WMG – The KGP Chronicle

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 68^th 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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Driving force

Recruiting, encouraging and retaining talent becomes imperative for the success of an educational institution of the stature of IIT Kharagpur, recognized already as an Institution of Eminence. Chair Professorships are critical to this exercise. Institute Chairs, Faculty Excellence awards and alumni-funded Chairs all contribute to creating an ecosystem that nurtures creativity, rewards excellence and provides an incentive for hard work.

It is a privilege for IIT Kharagpur that its alumni understand this connection. Over the years, several Chairs have been created by the alumni to encourage excellence. Alumni-endowed Chairs are, in fact, increasingly driving research in critical and challenging areas of research. In the year 2018-19, several Chairs were instituted by the alumni. Among them is the Lord Kumar Bhattacharya Chair Professor of Manufacturing set up by alumnus Prof. Tapan Bagchi (DSc/2012/IM).

The Lord Kumar Bhattacharya Chair Professor of Manufacturing intends to identify sectors that hinge on excellence in manufacturing and to promote vigorous partnership with industry with matching aspiration while making maximum use of the technological capabilities of IIT Kharagpur. It could lead to product-innovations that will make a mark in markets abroad.

The appointee of this Chair for 2019-22 is Prof. Surjya K. Pal, Mechanical Engineering, who also heads IIT Kharagpur’s DHI Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology. The Centre was set up in November 2017 by the Department of Heavy Industries (DHI) under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Govt. of India, to strengthen the country’s capital goods sector through a constant upgradation of manufacturing technology and technology transfer to industry, particularly to MSMEs. Working with a consortium of some of the country’s premier private and public sector companies, the Centre is handling nine projects that are destined to change the face of the manufacturing industry in India.

Not surprisingly, Prof. Pal is honoured to be appointed the Chair. He says, “Lord Bhattacharyya was a pioneer in bringing academic research to the industries in order to create an impact in the industrial world. The DHI Centre of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing was set up with the same motto… Receiving the award in the name of Lord Bhattacharyya is thus a real honour to me.”

Prof. Pallab Dasgupta of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, who has been at the forefront of AI research at IIT Kharagpur since the 1990s, was recently appointed the A.K. Singh Distinguished Chair Professorship for Artifical Intelligence research. Prof. Dasgupta talks of the honour, “The Chair, named after A.K. Singh a dedicated police officer, bestows a responsibility beyond academic distinction. My present goal is to develop an interdisciplinary research group on verifiable AI technology which will focus on enabling the integration of AI in embedded systems with provable safety guarantees.”

Each of the Alumni-endowed Chairs lays special emphasis on areas or teaching excellence. Take the Aditya Choubey Chair that promotes Re-water research, or the Excellent Young Teacher Award instituted by the IIT Foundation of India seeks to attract top talent as faculty and recognize their contributions made to students through their commitment to teaching, involvement in student related sports, social, cultural, technology, innovation or entrepreneurship. The latest recipient of the award is Prof. Swanand R. Khare of the Mathematics department.

Endowed Chairs are not only an honour for the named holder of the appointment but also an enduring tribute to the donor who establishes it. Take the A.S. Davis Chair Professorship instituted by Mr. Vinod Gupta (BTech/AG/1967) who set up the Chair recently in memory of his teacher, Prof. A.S. Davis, who taught him Thermodynamics. (The recipient of the Chair, announced recently, is Prof. Prasanta K. Das, Dean, Faculty, and Professor, Mechanical Engineering).

Or take the Amitabh Agrawal Chair Professorship instituted in 2018 by Amitabh Agrawal, an Electrical Engineering graduate from the Batch of 1967. This particular chair lays special emphasis on the study of power system, control and automation. The recipient of the honour is Prof. Ashok Pradhan of the Electrical Engineering Department.

Sometimes, the alumni-endowed Chairs try to add a novel dimension to research. Take the Avinash Gupta Chair awarded to faculty of the Department of Architecture and Regional Planning. Instituted in the honour Avinash Gupta, a graduate from this particular department, honours his deep interest in the medical domain. Prof. Subrata Chattopadhyay, recipient of the honour, says, “I feel proud to take forward his legacy that brings together two high relevant aspects of modern life – the aesthetics of architecture and the criticality of proper healthcare.” A recent symposium organized by Prof. Chattopadhyay brought together experts from the diverse fields of medicine and academics to explore issues affecting modern healthcare from theh perspective of lifestyle, affordability, prevention habits and infrastructure.

The Shyamal Ghosh and Sunanda Ghosh Chair, awarded to faculty of the Mechanical Engineering Department, lays special emphasis on design and manufacturing of mechanical structures and mechanism. Prof. Amiya Ranjan Mohanty, appointed the Chair, says, “This recognition has given me visibility among KGPian groups across the world and I will continue to do my research and teaching with passion and vigour in the areas of machinery condition monitoring and industrial acoustics and noise control.” Likewise, the M.A. Ramulu & Mrs. Saroja Ramulu Chair, awarded to Prof. Jayanta Bhattacharya, from the Mining Engineering Department, is expected to promote further research into mining engineering and safety.

Going forward

Professor Tony McNally, Director- International Institute for Nanocomposites Manufacturing; Director-National Polymer Processing Centre of WMG, was the Chief Guest at the International Conference on Advances in Polymer Science and Technology (APSRT) being held at IIT Kharagpur between September 24-27 by the Rubber Technology Centre of the Institute. He spoke to KGP Chronicle on the legacy of Lord Bhattacharyya and WMG’s long relationship with IIT Kharagpur.

On Lord Bhattacharyya and WMG:

Lord Bhattacharyya with Margaret Thatcher (Courtesy: WMG website)

Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya was the Founder of the WMG in 1980 at a time when British industry was in dire straits and needed help. He was a man before his time. He was a visionary. He had the idea of merging academic excellence with industrial relevance so that the results of academic research could be translated quickly and, more importantly, industries could get the help of universities quickly. He had this idea at a time when many were not interested. So he approached the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Warwick. Lord Bhattacharyya, along with a secretary, started WMG and here we are 40 years later with 10 buildings, tens and millions of pounds in turnover, 300 PhD students, 300 post-doctoral researchers and about 2000 staff and internationally focussed units.

Over the decades, Lord Bhattacharyya built relations with industrial partners and leading companies. Most of the early successes were with Indian industry – Tata Motors for example. He was great friend of Ratan Tata and following from that success he started working with companies like TVS in India. But the key contribution he made in UK was that he brokered the purchase of Jaguar Land Rover by the Tata group, thereby creating thousands of jobs in the UK that are in existence today because of Lord Bhattacharyya’s contribution. That is a tremendous legacy to leave.

Eventually, Lord Bhattacharyya’s services came to be of great demand by other industries,other universities around the world and particularly by other governments. He ended up being advisor to many governments – South Africa for instance- over many years. The model that he adopted is being discussed in great detail by other countries, such as in Australia, which is looking very closely at this model of co-location of industry with an university department.

The other major contribution of Lord Bhattacharyya was in teaching, particularly teaching for industry. He set up many courses related to the needs of industry – supply chain, logistics, manufacturing systems engineering, engineering management and so on. As a consequence, today there are 13-14 different executive courses run by WMG which are very popular. The other model he introduced was designing bespoke engineering programs for companies. There are many people who work in companies who have not been able to go to universities for some reason. What he used to do is design programs from the scratch so that employees could attend university – one week per month they would study at the university and the other weeks of the month be with the company. This proved to be very popular. WMG has implemented this model while working with Jaguar, with Tyson Technology.

Overall, the contribution is immense in terms of the opportunities he gave people, like myself, also the model which is now being adopted across the world on how to transfer research to industry, how to train industry or transfer skillset that the industry really needs..

On WMG’s collaboration with IIT Kharagpur:

Prof. McNally at the International Conference on APSRT, where he was Chief Guest at the inauguration function

Lord Bhattacharyya was very proud of being an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur. I joined WMG six years ago, and since then have been witness to an integrated system of PhD programs, Masters and UG programs. Then there is also the UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) link with IITs, especially IIT Kharagpur, and there is a drive for collaboration to focus on global challenges like clean water, energy, sustainability, recycling and electrification of transport. And this is an area that IIT Kharagpur, WMG and Tata Group, especially Tata Motors are very much focussed on. As I speak, there is a delegation from IIT Kharagpur at WMG looking at the battery facility.

So the plan on electrification of vehicles is already moving and the reason why I accepted the invitation to come to the International conference on Polymer Science and Rubber Technology is that we wanted to do exactly the same kind of research with new materials, polymers and rubber technology, functionality, and intelligent materials. The Rubber Technology Centre at IIT Kharagpur is globally famous, long established, with its alumni spread all over the world, occupying top positions in universities and industry. Unfortunately, UK has not invested greatly in rubber technology in universities, so it makes sense to collaborate with the best.

Prof. McNally delivered his plenary lecture at the APSRT conference on ‘Composites of Functionalized 1D/2D Nanomaterials and Polymers

WMG also has collaboration with IIT Kharagpur in autonomous vehicles. WMG is working on driverless cars and driverless transport. WMG is also an international partner of IIT Kharagpur’s Centre for Advanced Manufacturing. Also, we have students of IIT Kharagpur come over WMG for internships and Masters. This has been historically in the case of Metallurgy but now we are looking at Joint PhDs as well.

On carrying forward Lord Bhattacharyya’s legacy:

Lord Bhattacharyya’s shoes are very difficult to fill because he was unique. It would be a silly thing to even try to do that. We will carry on as usual. But there is, I believe, a vast influence missing. As a university we will try to get another person of similar standing who had influence in the government, around the world, and in industry and try to possibly continue with the legacy. The groundwork is set and the foundations are strong. Lord Bhattacharyya used to meet professors every month and his favourite phrase during that time was ‘consolidate’. Nobody could stand still and his directive was “go, go”, “build, build”. If you hear that once a month it becomes instilled in you. So that mentality is there. In that sense, we will continue to build on the foundations. But we need someone as influential as Lord Bhattacharyaa so that we can have that kind of presence globally.

Banner and Pics of Prof. McNally: Suman Sutradhar

Mission possible

Prof. Surjya K. Pal, Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Professor-in-Charge, DHI Centre of Excellence in Adv Manuf Tech (http://www.coeamt.com ), Associate Dean, Alumni Affairs, Chairman, Steel Technology Centre, Executive Adviser, Science and Technology Entrepreneurs’ Park (STEP), added another feather to his cap recently. He has been appointed Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya Chair Professor of Manufacturing in the Department of Mechanical Engineering of IIT Kharagpur for 2019-22.

The Chair was set up in April 2019 by Prof. Tapan Bagchi (DSc/2012/IM), alumnus of the Institute, former Director, NITIE, Mumbai, and former Dean of SP Jain Mumbai and Dubai. The Chair was instituted in the memory of Distinguished Alumnus Lord Sushanta Kumar Bhattacharyya – Founder Chairman of the Warwick Manufacturing Group and a renowned academic, successful entrepreneur, manufacturing expert and leading consultant to industry and governments – who passed away on March 1, 2019. The Chair will promote excellence in manufacturing and partnership with industry while making maximum use of the technological capabilities of IIT Kharagpur.

Prof. Pal spoke to KGP Chronicle about the honour, his personal memories of Lord Bhattacharyya, working with WMG and his own dreams about the DHI Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology, which he heads.

What are your feelings on being appointed the Lord Bhattacharyya Chair Professor of Manufacturing?

I’m really honoured because this award means a lot to me. Lord Bhattacharyya was a pioneer in bringing academic research to the industries in order to create an impact in the industrial world. We have set up the DHI Centre of Excellence for Advanced Manufacturing with the same motto and we are trying to follow the model of WMG. Receiving the award in the name of Lord Bhattacharyya is thus a real honour to me.

What do you think is Lord Bhattacharyya’s legacy?

Conventionally, the academic world and the industry run parallel to each other, and the worlds do not converge. The WMG is where the academia and industry work together to bring success. It was Lord Bhattacharyya who pioneered this concept and steered it to phenomenal success through WMG, his brainchild. At the DHI CoE, we are following his footsteps.

You were talking about how momentous your visit to the WMG had been. Could you please eludicate?

I had heard a lot about WMG during my time in Sheffield as a post-doctoral scholar. Here at IIT Kharagpur, I had been constantly encouraged by our former Director, Prof. Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, to visit WMG to see for myself its unique operations. At WMG, they do their research for the industry. The industry identifies the problem and the faculty members work together with the industry professionals to find a solution.

Visiting WMG enriched me and completely changed my perspective. In November 2018, I got an opportunity to meet Lord Bhattacharyya himself, and it turned out to be an overwhelming experience. I told him about my plans about the Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing that will be a gamechanger in the manufacturing sector following the footsteps of WMG. I still remember him saying that WMG would give its wholehearted support to IIT KGP, which is his alma mater and which recognizes him as a Distinguished Alumnus. He told me, “Whatever support you want, WMG will be there for IIT KGP.”

WMG is one of the international partners of the DHI Centre. What kind of support are they providing to the Centre?

WMG is officially the international research advisor of the Centre. We had discussions with Prof. Dave Mullins of WMG. He came to visit my lab along with Prof. Sujit Banerji and Prof. Barbara Shollock, both then with WMG, and took a lot of interest in my work. They proposed if we could jointly organize training program for industries. The DHI Centre is about to run programs customised for different industries, particularly for MSMEs. We are trying to see how WMG can help us evolve our curriculum for these training programs. Besides, WMG faculty are the co-supervisors of several doctoral scholars at IIT Kharagpur.

Could you please talk about industry participation in the activities of the DHI Centre?

The Centre is an interdisciplinary industrial research centre which works through a consortium of companies. Four of them are private companies–like Tata Sons, Tata Motors, Tata Consultancy and Tata Steel – and two are public sector companies, such as BHEL and HEC Ranchi. Industry and faculty members are working together to solve problems of the respective industries. Side by side, we are floating several short term courses and organizing workshops. Take the recent Composite 4.0 workshop, where faculty members of world universities gave lectures through Skype. There were also lectures by industry leaders from Airbus and Tata AutoComp.

Consortium members are giving us greater connectivity with the industry. As part of our MoU with the companies, industries can also participate in lectures and attend courses for free. Take the forthcoming workshop on September 20. Falling into the research paradigm of our DHI, I have also lectured in Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Engineering Export Promotion Council of India (EEPC) and other fora. Together, we are also devising affordable training courses for MSMEs.

Which is the most sought after research area pursued by the DHI Centre?

We work in four verticals – materials, automation, additive manufacturing and Industry 4.0. The last, also known as the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is most well-recognized and sought after. It is said that IIoT and data analytics will serve a critical role in enabling the vision of smart machines and intelligent cooperation between multiple machines promoting sustainable operations. One of the components of this is additive manufacturing because it is a new route of manufacturing. These two areas are becoming most prominent. We have two projects in Industry 4.0 and two in additive manufacturing, where we have strong faculty strength. We are also exploring the field of specialty materials. Several companies, such as Airbus has shown a lot of interest in this sector. The crux of the matter is to give higher productivity at lower cost while ensuring quality. That is what advanced manufacturing is all about.

What is the role of such alumni funded chair professorships in encouraging the culture of research?

An alumni-endowed Chair tries to create an impact in any particular research area. For eg, when Vinod Gupta recently endowed the A.S. Davis Chair in Thermodynamics, he vividly recalled Prof. Davis’s way of working and his vision. The purpose of creating the A.S. Davis Chair was to further this vision. Similarly, when Prof. Tapan Bagchi instituted the Lord Bhattacharyya Chair of Manufacturing, he wanted to promote a specific vision which he thought would benefit the Institute from where Lord Bhattacharyya had graduated. So This Chair brings me a lot of honour as also the responsibility of working more intently with industry. My being the Associate Dean, Alumni Affairs, helps me forge a connection with the alumni as well. If they come forward and work with DHI Centre, it will flourish, which is the vision and wish of Prof. Bagchi. The DHI Centre is very close to my heart. I passionately look forward to its success.

The DHI Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Advanced Manufacturing Technology at IIT Kharagpur was set up by the Department of Heavy Industries under the Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Govt. of India, in November 2017 to strengthen the country’s capital goods sector through a constant upgradation of manufacturing technology and technology transfer to industry, particularly to MSMEs. This Centre aims at proliferating innovative research focused on industries on Specialty materials, Design and automation, Additive manufacturing, and Digital manufacturing & Industrial IoT. The centre encourages the young minds and doctoral scholars for a full-fledged involvement in its endeavours with fellowship opportunities.