Intersections—Incubators for Innovation

Intersections are generally very exciting places—be they the intersections on the roads we travel, the cross-roads of civilizations or the coffee shop where researchers from different disciplines meet to brainstorm solutions to vexing problems. At these cross-roads, cross-fertilization of ideas takes place. Both the expected and the unexpected can arise, and seeds of innovation planted.

My first exposure to the power of intersections is from an unlikely source—my visit to Haridwar in my early youth. Standing on the bank of the Ganges on a dark, moonless night, I suddenly saw a small lamp on a lotus leaf that a pilgrim had just floated on the river. It looked lonely and yet, beautiful; a few minutes later, another lamp from the opposite bank came into view. Soon, there were many. The mighty currents took these lamps away from their points of origin, tossed and scattered them randomly. Some of them submerged and did not stay afloat. But the end result was a bridge of small lamps between the two banks. I stayed there mesmerized by the reflections of the floating lights. Stored in the streams of my consciousness, I access this enchanting scene from time to time and relive that magical moment, reflecting and seeking motivation from it. In my professional life, I have sometimes thought of these lamps as intersecting islands of knowledge that converge collectively to light the path to new and creative ideas and possibilities.

There is a body of research that has shown conclusively a strong positive correlation between innovation and intersections. According to Kafatos and Eisener (Science, 303, February 27, 2004), “…the new frontier is the interface, wherever it remains unexplored…”. I resonate with this and believe that interfaces/intersections provide an effective format for conversations and connections that lead to new knowledge. In my professional life extending over four decades in academia and at Bell Laboratory—a world-renowned telecommunication research organization for path-breaking innovations—, I have experienced, first-hand, the incredible power of bringing engineers, scientists, and humanists together to move beyond the predictable and incremental advances to the transformative science and technology of the future. Multiple perspectives and free exchange of ideas create an environment for out-of-the-box thinking and novel approaches and solutions. For example, during my tenure as Executive Director of a large interdisciplinary research institute called ICTAS (Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science) from 2006-2016, I launched a new seminar series entitled "The Black Swan Seminar Series “.

For those unfamiliar with the term Black Swan, in his book, "The Black Swan", the New York Times best-selling author, Nassim Nicholas Taleb defines a Black Swan as an event that has three characteristics: it is an outlier; it carries an extreme impact; and it has retrospective predictability. He cites the example of the three technologies that most impact our world today—the Internet, the computer, and the laser—, and notes that all three were unplanned, and unpredicted, and remained surprisingly unappreciated well after their discovery, before taking the world by storm. The next Black Swan, at least as defined by the author, may not be predictable, but it is my belief that we can create an environment and become a breeding ground for future Black Swans. To this end, the Black Swan Seminar Series, I mentioned above, was held in ICTAS’ Café X where a free-flowing and unencumbered exploration of the “X -- the unknown” was the expectation. Facilitated by a researcher, a seminar generally focused on a broad field of inquiry and was triggered by the question, “What technology/innovation/idea will transform your field in seven years? Or by a more-in- your face question, “What advances in your field will make you unemployable/irrelevant in seven years?”

We learnt from these seminars that there is much to be gained in forging and strengthening the current weak and somewhat tenuous bonds among seemingly disparate disciplines. This kind of query can take us from “juggad” or “gambiarria”—nimble and frugal thinking—to high-impact, disruptive innovation, and a capacity to adapt and respond expeditiously to Black Swans in science, finance, and technology.

At the newly established Center of Excellence in Emerging Materials (CEEMS), a collaborative effort between TIET and VT (Virginia Tech, USA), we are planning to devote a part of our effort on the development of disruptive technologies. To that end, in not-so-distant future, we will be launching a Black Swan Seminars Series to be held in the new CEEMS home (under construction) in a seminar room to be dubbed as Café-X or perhaps Chai-X! Faculty, students, alumni of TIET and interested citizens from Patiala and surroundings will be welcome to join in these thought-provoking seminars. It is my fervent hope that my favorite quote, “Buds of creativity blossom at the intersections” will come to life.

New Patent

An improved process for external prestressing of Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) sheets (Patent number: 359576) Applicants: 1. Dr. Shweta Goyal, Associate Professor, Thapar Institute 2. Abhijeet Mukherjee; 3. TIET

It involves an improved process of strengthening of target structure using CFRP sheet. The steps comprised of:

• Preparation of target structure to receive the sheet
• Anchoring the fibre sheet to dead end of the structure
• Prestressing the fibre sheet at live end of the structure

The primary objective of the present invention is to provide an improved and novel technique for strengthening RC structures with pre-stressed Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) sheets. The pre-stress is achieved by direct pre-stressing method. The device used for pre-stressing is directly mounted on the structure. The FRP sheet is anchored to the device itself and the pre-stressing force is applied with the help of hydraulic jacks. The details of the device are shown in Fig. 1. A beam was retrofitted by using the same assembly after loading till failure. The prestressing achieved by the device could improve the load carrying capacity and stiffness of the beam, as shown in Fig. 2.

Evaluation of antioxidant and antimicrobial potential of Mango Seed Kernel

Upinder Rajan Sharma, B.Tech. (Biotechnology), batch 2016-2020, published the findings of his project work in the form of a research article entitled "Evaluation of antioxidant and antimicrobial potential of Mango Seed Kernel" in "International Journal of Chemical Studies" This project work was successfully completed under the valuable guidance of Dr. Poonam Choudhary (Scientist), Ms. Surya and Tushir (Scientist) and Dr. Manju Bala (P. Scientist) ICAR - Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering & Technology, Ludhiana, Punjab, India.

The results of this study revealed that among the three studied solvents, the methanolic extract of mango seed kernel showed good antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. Therefore, methanolic extract could find applications in food industry as natural antioxidant and antibiotic source to address the challenge of infections caused by pathogenic microbes. The mango seed kernel is discarded as waste, the availability and cost factor will be negligible in generating cheap and effective plant-based natural antioxidants. It will also play a major role in utilization of mango seed waste generated worldwide.

4th-year students (BE-MBA) are granted innvotation patent

Vybhav Chaturvedi, Armanbeer Kaur, and Vedansh Varshney, 4th-year students (BE-MBA), successfully published an article in Multimedia Systems, Springer. The published article titled “Music Mood and Human Emotion Recognition Based on Physiological Signals: A Systematic Review” attempts to understand the current research work done in the field of Real-time emotion detection using physiological signals with music as the stimuli. Under the guidance of Dr. Anupam Garg and Dr. Gurpal Singh Chhabra, the team covered 134 articles on related domains to determine the possible correlations and research gaps.

Building upon their previous work, an Australian Patent (Application Number: 2021101097) was granted to the team, titled: “A System and Method for Automatic Playlist Generation by Analysing Human Emotions Through Physiological Signals.” Using a combination of Electroencephalogram, Electrocardiogram, and Electromyogram, physiological signals like the power spectrum of different brain waves and cardiac voltage were determined. Using these features, emotions induced in a person while listening to music were deduced. A separate classification model was also used to classify musical pieces based on their emotional content. Various features were extracted from audio signals, classified and then mapped with human emotions to generate a user-centric playlist.

Smart India Hackathon 2020 Hardware Edition

A team of COE-MBA students won 1st position at the Grand Finale of the Smart India Hackathon 2020 Hardware edition.
The team members were -
1. Shiva Thavani [COE-MBA 4th Year] {Team Leader}
2. Saksham Gupta [COE-MBA 4th Year]
3. Kritika Ahuja [ COE-MBA 4th Year]
4. Jiya Midha [COE-MBA 4th Year]
5. Jatin Kundra [ COE-MBA 3rd Year]
6. Raghav Wadhwa [COE-MBA 3rd Year]
Problem Statement Code - IC489
Project- ROBOCOP - Autonomous Target detection and shooting Robocar.

National Civil Award Competition 2019-20

A team of BE Civil Engineering students won National Civil Award Competition 2019-20 (A competition organized by the Institute of Steel Development & Growth) a INSDAG, Kolkata. The team comprised of four students:

i) Neeraj Kumar, ii) Aarjav Arora, iii) Abhijeet Singh Jamwal and iv) Shubham Madheshiya The team bagged second position along with a cash prize of Rs. 30,000, against the best teams in the country. The team had designed and presented the 'Best Innovative Structural Steel Design' of Quarantine Centre Building for COVID-19, with the capability of fast construction & installation in urban as well as rural areas, under the guidance of Dr. Himanshu Chawla.

International Women's Day Celebration

“Feminism isn’t about making women strong. Women are already strong. It’s about changing the way the world perceives that strength.” –G.D. Anderson

With International Women's Day being celebrated all across the globe, a splendid fiesta was conducted in Thapar University to celebrate womanhood, honor women and salute their courage. Consequently, we bring to you the Women's Week Edition which will provide an insight into these engaging events.

International Women’s Day being celebrated in multiple ways across the world. Adding to the celebration, EDC (Entrepreneurship Development Cell, TIET) celebrated Women's Day on 8th March, 2021. This women's day, they celebrated with some of the women who make their campus feel like home away from home. They dedicated this video to every woman who has made it possible for students to grow and prosper. For all the hard work and support, they salute them. All the faculty and staff members have been a true inspiration to all the student community. Here are powerful videos, each bringing out a different perspective on the occasion and the way it is being commemorated. They celebrated with respected Dean, Student Affairs, Dr. Inderveer Chana, Dr. Sonam Dullat (Professional Student Counsellor, Thapar Institute Counselling Cell), Ms. Neha Singh (Assistant Manager, Centre for Training and Development) along with hostel and mess staff members.

RAD@Home workshop

Recently, Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), Pune was bestowed with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) milestone recognition. This is only the third time an Indian facility has received this milestone, after J C Bose's demonstration of generation and reception of radio waves in 1895 and the discovery of the Raman Effect by C V Raman in 1928.

In line with this Thapar Amateur Astronomers Society (TAAS) organized a workshop with RAD@Home on 11th April 2021, Sunday. The workshop was based on using various online tools in scientific astronomical discoveries and hence contributing as a citizen scientist. Participants first generated and analyzed various pictures of galaxies, clusters, supernovae, and other sources from the GMRT telescope using RGB maker. Before the workshop, three mini-lectures by renowned professors were also held. E-Certificates were provided to attendees.

Apart from this, a few side events were also held. These included a Quiz (in collaboration with tQc) based on science and technology. The-O-Rise, in which participants submitted their out of the box theories. A discord based space game, Goldilocks Gamble, was also held.

Thapar Institute Counselling Cell (TICC) believes that Mental Health services are not an accessory to a healthy lifestyle, but they form the foundation for leading a wholesome way of life. Founded in 2016, Thapar Institute Counselling Cell (TICC) in accordance with the UGC norms continues to deliver quality mental health services to its students. However, being a student has its own set of challenges that can be understood by no one better than a student himself. Keeping in mind the inherent bonhomie that students share among them, TICC launched its Mental Health Student Ambassador Program in May, 2020.

Akarsh Munshi (Mechanical - 3rd Year) served as Lead Ambassador for 2020-2021 passed the baton to Bhavya Girdhar (B.Tech Biotechnology - 3rd Year) as being the next Lead Ambassador of Mental Health Student Ambassador Program, 2021 along with Deepanshi Srivastava (BEMBA- COE - 2nd Year) and Akanksha Takkar (COSE - 2nd Year) both appointed as Vice-Lead Ambassadors.

Centre for Training & Development (CTD) took the following initiatives under its various categories of programs:

1. Corporate Readiness Training Programs (CRTP):

Corporate Readiness Training Programs (CRTP): To enhance Centre’s efforts to make students ‘more employable’, it created its own social media handle @Instagram. Currently it has approximately 1700 followers based on the content posted on regular basis. Till now the Instagram page has 155 posts; these posts have been created with a lot of research/feedback to address the challenges related to employability. Following are the key deliverables:

2. Career Support Programs (CSP): The Centre launched:

• Online coaching for GRE/GMAT for the students targeting higher study programs abroad. Coaching caters to fundamental concepts that are a must know for tackling the GRE/GMAT questions.
• Online SSB coaching, coaching covers group tasks, role plays & personality drills as per SSB selection process.

3. Customized Training Programs (CTP):

The Centre introduced ‘Smart Skills Development Program’ for IEP students, to help them acclimatise culturally and professionally to the host country’s environment and the university life there. Modular sessions, as described below, aim to sensitize students w.r.t soft skills required for successfully transforming into global engineering professionals.

4. Certificate Programs (CP):

The Centre introduced an online course for UG third year students, ‘Business Analysis Edge’. The course has been designed keeping in mind 'Data Driven Decision Making' assessment during the placement process. Students received the course with bubbling excitement.

Centre for Training & Development (CTD) rolled out the third edition (Feb-Mar, 2021) of its bi-monthly e-magazine, 'COACH'.

The contents of the magazine have been created with a lot of research/feedback, to address the numerous challenges related to employability skills. Each part/feature of the content addresses a specific skill need, as explained in the opening leaf of the e-magazine. Following is the link to the magazine: https://online.fliphtml5.com/ikqlt/sxfx/#p=1