering (ICRAMME-2005) at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, during May 30-31, 2005 and presented a paper entitled "Synthesis and Mechanical Behaviour of Cast Particulate Metal Matrix Composites", co-authored by Vikram Singh and Prof R. C. Prasad. Full Text of this paper is published in referred CD-Proceedings.

Freshies' Orientation 2005

The Registration and Orientation Programme for Post-graduate students was held on July 21 and 22, 2005 and for Undergraduate students it was held on July 22 and 25, 2005. Among those who addressed the new students were Prof Ashok Misra, Director, Prof. A. K. Singh, Dean-Academic Programmes, Prof. C. Amarnath, Dean-Students Affairs, Prof. D. S. Mishra, Chairman, JEE 2005, and Prof. D. K. Phatak, KReSIT.

Prof. Ashok Misra, Director, in his address to new students, highlighted the vision of IIT Bombay i.e. "To be the fountainhead of new ideas and of innovators in technology and science". Prof. Misra said that IIT Bombay is known for its world class faculty and students and this is proven by the fact that this year out of 100 JEE toppers 52 have taken admission in IIT Bombay. Prof. Misra said that students passing out of IIT Bombay are recognized and respected all over the world. He urged the PG students to develop an attitude of research and inculcate a spirit of inquiry. He also encouraged the students to take optimum advantage of the world-class facilities available at the institute. He stated that the students would experience new freedom at the IIT campus. He advised UG students to work hard and be sincere towards the studies. He mentioned that dedicated students would get the opportunity to carry out research under the UG Research Programme. The Director also spoke briefly about the facilities that IIT provides to the students such as Business Incubation, patenting, world-class infrastructure, funding for attending conferences in India & abroad especially for research students. He also cited the values and ethics followed at the institute and emphasized that at IIT "Merit is the sole criteria for recognition", and that an IITian should have the qualities of integrity and honesty. The Director congratulated the students and welcomed them to the campus.

Prof. A. K. Singh, Dean of Academic Programmes, said that the aim of IIT was to develop the students into excellent engineers that India would be proud of. He spoke about the senate and its purpose to create an excellent academic programme and to define new academic discipline. He encouraged the students to maintain steady academic progress and talked about the research experiences and international opportunities that the students would be exposed to.

Prof. C. Amarnath, Dean of Students Affairs, in his rather interesting as well as cautious speech, stressed on the clock-work efficiency of the IIT system and the ample scope that IIT would be providing for one's personality growth.

Prof. D. S. Mishra, Chairman, JEE 2005, said that IIT-JEE (Joint Entrance Examination) is recognized as the most prestigious examination and is also considered as the toughest and most competitive among engineering entrance tests conducted in the country. He congratulated the freshies on their success at the JEE. The number of applicants has been growing every year. This year around 2, 00,000 students appeared for the JEE.

Prof. D.B. Phatak, KReSIT, gave a presentation titled "Dear Students". In his highly motivating presentation, he stated that the aim of every engineering person is to expand the boundaries of knowledge and develop cost-effective and innovative solutions to real life problems. He talked about the character and qualities, which a person needs to, possess in order to become a successful professional. In conclusion, he asked students to 'get out of the colonial mindset' i.e. to believe in your abilities and never to give up.

The orientations included addresses by Professor In-charge Student Mentor Programme, Chairmen of PGAPEC and UGAPEC, Chairman- Sports, Chairman- Cultural, Librarian, Gymkhana In-Charge, Students Counsellor, Senior Medical Officer, and various Students' Representatives.

Vanmahotsav 2005

IIT Bombay celebrated Vanamahotsav 2005 with the assistance of “Hariyali”, the Thane NGO, on Sunday July 17, 2005.

Over 1800 saplings were planted on the slopes of the hill behind the pipeline. More than 70 students from colleges in Thane, Mulund and Chembur participated. IIT campusites also took part in the event. Prof. Dipan Ghosh, Dy. Director, Prof. Sikdar, Dean Planning, Prof. Amarnath, Dean Student Affairs, and Prof. Desai, Assoc. Dean Planning were among those who participated in the tree plantation.

The entire activity was organised by Shri Mamdapur, Exe. Engineer, Estate Office, and Shri. Hardas and Shri Reshim of Garden Section. The staff of the Garden Section procured the saplings and prepared the pits on the hill slope.

Tree Plantation Programme

places in Mumbai. He said that an Environment Advisory Committee under chairmanship of Prof. Amarnath, Mechanical Engg., has been formed to advise institute about environmental issues and other related issues connected with infrastructural development projects. Prof. Amarnath in his address said that committee will undertake various plans to keep the campus green.

The saplings were planted near Powai Lake, Sameer, and Swimming Pool.

Seminars & Workshops

Institute Colloquium

Prof. Linda Petzold, Director, Computational Science and Engineering Program, University of California, Santa Barbara, gave an Institute Colloquium on “Bridging the Scales in Biochemical Simulation” on July 22, 2005.

Advanced Center for Research in Electronics

Dr. Romeo Ortega, Directeur de Recherche from the CNRS, France, delivered a lecture on "Total Energy Shaping Control: Applications to Electrical and Electromechanical Systems” on July 18, 2005.

School of Biosciences and Bioengineering

Dr. Rohit Srivastava, Louisiana Tech University, Ruston, LA, USA, delivered a seminar on “Smart Tatto Glucose Sensors” on July 5, 2005.

Department of Chemistry

Dr. H. V. Thulasiram, USA, gave a talk on “Mechanistic Insights for the Chain Elongation, Branching, Cyclopropanation, and Cyclobutanation Reactions in the Isoprenoid Biosynthetic Pathway” on July 14, 2005.

Energy Systems Engineering

Dr. Hashem Akbari and Dr. Jayant Sathaye, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, USA, gave a seminar on “Urban Heat Island Mitigation and Developing Country Cities” on July 5, 2005.

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

Dr. Binu James Mathew, Alumnus HSS Deptt. and currently working as Lecturer for IELTS course and Coordinator of  English for Specific Purpose at the Central Bank of Oman’s College-College of Banking, Muscat, spoke on “Importance of Effective Communication Skills” on June 29, 2005.

Prof. Errol D’Souza, Eminent Economist, delivered a talk on “Mainstreaming Employment with Growth Strategies: Employment, The Services Bulge, and Productivity Growth” on July 22, 2005.

IRCC

Prof. R. Komanduri, Regents Professor, A.H. Nelson Jr. Endowed Chair in Engineering, at the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering of the Oklahoma State University, USA gave a talk on ‘Synthesis, Characterization, and Potential Applications of Carbon Nanotubes’ on July 6, 2005.

Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology

Dr. Shreeram Dhurjaty, Alumnus Civil Deptt, IIT Bombay and currently with Medical Science & Tech. Center Research Labs, Eastman Kodak Company, gave a seminar on “Frontiers in Medical Imaging” on July 16, 2005.

Shailesh J Mehta School of Management 

Prof P. K. J. Mohapatra, Industrial Engineering and Management, IIT Kharagpur, spoke on “Control Strategy for Activated Sludge Treatment: A System Dynamics Study” on July 25, 2005. The seminar was organised in association with Industrial Engineering and Operations Research programme.

Department of Mathematics

Steven Dale Cutkosky, University of Missouri (Columbia), delivered a seminar on “Toroidalization of Morphisms of 3-folds” on July 1, 2005.

Hema Srinivasan, University of Missouri (Columbia), delivered a seminar “Multiplicity Bounds - Recent Developments” on July 1, 2005.

Steven D'Silva, Carnegie Mellon University, gave a talk on “Time-Consistent and Currency-Invariant Convex Risk Measures” on July 1, 2005

Marcello Lucia, TIFR (Bangalore Centre), gave a talk on “Properties of Principal Eigenvalues” on July 4, 2005.

Prof. Olivier Pironneau, Universite de Paris VI and IUF, gave three lectures on 1) “Domain Decomposition and Variational Methods”, 2) “PDEs for Nuclear Waste Repository Assessment”, and 3) “Computation and Calibration of European and American Options” on July 19, 20, and 21, 2005 respectively.

Prof.  Bhabani Dandapat, Indian Statistical Institute (Calcutta), gave a seminar on “A Realistic Approach to Stretching Sheet Flow Problem and Its Possible Extensiton to Thin Film Flow” on July 27, 2005.

Lectures organised under Yearlong Programme on Computational Partial Differential Equations (CPDE-05)

Prof. K. W. Morton, Oxford University, Oxford (UK), gave lecture on ”Finite Volume Methods for Unsteady Hyperbolic Conservation Laws Day” on July 25, 2005.

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Dr. Anupam Pal, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, USA, gave a talk on “Transport Dynamics in the Gastrointestinal Tract Analyzed Using Computational Fluid Dynamics” on July 15, 2005.

Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Material Sciences

Dr. Jyotsna Dutta Majumdar, Deptt. of Met. & Mat. Engg., IIT Kharagpur, spoke on “Laser Surface Alloying of Ti for Aerospace Application” on July 12, 2005.

Dr. Sankhanilay Roychowdhury, University of Twente, Netherlands, gave a seminar on “Ordered Porous Silica Materials for Separation Technology” on July 20, 2005.

Prof. Andrew Flitman, Deakin University, Australia, gave a talk on “Research Development at Deakin University in the Field of Science and Technology Focusing on Engineering” on July 25, 2005.

Department of Physics

Bobby Vinod Kr. Ezhuthachan, Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, spoke on “D-branes on Landau-Ginzburg Orbifolds and Calabi-Yau Spaces” on July 25, 2005.

Prof. Apoorva Patel, Centre for High Energy Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, gave a talk on “Languages of Genetic Information: Why do Living Organisms Use 4 Nucleotide Bases And 20 Amino Acids?” on July 18, 2005.

Research Scholar Forum

Mr. Abhay Nalawade, CEO, Genesys International Corporation, spoke on “Remote Monitoring and Diagnostics- Challenges and Emerging Trends” on July 4, 2005.

IEEE AP/ED Bombay Chapter

Prof. Niraj K. Jha, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University, spoke on “NanoCAD: Computer-Aided Design Algorithms and Tools for Nanotechnologies” on July 12, 2005.

ISTE Chapter 

Mr. Rajnish, Tadiran Telecom Business Systems Ltd., spoke on “Coral Flexicom and Coral IPx Systems (Operation and features of EPABX of IIT Bombay)” on July 22, 2005.

Prof. Ann Stock, Deptt. of Biochemistry, UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine, New Jersey, spoke on “Phosyphorylation-mediated regulatory strategies in bacterial response regulator proteins” on June 30, 2005.

Hindi Workshop

A Hindi workshop was organised for the Senior Officers of IITB.   The purpose of the workshop was to enlighten the participants on  the recent policy of the Govt. of India on Official Languages and its statutory use in our Institute. 

Dr. Dangal Zalte, Joint Director, Central Translation Training Bureau,  spoke  on constitutional importance of Hindi and its obligatory use in the office.   DR. M.L. Gupta, Assistant Director,  Hindi Teaching Scheme, Govt. of India,  delivered a lecture on use of simple Hindi in routine official correspondence.  There was a lively discussion on style of writing in Hindi in Official work. 

Shri Arjun Mahto, Hindi Officer, IITB, gave a presentation on easy use of Hindi on computers.  He gave a demo on how to use a spell check in Hindi and how to do word processing in Linux environment. 

Campus School News

Science Awareness Programme

IIT Campus School and Junior College had organised a Science Motivation Seminar under the “Science Awareness Programme” of the National Academy of Sciences, India for the Students of Std X and XII on July 7, 2005 at  P. C. Saxena Auditorium. The programme was inaugurated by Prof. Dipan Ghosh, Deputy Director, IIT Bombay which was followed with the talks by Prof. K. D. Joshi, Deptt. of Mathematics on “Legacy of Ramanujan”, Prof. A. K. Singh, Dean – Academic Planning on “Importance of Chemistry in Everyday Life”, and Prof. U. A. Yajnik, Deptt. of Physics on “Contribution of the Physicists- S. N. Bose and Meghand Saha.”

As a part of this activity, an objective type quiz on general sciences and visit to RSIC, Physics, and Chemistry Deptt. were organised. Around 260 Students and 20 Teachers of Powai region participated in this event.

Campus School Xth and XIIth Results

The Campus School SSC results for the Year 2004-2005 have reflected 93.75 per cent success ratio which is an increase by 2% than last year. 12 students scored 1st class i.e. 60% to 75% and 11 students have got distinction, i.e. 75 per cent or above.

Mast. Ninad Bhatt stood first with 88.40 percent. Mast. Vikram Shah scored 88.13 per cent for the second place and Ms. Kritika Srivastava was third with 86.66 per cent.

The Std. XII results have reflected a success rate of 97.56 percent, an increase of 5.5 % than last year. 12 students have scored 1st class and 5 students have scored distinction. Ms. Shailaja Sasi stood first with 86.00 per cent. Mast. Murtaza Merchant is in second place with 83.67 per cent and Ms. Sneha Adivarekar stood third with 80.57 per cent.

'Prabhat' Workshop for Freshies

Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology are organising "Prabhat" - the Computer Workshop as a part of Institute Orientation to the fresh students on August 13 and 14, 2005. The objective of the workshop will be to introduce participants to the general fundamentals of Operating System, various types of OS, and some details about Windows operating system.  The workshop will cover following topics:

1)   Introduction to Operating System & hardware

2)      Motivation to Linux and Open Source

3)      Introduction to Linux Concepts and Basic commands

4)      Internet and Networking Fundamentals

5)      IITB network and Computing Facilities

6)      System configuration in Linux and Windows

7)      Advanced Linux & Applications

The participants have to register beforehand. The details about registration can be found can be found at http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/ita/workshops/prabhat05/.

Appointments 

Prof. Devang Khakhar, Deptt. of Chemical Engg., has been appointed as Dean Faculty.

Prof. G. Venkatachalam, Deptt. of Civil Engg., has been appointed as an Emeritus Fellow in the same Department.

Prof. S. L. Dhingra, Deptt. of Civil Engg., has been appointed as an Emeritus Fellow in the same Department. 

Prof. (Ms.) M. Mukhopadhyay, Deptt. of Chemical Engg., has been appointed as an Emeritus Fellow in the same Department.

Prof. K. Sudhakar, Deptt. of Aerospace Engg., has been appointed as Head of the Department.

Prof. M. C. Deo, Deptt. of Civil Engg., has been appointed as Head of the Department.

Prof. S. K. Maiti, Deptt. of Mechanical Engg., has been appointed as the Head of the Department.

Prof. Arun S. Moharir, Deptt. of Chemical Engg., has been appointed as the Professor-In-Charge, CEP/QIP.

Prof. Narayan Rangaraj, IE & OR (Deptt. Of Mech Engg.), has been appointed as Convener, IE & OR.

Dr. Arunkumar Sridharan has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Dr. Ravi Raghunathan, Assistant Professor (Contract), Deptt. of Mathematics, has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the same Department.

Dr. K. K. Isaac, Associate Professor, Deptt. of Mechanical Engg., has been appointed as a Professor in the same Department.

Dr. Tony Joseph Puthenpurakal, Lecturer (Sr. Scale) (Contract), Deptt. of Mathematics has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the same Department.

Dr. Atul Sharma, Assistant Professor (Contract), Deptt. of Mechanical Engg., has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the same Department.

Dr. S. Arunkumar has been appointed as an Adjunct Professor in the School of Biosciences and Bioengineering.

Dr. (Ms) Sharmila Sreekumar, Assistant Professor (Contract), Deptt. of HSS, has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the same department.

Dr. C. D. Sebastian, Assistant Professor (Contract), Deptt. of HSS, has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the same department.

Dr. Ranjan K. Panda, Assistant Professor (Contract), Deptt. of HSS, has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the same department.

Dr. Vikram Singh Sirola, Assistant Professor (Contract), Deptt. of HSS, has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the same department.

Dr. K. Ramasubramanian, Assistant Professor (Contract), Deptt. of HSS, has been appointed as Assistant Professor in the same department.

Dr. (Ms.) Asmita Mukherjee has been appointed as Lecturer (Sr. Scale) (Contract) in the Department of Physics.

Dr. Anirban Guha has been appointed as an Assistant Professor (Contract) in the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Dr. U. K. Anandavardhanan has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Mathematics.

Dr. Richard Pinto has been appointed as an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering.

Dr. Ashish Juneja, Assistant Professor (Contract), Deptt. of Civil Engineering has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the same Department.

Dr. Naresh K. Chandiramani has been appointed as an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering.

Dr. Manoj Kumar Keshari has been appointed as Lecturer (Sr. Scale) (Contract) in the Department of Mathematics.

Dr. Rajagopalan Srinivasan has been appointed as a Visiting Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering.

Dr. Jayendran Venkateswaran has been appointed as an Assistant Professor (Contract) in the Industrial Engg. & Operations Research Group.

Dr. Jonathan David Farely has been appointed as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Mathematics.

Dr. Romeo Ortega has been appointed as a Visiting Professor in the Systems & Control Engineering Group.

Dr. Parag Bhargava has been appointed as an Associate Professor in the Departmental of Metallurgical Engg. & Materials Science.

Retirements as on 31.08. 2005 

Prof. Ravi Hazra, IDC

Prof. L. M. Bhole, H&SS

Shri N. G. Nair, Guest House

Shri R. K. S. Yadav, Security

CEP Courses

Events

August 15       Independence Day Celebrations

August 28       IIT B team to participate in Robocon 05 International Finals

Salt 'N' Pepper
By Dr. Arun Inamdar