“To conquer Smart Technology, one must have SPACE” – Mr. Bikram Nayak
SRM AP conducted a webinar on ‘Future Skills in a Digital World’
The Department of Corporate Relations and Career Services of SRM University AP, Andhra Pradesh conducted a webinar on “Future Skills in a Digital World”. The Industry Readiness Webinar Series provide a forum for the industry experts to share their experience with the students. The webinars are engaging and provides a broader spectrum about the expectations and the pedagogy required to bridge the gap between academia and the industry in various aspects.
Mr. Bikram Nayak was invited as a guest for the webinar on May 16th, 2020, Saturday. He is an astute leader with over twenty-two years of experience in the Technology, Design, Engineering & Construction industry with a demonstrated history in the management of Human Capital. He is a celebrated HR consulting professional with expertise spanning across Screening and Formulation of HR Policies, Leadership hiring, Performance & Rewards, and Talent Management. Currently, he is the Head Human Resources at L&T-NxT-The Digital and IoT platform business unit of L&T.
Dr. V K Saraswat, Hon’ble member, NITI AAYOG, Chairman has talked about the capability of our scientific community in mitigating the crisis through epidemiological studies, stimulation and gene concepts. He further says, “The commitment of scientific community, institutions, DST, ICMR, DRDO, IITs, and pharmaceutical industries have been incredible in the battle against this raging pandemic.”
In his previous role as Head Talent Acquisition – L&T, Bikram has hired more than 100 CXO level executives and helped building robust businesses in Smart Cities, Edutech and Digital platforms. In his earlier stint as Head HR of L&T’s Design Centre, he has played a pivotal role in strengthening the Design business by recruiting more than 550 Design Engineers and Architects. He launched “DISHA”, the Employee Assistance Program for the Gen Z employees to mitigate psychological issues. This initiative was then crystalized across the entire L&T group in collaboration with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences enriching lives of hundreds of employees. Mr. Bikram was also instrumental in launching the SCOPE (Safety Conscious Person) scheme for workmen’s safety, which has created a safe work culture and secured environment for lakhs of working-class people in more than 100 project sites around the world.
Mr. Bikram is an avid speaker and has been a panelist in various forums, IIMs, premium colleges, and Institutions across the country on contemporary Human Resource Development and practices like Talent Management, Employee Engagement, People Analytics, Skills Development, HR in Industry4.0, Diversity & Inclusion, Community Impact, Health and wellness etc. Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology inducted him as an expert member to its “Advisory Board” of Post Graduate Diploma Program on “Construction Management and Infrastructure Development”. He is also on the advisory board of Noida Institute of Engineering & Technology. Mr. Bikram has been one of the sponsors of Australian Government’s student exchange and Technical Education programs.
Mr. Bikram has been conferred with TA Pai Young HR Leader Award in 2019, South India’s Most Talented HR professional by World HRD Congress in September 2017 and many more leadership awards in Human Resource Development. L&T won prestigious Talent Acquisition awards at the People Matters TA League Annual Conference in May 2019 & 2018 and two HR Excellence Awards at the SHRM Annual Event in Oct 2018, under his leadership.
“I was excited and motivated to reach out and was looking forward to interacting with the excellent students and having an intuitive discussion with the brilliant faculty of the university”, begins Mr. Bikram, thanking SRM AP for the opportunity. He used two analogies to commence his lecture. The first being our basic need for food, clothing, and shelter, which are made available using smart technology in recent times. His second analogy was the fortune 500 companies which earlier took decades to become a billion-dollar company. Today, with the advent of improved technology, it merely takes 4.4 years for the companies to reach the milestone. Some of the best start-ups in India have used technology-based digital platforms. Companies like Paytm, BYJUS, OYO, Swiggy, OLA, Magicbricks, have scaled up their business to become a billion-dollar company in their natal years. Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and the Internet of Things (IoT) are where the entire credit is due to make these companies flourish and create employment.
Mr. Bikram spoke of the 82-year company, L&T, which was a renowned name in the manufacturing and engineering sector until a few years earlier. With a change in business patterns and technology, today, L&T is aspiring to become one of the best technology companies in the world. The four business units within L&T’s IT domain are L&T Infotech, L&T Technology Services, Mindtree which was acquired a year back and the newest venture L&T Nxt. “We are thinking beyond the traditional model. We started experimenting with solutions provided by our IT ventures in L&T constructions which offered lucrative rewards in terms of improved efficacy and productivity. We are now going global in the US along with catering to the needs of domestic companies’ pertaining to efficacy, safety, and other measures.”, exclaims Mr. Bikram.
As all the sectors are thriving forward using technology, L&T Nxt is also planning to enter the platform business through Edutech and Fintech. It is predicted by Mr. Bikram, “Tomorrow a pharmaceutical, agricultural, automobile, or oil and gas company will also become a tech company.” Sectors that are going to shape up the world in the coming days are Gaming Business which requires coding skills, animation skills, and expertise in AI-ML and Cybersecurity. Mr. Bikram explains how, he says, “From youngsters to senior citizens, the Gaming Business has kept everyone glued to the screens, especially during this current situation. The companies are rising to the occasion by improving their creativity, and advertisements skillfully embedded in the virtual environment specifically regarding COVID 19, which makes it more relevant, and relatable to the users.” Another sector that is expected to flourish is the Edutech Business that requires data science/analytics skills, IoT-ML experts, and content curators. “L&T’s upcoming Edutech platform will offer project management, project planning and skill development courses to help improve employability by offering a career mileage through these rigorous courses for students, working professionals, and the broader society.”, informs Mr. Bikram. The third potent sector is Online Home Delivery Business which requires expertise in IoT, data science, and ML.
To sum it up, the five crucial technical skills that is unparallelly beneficial to the students are IoT for tracing materials in supply chain and to take precautions when machines need repair, Data Science to decipher business decisions through power BI tools and Chatbots, Cyber Security to minimize the ample chance of data leakage, AI-ML, and Additive Manufacturing/3D printing. “AI are computers that can predict/do things like humans and ML is a subset of AI. AI-ML can be used in the HR/training domain for the screening of CV’s based on predetermined parameters, whereas, Additive Manufacturing/3D printing is the future. It significantly makes one self-reliant and assists in creating jobs for others. Through Additive Manufacturing, objects can be created through digital blueprints. Nepal has used 3D printing in piping, and it can also be used in small parts of India to create their own products. L&T has made a prototype two-bedroom house using 3D printing. Human organs can be built through 3D printing in the future. People are researching how to create artificial hearts, lungs, livers. This is the next big thing in tech space.”, Mr. Bikram states.
According to Mr. Bikram, a good leader must possess social skills along with technical skills. “To conquer smart we should have SPACE, as I call it.”, is what Mr. Bikram suggests. He moves on to explain the acronym.
S – Self Awareness
“Know your strength and weaknesses. If you do what you can do best and where your heart is, you will prosper.”
P – Passion
“The driving force/energy will come from your passion. The hunger quotient will define your success.”
A – Agility
“One should be alert and be aware of what is happening in the world. To keep pace with the globe, do the tasks now.”
C – Collaboration
“Interdependence of subject experts is the key to a successful business. Reach out seek ideas.”
E – Empathy
“You live in an ecosystem that consists of many things other than just you. Urging you to nurture this skill, and rest can be learned or imbibed.”
Mr. Bikram concludes his lecture by stating, “There is no specific roadmap to success. One needs to be flexible and adaptable.” On this note, he declares the Q&A session open and invites students and faculty for discussion.
Vishnu Kalyan, a student of SRM AP, was intrigued to understand the opportunities in L&T. To which Mr. Bikram replies, “The technology is changing every day and one needs to update himself to harness the opportunities, we expect you to be versatile in L&T”. He informs that although L&T works with the defence sector to manufacture missiles and tanks, and identify land mines using drones and other equipment, students are urged to look beyond the traditional systems. He beautifully explains, “Today war is won through digital platforms and not in battlegrounds. As progressive students, you need to move forward. For example, we already have automated trains, how about the students think of ways to fly airplanes without pilot and run vehicles without drivers.”
Dr. Deepak Kachave and Dr. Tapas Kumar Mishra from Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SRM AP, had meaningful inputs to share with Mr. Bikram on consumer benefits and India’s capability to delve into the genre of developing operating systems.
Another student raises the query regarding marketing opportunities provided in L&T to B.Tech students. Mr. Bikram says, “We need domain experts who can talk well to pitch our products to the clients.” Pavan from CSE department enquires on the programming languages used in L&T. Mr. Bikram answers, “Python and NLP are a must. We expect you to be adept in algorithms of different kinds.” Sumith, a second-year CSE student asks about internships provided at L&T. Mr. Bikram informs. “L&T provides paid internships to Civil, and Mechanical Engineering students through a rigorous selection process.”
In the end, Dr. Sriram S. Padmanabhan, Director, Corporate Relations – Career Services, expressed his gratitude to Mr. Bikram Nayak for putting in the efforts to inform the students regarding the expectations of industries from the soon to be graduates. The immensely informative and interesting webinar enabled the students to take a step closer to preparing themselves for their dream job.
- Published in Webinars
Next Tech Lab student excels at ETH Denver Hackathon 2020
Enabling accurate and cost-efficient ways to conduct a market survey
SRM University AP, Andhra Pradesh Next Tech Lab student churns out the opportunity to exhibit her acumen at ETHDenver Hackathon 2020. Vyshnavi G, 3rd year, Computer Science and Engineering student, nurtures her coding skills, and emerged triumphant by winning the ETH Denver Hackathon 2020. This hackathon focuses on supporting and building the future technology. The hackathon was conducted at Denver with 500 participants. Vyshnavi G also received a bounty of $500 from SKALE and $500 from Chainlink for the project. The project provides value to Dapp creators by improving understanding of their position and deploying inexpensive ways to gather competitive intel. This application ensures security and is developed using blockchain technology.
Vyshnavi G explains, “A Dapp stores data in a decentralized database and uses decentralized computing resources to work. In a trustless environment, the user needs to be able to verify the kind of application and its working to prevent scam and malware, as well as to protect personal data and assets. Therefore, companies such as Chainlink and Skale that uses blockchain technology, provided the user analytics of their Dapp and expected participants to generate ideas to improve the companies’ market strategy. Our application collects information about the users, and the application can be implemented by any Dapp creator in every industry, be it gaming, exchanges etc.”
The project of Vyshnavi G provides Dapp creators with important metrics about their users. It gives information regarding the time spent by users on competitors’ app, contacts that the users are interacting with, count of unique users, and the count of loyal users of the competitors. “There are many Dapps in the market which offers the information about the user analytics of Dapp. However, they restrict to presenting data pertaining to a single industry whereas, our app mitigates this limitation by offering data source to be used by multiple industries.”, Vyshnavi G explains the uniqueness of the project. When asked regarding her take away from the Hackathon, Vyshnavi G says, “ The ETH Denver Hackathon 2020 gives a brilliant opportunity to work alongside the developers, thought leaders, advisers, and companies who are making the infrastructure and applications that will empower the industries in the future.”
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AP Ministers unveiled Face Shield 2.0 developed by SRM AP student Mohan Aditya
Aditya with Education Minister and MP of Andhra Pradesh Attesting the signs of a true researcher, SRM University AP student P. Mohan Aditya, 2nd year, Mechanical Engineering, develops a highly useful face shield that costs Rs. 15 per piece. “Face Shield 2.0”, as named by Aditya was unveiled at the Velagapudi Secretariat on Tuesday evening, where the student was seen wearing the Face Shield and preparing them. The Sophisticated Corona Face Shield was handed over to Adimulapu Suresh, the Minister of Education, Andhra Pradesh, and Nandigam Suresh, Member of Parliament from Bapatla district of Andhra Pradesh, who may eventually distribute it to the public. The masks were circulated among the police and paramedics from the government, who appreciated Mohan Aditya for this initiative.
Aditya with MinistersThe lightweight face shield is easy to wear, comfortable, yet durable. It protects a person’s entire face from exposures with a thin layer of transparent plastic film that serves as an outer defence. It is a piece of protective equipment that safeguards the face against exposure to the potent threat of infection and diseases. The headband of the face shield is made of cardboard which is 100% degradable and the plastic shield can be reused, making the product eco-friendly.
AP Ministers inspecting Face Shield 2.0
Wearing the ‘Face Shield 2.0’ will help reduce the threat of Coronavirus, making it easier for the police, medical personnel, municipal workers, people working in sanitizing department, people working in the essential goods sector to serve the nation’s public. It can also be used by virus-infected patients to reduce the plausibility of spreading the virus. Moreover, several lakhs of students of schools, colleges and universities could use the Face Shield 2.0 when they come back to the educational institutions after the lockdown is lifted.
The management of SRM AP applauded the research work of Mohan Aditya, praising his new and inspiring invention that is useful to the society. Dr. P Sathyanarayanan, President, SRM University-AP, and Prof. D Narayana Rao, Pro Vice Chancellor, SRM University-AP, celebrated the commendable intelligence of the student and congratulated him for developing the face shield using new technology.
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Resurgence Webinar
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SRM AP students’ illustrious achievements at LA Hacks 2020
Amid the unparalleled catastrophe in the form of widespread COVID-19, SRM University AP, Andhra Pradesh, students at Semester Abroad Program develop projects to combat the crisis. Vyshnavi G and Padmateja, 3rd year, Computer Science and Engineering students went to University of Wisconsin, Madison, and University of California, Berkeley respectively for their Semester Abroad Program. During their stay, they presented two projects at LA Hacks 2020, Southern California, and won accolades galore. The hackathon is one of the largest in the world and was held on March 27-29. Many hackers and innovators participated to create and collaborate at UCLA’s virtual event. SRM AP students submitted two projects in this hackathon as a single team and emerged as a finalist in the “Best Overall Hack”. The students developed Safely, the project title sponsored by Facebook as “Best Collaboration Hack”, and also worked on Go Farm which was sponsored by Honey as “Best Consumer Hack”. The team coordinated through Slack as the hackathon was turned into a virtual competition with the unfortunate outbreak of COVID-19.
Safely is a society-based pandemic monitoring application for reporting and tracking precise geolocations of COVID-19 cases. Safely allows users to report their own condition, be it healthy, symptomatic, diagnosed, or recovered along with their geolocation. The application enables users to identify areas around them on a map. Based on the shade of the regions displayed on the map, the user deciphers the risk of contagion. Areas with symptomatic users display lighter shades, whereas locations with diagnosed patients and regions with a high concentration of affected users, show up as darker shades on the map. “With COVID-19 spreading rapidly, there are not enough resources to find or report the exact geographical information of new cases. People would want to be cautious by avoiding specific locations that have a lot of reported cases. Also, it enables help agencies to recognize areas where resources are required to be sent. Tracking COVID-19 can be especially difficult in developing countries with weaker infrastructure. “, Vyshnavi G explains the issues that inspired her to build this project.
GoFarm primarily benefits the farmers and improves consumer satisfaction. It is an application where a farmer can post information regarding harvested crops including vegetables, pulses along with quoting the price of the products. The customer can search for nearby farms using google maps and purchase through this platform. Padmateja says, “In India where agriculture sector employs more than 50% of the total workforce, we have come across many incidents in which farmers are suffering because of high debt burdens, corruption in subsidies, and crop failure. We thought to use our skills to develop an application that gives them profit. Not getting enough money for their crop is the most serious problem that they are facing right now. At the same time, we decided to emphasize on the consumer satisfaction. Eliminating third parties and connecting farmers with customers would be helpful in upgrading the agricultural sector. Due to COVID-19 outbreak, it has become more crucial for the consumers to be informed regarding stores responsible for the delivery of the product.”
In the future, the team wants to add a crop recommendation system for the farmers in the platform based on weather conditions. The students also plan to expand the availability of the application to many farmers and consumers across the nation.
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Scaling up hydrogen production: an alternative energy source to conventional fuels
Chemical Engineering Journal publishes paper of Dr. Lakhveer Singh with Impact Factor 8.34
Dr. Lakhveer Singh, Assistant Professor, Department of Environmental Science, SRM University AP, Andhra Pradesh published a paper in the Chemical Engineering Journal with an Impact Factor of 8.34. His paper titled, Breaking the Loop: Tackling Homoacetogenesis by Chloroform to Halt Hydrogen Production-Consumption Loop in Single Chamber Microbial Electrolysis Cells is published in collaboration with Oregon State University.
Single Chamber Microbial Electrochemical Cells reactor is used to produce hydrogen. Since wastewater is used in the process, hydrogen consumers are present inside the reactors. The presence of homo acetogenesis and hydrogen production-consumption loop significantly hinders the efficient hydrogen recovery from this reactor. Removal of homo acetogenins remained a challenge that is mitigated by the research work conducted in this paper. Dr. Lakhveer informs, “Prof. Hong Liu is the mother of the bioelectrochemical system. I used to work with her for 1.5 years during my Post Doctorate. We developed the method to inhibit homo acetogenins in bioelectrochemical fuel cells for the first time to exhibit homo acetogenins which enhance the hydrogen production in scaled-up microbial electrochemical (MEC).”
Method to inhibit homo acetogenins in bioelectrochemical fuel cells
A small concentration of chloroform is used in the process, which after the experiment leaves traces of merely 0.001% which is negligible. Furthermore, 0.02 ml chloroform is used in ten litres of reactors, negating the chance of causing damage to the environment. “Microbial community analysis revealed that the amount ofhomoacetogenic Acetobacterium spp. was eliminated in the cathodic biofilms and planktonic cells by chloroform.”, enlightens Dr. Lakhveer. This method can also be applied in large scale reactors to enhance hydrogen production by inhibiting homo acetogenins. The hydrogen production rate is nearly 20 litres per hour from the reactor. The application of this reactor is the production of energy which can be used as an alternative to conventional fuel.
Advancing the work, Dr. Lakhveer aspires to improve this method in the future, through reducing the residual chloroform concentration and developing more environment-friendly inhibitor using similar mechanisms, that may lead to the practical application in MECs.
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