Indian Institute of Technology Bombay  is setting up a Centre of Excellence in Nanoelectronics on its Campus to  undertake state-of-the-art research in nanoelectronics, train manpower in this area, interact with industry, research laboratories and government departments, and create facilities which will be used by nanoelectronics researchers all over the country.

Funded by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT),a similar Centre of Excellence is also to be set up at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore. The total cost of the project is Rs. 99.8 crores spread over 5 years, shared equally by the two Institutes. 

Though both the centres will have some areas in common, the team at IISc will focus more on the materials aspects of nanoelectronic devices, and the team at IITB will focus more on the devices and circuits aspects of nanoelectronics. 

Nanoelectronics is the emerging area of electronics dealing with nanometer-sized devices used for electronic circuits and systems. Nanoelectronics is probably the most advanced of the nanotechnologies, and products are starting to appear in the market utilizing nanoelectronic devices. 

Prof. Ramgopal Rao, Chief Investigator for this project at IIT Bombay said that this project also represents the first collaborative effort between two leading academic Institutes in the country, to carry out a joint program in an important emerging area.  The two Institutes have a Memorandum of Understanding for collaborative research.  Prof. Ramgopal Rao pointed out that over 20 faculty members from six different departments/schools at are involved in the execution of this project at IIT Bombay. 

According to Prof. Rao,the joint activity between IITB & IISc will also have two major benefits. Firstly, it will ensure that several major equipments do not have to be replicated at two centres, thus leading to considerable cost saving.  Secondly, it will ensure that the complementary expertise of the two teams is effectively used. 

In terms of manpower training, the centres will produce highly-trained, innovative scientists and engineers with hands-on experience through the post-graduate and under-graduate programs of these two institutes, as well as through the research assistant/associate program.  The number of trained personnel produced at the two Centres will be about 200 per year at all levels.  In addition the centres will run several continuing education and short-term courses for participants from industry, government and research laboratories. 

The facilities created through this project at the two centres will be available to researchers, scientists, engineers and users from other organizations, including academia, industry and government through the auxiliary "Indian Nanoelectronics Users Program" (INUP).

IIT Start up Vegayan System, wins India Venture Challenge Award

Vegayan Systems, a start-up founded by Prof. Girish Saraph of the IIT Bombay Business Incubator,  jointly won the award of the prestigious India Venture Challenge contest conducted by Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) USA and the Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE). The joint winners shared the award of US$150,000/- from DFJ, and a tier-1 VC from the silicon valley and its partners. 

Vegayan earned this distinction against 10 finalists selected out of 125 business propositions from all over India.  The final event of the India Venture Challenge was hosted by the Indian School of Business at Hyderabad on the February 20th.  It received wide attention from international technology, business and investor community. 

Vegayan systems is engaged in providing networking tools to enhance functionality, performance, and management of core MPLS networks for its service provider and enterprise customers. Vegayan has a talented team and proprietary technology to address unique needs of the fast growing market segments. The founder of the Company, Prof. Girish Saraph is a faculty member at IIT Bombay.  

The Technology Business Incubator at the Institute is managed by the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship set up at IIT Bombay.

R & D Spectrum Released

R & D Spectrum, a comprehensive information brochure of the R&D activities of IIT Bombay, was released by Mr. Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, BoG, IIT Bombay, on Saturday 18, 2006. 

Praising the “R&D Spectrum” Mr. Bajaj said that its a great publication and has content to attract industry.  Speaking of the increasing role of technology in industry,  Mr. Bajaj said that price, quality, delivery is no longer enough.  Capability to develop new technology is part of the minimum requisite for industry.  “A mindset change is required on both sides”,  he added, referring to industry and academia.  In todays scenario an outstanding teaching setup requires support of an outstanding research setup and vice a versa.  “A major obstacle in IIT Bombay’s progress is lack of autonomy in certain areas”,  Mr. Bajaj said.  His message was that IIT Bombay must earn much more which will put pressure to get autonomy.  “You,“ he emphasised”, can get autonomy”.  

The function commenced with a presentation of R&D activities and evolving of IRCC at IITB by Prof. Rangan Banerjee, Asso. Dean R&D.  Prof. Khilar, Dean R&D, in his welcome address said the R&D Spectrum reflects the R&D ethos, culture and activities and is a walk through of information on the various facilities, expertise and partners.  Prof. Sandeep Roy, the editor of the brochure said that as this was the first time such a publication was attempted, the objective was to make it useful for the stake holders in IIT R&D. 

Prof. Misra, Director, IITB said that IRCC is the major hub at IIT Bombay consolidating and promoting the R&D activities.  Some of the pointers to IRCC’s successful operation is the increasing visits of industry delegations, increased sponsors, and the research fellowship programme.  “The bottom line is innovation and creativity”, Prof. Misra said.

IIT Bombay Team Wins EGIFT Fellowship

A team of third year undergraduate students of Electrical Department, Vinit Gawande, Sanish Mahadik, Nitin Agrawal and Prakhil Bilaye, under the guidance of Prof.U.B.Desai and Prof. Rajkumar S. Pant, was awarded  Ek-Duniya Grassroots Innovation Fellowship for Technology (EGIFT) by  the leading social activist Shri Anna Hazare at a function held in Agra on 24th of January, 2006  by Oneworld  South Asia organization. The team will be given funds worth 5000 USD for their project on "Long Distance Wireless Communication using Tethered Aerostats for Rural Connectivity".

Publications

Prof. R. S. Pant, Department of Aerospace

Constraint Analysis And Initial Sizing Of A Transport Aircraft By Simulated Annealing, Journal of Aerospace Science & Technology, Iranian Aerospace Society, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2005, pp. 43-47.

Prof. Deepak P. Nandedkar, Deptt. of    Electrical Engg., has been listed with his biography in ‘The Dictionary of International Biography (Thirty Second Edition, 2005)’ which is a reference publication of IBC-The International Biographical Center, Cambridge, England. 

Prof. G.Mukhopadhyay, Physics Department

T.Ambjornsson, G.Mukhopadhyay, S.P.Apell and M.Kall have jointly published a paper on     Resonant coupling between localized plasmons and anisotropic molecular coatings in ellipsoidal metal nanoparticles,    Physical Review B73 085412 (2006). 

Prof. Malhar Kulkarni,  

"Implications of declaring Sanskrit as Classical Language"  by the Government of India", Purushartha, January 2006, Pune. and "S.L.Athalyekar: a Paniniya ", Purushartha, January 2006, Pune.  

Prof. Milind Malshe, Humanities & Social Science Department

A paper by on  "The  Tradition of Hindustani Music: Some Historical and  Aesthetic Observations" has been published in the Journal of The  Indological Research Institute, vol VII, 2004-2005. 

Prof. L.M.BHOLE, HSS Dept., jointly with Mr. P.Dash (former Ph.D. Scholar in HSS Dept., IITB) published the article titled "Domestic and External Factors in Short-Term Interest Rates Determination in India" in The Indian Economic Journal, April-September 2004.

Prof. L.M.BHOLE, HSS Dept., Jointly with Mr. J. Mahakud (former Ph. D. Scholar in HSS Dept.) published the article titled " Banks AS Source Of Finance: Evidence From Indian Corporate Sector" in Prajnan, October-December, 2005.

Prof. R. O. Dusane, Deptt. of Met. Engg. & Material Sc. , along with Kumbhar A. A. and Singh S. K. have published the following article in the Jour. of Vacuum Science & Technology B:Microelectronics and Nanometer structures. (JVST B, 43, 2006, 543) 

Prof. R. O. Dusane,

HWCVD deposited nanometer thick a-SiC: H diffusion barrier films for ULSI application

S. K. Singh, A. A. Kumbhar, R. O. Dusane and W. Bosk.

Patents Filed 

Prof. R. O. Dusane, Deptt. of Met. Engg. & Matrial Sc., along with his students have filed the following two patents:

Ultra-thin barrier layer on low-k intermetal dielectric (IMDs) by Hot wire CVD.

Dusane R. O., Kumbhar A. A. and Singh S. K. Patent application No. 4/MUM/2006. and

Method of enhancing the reliability of a low-k dielectric layer in the backend processing.

The First Brig. S.K.Bose  Memorial Lecture was held on Saturday, 4th February 2006, in the F.C.Kohli Auditorium (KReSIT, IIT Bombay). Mr. Cyrus M. Dordi. Vice President, Gujarat Ambuja Cements Ltd.   delivered  the  Lecture on Journey Through the Concrete Jungle. The late Brig. S.K.Bose was the first Director of IIT Bombay.  He was instrumental in setting up infrastructural facilities of the Institute campus where he worked  for eleven years.  Subsequently, he took up the directorship of IIT Kharagpur.

The programme was started with Gurustotram.  Prof. Ashok Misra, Director, IIT Bombay garlanded the photograph of  late Brig. S.K.Bose and welcomed the gathering. Prof. Sukhatme, former Director, IIT Bombay and  Mr. Jayant Bose, elder son   of  Brig. Bose  gave reminiscences of Brig. S.K.Bose. Mr. Ajit Gopaldas introduced  the speaker.

"Think Policy" Conference

To promote awareness in Public Affairs, IIT Bombay & US India Forum had organised “Think Policy” conference on February 4, 2006. Following were the speakers at the conference: 

Dr. Arabinda Mitra, Exec. Director, Indo-US Science & Technology Forum spoke on "Indo-US S&T Cooperation: Perspective and Opportunities" 

Dr. B.B. Singh, Nuclear Scientist; Editorial Board, International Journal Nuclear Law (Paris), spoke on "Indo-US Nuclear Agreement: Compulsions & Compromises". 

Mr. Nadirshaw Dhondy, Attorney, Supreme Court, spoke on "Ethics and Probity in Public life". 

Mr. Sudhir Badami, Researcher (Public Transportation), spoke on "Five Years Hence: Will Mumbai Rock or Roll ?". 

Hindi Version of Institute's Home Page

A new Hindi Home page of IITB constructed by the Hindi Cell with support of Information Cell of the Institute was inaugurated by Prof. R. K. Shevagaonkar, Dean (RM) on February 6, 2006.  The Unicode Devnagri font has been used for constructing this page. The web browser Mozilla fire Fox is most suitable browser for this page.  However it can be browsed in IE.5.  It is easily viewed in character code UTF-8 if the system has Unicode Devanagari Fonts.  Windows NT/ 2000 and FC 3 or 4 mostly have Unicode font so there will be no need of down loading the fonts.  Unicode fonts like Raghu, Gargi are available on net, Like the English version the page generate month, day and date in Hindi.

The address of the page is / www.iitb.ac.in/Hindi

comments on the site are welcomed [at] hindi.iitb.ac.in

Prof. Milind Malshe, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, delivered a valedictory address and presented a paper on “Bakhtin and the Problem of Socio-Cultural Understanding” at the National Seminar on “Language, Meaning and the Problem of Socio-Cultural Understanding” organized by the Department of Philosophy, Assam University, Silchar and sponsored by the Indian Council of Philosophical Research, New Delhi on 1-3 February 2006. 

Dr Sudha Shastri, Dept of HSS, presented a paper entitled 'Self/Selves? Voices in the Construction of ALIAS GRACE'  in the three-day Seminar on WRITING THE SELF: INDIA AND CANADA, organized by the Institute for Research in Interdisciplinary Studies and the Indian Association of Canadian Studies from 22-24 February, 2006. 

Prof. A. K. Rastogi, Dept. of Civil Engg., participated and presented a paper on “Inverse modeling in flow through porous media involving simulated annealing”  in the Second International Groundwater Conference (IGC 2006) at India International Centre, New Delhi, February 1-4, 2006. 

Prof. Atanu Ghosh, Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, delivered a talk on   "Competitive environment and Competitiveness" at NITIE on February 20, 2006. 

Dr. Y. S. Rao, CSRE, delivered two lectures on “Radar Interferometry for DEM generation” and “earthquake studies”. He also conducted practical for SERC, DST course participants of Centre for Mathematical Modeling and Computer Simulation (C-MMACS) at  Bangalore on 14th Feb. 2006.

Prof. Madhav N. Kulkarni, Department of Civil Engineering,  presented invited papers on "GPS research" at the Indo-Australian Conference on IT in Civil Engg., held at IIT Roorkee, during 20-21 February 2006 and on "GNSS, Photogrammetry and LASER Mapping" in the Workshop on Cartographic Workflow and GIS, at N. Delhi, on 2^nd  February 2006.  He also attended the meeting of Expert Committee of NRDMS, DST, as member, at IIT Guwahati, on 14-16 February 2006.

Dr. J. C. Mandal, Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, delivered an invited talk on "Overview of Incompressible and Low Speed Flow Computations" at Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, (ISRO),Thriuvananthapuram on 16th February 2006.  He also  Chaired a session at the "One Day Workshop on PARAS-3D", Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre,  Thriuvananthapuram on 15th February 2006.

Prof. K. Ramasubramanian,Cell for Indian Science and Technology in Sanskrit,  HSS Department, delivered  the T.A.Saraswati Amma Memorial lecture at the National Seminar on “Frontiers of Discrete and Fuzzy Mathematics”   organized by Department of Mathematics, St. Berchman  College, Changanacherry, Kerala, on February 16 - 18, 2006.   He was also the Chief Guest for the Valedictory Function.

Prof T S Rathore, Electrical Engineering Department, delivered a lecture 'How to Conduct Research with Limited Resources' at the Inauguration of IEEE Student Branch at St Franacis Institute of Technology, Borivli on Feb 15, 2006. He also delivered a guest lecture on 'Some Advances in Electrical Networks' at the ISTE sponsored Teachers' Training Program (TTP) at K J Somaiya College of Engineering on Feb 16, 2006 and another  talk on 'Ladder Realizations - From Passive RLC to Equal-Valued Grounded Capacitors' at the National Seminar on 'Information and Communication Technology - Recent Trends and Future Challenges' organized by D J Sandhavi College of Engineering, Mumbai in association with University of Mumbai, IETE Mumbai Centre and ISTE on Feb 24, 2006. 

Prof T S Rathore, was invited as an expert on the committee for selection of faculty in the area of Instrumentation for Watumull Institute of Electronic Engineering & Computer Technology, Mumbai on Feb 19, 2006. He was also a  key members in organizing the International Conference on Next Generation Networks (ICNGN) during Feb 9-11, 2006 at Hyatt Regency Hotel. Prof. Rathore  was the editor of the Proceedings of ICNGN in which 50 papers  were published with full texts.  

Prof. V. Ramgopal Rao, Department of Electrical Engineering, delivered an invited talk on "Parasitic Effects in Multi-Gate MOSFETs" at the International Workshop on Nano-CMOS held at Mishima, Japan during  Jan 30-Feb, 1, 2006. He had also delivered a talk on “ Multi-disciplinary Approach to Nanottechnology R & D” on February 28, 2006 at New Delhi. 

Prof. Deepankar Choudhury, Department of Civil Engineering, delivered a lecture on the topic "Design and Construction of Earthquake Resistant Foundations for Rural Areas" on February 28, 2006 at ISCA Auditorium, Kolkata on the occasion of 'National Science Day' programme. 

Prof. U. A. Yajnik, Physics Department, imparted a course “Cosmology for Particle Physicists” at “XXI SERC School on Theoretical High Energy Physics” Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad on February 11- 20, 2006. 

Prof.T.N.Singh, Department of Earth Sciences, delivered an invited lecture on "Application of soft computing for evaluation of slope stability" in Technical up date on Advances in Excavation Technology for Surface Mining and Civil Construction  held at Goa under the Institute of Engineers (I), Goa chapter and Government Polytechnic , Bicholim on Dec.23^rd  2005. He also delivered  an invited lecture on "Geographical Indicator - Users Prospectives" at the Indo European Seminar on Protection and Promotion of Geographical Indications of Goods organized by ,Intellectual Property India Division, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Industrial Policy and promotion, Government of India at New Delhi  on  Nov.24-25,2005. 

Prof. Siddhartha Ghosh, Dept. of Civil Engineering, presented a paper on "Life Cycle Cost Analysis of RC Moment Frame Structures," at the National Conference on Earthquake Analysis and Design of Structures”, held at Coimbatore, India, during Feb 2-3, 2006. 

Prof. Rajkumar S. Pant, Department of Aerospace Engineering presented the following four papers at the 5th Aviation, Technology, Integration & Operations Conference (ATIO) and 16th Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) Systems Technology Conference organized by American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) at Washington DC, USA. He also chaired a session on "Advanced Unmanned Lighter-Than-Air systems". Prof.  Pant also delivered seminars on LTA envelope shape optimization, Stochastic Optimization Techniques, Combat aircraft Life Cycle Costing, and Air Transportation, at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, USA, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, USA, Cranfield University, Bedford, UK, and Imperial College, London UK,  respectively. 

1) A generic methodology for determination of drag coefficient of an aerostat envelope using CFD, by Pant, R. S., Kale, S. M, and Joshi, P. 

2) FALCCM: A fighter aircraft LCC model for Indian conditions by Jayakrishnan V. Ev., and Pant, R. S. 

3) A Methodology for Initial Sizing and Sensitivity Analyses of Stratospheric Airship as a Platform for Psuedolite Based Precision Navigation System by Gawale, A., and Pant, R. S. 

4) Developing an air traffic complexity metric for Indian en-route airspace using a simulation model of controller workload by Pant, R. S., Majumdar, A., Ochieng, W., and Sharma, K. 

Prof. Pushpak Bhattacharyya, Department of Computer Science and Engineering attended the first meeting of SAALP – South Asian Association for Language Processing at Colombo on 23-26^th February 2006. 

Prof. Shireesh B. Kedare, Energy Systems Engineering presented a paper on “Solar Concentrator for Industrial Process Heat at the International Congress on Renewable Energy 2006 at Hyderabad on Febraury 10, 2006. 

Prof. J. Adinarayana, Principal Research Scientist, CSRE, presented a research paper (co-authors: Gopesh Tewari, Research Associate and Anand Vadlamani, M. Tech Student) on ”GRAMYA VIKAS: distributed Collaboration Model for Rural Development Planning- A Prototype “ at the 21^st Asia-Pacific Advanced Network (APAN) and its Applications Conference at Tokyo, Japan during 22-26 January 2006. 

He also delivered an invited talk on “Geo-Spatial Technology in Rural Land Use Planning” at the GIS applications in Land Use Planning and Natural Resources Management” seminar held at the Environment & Sustainable Development (ESD) Centre of UN University Headquarters, Tokyo on 27.01.2006 and visited Centre for Spatial Information Science (CSIS) of the University of Tokyo on 26^th and 28.01.2006 to observe the research activities on spatial information systems and delivered a seminar talk on “Rural-Informatic in Decision Making”.  He delivered a guest lecture on “Geo-Spatial Technology in Rural Land Use Planning” in their International Training Programme “Geo-Informatics Applications in Rural Development” at the National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad on 23.2.2006

Ms. Debarati Datta, Research Scholar, Dept. of Civil Engineering, presented the paper titled 'Probabilistic Response Spectra in Earthquake Engineering: An Overall Review' authored by herself and Prof Siddhartha Ghosh (Civil Engg Dept.) at the  National Conference on 'Earthquake Disaster: Technology and Management' held at Motilal Nehru Natoinal Institute of Technology Allahabad, on 11th-12th February,2006.  

Ms Uma Mahadevan, Research Scholar, Dept of HSS, presented a paper titled 'Writing the Selves: A Reading of Carol Shields' UNLESS' in the three-day Seminar on WRITING THE SELF: INDIA AND CANADA, organised by  the Institute for Research in Interdisciplinary Studies and the Indian Association of Canadian Studies from 22-24 February, 2006.  

Two  research students of Prof. K. Narayanan, Humanities and Social Sciences Department, namely Ms. Savita Bhat and Lalithambal presented the papers “ Globalization and Technological Behaviour of Firms: A Study of Indian Basic Chemical Industry” and “Issues in Trade Liberalization: A  Decade of Anti-dumping with Special Reference to India” respectively in the Fourth International Conference on Globalization and Sectoral Development, organized by the AIB India in association with Institute for Integrated Learning in Management, New Delhi during February 17 to 19, 2006.  

Prof. K. Narayanan, Humanities and Social Sciences Department, Chaired a Session on Agriculture Related Issues in Globalization, at the Conference.  

Mr. Indubhusan Deb, Ph. D. student, Department of Chemistry presented a poster entitled, "Synthesis of Benzannulated Oxacycles via Michael Initiated Ring Closing Metathesis Involving Nitroalkenes", at the  ACS-CSIR Joint International Conference on Building Bridges, Forging Bonds for 21st Century Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology, at the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, during 06-09 January 2006.

Mr. Madhu Ganesh, Ph. D. student, Department of Chemistry, presented a poster entitled, "Nucleophilic Enantioselective Epoxidation of alpha, beta-Disubstituted Nitroethylenes Promoted by Chiral Bifunctional Organocatalysts", at the ACS-CSIR Joint International Conference on Building Bridges, Forging Bonds for 21st Century Organic Chemistry and Chemical Biology, at the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, during 06-09 January 2006. 

Ms. Bichismita Sahu, Ph. D. student, Department of Chemistry, presented a poster entitled, "Addition of Tribromomethylcarbanion to Conjugated Nitroalkenes", at the International Symposium on Advances in Organic Chemistry, at Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, during 09-12 January 2006.

Staff News

New book entitled "Geographical Information System (GIS) in Library and Information Services" authored by Dr. D. N. Phadke, Asst. Librarian (SG) has been published by Concept Publishing co., New Delhi.  It is based on Dr. Phadke's research work accepted earlier at the Department of Library and Information Science, University of Pune.  The copy has been added to our library collection.

Confocal Micro Raman Spectrometer facility of Physics Department

Institute recently procured a Confocal Micro Raman spectrometer under the Nanotechnology Trust area.  The Spectrometer is now installed and is open for everyday use.  The spectrometer will be run as an institute central facility by research assistants and scholars.  a user committee will look after the operation of the spectrometer.  All those interested in running their samples or for getting their students trained, kindly send a mail to the Head of Physics Department.

Department of Aerospace Engineering  

As a part of ongoing elective course “AE-725 Transportation” a series of four lectures are being scheduled by the department. These lectures will be delivered by Mr. Rajeev Kaul, Deputy Chief Engineer (Avionics), on “Concepts of Human Factors in Aviation Maintenance” on March 3, 2006.  Mr. Mukesh Pyasi, Senior Technical Officer (Powerplant), on “Powerplant systems of Boeing 777 – 200” on 10^th March 2006. Mr. Diganta Goswami - Dy Chief Engineer (Avionics), on “Aircraft Maintenance in AirIndia” on 24th March 2006 and Mr. GV Laskshmanakumar - Dy Chief Engineer (Airframe), on “Introduction to Airframe systems of Boeing 777 – 200” on 31st March 2006. 

Mr Keshava Sharma, DGM (ATC), Airports Authority of India, delivered a talk on “Principles of Air Traffic Management” on 14th February 2006 

Dr. Sayan Gupta, Civil Engineering Department, Technical University of Delft,  Netherlands delivered a talk on "Random process theories in probabilistic safety    assessment and life time prediction of randomly  vibrating structures" on 20th February 2006 

Dr. Sunetra Sarkar, Post doctoral researcher, Aerospace Engineering Department, Technical University of Delft, Netherlands, delivered a seminar on "On stall induced vibration and flutter on a 2-D blade". 

Chemistry Department 

Prof. Dr. U. Kazmaier, Institut fuer Organische Chemie, Universitaet des Saarlandes,  D-66123 Saarbruecken, GERMANY delivered a seminar on “ Chelated Ester Enolates-Efficient Tools                              for the Stereoselective Synthesis of  Unnatural Amino Acids and Peptides” on  February 21, 2006 

Department of Electrical Engineering 

Dr. Govind Swarup, FRS, NCRA, Pune delivered a seminar on “ Gaint Metrewave Radio Telescope : Challenges in Science   and Engineering” on  1st March, 2006. 

Nanoelectronics Colloquium 

Prof. N.Venkataramani, Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science, IIT Bombay delivered a talk on “Spintronics: An overview” on  February 27, 2006 

Department of Earth Sciences 

Professor Manika Prasad, Associate Research Professor of Colorado School of Mines and Professor in Department of Earth Sciences, IIT Bombay delivered a talk on “In the Search for Petroleum: From Kilometer to Nanoscales” 10th  February, 2006. 

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences 

Professor S. V. Bokil, University of Pune, Pune delivered the IV Periodical Lecture (Philosophy) on “The Relevance of Metaphysics" on February 15, 2006.

Ms. Neera Adarkar, urban researcher delivered a lecture on “ Textile Mill Lands:  Past  Present  and  Future” on  1st March, 2005. 

Symposium on 'WTO Negotiations and their Implications for a Developing Country: With Special Reference to India' is being scheduled  on March 11, 2006 as follows: 

Prof. D.M. Nachane, Senior Professor,   IGIDR, Mumbai, on “An overview of WTO framework” 

Dr. Siddharth Roy, Economic Advisor, Tata Group, on “WTO negotiations and their implications for the  Indian Industry” 

Prof. Avadhoot Nadkarni, Professor, Planning Commission Chair in Planning and Development

Department of Economics, University of Mumbai on “WTO and Services Sector” 

Dr. Ajit Ranade, Chief Economist, The Aditya Birla Group on “ WTO and Agriculture” 

HSS Department had organised a 2 day National Seminar on “ History and Philosophy of Indian Science”, Recent trends and future prospects at IIT Bombay on Feb 27 – 28, 2006. 

Department of Mathematics        

Prof. K. B. Athreya, Cornell University, Ithaca, U. S. A delivered a colloquium on “ Brownian Motion, Ito calculus and the Black-Scholes formula” on February 27, 2006.

Department of Mechanical Engineering 

Mr. Philippe Kemp, CSM Instruments, Peseux, Switzerland delivered a talk on “Mechanical Characterization of MEMS - Indentation, Scratch, and Tribology” on March 1, 2006  

Mr. K. R. Sreenivas, JNCASR, Bangalore delivered a talk on “Double Diffusive Finger Convection” on 1 March 2006. 

Physics Department                                                                                

Mr. Andreas Morsch, CERN, Geneva delivered a seminar on  “Jet Physics in Heavy Ion Collisions at the LHC” on February 17, 2006. 

Dr. Biplab Sanyal, Uppsala University, Sweden delivered a seminar on “Ab-intitio modeling of spintronic materials” on February 8, 2006. 

Prof. H. Wolter, delivered a seminar on “The nuclear equation of state: from heavy ion collisions to the stars” on February 16, 2006. 

Industrial Design Centre

As part of the lecture series under “Contemporary Trends in Art”, Mr. Fawzan Hussain, Senior Photographer, India Today delivered a talk on news photography on  7th February, 2006. 

Energy Systems and Engineering 

Dr. P.C. Ghosh,  NCL, Pune delivered a seminar on “ Hydrogen as longterm storage in Photovoltaic Systems” on February 08, 2006. 

Dr. Bakul Rao, Director, Amoda Environmental Solution, Bangalore delivered a seminar on “Clean development mechanisms” on  February 23, 2006. 

SJM SOM

Leadership Lecture Series 2006   

Yet another thought provoking, highly inspiring and motivating Leadership  Lecture Series 2006, just came to an end with the concluding session  addressed by Padmabhushan Mr. Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Bajaj Auto Ltd. and  Chairman, Board of Governors, IIT Bombay on 18th February 2006. Since 2000, the module on "Leadership & Vision" of the compulsory course  titled "Leadership, Vision and Entrepreneurship" offered to the final year  students of Master of Management

Programme, has been delivered in a unique  and innovative way through experience sharing by some of  the leaders and  achievers from various walks of life. 

The class is divided into 6-8 groups of 4-6 students in each and assigned  a leader to each group. Each team undertakes research through secondary  published information/ article/data in order to closely understand their  leaders style, his/her perception of leadership and analyze the different  situations the leader had faced in his/her career. How the leaders have  made a difference to the organizations? 

As part of the efforts to make this course very effective, leaders and achievers from corporate/ education/ media/industry associations/NGO  sectors of our country are invited to share their thoughts and experiences on  this subject and how they have provided leadership to their organizations, what are the nature of challenges they have faced, how did they overcome and what contribution they have been able to make towards the growth of their organizations. 

Each group is given an opportunity to have an exclusive session to  interact with their chosen leader and raise all the questions that remain to be answered. At the end, each group submits a term paper on their understanding and findings about the chosen leader. This is evaluated and considered for awarding the grade on this subject. Students gain valuable exposure to the leadership styles, values hold by the leaders and to the entrepreneurial world, and their interests are often piqued to pursue new ideas or industries. 

Leadership Lecture Series 2006 gave an excellent opportunity to the students, faculty and members of IITB community, to listen to and interact with some of the finest minds and a galaxy of speakers, who are leaders and achievers in their own field of activity. The list included :

Padmabhushan Dr.Pratap C Reddy, Chairman, Apollo Group of Hospitals, Mr. Kishore Biyani, Chairman, Pantaloon Group, Mr A.K.Purwar, Chairman, State Bank Of India, Mr. Anand Mahindra, Vice Chairman, Mahindra and Mahindra, Padmabhushan Mrs. Ela Bhatt, Chairperson, SEWA, Ahmedabad, Mr.Arun Maira, Chairman,Boston Consulting Group (India), Padmabhushan Mr. Shyam Benegal, Film Maker and Director, Capt.G.R. Gopinath, Chairman, Air Deccan  Airlines, Mr. Gautam Thapar, Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of Ballarpur Industries Limited and Padmabhushan Mr. Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Bajaj Auto Ltd. 

This event, for past six years, has made a small but highly motivating contribution towards confidence building and shaping up minds of young and old learners alike,  was conceptualised by Prof. Atanu Ghosh of SJMSOM and he has been able to coordinate and implement this course since its inception in 2000, consistently with high level of effectiveness. 

Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology 

Dr. Bhaskaran Raman, Assistant Professor, CSE, IIT Kanpur, delivered a seminar on “The 2P MAC Protocol for Long-Distance 802.11 Mesh Networks” on  02nd March 2006 

Dr. George Varghese,  Professor of Computer Science, University of California, San Diego, delivered a seminar on “Introspective Networks” on  08th March, 2006 

School of Biosciences & Bioengineering

Dr. Anu Bhattacharya, Department of Molecular Genetics, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas delivered a seminar on “Role of CBF in cell cycle progression and survival” on February 15, 2006. 

Mr. Subbu Dharmaraj, Ambion Pvt. Ltd., Austin, Texas, US delivered a talk on “Micro RNAs: Tiny Regulators with Global Impact” on February 28, 2006.

Industrial Research and Consultancy Centre

Ms Robin Blatt, Applied Biogenuity, The Journal of Biolaw & Business, USA and at present  2006 Eisenhower Fellow to India and Singapore, delivered a talk on “patenting of biological products and microorganisms, and entrepreneurial opportunities of IPR in biotechnology” on Monday, February 20, 2006.

A Hindi Workshop was organised for the Senior Officers of the Institute. R. K. Shevagaonkar, Dean (R M) inaugurated the workshop on 6^th February 2006.  In his inaugural speech he called upon the participants not to hesitate  using Hindi in their official work.  Shri R. S. Rawat, Assistant Director and In-charge of Hindi Implementation of Government of India (Western Region) was the main speaker.  He gave a presentation on various forms of communications being used in Govt. of India's Offices and its importance.  The presentation was both in Hindi and English.  There was vibrant discussion on style of language and its translations.

Research Scholars Forum

Research Scholars' Forum, IIT Bombay had organized a talk by  Shri Shailesh K. Gandhi, ex-chairman of the IIT Bombay Alumni Association, Working  Committee Member of NCPRI on “ National Implications of the Right to Information” on  22nd February, 2006. 

The Forum had also organized a talk on "Geophysical Technology for Exploration" on 31st January, 2006 at the Electrical Engineering Seminar Hall. Adriaan Van der Schoot, Chief Discipline Leader Geophysics, Shell Exploration and Production, USA was the guest speaker. 

Prof. U. A. Yajnik, Physics Department, has been elected Fellow of Gujarat Science Academy. 

Prof. T. N. Singh, Department of Earth Sciences Co-Chaired a technical session under Earth Sciences Section at the 93^rd Indian Science Congress held at Hyderabad on January 3-7, 2006. 

Dr. K. Narayanan, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences has been elected as the President of the Academy of International Business [AIB] - India Chapter.

“Jung Aur Aman” (War and Peace), filmed over three tumultuous years in India, Pakistan, Japan and the USA - War and Peace records peace activism in a time of global militarism and war. Triggered by macabre scenes of jubilation that greeted nuclear testing in the sub-continent, the film is framed by the murder of Mahatma Gandhi. Fifty years later memories of Gandhi seem like a mirage that never was, created by our thirst for peace and our very distance from it. The film was screened by Anand Patwardhan  on February 24, 2006.

Screening of "Etre et Avoir" a French Documentary

IIT Bombay in collaboration with the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has been conducting a Basic French Communication Course since 2^nd September 2005. As a part of this, a French documentary film (with English sub-titles) “ Etre et Avoir “  was screened at the P.C. Saxena Auditorium on 24th February 2006.