Day Four of Sahyadri Conclave – Science, Technology & Management
09-Jan-2018
During the first plenary session on Day Four of Sahyadri Conclave Prof. Ada E Yonath, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry delivered a talk on “The Fruits of Curiosity”. She said that curiosities and passion brought her the position where she is now. She discussed that an organism's vital functions are managed by large, complex protein molecules produced in cells ribosomes and their genetic information from "messenger RNA" is translated into chains of amino acids that then build proteins. She mentioned about 20 types of Amino Acids. She explained about the functions of proteins in the lives of all organisms. She said that stress induces periodically packing of ribosomal particles. She stated that she was inspired by Madam Marie Sk?odowska Curie.
The second plenary session was by Dr. D P Agrawal, Former Chairman, UPSC of India on the topic - “Waste Disposal”. He emphasized the significance of different types of wastes (E-waste, Industrial waste, Building, and Agriculture waste) and its impact on Environment. He also stressed about the technology to manage the daily wastes in home appliances. Further, he enlightened on waste management with respect to collection, segregation, transportation and disposal. The technology to manage the solid waste in home appliances is explained briefly with example. The laws and regulations undertaken by the government namely Swachh Bharath Abhiyan had shown 70% success in open defecation.
The third plenary session was by Mr. C D Balaji, a distinguished Scientist and Chairman, Centre of Excellence in Aerospace and Defence (CEAD) and Former Director, Aeronautical Development Agency who delivered a session on “Aerospace environment and ecosystem”. He spoke about various environmental challenges in aeronautics which included air quality and particulate emissions, aircraft noise, water pollution from airline services and radiation exposure generally seem in the field of aeronautics. He also highlighted various methods adopted in the current era to mitigate these issues. In a nutshell he also spoke about light combat aircraft design and multiple threat scenarios involved in the design. Combat Aircraft Technology Drivers, Design and Development Approach, Development Cycle of Fighter Aircraft, Evolution of Design Tools, Simulation and CFD Studies, Typical Aircraft Build Cycle and Integrated Vehicle Health Management were the important highlights of his session.
Panel Discussion was held on the theme “Environment”. The panellists were Prof. Jagadeesh Gopalan, Professor, Aerospace Engineering, IISC, Bangalore, Prof. S S Murthy, Vice Chancellor, Central University of Karnataka, Dr. B K Ravindra, Vice Chancellor, Alliance University, Bengaluru and PadmaShri Prahalad RamaRao, Advisor; S-VYASA University was the Moderator. They discussed about environmental changes and its effects on generations to come. Topics like concerns about the environment, likely solutions, sustainability and prevention of the same were addressed in the panel discussion. Dr. B K Ravindra highlighted the legal aspects and laws prevalent in India for preventing pollution and aiding environmental protection. Dr. Jagdeesh stressed on keeping our environment clean by adopting clean mind and practices. Dr. Murthy professed that an individual’s role is critical in controlling environmental damage and contributing to the society.
Simultaneously, there were technical sessions held in various venues of Sahyadri to address the domain specific participants like Computer Science & Information Science, Electronics & Communication, Mechanical and also Management.
Prof. Gopalan Jagadeesh, Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore delivered a session on “Enchanting Waves”. He started the session by distinguishing Science, Engineering and Technology. He quoted the importance of working with interest rather than working out of pressure. He discussed the concept of Shock waves and its uses in various fields. He brought out the role of various disciplines involved in constructing a technology. He stressed on the importance of being employer rather than being an employee.
Dr. Hari Krishna Maram, Chairman, Imperial College of Business Studies, Bengaluru spoke on “Management and Technology”. In his talk, he discussed about achieving success by thinking differently by quoting various examples. During the discussion, he brought out the statistics about the contribution of Indians to the World economy. He gave a glimpse about the booming technologies in IT field and motivated the students to excel in them.
Dr. B K Ravindra, Vice Chancellor of Alliance University, Bengaluru enlightened the students about “Utility and scope of Intellectual property rights”. He, in his deliberation said that every citizen should know his rights and duties as stated by the constitution of India- if we have to achieve Gandhiji’s dream of ‘Welfare State’. He described the evolution of Intellectual property rights stating examples of Takshashila University and Shushrutha’s development of 142 instruments. He emphasized on the fact that one’s right is their ‘property’ and intellectual property rights protects the person’s property. He also highlighted on various examples viz., use of turmeric and neem wherein we have lost the freedom to use our own inventions and innovations as the patent filing was done by the others.
Ms. Anita Pai, Senior General Manager and Head- Customer care, ICICI Bank Mumbai delivered a talk on “Application of New technology in Banking”. Ms. Pai started her session by dwelling on the topic of Risk Management in the Banking sector. She introduced to the audience the Global presence of ICICI Bank and spoke about the coverage of operations group of the bank. She enlightened the students about the innovation journey of ICICI bank from 2001-17. With the help of videos, she showed the audience that there has been a transformation from paper based transactions to digitalization. She concluded her session by giving an insight about various new technologies used in ICICI bank namely, Robotic Process Automation, Robotic Arm and Note Sorting, AI, API Integration, NLP and Chat Bot.
Prof. S S Murthy, Vice Chancellor, Central University of Karnataka delivered a talk on “Renewable energy”. He discussed about importance, theoretical potential and classification of renewable energy. He also emphasized on UNFCC Paris Convention Resolutions which gave a message of reducing the global warming throughout the world. He discussed about the different ways of conversion of energy and technology in India.
Dr. Sathya Prakash, Director of Biomedical Technology and Cell therapy research laboratory spoke on “Microbiome next generation therapeutics and health food and cardiac stent”. The session was about how microbiomes can be used to lower the cholesterol in the human body. He explained about the Stent and next generation of Stent. He also presented the advantage of insect virus. The insect virus is also classified safe by FDA and hence this is an inexpensive way to lower the cholesterol in the human body.
Prof. Veerbhadra Yadwad, Product Manager, Environmental & Analytical Business Unit, Yokogawa India Limited delivered a talk on “IoT Application”. The speaker briefed about the role of engineers in the industry and how to identify the solutions for the challenges in the industries. He explained briefly about the types of the sensors and the problems that are shooting in process industries, in aquatic industries by maintaining the pH level of the water by using the sensors. He also explained how to control the pH level by lime dosing and monitoring them by exchanging the data through wireless Medias. Finally, he mentioned how the required quantity of air for boiler in combustion process can be supplied.
