Allowing students to explore more into their learning domain will invariably enhance their quest for knowledge. The more students are encouraged to experiment with problems, tools, and substances they will work with, the better prepared they are to face any challenge head-on. It is also a better rewarding alternative as against the conventional book learning method.

Taking the current scenario into account,imparting hands-on training on cutting-edge developments is an excellent exercise to inculcate scientific spirit in young minds. Such initiatives should be actively promoted to equip students on par with the fast-evolving technological realm. We are delighted to announce that the SRM-Amara Raja Center for Energy Storage Devices, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, collaborates with NSS Cell-SRM AP to organise a “Hands-on Session on Lithium-ion Battery: Assembly and Testing” with the sponsorship from the DST-SERB Start-up Research Grant (SRG).

Date: April 14, 2022

Time: 9.30 am to 12.30 pm IST

We invite all the interested students to become part of this invigorating initiative and make the best use of this opportunity to receive an enriching training session. The event is also followed by lunch for all the participants.

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The Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering is hosting the first instalment of the Distinguished Industry-Academia Interaction Lecture in the ECE DDIAL series. The event is scheduled on April 9, 2022, at 10.30 am. Dr. Serene Banerjee, Master Researcher, Ericsson Research, will be the keynote speaker. She will deliver a talk on the topic ‘AI/ML Based Interference Diagnostics and Mitigation for Improved Quality of Service in Radio Access Networks’.

Abstract of the Talk

For coverage and capacity optimization, Uplink Power Control is one of the key steps, in addition to antenna tilting and Downlink Power Control. For self-organizing networks, automated algorithms for Uplink Power Control are a necessity. However, Uplink Power Control affects the noise in the neighbouring cells. It is important to detect this interference to monitor uplink noise. Uplink noise due to power control manifests as static interference in the channel. The current state-of-the-art baseline model is based on regression models. We have proposed automated detection of static interference in the uplink channel of cells based on machine learning models. We have evaluated the same on customer data on LTE networks with high accuracy. The detected cells are subsequently used to correct the nominal power parameter through a proposed teacher-student model based on the primary cell and its neighbours. This approach shows better performance than the state-of-the-art baseline methods. The dual of static is dynamic interferences and can be attributed to traffic load, Passive Intermodulation (PIM) and thermal noise, etc. PIM identification is a major component in troubleshooting modern wireless communication systems. The introduction of carrier aggregation has increased PIM occurrences. Current state-of-the-art approaches include manual rule-based and hardware-based debugging. These approaches can detect the occurrence of PIM, long after the event occurrence and result in incurring incidental costs. We propose an ensemble of time series-based machine learning and signal processing approaches that can automatically identify PIM in real-time by analyzing Key Performance Indicators (KPI) of the primary cell and its nearest neighbours. We validate our results for various environmental conditions in data available from LTE and 5G consumer networks. We have further extended the work to multi-frequency time series to handle finer time granularities and detect PIM anomalies in an online learning setting. We further propose a self-supervised reinforcement learning approach to predict PIM related anomalies before it happens. We forecast environmental conditions that give rise to PIM based on offline historical data and model to predict future occurrences. Experimental results are on real-world datasets comprising 50,000+ cells which have shown to accurately predict PIM 60% of the time. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work, where we are able to predict PIM anomalies before they happen. Post PIM-identification, we propose a binary search-based solution that is amenable to real-time implementation. We show through simulations that this search in tandem with a reinforcement learning-based solution can dynamically mitigate and cancel PIM. Results show that the number of steps to converge, to identify and mitigate the PIM in uplink frequency is reduced by a large factor. To summarize, our contributions include using machine learning algorithms for: (1) robust interference classification, (2) demonstrating p0-nominal recommender as teacher-student model, (3) a times-series analysis-based PIM identification, (4) extending the approach to multi-frequency time series, and for online learning, (5) demonstrating a self-supervised reinforcement learning approach to predict PIM anomalies before they happen, and (6) mitigating PIM, in spite of environmental unknowns, by employing binary search in conjunction with ML/RL-based approaches.

About the Speaker

Serene Banerjee, Master Researcher, Ericsson Research, has 17+ years of industrial experience after completing her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin, under Prof Brian L Evans in 2004. She has completed BTech(H) in Electronics and Electrical Communications Engineering from IIT Kharagpur in 1999. At Ericsson, she is focusing on developing AI/ML algorithms for Radio Access Networks. Prior to Ericsson, she has worked with Texas Instruments, HP, and Johnson Controls. She has 23 peer-reviewed publications, 9 granted patents, and several pending.

Join the webinar for an informative interaction with Dr Serene Banerjee.

The Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering is hosting the first segment of the ECE Department Distinguished Lecture Series on March 24, 2022, from 12.00 pm to 01.00 pm IST. Prof Achanta Venugopal, Director, CSIR-NPL is the distinguished speaker of the event. He will be delivering a talk on the topic “Metamaterials and their Applications”.

Abstract of the Talk

Metamaterials are designed materials with unique properties that may not exist in naturally available materials. These are designed with sub-wavelength size components. In this talk, after briefly introducing metamaterials, the speaker will discuss on a few metal-dielectric and all dielectric metamaterials and their applications in wide-ranging areas covering stealth, single-photon emitters, reusable biosensors among others.

Speaker’s Profile

Venu Gopal Achanta obtained his PhD in Physics from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai and PhD in Electronics from Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan. He is currently the Director of CSIR-National Physical Laboratory, Delhi. He is on lien from Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai where he is a professor in the Department of Condensed Matter Physics and Material Science. He has served in various TIFR committees as chair and member. He is also on the senates of IISER, Berhampur and IIT, Delhi. He is a member of the executive council of Optical Society of India, vice-chair of IEEE Photonics Mumbai chapter and member of the program committee of the Association of Asia Pacific Physics Societies – Division of Condensed Matter Physics. He is on the editorial board of journals, Scientific Reports, Frontiers in Physics, Encyclopedia of Applied Physics, and the Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Physics. He is an honorary Fellow of the Metrology Society of India and senior member of IEEE. His research interests are in nano and quantum photonics with over 140 journal publications.

Join here for an insightful session with Prof Achanta Venugopal.

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The world of communications is constantly changing. It is transforming, evolving, and becoming better, faster, and smarter. So, for the fourth edition of My Scholar’s Voice (MSV-IV) we would like to present Shaik Rajak from the Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering for a titillating discussion on “Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces for B5G Communications” on Saturday, November 27, 2021, at 11.00 am.

Shaik Rajak will give us an insight into the future with communications with his talk. He will elaborate in this session on the importance of his research. He will talk about the scopes of implementation as well as further research that can follow his work. It would be really beneficial to learn about the developing phase of communication research to make an informed decision while choosing research or career plans.

About the speaker:

Shaik Rajak received his B. Tech degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from JNTU, Hyderabad in 2013. He completed his M.Tech. in Electronics and Communication Engineering, JNTU Hyderabad in 2016 and is currently working towards the PhD at the School of Engineering And Science (SEAS), SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh, India. Before joining SRM University-AP, he worked as a lecturer for a year in QIS College of Engineering and Technology (QISCET), Andhra Pradesh. He was awarded a gold medal for the paper presentation organized by SRM University-AP. His current research interests include the Internet of Things, beyond 5G communications, Intelligent Reflecting Surfaces, Millimeter-wave, Massive MIMO, OMA, and NOMA schemes.

So, take a seat and be a part of this amazing session on Saturday, November 27, 2021, at 11.00 am to hear from Shaik Rajak’s voice in MSV-IV.

SRM University-AP, is pleased to announce that the Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering is bringing forth a Faculty Development Programme (FDP) on “Recent Trends in Microwave and Beyond Techniques”. The duration of the program duration is November 15, 2021 to November 20, 2021. The sessions are scheduled in the afternoon from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., Tuesday to Friday and in Forenoon from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Saturday.

This is a 6-day online Faculty Development Programme aimed to enhance research capabilities of the researchers and professionals working in RF/ Microwave, Millimetre Waves, 5G communication and Metamaterial domain. Eminent Scientists and professors from highly reputed institutes will share their research experience with budding researchers, and expert from industries will offers Hands on Sessions. This Program will be managed by the Faculties of Department of ECE, SRM-AP.

* There is no registration fee for this FDP program. The certificate will be provided to all the attendees of this program. The candidates can register for this program on the link given below.

Register here.

Download Brochure here.

The programme will cover a wide range of topics such as

• Space exploration and technical challenges in Mars Landing
• High-performance Microwave and Millimetre Wave Components Utilizing Suspended Substrate Transmission Line
• Metamaterials
• RF Energy Harvesting
• Microwave Amplifiers/Microwave absorbers
• 5G Beam forming Techniques/5G Antenna Implementation and challenges
• Characteristic Mode Approach to Antenna and Array analysis
• FSS for Aerospace applications: radome and antenna
• Dielectric Resonator Antennas for Futuristic Applications
• Near and Far-Field Wireless Power Transfer: Trends, Techniques and Recent Developments

Some of the eminent speakers in this program will be

• Dr Goutam Chattopadhyay (NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology)
• Prof. S.K. Koul (CARE, IIT Delhi)
• Dr Arokiaswami Alphones (School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, NTU Singapore)
• Prof. V. Subramanian (Dept. of Physics, IIT Madras)
• Dr Mrinal Kanti Mandal (IIT Kharagpur)
• Dr Chinmoy Saha (Dept. of Space, IIST Thiruvananthapuram)
• Dr Arani Ali Khan (Dept. of Electrical Engg., IIT Jodhpur)
• Dr Debdeep Sarkar (Dept. of Electrical Commu., IISC Banglore)
• Dr Saptrishi Ghosh (Dept. of Electrical Engg., IIT Indore)
• Dr Shiv Narayan (NAL Banglore)
• Mr Sandeep Ghoshal (Maths work)
• Dr Ravi Dutt Gupta (Ace Technologies)
• Swapnil Gaul (Founder – NUMEREGION)
• Sumith S. Pillai (EMAG Solution Engineer, CST Microwave studio, VIAS pvt. ltd.)

This programme is being conducted under the watchful and dedicated eyes of Dr Divya Chaturvedi, Dr Goutam Rana, and Dr Ramesh Vaddi, from the Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering.

We invite faculty members from Indian and International institutes, research scholars, undergraduate and post-graduate students to become a part of an interesting and illuminating session which will have speakers from various teaching and professional fields to contribute their theoretical and practical insights.

This program will be especially helpful to the participants who are doing or planning to start research career in RF/Microwave-Millimetre wave domains. The recordings of the sessions will be provided to all attendees. The certificate of participation will also be provided to all the participants.

Register here.