Alumni Newsletter 1

From the Director’s

Desk

W e are passing through very exciting times here in Roorkee, some good, some bad – but all of them that are leading to

significant changes in your beloved alma mater. First the bad news: Uttarakhand, our state, experienced what some

people call as the “Himalayan Tsunami” during June 16-17, a catastro-phe of unimagined proportions that affected the entire Garhwal region as well as Haridwar district, made bigger as it was unexpected. We at IIT Roorkee will take a leading role in ensuring that such catastrophes are avoided in future.

Now we move on to the good news. Our alumni task force efforts are beginning to bear fruit on the ground. Due to the untiring efforts of some of our alumni, we had an exciting one week-long orientation programme for the new students that they enjoyed. We are in discussions to get major external funding for Centres of Excellence, and we are creating an Innovation Hub, which will become the focal point for student and faculty-driven innovation. We continue to attract better-ranked students with each passing year. You will also be happy to note that IIT Roor-kee has been ranked 66 by QS report amongst Asian Universities, 4th

amongst Indian Universities.So, dear alumni, I request you to come visit us and be a part of this

excitement, in whatever way you can.

Inside This Issue

FROM THE DIRECTOR’s DESK

ORIENTATION PROGRAM

RICET

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE

COGNIZANCE 2013

HONOURS AND AWARDS

ACHIEVEMENTS

INSTITUTION OF REC CHAIR IN IIT, ROORKEE

BOOKS DONATED BY ALUMNUS

IIT HEARTBEAT (E-MAGAZINE)

IIT ROORKEE ALL TERRAIN VEHICLE PROJECT

NATIONAL CONCLAVE

DoMS IIT ROORKEE

Orientation Program for the new entrantsA comprehensive 7- day orientation session (from July 24 2013

to July 30 2013) was organized for the new comers to IIT-R,

more than 1000 in number, to demystify what is to be their new

home and to familiarize them with the institute’s infrastructure,

facilities and activities. This was the first time that such an induc-

tion schedule was designed and implemented successfully.

As a part of the orientation, Prof. Pradipta Banerji, Director, IIT

Roorkee welcomed all the new entrants in the campus, wherein

he had stressed and reminded the students about the rich herit-

age of the institution and also stated how important it is to main-

tain this heritage.

N E W S L E T T E RI N D I A N I N S T I T U T E O F T E C H N O L O G Y R O O R K E E

Volume No. III / Sept 2013

Continued to Page 3

PROF. PRADIPTA BANERJI

2 Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

RICET (Railtel IIT Roorkee Centre of Excellence in Telecommunication)

India got its 8th Telecom Centre

of Excellence on 5th June 2013.

RailTel Corporation, a Mini Ratna

PSU, signed an MoU with IIT

Roorkee for establishing a RailTel

IIT Roorkee Centre of Excellence

in Telecom (RICET). The MoU

was signed in the presence of

Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister of Com-

munications & Information Tech-

nology and Law & Justice. Rail-

Tel shall fund the TCOE through

100% budgetary support over 5

year period for doing Research &

Development in the field of ‘ICT &

Broadband Applications’.

Major Activities of The Centre of ExcellenceFundamentally, the following

types of activities will be under-

taken at the centre of excellence:

(a) Continuous talent building: Creating world-class

human capital in the emerging &

continuously evolving telecom

domain through state-of-the-art

training and development mech-

anisms. Post-graduate research

initiatives, Post-doctoral/visiting

positions up to 3 years and in-

house research activities may

be initiated.

(b) Application Oriented R&D: Reviewing and promot-

ing Applied Research and De-

velopment to adapt and sustain

emerging and futuristic tech-

nologies in the context of Indian

and emerging markets.

(c) Cross pollination of ideas: Development of India

specific solutions both for rural

and urban applications derived

from multiple technologies. Inter-

national collaboration with pre-

mier institutions and R&D centres.

(d) Benchmarking of Best Practices: Identifying

and capturing the best in class

practices across countries,

knowledge creation & sharing.

( e ) S t a n d a r d i z a t i o n Activities: The centres of ex-

cellence will provide an excellent

scope for active participation in

the international standardiza-

tion forums. To provide the core

strength and help the Coordina-

tion Centre to coordinate such

that an active participation and

representation takes place from

the network of TCOEs in the

standardization forums.

(f) Apart from the research

and technology development

that will be carried out within

the financial support provided,

additional research and pro-

ject activity shall be taken

up on a need basis from the

industry and other organiza-

tions with additional budgetary

provision as per the rules of

IIT Roorkee.

Alumni Newsletter 3

Orientation Program for the new entrants

Continued after Page 1

“Maintaining this heritage is very important because we al-

ways have to look at heritage while re-inventing ourselves.

And without re-inventing ourselves, we cannot continue to be

pioneers of science and engineering, which is something we

have always stood for, and will always stand for.”

The gathering was also addressed by Prof. Ravi Bhushan,

Dean of Students’ Welfare, IIT Roorkee who introduced the

new entrants to the various functionaries and officers of the in-

stitute. Also, the top 3 rankers, AIR 379 (CSE), AIR 452 (CSE)

and AIR 471 (CSE), who took admission in the institute were

specially introduced to the audience. The orientation program

also included a lecture by Padma Vibhushan Dr. Anil Kakodkar,

visit to the respective departments where they were addressed

by their HODs and then walked through various facilities like li-

braries, specific labs etc. that are available to them in their de-

partments. An English Language Proficiency Test was also held

for the new entrants. The selection for the NSO, NCC and NSS

was also done in this week.

As part of the orientation program, a seven-a-side football

tournament was also organized by the Institute Sports Council

(ISC). Three teams of the first year students competed with the

teams of faculty and staff, staff advisors and senior student sec-

retaries. Two girls team also participated in the event.

IITR from Alumni Perspective was another important event

which was planned for the new comers. Distinguished Alumni

Mr. Bhuwan Kumar Chaturvedi, Mr. Arvind Singhal and Air Mar-

shal P.V Athawale (Retd.) attended the event. The queries and

doubts of the first year students were addressed by the alumni.

A cultural evening was also organized for the new comers by the

Cultural Council where senior students mesmerized the juniors

with their performances. All in all, this orientation schedule went

a long way in making the new students comfortable and helped

them adapt to the new environment.

4 Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

never disagree with. Aiming the inclusion of a number of socially

deprived issues, a roster of events were geared towards responding

to that cause.

Igenesis: Hope for a sustainable future can be gauged by the way a

nation handles its resources. Solutions, which are feasible in nature

and both practical and reliable which should result in a safe future for

all the citizens, were invited.

Bottom line: This event aimed to bring out methods to improvise on

the existing systems of law and order and society to ensure that the

progress of India is at a comparable pace with the rest of the world.

Economix: Handling money the right way is an art. Cognizance aimed

to pick out the financial whiz kids who can face the challenges of

India’s finance with élan.

Cognizance - 2013Campus News

Cognizance 2013: The Annual Technical Festival of IIT Roorkee,

aimed at providing opportunities to the student community to

exercise its academic acumen and ingenuity, has a hub for ground-

breaking ideas and solutions. Cognizance, India’s second largest

technical festival is ISO 9001:2008 certified and is operated by a

Quality Management System in organizing its events. It is also the

largest in North India with over 16 million web hits from 100,000

unique visitors from over a 100 different countries and participation

of over 15,000 students and professionals; on-campus and from

institutes across India.

With a decade of technological grandeur showcased at IIT Roor-

kee, Cognizance’13 wrote a new chapter in the history of IIT. In

times of unprecedented technological and innovation transcend-

ence, Cognizance refocused its scope to etch an eclectic event

in March 2013. Aiming an all-inclusive growth that pervades all

sections of the society and bringing them out of the shadows into

a bright light of fresh ideas and simple solutions, Cognizance has

evolved to a canopy of not just technical renaissance, but also

emerged as a confluence of viable solutions to present socio-

economic concerns and energy demands. Ranging from Social

Empowerment, to scrutinizing and cultivating viable alternatives

to meet energy demands and rendering strategies for economic

stability while preserving the techno-esque as its crux; Cognizance

moves forward with a single dictum.

Cognizance has fulfilled its goals by organizing the following

theme events:

Equistrata: Equality is the most quintessential truth that one should

Alumni Newsletter 5

Honours and Awards1961 and served as Lecturer in

the Electronics and Communica-

tion Department (formerly Tel-

ecommunications Department)

from 1963-1965 at University of

Roorkee (now IITR). After com-

ing to USA, he completed his

Ph.D. in Solid State Electronics

from University of South Carolina

in 1971. After serving at South

Carolina and Boston University,

he joined UMASS Lowell in 1982

with a part time appointment at

Volpe Research Center of the US

DOT.

During his tenure at UMASS

Lowell he initiated a Consum-

mate program in VLSI including

Design and Fabrication and es-

tablished their laboratories in-

cluding Semiconductor Instruc-

tional Processing Lab (DSIPL).

There he has introduced courses

like VLSI Design, VLSI Fabrica-

tion, MMIC Design and Fabrica-

tion, VHDL based Design, Intro-

duction to ITS Design and taught

them. He has received over 4 mil-

lion dollars towards his research

and maintenance of labs from Hi-

Tech Industries such as Analog

Devices Inc. and Skyworks Solu-

tions Inc. He has been a member

of the ASEE since 1971 and has

received the Best National Cam-

pus Award two times and Best

Zone 1 Award five times includ-

ing the Best Teacher Award from

the ASEE’s North-East Section.

Kanti Prasad (alumnus 1961) was recently inducted

as a Fellow in American Soci-

ety for Engineering Education

(ASEE). The Grade of Fellow

is one of unusual professional

distinctions and is conferred

by the ASEE Board of Direc-

tors upon an ASEE member

with outstanding and ex-

traordinary qualifications and

experience in engineering or

engineering technology edu-

cation or allied fields, and who

has made appropriate and

important individual contribu-

tions. Fellow member status

is a distinction conferred upon

those who have been mem-

bers for at least 10 years and

special attention is given to

an individual’s contributions

within ASEE.

Prof. Prasad received his

B.E in Telecommunications in

Cognizance, in its glorious repertoire, included other events such as:

Robosapiens- the robotics extravaganza which comprised of splen-

did events such as Armageddon, Robotron and Power Drift.

Chaos- The Biggest Gaming Event of the country.

Quizzotica- A confluence of the best quizzers and quizmasters of

India.

Online Events, such as Blogomania, Cognistreet (Vir tual Stock

Market), Insomnia (Coding Challenge) and Illushun (Online Puz-

zle) were also conducted.

Exhibitions- Cognizance 2013 organized exhibitions from Illumi-

nati, Robosoft Systems, Bubble Show, Bomb Diffusing Robots,

Multi Sport Simulator, etc.

Workshops- Workshops at Cognizance were carefully chosen to

meet the needs of the industry and were organized by the best in

the world. In this edition, the workshops conducted were namely

Inven-To-Pi, Dogbot, Ornithopter, Cyber Forensics etc.

Cognizance - 2013

6 Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

Achievements

Dr. Durga Toshniwal, Associate Pro-

fessor, Department of Computer Science

and Engineering has received the very pres-

tigious IBM Faculty Award 2012. This award

is highly competitive and is granted by IBM

Corporation, USA.

IIT Roorkee has won the ‘Running Tro-

phy of Spring Festival - 2013’ for the best

performance among all institutes of Uttara-

khand and secured 1st place by winning 7

prizes in the festival.

Prof. G. J. Chakrapani, Department

of Earth Sciences has been nominated as

a member of the three member committee

of Uttarakhand State Environmental Impact

Assessment Authority (SEIAA) and was

elected as a Fellow of National Academy of

Sciences.

Mr. Subodh Jain, 1974 Batch (Civil)

Alumnus takes over as new member engi-

neering, Railway Board and ex-officio sec-

retary to Government of India. Prior to this

new posting, he served as General Manager

of Central Railway (CR), Mumbai, from 9th

November 2011 to 11th April 2013.

Prof. Manoj Arora, Department of

Civil Engineering has joined PEC University

of Technology as its Director, last month.

He was Dean of Academic Studies at IIT

Roorkee before joining this position.

Institution of REC Chair in IIT, RoorkeeRural Electrification Corpora-

tion Ltd. (REC), a Government

of India Navaratna Enterprise,

has signed MOU with Indian

Institute of Technology, Roor-

kee for institution of REC chair

in the institute for carrying out

research and development work

in the field of developing new

and emerging technologies in

rural electrification. The MOU

was signed on behalf of REC by

Vinod Behari, Executive Direc-

tor (HR) and Prof. P. K. Ghosh,

Dean (Finance & Planning) on

behalf of IIT, Roorkee. For the

same, a sum of `45 lacs was

received by the Institute as a

fee for creation of REC chairs.

Books Donated by Alumnus

Shri Viney K. Jain, an alumnus of 1969 batch, B.E (E&C) has donat-

ed the books (in Table) to Mahatma Gandhi Central Library (MGCL).

One set of the books has been put up for reference in the li-

brary and the other set of books is being used for issue to

members. Similar contributions from our alumni would be

very much appreciated. For further details contact us at

team.arciitr@gmail.com.

S. No

Name of BookNo. of Copies

1 The Symbolism of Hindu Gods and Rituals 02

2 Select English Poems 02

3 The Fall of the Human Intellect 02

4 Governing Business and Relationships 02

5 Choice Upanishads 02

6 Bhaja Govindam and Atmabodha 02

7 The Enternities 02

8 Bhagavad Gita 02

Alumni Newsletter 7

IIT Heartbeat (e-Magazine)IIT Heartbeat is a portal covering various themes based on Inter-IIT news, Alumni interactions, literary articles and general entertain-

ment. This magazine will be made available on Channel I as well on the website of Students Affairs Council (SAC). It is expected that

the magazine will focus on issues of common interest to the student community as well as on technical and social issues.

IIT Roorkee All Terrain Vehicle (ATV) Project

In February 2013, Team KNOx IIT Roorkee participated in BAJA SAE

INDIA held at Indore by Society Of Automotive Engineers (SAE). The

team was able to complete the project by generous support from the

alumni. Team KNOx won the 2nd place in Computer Aided Engineer-

ing (CAE) category by ANSYS INC INDIA.

With an experience of 4 years in hand, the team has now decided to

represent IIT Roorkee at the International level of BAJA SAE which

will be held in South Africa in the month of October, 2014 continuing

with its participation at the national level.

The team is developing two new technologies-

• Real Time Traction Enhancement (RTTE) Technology

• Enhanced Maneuverability by Selective Braking (EMSB)A patent has been filed for the RTTE. The team is aiming for the light-

est car in the history of BAJA SAE INDIA, rank 1 finish in nationals

and top 10 finish in South Africa.

Total budget of the project is `18 lacs. The team has already re-

ceived a fund of `1.64 lacs which includes a sponsorship of Rupees

70,000 from Wonder Cement and Rupees 94,000 from the alumni.

We would specially like to thank Mr.Vinay Sharma, 1982 batch for

his contribution this year. He had also contributed `1 lacs last year.

The team is hoping for continuous support from the alumni to meet

its goals.

8 Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

National Conclave:“Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Higher Education Institutes”

A Two-day national conclave on “Innovation and Entre-

preneurship in Higher Education Institutes” was organized

at IIT Roorkee from March 2-3, 2013 with the following

agenda in specific:

• Understanding the role of human resource manage-

ment in developing a culture of objective oriented

structured innovation and entrepreneurship in HEIs.

• Identifying innovative ways to increase awareness

about providing such innovations and their delivery to

the society through development of entrepreneurship

in HEIs in India.

• To understand the forces driving the structured inno-

vation in general and engineering/managerial solutions

specifically.

• Preparing a roadmap for promoting Structured Innova-

tion and entrepreneurship in HEIs in India.

• Identify potential ways for linking benefits of Struc-

tured Innovation and entrepreneurship for International

Collaboration.

The function of the conclave was inaugurated by Dr. Sam Pitroda, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Infor-mation Infrastructure & Innovations. During his address

through video conferencing from Chicago USA, he shared

his views with per tinent points elaborating his personal

experience on propelling innovation through his invention

of digital diary and then patenting it and using it commer-

cially. He suggested how innovation can be propelled at

grass root levels and how systems may be changed radi-

cally. He emphasized wider use of IT in routine services

for transparency and accessibility. He suggested the

steps which Government under his advice is doing, for

example TOR-PHOR -JOR schools for propelling innova-

tion amongst the students. He strongly emphasized upon

active role of alumni in promoting innovation management

for entrepreneurship in HEIs.

Prof. S.K. Bhattacharya, Director CBRI-CSIR, Roorkee was the Guest of Honor in the inaugural ceremony of the con-

clave. Inaugural session was witnessed by large number

of students, scholars and IITR faculty members including

Deans, Heads of the departments and senior professors.

Other Keynote Speakers included:

1. Mr. Lovneesh Chanana, Director, KPMG

2. Prof. V.K.Nangia, Professor, Depar tment of Manage-

ment Studies, IIT Roorkee

3. Prof. Ashok Mittal, IPR Chair Professor, IIT Kanpur

4. Dr. S.M.Mathur, Professor & Coordinator PRISM, CTE,

Udaipur

The conclave was par ticipated by the researchers, stu-

dents, faculty members, Industrialists and other eminent

thinkers of various institutions viz. IIT Roorkee, CBRI-

Roorkee, KPMG, New Delhi, NLU Jodhpur, TMU- Mo-

radabad, OIMT-Rishikesh, College of Technology & Engi-

neering Udiapur, CSIR-IHBT Palampur, GKU Haridwar, IIT

Kanpur, CSIR-CLRI Chennai etc.

Alumni Newsletter 9

DoMS IIT Roorkee Alumni Chapter Meet, 2013It is always special to circle

back around sweet memories of

the past in the pre-sent. DoMS

IIT Roorkee witnessed such a

mind-sharing moment during

last two value adding months.

The occasion was Alumni

Chapter Meets 2013 which

operationalized at five different

locations across the country,

star ting from Bangalore (29th

June), Hyderabad (29th June),

Pune (30th June), Mumbai

(7th July), and Delhi (20th

July). The Bangalore Chapter,

witnessed value-adding Alumni

from organisations like IBM,

ITC InfoTech, Infosys, BEL

and Choice Solutions. Going

forward, next was Hyderabad

where the students came

across a few more world class

Alumni working in organisa-

tions across the country. They

shared their experiences and

also suggested tips that are

much needed in DoMS with

the dynamic corporate world

outside. It was time to gather

the DoMSonians of the west

through the Mumbai and Pune

Chapter meets. The interaction

was very valuable as therewere

Alumni from Infosys, CRISIL,

Cognizant, IBM, TCS, Unilever,

HDFC, Cordys, Arnaca, Kotak

Mahindra and Boston Analytics.

They brought many ideas to the

table in terms of education,

learning and quick wins. The

Chapter meet of Delhi was

also attended by Head of

Depar tment, Dr. S. Rangnekar.

Inspite of bad weather, our

Alumni proactively came in

large number to share and

guide the students for career

and a few paradigm shifts for

the growth of the Depar tment.

Alumni, for one day, lived in the

flashback and cherished the

beautiful moments.

Now you can also contribute to this newsletter by sharing your fond

memories in the form of articles or photos.

Alumni update and chapter news are also invited.

Feedback and views are appreciated.

Newsletter TeamAnkush Agrawal | Harsh Deo | Harsh Anurag

Animesh Sinha | Ciby Chakravarthy

deanalumni.iitr@gmail.com deanalumni@iitr.ernet.in

teamarc.iitr@gmail.comarc_iitr@iitr.ernet.in

Publisher: Prof. Satish C. Sharma, Dean Alumni Affairs, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee

Tel: +91-1332-285840, e-mail: deanalumni.iitr@gmail.com, deanalumni@iitr.ernet.in