Activities under Centre of Excellence in Data Science

The flagship event of the CSE Department, MINeD 2022 : a national level hackathon was organized by the Centre of Excellence in Data Science at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering in collaboration with SUNY Binghamton University during March 3 – 5, 2022. More than 500 participants attended the event. Four industry partners (Cactus Communications, D360 Technologies, J K Lakshmi Cement Ltd. and HOPS Healthcare) sponsored track prizes. The grand prize of USD 1000 was sponsored by Binghamton University. Participants worked for 48 hours to solve the problems in the fields of Smart Healthcare, Smart Manufacturing, Image Processing and open innovations.

Dr. K Srihari, Dean, Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science at Binghamton University visited the department on May 31, 2022 and discussed with CoE team members various opportunities to further extend the collaboration

Interaction with Outside World

The Department of Mechanical Engineering has organized a course on “Deep Learning: Applications in Engineering” with Dr Rahul Rai, Dean’s Distinguished Professor in the Clemson University International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR), South Carolina, USA as the faculty. The 40 hours course is being conducted through online mode and involve weekly lectures, tutorials and support sessions between Feb-April 2022. The course beneficiaries include MTech (Mech) students, Research Scholars and faculty members from School of Engineering, IT, NU.

Dr. Rai’s research is focused on developing computational tools for Manufacturing, Cyber-Physical System (CPS) Design, Autonomy, Collaborative Human-Technology Systems, Diagnostics and Prognostics, and Extended Reality (XR) domains. His research has been supported by NSF, DARPA, ONR, ARL, NSWC, DMDII, CESMII, HP, NYSERDA, and NYSPII (funding totaling more than $20M as PI/Co-PI). He has authored over 150 papers to date in peer-reviewed conferences and journals covering a wide array of problems.

Dr. Rai has delivered two popular online courses at Coursera on “Intelligent Machining” and “Advanced Manufacturing Process Analysis“. He has also delivered courses on Deep Learning/ML at many institutes including NITIE, Bombay.

• A one-day workshop on “Role of Optimization Techniques in Power Systems” was organized on 19th February 2022 by the Department of Electrical Engineering, Institute of Technology with Centre for Continuing Education, Nirma University, Ahmedabad. A total of 09 participants included PG students, Research Scholars and Faculty members from Nirma University.

The workshop begin with opening remarks by the Head of Department, Electrical Engineering Prof. (Dr.) S. C. Vora and Head-CCE Dr. Y. N. Trivedi on the current scenario of optimization techniques in various applications. The entire workshop was devided into several sessions.

The sessions on “Introduction to Program”, “Power Transfer Capability through FACTS”, “Introduction to Soft Computing”, “Different Types of Soft Computing Techniques” and “Optimum Compensation Location and Loss Reduction” were jointly conducted by both program coordinators Dr. Kuntal Bhattacharjee and Dr. Akhilesh Nimje.

The programme came to an end leaving fond memories in the mind of program coordinators and a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment among all the participants, faculty and staff who were associated in its preparation.

A glimpse of workshop on Role of Optimisation techniques in power systems

• A one-day national seminar on “SMART Power Flow Controllers – A necessity of Future Power Grids” was organized by the Electrical Engineering Department, Institute of Technology, Nirma University on April 02, 2022 from 10.00 am to 3.30 pm.

Dr. Kalyan Sen, Fulbright and GIAN scholar, IEEE Distinguished lecturer and Chief Technical Officer, Sen Engineering Solutions, USA was the speaker for the seminar. Total 31 Participants from Industries including the Utility company (GETCO), Faculty members, Ph.D. Scholars from other institutes and PG students participated in the seminar. Dr. Chintan R. Mehta worked as a coordinator for the national seminar.

The topics covered in the seminar are as follows.

1.  Concepts of power flow in power systems
2. Voltage regulators (Concepts and different types including SV, STATCOM etc.
3. Asymmetric and symmetric phase angle regulators
4. Reactance regulators (discussion on TSSC, TCSC, SSSC etc)
5. Impedance regulators (discussion on UPFC and Sen transformer)
6. Discussion on SMART power flow controllers.

• One day online training programme on “LVS” was conducted by the ATC Mitsubishi Electric India Pvt. Ltd., Institute of technology Nirma University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat. On December 29-30, 2021.
• One day Offline training programme on “MELSEC iQ-F PLC” was conducted by the ATC Mitsubishi Electric India Pvt. Ltd., Institute of technology Nirma university, Ahmedabad, Gujarat on January 29, 2022.
• Two days online training programme on “iQR PLC” was conducted by the ATC Mitsubishi Electric India Pvt. Ltd., Institute of technology Nirma University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat on February 18 -19, 2022.
• One day online training programme on “GOT 2000” was conducted by the ATC Mitsubishi Electric India Pvt. Ltd., Institute of technology Nirma University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat on March 5, 2022.
• One day online training programme on “LVS” was conducted by the ATC Mitsubishi Electric India Pvt. Ltd., Institute of technology Nirma University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat on April 20, 2022.
• Two days online training programme on “SCADA MC works 64” was conducted by the ATC Mitsubishi Electric India Pvt. Ltd., Institute of technology Nirma University, Ahmedabad, Gujarat on May 25 -26, 2022.
• Four days Offline training programme on “MELSEC iQ-F and iQ-R seris PLC” was conducted by the ATC Mitsubishi Electric India Pvt. Ltd., Institute of technology Nirma university, Ahmedabad, Gujarat on 27 -30 June 2022
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• Two days workshop on “iOT and Automation using NodeMCU” was arranged from 26 to 27 March, 2022 Organized by Centre for Robotics and Automation in association with Centre for Continuing Education, Nirma University. Total 48 students of BTech programme from different institutes of Ahmedabad participated in the teams of 4 to 5 students each.  During the two days event the participants were provided with a take away kit per team for hands-on learning on usage of NodeMCU control board and its integration with various sensors and actuators for automation and iOT application. The event was coordinated by Dr Jatin Dave (ME) and Dr Mihir Chauhan (ME). The technical session was delivered by Dr Akash Mecwan (EC).

• Department of Civil Engineering, Institute of Technology, Nirma University had organized a national webinar on “Transportation Geotechnics” during December 20 – 24, 2021. The webinar is supported by GUJCOST, Government of Gujarat. The webinar will focus on properties of geomaterials for rational and sustainable design and construction of transportation infrastructures.
• Department of Civil Engineering, Institute of Technology, Nirma University had successfully organized a workshop on “Building Information Modelling (BIM) using Revit” under the banner of Centre for Continuing Education during January 4-5, 2022. Total 29 students and 7 faculty members have participated in the workshop.
• Civil Engineering Department under Centre For Continuing Education (CCE) had organized a one day workshop programme on “Application of Remote Sensing and GIS in Water Resources Management” for B.Tech & M.Tech students, Research scholars and faculty members from Engineering colleges, polytechnic Institutes, and other academic Institutes on April 30, 2022.The proposed workshop had  focus on present trends on research work in the field of Water Resources Management. During this workshop the participants learnt the fundamentals of RS and GIS and their applications in water resources field.
• The Civil Engineering Department has organized a Professional Development Course on Building Engineering – Construction, Waterproofing, Maintenance and Repairs for managers of Pidilite Industries Ltd, Mumbai.  This training programme is divided into two modules. Module 1 consists of Construction and Waterproofing for new buildings and Module 2 consists of Maintenance, Remedial Water proofing and Repair of old Structures. The third batch of the training programme for Pidilite Managers commenced from May 18, 2022 and the orientation programme was held on May 17, 2022.

 Innovative Initiatives

• A three-day training program for the non-teaching staff members of the Institute of Technology, Nirma University was organized by the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering during Jan 3-5, 2022.
• The Department of Electronics and Communication (EC) Engineering organized a one-day Online Orientation Programme for the students of B.Tech., Semester IV, VI, and M.Tech. Semester II.

• The Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Institute of Technology, Nirma University, organized a 48-hour long online event “MATLAB Hackathon”, from January 01-03, 2022.
• The Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Institute of Technology, Nirma University organized a national-level webinar on “Research Avenues in VLSI Design”. The webinar has received overwhelming responses from the students, academicians, and industry personnel with more than 110 registered participants.

• The Department of Computer Science and Engineering organized Scopus Indexed, ‘4^th International Conference on Futuristic Trends in Networks and Computing Technologies (technically collaborating with Springer Nature) during December 10-11, 2021. The FTNCT-2021 received an international overwhelming response and had participation from 16 countries with 283 papers in different areas including networking, computing, machine learning, data mining, wireless communications, big data, cloud computing, augmented reality, image processing, mobile and optical communications, cyber security etc. which were divided into four major conference tracks. A workshop on “Speech Processing using Python” under the Centre for Continuing Education (CCE) was organized by the CSE Department. The workshop was conducted by Dr Sapan H Mankad and Prof Dvijesh Bhatt during January 29-30, 2022 .