Tag: SPARC

First Lady Deputy Director for the First IIT of the Nation

It is an immense pleasure and delight to welcome Prof. Rintu Banerjee as the new Deputy Director of IIT Kharagpur. Prof Banerjee has created a historical breakthrough by being the first woman to take over the charge of a Deputy Director of the first IIT of the country and the world.

Prof. Banerjee is the Founder Head and is presently the Chairperson of P K Sinha Centre for Bioenergy and Renewables. She has also served as the Head of the Centre for Rural Development, Innovative and Sustainable Technology and Head of the Department of Agricultural & Food Engineering at IIT Kharagpur for 3 years. In her career span, she has held many important portfolios including Chairperson of Centre of Excellence in Precision Agriculture & Food Nutrition; Nodal Coordinator for Australia and New Zealand for SPARC & Coordinator for RuTAG.

Prof. Banerjee has completed her PhD in Microbial Biotechnology from Chemical Engineering Department at IIT Kharagpur. From the beginning of her career she was engaged in industry-academy collaborative research activities. As an outcome of her research, she has transferred several technologies to different industries and have many national/international patents to her credit. Recently, she has successfully transferred her 1G & 2G Ethanol technology to the industry for commercialization.

She has published two books in the area of environmental biotechnology and OMICS Based Approaches in Plant Biotechnology. Besides that she has handled several government/private/industry sponsored projects that includes TBT, DST, ICAR, UAI, ICMR, IMPRINT, SPARC, SERB and many other multinational industries. She has visited several countries as a Visiting Professor and for various scientific collaborations that includes Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Egypt, Australia, US, Taiwan, Japan, UK, South Korea, Laos, Thailand, Dubai, Doha, Brazil, Canada, Malaysia to name a few.

Prof. Banerjee was conferred the Panjabrao Deshmukh Award for Outstanding Women Scientist from ICAR; Best Woman Bioscientist form Biotech Research Society of India; Young Scientist Award’ 94 from the Association for Food Scientists and Technologists (India); Dr. Prem Dureja Endowment; Institute Chair Professor from IIT Kharagpur; Louis Pasteur Award; Madan Mohan Malviya Award and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award. She has also received the Most Inspiring Women Engineer/Scientist for the year 2014, for the exemplary work in the field of Science & Technology by Engineering Watch, New Delhi and has more than 6000+ citations under her name.

IIT Kharagpur wishes her all the best for future endeavours.

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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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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Face to Face with Alumni

“We require transformation and transition to meet future goals in terms of Alma Connect”, said Prof. V K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur who indulged in a face to face virtual meet with the Distinguished Alumnus of IIT Kharagpur from India & overseas on 27 December 2022. He focused on some key areas where alumni support is needed to provide exposure to students and to initiate infrastructure development for IIT Kharagpur. The meet started with the recitation of Sararswati Vandhana which revitalized the spirits in a cold December morning.

The opening remarks were presented by Prof. Amit Patra, Deputy Director, IIT Kharagpur, who gave us a broader perspective on  self sustenance of the institute and pointed out the three C’s that includes Connect, Communicate and Contribute to communicate well with our Alumni. He added that apart from providing statistical data to them, we may encourage our Alumni to engage in meaningful dialogue. Once an active communication channel is established the process of contribution will happen naturally as our Alumni have always been very generous to their Alma Mater. Not only through monetary contribution, their knowledge, mentorship, guidance and participation will be helpful in various institute activities.

Shri Peter Chan, Distinguished Alumni and Chief Guest of the 68th Convocation of IIT Kharagpur addressed the Alumni and shared his experience of visiting his alma mater after 58 long years. He commented that, “So much energy is concentrated on the technical side of the institution but the wellness of the whole campus still lags behind for the staff and support staff including the cooks and malis. You all are one big family, unless you have the family feeling around the campus you cannot move forward in any organization. Being a part of the team is very important.” He concluded that he would give some ideas of implementation and suggestions for improvement. The Alumni can come forward and contribute their valuable feedback because at times you need outside perspective for a better scope of performance.

Shri Arjun Malhotra, Distinguished Alumnus read out the welcome address of Shri Ashoke Deysarkar, President US Foundation. He stated that, “We are at cross roads, past is when government paid for everything and future is where IIT Kharagpur has to pay a part of it. I think that this is a positive step towards building a capitalistic society. We have the talent, energy, vision and together we can build a better, bigger and more prosperous IIT Kharagpur. As an individual, Prof. Tewari cannot do it alone, we all need to walk with him like Gandhi in his Salt March. Together we will overcome the challenges and achieve all the goals that we laid down today.

Prof V K Tewari, while addressing Face to Face with Alumni said that, “IIT Kharagpur always uphold the nation’s pride, creates standards of globalization with domestic innovations, finest quality of research and affordable technologies, which is ultimately going to create and contribute towards the Self-Reliance of this country, India. In 2019, IIT Kharagpur was declared Institute of Eminence and from that time the Institute has aligned its activities towards the nation building, high class education with best in class students over the years, we have hone their skills in various domains along with a sense of entrepreneurship, innovation and sense of nationalism. The National Education Policy (NEP 2020) has been very popular among the globe and from the time of its inception we have been able to modify our course curriculum at the under graduate level and at the post graduate level which we have completed this year. We have also changed our MSc. Courses which were of 5 years in Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Geology, Geophysics and have been changed into 4 years BS Degree and MS Degree. We have given lot of flexibility to students in terms of the entry/exit policy along with variation in multidisciplinary education. We have initiated the high end technologies to be provided and implemented in various disciplines. Artificial Intelligence (AI) out today has a lot to contribute, in 2020 it was decided that any student who joins the institute at UG, PG or at Research level have to undergo a course on AI & ML (Machine Learning), so that in his/her domain knowledge they would be able to apply them and leverage the befit of these technologies in IoT, Blockchain technologies etc. Our students are being prepared for the industry and in the new curriculum, we have given 6-8 months of industry experience to our students which is going to start from 2023 summer. The Alumni can help us to connect to these areas of exposure for the students to explore. Now the students can go to the other universities and have a one semester course there. We also have provisions for people coming from other institutes at this place and have the same course here.

The Career Development Centre of IIT Kharagpur is leading with 1600 plus placements among all other IITs and have about 45 international offers with 12 offers ranging from 1 – 2.6 cr which is also the highest among all other IITs. In every department and centre we are trying to inculcate entrepreneurship through product development. Out of the compendium of 75 innovations, top 25 innovations have been chosen for funding so that they can be developed into products among which some of them have already been industrialized and commercialized into products. The Alumni can help us and guide us so that these products are available commercially in 2-3 years of time. We are marching towards the Platinum Jubilee where we need the valuable guidance and initiatives of Alumni in mentoring and supporting us on the celebration of this grand accomplishment and to show the world what IIT Kharagpur was meant for in 1951 when it was established on the lines of MIT with the faculty to student ratio being 5:1, having 224 students and 42 teachers. Now we have more than 15000 students and 800 staffs. We are at par with other universities when it comes to faculty to faculty research basis and have the resources and infrastructure among the best of the world. To encourage our staff and faculty, this year we have given 35 awards to our faculties at the Associate and Assistant level in the form of Chair Professorships and Faculty Excellence Awards which would motivate them to work hard along with 32 Staff Excellence Awards (non-teaching).

IIT KGP is also heading many national schemes like GIAN which is Global Initiative for Academic Networking along with SPARC which is Scheme for Promotion of Academic Research Collaboration across the globe. More than 1600 faculties have come here from foreign and more than 1700 subjects have been taught by the eminent faculties across the globe. More than 1 lakh students have been benefited across the NITs, IITs and other centrally funded universities and colleges. IIT Kharagpur has also successfully conducted JEE Advanced in 2021 and GATE 2022.

I would request the Alumni to connect us better with the other Alumni who are doing well elsewhere around the globe and recognize them. Along with them, we can create an expected corpus of 4000 crore. We have started a hospital under the name of Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee where 260 beds were donated by the Alumni which has started its OPD from last year and is soon going to start the IPD. I request all my faculty friends and Alumni friends to run this hospital as venture capitalist of Section 8 companies. It will be a clinical hospital for our medical college students under the name of Dr. B. C Roy which will be established to impart MBBS education. I hope with your help, support, blessing and guidance, we will be in a position to have a Medical College with 100 students to start with. The government of West Bengal has supported us in various ways including the security of the campus and seen to it that this hospital comes up to serve the biggest district of Bengal, i.e Midnapur. I am confident that this hospital will be accessed by many as it will be a contribution to affordable healthcare in a place like Kharagpur.

Our illustrious Alumni Shri Vinod Gupta has recently inaugurated the A. C. Pandya Students Activity Centre in name of his Prof. A. C Pandya. Very soon we will be establishing the DRDO Industry-Academia Centre of Excellence with an investment of 200-300 crores and initiated the process of recruiting the Director for the same. We are working in close proximity with the government of India, our esteemed Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Shiksha Mantri, Government of India who has blessed, supported and motivated us to go ahead and given the responsibility to start the first campus this country abroad, IIT Malaysia scheduled to be operational from August 2023. We have received a very enthusiastic cooperation from the government of Malaysia to have IIT Malaysia in Kuala Lumpur. With the 400-500 acres of campus, it will be huge boast to their economic development and establish the IIT brand in Malaysia while keeping the standards of IIT, JEE Advanced and others. The students will also spend a year at IIT Kharagpur for their respective curriculum. I am very much thankful to my Alumni Mr. Ron Gupta, Mr. Ashoke Dey Sarkar, Mr. Vinod Gupta and also met Mr. Sundar Pichai for their associations.

We have initiated and renewed our collaborations with different Universities in United States and United Kingdom including University of Warwick (WMG) and Manchester University in dual degree and PhD. We have recently signed an MoU with African-Asian Rural Development Organization (AARDO) which has 36 African countries from where we have 8 students in the Agricultural and Food Engineering department for MS degree. Till date we have 63 international students on campus and we need your help to have at least one foreign faculty/professor for each department, centre and schools and have also initiated to employ Professors of Practice in this regard. This year we have accommodated more than 2000 students and I am very thankful to their parents for their cooperation. Currently, we are struggling a bit with the construction of hostels and infrastructure development for which I need our Alumni to come forward and take the lead to make these available. We need to augment the facilities at Gymkhana and we are looking for the scope to revamp the facilities of lawn tennis, swimming pool, hockey ground and food court.

The Government of India has also asked us to initiate a Department of Education which was laid on the thought that if we want top quality students in IITs, they need to be taught by the top quality teachers in Maths, Chemistry, Physics, Economics and Computers in schools. The government have thought that by 2030, they should have at least 30,000 top quality teachers for which the IITs have been chosen with proper induction of exams at par with JEE accordingly. I would request my faculty friends and Deans to indulge in more autonomy when it comes to decision making. We need innovations in subjects and changes is required in domain knowledge transfer of disciplines along with initiating newer courses. The theory should be revamped and substituted with practical industry ideas and expertise with industry experts as well. We have things coming up with IBM on the same lines. Though I am not happy with my performance, but I hope to get more support from my faculty friends and Alumni to make this Institution among the top 10 in the world.

The virtual meet was convened by Cdr V K Jaitly, Distinguished Alumnus and was followed by question answer round from the Alumni. The closing remarks were given by Shri Varadarajan Seshamani, President of IIT KGP Foundation India.

Times of India (Kolkata)

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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New Normal Thrust to International Research Outreach

The Ministry of Education has released a grant for the amount of ₹ 80 crores to IIT Kharagpur for the Scheme for Promotion of Academic & Research Collaboration (SPARC) Programme which is aimed to promote international research outreach. The Institute which is the national coordinator of the programme is working along with 450 institutions in India and 470 institutions worldwide since the inception of the programme in 2018.

In 2019-20, more than 300 international experts visited Indian institutions registered under SPARC for various projects and workshops. Close to 400 research proposals have been approved for funding to date. Over 26% of the R&D proposals and international outreach are focused on Emergent Areas of Impact which included areas such as Advanced Electronics and Communication, Advanced Functional and Meta Materials, Structural Genomics and Evolutionary Biology, Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science, Infectious Disease & Clinical Research. This segment was followed by Action-Oriented Research with a 24% accepted proposals in areas including Future of Earth: Green and Renewable Technologies, River, Ocean, Aviation and Space Management Technology, Technology Enhanced Education and Learning, including Assistive Technologies, Agricultural and Food Sustainability, Technologies for Rural and Women Empowerment, Law and Society. Convergence areas of research is another significant segment with 22% proposals in areas covering Transportation and Smart Infrastructure, Affordable Health Care, Advanced Manufacturing, Science and Heritage, Energy and Water Sustainability.

“The data indicates a clear shift towards transdisciplinary research addressing global challenges and cutting-edge research. The insights will further boost international collaboration opportunities for science and technology institutes in India by aligning their thrust areas with global trends,” remarked Prof. Virendra K Tewari, Director, IIT Kharagpur.

The participation from USA, Australia and UK witnessed highest visits covering close to 65% of the international faculty visitors in 2019-20. The slump in 2020 though was expected, work was carried out through online conferences. In one such initiative, IIT Kharagpur organized the International Conference on ‘Emerging Trends in Healthcare Technology in Post-COVID-19 Era’ with expert participation from USA, UK, Australia, Sweden, South Africa, The Netherlands, India and Shri Amit Khare, Secretary, Dept. of Higher Education, Govt. of India.

Following the initial success of SPARC despite the disruptions in 2020, the Ministry has released the funding for phase two of the programme. Earlier this month Shiksha Mantri Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had announced the release of the funds on his social media handles.

Talking about the road ahead, Prof. Adrijit Goswami from IIT Kharagpur who is heading the Pan India coordination of the programme said, “Going online is the new normal roadmap at least for programmes like SPARC and GIAN. While online mode has its drawbacks, on the brighter side it may swell the opportunities especially for those who otherwise find such collaborative work arduous due to extended physical visits.”

“With phase two funding of ₹ 80 crores and the structured format of e-workshops, webinars, online classes and even research in virtual mode, the scope for productive academic collaborations at the SPARC-approved collaborating Institutes look promising,” he added.

Contact:

Project: Prof. Adrijit Goswami, Email: goswami@maths.iitkgp.ac.in; Web: https://sparc.iitkgp.ac.in/

Media: Shreyoshi Ghosh, shreyoshi@adm.iitkgp.ac.in

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Stay home or stay close

Preliminary findings from a joint survey undertaken by RCGSIDM and the University of Leeds show drastic changes in travel patterns in the post-Covid-19 scenario

For the first time in many years, Bengalis celebrated Poila Baisakh in a way they had scarcely done before – locked up at home with their families but minus the gaiety, the rituals, their unique spread of food or the co-mingling that accompany the occasion. So did Punjabis, Malayalis, Odias, Tamils, the Assamese and many other communities who celebrate April 14 each year as the start of the new year in their respective calendars.

No one knows what will happen next year. But from the data collected by the Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management and the University of Leeds, a picture seems to be emerging about how people will be conducting their life in the next few months, or perhaps for some years, that is, till the threat from Covid-19 does not recede.

Together with the University of Leeds, which is a partner of IIT Kharagpur in the Government of India’s Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC), RCGSIDM has been conducting an online survey to look into how Covid-19 is affecting the travel habits and work patterns of people so as to help the government frame policies for the future.

Dr. Arkopal Goswami, Assistant Professor, RCGSIDM, and the Indian PI of the project says, “As Indians brace up for Lockdown 2.0, a team of researchers from IIT Kharagpur and University of Leeds have been exploring how long lasting could be the impact of CoVID-19 on our travel behaviour. Will it change our travel behaviour forever or will it be business as usual soon?”

Phase I of the survey is over. Preliminary findings from Phase I of the survey show how drastically people are willing to reconsider their preferences with regard to work and leisure in the post-Covid-19 scenario. For example, if there was a reduction of 30% in work/study related activities that required travel in the times that immediately preceded the lockdown, there is likely to be as much as 51%-55% reduction in such activities if the threat from Covid-19 continues.

The non-work related activities, such as shopping, exercise, leisure, etc, is likely to register an even worse decline – from 48% to a whopping 62%-66% if the threat from Covid-19 worsens.

Travel patterns, in fact, might undergo drastic changes with social distancing emerging as the norm. The initial findings from the survey reveal that modes of travel that do not allow social distancing – such as travel by public transport, that is, in autorickshaws, buses, train, or Metro – in fact, even walking, are likely going to become less popular.

Naturally, modes of transport that allows for social distancing – such as personal car, taxi rides, or travel by Ola or Uber cabs – are likely to become immensely popular. However, the initial survey readings from the data show that there is unlikely to be any significant increase in the trip share for the ride-hailing services since people are likely to take “fewer and shorter trips” to procure essential items. The survey shows that people will be unwilling to travel more than 5 kms, and they are likely to prefer either walking this distance or using bicycles, cycle rickshaws, motorcycles etc.

In fact, preliminary findings of the survey show a likely sharp hike – 15% – in preference for e-commerce platforms for purchasing their daily essentials, etc. The increase is also likely to be registered for motorcycle trips.

Among the 19 states and Union territories from which responses were received for Phase I of the survey, West Bengal show some unique traits. For example, according to the findings, if the Covid-19 threat continues or aggravates, there is likely to be a greater increase in e-commerce activities in the state when compared to the rest of India (ROI). In fact, West Bengal is also likely to show an increase in the use of cars (5% increase against the normal scenario), which is a mode that allows an individual to maintain social distance.

The joint research team believes that policies to overcome the crisis while minimizing the disruptions need a good understanding of how different people are changing their activity and travel patterns.

In addition to India, the survey has also been released in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Colombia. The team is also working with partners in other developing countries such as Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa, etc. so as to tailor-make the survey for their situation and release it there as well. This will enable the researchers to make a comparative analysis of the change in travel and activity patterns across nations.

The team is doing a short follow-up Phase-II survey.

To take the survey, please go to https://forms.gle/jWpXUxAmbQ7UUHAB6

For the preliminary findings from Phase I of the survey, please click on the YouTube video:

 

 

SPARC Workshop Explores Critical Challenges of Children’s Healthcare

The School of Medical Science and Technology at IIT Kharagpur recently held an Indo-UK Residential Workshop in collaboration with the University of Manchester, UK, on the “Practical Management of Inherited Pediatric Hematological Disorders”. The focus was on clinical reasoning of cases related to children’s blood and bone marrow disorders using an interactive problem-based learning approach with direct interactions with globally renowned experts.

The areas covered in the workshop included the workup of the child presenting with signs and symptoms of reduction in the number of various blood cells, or cytopenias including pancytopenia or bone marrow failure. Workup included understanding the genetics behind certain syndromes, targeted testing, and treatment planning including an overview of bone marrow transplantation. Other topics covered included understanding cognitive errors in clinical decision making and computerized clinical decision support systems.

Experts from IIT Kharagpur, University of Manchester, Tata Medical Center and Tata Translational Cancer Research Centre, Kolkata, and NRS Medical College participated in this three-day workshop which was sponsored under the Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC), an initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt. of India.

Among the speakers were Prof. Vaskar Saha from the University of Manchester and Director of the Tata Translational Cancer Research Center a pediatric oncologist and hematologist and an expert in the care of children with leukemia. He worked through cases with participants to guide thinking on how to approach the child with a complex bone marrow disorder to come up with a diagnosis that could then lead to a treatment plan. Dr. Shekhar Krishnan, senior consultant in paediatrics hematology and oncology at TMC-TTCRC discussed bone marrow transplant.

Diagnosis was a focus area of the workshop. Dr. Niharendu Ghara senior paediatric consultant at TMC-TTCRC Kolkata discussed targeted approaches to diagnostic testing making sure to find the right test for the right situation, Dr. Rajib De from NRS Medical College discussed thalassemia in the context of Eastern India and approaches to screening, diagnosis, and management.

Prof. Jayanta Mukhopadhyay from IIT Kharagpur’s Dept. of Computer Science and Engineering discussed automated clinical decision support systems and their role in improving clinical decision making. Prof. Sangeeta Das Bhattacharya of SMST discussed cognitive errors in clinical decision making.

Students from diverse areas such as MBBS, Masters in Medical Science & Technology, MD, postdoctoral fellows, and clinical fellows in hematology participated in the workshop. The participants gained insights from master clinicians in real-time in clinical reasoning through case-based learning.

All in days’ work

Two back-to-back workshops organized by the Bioprocess & Bioproduct Development Laboratory (PI: Prof. Ramkrishna Sen) of the Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur along with the collaborators from USA and Australia from January 2-5, 2020 under the Government of India’s Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) brought to students latest news on how the scientific community the world over is bracing up for a future that will see biofuels replace petroleum and green technologies being employed in a world that is seeing the steady depletion of natural resources. The bottom-line of both the workshops were the pursuit of new technologies for a sustainable future.

Prof. Seider, Prof. Tewari (Director, IITKGP), and Dr. Venkata Mohan (extreme right)

“We are presently living in a linear economy, where we ‘take, make and throw’. But this is a cradle-to-grave attitude. We have to move towards a circular economy, where producing energy from biogenic waste will play a significant role,” said the S. S. Bhatnagar awardee, Dr. S. Venkata Mohan from the CSIR-Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad.

In the first workshop on ‘Sustainable biorefinery for Waste Valorization, organized by Prof. Sen’s group in IIT Kharagpur jointly with the University of Pennsylvania, USA from January 2-3, 2020, the Indian and US researchers and experts discussed the challenges and breakthrough technologies that inform the search for future renewable energy sources.

Professor Warren D. Seider from the University of Pennsylvania

Prof. Sen’s US collaborator under SPARC, Prof. Warren D. Seider, a world renowned Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania, who has written ground-breaking Chemical Engineering books, talked about the application of mathematical programming methods to optimize a biorefinery to make ethanol. Citing Prof. Rafigul Gani’s mathematical model, which appears in Prof. Seider’s textbook –“Product and Process Design Principles”, co-authored with several experts, including Prof. Gani, Prof. Seider showed how both India and Thailand were to gain immensely if they used their biomass-based feedstocks – wheat straw, sugarcane bagasse, hardwood chips among them – to produce ethanol products sustainably.

Participants at the Indo-US workshop

Prof. Ramkrishna Sen, Convenor of both the workshops and the Head of the Department of Biotechnology, talked of how his biorefinery helps in carbon-dioxide sequestration from point sources, wastewater remediation and biofuel production through strategic cultivation of green microalgae and valorization of biomass for various applications in a biorefinery model. Prof. Pinaki Bhattacharya, a well-recognized expert in Chemical Engineering and former Professor & Head, Department of Chemical Engineering, Jadavpur University and Emeritus Professor, Heritage Institute of Technology; Prof. Ranjana Chowdhury, Professor & former Head, Department of Chemical Engineering, Jadavpur University and Dr. Harshad Velankar, Senior Manager & Head Bioprocess Division, Hindustan Petroleum Green R & D Center, HPCL, Bengaluru were also the invited dignitaries of the event and delivered very interesting and insightful talks that stressed on the need for setting up of biomass based biorefineries and attempted to address the challenges in designing and operating such sustainable biorefineries.

Prof. Debabrata Das at the workshop

The other speakers at the workshop were Prof. Debabrata Das, Visiting Professor, Department of Biotechnology, IIT Kharagpur, who has been researching into biohydrogen production processes for the last three decades, and Prof. B. C. Meikap, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, who presented his nice work on amine-based carbon capture in fluidized bed reactor operations.

Geetanjali Yadav at the SPARC workshop

Among Prof. Sen’s doctoral students, Dr. Geetanjali Yadav, who has worked with Prof. Seider in designing a commercial scale algal-to-biodiesel production plant that could produce 183 million gallons of biodiesel per year during her Fulbright-Kalam Climate Fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania presented her work and Mr. Romit Mitra presented his novel idea on metabolic engineering of yeast for biobutanol production in a biorefinery. A doctoral student of Prof. R. Chowdhury, Jadavpur University presented his work on bioethanol production using agro-wastes.

The Indo-Australia joint workshop on the ‘Recent Advances in Biocementation Technology’, which followed on January 4-5, too was held under the aegis of SPARC. The Australian collaborators of Prof. Ramkrishna Sen under the SPARC program from the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Curtin University, Prof. Abhijit Mukherjee and Dr. Navdeep Dhami joined hands for the two day-workshop along with the experts from India, Prof. Devendra Narain Singh (Institute Chair Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Bombay), Prof. Brajadulal Chattopadhyay (Professor, Jadavpur University) and Prof. Debasis Roy, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Kharagpur to make it a fruitful learning experience for all the participants. Prof. Sen and his research students, Piyush Nanda, Raviranjan Kumar and Ankita Debnath presented their research work in the relevant field.

Indo-Australia SPARC workshop participants

Biocementation is an emerging technology that leverages microbes and their actions for production of renewable and sustainable construction materials. The workshop aimed to give a bird’s eye view on biocementation from the perspective of biotechnologists, civil and environmental engineers.

Both the workshops were well organized by the members of the Bioprocess & Bioproduct Development Laboratory, Department of Biotechnology, which thankfully acknowledges Dr. Chinmay Hazra and Dr. Debasree Kundu for their tremendous efforts and ground level coordination. The workshops, inaugurated by the Hon’ble Director of IIT Kharagpur, Prof. V. K. Tewari, Dean (CE), Prof. S. Dasgupta and Associate Dean (SRIC), Prof. R. Mukherjee were well attended by more than 50 participants from within and outside IIT Kharagpur. SPARC, an initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, helps improve the research ecosystem in India by facilitating academic and research collaborations between Indian institutions and the best and selected institutions across the world’s 28 nations. As the national coordinator, IIT Kharagpur has been coordinating this flagship program with other nodal institutes of India.

To get the ball rolling

Swarajya Magazine       Indian Express

SPARC website launched by IIT Kharagpur, which is the national coordinator for MHRD’s new initiative in higher education

The launch of the website of the Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration or SPARC on September 28, 2018 marks the formal beginning of the latest higher education initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. IIT Kharagpur is the National Coordinating Institute of SPARC, a programme that seeks to improve the research ecosystem of India’s higher educational institutions by promoting academic and research collaboration between Indian institutions and best-in-class faculty and renowned research groups in foreign institutions. As many as 28 foreign countries are being targeted in the first phase of the scheme. The partner foreign institutes will be those that hold top QS World University Rankings.

The scheme proposes to support components considered critical to the production of impact-making research. It will fund visits and long-term stay of top international faculty or researchers in Indian institutions to pursue teaching and research. Not merely that, it will also fund visits of Indian students for training and experimentation in premier laboratories worldwide.

The scheme builds on the overwhelming success of the Global Initiative of Academic Networks or GIAN, also coordinated nationally by IIT Kharagpur. However, while GIAN promotes short courses and short-term stays of foreign faculty, SPARC intends to realise the maximum benefits of the research collaboration by exposing students to world class research facilities and equipment while supporting long-duration courses by visiting foreign faculty and also senior foreign students. The foreign faculty members can visit Indian partner institutions twice in two years for a period of 15 days to 4 months and teach 12-36 hours on a course topic.

Prof. Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, Director of IIT Kharagpur, said, “SPARC funding will be primarily used for fundamental research areas, emerging areas of interest, convergence areas, action-oriented research, innovation-driven research. Areas of collaboration will include Science and Technology, Humanities, Social Sciences and so on.” Apart from providing international expertise to solve major national problems, SPARC is expected to lead to the production of jointly authored publications, research monographs, patents, demonstrable technologies and products, several workshops and two national conferences each year.

Proposals for a two year interaction can be submitted by all Indian institutes ranked in the overall top-100 or category-wise top-100 in the India Rankings (NIRF). The proposal should involve at least two international faculty, two Indian faculty and two PhD/Postdoctoral researchers.

The proposal portal of SPARC ( www.sparc.iitkgp.ac.in )will open on October 4 and remain open till November 15. Each Indian Institution can submit proposals with any of the 28 foreign countries. Evaluation will be done first by a sectional committee and the final evaluation will be done by an Apex Committee. Prof. Adrijit Goswami, joint coordinator of SPARC for IIT Kharagpur said, “We are expecting to approve around 600 proposals.”

As the national coordinator, IIT Kharagpur will be routing SPARC funds, manage the online portal, coordinate with the other nodal institutes of India, organize two annual SPARC conferences, liaise with MHRD and manage the intellectual output of SPARC.