Tag: Researchers

The Unforgettable Soul – Markose Thomas Memorial Award

‘Be in love with your life. Every minute of it’ – Markose Thomas

The loss of a life is always mournful. The pain of losing someone is a shared emotion that we as humans endure with the silent grief of remembrance. No one can heal the heart that lost its purpose of existence, the least we can do is have empathy towards the departed soul. The physical presence may have perished but the aura of their beautiful soul shall remain forever. When we recollect to remember their attributes, we think of the ways they have contributed in our respective lives, the way they were with us be it the first encounter or the last goodbye. We say goodbye to people everyday with the hope to meet them tomorrow but with unsaid goodbyes, we actually feel to miss their everyday presence to remember them again. In remembrance of the Unforgettable Soul of Mr. Markose Thomas, Alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, Mr. Mathew Thomas (brother of Late Markose Thomas) along with Dr. Daibashish Gangopadhay (Markose’s friend) wanted to keep his memory and legacy alive by instituting the Markose Thomas Memorial Award for the best Research Paper from the Department of Computer Science & Engineering of IIT Kharagpur, in the honor of Late Markose Thomas.

In an unfortunate incident that took place on 6th July 2018, Mr. Markose Thomas left for the heavenly abode. Mr. Markose Thomas along with his friends went on a camping trip where he died after tragically drowning in a lake. His shocking and sudden death left his family and friends in a great distress.

MARKOSE THOMAS (23rd August, 1983 – 6th July, 2018)

Mr. Markose Thomas, is one of the illustrious alumnus of IIT Kharagpur who was born to Thomas Markose and Sara Thomas in Thiruvalla, Kerala. He was brought up in Bangalore & Kanpur. Mr. Thomas completed his B.Tech and M.Tech in Computer Science & Engineering in 2006 from IIT Kharagpur. A remarkable student of his batch, he took part in numerous well-known coding competitions like ACM and many more. He began his career as a Software Engineer at Google and worked there for 7 years. He was also one of the essential part of the team that started Coheisty in San Francisco. Apart from his work, Markose was really passionate about his interests and made sure he participated in all of them enthusiastically. He kept it real and was grounded. He was a great admirer of the quote “Be in love with your life. Every minute of it.” May the God almighty give enough strength to his family to bear this irreplaceable loss. We pray for eternal peace of his departed soul. He will always be remembered in our thoughts, prayers and action.

The Markose Thomas Memorial Award 2021-22 for the best paper in Computer Science and Engineering was awarded to researchers, Prof. Rajat Subhra Chakraborty, Computer Science & Engineering and Mr. Aniket Roy, M.Tech Student of Computer Science & Engineering of IIT Kharagpur for their paper titled, “ Towards Optimal Prediction Error Expansion based reversible image watermarking,” IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. Video Technol. 30(8): 2377-2390 (2020).

Mr. Aniket Roy
M.Tech in Computer Science & Engineering
IIT Kharagpur 

Mr. Aniket Roy and Prof. Rajat Subhra Chakraborty were elated to receive the award and expressed their gratitude for the same. Mr. Aniket remarked, M. Tech in Computer Science & Engineering remarked, ” Happy & Honoured. It was a privilege to be under the tutelage of Prof. Chakraborty and learn computer vision from Prof. Mukhopadhayay. Thank you will never be enough, I am happy I am sharing the award with you Sir..! A lot of dedication, hard work and determination was required to celebrate this award. I’m grateful to the Institution and the Donor for coming up with this award and encouraging the students for their efforts.”

Prof. Rajat Subhra Chakraborty
Computer Science & Engineering
IIT Kharagpur

While Prof. Rajat Subhra Chakraborty, Computer Science & Engineering, IIT Kharagpur  added,” Thank you for the intimation. I am extremely happy & grateful to receive this recognition.”

Inputs by: Ms. Namrata Sharma, Office of Outreach & Alumni Affairs, IIT Kharagpur
Email: namrata.iit02@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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IIT Kharagpur has set “Specialty Friction Reducers” in motion

  • IIT Kharagpur researchers have contributed to product development and commercialization of specialty friction reducers for challenging unconventional oilfield environments.

Recently, IIT Kharagpur researchers have contributed towards a new domain of indigenous innovation, “Specialty Friction Reducers” for unconventional oilfields and most significantly, this technique has led to commercialization of this product by an Indian Manufacturer, for the first time, for the global oil and gas industry.

“We have developed the technique for characterizing the specialty friction reducers involves a unique combination of drag reduction and viscometric measurements, specifically replicating the complex oilfield environment. The work further enabled correlation between the fundamental polymeric structures of the friction reducers and its performance in challenging unconventional oilfield environments (extremely high salinity/ hardness and high shear conditions)”, said Prof Sandeep D Kulkarni, the lead researcher and the Associate Professor of Deysarkar Centre of Excellence in Petroleum Engineering, IIT Kharagpur.

The research scholar, Navneeth Kumar Korlepara along with Prof Sandeep D Kulkarni, has worked and contributed extensively on this project as well as Prof Kiran Gore, the Assistant Professor of the Department of Chemistry and his group put invaluable inputs into this project. This research work was mainly sponsored by Dr. Asoke Deysarkar, Chairman of PfP Industries, USA who is also an eminent IIT Kharagpur alumnus. The automatic flow loop built by the team for drag reduction evaluation is first of its kind in the country and it was showcased at National Conference on Upstream Petroleum Engineering 2019 held in IIT Guwahati.  Several journal publications in this domain are underway.

To ensure practical impact of the above innovation, Dr. Kulkarni had initiated synergistic product development in collaboration with the US industry professionals (sponsor) and Indian manufacturers which has led to a first container of 18 tons of the developed specialty friction reducer being readied by the Indian manufacturer, MSME, Envitech Chemical Specialties Pvt. Ltd., for shipment to the US oil and gas industry.

 Congratulating the whole team, the IIT Kharagpur Director, Prof Virendra Kumar Tewari added, “Potentially, this Make-in-India exercise based on above indigenous innovation is expected to scale up, in the long run. The researchers need to work hard and make it a reality particularly for the MSME sectors to get benefited”. 

 Dr. Deysarkar said, “R & D efforts at IITs should ensure tangible value addition for the society and the country. Such innovations would strengthen Make-in-India and could make India Inc. part of global supply chain for a range of specialty products”.

Media Contact: Prof Sandeep D Kulkarni, Associate Professor

Email: sandeep.kulkarni@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. no.: +91-3222-284882

Contact: Paramita Dey, Junior Assistant

Email: media@iitkgp.ac.in, Ph. No.: +91-3222-282004