Simulated Evolution and Learning (SEAL-2010): The conference on Simulated Evolution and Learning (SEAL) was held from 1st – 4th December, 2010. The conference focused on evolution and learning as two fundamental forms of adaptation and explored their roles and interaction in adaptive systems. The other major focus of the conference was optimization problem solving by evolutionary approaches or hybrid evolutionary approaches. The three distinguished keynote speakers were - Prof. Narendra Karmarkar, Prof. Manindra Agarwal and Prof. Toshio Fukuda. An industrial panel discussion was also organised where the various aspects of optimisation and learning methods and their potential applications in industry were discussed.

For details visit: http: //www.iitk.ac.in/kangal/seal10/

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Theoretical Chemistry Symposium 2010(TCS) was held from 9th - 12th December, 2010. TCS is a biennial symposium focusing on various areas of theoretical and computational chemistry. Theoretical and computational chemistry is a rapidly growing field and its boundaries are constantly being pushed due to the large quantum of work in this area. TCS is the largest symposium of theoretical chemistry in India and is characterized by many insightful talks, posters and intense discussions. Several recognized theoretical chemists from India and some invited speakers from other countries attended the meeting. In fact, there were a total of 42 speakers and about 150 poster presenters. In addition to the academic sessions, there was also one special evening session and a cultural evening by campus children.

For more details visit: http://www.iitk.ac.in/chm/tc

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Carbon Nanotechnology: Potential and Challenges was organised from 15th - 17th December, 2010. The theme of this conference was Innovations in Carbon Nanotechnology for the New Century. Carbon materials are enabling materials for a number of structural applications in various advanced technologies, where reliable performance in adverse conditions is needed. Significant progress has been made in the areas of design, development, testing and commercialization of these materials all over the world. However, the maximum utility and widespread use of these materials has yet to be achieved. This has been the main driving force for holding conferences around the globe on Carbon Nanotechnology, so that academicians and researchers from various disciplines can come together to share knowledge and exchange views for the useful industrial application of these materials.

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Dr. Suvarnalata Rao gave three lectures on the theme - Confluence of Music and Science. 1. Fundamentals of Music and Musicology in India (7th December, 2010) 2. Musical Instruments (8th December, 2010) 3. Music and Technology (8th December, 2010). In her lectures she covered broad aspects of the subject focusing in particular on the problems in Indian musicology and organology that may be of interest to students of material science, physics and mechanical engineering. She also spoke at length about her current work on developing an automated transcription system for Indian music. Dr. Rao is a research scientist at the National Center for Performing Arts, Mumbai. She works in the area of computational musicology and organology. Her main area of interest is the analysis of North Indian vocal music with the aim of studying certain aspects of raga like intonation and melodic movement. In an earlier work she had made an attempt to provide an acoustical perspective to the aesthetical concepts relating to raga and rasa. She has also worked in the area of organology involving issues relating to the making of Indian instruments. She is actively involved in several international collaborations involving music and instrument technology.

Prof. Srinivasa Varadhan, Courant Institute, New York, USA, gave a lecture titled, Entropy; Why is it important in probability? on 10th January, 2011 in which he explored the different contexts in probability theory where entropy plays a crucial role. He emphasized the importance of entropy in large deviation theories wherein the probability measures of extreme events decay exponentially with respect to arbitrarily growing numbers of observation. He used coin tossing as an illustration for his theory. Prof. Varadhan obtained his doctorate degree in 1963 from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. He is known for his work with Prof. Daniel W. Stroock on diffusion processes, and for his work on large deviations with Prof. M. D. Donsker. Prof. Varadhan has received many prestigious awards and honors, including the Padma Bhushan, the Abel Prize, the Steele Prize and the Birkhoff Prize.

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IIT Kanpur-Hyderabad-Secunderabad Chapter, was held on 17th December 2010 at the Infotech Campus, Hyderabad. More than 250 alumni attended the meet. Many retired faculty members of IIT Kanpur who reside currently in Hyderabad, also took part in the meet. The theme of the Hyderabad convention was IITians should be job creators and not job seekers and there were many panel discussions on this central theme. Prof. Sanjay G. Dhande, Director IIT K, Prof. Uday Desai, Director, IIT H, Prof. Sudhir Jain, Director, IIT Gn, Prof. Bijendra N. Jain, Vice Chancellor, BITS, Pilani and Dr. Krishna Tanuku (Executive Director – Wadhwani Centre for Entrepreneurship Development at ISB) participated actively in a panel discussion on the topic, What should IITs do to create more Entrepreneurs. Later Mr. B. V. R. Mohan Reddy, Founder and Chairman, Infotech Enterprises Ltd., spoke on entrepreneurship. This was followed by another panel discussion on Entrepreneurs' Journey which dealt with the general aspects of entrepreneurship.

For more details visit: http://iitkhyd.blogspot.com/

IIT Kanpur-Lucknow-Chapter, was held on 18th December, 2010 at the Genesis Club, Lucknow, to celebrate the IITK Golden Jubilee. All IITK alumni residing in Lucknow and Kanpur were invited for the event. Apart from the Mehfil-e-Khaas (a networking session), the invitees also enjoyed the Mehfile-e-Mausiki (Cultural Evening), a musical performance by the well known sufi singer Kavita Seth of the 'Gunja sa ek tara' fame (Movie- ‘Wake up Sid’) and her troupe.

IIT Kanpur Chapter: As a part of the Golden Jubilee celebrations, a get together was arranged on Sunday the 9th January, 2011 at Azad Nagar, Kanpur. More than a hundred people from Kanpur city and the IIT campus took part in the get together. Prof. Sanjay G. Dhande, Director of IIT Kanpur, Mr. Rakesh Pandey, President of the Alumni Association and others spoke on the occasion.

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Campus School Reunion (19th November, 2010): Campus School, IIT Kanpur organised a Reunion and an Open House on 19th and 20th November, 2010. Retired teachers of the school and former students were specially invited for the event. The programme was inaugurated on 19th November, 2010 at the Outreach Auditorium by Prof. Sanjay G. Dhande. Prof. Sangal, Chairman, School Management Committee made a presentation on the school and spoke briefly about the early history of the school from its inception in 1964 and the recent developments in the school, like the development of an excellent Maths Laboratory, and the upcoming EVS Laboratory. Former teachers and school alumni shared their memories of the school in a friendly and emotionally charged session that brought out the fact that good teachers have a lasting positive impact on their students. There was a cultural programme by Campus School teachers - old and new, and the school alumni. This was followed by the Reunion Dinner. On 20th November, 2010 there was an Open House in the Campus School where the year long Club Activities (Art, Dance, EVS, Language, Maths, Music, Sports and Theatre) of the school were showcased.

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