Bhubaneswar: Distinguished technocrats from various corners of India are set to gather in the city for the commencement of the three-day annual convention hosted by the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) at Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University (SOA) starting on December 9.
INAE, an autonomous professional body partly funded by the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, consists of the nation’s most eminent engineers, engineer-scientists, and technologists spanning all engineering disciplines. Professor Damodar Acharya, Chairman of the INAE Bhubaneswar chapter and Chairman of the SOA Advisory Board, shared this information during a press conference on Friday.
The convention, taking place at Campus-2 of Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University in Bhubaneswar, will attract fellows, foreign fellows, young associates, and invitees from various engineering disciplines. Notable features of the event include plenary talks, panel discussions, and presentations.
This year’s convention is a collaborative effort involving SOA, the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, the CSIR-Institute of Minerals and Materials Technology, Bhubaneswar, and the Bhubaneswar chapter of INAE, as highlighted by Prof. Acharya, the former Chairman of AICTE.
Key figures present at the press conference included Dr. Sanak Mishra, former Managing Director and immediate past President of INAE; Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda, Vice-Chancellor of SOA; Lt. Col. Sobhit Rai, Member Secretary of INAE; and Dr. Subhransu Samantaray, Organising Secretary of the convention and Professor of IIT Bhubaneswar.
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Prof. Acharya mentioned that specific sessions of the convention would delve into the contributions of eminent Odia astronomer Pathani Samanta and the 9th-century craft of flexible brass fish manufacturing in Belaguntha, Ganjam district.
Dr. Mishra emphasized the role of INAE as an apex body fostering engineering and technology practices for solving national problems. Prof. Nanda highlighted SOA’s emphasis on research and mentioned that the university is hosting the INAE annual convention for the second time.
The inaugural function will feature Mr. T.V. Narendran, Managing Director of Tata Steel, as the chief guest, along with Prof. Indranil Manna, President of INAE and Vice-Chancellor of Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra. The event will also witness the release of the book ‘Diverse Space Applications’ authored by Dr. B.N. Suresh, former President of INAE and Chancellor of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram.
More than 40 eminent technocrats including Mr. Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairperson of Bharti Enterprises, Mr. Ajai Chowdhry, Co-Founder, HCL and Chairman-EPIC Foundation, Prof. T.G. Sitharam, Chairman, All India Council of Technical Education, Mr. Rajendra Singh Pawar, Chairman and Co-Founder of NIIT Group, Prof. Sunil S. Bhagwat, Director, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, Prof. Vigor Yang, Regents’ Professor, Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Prof. Alan Conrad Bovik, Cockrell Family Regents Endowed Chair Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin, USA, Dr. Dhananjaya Ashok Gore, Vice-President Engineering, Qualcomm India Pvt Ltd, Bengaluru and Prof. Dilip Kumar Pratihar, Institute Chair Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT, Kharagpur will be inducted as Fellows of INAE during the convention.
