Date: November 22, 2017

Dr. Ranjit Thapa, Associate Professor from SRM Research Institute, SRM University in his lecture on 22nd November 2017 introduces the development and need of supercomputers. He explained how the supercomputers are different from a general-purpose computer in respect of computational capacity. He explained how the scientific problems in different length scale and time scale can be solved via simulation in the computer clusters. He introduces how we can do simulation for energy management system for Hydrogen train and also how we can predict the behaviour of electron and atoms inside the materials. Shortly, in current date simulations can provide a fast way to screen the suitable materials and predict the performance of devices in a cost-effective way. SRM University has set up a supercomputer center equipped with servers contain 1870 cores and 16 TB of RAM to execute and solve the scientific problems (http://mysrm.srmuniv.ac.in/hpcc/). He also explained that in the emerging field of knowledge (data) based discovery of materials; the descriptor based approach has proven to be quite powerful in the design of new materials as well as obtaining insights into the chemical mechanisms. Within first-principles density functional theory, his group proposes new electronic structure based descriptor defined as a simple function of (i) the pz occupancy (considering occupied sates) and (ii) the contribution to the density of states at the Fermi Level from pz orbital of an active site of doped graphene. Lastly, he concluded with the note that “there are lots of job opportunities in the area of supercomputers and scientific computing and it is open for every student”.

Date: November 21, 2017

On the morning of November 21, 2017, a lecture was arranged in the atrium of SRM-AP with Ms. Hema Gopal, Vice-President of Tata Consultancy Services Limited. In her opening remarks she emphasized the importance and growing influence of IT sector in our daily lives. She educated the student community on various ways of making a bright career in IT industry, keeping in view its widespread product applications, in both personal and professional fronts. During her lecture, she presented some of the interesting facts and figures related to IT sector. She explained, how students can get through in IT sectors and contribute to various fields including automobile, software, tele-communication, transportation, medical, defense, aerospace, design, education, banking and insurance etc. She later informed students that irrespective of their specialization in undergraduate education they can very well join IT industries after completion of course and obtain expertise in interested IT field over a period of time, leading to an excellent career. She also emphasized on the social development as well the national development that we can gain from IT sectors. Overall, students found her speech as quite informative, interesting and knowledgeable. The lecture was followed by question-answer session at the end.

Date: November 29, 2017

On the evening of 29th November, 2017 a very special lecture was arranged in the atrium of SRM -AP. The honorary guests for the afternoon was Prof. K.N. Satyanarayana, director of IIT-Tirupati. and Prof. Damodaran, Vice Chancellor of S V University, Tirupati. The dignitaries were cordially welcomed by all the faculty and students. Prof. Satyanarayana addressed the students after the welcome address by the Pro-Vice Chancellor of SRM University. The director cautioned the students about the difficulties and challenges that they may encounter during the engineering and the ways to overcome the challenges. He emphasized the importance of students and faculty diversity in a University and the responsibilities vested on the pioneer batch of SRM -AP. He also shared his past experiences and encouraged the students to set high standards and to follow their dreams. Prof. Damodaran also motivated the students by accentuating the vast opportunities that are available to them. The speakers were able to persuade the audience to do something better and to make a better future.