Sahyadri-conclave day 4: A quick round-up

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 Skłodowska Curie.

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 the 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. 

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 agricultural 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 the collection, segregation, transportation, and disposal. The technology to manage the solid waste in home appliances is explained briefly with an example. The laws and regulations undertaken by the government namely Swachh Bharath Abhiyan had shown 70% success in open defecation. 

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 Padma Shri Prahalad RamaRao, Advisor; S-VYASA University was the Moderator. They discussed 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.

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 Shockwaves and its uses in various fields. He brought out the role of various disciplines involved in constructing a technology. He stressed the importance of being employed 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 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 in 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 protect 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 into 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 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 the different ways of conversion of energy and technology in India.

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 a boiler in combustion process can be supplied. 

Mr Ananth Ravi, Senior VP and Sponsor, Reliance Industries Ltd spoke on “Paradigm Shift in Indian Entrepreneurship over last 4 decades”. He started his session with the definition of entrepreneurship. According to him, “Entrepreneurship is living a few years of life like most people won’t so that you can spend the rest of your life like most people can’t”. Citing the examples of great entrepreneurs like T. M. A. Pai, Dhirubhai Ambani and Adi Godrej he took the audience through the entrepreneurial journey. He also discussed triple option convertible debentures and how it was used as a debt instrument. The session concluded with an open question to the audience – “How will artificial intelligence do the emotional thinking?”

Mr C D Balaji, the former director of LCA at Aeronautical Development Agency delivered a talk on “Design And Development challenges of a Fighter Aircraft: LCA Navy”. He spoke about Light Compact Aircraft (LCA) – Tejas and about its characteristics and features. He explained the challenges faced during LCA programming, different types of carriers, achievements of LCA Navy. He also spoke about development cycle and design cycle of aircraft, the evolution of design tools. He explained about different types of take-off and landing of STBF

Dr U. Chandrasekhar, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Vel Tech University spoke on “Fostering creativity and innovation among engineering students through exponential teaching-learning model”. The speaker suggested a model, CDIO (Conceive Design Implement Operate) as it is a kind of learning based on the whole process of an engineering project. He also said social entrepreneurship needs to be encouraged so that along with income the needs of the society are met. He encouraged students to develop IOT enabled rooms at Sahyadri

Dr V. Krishna Murthy, Registrar & Professor, Department of Biotechnology, PES University, Bengaluru spoke about “Pollutants in our Environment”. He said that one of the greatest problems the world is facing today is environmental pollution increasing with every passing year and causing grave and irreparable damage to the earth. He highlighted on the topic such as environment, natural pollutants, metallic pollutants, Bad effects of rocks salt metals, stock pollutants, fund pollutants, water pollutants and acid rain cycle etc. He also emphasized that the pollution is not an individualistic threat to the environment; instead, it is the inter-link between the pollution at the level of soil, river, air etc and needs many innovative and modern methods to deal with this problem.

Dr Bashir Ahmed Ganai, Professor, Director CORD &Head, P.G. Department of Environmental Science, University of Kashmir, Srinagar delivered a talk on “Disaster due to Brickkiln Emissions”. He emphasized on environmental pollution. He continued the session with the introduction of brick and it’s making process. He spoke about the impact on health in both human and plants at local and global level. He showed the survey conducted by himself and his students at some of the villages in Srinagar where more brick manufacturing industries exist. He listed and explained the different disease caused by brick manufacturing which will affect the human health. He also recommended the use of new technology like increasing the height of the chimney in industries. 

Mr B. A. Hasanabba, Former Member of Legislative Council, Bengaluru delivered a talk on “Math Magic”. He spoke about the essence of mathematics in the academic field. He showed the students about the fun side of mathematics. He highlighted the importance of mathematics and their some inventions. He gave insight about perfect numbers, deficient numbers, abundant numbers etc and their applications. He addressed on the tricks involved in the mathematics addition, multiplication, subtraction, division for numbers involved smaller to larger digits. 

Dr D P Agrawal, Former Chairman, UPSC, India delivered a talk on “Environmental Friendly Technology”. He started his talk by urging students to have goals to start technology which is eco-friendly. He spoke about the importance of water recycling, rainwater harvesting and water purification. He also mentioned about how countries like Israel has adopted new technologies to reduce the water consumption in different areas. He also spoke about solar energy & solar panels to produce electrical energy. He discussed electrical cars which avoid the use of petrol and diesel. He also said that natural gases are less pollutant.

Prof. Nataraja Karaba N, Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agricultural Science, Bengaluru spoke on “Food security in India”. He started his session by giving the information about the origin of agriculture. He told about the research focus on Molecular biology/transgenic facility in GKVK, Bengaluru. During 1950’s food which we ate were not grown only in India but from different parts of the world. He quoted the words of Jawaharlal Nehru “Everything else can wait but not agriculture”. He mentioned about Mr. M S Swaminathan who is responsible for the Green Revolution in India which developed high yielding varieties of wheat and rice. Due to overpopulation, increasing crop yield is the fundamental challenge for the agricultural industry. Next-generation technology and its application to agriculture are required to push the limits of productivity. He encouraged the students to do research in the agriculture field.

"Practice like you've never won, perform like you've never lost"