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Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship

The second call for nominations for the year 2018-19 has been announced for the INAE-SERB, DST Abdul Kalam Technology Innovation National Fellowship, launched in the year 2017; to recognize, encourage and support translational research by Indian Nationals working in various capacities of engineering profession, in public funded institutions in the country.

The Fellowship is applicable to persons engaged in the engineering profession only. The nominee should have a minimum of 5 years’ service left in the parent organization. The Fellowship amount is Rs 25,000/- per month in addition to salary being drawn. A Research Grant of Rs.15.00 lakh per annum, which can be utilized for engineering research and innovation activity including hiring of manpower, consumables, national and international travel for research purposes, chemicals, equipment, etc will also be provided. A maximum of 10 Fellowships will be awarded per year. The duration of the Fellowship will be initially for three years, extendable by upto two more years depending on the performance and the Fellowship can be held for a maximum of 5 years. The guidelines and nomination proforma for the subject Fellowship can be downloaded from INAE website www.inae.in

Nominations are accepted for the Fellowship throughout the year. In addition, two calls for nominations are announced in each Financial Year. A soft copy of the nomination is required to be forwarded to INAE through email followed by one ink signed original hard copy to be sent to INAE Office, Gurgaon through Speed Post/Courier.

All the nominees who had applied earlier in response to the first call for nominations for the Financial Year 2018-19 are not eligible to apply again this year, since a nominee may apply only once in a year. However, a nominee may apply again once in each subsequent Financial Year till he/she has a residual service of five years left in his/her parent organization.

The last date for the receipt of nominations for the second call of Nominations for the Financial Year 2018-19 is Dec 31, 2018.

Efforts have been made in the recent past to re-activate the INAE Local Chapters with a view to increase the outreach of the Academy. A meeting of the INAE Fellows based at Pune was held on April 21, 2018 at Thermax House, Pune which was attended by about fifteen INAE Fellows, wherein it was decided to launch the INAE Local Chapter at Pune. The names of Mr. MV Kotwal as the Chairman and Prof. Vinay Kulkarni as the Honorary Secretary of the Pune Local Chapter were unanimously proposed. It was suggested that the Pune Engineering Forum be formed under the aegis of the INAE Pune Local Chapter to induct non-Fellows as members, so as to also involve them in the conduct of various activities to be undertaken.

Accordingly, a meeting of the INAE Pune Local Chapter was held on July 27, 2018 during which the “Pune Engineering Forum” was inaugurated by Dr BN Suresh, President, INAE who also delivered the Inaugural Address. It is envisaged that the said Forum will facilitate effective communication and collaboration among engineers, to synergise the capability and enhance the outreach of MSMEs and Entrepreneurs. The Forum will also help facilitate technical sessions and programmes that are relevant to Society in and around Pune. The highlight of the function on July 27, 2018 was an interactive Panel Discussion on the topic “Are engineers of India ready for challenges of the next decade and beyond?”. Eminent panellists were chosen to represent different perspectives including Prof Bharatkumar Ahuja, Director, College of Engineering, Pune; Prof Sanjay Dhande, Former Director, IIT Kanpur; Mr Pravin Mehta, OS &DG, Armament & Combat Engineering Systems, DRDO; Dr Prahalada, FNAE, Former Chief Controller, R&D, DRDO; Dr Anant Sardeshmukh, DG & member of Executive Board MCCIA; Mr Prakash Telang, former MD, Tata Motors and Dr Harrick Vin, VP and Head Digitate, TCS. The Panel Discussion was well attended by engineers from Academia, R&D and Industry as well as engineering students studying in Pune. The discussions were highly interactive and the delegates as well as engineering students participated and asked pertinent questions regarding the readiness of engineers in India to face the challenges of the next decade. One of the unique features of the event was that the dignitaries were felicitated with certificates indicating that a bountiful tree had been planted at “Tree for Tigers”, the periphery of Sariska Tiger Reserve, Alwar, Rajasthan on their behalf thereby marking this as an initiative in protecting the environment.

The INAE-DST Consultative meeting on “Laboratory Safe Practices and Waste Disposal in Academic and R&D Institutes” was held on July 28, 2018 at Savitribai Phule University, Pune. A brief background of the genesis of the meeting is as follows. INAE was requested by Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India to create a plan of action to enhance the awareness of health and safety issues in chemical and biological laboratories in Universities, Research Institutes and Colleges. The purpose of the exercise is to provide these institutions with knowledge, tools and resources to ensure that highest standards of safety and personal protection are followed. As a first step, it was proposed to conduct a workshop of selected stakeholders from Academia, R&D institutions and Industry to deliberate on issues, define best practices and identify the state-of-the- art techniques in practice presently. Accordingly, an Organizing Committee was constituted with Dr. S Sivaram, FNAE, Former Director, CSIR-NCL and currently the Chair Professor at IISER Pune as the Chairman and Dr GS Grover, Former Chief Scientist, CSIR-NCL as the Convener for planning and conduct of the same so as to arrive at actionable recommendations and also to establish a pilot plant for disposal of the chemical waste in one of the engineering colleges located at Pune.

The INAE-DST Consultative meeting on “Laboratory Safe Practices and Waste Disposal in Academic and R&D Institutes” commenced with the Welcome Address by Dr S Sivaram, FNAE, followed by the Address by Dr. AD Shaligram, Registrar, SPPU. Dr BN Suresh, President, INAE delivered the Inaugural Address while Dr Dilip B Boralkar, Adjunct Professor, SPPU delivered an enlightening Keynote Address. The programme featured three Technical Sessions on “Sharing of Best Practices: Academic labs” Chaired by Dr Pradip, Vice President, INAE; “Sharing of Best Practices: Chemical and Pharma Industry” Chaired by Prof Suresh Gosavi and “Sharing of Best Practices: Other Academic Institutions” Chaired by Prof AB Pandit. The speakers comprised of eminent Academicians and scientists from NCL, Pune; UICT, Mumbai; IISc, Bangalore; SPPU Pune; Lupin Limited, Pune; Reliance India Limited, Mumbai; BASF India, Mumbai; Tata R&D Design Centre, Pune; Aditya Birla S&T Co, Mumbai, NCCS Pune; NEERI, Nagpur and IIT Bombay. The workshop concluded with a Discussion session Chaired by Dr S Sivaram wherein the draft recommendations were deliberated upon. Actionable recommendations are being finalized for submission to DST.

The first INAE-NAEK workshop on High Temperature Materials was held at Bangalore on March 16-17, 2017. Dr AR Upadhya (ADA) and Professor Dipankar Banerjee (IISc) jointly convened the workshop supported by an organizing committee with experts from DRDO, ISRO, CSIR, IISc and ADA. Dr. Kyung Ho Shin, KIST led the 10-member Korean-delegation. The presentations covered the current and future directions in high temperature materials ranging from high temperature alloys, polymer matrix composites and ultra-high temperature ceramic composites, which are of interest to DAE, ISRO, DRDO and A-USC power plants. As a measure of follow up and reciprocation, INAE and NAEK jointly organized a similar two-day event in Changwon, Korea during May 14-15, 2018 where a delegation from INAE participated. The objective of the workshop was to extend the discussion and converge on suitable measures of scientific cooperation and engineering collaboration in the theme of High Temperature Materials. This follow up INAE-NAEK workshop in Changwon was aimed at converting the excellent beginning made in the previous event organized in Bangalore in March 2017 into a more meaningful scientific collaboration for mutual interest and benefit. Both these joint Indo-Korean workshops assume special significance as developing appropriate technology including designing and development of high temperature resistant metallic/ceramic alloys and coatings is absolutely crucial for India to achieve leadership and self-reliance in aerospace, defense, and thermal/nuclear power generation initiatives. The deliberations held in the workshop in the form of presentations and follow up discussion helped the participating scientists and technologists from either side to converge on suitable approaches for future development and trouble-shooting and probable scope for future scientific cooperation and engineering collaboration.

The INAE delegation was led by Indranil Manna, FNAE, Vice-President, INAE, IIT-Kharagpur and comprised of Prof Dipankar Banerjee, FNAE, IISc Bangalore; Dr Soumitro Tarafdar, FNAE, CSIR-NML, Jamshedpur, DR Debashish Bhattacharjee, FNAE, Tata Steel, Dr G Padmanabham, ARCI, Hyderabad, Dr A. Udaykumar, CSIR-NAL, Bangalore, Dr G.V. Prasad Reddy, IGCAR, Kalpakkam, Dr Shubhra Bajpai, CSIR-IMMT, Bhubaneswar, Dr Zafir Alam, DMRL, Hyderabad, Dr Renjith Devasia, VSSC, ISRO, Trivandrum and Dr T Venkateswaran, VSSC, ISRO, Trivandrum as members. The NAEK side also comprised of members from academia, R&D laboratories and industry.

The Scope of Deliberations in the Workshop is highlighted as follows. High temperature materials are a class of advanced solids that can not only withstand the aggressive condition of high temperature (oxidation, erosion, creep) but necessarily should be able to retain the mechanical strength, structural integrity, dimensional tolerance and toughness for extended period of time. The workshop covered almost the entire range of engineering solids used at elevated temperature for load bearing or structural applications like, superalloy, aluminides, ODS alloy, ferritic and austenitic stainless steel, Al alloy composites, Ti alloy/aluminides, C-C and C-SiC composites, non-oxide ceramics (di-borides, carbides) and coatings of various kinds applied by various techniques. The application domains covered in the workshop were truly wide and extensive, as stated below;

Industry Visits were organized in Changwon on May 15, 2018 to Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction Co., Ltd., a company founded in 1962 and is headquartered in Changwon, South Korea. This industry operates as an engineering, procurement, and construction contractor. The company offers turn-key wind power generation systems, ultra-supercritical pulverized coal thermal power plants, post carbon capture and oxy-fuel combustion technologies, superconducting generators/motors, and integrated gasification combined cycle technologies; coal-fired thermal and combined cycle power plants. A visit to Hanwha Aerospace Company was also organized. Established in 1977, Hanwha Aerospace began building businesses in the aircraft engine and film camera industry and built components for optics, video, and aircraft engines to expand into aircraft/gas turbine engines businesses. As South Korea’s only producer of gas turbine engines, Hanwha Aerospace has an unmatched competitive edge in the engine business

The deliberations during the workshop were fruitful and it is envisaged that the exchange of ideas and expertise will be effectively utilized to gain greater benefit by way of further deliberations and mutual cooperation. More precisely, it was decided that future interaction between INAE and NAEK should focus upon:

INAE Study Group on Engineering Heritage – Metallurgy organised its Annual Meeting and Workshop on ‘Digital Museum of Metallic Objects’ in association with College of Engineering Pune (COEP) at Deccan College Post Graduate & Research Institute, Pune during July 20 – 21, 2018. The members of the study group and young researchers from different institutions across the country were invited to present their work. The objective of the meeting was to review on-going research and activities on metallurgical heritage and bring out recommendations with a view to move forward and utilize the recent data and analysis to unravel the mystery and excitements in the area of ancient metallurgical objects. Another important aim of the meeting was to propose a digital museum for metallic objects in particular and artefacts, in general. Forty-Nine post graduate students including researchers in Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune and College of Engineering Pune (COEP) attended all the sessions.

Dr U. Kamachi Mudali, Chairman, INAE Engineering Heritage – Metallurgy Study Group, in his Welcome Address, summarized the outcome of the last annual meeting held during January 27-28, 2017 at SASTRA University, Tanjore and explained how the research movement can be further strengthened through systematic studies on various archaeological objects. Also, he recalled the earlier celebration of Delhi Pillar as world metallurgical heritage by American Society of Metals, New Delhi. Further, he highlighted the need of Digital Museum in the present context and how it can be taken to the next generation. As Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, College of Engineering Pune will be celebrating its 75 years and Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune will be completing its 200 years in 2021, Dr. N.B. Dhokey, Head, Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science, College of Engineering Pune in his Address, suggested hosting an international conference in association with Deccan College in the year 2021-22. The Inauguration ended with vote of thanks By Prof. Sushma Deo, Head, Department of AIHC and Archaeology, Deccan College, Post Graduate & Research Institute, Pune.

Some of the remarks by the dignitaries participating in the event are summarized below.

Dr. Pradip, Vice President, INAE and Shri. M.V. Kotwal, Chairman of INAE Pune Chapter offered felicitations and emphasized collaboration among different specialists like archaeo-metallurgists, engineers and archaeologists specializing in virtual image technology for developing Digital museum on metal artefacts. Prof. Prasad Joshi, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Deccan College Post Graduate & Research Institute, Pune, briefly spoke about reference of metals in ancient literature and Sanskrit studies and explained how these references can be used in reconstructing ancient metallurgy. Prof. Vasant Shinde, Vice Chancellor, Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune talked about the metal objects found from the Harappan context. He has cited examples from various archaeological sites and its immense importance because artefacts talk about the site’s functionality. He also talked about the creation of a digital museum which will give a virtual tour of archaeological sites along artefacts found from excavated context.

The details regarding the academic sessions during the event are highlighted below. The first academic session, chaired by Dr. R K Mohanty, Deccan College featured three speakers. In this session, Dr S. Udaya Kumar, NIAS Bangalore demonstrated use of the archaeo-experimental approach in understanding the Indian metal heritage of bronze images of Harappan Culture. His hypothesis was important in the sense it was a first attempt to explain small size images found in Harappan Culture. Ms Diya Mukherjee, Deccan College presented comparative studies of Harappan metal culture and Dokra brassware technique. She explained the technology of Lost Wax Casting process in the context of the ancient techniques, provided comparative analyses featuring both the cultures, and talked about the regional variation in Dokra technology. Dr. Niloy Nath, Deccan College, using mathematical modelling, elaborated upon thermo- chemistry of megalithic iron smelting at Naikund, ancient Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.

The second academic session had three speakers and was chaired by Dr. PP Deshpande, COE, Pune. In this session, Dr. S. Jaikishan, BVB Hyderabad reviewed the developments in wootz steel technology in northern Telangana region. Dr. Kanti Pawar, presented an over view on recent studies on metal objects in terms of archaeological perspectives. K. Jitendra Babu, Hyderabad presented work on metallurgy in Sanskrit literature with evidences.

The Third academic session began on second day of the conference, i.e. 21 July 2018, and it was chaired by Dr. S Jaikishan. In this session, Dr Amrita Sarkar, Deccan College presented on a futuristic model of Archaeology museum for kids and proposed a virtual version for the kids instead of the traditional way of organizing museum artefacts. She suggested an interactive programme like storytelling, creation of a model for excavations and different kinds of hands on activities. Her paper focused on university museums with reference to Deccan College Post Graduate & Research Institute, Pune. Dr. P.P. Deshpande presented recent work on technical investigations on bronze artefacts from Megalithic sites and explained how these ideas can be used in modern technology. At the end of this session, Dr R.K. Mohanty reviewed metallurgical aspects of early iron age megalithic cultures and explained reconstruction of manufacturing processes.

In the concluding note, Dr. U. Kamachi Mudali appealed all members to express their views, way forward, and contributions to studies on ancient metallic objects. He also proposed that INAE Study Group on Engineering Heritage – Metallurgy annual meeting to be conducted, on a regular annual basis, at places like Deccan College Post Graduate & Research Institute, Pune. In addition, he suggested an idea of one day workshop on ‘Materials Characterization Techniques’ that could be held in Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune in this academic year and the idea was immediately accepted by Prof. V.S. Shinde, Vice Chancellor, Deccan College Post Graduate & Research Institute, Pune.

During the Concluding Session, Prof. A P Jamkhedkar, Chancellor, Deccan College Post Graduate & Research Institute, Pune and President of Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi briefed regarding the presentations of the workshops and their importance in the context of Digital museum. The session was concluded by Prof. V.S. Shinde with his innovative ideas on Digital museum and its importance in spreading awareness of cultural heritage studies. All participants visited museums at Deccan College Post Graduate and Research Institute, Pune and witnessed the various artefacts displayed in the gallery both days. To sum up, the annual meeting and workshop was successful, and helped young post graduate students to consider undertaking studies in metallurgical heritage of India, and discussions were also held on technology for digitalizing museums.

INAE Second Youth Conclave was organized at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur on Aug 11-12, 2018. Prof. Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, Director IIT, Kharagpur along with Prof Manoj Tiwari IIT Kharagpur and Prof. Jayanta Mukhopadhyay, IIT Kharagpur organised the event.

The Conclave was organized in two phases. Phase I (Mar 23-25, 2018) involved a Pre-Conclave activity where students from different engineering colleges and institutions at graduate level presented their ideas on six identified problem statements namely (a) Academic Planning (b) Town Planning (c) Optimizing Food Chain (d) Health Care App (e) Digitization of Agriculture sector and (d) Swachh Bharat. The groups were shortlisted and first three performing groups were awarded according to the merit of projects. All the shortlisted student groups were invited in the final conclave (Phase II) to present projects based on the problem statements they had worked earlier.

The Conclave was attended by more than 230 engineering students from all over the country, and about 40 INAE Fellows participated in the deliberations. The conclave was inaugurated by the Chief Guest, Prof. Anil D Sahasrabudhe, Chairman AICTE and Guest of Honour was Dr. BN Suresh, Chancellor IIST and President, INAE. The Inaugural Session was followed by six sessions on “Indian Innovation”, “Freedom of Research in Academics”, “Science and Technology in Ancient India: Myth and Reality”, “How to become an Entrepreneur?”. Students team presented and demonstrated on the above mentioned problem statements. Each participating team was judged by a panel of judges consisting of experts from academia and industry. Top three from each group were awarded prize money of Rs. 1,00,000 for the winner, Rs. 50,000 for the first runner-up and Rs. 25,000 for the second runner-up.

INAE had also organised an Online Second National Essay Competition on the topic “National Challenge and the Engineering Solution”. The shortlisted essays were reviewed by a distinguished Selection Committee and four awardees were selected. Mr. Angshuman Pal from Jadavpur University won the First Prize of Rs. 25,000; Mr. Gulam Sarwar from IIT Bombay won the second prize of Rs. 15, 000 and third prize was won by two participants Ms. Yasaswini Aluru from KL University & Mr. Sangam Sahu from School of Aeronautics, Neemrana of Rs. 10000 each.

The Conclave concluded with the award ceremony for the awardees. The students were involved in interaction with INAE Fellows from Academia, R&D and Industry during the sessions. Dr. BN Suresh, President, INAE congratulated all the awardees. He inducted all the awardees as INAE Student Members for a period of 5 years. He encouraged them to be involved with INAE activities.

The Engineers Conclave 2018 isbeing hosted jointly with Larsen & Toubro Ltd. on Oct 4-6, 2018 at LDA Lonawala. The themes of the EC2018 are: Theme I: “Defence Manufacturing in Industry” to be coordinated by L&T and Theme II: “Engineering Challenges in Urban Infrastructure” coordinated by INAE. The Theme II was identified by INAE based on the discussions with Mr Amitabh Kant, CEO, Niti Aayog who posed a challenge to the Academy on how to improve and make the Urban infrastructure more aesthetic with use of the best engineering techniques and practices in planning of urban areas. The Engineers Conclave 2018 will be the first of the Conclaves to be held jointly with industry. Maximum participation of INAE Fellows and Young Associates is sought in the forthcoming Engineers Conclave 2018.

INAE together with All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) launched “AICTE-INAE Distinguished Visiting Professorship Scheme” during 1999. Under this scheme, Industry experts are encouraged to give series of lectures at an educational institution in their proximity for a specific time period. This scheme has become popular among industry experts as well as educational institutions. Based on the deliberations during meetings with AICTE held last year it was decided that the scheme be extended to all retired INAE Fellows and retired persons from Industry. The frequency of visits to an engineering college by a DVP has been increased to up to three times a semester with a maximum period of three days per visit. The honorarium paid to the visiting Industry Expert has been increased to Rs. 10,000/- per lecture day as approved by AICTE. The AICTE-INAE DVP Scheme has since been extended to the retired INAE Fellows and nominations have since been invited under the scheme. Accordingly, the nominations under the AICTE-INAE Distinguished Visiting Professorship Scheme were invited from the Fellowship and the thirteen applications received from the Fellows were selected by the Selection Committee as Distinguished Visiting Professors.

The soft copy of the Annals of the INAE Volume XV, April 2018 containing the text of the lectures delivered by Life Time Contribution Awardees; newly elected Fellows of the Academy and INAE Young Engineer Awardees 2017 has been uploaded on INAE website under the Publications sub-head. The same can be downloaded from the link given below

http://inae.in/ebook/inae-annals-2018

INAE has created a Facebook and Twitter Account to post the news of recent INAE activities in the Social Media. The same can be viewed at the link below.

All INAE Fellows are requested to visit and follow the above to increase the visibility of INAE in Social media.

Important Meetings held during June, July and August 2018

A list of International Conferences/Seminars being held in the month of September,October and November2018 Click Here

The Selection Committee on Life Time Contribution Award, Prof Jai Krishna & Prof SN Mitra Memorial Awards and Outstanding Teachers Award during its meeting on June 21, 2018 and recommended the following for conferment of awards.

(a) Life Time Contribution Award in Engineering 2018
• Dr. RK Bhandari, Formerly Director, Central Building Research Institute, Roorkee & Programme Director, UN-HABITAT, Nairobi. Formerly Chairman, Centre for Disaster Mitigation and Management, VIT, Vellore
• Prof. JM Vasi, Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai.

(b) Prof Jai Krishna Memorial Award 2018
• Dr. TK Alex, Formerly Director, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore.

(c) Prof SN Mitra Memorial Award 2018
• Mr. B Prasada Rao, Managing Director, Steag Energy Services India, STEAG Energy Services (India) Pvt. Ltd. and Formerly CMD, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. (BHEL), New Delhi.

Dr BN Suresh, FNAE, President, INAE, and Chancellor of Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvanthapuram and Honorary Distinguished Professor, ISRO, Bangalore and was recently awarded the 2018 INCOSE Pioneer Award by International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE). He joins a distinguished group of individuals who by their achievements in the engineering of systems, have contributed uniquely to major products or outcomes enhancing society. The award recognizes his pioneering work in Space Systems Engineering as the backbone of successful launches by ISRO. He was awarded for being an outstanding practitioner and researcher in Systems Engineering of complex Space Systems such Control Systems, Actuation Systems, Simulation & Test Systems, and Launch Vehicle Systems and for being a thought leader who has made significant contributions to Design, Mission Planning and R&D Management for the Indian Space Program. The award was conferred during the plenary session at the International Symposium in Washington D.C., USA, on 7 – 12 July 2108

Prof Pushpak Bhattacharyya, FNAE, Director, IIT Patna was conferred with the “Distinguished Alumnus Award” by IIT Kharagpur for the year 2018. The award conferment ceremony took place during the 64th Annual Convocation of IIT Kharagpur on 20th July 2018.

Dr S Venkata Mohan FNAE, Principal Scientist, Bioengineering and Environmental Sciences Lab, CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology (CSIR-IICT), Hyderabad was conferred with ‘Most Outstanding Researcher in the field of Environmental Science 2018’, Faculty Research Award by Carrer 360 based on a composite score generated by evaluating academic output in SCOPUS indexed journals for the year 2015-17. The award was selected using Scopus data, on academic output, h-index and citation count assessed by eminent academicians. The award was presented by Hon’ble Human Resource Development Minister Shri Prakash Javadekar.

Dr B M Reddy, FNAE, Raja Ramanna Distinguished Fellow and former Chief Scientist & Head, Inorganic and Physical Chemistry Division, CSIR-IICT, Hyderabad was honoured by the Elsevier Science Publisher’s flagship Journal “Molecular Catalysis” (IF = 3.958) with a special issue on the occasion of his 60th birthday: Metal Oxides in Catalysis – Professor Benjaram M. Reddy Festschrift