SRM-AP All News
ALL News
- URC backs computational & experimental research. New R&D collaborations proposed August 27, 2019
Amaravati, 7th August 2019: At the University Research Council meeting held on campus, and presided by Dr. P. Sathyanarayanan, Founder and President of the board, a renewed commitment was made to research of national significance such as energy conservation and sustainability.
An illustrious, distinguished and accomplished group of academicians and scientists provided direction and mentorship to the faculty members and research scholars. The council comprises Prof K. Satyanarayana – Director, IIT Tirupati, Prof. U.B. Desai – Director, IIT Hyderabad, Prof. P. Appa Rao – Vice Chancellor, University of Hyderabad, Prof. Gautam R. Desiraju – IISc, Bangalore, Dr. S.R. Rao – former Senior Adviser, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India, Prof. B.S. Murthy – IIT Madras, Chennai, Dr. Padmanabham – Director, ARCI, Hyderabad, Prof. B.V.R. Chowdari – Senior Executive Director, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and Prof. D. Narayana Rao – Pro-Vice Chancellor, SRM University – AP, Amaravati.
The meeting commenced with an opening presentation by Prof. D. Narayana Rao, Pro-Vice Chancellor, SRM AP, Amaravati highlighting the areas of research currently undertaken and proposed to carry out by the University’s 107-member faculty. The Chairman of the Research Council, Dr. V. K. Saraswat – Member of NITI Aayog, addressed all the members through a video call and advised them on the need and development of research activities. Dr. Saraswat also highlighted the importance of aligning research programs with the national agenda.
Vice Chancellor, Dr. Jamshed Bharucha emphasised SRM AP Amaravati’s focus on societal impact through original research in an interdisciplinary environment. The new research lab building and the X-Labs will facilitate these initiatives. Faculty Members made presentations on the current as well as proposed research activities
The council commended the quantum and quality of work already done by SRM AP Amaravati in just two years of inception. Members pointed out that the kind of MOUs and collaborations effected with different organisations are crucial for the faculty to be able to sustain research. Specific appreciation was about Hydrogen Powered Train (Jal-Janak Rail) being developed in collaboration with Integral Coach Factory (ICF) of the Ministry of Railways, SRM-Amara Raja Center for Energy Storage Devices. Special mention was made to the sports science centre as it is often an overlooked area.
Prof. P. Appa Rao offered that the experimental facilities of University of Hyderabad can be accessed by the faculty members of SRM University-AP, Amaravati. Dr. Padmanabham invited the faculty members of SRM University-AP, Amaravati to establish collaborations with ARCI, Hyderabad and make use of the state-of-the art experimental facilities available at ARCI.
Commenting on the occasion, Dr. Kasthurirangan Gopalakrishnan, Associate Dean – Research said, “The inputs provided by the council have not only been encouraging but have also been extremely insightful. They have provided diligent inputs and guidance. Our faculty found this experience extremely motivating.”
Continue reading → - Dr. Shailender Swaminathan proposes overhaul in insurance and medical services in India’s healthcare sector. August 27, 2019
3rd August, 2019, Madras School of Economics, Chennai: The Chennai International Centre (an organization providing a platform for intellectuals and luminaries to share transformational ideas) invited an expert panel to talk on Indian Healthcare Services. The panel members comprising Dr. Shailender Swaminathan (Health Economist, Researcher, Associate Dean – SLABS, SRMU – AP, Amaravati), Dr. Keshav Desiraju (Former Health Secretary, Government of India), Dr. Soumya Swaminathan (Chief Scientist, WHO) discussed the significance of a holistic approach in the healthcare sector with moderator Dr. Nalini Krishnan, Director, REACH – Resource Group of Education and Advocacy for Community Health. Panelists addressed the inaccessibility of medical facilities in India stemming primarily from a lack of government funding, high cost of drugs and the low literacy rate. The panel also recognized how this inaccessibility leads to poor utilization of technology and low insurance penetration.
“How India is able to fund healthcare five years from now is of significance,” opined Dr. Shailender Swaminathan, citing the US healthcare system, “The U.S. aimed at funding healthcare services of people over 65 years through the contribution of younger citizen and taxpayers. This previously successful U.S. model is on the verge of failure as the cost of drugs increased at a higher pace exhausting the funds.”
Pointing out that policies must be directed towards reducing the poverty rate in India to suffice for increasing healthcare expenses, Dr. Swaminathan added that “High expenditure on healthcare services leaves no funds for purchasing basic consumption goods, further pushing citizens below the poverty line. “
He explained that insurance policies in India cover only hospitalization bills whereas outpatients (patients who do not require hospitalization) are unable to pay the daily medical expenses. This lack of outpatient insurance drives up insurance costs, as minor health issues are not treated, leading to eventual hospitalization of the patient.
According to Dr. Swaminathan an integrated approach towards healthcare would prompt the government to provide free diagnostic and treatment services of high quality to outpatients. The panel concluded that the government must focus on primary healthcare services, prevention of diseases, insurance inclusivity and healthcare promotion.
Healthcare panel in discussion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShU1nH1w0Fo
Continue reading → - Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) registers SRM University, Andhra Pradesh, as a Public Funded Research University July 29, 2019
Becomes first ever University to receive this stature in just two years of business operations
25th July 2019: The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India has considered SRM University, Andhra Pradesh under Public Funded Research Institutions / Universities and granted a Certificate of Registration dated 5th July 2019. This prestigious certification entails exemptions in customs duty while importing research equipment as well as in GST when procuring materials from within the country. SRM University, Andhra Pradesh is now eligible to pay only 9% on customs duty and 5% GST on national equipment as against the stipulated 30-40% and 18% respectively.
Continue reading → - Next Tech Lab undergraduates present ‘Smart Irrigation Solution for Farmers’ at the 10th ICCCNT at IIT Kanpur July 18, 2019
July 6th-8th, 2019: Second and third year B.Tech students, Agniswar Paul – ECE 3rd year, Fahad Kamraan – CSE 3rd year, Ajay Kumar – CSE 2nd year, Jaideep Cherukuri – CSE 2nd year, together presented a paper on “Low-cost IoT+Machine Learning (ML) design for smart farming using multiple applications” at the 10th ICCCNT held at IIT Kanpur. The model developed is a breakthrough in the context of Indian agriculture, providing smart irrigation solutions, based on weather forecasts. This cost-effective, ML infused technology (alert system for farmers) will help improve the yield through crop suggestion and weather determination.
Continue reading → - Dr. Tewari receives Homi Bhabha National Institute’s Outstanding Doctoral Student Award July 8, 2019
Dr. Somesh Vinayak Tewari, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (SRM University AP) was awarded the prestigious “Outstanding Doctoral Students Award”, from Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI) at an event held at the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) Convention Centre, Anushaktinagar, Mumbai. Dr. Tewari was presented this award for his PhD thesis titled “Study of surface flashover of insulator in gases at high pressure.”
Continue reading → - “Hearing Colours and Seeing Sounds” – SRM AP student’s paper on Python programming applauded at prestigious international conference. June 11, 2019
PyCon X Italy, May 2019: Aakanksha Chouhan, 2nd Year CSE student and member of Minsky group at Next Tech Lab gave an invited talk at PyCon X Italia in Florence, Italy. She was the youngest invited and funded speaker at the International conference on Python programming and its applications.
Aakanksha elaborated on her research at Next Tech Lab on better understanding Synesthesia using Artificial Intelligence. Her work in deep learning led her to exploring creative applications of AI. Aakanksha’s talk was attended by over 400 people and was well received by the community.
PyCon Italia is attended by thousands of experienced programmers, computer scientists and industry veterans looking to hire top talent in Italy. The conference was sponsored by industry leaders like Python Software Foundation, Intel, and IBM.
The event was held at the Grand Hotel Mediterraneo and hosted several speakers from around the world for the 4 day multi-track conference.
https://www.pycon.it/conference/talks/hearing-colours-and-seeing-sounds-using-python
Continue reading → - Dr. Thondamal to set up joint biological research facility at leading national lab in Hyderabad June 10, 2019
May, 2019: Following discussions between SRM APs Biology research team (initiated by SRM AP Pro VC Prof. Narayana Rao and Dr. S. Chandrasekhar, Director CSIR-IICT, Hyderabad) and the Applied Biology division of CSIR-IICT, Dr. Manjunatha Thondamal, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences at SRM AP, was invited to establish a C. elegans facility at IICT campus and train the scientists/students.
Continue reading → - ISCA committee visit SRM AP to organize 108th Indian Science Congress May 21, 2019
May 2019: A three member committee of the Indian Science Congress Association (ISCA) consisting of Dr. Vijay Laxmi Saxena, the General President (Elect), Dr. Manoj Kumar Chakraborty, the immediate past President of ISCA and Dr. Ashok Kumar Saxena, the past General President of ISCA visited SRM University-AP, Amaravati on 16th May and held discussions to organize the 108th Indian Science Congress at SRM University-AP, Amaravati between 3-7 January, 2021.
Dr. P. Sathyanarayanan, President, SRM University-AP, Amaravati, Prof. D. Narayana Rao, Past General President of ISCA and Pro Vice Chancellor, Dr. D. Gunasekaran, Registrar and Dr. B. Siva Kumar, Dy. Registrar welcomed the high level committee members. Dr. P. Sathyanarayanan chaired the meeting.
The ISCA committee along with senior functionaries of the university visited lecture halls, halls for plenary sessions, hostel accommodation, the inauguration and science exhibition venues and other facilities. Prof. D. Narayana Rao made a presentation on SRM University-AP, Amaravati and Dr. B. Siva Kumar explained to the committee the logistic facilities available at the university to organize the Indian Science Congress.
The Indian Science Congress Association comprises eminent and established scientists, academicians, planners and science administrators of the government of India funding agencies and research scholars. The Indian Science Congress is held annually during 3-7 January. India has the unique distinction where a major science event is customarily inaugurated by the nation’s Prime Minister who then unravels the scientific agenda of the country before a large and wide scientific community.
The Indian Science Congress also provides an opportunity for scientists and academicians of different disciplines to interact and formulate interdisciplinary research programs.
According to Prof. D. Narayana Rao, the ISCA committee were very much convinced that SRM University-AP, Amaravati has the necessary facilities, expertise, and commitment to organize the Indian Science Congress. “Dr. P. Sathyanarayanan and I are hopeful that the university will have the opportunity to organize the event in January 2021 and this prestigious opportunity will enable SRM AP to gain exposure to varied scientific research possibilities which will further improve its research programs and facilities.”
Continue reading → - Digital Environmental Humanities – Challenges and Possibilities May 13, 2019
“I analyse texts that reflect the relationship between literature and environment with an emphasis on issues like pollution, resource crises, unchecked development and species extinction.” says Dr. Nibedita Bandyopadhyay who did her Ph.D. in English at IIT Kanpur with a specialisation in Environmental Humanities. Her journal papers and book chapters have appeared in reputed publications like Taylor and Francis and Lexington.
One example of the kind of literary text she speaks of is Ruchir Joshi’s The Last Jet-Engine Laugh, a novel that touches on the subject of resource capitalisation while exploring the generation gap in a Gujarati family over a century of political and social turmoil in post-colonial India.
In 2016, upon an invitation from the American Studies Association, Dr. Bandyopadhyay presented a paper on environmental humanities at a conference in Denver, Colorado. The following year she got a tuition award to participate at a conference in Cornell University’s ‘School of Criticism and Theory,’ where her mentor was historian Dr. Faisal Devji, from the Oxford University faculty. “It was a workshop where we analysed texts on the tenets of literary theory and criticism such as feminism, post-colonialism, eco-criticism and cultural studies”.
For Dr. Bandyopadhyay the April 2019 Dartmouth conference on digital humanities was notable for both raising concerns about technology and presenting opportunities in preservation and analysis of literary and cultural texts. She emphasises that digital humanities can lead to increased interdisciplinary research that will be fruitful to her domain as well because environmental humanities is a field which constantly engages itself with other fields of research.
“Even though traditionally ecocriticism and digital technologies have been in conflict, I see some interesting possibilities. Many eco-critics see modern technology as a major contributor to carbon dioxide emissions and as essentially anti-environmental. It is understandable how and why experts in environmental studies would resist adopting digital technologies at the heart of digital humanities. But if we judiciously combine ecocriticism and digital technologies, this will yield some remarkable changes.” Nibedita says.
The Dartmouth conference was highly successful in its attempt to dispel some of these doubts. One of the keynote speakers, Prof. Sukanta Choudhuri of Kolkata’s Jadavpur University spoke about a project that digitalizes and records works by writers like Rabindranath Tagore. Dr. Bandyopadhyay shares some of her memories of the conference session: “I raised the question of the numerous regional Bengali dialects that can be found from West Bengal to Bangladesh and how to reconcile these variations and differences, and most importantly, the mode of approach. It is a good idea to make digitised versions of classical texts but these must be made available to the Third World countries. It needs to be open to a wide audience, the public at large. Or else it has no meaning.” Here again, Dr. Bandyopadhyay points out the hesitation among some scholars of conventional humanities to adopt digital technologies and how the benefits once clearly understood can help overcome the diffidence: “They are just not comfortable with the medium. We need to build a real collaboration between Computer Science and Humanities because digitalisation depends on the operation of programming languages that belong to computer science. Digital technologies can in fact help in three important ways – digitization can record certain lost texts on environmental studies, simple online tools like hyperlinks can connect a large community of users to digitised texts, and computational technologies like Voyant can provide analysis, and this applies to environmental studies too”.
The computational tools in digital humanities are not confined to literary boundaries. Dr. Bandyopadhyay points out how these technologies can also access the natural world. “Digital tools can help to record the population and extinction rates of species in the natural world as well as take note of global warming and climate change. It is a new and challenging approach as not much work has been done in this area of research.”
In the coming semesters at SRM AP, Dr. Bandyopadhyay, who has taught Communicative English to SEAS students and creative writing and fiction analysis to SLABS students, will look to infuse SLABS course work with elements of digital and computational tools and introduce students to the immense possibilities. “For example, once we select a text and create a situational context, the students, many of whom come from technological backgrounds, can actively participate in digitisation exercises, access computational tools and even develop new programs to expand research and facilitate the analysis of literary texts. It will make the journey even more exciting for them.”
Continue reading → - SRM AP STUDENTS GRADUATE FROM THE 2019 SEMESTER ABROAD PROGRAM AT UC BERKELEY WITH AN IMPRESSIVE RECORD OF WINS. May 8, 2019
13 students from SRM AP completed the Semester Abroad program at UC Berkeley, California capping a spectacular season of programs like ETH Denver (the world’s biggest Ethereum Blockchain Hackathon and Conference; TensorFlow Development Summit (the largest event for all the Machine Learning users); and GDC 2019 (the biggest gaming conference in San Francisco.
Continue reading →