faculty – The KGP Chronicle

INAE Honours

The Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) has honoured four faculty members from IIT Kharagpur for their contributions in various fields of Engineering.

Prof. M M Ghangrekar, Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, Prof. Sudip Mishra, Professor, Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering and Prof. Soumitra Paul, Professor, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering have been elected as Fellows of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), by the Governing Council at its recent meeting. Further, Dr Pawan Goyal, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, has been selected for the INAE Young Engineer Award 2020.

Prof. M M Ghangrekar

Prof. Ghangrekar who is heading the School of Environmental Science & Engineering and Head, P.K. Sinha Centre for Bioenergy and Renewables, is a stalwart in the areas of Water & Wastewater Treatment and Recycling, Anaerobic Wastewater Treatment, Bioelectrochemical processes, MFC, MDC, and Waste to Energy. His wastewater treatment plant is all set to start test operations and convert sewage water generated in the campus into reusable water typically for washing, cleaning, gardening, toilet use etc and even for potable use. Further, he has developed a bio-toilet which can run recycle wastewater and also convert waste into energy.

Prof. Sudip Misra

Swan is a regal creature but at IIT Kharagpur’s Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering, it has found a new meaning – Smart Wireless Applications & Networking. SWAN is a group of researchers working with the research mentorship of Prof. Sudip Misra. The SWAN group focuses on research in smart systems enabling network technologies, especially, Ad-Hoc Networks, Sensor Networks, WiFi, WiMAX, Smart Grid Communications, Nano-communication Networks, Internet of Things, Software Defined Networks, and Big Data Networking. Some key products developed by Prof. Mishra and his research group include AgriSens: Sensor-Based Networking System for Improved Water Management of Irrigated Crops, AmbuSens: Ubiquitous Healthcare Monitoring for the Connected Era, Generic Wireless Sensor Network Kit v1.0, Physiological Wireless Sensor Network Kit, Agricultural Wireless Sensor Network Kit, Unmanned Aerial Platforms for Agriculture, Big-Sensor-Cloud Platform, Smartphone Apps for Physical Activity Sensing over Wireless Networks and many more. [Faculty Profile, Contact]

Prof. Soumitra Paul

Prof. Paul’s research interests are in the broad area of machining, grinding and cutting tool coating. He currently leads a group of students who are working on research problems as diverse as (i) finishability of oxide ceramic plasma sprayed coatings, (ii) development of diamond reinforced tribological thick coating and finishability of such coatings, (iii) high speed grinding of ceramics and carbon fibre reinforced ceramic matrix composites, (iv) environment friendly near dry micro-machining, (v) high speed grinding of aerospace metallic materials, etc. [Faculty Profile, Contact]

Prof. Pawan Goyal

In our information age, Prof. Goyal is dedicated to mining them from all across digital media. Some of the research problems include extracting and summarizing diverse opinions from online news and user-generated content, summarizing tweets in a disaster scenario for situational updates, and developing effective dialogue models. He is also actively working in the field of Sanskrit Computational Linguistics, where the focus is on developing a generic framework for solving a variety of NLP tasks such as word segmentation, morph analysis, dependency parsing, poetry to prose conversion, with a little task-specific annotated data. [Faculty Profile, Contact]

About INAE:

The Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE), founded in 1987 comprises India’s most distinguished engineers, engineer-scientists and technologists covering the entire spectrum of engineering disciplines. INAE functions as an apex body and promotes the practice of engineering & technology and the related sciences for their application to solving problems of national importance. The Academy also provides a forum for futuristic planning for the country’s development requiring engineering and technological inputs and brings together specialists from such fields as may be necessary for comprehensive solutions to the needs of the country. INAE honours Indian and Foreign nationals who are elected by “peer” committees in recognition of their personal achievements in engineering which are of exceptional merit and distinctive eminence in new and developing fields of technology.

Republic Day Honours

Two alumni and a faculty member from IIT Kharagpur have been conferred top awards by the NRI Welfare Society of India.

Sundeep Mukherjee (B.Tech./MM/1998)

Alumnus Dr. Sundeep Mukherjee has been named the recipient of the Hind Rattan Award, one of the highest Indian diasporic awards granted to non-resident Indians by the NRI Welfare Society of India. He belongs to the 1998 batch and did B.Tech. degree in Metallurgical & Materials Engineering. At present he is an Associate Professor at the Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, University of North Texas (UNT).

Mukherjee’s area of work involves Advanced Materials Development, Energy Conversion and Storage, Corrosion and Electrochemistry, Thin Films and Semiconductor Devices Nano-Materials, Bio-Materials, Metallic Glasses. He has over 50 journal and conference publications and delivered several keynote and invited talks.

As per a UNT report, Mukherjee has been collaborating with Indian academia to create Indo-U.S. Joint Center for Development of Durable Advanced Materials for Bioimplants.

The Award was announced on the eve of Republic Day, January 25, 2020 at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas celebrations.

Ajit Behera (Ph.D/MM/2016)

The day witnessed another alumnus, Dr. Ajit Behera receiving the Yuva Rattan Award at the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra, Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India. Dr. Behera received PhD from IIT Kharagpur in 2016. His specialisation in the Dept. of Metallurgical & Materials Engineering dealt with Multi-layered NiTi thin film Shape Memory Alloy.

Behera is currently an Assistant Professor at the Dept. of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at NIT Rourkela. He is associated with the Process Metallurgy Group and Surface Engineering Group at the Institute and works in the areas Ni-Ti Smart materials, 4D Additive Manufacturing, Plasma Surface Engineering, Processing of smart materials and superalloys, Characterisation of Materials, Utilisation of Industrial Waste. He has over 30 research publications and is currently working on various industry projects.

Dr Anway Mukhopadhyay, Assistant Professor, Dept. of Humanities and Social Sciences

Back home, Dr. Anway Mukhopadhyay, Assistant Professor, Humanities and Social Sciences has been conferred the Yuva Rattan Award for his contribution in the field of education. Dr. Mukhopadhyay is an expert in areas involving Indic Studies, Gender Studies, Cultural Studies, Comparative Literature, Translation, Folklore Studies etc.

The Yuva Rattan Award honours youth for their service towards the Nation and celebrates the spirit National Youth Day (January 12), the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.

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.

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.