Yoganand B, Parshal Chitrakar, Agniswar Paul, Abirami Ravishankar are four brilliant students from the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering at SRM University-AP who have successfully completed an international internship with EION Wireless Inc, Canada. The students worked as engineering interns with this reputed wireless solutions firm in Canada for five and a half months (Jan 15- June 30) obtaining an internship salary of 500 CAD per student every month. Through this opportunity, the students could build a system that is able to send data to long distances.

Selection Process:
a. Internal selection: Based on the CV and projects undertaken, the ECE Faculty conducted interviews and shortlisted the students.
b. Personal Interview: The shortlisted students attended the interview with the company in which, the company scrutinised their project, skills, and whether they were relevant to the company’s requirements.
c. Techincal Interview: This round focused on analysing technical skills. A technical problem statement was given to members and was asked to come up with a solution in 10 minutes.
d. Coding test: In this round, coding questions were distributed and students had to submit documents of output and on how the code was processed.

For engineering graduates, technical skills and hands-on experience with industry is inevitable. SRM University-AP ensures that every student grabs opportunities to excel in their respective disciplines.

Student Testimonial- Parshal Chitrakar:

I would like to thank the faculty of the ECE Department at SRM AP for this great opportunity. Being a part of this internship programme by EION wireless has been one of my first and best experiences in the industry. Being a fresher, this opportunity gave me a chance to apply my knowledge and skills in developing real-time applications. This five and a half months internship taught me different ways to look at things, work with people from diverse backgrounds, and helped me develop my technical as well as soft skills. Before this, I was focused only on personal achievements, but when we work for a company it has to be focused on the public demand and common good. I think this is the main difference between academia and industry. There is no such difference between academic-based projects and industry-based projects; it is just how we think, showcase our abilities and how our work reaches the target stakeholders.

Electronics and Communication Engineering (ECE) department of SRM University-AP in association with The Institute of Engineers (India), AP State Chapter and the Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) Vijayawada Chapter has conducted a webinar titled “Wonders of Cosmos” on Saturday, April 17, 2021, at 3.00 pm through Zoom. The guest speaker Dr Sarita Vig from the Department of Earth & Space Sciences at IIST, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala highlighted the basics of astronomy enlightening on the fundamentals and overview of the high-end telescopes found globally.

Addressing the session, Dr CV Sriram, Hon. Secretary of IEI APSC opened the virtual podium to other dignitaries. Dr Geetha Devi from IETE introduced Dr Sarita Vig; Er. Kalee Prasad, Honourable Secretary; and Dr Ramanjaneyulu Fiete, Chairman of IETE. Dr Sujith Kalluri from the ECE department at SRM University-AP was the coordinator and organiser of the event.

Dr Sarita in her presentation elaborated on the different types of telescopes and observatories such as the CGRO, HST, SIRTF, CHANDRA. She discussed the elements responsible for the inception of the universe and the astrophysical processes behind it. Further, she talked about other planets which can be considered as a potential place for habitat like our earth. She also mentioned the supernova remnant crab nebula which was exploded billions of years ago and was even witnessed in the daylight, as per Chinese and Mexican researchers.

Towards the end of the session, Dr Sarita presented the facts about the black hole in the centre of the massive galaxy M87. “In 2019, Event Horizon Telescope helped to get the image of the black hole in radio wavelength. The universe is expanding and it is not in a static form,” she said. The webinar came to an end with an interactive Q&A session between the panellists and participants.

The advent of the industrial revolution increased the dependency of humans on fossil fuels which led to an increase in environmental degradation. While alternative energy sources such as wind, solar and hydro seem to be good options, their uncertainty in delivering the power made Dr Sujith Kalluri, Assistant Professor in the Electronics and Communication Engineering Department and his PhD scholar Chanakya Karra at SRM University-AP prefer batteries as a viable option. “Application-driven Industrial-scale Manufacturing of Li/Na-ion Battery Cathodes” is a paper published by Dr Sujith Kalluri and Mr Chanakya Karra in the Journal of The Electrochemical Society having an Impact Factor of 3.721 as part of their project to develop zero-emission energy methods.

Through this article as a platform, the authors focus on three aspects of energy storage devices that are essential while the world is catapulted to upgrade itself from fossil fuels to electric vehicles. From a battery level perspective, they have discussed the dependence of the battery industry on lithium-ion technology and its repercussions. As a solution, they suggest the distribution of the dependency on sodium-ion technology owing to its adaptability and wide availability. From the cathode level perspective, the paper suggests co-precipitation through the CSTR as a customized solution to address the setbacks in the synthesis process and additive manufacturing as a preferred solution to cater for the desired electrode design specifications that would comply with the needs of future generations and the industry. Till the battery energy storage system paves the way for Na to take over, we can reckon on SC-NCM cathode material to serve the needs.

Read the full paper here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1149/1945-7111/abfab6/pdf

More about the Battery research project of SRM University-AP:https://srmap.edu.in/seas/electronics-and-communication-engineering/research-areas/battery-research/

The Department of Electronics and Communication at SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh, is overjoyed to announce its students’ success in pursuing higher education. Six students from the maiden batch have performed brilliantly and been accepted to prestigious universities in the United States. These students are offered the opportunity to pursue a master’s degree in their chosen fields. Four of the six pupils have been accepted to New York University, and the remaining two are admitted to The University of Wisconsin-Madison and Georgia Institute of Technology in the United States of America.

Saifuddin Ahmed, Akhil Aluri, Rohit Sai K, and Abirami Ravishankar have been awarded a handsome annual scholarship from New York University. The host university offered a grant of $10,000, $8000, $8000, and $11000, respectively. Among the four students, Saifuddin, Akhil, Rohit and Abirami, the first three opted for a master’s in Management of Technology and Abirami enrolled in the Department of Electrical Engineering. Agnishwar Paul is selected by Georgia Tech University while B Yogananda took admission in the Master’s-Research Programme at The University of Wisconsin-Madison. Yogananda has received an offer for Teaching Assistantship from University of Wisconsin, Madison and as a part of it, he will also be receiving a Monthly Stipend and full Tuition Fee Wavier.

Students indicated that the in-depth knowledge that they gained during their B. Tech studies made them very confident while applying for higher studies. Agniswar said, “The curriculum that is followed in the university is up-to-date and at par with reputed global universities. It helped me a lot to catch up with the expectations of my preferred university.” Saifuddin added, “I was a bit doubtful at first whether to pursue higher studies after graduation. But the sincere guidance of Dr Sunil Chinnadurai and Higher Connect Club invoked the hunger in me to seek more knowledge.”

Higher Connect Club (HCC) is the university’s dedicated wing to connect all ECE students interested in pursuing Higher Education after they graduate from SRM University – AP. This club is focused on clarifying all the doubts that usually arise in a student’s mind when pursuing higher education and provides required support with all the resources required, guiding in the best possible way.

“My professors helped me to come up with the right strategy to score well in GRE. All of our teachers have international exposures. It helped a lot during our preparations for higher studies,” said Yogananda. Apart from strong grades in undergraduate courses, selection rounds of interviews needed proficiency in work experience and extracurricular activities. “The experience we gained during the Semester Abroad Programme and Capstone Projects added value to the resume, which helped us tremendously to prove our merit,” asserted Abirami.

The Department of ECE is pleased with students’ accomplishments and encourages future batches to emulate them, bringing honour to SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh. Prof Siva Sankar Yellampalli, Head of the Department, said, “We are proud of our students. The first batch is about to graduate. We feel saddened to bid them goodbye, but at the same time, it makes me extremely happy to know that they are going to pursue their chosen paths. My best wishes are always with them.”

Won prestigious i-Hack Alpha with a cash prize of $2300

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering rejoices in the exhilarating success of Harsha and Mahesh, the winners at iHack Alpha Hackathon. iHack Alpha was an AI-Hackathon, where developers from all backgrounds were invited to solve real-world problems with innovative AI solutions powered by sentient.io AI and Data platform. Unlike the usual hackathons, it was conducted over three weeks, starting from December 2, 2020, and finished on December 27, 2020, and participants were supposed to present a full-fledged application. Four themes were given to participants to work on in the hackathon- 1) Use of AI in retail 2) Use of AI in Customer service 3) Use of AI in media 4) Use of AI in Accessibility.

Harsha and Mahesh chose to work on the use of AI in the Accessibility theme, where they were asked to build an AI – solution using the sentient.io services. The whole hackathon was divided into three phases 1.) Ideation Phase 2) Build Phase 3) Finals.
Around 1083 teams participated across countries such as India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore.

Harsha and Mahesh found their inspiration in the story of Helen Keller and decided to build an app with ease of accessibility for the blind and deaf persons. As Annie Sullivan used to help Helen in her communication, Harsha and Mahesh thought, why can’t they create an app which can be installed on the mobile phone and will do the same! The duo turned this crazy idea into reality by developing Artificial Voice- a communication app for the blind and deaf. Artificial Voice is a bidirectional communication app for the deaf and blind to send and receive messages with the help of AI-based technology such as Automatic Speech recognition, Text to speech converter, Audio format converter.

The whole Hackathon was broadcasted online. Harsha and Mahesh’s presentation on Artificial Voice received high praise and acclaims from the judges, and the Team SRMAP(aka Team Square) secured first place in the prestigious i-Hack Alpha hackathon with a grand cash prize of $2300. Harsha is currently pursuing his 3rd year B. Tech Studies whereas Mahesh is in the 2nd year of his undergraduate studies at the Department of Electronics and Communications Engineering. “This success at i-Hack Alpha hackathon has boosted our confidence. We are working on better versions of the app and some other projects that can contribute to society,” said Harsha.