December 2019 – The KGP Chronicle

Three decades and counting!

“September 24^th 1982. I joined IIT Kharagpur as a Lower Division Clerk, giving in to my parents repeated requests. Today, after spending more than two-thirds of my life here, I do not regret the decision of my parents.

Rubber Technology Center had started the year before, in 1981. With no one to look into office work there, I was posted in that department as secretary to the HoD. My job profile consisted of mainly typing and maintaining office records. I stayed there from 1982 to 1987. With my promotion in 1987, I joined the Recruitment Section for a few days and was later transferred to the Deans’ Office. In 1989 I was posted in GATE office initially and then SRIC office. I served there for perhaps the longest time – from 1992 to 2006 – a good 14 years!

During my tenure at the SRIC office I was in the team of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system which happens to be synonymous with IIT Kharagpur. This system was started by Prof R. N. Banerjee. We, as a team, were thinking of introducing a new system of documentation. ERP was initially a project mode of SRIC headed by Prof Banerjee and we were involved in providing all information to this pilot project for its smooth functioning – details of accounting, administration and project monitoring – all had to be fed into the project, which was further programmed by Prof Banerjee with the help of his students.

Since then, ERP has become an integral part of IIT-KGP system and has been upgraded continuously since the time of its inception.

It was during my tenure that the modernization of the SRIC office took place. What you see today is a complete rehashed version of what it was during the early 90s. A lot of brainstorming went into how to give the office a modern, corporate look. Under the leadership of Prof Damodar Acharya, the then Dean SRIC and Dr D Gunasekaran, the then Principal Administrative Officer (who was also the Registrar of the Institute), we visited a few corporate offices in Kolkata, to get an idea of a modern office set-up. We also concentrated on the work culture and environment, alongside a new corporate model. Workstations, with individual desktops were introduced along with in-service training for employees and new recruits. This included computer training, soft skill development training, training in office administration, rules’ implementation training and others.

After I took charge of the Establishment Section in the year 2006, the Institute took a policy to modernize all its administrative section on the lines of SRIC office. This called for a lot of effort, which had to be put in so as to get the desired infrastructure of a corporate office within IIT.

The best part of my service here at IIT Kharagpur would be the purchase of a piece of land from the Government of West Bengal to set up a Research Park, which will be operational very soon. I was one of the signatories in those official papers back in 2008.

We worked as a team under the leadership of Prof Samir Kumar Lahiri, the then Deputy Director and Prof. Anil K. Bhowmick, the then Dean SRIC, during IIT Kharagpur’s Golden Jubilee in 2001. It was a year-long celebration with an exhibition at Science City Kolkata, for three consecutive days. That huge event saw the participation of all departments of IIT Kharagpur, few industries and several colleges in Kolkata.

The work culture of the Institute was always highly appreciated by the guests / visitors to the Institute. Maintaining and nurturing a positive attitude to work and towards colleagues, I feel, is the need of the hour. Good conduct always pays off and it costs nothing. What do you say?”

Image credit: Suman Sutradhar, Mr Animesh Kumar Naskar

Opening new vistas

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Curcumin, found in turmeric, and Ginsenoside, found in the roots of Ginseng, both known for their medicinal properties, could go a long way in treating blood disorders like thalassemia and sickle cell anemia. These two plant ingredients, together with approved drugs such as Valproate and Vorinostat were found to be “most suitable for future trials” by a team of genetic scientists at IIT Kharagpur. They are trying to see which drugs induce fetal hemoglobin production – which is known to ameliorate such blood disorders – and whether ‘repurposed drugs’ could be used. Repurposing of drugs, a new and exciting arena of scientific study, seeks to use approved drugs for clinical conditions other than those in which they are usually used for.

Blood disorders or hemoglobinopathies such as beta thalassemia and sickle cell anemia affect millions. They occur due to mutations in the β-globin gene, which leads to low or absent production of adult hemoglobin. Drug-induced increase in fetal hemoglobin – which constitutes a major percentage of the total hemoglobin in newborns, and which gets almost completely replaced by adult hemoglobin by 4 to 6 months of age – has been shown to improve the clinical features of those affected with sickle cell disease and beta thalassemia. Unfortunately, most of these drugs have serious side-effects and are therefore rarely used in therapy. Identifying new drugs could be a time-consuming and uncertain exercise. Hence scientists are trying to see whether ‘repurposed’ or existing drugs can be used to treat these disorders.

To find out which drugs could be investigated for possible repurposing to treat these specific blood disorders, scientists at the Regenerative Medicine lab of the School of Medical Science and Technology of IIT Kharagpur studied the working of microRNAs (miRNAs), and also which chemical molecules affect their expression pattern. MiRNAs, which are a small class of non-coding RNAs, have recently been identified as critical regulators of as much as 70% of the genes in the human genome.

The production of fetal hemoglobin in human body, much like other biological processes, is a “coordinated event under the control of genes and proteins encoded by the human genome”. Since miRNAs regulate the pathways along which the production of fetal hemoglobin is stimulated, how miRNAs work and how they regulate gene expressions have evolved into a major branch of study. Several miRNA databases, tools and algorithms have been designed by scientists all over the world to understand their gene regulatory mechanism. In fact, the Regenerative Medicine Lab at IIT Kharagpur has also devised a database called “miRwayDB” to provide comprehensive information of experimentally validated microRNA-pathway associations in various diseases. Additionally, the lab has also developed an interactive tool known as “miRnalyze” to unlock intuitive microRNA regulation of cell signaling pathways.

‘Messenger RNAs’ and ‘microRNAs’ are two important biomolecules found in our cells which are known to regulate cellular functions. Any abnormality in the production of these molecules may disrupt series of molecular events or pathways, which subsequently may manifest as critical diseases. Our lab has developed “miRwayDB”, a database which records information about the effects of these biomolecules on molecular pathways as observed in various diseases. The resource has many applications such as prediction of in silico models, integrative analysis, validation of computational analysis etc. In addition, we have also developed a prediction tool, “miRnalyze”, which can predict ‘messenger RNA’ targets of ‘microRNA’ in a molecular pathway. The tool can identify common ‘microRNAs’ that have more than one ‘messenger RNA’ targets. miRnalyze is a useful tool for hypothesis generation in ‘microRNA’ mediated molecular pathways. Both resources were published in ‘Database’ journal of Oxford University press.

The team at SMST used several bioinformatics tools to match differentially expressed miRNAs with differentially expressed genes (as found in publicly available datasets) and identify their pathways. As many as 19 miRNAs were found to be differentially expressed in those subjects who had high fetal hemoglobin levels in their blood. Next, using another database (SM2MiR), the team identified 13 unique small molecules that strongly affected the expression of those 19 miRNAs. An exhaustive analysis of these 13 molecules showed that only five were definitely associated with the pathways that reactivated fetal hemoglobin production and can be further investigated for repurposing.

Prof. Nishant Chakravorty, who heads the Regenerative Medicine Lab and the team at SMST, said, “In our study, a number of genes and miRNAs were identified as putative molecular marker for HbF (fetal hemoglobin) regulation. The identified markers expand our understanding of HbF regulatory mechanism and may have importance in designing new therapeutic strategies to reactivate HbF production in patients with hemoglobin disorders.”

Of the five, three – 5’-aza 2’-deoxycytidine, Valproate and Vorinostat – are known pharmacological agents. For example, Valproate is used to treat seizure disorders in childhood and Vorinstat is an anti-cancer agent. However, these have side-effects.

Prof. (Dr.) Anish Chatterjee (MBBS, DCH, MD-Paediatrics), Professor, Dr. B C Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences, said, “Medical practitioners nowadays widely use repurposed drugs. For example, Sildenafil, which is used to treat impotency in males is used to treat neonatal pulmonary hypertension. Again, Hydralazine which is used to control blood pressure, is also used to treat leprosy.” He adds, “Research in repurposing of drugs, which is being carried out by the Regenerative Medicine Lab of IIT Kharagpur, with which I have been associated with for some time, has immense potential. It might lead to the discovery of new information about existing drugs. Not only that, it could lower the cost of medical treatment as cheaper drugs, instead of the costly ones presently used, could be used to treat diseases.”

The study at the Regenerative Medicine Lab was conducted by Prof. Chakravorty, his student at SMST, Mr. Sankha Subhra Das, and Dr. Rashmi Sinha of the B.C. Roy Technology Hospital. The work, which has been published in the April 2019 “Gene” and is available online, also identified natural compounds, such as Curcumin and Gensenoside, which have proven health benefits with minimal toxicity, which the team expects to be “of critical importance in future clinical trials for HbF induction”.

Mr. Sankha Subhra Das, a research scholar associated with this team, is already working on other facets of thalassemia treatment, and has done several other in silico studies using bioinformatics tools. Other PhD scholars, such as Mr. Motiur Rahaman, is working specifically on beta-thalassemia. “We are trying to classify HbE-beta thalassemia into different categories based on clinical severity and trying to see if there is correlation with HLA haplotypes,” said Prof. Chakravorty. The team is enriched by several scholars such as Dr. Suman Kumar Ray (post-doctoral fellow), who has a background in plant medicine, and helping it to see how plant based phytochemicals can help increase fetal hemoglobin. The researchers at the Regenerative Lab are also engaged in research on repurposing strategies for bone and cartilage regeneration. The team will be moving on to do further experimental in-depth studies particularly on thalassemia patients. An active collaboration with Prof. (Dr.) Tuphan Kanti Dolai’s clinical team at the Department of Hematology, NRS Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata holds promise to this.

And the winner of the 54th Inter IIT Sports Meet is….

“Yesterday is not ours to recover but tomorrow is ours to win or to lose.”

Lyndon B. Johnson; 36^th president of the United States of America.

The 54th Inter IIT Sports Meet 2019 concluded on December 22 evening after 8 days of tireless efforts by more than 2000 participants from 23 IITs across the country. The closing ceremony witnessed some spectacular winning moments in the presence of Prof. William Kumar Mohanty, Convener, 54^th Inter IIT Sports Meet, Chief Guest Shri Ashok Kumar Dhyan Chand, son of Indian Hockey legend late Dhyan Chand, Prof. P. K. Das, Acting Director and Dean, Post Graduate Studies, and Prof. Somesh Kumar, Chairman, 54^th Inter IIT Sports Meet.

The last nine days were filled with boundless passion, emotion and drama surrounding the victories and failures of the contesting teams. As the competition drew to a close, the final few days saw a renewed burst of emotions with the knockout matches. Over a little more than a week, a lot many records were broken and new ones were created across the two IIT campuses – Kharagpur and Bhubaneswar, which hosted the meet – as athletes gave in their best in their quest for glory.

On the last day of the meet, Prof. Mohanty addressed the gathering and welcomed Shri Ashok Kumar Dhyan Chand, Indian Hockey legend. Prof Mohanty congratulated all the participants for their terrific performance. He specially thanked the IIT Kharagpur medical team who were on their toes, catering to the needs of the players, many of whom were injured during the games. He encouraged all players to excel in their respective games, understand their shortcomings and work on them, while at the same time giving their best to academics.

Impressed by the enthusiasm of the players, Ashok Kumar Dhyan Chand said, “I’m amazed to see students who are jewels in their respective academic domains, to have such passion for sports.” He added, “Sports is not about winning or losing. It is all about participation. During my father’s time, there was no such opportunity for players. Yet, they went out, played their game on foreign grounds and won several accolades”.

Addressing all participants, he said, “I congratulate all of you and hope you will achieve everything in life from these wins and losses. Let these shining medals and trophies give you all the strength to face life’s challenges, just as you dealt with them on field.”

IIT Kharagpur showed off brilliant performances by winning Gold in Athletics (Men), Chess, Basketball (Women), Football (Men), Waterpolo (Men). The Institute secured the second position in overall Aquatics, Athletics (Women), Table Tennis (Men), Volleyball (Men), Swimming (Women), Weightlifting and Tennis (Women). The Bronze came in for March Past, Hockey (Men) and Swimming (Men).

In the final standings, IIT Delhi came second with 92 points and IIT Madras finished third, with 87.1 points. IIT Kharagpur scored 122 points. All events, on and off the field, in the host and co-host campuses of Kharagpur and Bhubaneswar respectively, were taken into account.

Former Indian Cricket Team Skipper and the current BCCI President, Sourav Ganguly, could not make it to the occasion due to prior commitments. He sent across his best wishes to all the participants via voice message. He promised to come next year.

Indian cricketing legend, Mr Kapil Dev also took to an audio message to congratulate the participants. “Play the game with all honesty, and you are sure to win”, he said.

Each moment in sports and each decision contributes to one’s victory. At the end, it is consistency that matters. Every match is a learning curve, and those who learn right emerge the winner.

IIT Kharagpur contingent lifted the Champion’s trophy amongst a roar of claps, cheers and whistles and made for the victory lap to the tunes of DJ Bravo’s famous ‘Champion’ song.

Photo credit: Inter IIt Sports Meet Facebook Page, Click KGP

I Came. I Saw. I Played.

“When I came here in July this year, I found a few students playing football at the Tata Steel Sports Complex. That intrigued me. I also wanted to play, since I come from a country where football is widely played. We won the FIFA World Cup last year, you see! I didn’t know who to approach or how to go about it. I have a friend who also works in the same Mechanical Engineering lab as mine. He was playing in the IIT Kharagpur football team. I told him of my desire to play for IIT Kharagpur. He told me to come to play with them. Since then we have been playing in BC Roy.

We started practicing for the Inter IIT from August this year. Initially, I could not go for the practice because I had a lot of work, and then I was not here for quite some time. I returned in October and it is from then that the rigorous training sessions started. It was from that practice session that 25/26 players got selected for the team. We had several meetings, practice camps and I had to extract time out of my lab sessions to attend all of those. Inter IIT Sports Meet is a big thing. Intense training started in the beginning of December, and there been no rest since. We had to come for practices every single day and spend hours on the field.

Just a few days before Inter IIT, 15 players were selected to play the matches and the rest were for the reserve bench. I feel extremely privileged to be a part of the playing team. So far the matches have been good. We had a brilliant run against Ropar in our last match. And I hope we will continue to have a good run.

I play as a midfielder and as you know, this game calls for a lot of running for the entire 90 minute duration of the match. A few of our teammates have been injured, but that is part of the game. That, however, has not been able to put our spirits down. We are planning to smash the opponents with renewed vigour. I think it will be a great match against Delhi this evening. See you then, at 5 pm, today at Tata Sports!”

Olivier is working on ‘Biogeochemical Characterization of Water’ under the supervision of Prof Aditya Bandyopadhyay in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Kharagpur

Ear to the ground

Prof. Jeevanjyoti Chakraborty, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, received Top Feedback from First Year Undergraduate students for Spring 2019. His faceweb page reveals a lot about his connection with students. More than the academic exploits of the teacher, it talks about how students should proceed if they wanted to collaborate with him in research or what they ought to do for a recommendation, and so on.

With little more than a decade separating Prof. Chakraborty from his students, and given that he has spent a considerable time of his student life at IIT Kharagpur – from his BTech years to his PhD – this connection is perhaps expected. But he has also been pro-actively reaching out to students. And he is not alone in doing this at IIT Kharagpur.

In an informal discussion on teaching styles and his memories of his time at IIT KGP, Prof. Chakraborty informs that he, like Prof. Mrigank Sharad of the Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship, proactively seeks students’ opinion by issuing a Google Form which the students are asked to fill in. Unlike the Institute’s feedback ritual, which takes place at the end of the semester, this comes early on. “If I ask them what they like and don’t like only a few weeks after the classes start, I can adjust my teaching accordingly,” explains Prof. Chakraborty, who ascribes the idea to his younger colleague, Prof. Sharad. “Since this is completely anonymous, students have no problems giving their free opinion,” he says. He also adds, “To keep an open channel with students, specifically related to course work, I also give my personal email address to students so that they can write whatever they want.”

Prof. Chakraborty taking a class at Nalanda

There are also things that he is doing differently. He says, “This year, I took rigorous tutorial sessions, which I sometimes neglect in the higher classes. For the 1st year, I borrowed one hour from the lecture time for the problem sheets that students were asked to solve and which I later discussed threadbare. I was asked to do this by Prof. Anirvan Dasgupta of our department who has also won best teaching feedback earlier.”

This grilling, one would expect, would make him pretty unpopular. But the opposite seems to have happened.

Prof. Ghoshal diligently writes down the notes she would share with her class

Students’ peculiar preference for rigour, through which they also seem to sniff out the dedication of the teacher, was evident in the case of Prof. Koeli Ghoshal, Associate Professor in the Department of Mathematics, who earned the second slot after Prof. Chakraborty for the Spring 2019 1st Year UG feedback. Prof. Ghoshal, by the way, has won top teaching feedback consistently in different subjects since 2014, when the feedback system was put in place; this was her seventh time win.

Onkar Sabnis, Prof. Ghoshal’s student from the Chemical Engineering Department who attended her class in the Spring semester, says, “Prof. Ghoshal took the MA2 course, which is not a simple course but her teaching methodology, passion and dedication towards the subject made the course seem quite easy and interesting…Ma’am used various methodologies depending upon the topic but the one which I would like to highlight is that in every new lecture she revised the concept taught in the previous one so that students could recollect what was taught in the previous class.”

That perhaps sums up what students prefer. The handholding. The care. The diligence.

Prof. Ghoshal says, “I don’t consider teaching a job, it is my passion and responsibility as well.”

Like her and Prof. Chakraborty, the teachers who have won top feedback from students have tried to live up to their responsibility in their individual ways, as have done others.

Prof. Saibal Gupta of the Department of Geology and Geophysics, who received the INSA Teachers Award for 2019, says, “I present the subject in such a way that they begin to appreciate what they are studying… It is basically giving them respectability about themselves, to make them feel that what they are studying is worth it… something that has a lot of science in it, and also a bit of romance in it….”

Not surprisingly, one of his students said, “Sir is a master story-teller. The interest he evokes in the subject, which he lives and breathes, is infectious.”

Prof. Partha Pratim Das, Head, Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship, recently talked about how IIT Kharagpur has constantly experimented with “what would work” with students in “Avenues of Excellence”, a recent film on IIT Kharagpur shot for Doordarshan: “There have been experiments with flipped classrooms.. there have been different ways of handout-based teaching…We have tried to focus on the methods that have worked particularly well here in terms of increasing the engagement of students.”

“The day you take a good class, you know you’ve taken a good class. It’s like having a good meal. You know it when you have enjoyed a good meal, don’t you?” said Prof. Saibal Gupta laughingly.

At least in class, both students and teachers at IIT Kharagpur seem to be enjoying the spread.

Now and then

Why is a black coat and dark trousers the invariable wear during placements? If Pradeep Poddar, who just landed a placement with Accenture, is to be believed, it is only because students are following tradition. “We have seen pictures of our seniors wearing black, and so black it is,” says Pradeep, who is a final year Dual Degree student of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering.

But except for the colour, everything else seems to have changed about placements.

For one, placements were not concentrated around the month of December and January. Alumnus and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Prof. Anandaroop Bhattacharya (1997/BTech/ME), says, “Placements during my time used to take place throughout the semester. Moreover, if one had got a job offer, one had to wait till all others in the Department had gone through the process and got offers, to wait for a second offer.”Besides, adds Prof. Bhattacharya, whatever happened, happened on the day of the interview.

Not so anymore. The placement process is much more intensive. Pradeep, for example, braced 40-45 tests from companies from the month of October before going for the placement process in early December. “According to the set rules, no tests could happen from 8 am to 5 pm, but starting from evening, some of us took tests way into the night,” says Pradeep.

He also prepared himself rigorously in coding, analytics, computer programming and on other platforms together with his friends. Some of this information was provided by the CDC itself, which keeps a repository of the feedback from previous years’ students facing the placement process. “On some of these platforms, you can enrol yourself to learn how to crack puzzles, gain expertise in data structure and programming for free,” says Pradeep.

Perhaps the process may be said to have started even earlier, with the compulsory internship in the third year for which students earn two credits. Himanshu Mundhra, a third year student of Computer Science and Engineering and a blog writer on Medium talks of how he had begun preparation for his internship interview from the second year itself https://medium.com/@himanshumundhra98/internship-chronicles-the-cdc-chapter-948d1a1f5a51

If Himanshu’s experience is anything to go by, a CDC internship does not come easy either. In fact, the IIT KgpFundae– anonymously Facebook account is strewn with worries being voiced on what happens when one is unable to secure such an internship. Many, like Pradeep, work their LinkedIn network to land off campus corporate internships.

But apart from the duration and the intensity of the placement process, there are other differences. Take job offers from the core sector. Prof. Bhattacharya says, “The number of companies and job offers in the core sector may have remained the same or even increased, but the number of students have gone up 3-4 times. So if you take the ratio of core jobs to number of applicants, it has definitely reduced. A lot of students now go for sectors different from their own discipline, perhaps aware that there are not many jobs to go around which are related to their discipline.”

The picture gets even rosier if one looks ahead at the early Nineties. Prof. Pallab Dasgupta, Professor, Computer Science and Engineering, who completed his B.Tech in 1990 and M. Tech in 1992 from the same department, says, “Since there were only a few IITs and a limited number of graduates – there were only 21 in my batch from my Department – the number of jobs were comfortably more than the number of students. So getting a job was fairly easy. Many, in fact, had multiple offers from companies as many left for foreign shores for research.” Prof. Dasgupta even calls it a “problem of plenty”.

The situation seems to have taken a 360 degree turn. An IIT Kharagpur: Undergraduate Mental Health Survey (https://medium.com/@shastrarth.iitkgp/iit-kharagpur-undergraduate-mental-health-survey-196082ef67db) puts “CDC internships, and then the placements hunt as the most stressful phase of their academic life in KGP”, with many putting the period after the third year as a completely different phase of their student life.

But nothing apparently can prepare a student for what ultimately happens during placements. Pradeep, for one, calls the process of selection “quite random”. His friend, Rajesh Yadav, a Dual Degree student of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department, says that he had concentrated on garnering software skills throughout college. He, in fact, appears mildly surprised by being chosen by Société Générale, a French multinational investment bank and financial services company, despite not having any experience in finance.

Pradeep explains, “As an interviewee, it is your job to convince the interviewers that you are the right candidate.” There are, obviously, no magic formulae for this. Pradeep supposes that the test he gave for Accenture in October had gone right, and hence the placement offer was perhaps natural. But he is not sure if that is the only explanation.

Most going for placements take this uncertainty factor on their chin and brace hard for it. Prof. Bhattacharya is, in fact, visibly impressed by the sureheadedness of the students of today. “Students are very sorted out in their minds whether they would opt for placements or not. Some of my students skip placements altogether as they know that they are going into research. Yes, I would say that they are way more sure now about where they are headed than they were during my time,” says Prof. Bhattacharya.

The other thing that impresses him is their professional way that students dress for the placement. “For us, it was different. We often used to borrow each other ties and shirts. More than shirts, we used to share shoes. There were probably 2 formal shoes in my wing where 6 of us were applying for jobs – one was size 8, the other 10. Even if the size did not fit, we would say, ‘How does it matter? You will be sitting during the interview anyway’. That was our definition of one (well two) size fits all,” Prof. Bhattacharya adds with a laugh.

Pradeep laughs as well on hearing about this, perhaps at the impossibility of that happening today. For his placements, he chose a blue jacket, but only because he had the material lying around in his home. Left to his own, he would have settled for black.

Photographs: Suman Sutradhar

IIT KGP’s Another First for India & New Zealand

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In another first, IIT Kharagpur has set up a joint PhD programme with the University of Auckland, New Zealand. The Kiwi university called it a historic agreement, noting that this was the first engagement of its kind between the two countries. The joint PhD programme is aimed to strengthen the economic and research ties between New Zealand and India.

The programme, set to admit the first batch of students in Autumn 2020, will initially focus on Engineering but is open to all other subject areas. The joint doctoral student will pursue their research under the supervision of academics in both institutions and will split their time between the two campuses. Doctoral candidates will have access to opportunities at both institutions, whether it’s related to their research programme or their professional development. A single thesis will be submitted at the end which will be examined by both institutions, and if accepted by both, the student will be awarded a testamur bearing the seals of IIT Kharagpur and the University of Auckland.

The University of Auckland led a senior delegation to IIT Kharagpur in 2018 and since then, leadership from six of their eight faculties have visited the IIT Kharagpur campus; this rapid engagement culminated into this productive collaboration. Professor Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, IIT Kharagpur Director, along with Dean of International Relations Professor Baidurya Bhattacharya, recently visited Auckland to officially sign the agreement.

Director Bhattacharyya said, “We take immense pride in initiating this joint PhD programme with New Zealand’s top university. The scope of collaborations between the two institutions is vast and we will provide all necessary support to take our relationship to greater heights. Some of the research areas identified for collaboration include advanced manufacturing, cyber-physical security, and advanced materials, as well as affordable healthcare and intelligent transportation technologies.”

University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor Professor Stuart McCutcheon, Dr Caroline Daley, Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Auckland, and Professor Nic Smith, Dean and Faculty of Engineering were present on the occasion.

University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor Professor Stuart McCutcheon said, “This historic agreement recognises the importance of top institutions engaging internationally. India is of tremendous economic importance to New Zealand and I welcome the opportunity this partnership will bring to enhance research outputs at both institutions, as well as the enriched learning it will deliver for PhD students.”

IIT Kharagpur has recently announced scholarships for Doctoral students from Australia, who enrol under Dual Doctoral Programme of IIT Kharagpur and the University of Melbourne. The Institute already conducts joint doctoral programs with several world-class Australian universities such as Curtin, Wollongong and James Cook, designed to build academic and research collaborations from the grounds up. Read More

Talking about the intiative reaching out to New Zealand for the first time, Dean of International Relations Professor Baidurya Bhattacharya said, “Our faculty and research & teaching infrastructure are world class; we are making rapid progress in upgrading living facilities for our international visitors. I am looking forward to welcoming University of Auckland students and faculty into our campus at Kharagpur in the near future. This is part of our strategic engagement with the southern continent: We have already taken significant steps in deepening our engagement with Australia at all levels. The diversity in academics and cultural experience will improve the adaptability and employability of these joint doctoral students.”

A statement by the University of Auckland says all eight New Zealand universities are working collaboratively to increase their engagement with Indian institutions. To identify appropriate partners for the University of Auckland, the university commissioned research and reviewed existing connections with India across all faculties with a reference group of academic staff, many of whom are from India, including several graduates of IIT Kharagpur.

Messages from The University of Auckland:

Faculty of Engineering Dean Professor Nic Smith says the agreement formalises and deepens the relationship that has been developed over many years between the two universities.

“This is a fantastic step that provides greater support at the institutional level for the strong and diverse relationships between our staff and students. The talent of IIT students and their interest in participating in New Zealand-based research projects is a really exciting development,” Professor Smith says.

University of Auckland Vice-Chancellor Professor Stuart McCutcheon says the dual PhD programme significantly strengthens the economic and research ties between New Zealand and India.

“This historic agreement recognises the importance of top institutions engaging internationally. India hold tremendous economic importance to New Zealand and I welcome the opportunity it will bring to enhance research outputs at both institutions, as well as the enriched learning it will deliver for PhD students,” Professor McCutcheon says.

54th Inter IIT Sports Meet Flags Off at IIT Kharagpur

IIT Kharagpur, 15^th December: IIT Kharagpur flagged off its 54^th Inter IIT Sports Meet on 14^th December 2019. The nine-day event is co-hosted by IIT Bhubaneswar with more than 2600 students participating from 23 IITs.

The mega event held at IIT KGP is witnessing tough competition across eight games – Athletics, Basketball, Chess, Cricket, Football, Hockey, Lawn Tennis and Weightlifting while IIT Bhubaneswar is hosting four events – Volleyball, Badminton, Table Tennis and Squash. Tyra, the Royal Bengal Tigress is the mascot for the 54^th Inter IIT Sports Meet 2019.

Prof Sriman Kumar Bhattacharya, Director, IIT Kharagpur and Chief Patron of the 54^th Inter IIT Sports Meet remarked on Brand IIT’s achievement in both academics and all-round ability of the students in diverse aspects and areas that sets IITs apart from other institutes. Students are the brand ambassadors and the onus is on them to keep their brand name high, he said.

12 distinguished sportspersons from KGP campus, took to lighting the torch for the ceremony. Former Skipper of Indian Women’s Cricket Team, Jhulan Goswami sent across her best wishes to the participants via voice message, saying, “I would like to congratulate all the participants who have come here today, and are going to perform. I extend my best wishes to you all, and once again, from the bottom of my heart. I shall come next time and spend some quality time with you people.” The event will be graced by sports stars like former cricket captains Kapil Dev and Sourav Ganguly, swimming champion Bula Choudhary and para swimmer Prasanta Karmakar among others.

Inter IIT Sports Meet started in 1961 with IIT Bombay as the first host. With the increasing number of participants, the number of disciplines in the games have also increased over the years. This year, chess has been added as a competitive event. Squash for girls has also been added as a demo event.

IIT Kharagpur has completely renovated its Sports Facilities. A new synthetic track has been built at the Jnan Ghosh Stadium. New floodlights have been also installed both at the Stadium and the Tata Steel Sports Complex. The tennis and basketball courts have been given an all-new look.

The competition has started taking shape right from day one with the march past following the flag hoisting ceremony. IIT-ISM Dhanbad secured first place in the event. Prof Rajeev Shekhar, Director, IIT-ISM Dhanbad, hoped the participants would compete with the never-dying fighting spirit.

The opening ceremony was celebrated by several professional performances including rhythmic yoga performance by Majida Khatun, second runners-up for Rhythmic Yoga at the Under-17 category for 2019 National School Games, football juggling by Amit Biswas, a young football juggler, with speech and hearing impairment and a medley of folk songs and dances across all states of India, ending with the anthem of Atletico-De-Kolkata.

Pictures – Click KGP, Inter IIT Sports Meet Facebook Page

Placed!!

Photo Credit: Suman Sutradhar

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The six month’s long preparation of the Career Development Centre (CDC), Placecom Team, Faculty members and students which was started in the month of July 2019 came to an end on December 11, 2019. The first phase of placement started on 1st December 2019 and continued till 11th December 2019. This year CDC has created a new benchmark by placing 1310 plus students in the first phase only. This created an all time highest digits in the history of IITKGP!

To start with the session, CDC has received 280 pre placement offers along with 19 offers from Public Sector Units. Placing 1000 students in just five days (December 05th) of placement and the overall figure of the placement at the end of phase I have comfortably passed all the previous year’s record.

This year the Institute achieved a remarkable growth in the International offers. Students have been able to bag 51 overseas placements. As compared to last year CDC has achieved an increment of 96% in this area, which is really commendable.

The participation of more than 215 companies during this period has contributed to this achievement. This year the Institute has witnessed the participation of all types of organizations across sectors. Software, analytics, consulting, core engineering companies, banking and finance are the major takers of this year. The company mix of the first phase is fairly distributed, and the students got their placements as per their sector choice, though software, data and analytics took the lion’s share. The software and analytics sector dominates with the total sectoral company presence of 58% whereas core and banking have contributed nearly 30% and 9% respectively.

The median salary calculated on the available data stands at Rs.15 lakh per annum which is quite encouraging. In the first phase of placement session Honeywell, Excel, Microsoft, Barclays are the highest contributors where as in the International front Japanese companies top the list. On behalf of the Institute, CDC, IIT KGP thank all the recruiters who had taken the trouble to visit IIT KGP and took part in achieving these feet.

Out strategy was to take the pain and enlist more companies on a day than usual. The entire team worked hard to keep up the process smooth with the cooperation of the Institute authorities. This gave wonderful results – said Chairman, CDC, Prof. G P Raja Sekh

Scholarships for Doctoral Students from Australia

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In a significant boost to its ongoing academic exchange programs with Australian institutions, IIT Kharagpur has instituted competitive high-value scholarships for students from the University of Melbourne, Australia enrolled under the Dual Doctoral Program jointly conducted by the two institutions. Prof. Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, the Director (Officiating) of IIT Kharagpur made the announcement at the launch of the Melbourne India Partnership Program and Academy Conference at Melbourne on December 9, 2019.

Each student would receive an annual funding of AUD 30000 (approximately INR 14.6 Lakh) – an amount equal to their home scholarships – which would cover their tuition and other fees, living expenses and travel costs for the program. The scholarship which will be highly competitive will be offered initially to two inbound foreign students from the prestigious Australian university starting from academic year 2020-21.

Apart from University of Melbourne, IIT Kharagpur conducts joint doctoral programs with several world-class Australian universities such as Curtin, Wollongong and James Cook, designed to build academic and research collaborations from the grounds up. Admission into the joint doctoral programs is highly competitive, and successful progress requires rigorous time-bound adherence to milestones that are acceptable to both institutions. The student carries out his/her research under the joint supervision of faculty members from both institutions and needs to spend a minimum of one year at the partner institution. A single thesis is written and submitted to both institutions who then review it to their own exacting standards. If the thesis is accepted by both institutions, the student is awarded the joint doctoral degree.

Since its launch in 2018, nine students from IIT Kharagpur have enrolled in the joint doctoral program with University of Melbourne while one student from the University of Melbourne came to IIT Kharagpur under the DDP.

“We realized that there is a need for providing financial assistance to the foreign students as many of them support their families back home with their stipend. Just as our students studying in top foreign universities are funded under various scholarship and fellowship schemes, If we want to attract high quality international students, it is essential that we provide competitive scholarships,” opined Prof. Baidurya Bhattacharya, Dean, International Relations at IIT Kharagpur, part of the Institute’s delegation to Melbourne.

In addition to Australia, IIT Kharagpur is also setting up joint doctoral programs with University of Auckland in New Zealand and the University of Alberta in Canada. The Institute is further exploring to expand the scope of such dual degree programs and funding opportunities to other foreign students especially in ASEAN and SAARC regions.

“We have been awarded the status of Institution of Eminence by the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India, earlier this year. It is among our foremost objectives now to reach out to various international zones from where we can expect talents to come and study in India in general and at IIT Kharagpur in particular without adding much to their financial burden for achieving high quality education at par with top global universities. What better place they can get it other than the IITs,” remarked Prof. Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya.

Earlier this year the Institute saw a surge in inbound applications from foreign students on the launch of Asoke Dey Sarkar International Program, a scholarship opportunity for Masters and Doctoral students.

The delegate from IIT Kharagpur had also met Indian students at Melbourne pursuing doctoral and post doctoral research in Australia for interaction related to prospective academic career options at IIT Kharagpur. The event was organised by the IIT Alumni Victoria Association. The next interactive session is scheduled on December 11 at Auckland.