Dr. Amiya Kumar Pani, Dept. of Mathematics, was given "Best Young Mathematician Award" for his outstanding contributions to Numerical Analysis, Partial Differential Equations and Industrial Mathematics by the Indian Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics. Dr. Pani was invited to join as a UGC nominee in the Advisory Committee for the UGC-DRS project (stage II) of the Department of Mathematics in the Berhampur University.

Prof. Arun Majumdar, an alumnus of IIT Bombay (B. Tech, 1985, Mech. Engg.) and currently Professor of Mech. Engg., University of California at Berkeley will be presented with the 2001 Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award at the IMECE in November, at New York. He is the third winner of this prestigious award.

The Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award is presented to engineering graduates who demonstrate outstanding achievement in mechanical engineering within ten to twenty years following their graduation.

Late Prof. Subir Khar, Professor Emeritis inaugurated an Indian Society for Technical Education (ISTE) Seminar on Fluid Power at K. J. Somaiya College of Engineering and Technology. He also gave a talk on "Fluid Logics and Latest Development in the Circuit Design of Fluid Power Controls" on the 25th March 2001.

Dr. Milind V. Rane, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering was invited to deliver the keynote address at the Technical Seminar on Air Conditioners at the Oman Sheraton on 4th April 2001. Dr. Rane delivered a lecture on "Health Safety and Environment - Trends in Air Conditioning: A Perspective". The seminar was organized by Oman Trading Enterprises the LG Distributor in Oman and was attended by 150 consultants and contractors from the Sultanate of Oman and by senior managers from the Air Conditioning division of LG Electronics South Korea.

Dr. Rane was also invited to deliver two papers at the National Seminar on "Modern Trends in Waste Heat Recovery" at the World Trade Centre on 23 and 24th April 2001. The seminar was jointly organized by Petroleum Conservation Research Association (PCRA), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL) and Institute for Energy Management (IEM) Mumbai. Dr. Rane delivered lectures on "Novel Heat Exchangers for Exhaust Heat Recovery" and "Refrigeration and Chilling using Waste Heat". The seminar was attended by over 140 delegates from the industry.

Professor Amiya Kumar Pani, Dept. of Mathematics was a member of the Organising Committee for the International Conference on ` Nonlinear Systems: Modeling, Simulation and Applications ' held in NES College, Nanded during 26th Dec. to 29th Dec.'2000 and he organised a session on Computational Mathematics and also a special session on `New Challenges in Mathematical Education' in that International Conference. He also delivered an invited talk in the First International Conference on Industrial and Applied Mathematics in the Indian Subcontinent held in Guru Nanak Univ., Amritsar from Jan. 22--25th.'01.

Dr. Pani is One of the Co-ordinators for the International Conference on `Current Trends in Differential Equations and Dynamical Systems' to be held in IIT Kanpur from 15th Dec. to 17th Dec.'2001.

Prof. Vaijayanthi M. Sarma, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences participated in a two-day workshop on Clinical Linguistics on the 20th and 21st of April. This workshop was organized by the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore in collaboration with the Centre for Advanced Linguistics and Translation Studies, Central University Hyderabad, Osmania University, Hyderabad and Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages, Hyderabad.

Dr Rowena Robinson, HSS Department was Charles Wallace Trust Visiting Fellow at the School of Anthropological Studies, Queen's University of Belfast, UK from 5 February to 4 May 2001.

Prof. Nand Kishore, Dept. of Chemistry delivered two plenary lectures on "A Thermodynamic Approach to Understand Protein Folding and Protein-Solvent Interactions" and chaired a session in the National Conference on Recent Advances in Thermodynamics of Chemical and Biological Systems, held at Guru Nanak Dev University during May 7th - 9th 2001.

Dr. Sambasivarao Kotha, Dept. of Chemistry gave the following two lectures on safety related matters in the Chemistry Laboratories: Safety in Chemical Laboratories on the 4th May 2001 and Time Management, Synthetic Efficiency and Safe Work Practices on the 22nd May 2001

Prof. Uday Karmarkar, Anderson School of Management at UCLAA, USA, visited IIT Bombay on 23rd May 2001. He met the Dy. Director, Dean (RM), Head, KReSIT, Head, SJMSoM, Head, Chem. Engg. & other faculty members.

Agnita Kundu, Karunakar Kar and Manoj M. Munde (Jr. Research Fellows) working with Prof. Nand Kishore, Dept. of Chemistry presented papers in the National Conference on Recent Advances in Thermodynamics of Chemical and Biological Systems, held at Guru Nanak Dev University during May 7th - 9th 2001.

Continuing with the trend set last year, this year too all the hostels celebrated their alumni day on a common date - Saturday, 7th April 2001. Besides the arrangements in the respective hostels, this time a special cultural performance was put up by the students: The Best of Cultural GC 2000-01. The programme began with a welcome speech by Prof. Lakkad, Deputy Director. The cultural programme followed. The alumni relived their moments on campus through the impromptus, mimes and musical pieces and the programme was appreciated a lot. After the concluding words by Prof. Gaitonde, Professor in Charge Alumni Affairs, the alumni proceeded to their respective hostels for dinner and an interactive session with the students.

Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

IE and OR Interdisciplinary Programme Seminar

A seminar titled "Reinforcement learning for MDPs" was organised on May 8th where the speaker was Professor V. S. Borkar, TIFR, Mumbai. The talk motivated and introduced some reinforcement learning algorithms for Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) and discussed some research issues.

Dept. of Humanities & Social Sciences

Dr Amrit Srinivasan, IIT Delhi spoke on "Digital Democracy or Divide: the case of IT education" on 9th May

CSRE

Dr Samran Sambatpanit, Department of Land Development, Thailand visited CSRE on 14 and 15 May 2001 to observe the activities on watershed management and soil & water conservation aspects. During his visit, Dr Samran also delivered a lecture on "WOCAT - World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies" on the 14th May 2001

Dr Samran is a Member of the Board of Directors of the Int'l Soil Conservation Organization (ISCO); a member of the management group of the World Overview of Conservation Approaches and Technologies (WOCAT) Project; and Deputy President of the World Association of Soil & Water Conservation (WASWC).

      APPOINTMENTS

Dr. (Ms.) Vaijayanthi Mala Sarma, Visiting Faculty member (Lecturer - Sr. Scale), Dept. of Humanities & Social Sciences has been appointed as Assistant Professor (Contract) in the same Department with effect from 19th February 2001.

Dr. Avijit Chatterjee has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Aerospace Engg. with effect from 24th April 2001.

Dr. Shrikrishna V. Kulkarni has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Electrical Engg. with effect from 26th April 2001.

Dr. Jyoti Prasad Maharana has been appointed as a Systems Manager in the Computer Centre with effect from 9th May 2001.

Dr. Prasenjit Biswas has been appointed as a Lecturer - Sr. Scale (Contract) in the Dept. of Humanities & Social Sciences with effect from 9th May 2001.

Dr. Shishir Kumar Jha, has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the SJMSoM with effect from 9th May 2001.

Dr. Eldho T. I. has been appointed as an Assistant Professor in the Dept. of Civil Engg. with effect from 15th May 2001.

Prof. S. S. Major, Dept. of Physics has been appointed as the Head of the same Department for a period of 3 years with effect from 26th April 2001.

Prof. R. K. Malik, Head, Dept. of Chemical Engg., has been appointed as Head, CAD Centre for a period of 3 years with effect from 27th March 2001.

Prof. K. M. Gupt, Dept. of Met. Engg. & Mat. Sc. has been appointed as the Convenor, Corrosion Science & Engg. Group (IDPC) with effect from 30th March 2001.

Prof. S. K. Gupta, CESE has been appointed the Head of CESE for a period of 3 years with effect from 9th April 2001.

Prof. M.S.C Bose, Dept. of Mech. Engg. & Dean (Academic Programmes) has been appointed as the Associate Chairman, Campus School with effect from 4th April 2001.

Prof. Kannan Moudgalya, Dept. Of Chemical Engg. has been appointed as the Associate Dean (R&D) with effect from 11th May 2001. The appointment is upto December 2001.

          RETIREMENTS ON 30^TH APRIL 2001

1. Dr. M. K. Subhedar, Lab Supdt. (SG), Physics.
2. Dr. M. K. Subhedar, Lab Supdt. (SG), Physics
3. Mr. P. L. Johny, O.A. (HS), Const. Division
4. Ms. Annie Raphael, U.D.C. (SG), Central Library
5. Shri R.V. Gangurde, Accountant (SG), Accounts Section
6. Shri A. S. Devrukhkar, J.L.A (SG), Chemical Engg.
7. Shri R. T. Kadam, Mech. Asstt. Gr. I, Chemistry
8. Shri Mohan C. Harijan, Cleaner (SR), Health Office
9. Ms. S. S. Sawant, Attdt. (SG), K.G. School

EVENTS

CEP courses