In collaboration with IEEE-SRM Student Branch, Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh, is organising a highly called for discussion on “Synergy Based Human Machine Interfaces”. The event has been scheduled for May 8, 2021, at 10:30 am. Dr Ramana Kumar Vinjamuri, Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and Director of Sensorimotor Control Laboratory (Vinjamuri Lab), University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, USA, will honour us with his presence as the keynote speaker.

Human-machine interface (HMI) has not only become a popular technology but has become the hope of many individuals for restoring their lost limb function. Any HMI has two important intrinsic design components—(i) decode the human commands and (ii) controlling the machine to convert that command into action. Decades of research went into making the interface between the human and the machine seamless but was unable to effectively address the inherent challenges, namely, complexity, adaptability and variability.

To overcome the above challenges, it is critical to computationally understand and quantitatively characterise human sensorimotor control. Emerging areas in HMIs critically depend on the ability to build bioinspired models, experimentally validate them and utilise them in adaptive and intuitive control. The human hand with high dimensionality encompasses the three inherent challenges and may serve as an ideal validation paradigm. How central nervous system (CNS) controls this high dimensional human hand effortlessly is still an unsolved mystery.

To address this high dimensional control problem, many bioinspired motor control models have been proposed, one of which is based on synergies. According to this model, instead of controlling individual motor units, CNS simplifies the control using coordinated control of groups of motor units called synergies. However, there are several unanswered questions today— Where are synergies present in CNS? What is their role in motor control and motor learning? By combining the concepts of human motor control, computational neuroscience, machine learning and validation with noninvasive human experiments, can we answer these fundamental questions? The goal of this research is to develop efficient, seamless and near-natural human-machine interfaces based on biomimetically inspired models.

Dr Ramana Vinjamuri received his PhD in Electrical Engineering in 2008, specialised in dimensionality reduction in control and coordination of human hand from the University of Pittsburgh. He worked as a postdoctoral research associate (2008-2012) in the field of Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMI) to control prosthesis in the School of Medicine, the University of Pittsburgh, where he received Mary E Switzer Merit Fellowship from NIDILRR in 2010. Prior to that, he worked as a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Johns Hopkins University (2012-2013) in the area of neuroprosthetics. He also served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Stevens Institute of Technology (2013-2020). In 2018, he received Harvey N Davis Distinguished Teaching Award for excellence in undergraduate and graduate teaching. He earned the NSF CAREER Award in 2019 and NSF IUCRC Center Planning grant in 2020. His other notable research awards are from USISTEF and New Jersey Health Foundation. He holds a secondary appointment as an Adjunct Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad, India. He is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Maryland Baltimore County.

Register: http://bit.ly/SRMAP_HumanMachineInterfaces

An International Conclave on the “Transition towards sustainability of Agriculture: Role of Technology in Agriculture Supply Chain” is being organised by the Department of Economics, School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh on June 3-4 from 9 am. Renowned economists and experts across the world will be joining the conclave to share their thoughts and perspectives on the much-needed topic of this time. Faculty and Scholars are invited to submit the abstracts of their research papers on or before May 25, 2021. Prof Vijay Paul Sharma, Chairman, Commission for Agriculture Costs and Price (CACP) Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer Welfare, Govt of India, will grace the conclave with his presence as the Chief Guest.

The agriculture and food sectors are facing multiple challenges. With the global population projected to grow from 7.6 billion in 2018 (UN DESA, 2019) to over 9.6 billion in 2050, there will be a significant increase in the demand for food (UN DESA, 2017). At the same time, the availability of natural resources such as fresh water and productive arable land is becoming increasingly constrained. Production is not the only concern; although agricultural output is currently enough to feed the world, 821 million people still suffer from hunger (FAO, 2018). Processes such as the rapid rate of urbanisation also have important implications for food production patterns and consumption. The agri-food sector remains critical for livelihoods and employment. There are more than 570 million smallholder farms worldwide (Lowder et al., 2016), and agriculture and food productions account for 28% of the entire global workforce (ILOSTAT, 2019).

Achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goal of a ‘world with zero hunger’ by 2030 will require more productive, efficient, sustainable, inclusive, transparent and resilient food systems. This will require an urgent transformation of the current agri-food system. Digital innovations and technologies may be part of the solution. The so-called ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ (Industry 4.0) observes several sectors to be transformed rapidly by ‘disruptive’ digital technologies such as Blockchain, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence and Immersed Reality. In the agriculture and food sectors, the spread of mobile technologies, remote-sensing services and distributed computing are already improving smallholders’ access to information, inputs, market, finance and training. Digital technologies are creating new opportunities to integrate smallholders into a digitally-driven agri-food system. In this two-day Internation Conclave, reputed experts will shed some light by sharing their wisdom with others on the recent challenges and the scope associated with it. Needless to say, food will always be an integral part of the basic need of humans. In these discussions, the path towards ensuring enough food supply for future generations will be searched.

The Department of Economics, under the School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at SRM University-AP, is a vibrant unit for teaching fundamental courses (core & electives) in Economics along with allied courses for students across the disciplines. In addition to the Foundation Courses and optional Minors across the departments, the department ensures that the education imparted is truly multidisciplinary with an excellent programme structure that can cater to the growing market demand for professional economists and policy researchers. At Present, the department offers B.Sc. (Hons.) and PhD in Economics and will soon offer a postgraduate programme with specialisations in Econometrics, Finance, Trade and Development in coming years.

Call for Papers:
Faculty and Scholars are invited to submit the abstracts to be presented at the conclave “Transition towards sustainability of Agriculture: Role of Technology in Agriculture Supply Chain” on or before May 25, 2021. The abstract must go through the review, and if accepted by the reviewers, the abstract acceptance notification will be sent. There is no registration fee to participate in the conclave. The event will take place entirely in virtual mode. Please submit the abstracts to ghanshyamkumar.p@srmap.edu.in on or before May 25, 2021. Abstracts should not be more than 250 words, and it must include the purpose of the study, methodology, findings and policy recommendations.

Themes:
Topics of interest for submission include, but are not limited to:

1. Sustainable agricultural, farming, and post-harvesting strategies
2. Multicriteria sustainability performance measures in the food context
3. Closed-loop ecosystems for by-product valorisation
4. Improving traceability and transparency of food operations
5. Strategic approaches for waste management
6. Sustainable cold chain design and management
7. Digital twins in food processing, storage, and distribution

Distinguished Speakers:

1.  Prof Vijay Paul Sharma, Chairman, Commission for Agriculture Costs and Price (CACP)Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer Welfare, Govt of India
2. Prof Ashok K Mishra, Professor, W P Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, USA
3. Prof R S Deshpande, Honorary Visiting Professor, Ex-Director, ISEC, Bangalore, India
4. Prof P S Birthal, National Professor, ICAR-National Institute of Agriculture Economics and Policy Research, PUSA, New Delhi, India
5. Dr Anjani Kumar, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), South Asia Office, New Delhi, India
6. Dr Devesh Roy, Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), South Asia Office, New Delhi, India
7. Prof Sukhpal Singh, Professor of Economics, IIM Ahmedabad, India
8. Prof Gopal Naik, Professor of Economics, IIM Bangalore, India
9. Prof Prem Vashisth, Professor Emeritus, School of Business Studies, Sharda University, Noida, India
10. Prof Seema Bathla, Professor, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India
11. Prof C S C Shekhar, Professor, Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi, India
12. Prof S S Kamlakar, Director, Agriculture Economics Research Centre, Anand, Gujrat, India
13. Prof Brajesh Jha Professor, Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi, India
14. Dr Asif Reza Anik Associate Professor Department of Agricultural Economics Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU) Salna, Gazipur-1706 Bangladesh
15. Dr Thiagu Ranganathan, Associate Professor, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
16. Dr Sarthak Gaurav Assistant professor, Shailesh J Mehta School of Management, IIT, Mumbai, India
17. Dr Amarnath Tripathi, Associate Professor, Department of Economics and International Business School of Business Studies, Sharda University, Noida, India
18. Dr Elumalai Kannnan, Associate Professor, Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, India
19. Dr Jabir Ali, Associate Professor, IIM Jammu, Jammu, India
20. Prof S P Singh, Professor of Economics, IIT Roorkee, India

Registration Link: https://srmap.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_LhUJ0qKwQbeZpXj02y7CXQ

Brochure: Click here to view the detailed brochure

The Department of Physics, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh, has organised a National Symposium on High Energy Physics on Saturday, May 1, 2021, at 11 am. Leading Physicists of the nation are going to share their perspective on the progress and recent challenges in Particle Physics, Dark Matter Physics and Gravitational-Wave Astronomy. Padma Shri awardee Prof Rohini Godbole, theoretical particle physicist at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, will present the inaugurating talk on “Status of Particle Physics: in light of Nobel Prizes of 2013 and 2015”. Prof Basudeb Dasgupta from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, will join us for the next session on “The Mystery of Invisible Mass”. The last talk of the day will be given by Prof. Bala Iyer from the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS), Bengaluru. He will shed light on “The Detection of Gravitational Waves and the Dawn of Multi-messenger Astronomy”.

Our first speaker of the day, Prof Rohini M Godbole, is a theoretical particle physicist at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangaluru. Over the past three decades, she has worked extensively on particle physics phenomenology, exploring different theoretical aspects of Standard Model and Beyond Standard Model physics at high energy collider experiments. She is an elected fellow of all the three Academies of Science of India and the Science Academy of the Developing World (TWAS). She has published over 200 research papers and received numerous recognitions from all over the world. Prof Godbole co-edited the book “Lilavati’s Daughters”, a collection of biographical essays on women scientists of India, which was published by the Indian Academy of Sciences. In 2019, she was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour of the Government of India, for her contribution to Science and Technology.

In 2013, the Nobel prize in Physics was awarded for the theoretical postulate of the Higgs Boson, after the experimental discovery of the same at the LHC in 2012. This was considered being the last missing piece in the periodic table of the Standard Model (SM). In 2015 the Nobel prize in physics was awarded for the experimental discovery of Neutrino oscillations, which is one robust evidence for physics beyond the SM. In her speech, Prof Godbole will comment on the status of particle physics in light of these two and the exciting results on the measurements of the magnetic moment of the muon that have been announced in the previous weeks.

Prof Basudeb Dasgupta is a theoretical physicist at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai. His research interests include the interfaces of particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology with an emphasis on dark matter and neutrino physics. Prof Dasgupta is also the Leader of the Astroparticle Physics Partner Group of Max-Planck Institute for Physics. Prof Dasgupta is a regular speaker at notable international workshops and conferences and different Science Outreach programmes.

When we look at the night sky, we see a variety of astronomical objects, such as planets, stars, gas clouds, still waiting to form stars to swathe of the emptiness. For a long time, it was believed to be all that the Universe is consists of. The following discoveries came as a huge surprise that all we see and know comprises only about 20% of the matters in the Universe. The remaining 80% is invisible and called “Dark Matter.” What is this dark matter? How do we know that is out there? What is it made of? How can we decipher the nature of this mysterious new ingredient of the cosmic soup? In this talk, Prof Basudeb Dasgupta will address and answer some of these questions.

Prof Bala Iyer is currently the Simons Visiting Professor at ICTS-TIFR Bangalore and CO-PI of the LIGO-India Scientific Collaboration. The alumnus of Bombay University previously worked at the Raman Research Institute, Bangalore, on Astrophysical applications of General Relativity, Perturbation methods and Black Holes. Since 1990, he is working on calculations of Gravitational waves from inspiraling binaries of neutron stars and black holes. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and International Society on General Relativity and Gravitation. He has been the Chair of the IndIGO Consortium since its inception in 2009. Prof Iyer was a Member of the Core Team for the LIGO-India Mega-Project Proposal. Further, he is the Chief Editor and Subject Editor of Gravitational Waves for the Online Journal `Living Reviews in Relativity’, published recently by Springer. Prof Bala Iyer has been a Visiting scientist in France, UK, Germany, USA. He has been involved in REAP (Research Education Advancement Programme) for B.Sc students at the Bangalore Planetarium for over two decades and Public outreach on General Relativity and Gravitational Waves.

The first detection of gravitational waves from a black hole binary in 2015 was a breakthrough, taking a century to realise, and made possible by the coming together of a remarkable experiment and an exquisite theory complemented by the best in sophisticated data analyses, state of the art computing and the transition to “big science”. 2017 brought the discovery of gravitational waves from a neutron star binary. The intense associated electromagnetic follow up of this event was spectacular. It heralds the launch of a new multi-messenger astronomy with the potential to impact astrophysics, cosmology and fundamental physics in the coming decades. Prof Bala Iyer will discuss the nature of gravitational wave and its impact on Physics.

The symposium aims to make students aware of the current status of some of the fascinating research topics of High Energy Physics. Students of basic sciences and engineering streams will be highly inspired and motivated after attending the symposium and listening to the talks. Join the captivating event on May 1, 2021, at 11 am.

Register: Click on this link to register for the Symposium

“I’ve failed over and over and over again that why I succeeded”-Michael Jordan.

Aspiring young cricketer and second-year BBA student of SRM University-AP, Sai Akhil made to ‘The Newsmakers’ for getting selected into the prestigious Vinoo Mankad Trophy Under-19 Team, 2021. Born and raised in Hyderabad, Akhil started playing cricket from the age of 12 in a neighbouring cricket coaching centre called Crick Summer. Department of Student Affairs has scheduled the event for April 26, 2021, at 5 pm.

With constant support from family and well-wishers, Akhil Stepped into his journey of cricket. For three consecutive years, he played for Ramadevi Public School’s National Cricket Tournament. Akhil also played in the Under-16 district tournament for Andhra Pradesh. Sai Akhil informed, “Since my childhood, I have always loved watching and playing cricket. I wanted to pursue my interest in cricket, and thankfully both my family and my university encouraged me towards it”. Accolades and awards did not stop him from concentrating on his goals while focusing on his studies. In his endeavours, Akhil was awarded the “Man of the Match” at Vitopia, the sports and cultural fest organized by the Vellore Institute of Technology-AP. He exclaimed, “I represented SRMAP in finals and was proud to be the part of the moment of victory”.

While speaking of Vinoo Mankad Trophy, Akhil expressed, “We played a district tournament in February this year, and the selected players will perform in the state team. My University offered me huge support during my practice days by reconducting tests and extending the deadline for assignment submissions. Faculty members of my department showed immense trust and encouraged me to do my best”.

This young man has set an example for thousands of enthusiasts who want to follow their passion. With uncompromised practice, perseverance and dedication, one can achieve great things, and Sai Akhil is the best person to convey more about it. Join him on ‘The Newsmakers’ on April 26, 2021, at 5 pm.