SRMAP Departmental Events

The Distinguished Lecture Series organised by the Department of Civil Engineering at SRM University-AP offers a congenial atmosphere in which students can connect with eminent scientists. The fourth episode in the series is scheduled to be held on October 23, 2021 (Saturday) from 9:30 am to 10:30 am. Dr M V Ramesh, Senior Scientist, National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR), Goa – Ministry of Earth Science, GOI will be the guest speaker to deliver the lecture.

The lecture will cover topics such as the scientific programmes focusing on bipolar activities i.e. Antarctica as well as Arctic multi-disciplinary approach studies. Logistic support provided for Antarctica in particular as a nodal agency, LCS(Legal Continental Shelf), Bathymetric surveys of EEZ(Exclusive Economic Zone) in the deeper waters, Southern ocean Oceanography which is supposed to control the monsoon of India as well as South Asian countries will also be discussed. Other topics include ice core analysis of Antarctica for the better understanding of paleoclimate, polar remote sensing studies, and cryospheric studies in polar regions and Himalayas.

About the speaker

Dr M V Ramesh is a Senior Scientist and coordinator who obtained his doctorate (PhD) from Andhra University, Visakhapatnam in 1994 in Marine Geology. He worked on sedimentology and Geochemistry primarily on continental shelf sediments off Kalingapatnam-Pentakota, the East coast of India. He has pursued his post-doctoral course in a DST sponsored project- a collaboration project between Geology and Anthropology at Andhra University, Visakhapatnam. He had been deputed to Adikavi Nannaya University as a Visiting Scientist for one year during 2007-2008 and his teaching services have been availed off successfully to the students of Department of Geo-informatics in the I, II, and III semesters for a period of nearly 1 year He had been deputed to various multi-disciplinary cruises ( inclusive in the capacity as Deputy Chief scientist) as many as 18 in Number comprising 450 ship days inclusive of EEZ surveys/cruises, Post Tsunami multi-disciplinary cruise off Andaman & Nicobar Islands, exploration of polymetallic nodules on onboard Sagar Kanya and including the one Southern Ocean Expedition(2009) which proceeded up to 66.5◦S i.e. touching the Antarctica waters on onboard Academic Boris Petrov a Russian vessel. He had been deputed to Oman in Indo-US-Oman multidisciplinary cruise for a period of 14 days onboard Sagar Kanya. Altogether, he had been deputed 850 days on official duties. He has to his credit 36 scientific papers in various National as well as International Journals related to the Bay of Bengal, Arabia and in oceanography as a whole. His research areas are primarily sedimentology, clay mineralogy primarily off-shelf sediments and deep-sea sediment cores. He had worked on RS studies and GIS Technologies in NRSA, Ministry of space, Hyderabad for a period of 12 weeks during 2006-07. He has been actively involved in Outreach activities for more than 10 years in giving his services to students, Professors, Scientists and delegates from four corners of the Nation as well abroad (schools, colleges, universities and R&Ds).

Join this intriguing online lecture on October 23, 2021, at 09.30 am and enrich your knowledge through the scholarly voice of Dr M V Ramesh!

Register here

The Department of Civil Engineering at SRM University-AP organises the fifth lecture in the Distinguished Lecture Series on October 28, 2021, at 5:30 pm. Renowned Pavement and Materials Engineer, Derek Nener-Plante, M.S, P.E from FHWA Resource Center, Washington, DC, USA will engage the session on the topic “Asphalt Materials Characterization: Trends and Challenges”. The lecture aims to throw light on balanced mixture design, sustainability, quality assurance and related areas.

About the speaker

Derek is a Pavement and Materials Engineer for the FHWA Pavement and Materials Technical Services Team. He is responsible for leading implementation and deployment efforts in the areas of asphalt materials, asphalt pavement construction, materials and construction specifications, and quality assurance. Prior to joining the Resource Center in March 2020, Derek worked at MaineDOT for nearly ten years as the state asphalt pavement engineer. Derek earned his Master’s of Science in Transportation Engineering from the University of Connecticut and is a registered Professional Engineer.​

All students are encouraged to make use of this informative session on October 28, 2021, at 5:30 pm to know more about the trends and challenges in the asphalt materials characterisation.

Register here

Department of Mathematics is organising the 17th Departmental Weekly Seminar on October 13, 2021, at 3 pm. Prof Indranath Sengupta from IIT Gandhinagar will be addressing the students on “Unboundedness of Betti numbers of some families of curves in affine and projective spaces”. Prof Indranath Sengupta will discuss some problems related to the unboundedness of Betti numbers of families of affine curves defined by Numerical semigroups. He will also indicate possible connections, with the help of examples, between the unboundedness of the last Betti number and the Cohen-Macaulayness of the projective closure of these affine curves. This work has been carried out in collaboration with Ranjana Mehta, Joydip Saha & Pranjal Srivastav.

Mathematics Departmental Seminar is widely popular among students and Mathematics enthusiasts. This seminar provides a homey environment where students can interact with renowned mathematicians. Eminent mathematicians and scholars have visited SRM University-AP and enjoyed conversations with students. Everyone is encouraged to take part in the exciting journey through the realms of Mathematics with Prof Indranath Sengupta on October 13, 2021, at 3 pm.

Governments from across the globe highlight the need to scale up effective mental health services at all levels in the Covid-19 pandemic. As a part of observing World Mental Health Day, SRM University-AP is organising a three-day webinar series on the dates 8, 9, 10 October 2021, to raise awareness among students regarding preventable psychological conditions.

On October 8, at 6.45 pm, Ms Samitha, Counselling Psychologist with Fortis Malar, Chennai will take the session on the topic “Mastering your Mood”. On the second day, Dr Ninad Patwardhan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, SRM University-AP will elucidate on the topic “All stress begins with your thoughts” at 6.45 pm. Psychotherapist and Special Educator Dr Vasuprada Kartic will engage the session on October 10 on the topic “Mental health for 360-degree success” at 5 pm.

One of the primary causes of psychological disability is depression. Suicide is the second-biggest cause of death in people aged 15 to 29. Assistance for mental and neurological conditions have been severely hampered during the lockdown period. Some groups have been particularly affected, including health and other frontline workers, students, persons living alone, and those with pre-existing mental health issues.

About the Speakers:

Dr Vasuprada Kartic holds double Masters in Counseling and Psychotherapy with a Diploma in Special Education and is a PhD (AM) in Holistic Psychotherapy using complementary and alternative tools. She works as a Psychotherapist in private practice. She’s also a trainer and a live television counsellor.

Ms Samitha has volunteered actively in various Nonprofit organizations such as Sarvahitey that works towards equipping rural kids from age 5-13 with important life skills through interactive ways. She was also a part of a nonprofit organization called FEEL-IT which works towards spreading mental health awareness as well as promoting the use of sanitary menstrual products among the rural population.

Dr Ninad Patwardhan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at SRM University-AP. His research areas include cognitive psychology, social psychology and personality psychology.

Make sure you join these informative and healing sessions from 8 to 10 October 2021, organised as part of World Mental Health Day.

Department of Mathematics is organising the 16th edition of the “Departmental Weekly Seminar Series” on October 06, 2021, at 3 pm with Dr Tathagata Sengupta as the Chief Guest. Dr Tathagata Sengupta is from Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and he is going to speak on ‘Debt, Mathematics and Education’.

The talk is based on the ongoing work of Dr Sengupta, where he and his collaborators deal with the sociological, emotional and intellectual impacts of mechanical reproduction of formal knowledge systems – such as those based on mathematical models – in the service of economies of endless repetition and mass reproduction. Symbols and formalisms can carry over across different paradigms of human existence, across both time and space, without the underlying meanings and subtleties necessarily being carried along. Such nominalisation of meanings only gets exacerbated under systems of massive mechanical reproduction. Mathematical models particularly are not just mere vehicles of computation but play a paradigmatic role in the very realisation of today’s political economy – being endlessly used to reproduce social relations that suit the interests of power and capital.

Specifically, Dr Sengupta and his team analyse a particular, basic microfinance model that aims to mathematise and thus aid in the management of micro-lending businesses. They describe how such a model not only tries to construct particular social realities and certain kinds of financial ‘common sense’ as such but also how pre-existing normative common sense is likewise codified into the model itself. They argue how such mathematical models have no independent truth value outside of specific historic processes, contexts and paradigms of public common sense – hoping that this allows us to fundamentally shift the culture of mathematical modelling in a way that respects such subtleties of human knowledge in their extremely rich, dynamic, plural, communistic wisdom and creativity.

Dr Sengupta’s main attempt is to push the discussion not only out of the binaries of ‘good/bad models’ but also beyond rule-based rationalist imaginations of ethics into the mundane and emotional – and yet creative, subtle and even magical – daily existence of ordinary people. Existence is marked by social relations of radical inequalities and radical unities. In particular, this also opens up possible directions to pursue intellectually and in practice, when it comes to the question of education.

Mathematics enthusiasts can avail this opportunity to listen to the captivating talk of Dr Tathagata Sengupta on October 06, 2021 at 3 pm.