Stories

Remembering Indramohan Asthana

Remembering Indramohan Asthana

“My buildings will be my legacy...they will speak for me long after I’m gone,” Julia Morgan, world famous architect, had said after a long and prolific career. Her sentiment would have been echoed by Indramohan Asthana, a much admired alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and a renowned architect. We are deeply saddened by his demise on the night of August 29, 2019. Asthana graduated from the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning with 1st Class Honours in 1959 and started his professional career as an architect the same year. And what an outstanding innings it turned out to be! His firm…
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A well deserved honour

A well deserved honour

The list of Young Alumni Achiever’s Award (YAAA) winners for 2019, announced recently by the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, straddles an amazing breadth of talent among young KGPians. The list not only includes pioneering researchers, indefatigable bureaucrats, police officers, change-makers, lawyers, film-makers, but also new-age entrepreneurs, some of whom are household names today. Among them are Abhinav Sinha, Chief Operating Officer, OYO Hotels and Homes, Chanakya Hridaya, Co-Founder & COO of BlackBuck, a company that is revolutionizing logistics in India, Nitin Babel, Co-founder at Niki.ai, a leading artificial intelligence company in India which is backed by Mr Ratan Tata,…
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Engineering is fine

Engineering is fine

If you happened to visit the Mechanical Engineering department or the Microfluidics Lab recently, you would have found a teenager deep in conversation with the research scholars. Not unusual? Then consider the fact that this young girl, not yet out of school, had travelled all the way from Singapore and elected to do her summer internship at IIT Kharagpur to resolve a question that was bothering her – to do engineering or not? It is not that such a question has bothered only Tanushree Banerjee – our visitor, who is presently a Grade 12 student of Singapore’s United World College…
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Passing by

Passing by

Dr. Soumyajit Mandal, T. and A. Schroeder Assistant Professor from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science of Case Western Reserve University, was at IIT Kharagpur recently. He took a week-long course on "Instrumentation and algorithms for biomedical imaging: MRI and Ultrasound" under the SGRIP program. During his stay, he also participated as a mentor in the induction program for 1st year UG students, sharing his experiences in college. Dr. Mandal himself was an outstanding student at IIT Kharagpur, graduating in 2002 in Electronics and Electrical Communication Engineering with top honours. He won the President’s Gold Medal, the Departmental…
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Kgpians Who Steered India’s Moonshot

Kgpians Who Steered India’s Moonshot

Careers360     India Today It was a week of celebration with India's moonshot Chandrayaan -2 being launched by Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) from the spaceport at Sriharikota at Andhra Pradesh. And this time too IIT Kharagpur has a reason to give its traditional tempo shout. Three Kgpians were among the noted scientists who played a key role in the successful launch of GSLV MkIII - M1/Chandrayaan -2. Alumnus Dr V Narayanan, an expert in cryogenic rocket propulsion technology, was responsible for the manufacture of GSLV rocket's cryogenic and liquid engines.  He did his MTech in Cryogenic Engineering in 1990…
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Ways of being

Ways of being

Star Tribune Subbiah Ramalingam (1956/BTech/ME), Emeritus Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, passed away on February 9, 2019. Fondly called Dr Ram, or simply Ram, by his legions of admirers, friends and well-wishers, he enjoyed a distinguished career as a researcher and teacher, spanning half a century. His major research included modelling thin films for tribological applications, intelligent sensors, real-time sensing for manufacturing automation, solid lubricants, thin film deposition processes and coating technology, machining theory, metal forming, and manufacturing automation. He is regarded as one of the pioneers in the study of machining processes,…
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FRSC for Kgpian Praveen Linga

FRSC for Kgpian Praveen Linga

Prof. Praveen Linga, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur has been elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC) for his contribution in the field of chemical sciences. Prof. Linga is Associate Professor Dean's Chair at the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, National University of Singapore (NUS). He did his M.Tech. in Chemical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur 2002. His received his doctoral degree from UBC, Vancouver. Prof. Linga's research interests include Gas hydrates, Carbon Dioxide Capture, Storage and Utilization, LNG Cold Energy Utilisation and Energy Storage, District Cooling and Seawater Desalination. He is championing three hydrate technologies for desalination, gas storage and data-centre…
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FRS for IIT KGP Alumnus

FRS for IIT KGP Alumnus

  India Today Dr. Sudipta Seal, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur has been recently elected as the Fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry for his contributions in the field of Chemical Sciences. Dr. Seal specializes in the areas of Nanomaterials processing and characterization, Nanobiotechnology, Materials for optics, sensors, coatings, fuel cells, Oxidation/Corrosion, Surface Science and Engineering and Chemical Mechanical Planarization. He is at present Department Chair of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Central Florida. Dr. Seal graduated from IIT Kharagpur in 1990 with B.Tech. in Metallurgy and Materials Engineering. He did MS in Metallurgy from the University of Sheffield…
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My life, My time @IITKgp

My life, My time @IITKgp

Puran Dang (1959/B.Tech/CE/RP) is Founder and Senior Advisor at Minuteman Group LLC, Lexington, Massachusetts. He is also a respected community leader and founder of many organizations such as the first IIT Alumni Group in the world, and a founding team member of TIE-Boston. He is Chairman Emeritus of MIT Heritage of the Arts of South Asia, and global ambassador of Akshaya Patra, which serves hot lunch to poor children in India and Nepal. Dang was awarded the Distinguished Service Award by his alma mater in 2010. His bittersweet memories: My life has been a strange amalgam of many happy and…
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Kgpian@SCR

Kgpian@SCR

Kgpian K Siva Prasad took charge as Principal Chief Operations Manager, South Central Railway on June 25, 2019. Prasad did M.Sc. in Applied Geology from the Dept. of  Geology and Geophysics at IIT Kharagpur in 1983. He belongs to the 1986 batch of Indian Railway Traffic Service (IRTS) officers. Prior to this assignment, he was holding the post of Principal Chief Commercial Manager, South Central Railway. During his 32 years of service, he has held several important executive and managerial positions in various Zonal Railways. It was during his stint as Chief Freight Traffic Manager on SCR, that the Zone achieved…
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