“Major Breakthroughs Are Realised When Your Approach Is Multidisciplinary” – Prof. Pramod K Varshney
SRM University-AP hosted the 21st edition of its University Distinguished Lecture (UDL #21). The coveted event saw the presence of the distinguished speaker Prof. Pramod K Varshney from the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Syracuse University, New York. The title of UDL 21, “Six Blind Men of Indostan: Theory and Application of Distributed Inference” elaborated on the use of sensors to collect data and its application in the areas of Security, Surveillance, Disease Detection, Military services and so on.
UDL #21 saw the presence of university leadership including Vice Chancellor, Prof. Manoj K Arora; Pro-Vice Chancellor Prof. Ch Satish Kumar; Registrar Dr R Premkumar; Dean-Research Prof. Ranjith Thapa, Deans of the three schools; faculty members; staff and students.
In his address, Prof. Arora lauded Prof. Varshney for his exceptional scholarship that goes beyond academia. He identified him as a great scholar and poetry enthusiast. Prof. Manoj K Arora underscored the importance of applying one’s research to real-world applications. He urged the attendees to integrate governance, industry, and academia to create wonders.
Prof. Pramod Varshney’s expertise in Signal Processing and Wireless Communications has helped in making remarkable contributions. During the lecture Prof. Varshney used the analogy of the blind men that described the elephant as various things. He stated that sensors are like blind men, their field of view is limited; the collective data inferred is then used to make decisions where the doctor tries to figure out the disease, the military commander on the action to take and so on.
Prof. Varshney also elaborated on how humans are also like sensors, sensors that work on biases. He stated that his research got him to experiment in diverse areas. He encouraged students to look for novel and innovative ideas to work on because “Major breakthroughs are realised when your approach is multidisciplinary.”
The session was followed by a ‘Q and A’ from students and faculty and culminated with the members of the leadership felicitating Prof. Varshney.
