Three-day INAE annual convention to begin at SOA on Dec 9

Bhubaneswar: Eminent technocrats from across India will be converging in the city to attend the three-day annual convention of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) commencing at the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University (SOA) from December 9.

INAE is an autonomous professional body, partly funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, which comprised the country’s most distinguished engineers, engineer-scientists and technologists covering the entire spectrum of engineering disciplines, Prof. Damodar Acharya, Chairman of INAE Bhubaneswar chapter and Chairman of the SOA Advisory Board, told newspersons here on Friday.

The event is being held at Campus-2 of Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University (SOA) in Bhubaneswar which will be attended by Fellows, Foreign Fellows, Young Associates and Invitees belonging to all engineering disciplines. The features of the convention will include plenary talks, panel discussions and presentation, he said.

The convention this year is being jointly organised by the SOA, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar and Bhubaneswar chapter of INAE, Prof. Acharya , also former Chairman of AICTE, said.

Dr. Sanak Mishra, former Managing Director and immediate past President of INAE, Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda, Vice-Chancellor of SOA, Lt. Col. Sobhit Rai, Member Secretary, INAE and Dr. Subhransu Samantaray, Organising Secretary of the convention and Professor of IIT Bhubaneswar, were present at the news conference.

Prof. Acharya said two sessions of the convention would be devoted to the contribution of eminent Odia astronomer Pathani Samanta and the 9^th century craft of flexible brass fish manufacturing in Belaguntha in Ganjam district.

Dr. Mishra said INAE functioned as an apex body and promoted the practice of engineering and technology and related sciences for their application to solving problems of national importance. “The Academy also provides a forum for futuristic planning for country’s development requiring engineering and technological inputs and brings together specialists from different fields for reaching comprehensive solutions to the needs of the country,” he said.

Prof. Nanda said SOA laid much stress on research and was hosting the INAE annual convention for the second time. The convention was held in SOA for the first time in 2013.

Mr. T.V. Narendran, Managing Director of Tata Steel, will be the chief guest at the inaugural function which will be attended by Prof. Indranil Manna, President of INAE and Vice-Chancellor, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra. A book titled ‘Diverse Space Applications’ authored by Dr. B.N. Suresh, former President of INAE and Chancellor, Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, will be released on the occasion.

Prominent technocrats who will be attending the convention include Prof. U.B. Desai, Professor Emeritus, IIT Bombay, Prof. Sivaji Chakravorti, Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, Prof. Shreepad Karmalkar, Director, IIT Bhubaneswar, Dr. Ramanuj Narayan, Director, CSIR-IIMT, Bhubaneswar, Prof. A.B. Pandit, Vice-Chancellor, Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai and Prof. P.P. Chakrabarti, former Director, IIT Kharagpur.

More than 40 eminent technocrats including Mr. Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairperson of Bharti Enterprises, Mr. Ajai Chowdhry, Co-Founder, HCL and Chairman-EPIC Foundation, Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Chairman, All India Council of Technical Education, Mr. Rajendra Singh Pawar, Chairman and Co-Founder of NIIT Group, Prof. Sunil S. Bhagwat, Director, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, Prof. Vigor Yang, Regents’ Professor, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Prof. Alan Conrad Bovik, Cockrell Family Regents Endowed Chair Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, USA, Dr. Dhananjaya Ashok Gore, Vice-President Engineering, Qualcomm India Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru and Prof. Dilip Kumar Pratihar, Institute Chair Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT, Kharagpur will be inducted as Fellows of INAE during the convention.