Month: June 2020

IIT Kharagpur and University Alberta launches Joint Doctoral Program

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IIT Kharagpur in collaboration with University of Alberta, Canada has launched a Joint Doctoral Degree Program (JDP) to create academic exchange between faculty and students.

The program gives the opportunity to undertake research at the partner institution for a period of six months to a year and provides them with international experience and special certification upon graduation. The partnership would include identification of research projects for students to pursue during their doctoral studies, joint supervision, fellowships with financial support in the form of a monthly stipend to cover the cost of accommodation and meals for students during the duration of their visit. The participating students will receive recognition of completing the program jointly with the partner institution through formal notation on their transcripts and parchments.

“In the post COVID-19 world, we have to reach out globally and engage actively in a more strategic manner. Further in order to generate intellectual resources in a wide array of domains there is a need to learn from each other’s expertise through such joint programs. It would definitely be advantageous for people from diverse geographies, environment, lifestyle and challenges making our research focus more oriented towards global dynamics,” said Director IIT Kharagpur, Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari.

While IIT Kharagpur already has similar joint doctoral programs with several Australian universities, this is the first of its kind with a Canadian university. UAlberta is the only Canadian university to have established such programs at this time. It has a rich history of academic collaboration with India, holding various partnership agreements to support academic mobility and joint research in place with IIT Kharagpur since 2013. Apart from IIT Kharagpur UAlberta has engaged in similar collaborations with IIT Bombay and IIT Roorkee.

“These programs create new opportunities to equip doctoral students with perspectives and skills that will benefit a global society. When we connect with leading international institutions such as the IITs, we’re fueling new capacity for teaching, learning, and research,” said President Prof. David Turpin.

The collaboration has been mobilized by two IIT Kharagpur alumni, Prof. Anandaroop Bhattacharya at the Dept. of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Kharagpur and Prof. Amit Kumar at the  Department of Mechanical Engineering, UAlberta.

Prof. Anandaroop Bhattacharya, Associate Dean, International Relations, remarked, “IIT Kharagpur is delighted to enter into the Joint Doctoral Program with University of Alberta. The partnership between the two institutions has a very strong foundation  through student research internships, research collaborations and joint supervision of students. The joint Ph.D. program will make the partnership even stronger.”

Dr. Amit Kumar, who is the Interim President of Engage India: Association of Professors has been working closely together with University of Alberta International to help establish the JDP.

“Engage India was launched in April 2019 with the aim of promoting academic exchange and relations between U of A and India,” shares Kumar. “Our membership has expressed considerable interest in collaborating on joint research with Indian partners as well as recruiting high quality graduate students from India. The Joint Doctoral Degree Programs with the IITs will help us accomplish both of these goals,” he added.

Contacts: 

Project Information: Prof. Anandaroop Bhattacharya, adeanir@adm.iitkgp.ac.in

Institute Related: Prof. B N Singh, registrar@hijli.iitkgp.ac.in; 

Media Outreach: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in

More News:: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/; 

Follow IIT Kharagpur on Social Media: Facebook:@IIT.Kgp; Twitter: @IITKgp; Instagram: @iit.kgp

IIT Kharagpur develops COVID-19 Predictive Model for Decision-making

The study also predicts that new cases of the disease will continue until at least the end of September 2020.

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IIT Kharagpur has developed a prediction system to help predict the future spread of COVID-19 and help decision making in health-care, industry, economy, and even academics. Prof. Abhijit Das from the Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering has developed a logistic model which can be used to fit the available daily counts of infection cases.

The data used for the predictions pertain to the entire country, and for the eight most affected  states in the country including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, West Bengal, and Madhya Pradesh.

Talking about the model development Prof. Das said, “The model uses only the daily infection counts available in the public domain without accessing sensitive information pertaining to medical records or contact-tracing data for a large fraction of the population. Despite that, the prediction curves show remarkably good fitting with the past data, and can be used for future planning.”

Prof. Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director IIT Kharagpur said, “People have been living in an uncertain black box without the knowledge about which way life is going to turn and how to plan their activities. A study like this based on a clear statistical model will enable them to understand and plan their wayforward. The model though experimental could prove to be helpful in planning our academic semester and policy matters related to the Institute and the campus under the current circumstances.” 

However, the predictions for the future change quite rapidly with time. There are several potential factors for this such as different mobility patterns of Indian people in different phases of lockdown, large-scale migration of laborers, change in diagnostic facilities, evolution of the coronavirus, and so on. These are well beyond the control of the logistic model or any other currently known prediction model for that matter. 

Although the implementation fails to generate stable and reliable predictions at the moment, the trend clearly reveals that the disease is going to stay in the country for many more months. 

“Our study indicates that India is yet to achieve a steady pattern in the spread of the disease. It is unlikely to get rid of COVID-19 before the end of September 2020,” remarked Prof. Das.

He further added, “This does not leave us in a region of comfort, but the reality has to be accepted, and appropriate plans must be chalked out to address all the issues associated with the outbreak of the pandemic.”

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Contacts: 

Project Information: abhij@cse.iitkgp.ac.in; Institute Related: Prof. B N Singh, registrar@hijli.iitkgp.ac.in; Media Outreach: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in; More News:: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/; Follow IIT Kharagpur on Social Media: Facebook:@IIT.Kgp; Twitter: @IITKgp; Instagram: @iit.kgp

IIT Kharagpur’s Online Course on Innovation & Entrepreneurship

IIT Kharagpur launches Online Lecture Series on Innovation & Entrepreneurship dealing with several crucial aspects in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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IIT Kharagpur’s Rajendra Mishra School of Engineering Entrepreneurship (RMSoEE) is all set to start a virtual lecture series titled “Innovation and Entrepreneurship in a Post-COVID World”. The program which will be conducted as a sixteen-part lecture series on the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL), aims to present a broader and unique perspective on opportunities on forward-looking fronts like data science, healthcare, education, agri-tech, energy, rural innovation, fintech, and supply chain interventions among several others. While doing so, the course also intends to throw light on precautions and strategies related to operations, execution, change in consumer behavior, and short term financial management. 

Starting with motivation, challenges, and opportunities unleashed by the pandemic, the course goes on to delve into innovative approaches to frugal product engineering, lean and cost-effective business modeling strategies and smart financial management, that are highly pertinent to startups in the present scenario. The opening sessions shall set the stage by elaborating upon the macroeconomic impacts of COVID-19 and expound on the significance of innovation and entrepreneurship in various sectors to address the related challenges.

Young college students who are startup enthusiasts, working professionals, entrepreneurs, innovators, thinkers, strategists, and makers from all walks of life, will find the lectures useful in restrategizing their stance in the new-normal world. 

This series will be conducted from 22nd to 29th June through the NPTEL platform and would also be accessible on other platforms of the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India such as broadcast on SWAYAM Prabha channels, course materials and videos on National Digital Library of India. Dr. Mrigank Sharad of RMSoEE will be coordinating the course. The speakers, among others, include: Prof. Partha Pratim Chakrabarti – Role of Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, and Technology to fight the pandemic and its repercussions; Prof. Manoj Kumar Tewari,  Director, NITIE Mumbai –  The drastic transformation of Supply Chain Network in the post-COVID world, its opportunities and challenges, adaptability; Dr. Kris Singh, Founder & CEO at SRII, California – Innovating education and skills for digital economy.

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Please fill out this form to register for the course and get a course certificate. At the end of the course, an online MCQ test will be held and certificate will be provided to all who score more than 50%, along with good (50% to 65%), very good (65% to 75%) and excellent grades (>75%). Along with this, we are also conducting a Business Pitch competition, where the participant will need to submit a startup idea in a specified format. Selected ideas will be rewarded certificates and may be given opportunities to work with our school for further support, mentorship, incubation etc., depending upon your interest. Note that the links for the course lectures will be active only at the scheduled time of the lecture.

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Contacts: 

Project Information: Prof. Mrigank Sharad, mrigank@see.iitkgp.ac.in

Institute Related: Prof. B N Singh, registrar@hijli.iitkgp.ac.in; 

Media Outreach: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in

More News:: https://kgpchronicle.iitkgp.ac.in/; 

Follow IIT Kharagpur on Social Media: Facebook:@IIT.Kgp; Twitter: @IITKgp; Instagram: @iit.kgp

IIT Kharagpur Students Innovate Social Distance Tracking Device

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IIT Kharagpur’s Autonomous Ground Vehicle (AGV) research group under the Centre of Excellence for Robotics Research has developed a low-cost AI-based cyber-physical system for monitoring social distance in public places.

COVID-19 has set the technological researchers on high alert with many of them spending days and hours in their laboratories to develop solutions for combating the pandemic situation. While a large section of these solutions are targeted towards the healthcare system, key among them are frugal innovations for disease preventive and hygiene systems. In one such initiative, a students research group at IIT Kharagpur, Autonomous Ground Vehicle (AGV) has developed a low-cost AI-based cyber-physical system for monitoring social distance in public places.

Implementing social distancing in a country as densely populated as India is a vital yet behemoth task for the administration. As the nation unlocks after more than 75 days, the new normal is going to be very different. Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Shri Narendra Modi, has requested the citizens to maintain proper social distance as it is the best offence against COVID-19 at this stage.

To aid them, the students  have developed a device which can visually detect the gap between individuals and play a proximity alert sound through audio output, for any violation of the social distancing norms. The device uses images in the field view of a camera and computes the distance as per criterion set by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India.

Team AGV, working under the Centre of Excellence for Robotics Research and led by Prof. Debashish Chakravarty and Prof. Aditya Bandopadhyay, has engineered this device leveraging readily-available hardware while the lockdown was in place. The group  comprising Indu Kant Deo, Yash Khandelwal, Apoorve Singhal, Harimohan Jha, Abhra Majumder, Rishabh Singh, Pravanjan Nayak, Debasish Mishra along with online support from  other members of the Autonomous Ground Vehicle Research Group, also worked with experts from other areas including Prof Siddhartha Mukhopadhyay, Prof Surjya K Pal and Prof Samir K Pal.

“Our objective was to ensure that we are able to manufacture the device and not merely put forward a design due to the lockdown situation. We further focused on the ease of deployment even in remote locales and curtailing the cost by using inexpensive and easily accessible hardware stack,” said the AGV innovators.

The researchers are confident that the device would find its utility in maintaining the social distancing norms in locations attracting crowds and queues such as markets, malls etc. It has already been successfully tested with installations of three prototypes at the marketplace of the IIT Kharagpur campus. 

Recently a demonstration was also given in the presence of Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur. Appreciating the researchers he said,

“It is our responsibility to improve the quality of life of the last person in the society. While we are working on national mission projects related to COVID-19 healthcare, we are simultaneously working on frugal innovations to cater to the immediate needs at our campus in particular and the country in general, keeping in mind cost and product delivery period. Our researchers including the students are committed to deliver such technologies within a constrained timeline considering the healthcare and community needs in the current situation.”

Frame 1 (left) depicts the social distancing being obeyed as the distance between the individuals is above the safe criterion, while negative is the case in Frame 2 (right) where the individuals stand at a distance less than the safe criterion (set in the algorithm), hence generating an alert signal.

NIRF 2020 Results Announced

IIT Kharagpur has been ranked in the widest category of disciplines ranging from Engineering, Architecture, Management, Law in the NIRF Rankings 2020 by the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India. While the Institute has been ranked the best in India in the category of Architecture, it has jumped one rank in the management discipline to be among the top five business schools in India. 

In Law it retains last year’s rank at the 4th position along with the overall and Engineering ranks at the 5th position. 

The Dept. of Architecture has been a clear winner in the areas of Graduation Outcomes, Peer Perception, and Outreach and Inclusivity. The Department has scored the best in the country in the metrics for University Examinations and Number of Ph.D. Students Graduated. 

Vinod Gupta School of Management, the business school of IIT Kharagpur has performed exceptionally well in the areas of Research and Professional Practice and Graduation Outcomes, while the law school which is one of its kind focussing typically on intellectual property law scores high on Teaching, Learning & Resources and Research and Professional Practice. 

Earlier this year Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur identified  institutional ranking as a thrust area. Dwelling on the issue of institutional ranking Director Tewari said,

“Our goal should be to compete with the top ten universities in the world to climb the ladder of global ranking. However, institutional ranking is a sum reflection of holistic performance and impact created by any higher educational institution. The past Directors’ advisory group will engage extensively towards this goal.”

Vinod Gupta who patronized both the management and law schools and initiated the disciplines in the IIT system calls it a remarkable achievement and the overall excellence of the academic, research and graduate outcome culture at IIT Kharagpur. He said,

“In my view the student intake largely with Engineering and Science backgrounds enable them to focus more on analytical skills in research and other projects which gives them the edge over other schools. Additionally, being part of the IIT KGP system the schools have successfully attracted best-in-class teaching faculty. This leads to the overall success of the schools.”