News Update

National Metallurgists' Day at IIT Kanpur: A Report

The Indian Institute of Metals (IIM), the premier professional society of Metallurgical Engineers in India, traditionally celebrates the National Metallurgists' Day on November 14 every year. This year's celebrations were held at IIT Kanpur. The Kanpur Chapter of IIM and the Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, IIT Kanpur, jointly organized the event held during 13-16 November 1999.

The 37^th National Metallurgists' Day was celebrated on 14 November 1999. Shri Arvind Pandey, Chairman, Steel Authority of India, was the Chief Guest. Professor S. Ranganathan, President IIM, spoke on Paradigm Shifts in Metallurgical Research and Education. Other special lectures delivered on the occasion included the Professor N.P. Gandhi Memorial Lecture by Professor P.M. Prasad, Director, ITBHU; Professor Daya Swarup Memorial Lecture by Professor K.A. Padamanabhan, Director, IIT Kanpur and G.D. Birla Memorial Lecture by Dr. S.L. Mannan of IGCAR, Kalpakkam. Other highlights of the day included a special session on The Legacy of Dr. Dara Antia, one of the founders of the IIM, and award presentations.

Other events held during the celebration included an International Symposium on Materials for the Third Millennium, which dealt with development, characterization, processing and application of advanced materials such as electronic materials, superconductors, structural materials, intermetallics, biomaterials, etc. Special sessions were devoted to surfaces and interfaces as well as interaction with environment. Shri Ash Khare, President, American Society of Metals (International) delivered the inaugural address on A Century of Miracles in the World of Metals and Materials. The 53^rd Annual Technical Meeting of the IIM was held during 15-16 November. About 152 technical papers covering a range of areas such as mineral beneficiation, iron and steel making, non-ferrous metal extraction and refining; waste management, advanced materials, materials properties such as wear, creep, fatigue and fracture, corrosion; metals processing, viz. casting, heat treatment, powder processing, etc., were presented. A technical exhibition on metallurgical products and processes was put up during the event. The exhibitors included Censico International, Essar Steel, Forevision Instruments, and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., among others.

Collaboration with IGCAR, Kalpakkam

Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam is setting up a collaboration with IIT Kanpur in a broad range of research areas. The areas likely to be covered under the scheme include:

• Robotics hardware and software

• Modelling of chemical processes

• Elastomer design and reverse engineering

• Design and development of electro-magnetic pumps

• Simulation and virtual instrumentation

• Specific software development for seismic analysis

• Modelling of metallurgical processes such as dynamic fracture, leak before break, plastic flow, welding, etc.

High Performance Computing Scheme

Centre for Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune has announced a High Performance Computing Scheme under which a group of academic institutions in the country have been offered usage of PARAM-10000 computer free of charge for a fixed period of time. This scheme has been approved by DOE. All the IITs, BITS and some other institutes will benefit from this scheme.

IIT Kanpur has signed an MOU with C-DAC under which the Institute will receive PARAM-10000 machine from C-DAC, Pune. Appropriate application software which will run on this machine is expected to be developed at the Institute. It is expected that eight such projects will be undertaken at IIT Kanpur during the two year period of this scheme. At IIT Kanpur, the effort is being coordinated by Professor Gautam Biswas of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

For further information:

Professor S.G. Dhande

Dean R&D

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Kanpur 208 016

Phone: (0512) 597578

e-mail: sgd@iitk.ac.in

Aditya Birla Scholarship for Four IIT Kanpur Students

Aditya Birla group of companies have instituted a scholarship scheme for students of engineering and management in India. Under the scheme, 20 students (10 from the IITs and 10 from the IIMs) are to be identified every year as the recipients of the award which covers the entire academic expense of a scholar for the duration of his/her programme. The award aims at "identifying and nurturing individuals whose potential will see them at the vanguard of the global economy". The applicants for the award have to undergo a rigorous two tier selection procedure to be identified as the possible "leaders for tomorrow's India".

Of the ten awardees in the engineering stream selected for the ongoing year, four are from IIT Kanpur. The four Aditya Birla Scholars from the Institute for the year 1999 are: Mr. Madhur Ambastha, Mr. Gaurav Chakravorty , Mr. Abhishek Tiwari and Mr. Mrinal Vikram.

Senate Nominees for BoG (2000-2001)

Professor R.K. Thareja, Department of Physics and Professor A. K. Mallik, Department of Mechanical Engineering have been elected for nomination by the Senate to the Board of Governors of IIT Kanpur. The elected nominees will be on the Board for a two-year term commencing on 1 January 2000.

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