Visakhapatnam

      IETE Visakhapatnam centre organized a Zonal seminar on “Emerging and Converging Communication Technologies (SECT-07)” during 10-11 February 07. About 400 delegates participated in the seminar from various engineering colleges, universities, R&D organizations. It covered topics like Nano Technologies, Antenna and Wave Propagation, Sonar and Underwater Communications, Modern Radar and Applications, Soft Computing Techniques etc. Six technical sessions for
60 contributed papers and six technical sessions for 60 student papers were scheduled during the seminar. Ten expert talks were delivered by eminent professors and scientists from various universities and R&D organizations. scientists from NSTL, Visakhapatnam and DLRL, Hyderabad also participated in the seminar. IETE Council Members, South Zone Chairman, Secretaries had their meet at Visakhapatnam during the same dates. It was for the first time in the history of the institution, IETE council meeting was held at Visakhapatnam. The dignitaries present during the inaugural function were Prof L Venugopala Reddy, Vice chancellor, Andhra University, Prof K K Aggarwal, Vice chancellor, GGSIP University,
Dr V Bhujanga Rao, Director, NSTL, Visakhapatnam, Shri S Narayana, President IETE, Prof Allam Appa Rao, Principal, AUCE, Visakhapatnam, Prof K S Prakash Rao, Zonal coordinator (South Zone), Prof R K Gupta, Chairman, TPC, and Prof K Laxminarayana, Chairman, MLCC. All dignitaries emphasized the importance of the theme of the seminar from various angles.   

      Dr M L Goyal, GM, Northern Region, CMC Ltd, New Delhi and Council Member, gave a very informative presentation on “e-Governance: Experiences and Road Ahead”, during the Council meet.  Explaining about e-governance, he talked about the first large e-governance Project: Railway Passenger Reservation System. He highlighted how the system changed the concept of computer applications in the country, its use in ticket reservation, modification, cancellation and integration of large databases, booking at any time from anywhere to anywhere, etc. Dr Goyal elaborated on the need of the replication of the concept for similar applications.  The need to “Reach the Unreached” was emphasized. It was suggested to use ICT technologies to erase the two biggest hindrances, illiteracy and poverty; exploring the uses of WiMAX, creating the awareness of healthcare among rural masses, delivery of lessons by the best teachers from a location using Wide Area Network for a large part of population, imparting of information on the use of new types of seeds, fertilizers, mechanization, power and irrigation to the rural community in agriculture, need for a reliable and viable national IT infrastructure, a citizens’ database with unique ID for every citizen to help reduce corruption and crime, implementation of e-governance applications at grass-root level, skill upgradation of govt officials and staff were some of the necessary steps to be taken in the direction.          

     Warangal

      The sub-centre conducted the following activities during recent months :-

l      A lecture on “Civilian Application of Image processing” was delivered by Dr K Veerabhadra Rao, GM, Iswarya Communications Ltd, Hyderabad on Dec 21, 2006.  

l      IETE Warangal sub-centre and Dept of ECE, KITS, Warangal together, organized a two-day workshop on “DSP Tools” on Dec 28-29, 2006 in Kakatiya Institute of Tech & Science premises. Prof V U Reddy, Chief Scientist, Hello Soft India Pvt Ltd, Hyderabad, the Chief Guest, delivered the keynote address during the occasion. Shri K V Sridhar, NIT, Warangal spoke on “DSP Architecture”. Shri U Naresh Kumar, Scientist, RCI, Hyderabad talked on MATLAB and Code Composer Studio.       

ISF Activities

l       ISF at Madras Institute of Technology (MIT), Anna University, Chromepet, Chennai was inaugurated on Oct 26, 2006.  Shri A Ganesan, Chairman IETE Chennai centre presided over the function and delivered the guest lecture on Broadband Technologies. 

l       Dr R P Khambayat of NITTTR, Bhopal, delivered a lecture on “Learning in Industry” at K K Wagh Polytechnic, Nashik for the final year diploma students on Nov 10, 2006. He highlighted the importance of interview techniques, expectation of industrialists, qualities of technicians, their communication and skills, advantages of positive attitude and drawbacks of negative attitude. Dr K N Nandurkar, Principal, K K Wagh Institute of Engg Education & Research, Nashik; Prof M D Kokate, Principal, K K Wagh Polytechnic and Hony Secretary, IETE Nashik centre were present during the lecture. 

l        ISF at RVR & JC College of Engg, Guntur, was inaugurated on Dec 21, 2006 by the Chief Guest, Prof K Lakshminarayana. Shri C Venkataramanna, Chairman, Vijayawada centre was the Guest of Honour. The function was presided over by Dr K Basava Punnaiah, President, Nagarjuna Education Society, Guntur. Others who graced the occasion were Dr P S Sankara Rao, Principal & Dr A Sudhakar, Prof & Head, Dept of ECE of RVR & JC College of Engg.
      

l      ISF at Sri Sai Ram Engg College and IETE Chennai centre together organized a seminar on “IP TV” by Shri Ilanthirai DGM, BSNL, Chennai on Jan 20, 2007.        

l      The 3rd IETE Students’ Forum under Palakkad sub-centre was inaugurated at Al-Ameen College of Engineering, Kulapully-Shornapur, Pallakad Dist on Jan 22, 2007 by Shri E Kasiviswanathan, GM, ITI, in a function chaired by Shri C K Haridas, Chairman, IETE Palakkad sub-centre. 

l      A lecture on “Pollution Microcontroller based Monitoring and Control Devices” by Prof Basudev Prasad, Head ECE & ISF Co-ordinator, Indo Global College of Engineering, Abhipur, Mohali was conducted on Jan 30, 2007. Also a quiz competition in the field of science, electronics and telecommunication was organized on Feb 6, 2007.  

PAC Activity

      The Dept of EC&TE of JNN College of Engineering, Shimoga with Professional Activity Centre (PAC) of IETE, organized one week Short Term Training Programme on “Digital Signal Processing” during 26th-30th Dec 2006 for the faculty of JNNCE and PAC members. The course was inaugurated by Dr A V Subramanyam, Principal, JNNCE on Jan 26, 2006. He emphasized on the importance of DSP since all the modern communication was based on the DSP concepts.  Shri Satya Sudhakar Y, corporate trainer from Aureole Technologies Pvt Ltd, Bangalore and the main resource person, handled the first three days sessions on DSP. Topics covered on these days were on Flavours of Fourier Spectra, Linear Time Invariant Systems, Concepts of Complex Signals, Fixed Point Number representation in DSP Algorithm, FFT algorithms, Designing of Filters and Sampling. On 29th Dec 2006, Dr Srinivasa Rao Kunte introduced Wavelet Analysis and wavelet Transforms, which was followed by introduction to DSP Processors and introduction to MATLAB and its use in DSP by Prof Shri H K Harish. A hands-on lab session on DSP using MATLAB was conducted in the afternoon sessions. On the concluding day, Dr R Srinivasa Rao Kunte introduced Artificial Neural Networks and application of Wavelet Transforms and Neural Networks in Handwritten Character Recognition System. Dr S N Jagadeesha, Prof & Head of IS&E Dept, JNNCE gave a talk on Adaptive Signal Processing & Filters and Ms M S Bharathi gave the DSP Kit Demo. 

Distinctions

      Dr T K Alex (F108298L), Director, Lab for Electro-Optics, ISRO, Bangalore was awarded Padmasri Award by the President of India in Science and Engineering-2007, on Republic Day 2007. 

            Dr B K Bhaumik (F106318), Incharge Physics Lab, Northern Region & Coordinator Emergency Response Centre, Dept of Atomic Energy, Delhi, has been selected to receive “The World Medal of Freedom” by the Governing Board of Editors of the American Biographical Institute.  Dr B K Bhaumik has received this honour for his significant accomplishments in the field of Geoscientific Data Analysis.   

News Titbits

l       Internet search specialist Google has announced its latest version of the Google toolbar 4. This new version of Google toolbar is customizable, with new features that would enable users to personalize their search and browse their favourite content more efficiently without first having to visit the Google homepage. 

l      British Telecom (BT) is all set to enter the country in a major way.  BT has already got the Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s (FIPB) clearance to offer national and international services in India, is readying its foray into eight other telecom-related sectors in the country. These include offering fixed-line telephony, IT and telecom-related consultancy services, hardware and software solutions, setting-up an R&D center, call centers and BPOs and providing services permitted under the ISP license, including VPN services.

l      BSNL, the country’s largest telecom service provider, has decided to diversify its business portfolio and other services in the IT space.  The company will soon announce its foray into web hosting, server colocation, customer vault services, premium mail services, online security solutions, online gaming and data centre facilities.  A series of other IT solutions are also in the pipeline, but are yet to be finalized.        

l      TRAI wants the current international long distance guidelines to be amended to curb monopoly and provide a level playing field to new players.  In addition, the regulator has demanded it must be allowed to fix and regulate cost-based access charges for international bandwidth in order to ensure that the prices are transparent, non-discriminatory and fair.  At present, international bandwidth, which is monopolized by the incumbents, costs 40-60% more than international rates.