Research on Tribal Communities Receives Green Flag from ICSSR
SRM University-AP proudly announces that Dr Bikku R, Assistant Professor at The Department of Liberal Arts has been sanctioned a major research project by the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR). The research project titled “Religious Deities and Saints/Legends/Heroes Changing Geographic Belongingness and Cultural Economy among the Four Tribal Communities (Chenchus, Kondareddis, Koyas and Lambadi’s) of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh” will receive an outlay of Rs. 10.00 Lakhs.
Congratulations, Dr Bikku on this outstanding achievement!
Research Abstract
India is one of the most diverse countries in the world, where around 705 scheduled tribes are notified with their distinct culture, and as per the 2011 census, they constitute 8.6% of the total population. Out of these, 75 communities belong to Particular Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs), having declining or stagnant populations, low literacy rates, pre-agricultural technologies and economic backwardness. For tribal communities, culture, economic, political and geographical belongingness are distinct from non-tribals in India. Studying their religious beliefs and practices and changing cultural economies and landscapes is crucial to preserving India’s diverse cultures. The existing studies by social scientists have not emphasised much on tribal saints/ heroes, changing cultural economies and landscapes in India, particularly in the newly bifurcated southern states, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. The study focuses on religious deities and Saints/Legends/Heroes, changing geographic belongingness and cultural economies among the four tribal communities (Chenchus, Kondareddis, Koyas and Lambadis) of Telangana and AP states of India. Qualitative (ethnographic) and quantitative methods will be used to map their deities and saints/legends/heroes, cultural economy and traditions and record memories of past and contemporary relationships with the belonging to their landscapes and natural resources.
- Published in Departmental News, Liberal Arts News, News, Research News
Hon’ble Governor of Telangana Felicitates Graduates at the 3rd Convocation Ceremony
“Education provides you confidence. Sharpen your skills each passing day and visualise the development of your nation. Learn more than expected and earn more than expected is the ideology that we live by today”, Her Excellency Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, Hon’ble Governor of Telangana, the chief guest of the 3rd Convocation Ceremony of SRM University-AP remarked while addressing the graduating Class of 2023.
The university has conferred the prestigious degrees to the Graduate Class of 2023 at the 3rd Convocation Ceremony on September 02, 2023, in the august presence of Guest of Honour, Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, President-Indian National Science Academy; Dr T R Paarivendhar, Founder Chancellor, SRM Group of Institutions; Dr P Sathyanarayanan, Pro-Chancellor; Prof. Manoj K Arora, Vice Chancellor, SRM University-AP; Other dignitaries; Deans of all schools, faculty, staff and parents of the graduating batch. A remarkable 883 graduates, including 13 PhD scholars, 17 Gold medallists, 6 Silver medallists and 2 Bronze medallists were awarded their degrees at the momentous ceremony held at the APJ Abdul Kalam Auditorium.
“In our objective of being globally connected, nationally relevant and regionally transformative university, we have adopted a five-year strategic plan with five goals – Achieve academic excellence, Intensify research, innovation and entrepreneurial spirit, Enhance student experience, Attain financial sustainability and Improve perception and visibility”, stated Vice Chancellor, Prof. Manoj K Arora in his welcome address. During his briefing about the annual report, Prof. Arora also highlighted the placements excellence of the past academic year. He commented, “In the last academic year, we have witnessed 100% placements with the highest package being 45 LPA and average salary of 9 LPA which is a 25% increase from last year. 15 students have received international offers from countries such as USA, Australia, Japan, Sweden etc. As we host the 3 rd convocation of the institute, we are proud to say we are a young university with 1500 alumni, of which 34% of them are working in Fortune 500 companies, 17% are studying abroad, 7 have their own startups.”
Founder Chancellor, Dr T R Paarivendhar, in his address to the young graduates, commented that India’s first solar launch, Aditya L1 and our country’s presidency over the G20 summit coincided with the students’ graduation and encouraged them to strive for excellence with love for family, their alma mater and country in their hearts. “Success in life needs to be balanced with philosophy and spirituality. SRM University-AP has prepared you for the transition of student to alumni, by imparting knowledge and the skill to learning how to learn. Use the skills you have acquired to pursue prosperity and contribute to the growth of society”, advised Pro-Chancellor, Dr P Sathyanarayanan on this milestone event.
The university also conferred an Honorary Doctorate to Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, esteemed Guest of Honour by the Founder Chancellor, Dr T R Paarivendhar and Hon’ble Governor for his exemplary contributions to the field of sciences. “Success and inclusive development is going to be a global challenge. As we continue to progress at an unprecedented pace, remember that new knowledge is no knowledge without using it for socio-economic good” stated Prof. Sharma in his address. He deeply appreciated how research is ingrained into the very fabric of the varsity’s educational approach assuring research opportunities to the young researchers of our country.
The convocation ceremony successfully concluded with the administration of the pledge by the graduation cohort, honouring the national anthem and the departure of the dignitaries.
- Published in News, University Event
AARAVAM at SRM University-AP Celebrates King Mahabali’s Homecoming
SRM University-AP is a home to diverse group of students coming from different parts of the country and the world, who speak different languages, follow different religions and have different beliefs; the university is a melting pot of cultures and together the varsity weaves a wonderful tapestry. As part of this wonderful diversity, SRM University-AP makes it a point to celebrate festivals and honour the culture of every community and state. The Onam Celebration, Aaravam on campus saw the students join hands to put forth a beautiful spectacle in the form of traditional dances like Thiruvathira Kali and Bharatanatyam and a wonderful amalgamation of Indo-western dance and music performance.
The celebration of Onam, a harvest festival of the southern state of Kerala is made in remembrance of King Mahabali’s reign which was believed to be equivalent to the Ramrajya. King Bali’s reign oversaw no discrimination or ill-treatment of his subjects, people lived in perfect harmony and prosperity. Onam is celebrated in remembrance of this golden era.
The vibrant festivities witnessed the participation of Registrar, Dr R Premkumar, Deans of all schools, Directors, Faculty, Staff, and students of SRM University-AP.
- Published in News
Teacher-Student Duo Author a Chapter on Graph Neural Networks
Dr Ravi Kant Kumar, Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at SRM University-AP and his research scholar, Ms Gayathri Dhara have recently made a significant contribution to the field of Graph Neural Networks. The teacher-student duo have offered relevant analysis of visual saliency applications using Graph Neural Networks (GNN) in their book chapter titled “Study and Analysis of Visual Saliency Applications Using Graph Neural Networks” in the book, Concepts and Techniques of Graph Neural Networks. The topic of their study will prove to be a key source of reference for industry professionals, researchers, scholars, academicians, practitioners, instructors, and students.
Description and Significance of the Chapter
The chapter covers the practical applications of GNN in the field of visual saliency. Various applications of computer vision problems implemented using graph neural networks (GNNs) have been studied and analysed in this chapter. It also includes the design approach of GNN, the various computational models used in GNN, its challenges and recommendations. The social significance of GNN in visual saliency extends to various domains like Human attention modelling, Advertising and marketing, Visual content understanding, and so on.
Significance of GNNs
Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) have gained significance in the field of visual saliency due to their ability to model complex relationships and dependencies within visual data. Visual saliency refers to the process of predicting the most visually prominent regions or areas in an image or video that attract human attention. It plays a crucial role in various computer vision applications, such as image understanding, object recognition, and scene understanding. GNNs can learn spatial dependencies and feature representations from visual data. There are many methodologies that address the detection of the salient object using GNN. GNNs can handle multi-modal data, combining visual information with other modalities such as textual or semantic features. This integration allows GNNs to leverage additional cues and contextual information to improve visual saliency prediction. So, studying these different salient object detection methods using GNN and knowing the challenges of GNN will help in meeting our research objectives.
- Published in CSE NEWS, Departmental News, News, Research News