REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE – EPSCICON 2010

January 6, 2010December 15, 2016 repoadmin EEE

The International Conference EPSCICON 2010 organized by the Electrical and Electronics Engineering Department was a grand success going by the feedback received from the invited speakers, faculty of the 6 workshops and the authors who came to present contributed papers. The organizers enjoyed the complete conference work and in all sincerity believe that the conference brought glory to our college and carved a niche for the college in the international scene. The conference started on 3rd Jan and concluded on 6th Jan 2010. We had put up 3 arches, to publicize the conference, one at the Kaiparambu junction, another at the entrance to Casino Hotels Ltd. and a third one in a prominent place in Palace road. Flex boards had been put up in several strategic locations. The details are as follows.

Day-1 – 3rd Jan 2010 – Venue – Vidya Academy of Science and Technology

The 6 workshops that had been conceived and organized went at full swing at 9.30 am after a brief introduction to the faculty. In the tutorial led by Prof. Biswa Nath Datta, from Illinois University, USA, and our conference Chair, the Professor gave a detailed idea about the nuances of computer aided control systems. He covered two sessions and made the programme interactive. In the session handled by Prof. TNP Nambiar assisted by Prof. Sindhu TK and Ms. Shubha the faculty detailed transients in electromechanical systems in two sessions with simulations using ORCAD and PSPICE. Prof. Geetha TV and Ms. Rajeshwari Sridhar from Anna University gave a well attended tutorial on Carnatic music features and signal processing. We had Power System Automation being tutored by Er. Murugeshan N, Chief Manager, TCE in the morning session and in another parallel session Er. Ramachandran P and Er. John Joseph, executives from Indian Plumbing Council explained the nuances of plumbing in multi-storeyed buildings. In the afternoon session Prof. Jayanta Pal from IIT Kharagpur dealt with Model Order Reduction and Controller Design. In addition to about 75 faculty members from our college 40 members from other colleges, including IIT, Kharagpur, NIT, Kurukshetra, NIT, Calicut, GEC, Thrissur, RIT, Kottayam, TEC,Quilon , Kalasalingam CoE, TN , IES, Chittilapilly, RMD CoE, Chennai, SVM EC, Maharashtra, etc. and institutions like CAD centre, KSEB, Apollo Tyres, etc. and 20 students from our department attended.

Day-2 – 4th Jan.2010 – Venue Casino Hotels International

The venue was decorated with international flags of countries represented and when Padmabhushan Prof. Thomas Kailath, America Hitachi Professor Emeritus, Stanford University and Prof. BN Datta arrived on the scene the settings were made for a glorious conference. In the first solemn ceremony, the conference was dedicated to Prof. Thomas Kailath by Prof. BN Datta through a short speech and by handing over a plaque to this effect, to Prof. Kailath. He made a short acceptance speech and proceeded to make a keynote address. The theme and abstract is in the compendium of abstracts and the proceedings given as a CD and distributed as a part of the conference materials at the venue. Invited talks by Prof. Datta, Prof. BM Mohan (IIT, Kharagpur), Prof. Karabi Datta (Illinois University), and Prof. James Bunch (University of California, San Diego) followed in quick succession peppered by interactions and tea/ coffee break. After a buffet lunch we had 3 parallel sessions in which contributed papers from discipline streams like – Power Electronics, Energy and communication and networking were presented. At 4.00 pm we had a Meet the Press in which Prof. Kailath and Prof. Datta talked to the press representatives who came. Prof. PP Nair and Prof. Sudha Balagopalan assisted. At 4.45 the inaugural programme started with Prof. BN Datta in the chair and Prof. Kailath and Prof. GRC Reddy, (Director, NIT, Calicut) as chief guests. Prof. D Balakrishnan delivered the welcome address and Sudha Balagopalan followed it up with a conference overview. Prof. Datta, in his presidential address was appreciative of the endeavour by an institution, which was very young. After the formal inauguration and a short video clipping depicting the conference hosts and personalities, we had the good fortune to hear from Prof. Kailath again, but on a personal note and from Prof. GRC Reddy. Both of them showered praises on the initiative. Our MP, Mr. PC Chacko who had been very helpful blessed the conference with fine words of encouragement and appreciation. Our Dean, Prof. PP Nair also conveyed the best wishes of the entire college. Our Principal Prof. SP Subramanian proposed a vote of thanks. There was high tea and a well applauded entertainment programme, by our students, and Prof. Kailath expressed his desire to meet the band set.

Day-3 – 5th Jan.2010 – Venue Casino Hotels International

At 8.15 am the programme started with a keynote address by Prof. DP Kothari(VC, VIT) and was followed by invited speeches by Prof. Narayanan Komerath (GIT, Atlanta), Prof. Amit Bhaya (Federal University of Rio De Janeiro) , and Prof. SS Mani Venkata (University of Washington). All sessions were highly interactive and tea or coffee was served. In the contributed papers’ session authors presented papers in 3 parallel streams –of Power electronics and Quality, Controls and Electric energy. At 6.00pm in the beautiful ambience of House of Nobles in Joys Palace we had the uplifting and heady music created by Prof. Shanker Bhattacharya on ‘Sarode’ and Sri. Gourishanker on the ‘thabla’. Another solemn ceremony, that of honouring Prof. BN Datta followed. Prof. Kailath spoke on his association with Prof. Datta and the specialties of his great personality. He also did us the honour of wrapping a shawl around Prof. Datta and placing the beribboned medal of honour of pure gold placed in a crystal plate with engraving and citation around his neck. Then followed 12 speeches , with most of the invited speakers, our own professors and professors from IIT, Delhi bestowing their respects to Prof. Datta. Sudha Balagopalan thanked everyone and the event was followed up with a banquet.

Day-3 – 6th Jan.2010 – Venue: Casino Hotels International

Prof. VK Damodaran, ( INGCORE & UNIDO representative) was the opener and was followed up with Prof. Shanker Bhattacharya (Texas AMU), Prof. Galkowski (University of Zielona Gora, Poland) and Prof. Sergej Fatikow ( University of Oldenburg, Germany). The sessions were pronounced to be very interesting and discussions over tea/ coffee. After the final buffet lunch the contributed papers in 3 parallel sessions had papers in electrical machines and general power systems, signal processing and computation themes. After tea the feedback session was chaired by Prof. N Datta and only words of very great appreciation were spoken.

FEEDBACK

Sub: International conference on Power, Signals, Control and Computation- Feedback 1. Prof Thomas Kailath was extremely happy with all arrangements made and expressed his appreciation of the organization, hospitality and team work. He has sent a note calling it an excellent conference and that we, the organizers, all need some rest after it. 2. Prof. Biswa Nath Datta was all praise for all aspects of the conference conduct , has donated his autographed book to the department and promised to conduct workshops , symposia, help to develop and be advisor to MTech curricula and help deserving students to pursue higher education , with arrangements for funding in his university, N. Illinois University. His wife, Prof. Karabi Datta was also very happy about all aspects of the conference. 3. Prof. Sergej Fatikow from Germany, Prof. Galkowski from Poland , Prof. James Bunch from USA were all voluble in their appreciation of the format, content and treatment of guests in the conference context. 4. Prof. Mani Venkata from Washington University, Prof. Amit Bhaya from Brazil and Prof. Narayanan Komerath, Georgia Technological University had also showered praise on the general and specific aspects of the conference. Prof. Amit Bhaya sent a note saying that the conference exceeded all their expectations. 5. Prof. VK Damodaran, UNIDO representative, Prof. BM Mohan from IIT Kharagpur, and Prof. DP Kothari, Director VIT gave very good comments in our visitors book as also Prof. VK Damodaran led the round of applause based on the team work, affinity amongst all the hosts and also commented that the Europeans may have had difficulty with the spice and oil in the food though it had been tasty. 6. The participants who could make it to the closing ceremony were all in unison that the EPSCICON should be an annual event. There were several remarks from all sections that this was one of the best, even best conferences they had attended.