Nagpur News.
The inaugural function of the two day Industrial symposium and lecture series organized by Centre for Excellence of COMMBEDDED Systems and industry institute interaction cell of VNIT Nagpur was held at VNIT auditorium on Friday morning. Dr Ajoy Kumar Ray, director of IISET, Shibpur Kolkata emphasized the need of interdisciplinary research for the betterment of the society in his speech as chief guest of the function. He further highlighted the communication and embedded systems development state of the art in western countries and further commented that joint research efforts are required to develop our country in the respective areas of research.
He also briefed the design issues of COMMBEDDED systems. Director of VNIT Dr Narendra Chaudhari in his presidential speech also expressed the requirement of joint research efforts in the different areas of engineering for the fruits of real technological developments to percolate down the lowest level of society. He further highlighted the achievements of the COE in terms of the MOUs and patents applied for in the short span of time by the investigators.
Dr A G Kothari elaborated on the agenda and goals of the COE in his opening remarks. The chief guest Dr R B Deshmukh, HoD electronics engineering highlighted the efforts of the department faculty in various related areas and also promised that similar efforts will be continued to bring up these activities.
Dr PS Deshpande, HOD Computer science briefed about the importance of real time operating system issues related to communication and embedded system designs. Prof D R Peshwe, Prof V A Mhaisalkar were present on the dais. Dr K M Bhurchandi delivered the vote of thanks. Around 500 students and faculty members of various institutes attended the lecture series. The industrial symposium was attended by around 1000 persons till 5 pm.
COE on dot in just one year, starts delivering products
The World Bank assisted Centre of Excellence (COE) for applied research in electronics and computer science engineering was established in July last year at the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT). It has already begun delivering products and technologies for the industry as well as common man. Centre has already applied for two patents.
The centre has also initiated dialogue with USA and European Union countries along with working towards self sustainability and continuation of the research center activities. COE is one of the top six of the 30 established centres in country. It has got Rs 5 crore grant from the National Project Implementation Unit (NIPU), Ministry of Human Resource Development, Govt of India. It is expected to design and develop technologies and devices for dedicated applications in compact and miniaturized form using state of the art software and hardware platforms for conducting interdisciplinary research,” said Ashwin Kothari, coordinator of the COE and associate professor of department of electronic engineering at VNIT.
Moving few steps in this direction Kishor Bhurchandi, associate professor in electronics and his team in COE has already developed assistive devices for differently abled persons with low vision or who are blind.
Device of human use
One device is a ‘navigation assistive device’ which uses ultrasonic sensors to detect any obstacle around the person in all directions and above or below him to pave way for smoother movement by a person who cannot see. Another device being tested at present in the institute is a prosthetic motorized leg which unlike other prosthesis allows natural integration between the knee and entire lower limb has been sent for participation at Texas Analog design contest 2014 at Bengaluru.. Team has demonstrated the working of the leg to Dr Padmabhushan Nandkishore Laud, an orthopaedic surgeon. The prosthetic leg senses movements of the undiseased leg and synchronizes the movement of the prosthetic leg with it,” said Dr Kishor Bhurchandi.
Another PI and professor of electronic engineering, Dr A G Keskar, who along with Dr Kothari is working on development of a gadget for use by paraplegic and muscular dystrophy persons. The gadget can be worn on the face and will use the tongue to operate a computer. Some other projects in initial stages include energy harvesting from electromagnetic waves around an electronic equipment to charge a mobile, development of a reconfigurable antennae for cognitive radio. Dr Abhay Gandhi is working on development of a low cast electronic slate and ground penetrating radar for sensing of land mines. Future plans include developing face recognition systems for security purposes.
