Sustainable Alternatives in Energy, Environment & Healthcare for Science & Society

INDO-US, INDO-AUSTRALIA AND INDO-CANADA INTERDISCIPLINARY WORKSHOPS AT IIT KHARAGPUR

The Bioprocess & Bioproduct Development Laboratory of the Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur along with the collaborators from USA, Australia, and Canada organized three days workshop under the Government of India’s Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) from 24th to 26th February 2023. The workshops were inaugurated by Prof. Amit Patra, Deputy Director, IIT Kharagpur in the august presence of Dr. Prachi Kaul, Director, Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute and Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti, Dean BTBS, IIT Kharagpur. The workshop saw a footfall of  more than 80 participants from both within and outside the horizons of IIT Kharagpur. Sustainable Alternatives in Energy, Environment, and Healthcare for the well-being of Science and Society was the theme of the three different workshops that spanned across the institute.

Pic : Inaugural session of the Indo-US SPARC Workshop (L-R) – Professor Warren D. Seider from the University of Pennsylvania was present online; Prof. Amit Patra, Deputy Director, IIT Kharagpur; Prof. N. R. Jana, HOD, Department of Biotechnology and Prof. Ramkrishna Sen, Department of Biotechnology (Convener) were present physically for the inauguration ceremony.

The three day long programme witnessed 20 speakers from 10 National and International universities and institutes accompanied by eminent industry leaders. On 24th February 2023, the first of the series INDO-US workshop was initiated on ‘Algaeneering for Global Energy and Climate Challenge’, jointly organized by the Bioprocess and Bioproduct Development Laboratory (BBDL) at IIT Kharagpur and the University of Pennsylvania, USA wherein academia researchers and industry experts across India and the US discussed the challenges, avenues, and technologies in research, development & innovations and techno-commercial assessment of renewable energy sectors.

Prof. Warren D. Seider, a world-renowned Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania delivered a plenary lecture. The other speakers at the workshop were Prof. K. K. Pant, Director, IIT Roorkee; Prof. Pinaki Bhattacharyya Emeritus Professor, Head, R&D, Chemical Engineering, Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata; Dr. Anindita Moitra, Chief General Manager, Indian Oil Corporation Limited; Dr. Sangeeta Srivastava, Executive Director, Godavari Biorefineries Ltd., Karnataka and Dr. Harshad R. Velankar, Chief Manager, Bioprocess Group, Hindustan Petroleum Green R & D Center, Bengaluru.

Pic : Inaugural session of the Indo-AUS SPARC Workshop (L-R): Prof. Saswat Chakraborty, Dean BTBS, IIT Kharagpur; Prof. D. N. Singh, IIT Bombay; Prof. N. R. Jana, HOD, Department of Biotechnology and Prof. Ramkrishna Sen (Convener) in the inauguration ceremony.

Under the aegis of SPARC, the second day of the INDO-AUSTRALIA workshop scheduled on 25th February 2023 focused on ‘Bioinspired Solutions for Natural & Built Environment: Science, Society & Wellbeing.’ The Australian collaborators under the SPARC program from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Curtin University; Prof. Abhijit Mukherjee and Dr. Navdeep Dhami joined hands with the experts from India, Prof. Devendra Narain Singh, D. L. Shah Chair Professor for Innovation, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay; Prof. Brajadulal Chattopadhyay, Professor, Jadavpur University; Mr. Ramananda Adhikari, Deputy General Manager, Hindustan Copper Limited, Kolkata and Dr. Santanu Dasgupta, Senior Vice President, Reliance Technology Group, Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai put forth a series of insightful talks.

Pic : Dr. Santanu Dasgupta, Senior Vice President, Reliance Technology Group, Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai, India delivering his plenary talk online

A multidisciplinary concerted effort and partnership between educational institutions and industries was deemed to be instrumental in advancing research and development was highlighted in these workshops through the active participation of three PSUs including Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and Hindustan Computers Limited (HCL) and two private industry market players Reliance and Godavari Biorefineries. These industry experts visited algal biomass production facility, a demo park created under the ambit of IMPRINT-IIA scheme (DST-SERB) between IIT Kharagpur and HPCL.

The INDO-CANADA workshop was held on 26th February 26, 2023 with the funding supports from Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI) and SPARC on the theme ‘Green/Bio-polymers as renewable and sustainable alternatives to Petro-plastics: Energy-Environment-Healthcare Nexus’ with the active involvement of Prof. Sudip Kumar Rakshit, Canada Research Chair Professor, Bioenergy & Biorefining Research Institute, Lakehead University, Canada and Prof. Satinder Kaur Brar, James & Joanne Love Chair in Environmental Engineering, Lassonde School of Engineering, York University, Canada. Enthralling talks were also delivered by Dr. Santanu Dasgupta, Senior Vice President, Reliance Technology Group, Reliance Industries Limited, Mumbai, India; Prof. Prashant Mishra, Former Head, Department of Biochemical Engineering & Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; Prof. Dipankar Chattopadhyay, Former Head, Department of Polymer Science & Technology, University of Calcutta, and Dr. Krishna Chattopadhyay, Jadavpur University and Anchor, DD Bangla, Doordarshan Kendra, Kolkata. Dr. Santanu Das Gupta gave virtual demonstration of their state-of-the-art biorefinery facility, highlighting the challenges and mentioning the need and scopes of Industrial-Academia collaborations.

Pic : Prof. Sen demonstrating the high-rate algal pond, one-of-its-kind facility to capture the industrial emissions and valorize towards biofuels and healthcare products.

Participants delivered oral presentations of their research work in the three day workshops where Prof. Sen’s doctoral students, Mr. Romit Mitra and Ms. Ankita Debnath presented their work on algal biorefinery and bio-cementation perspectives, respectively.

Pic : Group photo at the valedictory session on Day 3

Prof. Ramkrishna Sen, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur & Convener of the workshops remarked, “All the workshops were well organized by the members of the Bioprocess & Bioproduct Development Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur which acknowledges Mr. Satyanarayana Reddy Battula, Dr. Chinmay Hazra and Dr. Debasree Kundu for their tremendous efforts and ground level coordination. Financial supports accorded by SPARC, an initiative of the Ministry of Education, GoI as well as the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute (SICI) thus, paved the platform for developing an exciting research ecosystem through cohesive academic and research collaborations was well received by the overwhelming participants. “

Input By : Prof. Ramkrishna Sen, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur
Email: rksen@bt.iitkgp.ac.in

Edited By : Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

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Training Course on Human Factors Engineering in Healthcare Systems

Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, IIT Kharagpur conducted a five days training course on Human Factors Engineering in Healthcare Systems in collaboration with Purdue University, USA from 16 to 20 May 2022, under the SPARC (Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration). The lecture sessions focused on four important aspects related to the healthcare systems including Information-centred Human Factors, Human Body-centred Ergonomics, Organisation-centred Human Factors and Applications of HFE in Healthcare Systems. Based on the outcome of this training course, a number of courses in the form of subject, laboratory and project are to be designed at UG and PG levels for Educational Institutes, Universities and Research Institutions along with development of syllabi for the course ‘Human Factors Engineering in Healthcare Systems’, as the core or elective subject. SPARC Project Principal Investigators (PIs) (Indian and International), Physician Experts and Academicians acted as the resource persons for the course. This training course was attended by a number of research scholars and postgraduate students from IIT Kharagpur and other educational institutions.

Renowned personalities like Professor Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur & Indian Co-PI ; Professor Denny Yu, Faculty, School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, USA & International PI; Dr. Sandip Halder, Consultant Surgeon, General Surgery, Department, Dr Gray’s Hospital, Elgin, Scotland, UK;  Professor Somnath Gangopadhyay, Department of Physiology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata; Professor Jhareswar Maiti, Head of Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, IIT Kharagpur & Professor Pradip Kumar Ray, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, IIT Kharagpur & Indian PI addressed the participants.

Prof Pradip Kumar Ray,
Emeritus Professor,
Dept of Industrial & Systems Engineering,
IIT Kharagpur

“With active participation of International and Indian PIs of the project, invited physician experts and academics of repute, and effective interaction with the research scholars, the Training Programme has been a great success fulfilling its objectives. A unique academic course on Human Factors Engineering in Healthcare Systems with its relevance at the international level has been designed”, stated Prof Pradip Kumar Ray, Emeritus Professor, Dept of Industrial Systems Engineering, IIT Kharagpur.

The Human Factors Engineering discipline has been developed to encompass an increasing number and type of interactions between people and systems. The course is designed to teach both the fundamentals and applications of human factors and ergonomics in healthcare system. The topics covered in this course include human physiology and anthropometry, fatigue assessment, human information processing and control, assessment of environmental factors and fundamentals of industrial product design including interface design.

At the outset, Prof Pradip Kumar Ray, Emeritus Professor, IIT Kharagpur engaged the participants with the effects of ergonomics in designing human-product interfaces in healthcare systems and anthropomometry in worksystem design. On the second day Prof Jhareswar Maiti, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, IIT Kharagpur highlighted the cognitive load and data and analytics in human factors & ergonomics in healthcare. Prof Denny Yu, Faculty, School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, USA gave his insight on the current trends and interface design for jobs in healthcare systems with case studies on the third and fourth day. Dr. Yu is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine and is a Certified Professional Ergonomist (CPE). He serves on the Board of Directors for the Board of Certification of Professional Ergonomics (BCPE). Research from Dr. Yu’s group has been recognized by NIOSH Bullard-Sherwood Award as honorable mention, the RSJ/KROS Distinguished Interdisciplinary Research Award (RO-MAN) 2021 and the 2021 Human Factors Prize by the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. He has published over 40 peer – review journal manuscripts in human factors engineering with a focus on discovering objective features from sensors and health datasets for understanding human behavior and performance in complex, high-stress environments.

From L-R : Prof Jhareswar Maiti, Head of Dept of Industrial & Systems Engineering; Prof Denny Yu, Faculty, School of Industrial Engineering, Purdue University, USA; Prof Virendra Kumar Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur and Prof Pradip Kumar Ray, Emeritus Professor, Dept of Industrial Systems Engineering, IIT Kharagpur

Dr. Yu remarked,” It is indeed a pleasure to visit IIT Kharagpur and collaborate on the ergonomics of the healthcare system. We look forward to future associations with the oldest IIT of India.”

Dr. Sandip Halder, Consultant Surgeon, General Surgery Department, Dr Gray’s Hospital, Elgin, Scotland, UK discussed about the use of automation systems and devices in healthcare and Prof Somnath Gangopadhyay, Department of Physiology, University of Calcutta, Kolkata explained the cognitive task analysis on the concluding days.

The Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) is an initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India which aims at improving the research ecosystem of India’s higher educational institutions by facilitating academic and research collaborations between top ranked Indian Institutions and globally ranked foreign institutions, through Joint Research Projects involving mobility of students and faculty. The SPARC projects have a major impacts in providing the best international expertise to address major national problems, expose Indian academicians to the best collaborators abroad, enable international faculty to stay in India for a considerable duration, provide Indian students an opportunity to work in the world class laboratories, to develop strong bilateral relationships in research and improve the international ranking of Indian Institutions globally improving the research ecosystem of the country. About 390 projects of a grant worth INR 251.09 Crores were approved in its first phase.

Content Writer:- Poulami Mondal, Digital & Creative Media Executive (Creative Writer)
Email: poulami.mondal@iitkgp.ac.in, media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282007

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This School at IIT Kharagpur is Upgrading Quality and Reliability for Indian Industries

“Quality combines people power and process power .  .  . The costs of poor quality are tangible; they will cost you customers and money, and ultimately affect the success of your business” ~ Subir Chowdhury, Quality Guru, Distinguished Alumnus Awardee

India has taken a giant step towards upgrading its manufacturing operations to Industry 4.0 and transforming into an industrial hub. As industry-oriented research, product development and IP transfer are being intensified across a wide range of advanced manufacturing, an important aspect for the industry to address is now the quality of people and process which thereby would lead to optimal product quality. Achieving this goal of India-specific quality maintenance in the industrial sector would require a whole new vertical of professionals who would be excelling in Quality and Reliability of the 3Ps – people, product and process.

IIT Kharagpur, which has pioneered in several academic disciplines in India, has taken up the responsibility to train industry professionals and academicians through courses and training modules to develop the new age quality professionals at the Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability.

Talking about the opportunities unlocked by the School, Head, Prof. Sanjay Kumar Chaturvedi said, “over the years we have experienced a great scope as well as demand for engineers from diverse backgrounds who are well-trained in quality and reliability. Our records give evidence with our graduates placed from the nuclear energy sector to defense research to automobile, steel, power, other manufacturing sectors and even IT.”

In India, while Quality courses are offered by most of the universities as part of the industrial engineering program at the undergraduate level, specializations in quality are mainly offered by a few IITs only at the postgraduate level. However, IIT Kharagpur is the only institution in India to offer a comprehensive M.Tech. program in Quality and Reliability Engineering. Besides, the School offers MS and PhD programs in various domains of quality and reliability such as network, human, software, Maintenance Engineering, Probabilistic Risk and Safety etc.

“In addition to postgraduate degree programs in Quality and Reliability Engineering we offer core courses, electives and microspecializations to students at all levels of study. Our quality and reliability courses are offered separately without any amalgamation,” added Prof. Chaturvedi.

Further, the School has been organizing short-term courses for working professionals both from academic and industry backgrounds. Several of the industrial training programs were in-situ for industries, wherein solving a real problem from the industry by an attendee was a part of the course. In the recent past, the School has worked with top industry brands such as Siemens, Whirlpool, TVS, John Deere, Tata Steel, DRDO etc. in areas encompassing system reliability, industrial safety, risk assessment, life testing, reliability centered maintenance, product reliability assessment and assurance and many more.

Opining his vision for the School, patron Subir Chowdhury said, “The economic impact of poor quality on a nation is huge. It affects the quality of life for its citizens. The quality and reliability processes taught and practiced in India need to be upgraded to a much higher level. Since India has ambitious plans for self-sustainability in the manufacturing sector, it is necessary that the products developed and manufactured meet national and international standards in terms of quality and reliability and safety. Also in order to meet the production targets, manufacturing processes needs to be made reliable. The School can really contribute in this journey in terms of supplying training, consultancy and research.”

Along with his organization ASI Consulting Group, USA, Subir is actively engaged in the development of academic materials, laboratories and faculty for the School. Recently in an e-workshop organized by the School in association with ASI Consulting Group international quality experts Shin Taguchi (CTO, ASI), and Alan Wu (VP, ASI) shared insights on Robust Engineering and Optimization. 

Following Subir’s goal to take the concept of quality to the common citizens of India and making it their personal need and responsibility, the faculty members at Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability are in the process of organizing web-based awareness programs.

The School further aims to develop newer modules in Industry 4.0 and AIML.

Pondering on it Prof. Chaturvedi remarked, “With the aim of researching this impact as well as the utilized methods a comprehensive analysis of the effect of Industry 4.0 on quality control is imperative. The integration of wireless sensor networks and IIoT is a substantial challenge and it should be implemented to guide engineers to make the correct decisions. As a consequence, by utilizing machine learning and smart sensors, irregularities could be automatically accommodated by the process in order to guarantee the best possible quality of the final products. It is particularly important to integrate and apply the tools of Industry 4.0 to quality control in order to decidedly increase the precision of the measurement.”

More about Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability: http://www.iitkgp.ac.in/department/RE

The article has been written in collaboration with various authors from the Subir Chowdhury School of Quality and Reliability

An incredible moment

Times of India   India Education Diary

Close to 150 members of the Batch of 1970, together with their spouses celebrated their 50th graduation anniversary at IIT Kharagpur recently in a grand celebration titled the ‘Golden 2020 Reunion’ (from Jan 24-26). Batch members congregated from all over the world to commemorate the occasion with the twin inaugurals of ‘ADDA’ – their batch’s gift to the campus community,  along with the Alumni Clock Tower which now stands as a gift from the passionate Kgpians across the alumni batches.

The Clock Tower

The Alumni Clock Tower was inaugurated by Shri Amit Khare, IAS, Secretary, MHRD, Govt of India, who lauded the IIT Kharagpur alumni for their thoughtful gift to the campus community. “As the District Collector of Darbhanga, which had two clock towers, I often wondered the need for them when people had their wristwatches to look at the time. I soon realized that they were great socializing points. Both ADDA and the Alumni Clock Tower would be places of interaction and exchange of ideas, which is what great institutions facilitate,” said Mr. Khare during the inauguration.

The Clock Tower has been designed by renowned architect and alumnus of the Institute, the late I.M. Asthana, for whom this tower was the last project. Thanking the batch for their sustained support to the Institute, Director of IIT Kharagpur, Prof. V.K. Tewari, said, “The Clock Tower may be made to display more features in the future, such as digital display of the temperature, humidity or announcements of major events. IIT Kharagpur has the largest infrastructure, students, faculty as well as alumni of all the IITs. With this enormous resource, particularly the assistance and mentorship of the alumni, no dream is impossible to achieve.”

Mr Khare (third from right) with the other dignitaries at the Clock Tower inauguration

Mr. Arjun Malhotra, a pioneering figure in the Indian software industry, Co-Founder of HCL, and a top fundraiser among the Batch of 1970, suggested that a commemorative postage stamp could be released by the government  on the occasion of IIT Kharagpur’s 70th anniversary next year.

‘ADDA’, the batch’s gift to the campus on their golden anniversary, is an expansive area with a sculpted garden and varied seating arrangement. Renowned architect Abin Chaudhuri designed the gigantic red emblem that marks out the space. Speaking on behalf of the batch, Mr. Ranbir Gupta, President of the IITKGP Foundation USA and reputed US-based architect, said,”’ ADDA’ – which reads the same from left to right and right to left – means different things to different people, but it belongs to the IIT Kharagpur’s alumni, its students, its faculty, the staff and the entire community of IIT Kharagpur. This beautiful piece that sits at the crossroads on the campus is a small token of our appreciation for the Institute.”

The ADDA plaque

The Batch of 1970 was dubbed “The Incredibles” during the celebrations, and not without reason. Iconic Schools and Centres – G.S. Sanyal School of Telecommunications, Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure and Design, PK Sinha Centre of Bioenergy, MN Faruqui Innovation Centre – have been founded by leading members of the batch. Batch leaders have also come forward to fund chair professorships, various flagship programs of the Institute, workshops, advanced tech labs, for yet to be instituted schools and academies and have also pitched in, together with other alumni, to reach internet connectivity to the hostels. Together they raised Rs 1.1 crore recently as a ‘Super Endowment Batch’, donating on behalf of even their departed classmates, to name a classroom in the Nalanda academic complex after their batch.

ADDA being inaugurated by Mr. Ron Gupta (second from right)

“The reason why the Batch of 1970 will remain a ‘Model Batch’ for all times to come is not because of a few of its active members. The synergy among the Batch is unique and incomparable,” said Prof. Subrata Chattopadhyay, Dean, Alumni Affairs. To enable batch members to relive their joyous student days, the Grand Reunion was held simultaneously with the Spring Fest. ‘The Incredibles’ were seen partaking Spring Fest’s unique fare of entertainment, that included top performers like Divine and Ritviz, from the front circles among the audience.

Together with alumni all over the world, members of the Batch of 1970 also contributed for the setting up of the Alumni Clock Tower. “This is going to serve as a beacon for the entire campus,” said Mr. Gupta, who, as President of the IITKGP Foundation USA, has led the fundraising efforts. On behalf of his batch, Mr. Gupta also promised to fund a ‘Center of Happiness’ and a ‘Hall of Fame’ in the premises of the Technology Students’ Gymkhana.

Batch of 1970 at the ADDA

“The Center of Happiness, to be established in association with the Rekhi Centre for the Science of Happiness, will be a huge space at the Gymkhana devoted to students’ wellbeing where they can pursue their individual interests, be it listening to music or practising yoga,” said Prof. William Mohanty, President of Technology Students Gymkhana. The Hall of Fame at the Gymkhana will record the major extracurricular achievements of the students.

Art of Gift, Gift to Art

The Telegraph       India Today       Hindustan Times       Yahoo News          Business Standard        DevDiscourse       Times Now       Jagran Josh

IIT Kharagpur’s Academy of Classical and Folk Arts has roped another key patron with US-based alumnus Mukund Padmanabhan donating ₹52 Lakh to this one of its kind outreach unit in the IIT system. The funding is towards building a music auditorium with a digitally enhanced learning environment, conducting thematic workshops on classical and folk arts and engaging teaching fellows.

Plans have been drawn to set up a digital classroom for music training in proscenium setting as distance mode teaching-learning with aesthetic and acoustically appropriate interiors. Two teaching positions are also being created for providing training on classical music and arts on a regular basis.

The Academy will offer training in music, fine arts and the performing arts, and also introduce credit courses in the forms of electives and micro-specializations. Additionally, it will create national and international outreach programs for dissemination and collaborative research on science and technology interventions in Indian classical music and other classical arts. The Academy will also be a hub to create teaching-learning resources for Indian classical music and other classical arts.

“While the Institute will provide the required space we are thankful to Mukund who has come forward to patronize this initiative. This new pedagogy in teaching and learning these classical and folk art forms will go a long way in preserving the core fundamentals of the traditional art form,’ said Subrata Chattopadhyay, Dean Alumni Affairs and Avinash Gupta Chair Professor.

Students of IIT Kharagpur will get the unique opportunity to explore this transdisciplinary program in classical and folk arts. Prof. Pallab Dasgupta and Prof. Joy Sen who are heading this initiative are enthusiastic about introducing students of engineering and architectural disciplines and encourage them to supplement the highly-competitive technical education through the use of artistic talents.

“Students of IIT Kharagpur constitute a rich talent pool of cultural virtuosity combined with exceptional creative intellect. We believe the Academy will open up new forays for expression of this talent, nurtured through a deeper understanding of our unique cultural heritage, and study through the lens of Science and Technology”, expressed the duo.

An MoU signed recently will also involve Mukund’s non-profit organization Guru Krupa Foundation. Dr. Mukund Padmanabhan is an expert in the domain of finance specializing in statistical financial modeling though he pursued his education in the field of Electronics and Electrical Engineering.  After completing his B.Tech. from IIT Kharagpur in 1987 from the Dept. of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, he did Masters and Doctoral degrees from UCLA in electrical engineering.  Mukund set up Guru Krupa Foundation, a New York-based charitable foundation to support social, educational and cultural initiatives.

Talking about the Academy Mukund said, “IIT is an institution that is known for hosting the best and brightest technical talent in India. Developing and excelling in a modern scientific approach to all things is required to make practical progress and advance our knowledge about the world we live in. However, traditional art and culture are also very important as it defines our history and represents our roots. From my point of view, the newly formed Academy of Classical and Folk Arts at IIT KGP represents a very creative experiment.”

According to him, the Academy serves three purposes – a non-technical creative outlet for the students and staff, enabling traditional forms of creative expression (music and arts) to be examined through the lens of technology and modern science, and introducing future leaders to these traditional art forms, it helps preserve the art forms for posterity.

Mukund’s philanthropic organization Guru Krupa Foundation will be involved in supporting the activities of the Academy. Guru Krupa Foundation has a charter of promoting the acquisition of knowledge, preservation of knowledge that we have already acquired (in the form of our cultural heritage) and also helping the disadvantaged in society.

“Support for the Academy of Classical and Folk Arts aligns well with this charter. In the near term, GKF will provide financial support, for instance, we are already providing support for Academy workshops that are planned for the 2020 year. Besides IIT KGP is my alma mater and it gives me great satisfaction to be able to give something back to the institution that laid the foundation for my professional life. It is my privilege to be able to give back to the institution that laid the foundation for my career,” he said.

The Academy has had additional contributions and support from other alumni, including Arjun Malhotra and Kiran Seth. Arjun and his associates has also been major contributors to the Academy. The IIT Kharagpur Foundation in the US has been actively working towards bringing forward more alumni towards this initiative.

“We are proud to bring alumnus like Mukund Padmanabhan in active engagement with their alma mater,” said alumnus and President of the Foundation, Ron Gupta.

Attempts are being made to collaborate with corporate houses with CSR goals towards preserving the scientific heritage and culture of India in the lines of IIT Kharagpur’s SANDHI programme funded by the Ministry of Human Resources Development, Govt. of India.

Mukund is optimistic about alumni contributions driving areas that break away from the traditional expertise of the IITs.

“Historically, many advances have been made by cross-pollination of ideas. Enabling additional areas in which the traditional expertise of IITians can be applied could lead to great advances in those areas and also develop new applications for traditional expertise. Hence, support for new areas like the Academy of Arts is a good way of paying our dues forward to our alma mater. Who knows where this cross-pollination may lead!” – remarked Mukund.

Photo Credit: University of California, Los Angeles

Going forward

Professor Tony McNally, Director- International Institute for Nanocomposites Manufacturing; Director-National Polymer Processing Centre of WMG, was the Chief Guest at the International Conference on Advances in Polymer Science and Technology (APSRT) being held at IIT Kharagpur between September 24-27 by the Rubber Technology Centre of the Institute. He spoke to KGP Chronicle on the legacy of Lord Bhattacharyya and WMG’s long relationship with IIT Kharagpur.

On Lord Bhattacharyya and WMG:

Lord Bhattacharyya with Margaret Thatcher (Courtesy: WMG website)

Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya was the Founder of the WMG in 1980 at a time when British industry was in dire straits and needed help. He was a man before his time. He was a visionary. He had the idea of merging academic excellence with industrial relevance so that the results of academic research could be translated quickly and, more importantly, industries could get the help of universities quickly. He had this idea at a time when many were not interested. So he approached the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick. Lord Bhattacharyya, along with a secretary, started WMG and here we are 40 years later with 10 buildings, tens and millions of pounds in turnover, 300 PhD students, 300 post-doctoral researchers and about 2000 staff and internationally focussed units.

Over the decades, Lord Bhattacharyya built relations with industrial partners and leading companies. Most of the early successes were with Indian industry – Tata Motors for example. He was great friend of Ratan Tata and following from that success he started working with companies like TVS in India. But the key contribution he made in UK was that he brokered the purchase of Jaguar Land Rover by the Tata group, thereby creating thousands of jobs in the UK that are in existence today because of Lord Bhattacharyya’s contribution. That is a tremendous legacy to leave.

Eventually, Lord Bhattacharyya’s services came to be of great demand by other industries,other universities around the world and particularly by other governments. He ended up being advisor to many governments – South Africa for instance- over many years. The model that he adopted is being discussed in great detail by other countries, such as in Australia, which is looking very closely at this model of co-location of industry with an university department.

Pix courtesy WMG website

The other major contribution of Lord Bhattacharyya was in teaching, particularly teaching for industry. He set up many courses related to the needs of industry – supply chain, logistics, manufacturing systems engineering, engineering management and so on. As a consequence, today there are 13-14 different executive courses run by WMG which are very popular. The other model he introduced was designing bespoke engineering programs for companies. There are many people who work in companies who have not been able to go to universities for some reason. What he used to do is design programs from the scratch so that employees could attend university – one week per month they would study at the university and the other weeks of the month be with the company. This proved to be very popular. WMG has implemented this model while working with Jaguar, with Tyson Technology.

Overall, the contribution is immense in terms of the opportunities he gave people, like myself, also the model which is now being adopted across the world on how to transfer research to industry, how to train industry or transfer skillset that the industry really needs..

On WMG’s collaboration with IIT Kharagpur:

Prof. McNally at the International Conference on APSRT, where he was Chief Guest at the inauguration function

Lord Bhattacharyya was very proud of being an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur. I joined WMG six years ago, and since then have been witness to an integrated system of PhD programs, Masters and UG programs. Then there is also the UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) link with IITs, especially IIT Kharagpur, and there is a drive for collaboration to focus on global challenges like clean water, energy, sustainability, recycling and electrification of transport. And this is an area that IIT Kharagpur, WMG and Tata Group, especially Tata Motors are very much focussed on. As I speak, there is a delegation from IIT Kharagpur at WMG looking at the battery facility.

So the plan on electrification of vehicles is already moving and the reason why I accepted the invitation to come to the International conference on Polymer Science and Rubber Technology is that we wanted to do exactly the same kind of research with new materials, polymers and rubber technology, functionality, and intelligent materials. The Rubber Technology Centre at IIT Kharagpur is globally famous, long established, with its alumni spread all over the world, occupying top positions in universities and industry. Unfortunately, UK has not invested greatly in rubber technology in universities, so it makes sense to collaborate with the best.

Prof. McNally delivered his plenary lecture at the APSRT conference on ‘Composites of Functionalized 1D/2D Nanomaterials and Polymers

WMG also has collaboration with IIT Kharagpur in autonomous vehicles. WMG is working on driverless cars and driverless transport. WMG is also an international partner of IIT Kharagpur’s Centre for Advanced Manufacturing. Also, we have students of IIT Kharagpur come over WMG for internships and Masters. This has been historically in the case of Metallurgy but now we are looking at Joint PhDs as well.

On carrying forward Lord Bhattacharyya’s legacy:

Lord Bhattacharyya’s shoes are very difficult to fill because he was unique. It would be a silly thing to even try to do that. We will carry on as usual. But there is, I believe, a vast influence missing. As a university we will try to get another person of similar standing who had influence in the government, around the world, and in industry and try to possibly continue with the legacy. The groundwork is set and the foundations are strong. Lord Bhattacharyya used to meet professors every month and his favourite phrase during that time was ‘consolidate’. Nobody could stand still and his directive was “go, go”, “build, build”. If you hear that once a month it becomes instilled in you. So that mentality is there. In that sense, we will continue to build on the foundations. But we need someone as influential as Lord Bhattacharyaa so that we can have that kind of presence globally.

Banner and Pics of Prof. McNally: Suman Sutradhar

When one great is inspired by another

Can industry and academia work together to promote the overall competitiveness of a sector through exchange of ideas and innovation, through synthesis of organizational and academic practice and discipline? The jury may be out on that one, yet there is one example that not only tilts the scale heavily towards the potential of success of a collaborative engagement such as this, but also serves as a model par excellence on account of the precedence that it has set: The Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) founded by illustrious British-Indian engineer, academic, manufacturing expert and leading consultant for industry and governments — late Lord Sushanta Kumar Bhattacharyya

Now, almost four decades later, inspired by Lord Bhattacharya’s accomplishment in driving innovation through the WMG, one of UK’s leading research centres, his alma mater IIT Kharagpur seeks to create a similar impact in Indian manufacturing through the institution of a Chair Professorship in his name. The ‘Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya Chair Professorship Award’ is envisioned and supported by yet another eminent alumnus and academician, Professor Tapan Bagchi, who has set up an endowment for an amount of ₹75, 00,000/- to cover the expenses of the award.

But what is his vision behind this?

Professor Bagchi rues the huge gaps in Indian manufacturing to this date. “70 years have passed since this country became independent, and yet today, most of its peer nations – large and small – have moved way ahead, whether in income per capita, productivity growth or human development index,” he says. “Throughout these years, the government has to an extent prioritised farm output and primary education, but in sharp contrast the typical Indian hand still lacks the skills needed to add meaningful value to the huge stock of resources—the economic factors of production—at its disposal. Even as we exhort industry to Make in India, our products and services don’t sell even domestically, because of serious deficiencies in quality and cost.”

This is precisely the scenario that he hopes will change through the efforts of the incumbent who will drive state-of-the-art teaching, research development and industrial collaboration at the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “I dream of making the Kumar Bhattacharyya Chair Professorship in Mechanical Engineering at IIT Kharagpur one of this Institute’s most prestigious academic appointments. This Chair should deliver a fraction of what Lord did in his sojourn,” says Dr Bagchi, referring to the establishment of the WMG at the University of Warwick and its role in reinvigorating the British manufacturing industry through knowledge transfer.

The WMG provides research, education and knowledge transfer in engineering, manufacturing and technology directly to manufacturing stalwarts of UK, including the producers of Jaguar. A faculty at the Centre is directly engaged in applied research, the goal being to innovate, patent and commercialize technologies that can impact product design. Each of them is an eminent scholar and possesses significant publication and teaching record as well.

It is expected that the Chair Professor at IIT Kharagpur will also lead a similar mission, leading to aggressive and game-changing strides in design and technology in every engineering field that the Institute may be engaged in. This will enable Indian manufacturers to substitute or displace their existing products, facilitate import substitution and make the quality of Indian products globally export-worthy.

Dr Bagchi notes that UK manufacturers value WMG so much that over thirty years they have continued to send their engineers, designers, technicians and others to WMG. “Even in the US and Germany, such single-handed reinvigoration of manufacturing through research and knowledge transfer is rare,” he says. That realisation is also where the inspiration, the thought of this Chair Professorship germinated. “Could we not someday replicate these in some bit in KGP for Indian manufacturers (what Lord and WMG had done for UK manufacturers)?”

Expectations

It is of course a tall task to live up to a legacy such as this. In Dr Bagchi’s own words, “The incumbent must be ambitious, striving to make India a force to reckon with in manufacturing in select sectors. He must be able to shape India’s manufacturing future by bringing the technological prowess of IIT Kharagpur to real products and manufacturing methods. He should be given to understand that this is an unconventional professorship that counts patents filed and conversions achieved, not papers published.”

The professor also refers to passion for hands-on engineering work, the initiative to reach out to Indian companies in manufacturing, and very importantly, the ability to convince the Indian government to vigorously expand vocational training programmes, allowing even graduate engineers to be trained as welders, robot assemblers and expert construction workers.

“This is selective skill development, a key human resource development strategy followed by China, learnt from the Germans. Some of you might know, interning technicians from China built the thermal 1.1 MW power plant at Bilaspur and bronze-cladded Sardar Patel’s statue. Indians were unavailable for these. Why should it be so?”

Memories of a legend

Professor Bagchi’s association with Lord Bhattacharya, also known as Baron Bhattacharya in his lifetime, goes back a long way. It was while he was planning a five-year B Tech/M Tech programme at IIT Kharagpur in 2012, focused on new product development, that he visited Coventry to see for himself how the WMG worked. 

“Lord Bhattacharyya wholeheartedly supported this and hosted my visit, introducing me to WMG researchers, product designers, factory personnel and technology managers and spending quality time with me himself,” recalls Professor Bagchi. Much of what he learnt during that visit was built into the five-year UG/PG QEDM programme eventually launched at Kharagpur.

But it is not just his brilliance or his immense impact on British industry and economy that has left a mark. “Not only did he introduce me to WMG and participate in technical or constructive discussions, he and Mrs Bhattacharya, along with Dr Sujit Banerjee and family, also interacted with me personally and ensured that my stay was comfortable and I was well cared for. To this day, I remain deeply grateful for that and remember them fondly.”

A Kgpian for A Kgpian

Alumnus and eminent academician Prof. Tapan Bagchi (DSc/2012), is setting up a Chair Professorship in the memory of illustrious alumnus Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya who recently passed away. An MoU to this effect was signed last week with Prof. Bagchi to this effect.

The objective of the ‘Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya Chair Professorship Award’ will be to carry out state-of-the-art teaching, research development and industrial collaboration at the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Lord Bhattacharyya was a renowned academic, manufacturing expert and leading consultant for industry and governments. He served as a Professor at the University of Warwick. The entrepreneur in him led him to found the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG), UK’s leading research and innovation centre. He did his BTech in 1960 in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur. He has contributed immensely to his alma mater through spearheading various collaborations between the Institute and WMG in areas encompassing design and manufacturing, composites and sustainable materials, sound quality engineering, medical technology and healthcare, hybrid vehicles and steel technology. WMG also became the international partner of IIT Kharagpur’s Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology in 2015. Lord Bhattacharyya passed away in February 2019. (Click here to read more on Lord Bhattacharyya)

To honour the contributions of Lord Bhattacharyya, Prof. Tapan Bagchi, who himself is a stalwart and academic expert in multifarious domains and has been associated with IIT Kharagpur and various other academic institutions as faculty and as Director, is setting up an endowment for an amount ₹75, 00,000/- to cover the Chair Award expenses for perpetuity.

WMG set up by Late Prof Lord Bhattacharyya and the Warwick University too, have agreed to support this initiative.

Prof. Bagchi is currently serving as Adjunct Professor at IIT Kharagpur. The students and researchers have been benefitted with his dynamic expertise in areas including  Specialty Chemicals Manufacturing, Production Planning, Supply Chain Management, TQM, Product Engineering, Process Engineering, Technology Transfer, Petrochemicals R&D, Facilities Planning, Economic and Cost Analysis and Corporate Planning. He was previously faculty at the Dept. of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Vinod Gupta School of Management before joining Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (Shirpur) and KiiT University (Bhubaneswar) as Director. He has also served as faculty at IIT Kanpur, IIT Bombay and has an academic association at present with IIM Lucknow. IIT Kharagpur awarded him D.Sc. in 2012.

Prof. Bagchi has also set up a modern Reading Room cum Lounge in the Institute’s Central Library.

Gurudakshina

Telegraph

The golden boy of IIT Kharagpur, Vinod Gupta, the US-based entrepreneur and philanthropist, is back and this time to honour his former faculty. Vinod Gupta made a contribution of USD 100,000 to his alma mater to set up a Chair Professorship endowment in the name of Prof. A S Davis who was his teacher for the courses of thermodynamics, air conditioning and refrigeration.

While gifting the cheque of USD 100,000 on March 25, to IIT Kharagpur Director, Prof. P P Chakrabarti, Vinod remarked on the teaching style of Prof. Davis which strengthened his analytical bent of mind, observation and decision-making skills throughout his life.

“Prof. Davis emphasized that the process was more important than the results. I was one among the hundreds of students and he personally saw to it that we learned our courses well through mentorship and socialization. He was a great communicator which added to his brilliance as a teacher along with his wit and practicality as a human being,” reminisced Vinod in his usual way while remembering his golden moments of the 60s’ at IIT Kharagpur.

I am confident that despite the increasing teacher-student ratio, there are teachers who innovate pedagogical methods to augment individual attention and mentorship,” he asserted.

Chairs help recruit and retain excellent academics and also acknowledge their exemplary contribution and also facilitate engaging external faculty experts. Further Chairs offer resources to existing faculty to carry on outstanding research work and associated activities such as outreach programs in addition to teaching.

The endowment for Prof. A. S. Davis Chair Professorship will be used to pay a top-up salary to a senior professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the area of Thermodynamics to carry out the state-of-the-art teaching, research and other development in the department.

Vinod Gupta has also promised to support part of a new extension building for the Vinod Gupta School of Management and a Student’s Activity arena in Agricultural and Food Engineering department confirmed IIT Kharagpur Director Prof. Chakrabarti in a social media announcement.

“Vin’s contribution to the Institute is at multiple levels, starting from seed funding management and law education in the IIT system, providing scholarships, supporting infrastructural developments and science and technology competition for school students. Now this Chair Professorship endowment which will directly benefit teaching and research,” said Prof. Subrata Chattopadhyay, Dean, Alumni Affairs, IIT Kharagpur.

“Another aspect where Vin has contributed significantly is the Alumni Department Engagement Program. Today we have formalized it and call it ADEP but several departments and schools have been benefited by Vin’s involvement in offering foreign internships or supporting student exchange and faculty exchange programs. We are encouraging the alumni to engage with ADEP to facilitate students placement, internship, exchange, guest talks, department funding requirements etc.,” he added.

Alumnus Honours Former Faculty

Who Was Prof. A S Davis?

It was 1965 . . . few pairs of eyes rolled watching a boy being grabbed by his neck from his room D-231 at RK Hall, by a Professor and taken to the laboratory.

The Professor was A S Davis from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT Kharagpur. The young boy was Vinod Gupta (B.Tech./AG/1967), now an entrepreneur and philanthropist. Recently, Vinod has donated USD 100,000 to his alma mater IIT Kharagpur to set up a Chair Professorship in the memory of Prof. Davis.

The teacher who won’t let me miss my lessons . . .

It was 1962, when a boy from Rampur Maniharan, a village near UP’s Saharanpur entered the gates of the first IIT. After admission, he was allotted Room No. D-231 in the Radhakrishnan Hall of Residence (RK Hall). There he met Prof. Davis for the first time where the latter was the warden.

Vinod Gupta during his student life at IIT KGP

“I was one among the hundreds of students who knew him and took courses from him. In our times, teachers like Prof. Davis personally saw to it that we learned our courses well. He made sure that we learned the missed lesson, our lab work was done right before we left. He insisted that the answer to every question was done on one page, on the right side, and the left side was for our calculations,” reminisces Vinod who took two courses from him, one in Thermodynamics and the other in air conditioning and refrigeration.

But it was much more than the teachings of a professor influencing a student’s life . . .

“Prof. Davis emphasized that the process was more important than the results. His teachings have influenced my life in a very significant way. But that was one among the several influencing factors he had on me. Prof. Davis used to spend a lot of time in the Hall, mentoring students through long hours of socialization. What inspired me most about him was that, besides being a brilliant teacher and a great communicator, he was an extremely practical human being with a wit equally matching his brilliance,” remarked Vinod in his usual way while remembering his golden moments of the 60s’ at IIT Kharagpur.

Honouring my Professor . . .

“I believe the easiest but the most profound way to influence the world is to uplift the education system. That was my inspiration in setting up a scholarship in my department at IIT Kharagpur within 5 years of my graduation. That remains my inspiration in setting up this endowment, 51 years after my graduation,” he said.

The endowment for Prof. A. S. Davis Chair Professorship will be used to pay a top-up salary to a senior professor at the Department of Mechanical Engineering in the area of Thermodynamics to carry out the state-of-the-art teaching, research and other development in the department.

Vinod Gupta, today synonymous to the introduction of management and legal education in the IIT system. The Vinod Gupta School of Management and the Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law are Tier-I schools in areas of business management and law in India. Despite setting up his base in USA, Vin, as he is popularly known at IIT KGP and among fellow alumni, has continued his philanthropic work at IIT KGP and in villages of Uttar Pradesh. Vinod has not only nurtured young talents and the education system but has also saluted those who have inspired him to excel.

Finding that one Prof. Davis of today . . .

I am confident despite the increasing teacher-student ratio, there are teachers who innovate pedagogical methods to augment individual attention and mentorship” hopes Vinod.