March 2020 – The KGP Chronicle

VGSOM Assigns COVID Case Study

IIT Kharagpur’s Vinod Gupta School of Management assigns Pandemic Case Study for Organizational Leadership education

It has been almost 2 weeks since the teaching and learning at IIT Kharagpur has gone virtual. The Center for Educational Technology at the Institute has been using the online interface Webex for conducting classes across all levels of study. Shorter sessions are also being conducted through Zoom.

Several research groups are also conducting studies on people’s perception and behaviour towards COVID-19 through progression of time. In one such initiative, the Vinod Gupta School of Management, business school in India of IIT Kharagpur ranked among the top ten in India, has launched a project based on COVID-19 pandemic. The project titled “Invisible Leadership and the CoronaVirus Pandemic” is being assigned 126 students in the second year MBA class at the School as part of the Organisational Leadership course.

Speaking about the project Prof. Susmita Mukhopadhyay said, “Pandemic or any other wide spread disease such as COVID-19 demand exemplary leadership and decision-making capabilities to manage finances, human resources, supply chain and overall business operations. Managers if prepared for desperate times may even plan and improvise the desperate measures. The project aims to teach the students to see the power of invisible leadership in the fight against a pandemic.”

“Leadership is more about taking tough decisions now while keeping the greater good in mind than appeasing your countrymen with misleading information. Covid-19 has turned every one of us into soldiers fighting for the very survival of our species and the real leader here is invisible. So when we miss the leader micromanaging things, we look inward for leadership,” said Pinak Samui, student at VGSOM.

The students will be studying the facts from diverse shades of leadership and understand the ethical issues connected to such situations as COVID-19 pandemic. They will also explore whether the Pandemic itself has acted as an invisible leader in enhancing work-life balance of people, cohabitation of species and environmental sustainability.

“We have given the topic to the students to have a free flow of thought and explore the topic from various perspectives, frame the case based on archival news and keep track of day to day developments and strategies undertaken by governments and other related stakeholders. We plan to develop business case studies based on the project output,” remarked Prof Biplab Datta.

Student Feedback:

“This assignment has helped us to keep track of the COVID-19 situation and all related happenings as they are happening around the world. It also helped us to dive deep into the invisible leadership principle and apply the same, in order to add a new perspective to the current situation, just like looking through a different lens,” said a student Pritam Sharma.

Sharing about his learning, another student Aniket Sanyal said, “Leaders, who can take quick actions, who are flexible in adapting their bold decisions to suit the needs of a situation, will have more success in a crisis environment.”

Kgp Hacks Corona

IIT Kharagpur’s Undergraduate Students Council has launched KGP Hacks Corona, an initiative for the IIT KGP community to build software and data solutions aimed at tackling various challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The objective as stated by Council representative Santosh T.Y.S.S is not only to engage the students during the isolation period but also create an online space where developers can ideate, experiment and build software solutions. Students can use technologies of their choice in diverse areas to address the thematic areas of the tech challenge.

The thematic areas span over

Health: Address and scale a range of health initiatives, including preventative/hygiene behaviors (especially for at-risk countries and populations), supporting frontline health workers, scaling telemedicine, contact tracing/containment strategies, treatment and diagnosis development.
Vulnerable Populations: The set of problems facing the elderly and the immuno-compromised, such as access to meals and groceries, and supporting those who are losing jobs and income.
Businesses: The set of problems that businesses are facing to stay afloat, collaborate effectively, and move parts of their business online.
Community: Promoting connection to friends, family, and neighbors to combat social isolation and the digitizing of public services for local governments.
Education: Alternative learning environments and tools for students, teachers, and entire school systems.
Entertainment: Alternatives to traditional forms of entertainment that can keep the talent and audiences safe and healthy.
Others as ideated by the students.

On submission of innovative ideas selection would be done on a rolling basis and will be mentored to develop it further.

“Shortlisted solutions would be considered for deployment by scaling it up based on its feasibility. We have made a huge range of COVID references available for online assistance,” said Santosh.

Interested students must join the slack group for KGP hacks Corona: https://bit.ly/3dAmF0V

For more info on rules and regulations, please refer: https://bit.ly/33ZTEYh

Learning Never Stops

It has been almost two weeks since the teaching and learning at IIT Kharagpur has gone virtual. The Center for Educational Technology at the Institute has been using the online interface Webex for conducting classes across all levels of study.

The Institute though was holding classes on YouTube Live which became popular with some of the classes getting thousand plus likes, the mode shifted entirely to Webex since the lockdown. Many faculty members have been teaching online on digital platforms such as Swayam, MOOCs and DTH platform Swayam Prabha. The lectures have already been already been uploaded on the respective platforms for the current semester. Additionally live lectures are being carried out through WebEx.

“While academic activities would remain suspended until further notice, students are being facilitated through existing and newly acquired e-learning platforms,” said Director Prof. V K Tewari.

Talking about his experience Prof. Jeevanjyoti Chakraborty , from the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering opined on making available user friendly e-learning platforms which would enable the teachers to focus more on teaching than the logistics. He also mulled over the flipped classroom and active learning strategies wherein students can listen to recording course lectures prior to the scheduled online class and interact more regarding their queries on the topic.

“Since the pronouncement of the suspension of classes, the Center for Education Technology has acquired a large number of WebEx licenses from CISCO for conducting classes. Shorter sessions are also being conducted through Zoom,” said Shib Sankar Das from the Centre.

MHRD has been promoting various e-learning platforms since the academic activities have been restricted in educational institutions earlier this month due to CoronaVirus outbreak. The Institute already has a large repository of video lectures on NPTEL added with those from other IITs which anyone can access online from the Swayam-NPTEL online platform. Students who enrol for these courses also receive assignment which they can submit online for grading. Video lectures are also available on the DTH platform Swayam Prabha.

“Online classes are enabling us not to stop our learning during quarantine time. Moreover the recorded lectures during online classes are later helping us to revise the content with more ease at our flexibility which would be absent in offline setting,” said Undergraduate Students Representative Santosh T.Y.S.S.

Bhavya Kumar, 3rd year student from Dept. of Chemical Engineering said, “NPTEL videos are nice. They give somewhat classroom experience though interaction is required for discussions which can be addressed through WebEx. Overall classes through WebEx were good in terms of giving a brief idea about the topics but one needs to ensure smooth internet connectivity.”

Another 3rd year from the Dept. of Agricultural and Food Engineering, Akshat Jain is relying more on lecture slides to bridge the gap.

“Students can modify their study patterns based on the resources available. On NPTEL I attend only relevant portion of the pre-recorded lectures to suit my course structure. I took lectures for three courses out of six through WebEx. Discussions did happen on our queries and interest is growing gradually as we are also new to this mode of learning. Instead of complaining about the current situation, we should focus on possible solutions,” he said. Akshat has been following YouTube videos for courses on stock market and business studies.

Many faculty members who have classes scheduled in the coming week have sent the students links to their lectures that cover the cover the topics of the syllabus. Several of them also have been interacting with students on email and messengers especially to address queries related to the lectures. Some teachers are also recording videos and sending them to their students for ease of learning.

Another platform which students across all areas and levels of study would find extremely beneficial is the National Digital Library of India. It was developed by IIT Kharagpur under the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India in the year 2016 as a National Mission project. NDLI has been at the forefront of e-learning platforms with over 4.8 crore content in more than 300 languages that can be viewed in 60+ formats apart from e-books (audiobooks, simulations, e-thesis, question papers etc.). The platform has over 55 Lakh users. A recent addition on NDLI has been a special module named ‘Corona Outbreak: Study from Home’ with a collation of a wide range of digital content.

“Please visit and continue your studies. NDLI is accessible through the web as well as mobile App. Be safe but let us be digitally active in academics and connected,” says Prof. P P Chakrabarti, Principal Investigator of NDLI, on his social media handle.

He further urges to reach out to students who can be immensely benefited from this platform during this lockdown period.

“Digital Libraries have become the next generation paradigm for people to empower themselves with knowledge and contribute to the knowledge gathering of this world,” he added.

In another attempt to motivate and engage students, the Undergraduate Students Council of the Institute has launched KGP Hacks Corona, an initiative for the IIT KGP community to build software and data solutions aimed at tackling various challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Council representative Santosh T.Y.S.S said, “the objective is not only to engage the students during the isolation period but also create an online space where developers can ideate, experiment and build software solutions. Students can use technologies of their choice in diverse areas to address the thematic areas of the tech challenge.

Director Prof. Tewari also urged the students through his social media handle to transform this time in isolation into an opportunity to acquire new knowledge and shape our skills using our quiet time for which we otherwise struggle through our daily routine. He encouraged them to make use of their social media accounts, messengers and the free flow of time to achieve all the items in their to-do list.

Study@COVID-Time with NDLI

IIT Kharagpur develops JEE Preparation Module on NDLI during COVID-19 Lockdown

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In a recent announcement JEE Main and NEET UG have been postponed till last week of May 2020 with Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Minister, Human Resources Development, Govt. of India urging students to prepare further for these examinations during this period. While the decision for the postponement was expected, students now need adequate online resources and e-learning materials to continue with their preparation.

IIT Kharagpur has been quick to address the issue by developing a preparatory module for JEE available to students for free on the National Digital Library of India platform. Students can visit the NDLI website https://www.ndl.gov.in/ or https://ndl.iitkgp.ac.in/ or log on to the NDLI mobile application. A special module named ‘Corona Outbreak: Study from Home’ has been added to the website which contains a wide range of digital content including those preparing for competitive examinations like JEE Advanced. The repository contains NDLI Tutorial for JEE Advanced for 12 years and Practice Questions and Solutions for JEE Preparation. Content for JEE Mains for 5 years is expected to be made available soon.

“The solutions have been prepared from the perspective of undergraduate students who have cleared JEE as well as subject matter experts and doctoral students in related areas. Hence the solutions are diverse and students can opt for their preferred methods. Further we have provided reference materials for related problems, so students can explore further the topics,” explained Prof. Partha Pratim Das, Joint-Principal Investigator, NDLI.

Students can browse the School option under the Corona Outbreak module or search by relevant keywords. The developers recommend registering on the portal for better user experience though the resources are available without any restrictions.

“Please visit and continue your studies. Please let us know how we can continue to support your preparations. NDLI is accessible through the web as well as mobile App. Be safe but let us be digitally active in academics and connected,” says Prof. P P Chakrabarti, Principal Investigator of NDLI, on his social media handle. He further urges to reach out to students who can be immensely benefited from this platform during this lockdown period. “Digital Libraries have become the next generation paradigm for people to empower themselves with knowledge and contribute to the knowledge gathering of this world,” he added.

NDLI was developed by IIT Kharagpur under the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India in the year 2016 as a National Mission project. MHRD has been promoting various e-learning platforms since the academic activities have been restricted in educational institutions earlier this month due to CoronaVirus outbreak. NDLI has been at the forefront of such e-learning platforms with over 4.8 crore content in more than 300 languages that can be viewed in 60+ formats apart from e-books (audiobooks, simulations, e-thesis, question papers etc.). The platform has over 55 Lakh users.

“The project, which has been collating content to democratize education for India, has shaped up to be the most promising initiative on the future of libraries from India and symbolizes a strong voice to tell the story from India’s standpoint,” added Prof. Das.

Protecting the Protectors

Making Face Shields for Healthcare Workers During Lockdown

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Professor Santanu Dhara and Professor Sangeeta Das Bhattacharya, researchers at the School of Medical Science and Technology at IIT Kharagpur have made a prototype to make face shields for healthcare workers from home during the lockdown. The face shield is an essential part of the personal protective equipment (PPE) required for healthcare workers taking care of patients with suspected COVID-19.

The basic PPE for healthcare workers include respirator or face masks, eye protection including goggles and face shields, gloves and gowns. The face shield is a transparent plastic protective cover, attached to an elastic head gear. It protects the face from splashes. There is a shortage of all PPE for healthcare workers globally.

Professor Santanu Dhara and Professor Sangeeta Das Bhattacharya have designed a face shield using materials which can be procured even under the nation-wide lockdown. The items include transparency sheet, sponge, folded paper, cardboard or packaging box, elastic, or rubber band, and double-sided tape. A team from the School of Medical Science and Technology produced 14 such face shields in 2 hours and are in the process of making more, while remotely working from their homes.

“At a time when the demand for protective wears has escalated sharply, we have to improvise products using easily sourced materials and simple process to offer some sort of protection for the health workers,” remarked Prof. Santanu Dhara.

Download DIY Video

“It is essential to get personal protective equipment for healthcare workers and the faceshield is just one part. We are contributing in a small way, these have not been rigorously tested,” said Prof. Sangeeta Das Bhattacharya.

Face shields like other medical equipment require testing and certification. These are desperate times. There is a dire shortage of PPE globally and health care workers have taken to crowdsourcing. The hashtag #GetMePPE is trending across social media.

Download DIY Video

Disclaimer: This release is made in the public interest. Items described herein are only prototypes and caution is warranted during the DIY procedure. Every medical product and equipment requires testing and certification by appropriate authorities before use.

A changing world

A joint study by the Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management and the University of Leeds is trying to look into how Covid-19 might change social activities and travel patterns

A national lockdown for 21 days. Work from home. Classes on Zoom. Shopping for essentials only when it is truly essential. The entire family thrown into a togetherness they could scarcely afford earlier.

Covid-19 pandemic has changed our lives drastically in a matter of a few days. Suddenly, nothing can be taken for granted. Not even the morning newspaper or the milk at the doorstep.

How different does the world seem to people? Is the difference being uniformly felt?

In these days of social media heist, when everyone is being bombarded with information about Covid-19, have the right information about the disease percolated down?

The lockdown is bound to end. The pandemic will retreat eventually. But will things go back to normal? Or will there be a new normal where people will be forced to revisit their choices of how they shop, travel, socialize and spend their leisure?

Nothing is known for certain. But as people know more about the disease, the continuing threat from it till the world of medicine comes up with a wonder drug to resist it, they are gradually forming ideas about how they are going to pick up their lives from here.

A joint study conducted by Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management of IIT Kharagpur and the University of Leeds is trying to look into what people are thinking. The team believes that “policies to overcome the crisis, while minimizing the disruptions, need a good understanding of how different people are changing their activity and travel patterns.”

In order to gather more information about how people intend to carry on with their lives, the public perceptions about Covid-19, how responsive and how dependable they find the administration in the public health crisis, the researchers are reaching out to as many people possible through a survey.

Dr. Arkopal K. Goswami, Assistant Professor of RCGSIDM, and research scholars Eeshan Bhaduri and Manoj BS, who are part of this research team, say that such unprecedented times may give us rich data on the travel behaviour of the heterogeneous population of India. Are people walking to the closest grocery store, instead of driving their car or riding their motorcycle to a grocery store far away? Are people making greater use of online platforms for their daily needs? How frequently are they working from home? “Such data will not only give us a glimpse of how COVID-19 has changed the activities and travel patterns, but it also may help researchers in planning for sustainable urban development for the future,” said Prof. Goswami.

Dr. Charisma Choudhury, research collaborator from University of Leeds and Associate Professor at the Institute for Transport Studies and School of Civil Engineering at UoL, adds that the current worldwide situation is so unprecedented, that there was no scope to device data-driven policies to tackle the scenario. “The ongoing collaboration between the University of Leeds and IIT Kharagpur enabled us to quickly delve to address this gap. With insights about travel behaviour in the current, pre-COVID19 and hypothetical future scenarios, the research can be immensely useful when India and other countries around the world formulate plans to transition from the current lockdown to normal scenarios,” said Prof. Choudhury.

In addition to India, the survey has also been released in Bangladesh. The team is also working with partners in other developing countries such as Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa, etc. so as to tailor-make the survey for their situation and release it there as well. This will enable the researchers to make a comparative analysis of the change in travel and activity patterns across nations.

The questionnaire seeks the respondent’s answer for 3 scenarios (a) activity-travel under existing COVID situation; (b) activity-travel under normal NON-COVID situation in the past; and (c) activity-travel under probable future COVID situations.

You too can participate in this study by giving your own comments at any of the links below. Do feel free to share this link and forward the link to your friends (specifically in your respective home towns) and to your extended family members.

Find the link [FOR FB] – https://forms.gle/PPCLrKCwXr2uz9q78

Find the link [FOR TWITTER] – https://forms.gle/tjGzqzHytSfbNih48

Find the link [FOR LinkedIn] – https://forms.gle/E6coumkisSEDAuiF9

Exploring COVID Lockdown

IIT Kharagpur Study Explores the Urgent Need for COVID Lockdown

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IIT Kharagpur researchers have taken an initiative to carry out a study on travel and social distancing perspectives of Indian citizens during the recent outbreak of COVID-19. The study throws light on understanding people’s preparedness in case of a lockdown, their travel behaviour and their perceptions during COVID-19 outbreak and assessing impact of travel restrictions and social distancing on different aspects of life as per people’s perceptions.

The study was conducted by Dr. Saurabh Dandapat, Dr. Kinjal Bhattacharyya, Annam Sai Kiran, Kaustubh Saysardar, researchers at IIT Kharagpur’s Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management, Dept. of Civil Engineering, and mentored by Professor Bhargab Maitra. It covered 400-plus cities in 28 states and 4 UTs of India upto March 22, 2020. The work will eventually help formulate potential strategic interventions and policy measures for combating any future events of similar nature. It also aims to formulate and assess the likely effectiveness of different strategic interventions pertaining to travel and social distancing for minimizing the spread of COVID-19.

Explaining the need for the lockdown, Prof. Bhargab Maitra remarked, “It was alarming to note that nearly 20% respondents expressed their desire to leave the current city of work in case of announcement of city lockdown. Such acts would increase the risk of spread of COVID-19 in other places and therefore, justify the action taken by the Government of India in terms of one day ‘Janata Curfew’ and successive lockdown of several cities and towns by various State Governments.”

However, a positive indication in the report is the steady rise in the number of respondents opting for work from home from less than 40% to over 75% within a week’s time.

“Another positive note is that the study showed a significant share of respondents (i.e., over 30%) was aware about possible city quarantine and were getting prepared for it. The ‘Janata Curfew’ was a positive step for further awareness and preparedness about quarantine, and provided a doorway for implementation of lockdown in several states,” said researcher Dr. Saurabh Dandapat.

Researchers also observed that the awareness among the people about the risk of travel in public transport has increased over the time, possibly due to strong campaigns carried out by the Governments and wide coverage of COVID-19 cases by the media.

“Data reflect that while on 17th of March 2020 only about 60% respondents were considering cancellation/postponing long distance travel for various purposes such as healthcare, work, family/social, and vacation, the share increased to 75% on 22nd March 2020. Although this indicates a positive attitude, however, a significant share of respondents was still planning to travel which might increase the risk of spreading the virus,” said researcher Dr. Kinjal Bhattacharyya.

The researchers Annam Sai Kiran and Kaustubh Saysardar recommended creating more awareness among a section of citizens communicating the need for the lockdown. The study postulates the need for more stringent measures to restrict the movements even within the cities under lockdown to counteract the lack of awareness among a section of the society. It is now also necessary to boost the awareness campaign and the media can play a big role by increasing their self-initiatives with respect to awareness campaigns alongside publicizing the Government driven campaigns.

Based on the recent lockdowns and other efforts being taken by the Central and different State Governments, the questionnaire has now been updated to understand the perceptions and reactions of the citizens under current scenario and provide further inputs which might be of help to the Government to make further informed decisions.

Online survey can be taken on: https://forms.gle/JsYMe99NScpaEQm6A

Additional information

The respondents’ were asked to provide details about their regular travel, travel characteristics during COVID-19 outbreak, their perception regarding safety against spread of COVID-19 during travel by different modes, impact of COVID-19 outbreak and travel restrictions on different aspects of their life, their travel plans in the case of lockdown of cities and during the initial period once the travel restrictions are lifted, and demographic and socio-economic characteristics.

The research team analyzed more than 3,400 responses obtained from 400-plus cities in 28 states and 4 UTs of India. The database covers respondents from different segments of the society in terms of income groups, profession, and age groups. The data are being analyzed over the time and the questionnaire is being updated according to the changing scenarios in order to capture the real time responses. The analysis indicates several interesting observations.

Get COVID Advisory in Your Language

IIT Kharagpur Students Joins India’s Fight Against CoronaVirus by Translating WHO Health Advisory

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As the world is battling CoronaVirus, IIT Kharagpur is exhibiting its unique creative energy and cautious optimism at this crucial time, demanding our endurance and responsible behaviour. The Institute and its stakeholders on the campus are contributing through a wide range of initiatives, from helping students with their academic coursework to increasing public awareness about COVID19, to creating hygiene resources and meaningful online engagements. In one such initiative, Vision Prabaho, a students group known for its environmental activities on the campus has taken up the responsibility to help common people understand the precautionary advisory issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) to counter COVID-19.

The students have translated the WHO advisory in 15 Indian languages Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Malayalam, Marathi, Manipuri, Maithili, Naga, Odiya, Punjabi, Tamil and Telugu.

Regional language advisory would make communication even in the remotest part of the communication convenient avoiding misinformation.

“Linguistic diversity in spreading the government and WHO advisory was much needed especially on digital media which is accessed by an astounding billion plus Indians. We thought it would be imperative to help increase the reach through messages in vernacular languages,” said Biswaroop Mondal, a student member.

Initially the Vision Prabaho translated the message in Bengali for the local people. However, on watching the video on YouTube other students from IIT Kharagpur came forward to translate the message in their mother tongues. Within a day videos were produced in five different languages and in another two days the count reached 12.

The students recorded the script with a smartphone and sent it to Vision Prabaho which they incorporated as voice over to the WHO video again using smartphone app and available software.

The twenty-member student group from IIT Kharagpur even found a special mention in a social media post by Shri Sanjay Dhotre, Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology, for their noble initiative which can benefit billions of Indians.

“We are trying to incorporate more editions of the video in other regional languages by reaching out a diverse linguistic group and resources to translate the video in languages such as Maithili, Alchiki, Nagamese, Kokborok and more,” said a student member.

The students are also working towards developing interesting creatives on Do’s and Dont’s in regional languages. A key initiative the team is working on is to develop Do-It-Yourself instructions for making hygiene kits such as masks and hand sanitizers.

Recently, a group of researchers at IIT Kharagpur’s School of Medical Science & Technology have also developed alcohol based hand sanitizer following guidelines recommended by WHO for use by emergency and essential staff on campus. The Institute has also ordered for masks designed by the healthcare authorities of the campus and made locally.

Every setback is an opportunity to learn and grow

Mudita Kumar, Ananya Singh Parmar and Anuranjan Singh, final year undergraduate students of BArch (Hons) of the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning, won the INSDAG (Institute for Steel Development & Growth) organized ‘National Competition for Students 2019 for the Best Innovative Use of Steel in Architecture’ recently. Their brief was to design an international cricket stadium with a seating capacity of 45,000 with a dedicated space for a cricket academy using steel. The stadium was required to have an open parking space for 2,500 vehicles, modern facilities, proper signage and make ample use of natural lighting and artificial lightings. The team was mentored by Prof. Sumana Gupta of the Department and went on to create a structure made up of eight arches. They studied the Wankhede and Sydney Cricket Ground as part of their work that saw a lot of team synchrony. Anuranjan Singh, with inputs from his team members, talks to KGP Chronicle on the experience.

What was the most unique feature of your project that you think contributed to your win?

Anuranjan: The three major features we focused on were -1) Efficient crowd management, starting from site level segregation itself. Different zones for different users based on the level of scrutiny and security, usage, time frame etc., easing out circulation and ensuring hassle free movement.

2) Addressing structural complexity through aerodynamic form for sustainable maintenance over the time, interlocking arch form which supports the roof structure as well as protects it from seismic activities, and a balancing cantilever structural unit that offered unobstructed view to spectators.

3) Cultural integration and a landmark creation that would give a sense of belonging to its users. Efforts were made to create a unique outlook of the stadium in the context of the city of Ghaziabad.

At all stages of the design development, our prime focus was on user behaviour, safety and convenience, and this helped us come up with this user-sensitive design and helped us win.

How difficult or challenging was it to come up with the plan?

Anuranjan: A stadium environment is a complex one, with varied areas of security, multiple services provided in different areas of the arena, tiered accesses for VIPs, talent, staff, and others, and of course, the huge crowd that sports, concerts, and other events draw. While handling close to 50,000 people, it becomes really challenging to prioritize the best experience for all of them and integrate them together without compromising on the needs of any group. It took us around 20 iterations and frequent overnight working to finally come up with an optimized plan.

Every contest is a learning process. What have you learnt from this particular experience?

Anuranjan: There were several design setbacks and things that didn’t work out as per our expectations. These moments were really disheartening and demotivating for us. Team work kept us going at all times. We were very supportive of each other at difficult times and encouraged each other to come back stronger with every setback. So we learned to be patient and resilient throughout our journey. We learned not to fear these adversities, because each setback and imperfection was an opportunity for growth and improvement for us.

How has the curriculum at IIT KGP or mentoring helped you?

Anuranjan: The curriculum at IIT KGP has made us technically adept to handle such scale of projects with ease. It taught the foundation and basics of everything we needed to work on this design challenge. It was important for us to emphasize on structural feasibility along with design. The study program at IIT KGP offered us to take courses from other departments such as civil engineering and mechanical engineering. This makes us different from other architecture colleges. IIT KGP gives access to labs and advanced facilities which extends our knowledge and helps us in implementation. Our professors constantly monitored our progress and gave quality feedback which helped us to focus on our shortcomings. There were a lot of calculations, advanced simulations, drawings and details done by us which helped us take this project from idea conceptualization to reality. Summing up, all this led to the INSDAG say comment, “Your work is beyond academics! And you have taken this to the next level!”

Why do you think it necessary to participate in such contests?

Anuranjan: It is necessary to participate in such projects to gain in experience. For any design or problem solving challenge, there are several approaches to think of a solution. As we develop our approach, we may get biased on our design solution. We focus more on thinking about making that approach work. However, when we participate in such events we see how other people come up with alternatives. For the same design problem we see so many approaches and ways it could be solved. Such exposures are priceless. It gives us an opportunity to learn and explore things beyond our cognitive bias. It broadens our horizon of knowledge.

What is the future of this particular project?

Anuranjan: Cricket is the most watched sport in our country. Cricket stadia are large scale projects that require a lot of land and other resources. Projects like these should not be restricted to cricket and sports. In the near future, we see them as community centres fostering the identities of places. We have designed our structure to support mixed use development. The seating remains closed and other spaces can be converted to commercial usage. Concourse of these stadia is developed as shopping malls. We have provided a museum as well which can be visited by people beyond match days. We have provided an extensive landscaped area with mounds, walkways, water bodies and plaza type of setting for people near the Hindon river. This creates a beautiful recreational experience for people. These areas will be accessible and can be used by the communities throughout the year. This will increase community vitality, which is crucial for the happiness of people. Cricket stadia in India have immense potential. However, the current stadia are not designed flexibly to accommodate mixed use.

Bringing cheer

A team of three students from the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning of the Institute has clinched the first prize at the ‘National Competition for Students 2019 for the Best Innovative Use of Steel in Architecture’. The competition was organised by Institute for Steel Development & Growth. INSDAG, an organization established by the Ministry of Steel, Government of India, which has been hosting this competition since 1999-2000, intends to promote and create an awareness of the use of steel in building design among students.

Mudita Kumar, Ananya Singh Parmar and Anuranjan Singh, the winners of the INSDAG contest, are final year undergraduate students of the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning. This is the third time that the Department is securing the first position in the competition, having earlier won the top prize in 2014 and 2017. It may be mentioned that the Department was adjudged the best in Architecture by NIRF for the last two years.

Three teams from IIT Kharagpur’s Department of Architecture and Regional Planning made it to the finals held at Kolkata earlier this month. A total of 16 teams were selected for the finals from four zones of the country by the zonal selection committees. The teams were evaluated for the finals by the Jury members consisting of renowned architects and faculties from the academia.

The call was for designing a cricket stadium with a seating capacity of 45,000 apart from a space for a cricket academy. As a concept of the winning design, the team came up with a structure made up of eight arches. “Intersections of these arches help in shading the concourse and permitting ventilation as well. They also help in creating recognizable entry points, helping different types of users in way-finding. The octagonal periphery formed by the arches also supports the extended roof which converges to a circular periphery,” said Mudita Kumar and Ananya Singh Parmar of the team.

“All this makes the design iconic and landmarks the city for its heritage,” added Mudita. In fact, cultural integration and creating a landmark to foster a sense of belonging among all users were among the major concerns of the team which looked at Ghaziabad’s tortuous history down the ages. “Efforts were made to create a unique outlook of stadium in context with the city of Ghaziabad for which the citizens can take pride in. At all stages of design development, our prime focus on user behaviour, safety and convenience helped us come up with this user sensitive design and helped us win,” said Anuranjan Singh. (Read Anuranjan’s interview to KGP Chronicle)

The second team from the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning

Dr. Sumana Gupta, Assistant Professor at the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning mentored the student teams. She said, “Architects through this exercise exploit use of steel in different forms. Their expression is totally innovative. The motto of the contest was to assess how well steel was being used, not merely to express its ability to take tensile or compressive forces but to demonstrate how innovatively this fluid material can be used to give shape to the architect’s thought. The problem statement was also assigned as a studio task for the students hence there was continuous monitoring and participation was intense and wholehearted.”

The third team to qualify for the finals

A second team of students consisting of Gunjal Jain, Runjhun Goswami, Gauri Pathak and Aman Yaduwanshi missed the third prize by a whisker. They, however, earned a “special mention” from the jury. Talking about their project, Gunjal said, “We wanted our stadium to be a symbolic representation of playful contemporary India. So the form had to be modern, yet relatable to the people.” Her team members thus designed the stadium together with “3 green breathing spaces” around the stadium. “The entire origami structure around the green spaces was extended outward to form shade above this area, creating a beautiful play of light and shadow below it. This is what made us stand out of all other teams,” explained Gunjal.

The third team who qualified the zonals consisted of Preetish Priyadarshi Nayak, Aman Kumar Agarwal, Atul Singh, Keshav Kumar. Although they did not win a prize, their design was much appreciated by Dr. Gupta for being truly innovative.