Tag: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

IIT Bay Area Leadership Conference 2022

Bay Area Alumni Community of Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur conducted the IIT Bay Area Leadership Conference 2022 in Santa Clara Convention Centre, California USA  on 27 August 2022. It is a nonprofit organization in California which is dedicated to the professional advancement of alumni from all IIT campuses who call the greater San Francisco Bay Area home. Every year towards the end of the summer, IITBAA organizes the IIT Bay Area Leadership Conference which is open to all IIT and non-IIT tech professionals. The annual conference typically brings together industry & academic luminaries, business leaders, engineers, startup founders, investors to gather and exchange knowledge through a power packed one day program.

The 2022 annual leadership conference held at Santa Clara in California, USA, witnessed participation by over 500 tech enthusiasts. The opening keynote of the conference was delivered by Dr. Arun Majumdar, Dean of Stanford School of Sustainability on the topic of “Future of Sustainability”. Dr. Majumdar, who is the Jay Precourt Provostial Chair Professor at Stanford University, emphasized the urgent global needs of sustainable and clean engineering systems, and compared the domain of sustainable energy as the “Next Computer Science” of the engineering industry. The keynote talk was followed by multiple lightning talks, panel discussions and fireside chats on various topics including AI, Quantum Computing, Electronic Design Automation, Successful Entrepreneurship, among many others. The closing remarks of Dr. T.V. Nagendra Prasad, the Consul General of India, San Francisco, emphasized the future needs of the startup ecosystem of India.

Dr. Arun Majumdar
Dean of Stanford School of Sustainability

Prior to joining Stanford, Dr. Arun Majumdar served as the Director of the Environmental Energy Technologies Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He was also appointed as the first Director of the Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), USA in September 2009 and serves on numerous advisory boards and boards of businesses, investment groups and non-profit organizations. Dr. Majumdar’s talk focused on the extreme scales of climate change witnessed by planet earth in the past two decades. With the emphasis on rapid increase in human population, he explained the “Tsunami of Energy Consumption” using visual graphs and comparisons with the daily lifestyle of a layman. He proposed a set of engineering challenges as the next-gen challenges of the 21st century which included electricity, HVAC, transportation and water, and multiple engineering ideas to mitigate the current climate trends. In a question answer session with Mr. Arnab Debnath, Vice President of IITBAA, he answered simple pointers which even a regular layman can implement to bring about a positive change. Overall the audience was extremely receptive of his message which ended on a cautious yet positive note –

” We do not inherit the planet from our ancestors, rather, we borrow it from our children.”

Dr. T.V. Nagendra Prasad
Consul General of India
San Francisco

Dr. T.V. Nagendra Prasad, Consul General of India in San Francisco, is a senior diplomat who served at Indian Missions in Tehran, London, Thimphu, Bern in various positions and was Ambassador of India to Turkmenistan from 2014-2018. He gave a motivating speech which emphasized on the topics of Indian startup ecosystem, recent India-US relations and the resourcefulness of the IIT alumni to the nation. He expressed his pride and joy in being part of the IIT Bay Area community and was delighted to speak to a diverse audience at the conference. Dr. Prasad shared the recent developments of India and the nation’s support to USA when India’s first Navy warship INS Satpura recently arrived at San Diego, USA harbour on August 13th 2022 under the aegis of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav which was a moment of pride for every Indian. He also emphasized and seconded the need of sustainable energy and environment, and expressed that the growing economy of India should be in this direction. He concluded the talk by encouraging the audience to contribute to the Indian startup ecosystem in every possible manner.

Among such insightful talks by leaders, the conference also hosted a first of its kind Campus Mixer Session. This event was intended as an informal gathering of alumni from each campus to huddle and bond during the lunch time. As the event needed prompt management and outreach, Anshu Agarwal, IITBAA Board Member coordinated with a team of volunteers to take ownership for each of IIT campuses. Arnab Debnath,Vice President of IITBAA and IIT KGP alumni, helped the volunteer Yajat Pandya to connect with local IIT KGP luminaries and drive the outreach of the campus mixer event. Over 55 IIT KGP alumni gathered at the KGP Mixer session and witnessed the presence of esteemed alumni like Mr. Arjun Malhotra, Mr. Prith Banerjee, Mr. Debu Chatterjee, and many others. With the generous support of Mr. Arjun Malhotra, the group was also able to include a unique full-sized IIT KGP flag around this event area. Mr. Prith Banerjee, CTO of ANSYS, talked about his recent book, “The Innovation Factory”. The entire KGP contingent were delighted with this initiative by the conference organizers and look forward to many more events of networking going forward.

Inputs : Yajat Pandya, Alumni of IIT Kharagpur & Volunteer of IITBAA
Email : yajatvp@gmail.com

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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Sincerely, yours…

Notable Alumnus Mr. Satyendranath Mukherjee (1976/B.Tech/ECE/AZ) instituted the “Dr. Phanindranath Mukherjee Memorial Award” and “Mrs. Sagarika Mukherjee Award” in honour of his father and mother respectively at IIT Kharagpur.

People say that the love of parents surpasses the zenith of affection for their children, but children honour their parents by being the answer of their prayers kept inside the vicinity of the heart. When we see an established individual, we apprise him or her for their hard work, dedication and efforts that helps them to earn a fortune but the parents are the one steering them through the bumpy ride of life, giving their children the assurance of being compassionate to both failures and successes. Sometimes children go beyond their way to mollify the resentment that life brings for their parents by being the heir of their true self, with the sincerity of intent pursuing their dreams by themselves. Children honour their parents in their hearts, cherish them not only with honesty and respect but also with kindness and affection. This honour has been bestowed by one of our notable Alumnus, Mr. Satyendranath Mukherjee who has instituted the Dr. Phanindranath Mukherjee Memorial Award and Mrs. Sagarika Mukherjee Award at IIT Kharagpur in honour of his father and mother respectively. This award recognizes one male and one female student for a reward based on their all-round performances. Dr. Mukherjee donated INR 70L as endowment to encourage the students of IIT Kharagpur to become role models to the world.

A lifetime trustee of IIT Kharagpur Foundation USA and a B. Tech in Electronics and Electrical Communications Engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 1976, Mr. Mukherjee was awarded the President of India Gold Medal for securing first position among all branches of Engineering in IIT Kharagpur.  He obtained his M. Tech. degree with distinction from the Netherlands and Ph.D from Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada. Listed as a noteworthy semiconductor engineer and researcher by Marquis Who’s Who, he is a retired Chief Scientist and Senior Director at Philips Research, North America, after serving as the Managing Director and is associated with Executive Management in the industrial R&D space of Intel Corp and Exel Microelectronics. He was the Department Head of Microelectronic Devices, Circuits and Systems where he conducted research on integrated circuit design, technology and applications in power electronics for a number of systems including lighting controls, displays, wireless communications and healthcare. He developed the world’s first 512K flash memory and holds the original patent on the cell. As the chairman of the board of directors of an international industrial affiliation (CABA) with over 350 industry members, he has spearheaded strategic and tactical planning of the organization operating in the space of building automation.

Dr. Satyendranath Mukherjee
(1976/B.Tech/ECE/AZ)
B. Tech in Electronics and Electrical Communications Engineering
Notable Alumnus of IIT Kharagpur

The students are selected based on the selection criteria with due weightage on academic record, active participation in departmental activities, Halls of Residences and in Technology Students Gymkhana.

This year for the first time Kavita, a third-year undergraduate student from the department of Ocean and Naval Architecture and Shubham Agrawal, a third-year undergraduate student from the department of Mechanical Engineering received these awards for their all-round performances in the fields of Academics, Departmental initiatives, activities in Gymkhana and the Hall of Residences.

Kavita
III year UG Student
Dept. of Ocean & Naval Architecture
IIT Kharagpur

Kavita, a third-year undergraduate student in the department of Ocean and Naval Architecture is currently the Tech Team Head at Kshitij, General Secretary in the Department Society, inter IIT team member of athletics and is quite involved in the hall activities says, “I am grateful for receiving this award as it is a token of appreciation for all those efforts I took as a fellow KGPian and it also motivates me to contribute more to this KGP community. Also, I am thankful to IIT Kgp alumni Mr. Satyen Mukherjee for this encouragement that motivates students like me. About my future plans, I will explore the corporate world for the next few years in the field of management. After that, I am planning to pursue MBA.”

Shubham Agarwal
III year UG Student
Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
IIT Kharagpur

Shubham Agrawal, a third-year undergraduate student in the Department of Mechanical Engineering from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh is the General Secretary of Maintenance of his Hall of Residence at IIT Kharagpur and is the Head of Finance at Gopali Youth Welfare Society, an NGO run by the students of IIT Kharagpur for the welfare of underprivileged students. “Apart from my academic curriculum, I am learning new skills and aim to become a professional software engineer. I enjoy using my skills and leadership qualities to contribute to the welfare of society. I am the topper in my department with 1st rank and was awarded the UPSTSE scholarship in school and received MCM Scholarship from my first year. I believe we as IITian should do some work for the community’s welfare. I am very thankful to Mr. Satyen Mukherjee sir for showing this love for IIT Kharagpur and for such an award that emphasizes leadership and community service.”

Dr. Mukherjee’s current areas of interest include education, elderly home healthcare, lighting controls systems, building wide energy management systems including HVAC appliances and renewable energy systems. He has also worked with the US federal (DOE, DoD, ARPA-E) and state agencies in promoting energy efficiency technologies. He had been engaged in making strategic planning for global R&D, interaction including serving on advisory boards with world class universities in the US, Canada and Europe like MIT, Stanford, Harvard, Columbia, RPI, U of T, IMEC and others. He has more than 25 patents and has published over 50 papers widely in conferences, journals and textbooks and has initiated research collaborations with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory on integrated controls and energy simulation in buildings.

IITKgp appreciates Mr. Mukherjee’s efforts and dedication and celebrates Kavita and Shubham’s accomplishments.

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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