Despite the variety of traditional and IT-based agricultural information delivery approaches, the majority of Indian farmers are not acquiring or provided with actionable agricultural information in a timely and regular manner. A lecture titled “Crop Darpan: Towards building a smartphone-based system for improving the efficiency of every farm in India” will be organised by the Department of Computer Science and Engineering on September 08, 2021, at 11.00 am to address the issue of the lab to the land gap in agriculture. Prof P Krishna Reddy, from IIIT Hyderabad, will talk about the eSagu system, an IT-based farm-specific agro-advisory system field-tested on about 50 field and horticultural crops in hundreds of villages.

Since 2004, research efforts are being made at IIIT Hyderabad to investigate the building of IT-based agro-advisory systems to deliver actionable agro-advice to every farm field of India in a timely manner. In this connection, they have built the eSagu system and village-level eSagu system. They are also currently investigating the building of the Crop Darpan system. The Crop Darpan App is available for cotton and rice crops at Google Play Store and Apple App Store. In this talk, Prof P Krishna Reddy will share the experiences of building these systems and the future plans.

Biography of the speaker:
Prof P Krishna Reddy is the head of the Agricultural Research Center and a member of the Data Sciences and Analytics Center research team at IIIT Hyderabad, India. From 2013 to 2015, he has served as a Program Director, ITRA-Agriculture & Food, Information Technology Research Academy (ITRA), Government of India. His research areas include data mining, database systems and IT for agriculture. He has published about 189 refereed research papers which include 30 journal papers, four book chapters, and eight edited books. He is a steering committee member of the Pacific-Asia knowledge discovery and data mining (PAKDD) conference series and the Database Systems for Advanced Applications (DASFAA) conference series. He has delivered several invited/panel talks at reputed conferences and workshops in India and abroad. Since 2004, he has been investigating the building efficient knowledge agricultural knowledge transfer systems by extending developments in IT. He has conceptualized the notion of Virtual Crop Labs to improve applied skills for extension professionals. Currently, he is investigating the building of the Crop Darpan system, which is a crop diagnostic tool for farmers, with funding support from the India-Japan Joint Research Laboratory Program. The eSagu system, an IT-based farm-specific agro-advisory system, has got several recognitions including CSI-Nihilent e-Governance Project Award in 2006, Manthan Award in 2008 and has been a finalist in the Stockholm Challenge Award in 2008 and received PAKDD Distinguished Service Award in 2021.

Join this illuminating lecture on September 08, 2021, at 11:00 am and gain valuable insights into building a smartphone-based system for improving the efficiency of every farm in India.

Register here: https://srmap.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qITnmUdMQjqkvFSM9yGCzA

The third edition of the Eminent Guest Lecture Series: An Odyssey of Physics organised by the Department of Physics at SRM University-AP will be held on September 04, 2021, Saturday at 3.00 pm. The session will be engaged by Prof D Narayana Rao from the University of Hyderabad on the topic “1D and 3D Photonic Crystals and their Applications”.

Abstract of the event:

There will be a brief introduction to the Photonic crystals, followed by our laboratory results. Our work mainly concentrated on optical field enhancement in both the 1D and 3D photonic crystals. Such strong local field enhancement is essential for reducing the high power laser requirements in nonlinear optics experiments. These photonic crystals have been prepared through various techniques like sol-gel, slow evaporation method and RF sputtering technique. Prof D Narayana Rao will show some results on surface-enhanced Raman studies and optical limiting and white light generation.

All are invited to join this lecture on September 04, 2021, at 3.00 pm to gain an insightful overview of 1D and 3D photonic crystals and their applications.

Register here:http://bit.ly/SRMAP_PhysicsSeries3

The Department of Mathematics is organising the first episode of the Distinguished Lecture Series on September 15, 2021, Wednesday, at 6.30 pm. Prof Suman Chakraborty from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT Kharagpur, will deliver a lecture titled “Flipping with the Flow – Perspectives of Puzzling Fluid Dynamics and Human Health”.

Abstract of the Lecture:
Over the past century, advancements in fluid dynamics hallmarked deeper studies on complex fluids, though. Fluid dynamics of blood, possibly the most critical complex fluid impacting human lives, is primarily dictated by red blood cells (RBCs) that are flexible biconcave discs spending their lives suspended in blood plasma that is elusively more complex than simple water. Commonly, RBCs stack together to form structures called rouleaux like cylindrical packs of coins that reform continuously. Contrary to intuition, instead of clogging, such reforms result in the easier flow of blood as it passes through extremely narrow channels. An influential theoretical premise of blood flow has been rationalizing this by drawing analogies of RBCs with compound liquid droplets in which the cytoplasm is more viscous than the outer fluid that triggers a series of complex shape transitions. However, a stiffening of RBC membranes under certain conditions contradicts this analogy and may alter ATP release that happens due to shape deformation. This may signify specific diseased conditions and influence a plethora of ailments ranging from cardiovascular irregularities to cancer metastasis. The role of unique flexibility of microvasculature and morphology of the microenvironment, dynamical signals of pressure pulsation and disease-specific blood rheology make it extremely deceptive and patient-specific and difficult to model within the known territories of expertise of fluid dynamics.

Prof Suman Chakraborty will discuss here various computational, in-vitro and in-vivo studies conducted in his research group that have attempted to address some of the pertinent outstanding questions, unresolved paradoxes, and will present a deeper challenge that makes even ‘simple’ blood flow strikingly more complicated than its intuitive analogy of pipe flow in engineering fluid mechanics. He will also suggest a way forward with a convergence of physics-based modelling and data science, where blood flow is not merely perceived as an ‘inert’ physical phenomenon but recognized as an exclusive hallmark of ‘life’ with all individualism intrinsic to humans.

About the Speaker:
Prof Suman Chakraborty received the prestigious Santi Swaroop Bhatnagar Prize and became the youngest Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering. He has also been a Fellow at the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS), and Indian National Academy of Science (NASI), in addition to being the recipient of the Indo-US Research Fellowship. He is also a recipient of the Scopus Young Scientist Award given by Elsevier for high citations in his research publications, the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (2005), and the Young Scientist/Young Engineer Award from various National Academies. He has been bestowed with the Fellowship of the American Physical Society, the Fellowship of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the Fellowship of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Join this educational session on September 15, 2021, at 6.30 pm to gain insights from the field expert.

Register here :https://srmap.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qxuYML8uT9ayuzH1LtJO4A

The Department of Civil Engineering is conducting the first episode of the Distinguished Lecture Series on August 27, 2021, from 9.30 am to 11.00 am. Dr Amarnath CB, Head-BIM Strategy, L&T Construction, is the guest speaker who will deliver a lecture on the title “Managing construction sector projects with BIM”. Global trends, use of Building Information Modeling (BIM) in the project life cycle, and career perspectives (higher education, job market, and start-up) will all be discussed during the presentation.

About the Speaker:

Dr Amarnath C B is serving as Head – BIM Strategy at Larsen & Toubro. Over the course of his career, he held positions in India, Taiwan, Spain, Italy, and the UK. He is playing an active role in several Digital Built India initiatives. He is the Founding President of the National BIM Society-India Building Information Modelling Association® that focuses on the Digital Transformation of the Indian AECO Sector. He is the Chairman-BIM of the Governing Council of the FOCUS Forum of Critical Utility Services. He is serving as Principal Member-Construction Management Sectional Committee CED29, Bureau of Indian Standards. He also serves as National Secretary of the Forum for Human Rights & Anti-Corruption. He holds a PhD in Establishing Organization BIM Strategies from National Taiwan University with a one-year exchange at Imperial College London. One Master’s in Global BIM Management from the University of Barcelona-Zigurat GIT and another in Construction Management from Bangalore Univ. He has participated in a few international conferences and published journal papers and book chapters in this area.

Register here: https://srmap.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Q-4lzGFfTPGepSaI0jR-NA

Join this illuminating discussion on August 27, 2021, at 9:30 am and gain valuable insights into the prospective areas of Building Information Modelling.