Golden Jubilee Celebration Archives

Seminar in Kannada on Aerospace Science and Related Technologies (SKART) - Kannada Vijnana Goshti 11 November 2008

As a part of NAL’s Golden Jubilee celebrations, a Kannada Vignana Goshti on Aerospace Science and Related Technologies, was jointly organized with the Kannada Samskruthika Sangha NAL on 11 November 2008, at Dr Valluri auditorium. The inauguration of the function, opened with invocation. Dr C Divakar, Co-ordinator of the Seminar welcomed the gathering and introduced the chief guest, Dr M K Surappa, Professor at Indian Institute of Science and Secretary, Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology. The Seminar was inaugurated by lighting the traditional Lamp. Prof. Surappa released a Souvenir containing the abstracts of the presentations (both in Kannada and English), to be made in the two technical sessions, articles of the Key note address, invited talks and advertisements of sponsors.

In his inaugural speech, Dr Surappa mentioned that it is high time that the seminar is being conducted as Kannada has recently received the classical language status. He commended the work done by NAL in organizing this seminar in Kannada. He observed that there is a decline in students taking up science even in rural areas and there is a need for changes in the teaching methods. He felt that the subjects discussed in the seminar may become the part of the text for High School and College syllabus. Such subjects on advanced science and technology through such seminars will immensely contribute to students taking up science. Dr. Surappa expressed that in Germany, Japan, France etc. the learning and teaching science in their national language helped in faster development of technologies in those countries. Appreciating the efforts of NAL in propagating science in regional language, felt that such activities also should take place in Universities.

On this occasion the third volume of the book consisting of scientific articles written by our Kannada loving scientist late Dr K S Raman was also released by Prof. Surappa.

In the Keynote address, “From Wind Tunnels to Fine Tuned Wings” Dr A R Upadhya, Director, NAL, gave an overview of both infrastructural and intellectual developments of NAL and took the audience through five decades of the activities of NAL from wind tunnels to fine tuned wings. He highlighted the milestones of each decade, enlightened the present success stories of HANSA and SARAS as well as the ambitious future plans of regional transport aircraft (RTA). Dr R Ramachndra Rao, the convener proposed the vote of thanks.

In the first technical session, chaired by Dr H N Sudhindra, DGM (design) & Head, Power Plant & Fuel System, HAL, the invited talk was on India’s current space program Chandrayana – I, presented by Dr Ranganath Ekkundi, Programme director, Power, ISRO. He presented the interesting details of the mission, objectives, equipments on board etc. This was followed by presentations on CFD techniques for engines, GPS systems for space applications, various launch vehicles, unmanned air vehicles and the importance of titanium alloys.

In the second session, chaired by Dr A C Raghuram, former Deputy Head, Materials Science Division, the invited presentation was on civil aircraft development program by Dr C Divakar, NAL. Dr Divakar presented the importance of air connectivity, the requirement of regional transport aircraft and the necessary technologies to be developed to make it viable
to be used in the 400 odd airports in India and contribute towards the progress of the country in becoming a developed nation by 2020. This was followed by presentations on CFD techniques developed at NAL, super hydrophobic coatings for aerospace, composite materials, wind energy program and multi sensor data fusion.
The presentations were rich in content and were refreshing and it was amply clear that scientific and technological concepts could be effectively communicated in Kannada. The number of registered participants were more than 100 and the sessions were well attended.

ISAMPE National Conference on Composites (INCCOM 7) 4 – 5 December 2008

The ISAMPE’s 2-day National Conference on Composites (INCCOM 7), concluded on 5th Dec 08, as a result of joint efforts of the Bangalore Chapter of the ISAMPE, and the NAL, adding to its Golden Jubilee Celebration Spirit. It marked creation of a unique platform in bringing together, the R & D, Academia and Industry, fulfilling the core objective of ISAMPE to forge a strong linkage between the Technology-Providers and its Propagators, through this annual feature, viz., the INCCOM. Over 60 and odd presentations in the form of planery lectures, invited talks and contributed papers, clearly demonstrated an up beat mood of the Composite’s Community, that converged during 4-5 December 2008, at Dr SR Valluri’s Auditorium on the NAL campus. The august presence of Former Directors of NAL, Past Presidents of the ISAMPE, and several distinguished Guests and Invitees, and corporate biggies, gave a festive look to this Conference.

While the Inaugural address on “Composites for the Space”, by the Chief Guest Shri SK Shivakumar, Director, ISTRAC - ISRO was the booster, the Key Note Lecture of Dr. Tessy Thomas, Project Director, AGNI on “Materials for Aerospace Applications” was a cruiser setting the pace to the Conference. The presidential address of Dr. AR Upadhya Director NAL, outlining the importance of the “High-end and High-volume Applications” of composites and likening the “Future of man kind” to the “Future of Composites”, provided the silver lining to this Golden jubilee ingredient. The introductory remarks of Shri TM Naidu, President ISAMPE, and Dr. RMVGK Rao, Chairman of Bangalore Chapter and the INCCOM 7, Organising Committee, added the flavour and toppings to the overall Conference.

The participation of many R&D organizations like, ISRO, DRDO, HAL, AeSI, IITs, IISc, Private Sector industries, including corporates like M/s. Kemrock Industries & Exports Ltd., and the Tata Advanced Materials Limited, in the Industry-Meet held on the Inaugural evening, defined a new dimension to this INCCOM 7. Their sponsorship to this conference by funding and favouring with advertisements and in many other ways, proved the INCCOM 7 to be a viable venture, even in this critical moments of a Global Meltdown. Intensive presentations, deliberations and close interactions between all the participants, reflected the urge of the R & D and the Industry to come together to work towards the “Cause of Composites”, both for their current and futuristic growth, in a very rapidly changing Global environment. This meet saw an expression of immense satisfaction and interest from the Industry-Czars, turning into a cynosure of all those who attended the Conference. The constructive remarks by Shri Mahendra Patel, Shri CR Satya and Dr. R Gopalan formed useful feedbacks from the Industry side. The topics of the Conference ranged between the fundamental aspects of Synthesis and Characterisation of Composite formulations, Design & Analysis and the practical Engineering tips on emerging Cost-Effective Fabrication Processes, relevant to the Aerospace, Non-Aerospace and spin-off technology products. A special session on “Nano-Composites” had distinctly connected this Conference to future of composites. Cutting across disciplines, scientists, engineers and industrialists, not to ignore the youngsters including the budding students, the event resembling more like a “community – celebration”, rather than a “routine-conference” of being an euphoric-full at the inaugural. That the 2 day proceedings were attended in full with rapt attention and unabated spirit to the last of the events, was a clear message given by all the lovers of these new class of Materials of the future, that they meant business ultimately.

The conference set two agendas as a follow up to the INCCON 7 : INCCOM 8, will be organized by the ISAMPE – Thiruvananthapuram Chapter in Nov-Dec 2009, and the composite Industry will by itself organize an Industry-Meet, where the R&D will participate. All the participants were requested to extend once again their solidarity and commitment to these forthcoming events, and make them a grand success.

Mr D Saji, the Conference Convener, who made the INCCOM 7 appear so “Easy” to organise, through his unimitable “Vote of Thanks”, left none excluded, showing that this INCCOM 7, was an All-Inclusive National Endeavor of the Country’s Composites Community. No wonder then that, the INCCOM 7 was very aptly themed, “Composite Materials and Processes for the Future”.
To conclude, the “R&D and Industry” stood symbolic of the “Matrix and Reinforcement” of a Composite, in this Conference.

AEROFEST NITK Surathkal, 19-24 December 2008
On 19 December 2008, a microlight rally was flagged off at the Jakkur Airport. Eight microlight aircraft and NAL's Hansa were lined up for a flag-off of an event that was to unfold over the next five days. The microlight safari, led by Dr. B. R. Pai, former Director, NAL, was one of the significant components of Aerofest 2008. A day prior to that, some of us headed to the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal to make arrangements for other components of Aerofest 2008, viz., a one day knowledge sharing workshop and an exhibition of NAL technologies.
At Jakkur, Mr. Ashok Nayak, Managing Director, Bangalore Complex, HAL and Mr. Vittal Murthy, Principal Secretary, Youth Affairs were present along with Dr. A. R. Upadhya, Director, NAL very early in the morning. After a brief press meet, Mr. Ashok Nayak flagged off the rally. All the aircraft headed for Hasan. Hansa and some other aircraft headed directly for Mangalore airport. Powered Hang gliders and other smaller aircraft later landed safely in Hassan for refuelling. Deputy Commissioner of Hasan Mr. Naveen Raj Singh took special interest in making all arrangements for receiving aircraft and later seeing them off. On an earlier reccee mission to Hasan and Mangalore, we saw a lot of interest and concern from people in and around Boovanahalli where a new airport is expected to come up. Therefore, there was a natural curiosity among people when the microlights landed. After refueling and a small break, the aircraft took off in the afternoon for Mangalore. The aerial route from Hassan to Mangalore presents many challenges to small aircraft due to thick forests down below and two major peaks. The weather can change rather quickly and clouding near the peaks can be hazardous. Fortunately the weather was excellent and all aircraft made it safely to Mangalore airport by evening.
On the 20th, a mini airshow and public exhibition was planned on Malpe Beach. The party which left for Mangalore on 18th made preparation for the same on the 19th. Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) made extensive preparations. They even had put up bill boards announcing the event at Malpe Beach. Dr. A.Chincholkar of MIT and his team and the Malpe Police did an excellent job of the arrangements, and the public could enjoy the show at close quarters. Two weeks before this, NAL's Clipper Powered Hang Glider (PHG) was transported by road and Dr. Pai had made practice landings on the beach. By about 10 am, Hansa made a fly past and attracted a large crowd. This was followed by Zen Air aircraft. PHGs from Indian Navy and X-Air piloted by Vinitha made landings on the beach. By this time quite a crowd had gathered. We tried to give a running commentary. But it looked like people were far more interested in seeing aircraft in action. Long-EZ piloted and built by Pavan Kaula made a huge impression. He made a few agile maneuvers and had even made his own arrangements to leave smoke trail to add to spectacle. One of the Zen-Air aircraft made a landing as well though it was not planned to do so. When asked, the pilots said that they felt an irresistible urge to make a landing on the beach. Once again, the weather was superb. Later, two PHGs and X-Air made low pass almost in formation and impressed the crown very much. Two paramotors from Para-Regiment Training Centre, Bangalore hung around and made big impression on young minds. The mini airshow itself was flagged off by Dr. Raj Warrier, VC, Manipal University. At the end of the show, a small function was arranged. At this function, Dr. Warrier and Dr. Sandeep Sancheti, Director, NITK spoke. They expressed their happiness over the event organized by NAL. Dr. Upadhya presided over the meeting. Suvarna Sadhana and a Souvenir were released during this function. The dignitaries also formally opened the exhibition. A fair number of public made
visit to the NAL stall and two other stalls set up by NITK and MIT. It was an eventful day. Director NITK had arranged for a beautiful beach-side dinner.
On the 21st, a one- day workshop and exhibition were opened at NITK Surathkal. After a brief Inaugural session, the seminar was started off with a talk on Chandrayan by Dr. Radhakrishnan, Director, VSSC. He spoke on the interest of India in the moon after giving a brief overview of the road travelled by ISRO. He touched upon the benefits of moon explorations and India's place in space. It was indeed a fine lecture. There were quite a few questions from students. Later Dr. J.J. Isaac spoke on wind energy initiatives. Mr. Venkataswamy spoke on failure analysis and Dr. Dayananda discussed smart materials. I spoke on powered hang gliding. Dr. B. R. Pai spoke on aerosports and Dr. Shankar Narayan spoke on NAL's MAV programme. Mr. Kirti Prakash, a retired CSIR employee spoke on paper planes which he also demonstrated the following day. MAV flights were also part of the demonstrations the next day. Dr. Shivashankar of NITK took lead role in arrangements from their side. The previous day, a press meet was held as well.
Since one of the major objectives of Aerofest was to instill enthusiasm amongst youth to taking up aviation as their profession, air experience flights on microlights and Hansa were arranged for students from NITK. The students were chosen based on their performance in a quiz which dealt with history of flight, current developments and basic engineering. Neary 60 air experience flights were offered which included some of the dignitaries. It seemed that the enthusiasm was not only coming from youth but also from those not so young. Essentially it means that aerospace excites everyone.
A Souvenir was brought out for this event which consisted of popular articles related to microlight flying, powered hang gliding, NCC air-wing activities, sport flying etc. A number of agencies came forward to sponsor the event.
The flight operations were led by Dr. B. R. Pai with able assistance from Mr. Josy Pullockara, Mr. Radhakrishnan and Mr. Vijayakrishnan. The event required meticulous planning and attention to really small details. This was executed extremely well. KTMD played a major role again in organizing the event. Dr. Sathyanarayana and team looked after the flagging off event at Jakkur. Mr. C. V. Giriraj led the effort in organizing both the exhibition and the workshop. He also played a major role in raising funds from a number of sponsors which effectively met the fuel costs and other costs. NITK also hosted nearly 75 people who descended upon them by road and air. There was no plan to raid them by water, though that could also have been possible!

AEROFEST Coimbatore , 7–10 March 2009

The first programme of Aerofest in 2009 was arranged at PARK College of Engineering and Technology (PCET) during 7-10 March 2009. Aerofest is a reach out programme designed to enthuse youngsters. PCET could not have been more appropriate for this. During preparatory visits to PCET we learnt that it has one of the largest Aeronautical Engineering Departments numbering a total of 400 plus students at various stages of undergraduate studies. The programme is spearheaded by 80 year young AVM Sheshachari, otherwise known as AVM Chari, who is the director of aeronautics. His enthusiasm was unparalleled and we found a good home to take our technologies.

As in the previous edition, one day knowledge sharing seminar was scheduled on 7 March followed by aerial events on 8 March. NAL's technological exhibition was scheduled for 9 and 10 March. We reached Coimbatore on 6 March and reached PCET by lunch time with all the exhibits packed to brim in Wind Energy vehicle. Around 4 pm when we were up to our neck in preparation for the event, Mr. Giri Raj received his first call of major concern. He told me that there was some news about some aircraft having crashed near Bidadi and the caller said it was Saras. We did not want to believe it. But fate had already done its deed and calls poured in revealing ugly details bit by bit. An atmosphere of gloom fell on us. We learnt that Director had flown directly to Bangalore from Hyderabad instead of coming to Coimbatore as per the schedule. As time passed by, NAL made up its mind that technical programme must go on and all other celebrations would be off. The aerial event was called off since Hansa could not fly in.
The students of PCET gave everything they could. On the evening of 6 March students, particularly a large number of girl students, worked long and hard distributing invitations, drawing intricate patterns in the lobby, rehearsing for compering of the inaugural programme for the following day and so on. The inaugural was expected to start at 10 in the morning on the following day. But prior to that, AVM Chari had ensured that Aakash Ganga team kick-started the event with a magnificent paradrop. Incidentally, the Aerofest 2009 was clubbed with annual Fliegen event of PARK. Fliegen is a German word meaning "Flight".

The inaugural started late and ended very late. Dr. Mohan Kumar, Principal, welcomed the gathering. Dr. Isaac filled in for Dr. Upadhya and gave an overview of NAL's role, its mission, programmes and technologies. Dr. Ravi, Chairman, PCET, addressed the gathering and the first thing he talked about was the report of the Saras mishap reported in the news papers. He requested the entire gathering to stand in silence for one minute to pay respect to those who lost their lives in the mishap. It was a very kind gesture coming from PCET. Later, he wanted to know how much NAL’s Hansa cost. He made a commitment to buy one having felt that it was actually cheaper than an expensive Mercedes. It would indeed be nice to see that Hansa decorates their college and provides an excellent platform for students to learn to fly. Mrs. Anusha, CEO and Mr. Kartik, Secretary and technical correspondent of PCET also spoke on this occasion. Dr. Isaac released Aerofest 2009 and Fliegen 2009 souvenir. Group captain B. K. Dash, station commander, Air Force Station, Sulur also spoke on this occasion. He made all the necessary arrangements at the Air Force station.

After late high tea, the technical sessions started off with guest lecture on helicopter aerodynamics by Dr. Syed R. Ahmed, formerly of German Aerospace Center (DLR), Braunschweig. Dr. Isaac spoke again, this time on "Doing experimental science." A lecture
on MAV's was delivered by Dr. G. Ramesh of EAD and I spoke on "Flight Aerodynamics". Dr. Ranjan later spoke on the Acoustic Testing programme at NAL. Dr. Ramesh Sundaram of ACD spoke on role of composites. He was like a school master trying to influence all the students to take up research in composites. The workshop ended with another lecture by me on "Modelling, Simulation and Equations of Fluid Mechanics." I later understood that this lecture was more than the students could chew and most of them were very glad that it was over!! We hoped, however, that at least some bright ones took home some useful lessons from these lectures.

MAV flight demonstrations were conducted by our energetic and young MAV team. The team is getting better by the day. Soon after, the exhibition team got into high gear and toiled on 9th and 10th explaining the intricate models and concepts to one and all. The exhibition was inaugurated by Mrs. Prema Ravi, patron, PCET. The exhibition was also attended by students from neighbouring colleges. They included Tamilnadu college of Engineering, Nehru college of Engineering, students from local schools and general public. PCET also gave away prizes for the winners of AeroQuiz. Our plan to give air experience flights to the quiz winners did not materialize as noted above.

The support and hospitality extended by PCET to NAL was highly commendable. They made all of us feel at home. Wing Commander (Rtd). Dr. Haran, took extra care in making all the arrangements. Incidentally, Dr. Haran took his Ph. D. under the guidance of Dr. Isaac. So it seemed that the relation between PCET and NAL is much older than it seemed at first sight.

As usual, KTMD team headed by Mr. Giri Raj saw to it that all things were worked out to last details and executed with precision. He was assisted by Mr. Gopinath, Roshan and his team, Arul, Senthil Kumar and Gomathy and her team. It is never an easy task putting up your show in somebody else's home. But they did it. The team is now gearing up for a show at Srinidhi Institute of Science and Technology (SNIST) – Vaughn Institute of Aeronautics and Technology at Hyderabad during 18-20 April 2009.

AEROFEST Hyderabad, 18-20 April 2009

Aerofest 2009, NAL’s outreach programme, reached out beyond the boundaries of Karnataka to hold exhibition and knowledge exchange workshop at Srinidhi Institute of Science and Technology (SNIST), Hyderabad. It turned out, in reality, that this culiminated in a trinity of events. SNIST runs two sets of courses. One set offers traditional engineering courses while another set of courses are organized as a joint effort between SNIST and Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology, New York, offering courses in Airport Management, Airline Management and Avionics. The degree is offered by Vaughn College. On morning of 18 April 2009, the events were kick started with an intense inauguration. It was intense because young Prof. Sastry aged only 75 was fully charged up and called more than ten dignitories to the dias, each one introduced in a unique way. The intensity was felt all through the event. The students never seemed to stop clapping. NAL’s exhibition was formally inaugurated by Dr Vijay Saraswat, CC(R &D) and opened to the student community. The rest of the day a series of seminars were held by SNIST and Vaughn College on India Aviation - Opportunities and Challenges.

On 19th, NAL organized one day seminar whose format closely resembled those conducted at NITK Surathkal in 2008 and PARK College, Coimbatore in 2009. Dr. Ranjan Moodithaya spoke in place of Director and gave an overview of NAL’s capabilities and its golden journey through last 50 years. Dr. Subir Bhaumik captured the imagination of the students by his lecture on failure analysis in the context of aerospace activities. I spoke on flight aerodynamics while Dr. Manjunath recounted the structural integrity activities. Mr. Sampath Rao, NTAF spoke on wind tunnel testing and Mr. Pashilkar deliberated on flight mechanics aspects. Ms. Anjana Jain spoke on materials aspects. Towards the end of the day, Dr. J. S. Mathur, CTFD, spoke on the Micro Aerial Vehicle (MAV) initiatives of NAL. Incidentally, NAL’s MAV team demonstrated the MAV flights at regular intervals throughout the day. On behalf of Dr. B. R. Pai, I spoke on Aerosports which seemed to interest young audience quite a bit. Dr. M. R. Nayak did a splendid job by chairing the entire event. Not to be left behind, Dr. Sathyanarayana proposed vote of thanks with very innovative choice of words.

The NAL exhibition team outdid themselves this time. Several exhibits including the full scale fatigue test model were brought by Giriraj and his team. The exhibits looked even more impressive in the grand ambience of SNIST. Carefully prepared full length posters standing more than 6 feet tall and totalling 50 in number made an excellent impression. The exhibition also included continuous video displays on plasma screens. The exhibition was visited by students of SNIST, Vaughn and other engineering colleges and schools. The exhibition and MAV flight demonstrations continued on 20 April 2009 as well. Around 750 students took part in the programme. Prizes were distributed to the winners of the aeroquiz.

Of course, the event had been planned well ahead by C. V. Giriraj. His team responded extremely well. The support from SNIST was more than we asked for. Dr. Narasimha Murthy, Principal, SNIST, was full of energy and provided every possible assistance and ensured smooth functioning of three events that took place over three days. Though NAL golden jubilee celebrations are drawing to a close, the Aerofest reach out programme will only end by September with two more events to be conducted in northern part of Karnataka. I am certain that NAL has made an excellent impression on young minds through this programme.

Holistic Approach to the Management of Health in R&D Organisations 9 January 2009

A seminar on Holistic Approach to the Management of Health in R&D Organisations was organized as part of NAL Golden Jubilee Celebrations on Friday the 9 January 2009 at the S R Valluri Auditorium, NAL, Bangalore. Dr Ranjan Moodithaya, Head, KTMD welcomed the gathering and the speakers - Dr K Govinda Babu, Assistant Professor, Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology and Dr Prasanna Kumar, Head, Department of Endocrinology, M S Ramaiah Medical College. He complimented Dr K S Nanjundaswamy, CMO of NAL for his efforts in setting up of the NAL Health Centre with a number of state of the art facilities like ERBA Smart Lab: a fully automatic biochemistry analyzer, X-Ray, Physiotherapy etc. He added as Dr Swamy was signing off this month and having this seminar in his honour is just appropriate way of saluting him. Dr A R Upadhya, Director, NAL in his opening remarks said we have had a number of seminars with technical theme of aerospace science and it was very thoughtful of NAL Health Centre to have taken the initiative to have one for the human body which is the most complicated engineering form built by God. With periodic checkups and a little extra care one can get the wake up calls from the doctors, but finally it is we who need to take care of ourselves to be in good health and happiness.

Dr K S Nanjundaswamy, CMO gave a detailed account of the Importance of Master Health Checkup. He said some of the diseases may not manifest clinically even above the age of 35 years. These diseases, if identified at the initial stage of the onset (doctors can prevent the further complications caused by these diseases). He spoke about what is master health checkup? what investigations will be done?, why master health checkup is necessary?, what are the advantages of undergoing master health checkup? What should you do? how will you be benefited? He summed up his lecture saying with Matser Health Checkup we can learn more about our heart, kidney, diabetes and be aware of the risk factors, and learn to adopt a healthier life style for a healthier heart. This will go a long way in decreasing the chances of heart disease, paralytic stroke and sudden death etc., and give you guidelines for a Scientific Preventive Programme.

Dr D Amarnarayan proposed the vote of thanks and the programme was compered by Dr M N Sathyanaryana, Jt. Head, KTMD.

Dr K Govinda Babu, Assistant Professor, Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology gave a brilliant lecture on “Prevalence of Cancer and its prevention in the Indian Population” with statistics. Dr Prasanna Kumar, Head, Department of Endocrinology, M S Ramaiah Medical College and CEO, Bangalore Diabetes Hospital gave a very enlightening talk on “Diabetes and its prevention in the Indian Scenario”. The two specialists were unanimous in their view that exercise and a healthy balanced diet is a critical component of good health that can lower the risk of cancer, heart disease and diabetes. Both doctors elaborated on what constitutes a healthy balanced diet and quantum of exercise required to keep good health.

National Symposium on ‘Open Access and Building Institutional Repositories’ (NSOABIR) 21-23 January 2009

The unprecedented escalation in the journal subscription price, together with increased number of scholarly communications resulting in more number of new journals have lead even well-endowed institutions in developed countries to reduce number of renewals of journals ever year. This journal crisis and the developments in Internet technologies paved the way for Open Access Movement (OAM) world over. The open access literature plays a vital role; both in terms of research communication and access, provided, of course, the benefits in terms of economic and social recognitions are assured by this system. With this critical situation facing the scholarly community, the Information Center for Aerospace S &T (ICAST) had organized a three day National Symposium on ‘Open Access and Building Institutional Repositories (NSOABIR)” during 21st to 23rd January 2009 as a part of NAL’s Golden Jubilee celebrations at NAL premises. Nearly 60 delegates from academic, R&D and Corporate sectors participated in this meet. The inaugural session started with an invocation followed by a welcome address by Dr. I R N Goudar, Head ICAST and Chairman of the symposium. He introduced the chief guest and mentioned that CSIR has taken an initiative in promoting Open Access by way of constituting a ‘Group on Open Access for Science Publications (GOASP)’ with a mandate to come out with CSIR policy on OA, steps to be taken to build Institutional Repositories at all CSIR laboratories to negotiate with publishers in the matter concerned to copyright and IPR issues. As has been the tradition ,the chief guest Prof. Subbaiah Arunachalam lit the e-lamp. Ms. Poornima Narayana, convener of the symposium presented a detailed account about the theme and the program details. Prof. Subbaiah Arunachalam delivered a keynote address on ‘“Why do we need open access to science? A developing country perspective” and gave a comparative scenario about the Open Access movement in the world, Asia and especially in India. He called upon the scientists, researchers and academicians to make their publications open for increasing visibility, usage and impact factor while overcoming the fear factors such as the copyright problems etc. He brought to the notice of audience that National Knowledge Commission under the chairmanship of Mr. Sam Pitroda has already recommended implementation of OA in the country, setting up of Institutional Repositories by every institution which is the most effective open access channel. In his Presidential remarks, Dr. A R Upadhya , Director NAL mentioned the importance of open access in the current situation stressed that information has to reach the grass root level for the less privileged in the country by making the scholarly communication open as OA provides easy and low cost access. Mr. Shyam Chetty , Chairman Library Advisory Committee & Head, Flight Mechanics Division released the Symposium CD containing the presentations of the resource persons, the software DSpace for setting up of IRs and other useful publication. Dr. M N Satyanarayana, convener, NAL Golden Jubilee Committee proposed the vote of thanks.

The technical sessions addressed the relevant issues of the Open Access Initiative/Movement like Scholarly Communication, OA journals, Digitization and Digital Workflow , Institutional Repositories, IPR and Copyright issues of OA and IR, CSIR Metadata Harvesting service and two case studies those of NIO, Goa and NAL. The resource persons were Dr. H S Siddamallaih, NIMHANS, Mr Raghuraman and Mr. Francis from NCSI/IISc, Mr. T B Ananad, GEIT, Mr. Sahu, NIO and Dr IRN Goudar and Ms. Poornima Narayana from NAL. The second day was completely dedicated to lecture/demonstration on setting up of IRs using DSpace, the most popular Open Source software jointly developed by HP Laboratories and MIT, USA. Dr. A R D Prasad and Dr. Devika Madalli from ISI, Bangalore explained the various factors involving in setting up of IRs including an account on DSpace, Metadata standards (Dublin Core) etc. apart from giving a detailed demo on installing DSpace administering IR, depositing and document review/moderate before the documents are made available on IR. All the sessions had very active interaction from the participants.

The highlight of the symposium was a two hour panel discussion on the topic’ Impact of Open Access on Science Communication” on the last day which was addressed mainly to scholars and researchers in an attempt to inform them about the impact of open access on new forms of scholarly/scientific communication. While open access is gaining strength and popularity as a new model for dissemination of information, there are still many issues yet to be addressed such as pricing models, peer reviewing, indexing and impact factors, archiving and the stability of this new publishing model for scientific literature. The discussion turned out to be a ‘real brain storming session’. The panelists were chosen from scientific/academic community, the information seekers and information managers, the information providers like Mr. N V Satyanarayana MD, M/s Informatics India (Pvt) Ltd. as the moderator and other members were Dr. H S Siddamallaiah, PSO, NIMHANS, Dr. M D Deshpande, Head, Research, M S Ramaiah School of Advanced studies, Dr. A R D Prasad from ISI and Dr. L Venkatkrishnan and Dr. I R N Goudar from NAL Two recommendations were made in matters like archiving and funding for publication activity as a part of R&D budget. The valedictory session was chaired by Mr. N V Satyanarayana, and presided by Dr. M R Nayak, Advisor (M&A), NAL.

National Conference on Recent Advances in Surface Engineering (RASE-09) 26-27 February 2009

The National Conference on Recent Advances in Surface Engineering (RASE-09) was held in NAL, Bangalore from February 26-27, 2009. The conference was organized as a part of Golden Jubilee celebration of the National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore. The main aim of the conference was to bring together scientists, faculty members, researchers and students from leading R&D organizations and academic institutions of the country to present their latest achievements and to discuss the innovations and challenges in the field.

The inaugural function of RASE-09 on 26 February 2009 started with a melodious invocation by Ms. Jyothi and team. Dr. K.S. Rajam, Head, SED welcomed the Chief Guest, Keynote Speaker, invited speakers and participants of the conference. She also briefed the audience about the scope of surface engineering and the conference. Then she introduced the chief guest Dr. P.R. Vasudeva Rao, Group Director, Chemistry, Metallurgy and Materials, IGCAR, Kalpakkam to the audience. Dr. Vasudeva Rao inaugurated the conference and released the Souvenir. In his inaugural address, Dr. Rao said that surface engineering is a critical technology for every industrial and manufacturing sector. He emphasized the importance of surface engineering to overcome many problems encountered by several components in the severe environments of high radiation and heat in the atomic energy reactors and plants. Dr. A.R. Upadhya, Director NAL, presided over the function and delivered the presidential address. Dr. Upadhya talked about surface engineering technologies and said that these technologies are vital to the success of almost every industrial and commercial product from aero-engines to aeroplanes, from electronic gadgets to surgical implants and from razor blades to automobiles. Dr. Bharathi Bai J. Basu introduced the Keynote Speaker, Dr. H. S. Maiti, Director, CGCRI, Kolkata to the audience. Dr. Maiti delivered the keynote lecture entitled “Advances in nano-structured films and coatings”. He talked about the recent advances in the frontiers of nanotechnology and its industrial applications. He said that nanostructured coatings could be prepared by several techniques including sol-gel technique. He showed some of the important contributions made by the scientists of CGCRI, Kolkata in the area of nanostructured coatings with optical properties and hydrophobic properties. After the Keynote Lecture, Dr. Harish Barshilia proposed the vote of thanks. An exhibition was organized to display industrial products in the areas of interest to the conference. The exhibition was inaugurated by Dr. S.R. Rajagopalan, Adviser, SED.

The conference had about 150 participants from various R&D organizations and academia including IITs, IISc, ISRO, BARC, IGCAR, ARCI, DMRL, NITs, RRI, CSIR Labs, etc. The conference had 11 invited talks and 47 contributory lectures and 17 poster presentations. The technical talks were divided into 10 sessions covering the most important issues in the field of surface engineering.

The National Science Day Lecture was also organized on February 27, 2009 as part of RASE-09 Conference. Prof. H.P. Khincha, Vice Chancellor, VTU, Belgaum delivered the National Science Day Lecture on “Creativity and entrepreneurship in education”.

The conference ended with a concluding session chaired by Dr. S.R. Rajagopalan. Panel of experts drawn from different R&D institutions and academia expressed their views about the conference. Other participants also shared their experiences about the conference and suggestions during the concluding session. All the participants felt that the conference was well organized and was unique in several aspects especially the technical presentations. Best poster paper awards were also presented to the students.

SNDE-09 27 April 2009

As part of Golden Jubilee year of National Aerospace Laboratories, Advanced Composites Division (ACD) of NAL organized a one day seminar on Non-Destructive Evaluation (NDE): Advances in NDE for Composites (SNDE-09) on 27th April 2009.

The seminar was inaugurated by Mr B.N. Misra, Executive Director (LCA & ASC), HAL, Bangalore Complex and was presided by Dr. A. R. Upadhya, Director NAL. In his inaugural address, Mr Misra, appreciated NAL for its contribution to LCA programme. Dr.A.R.Upadhya in his presidential address, assured HAL that NAL with the help of TAML, Bangalore will be able to support HAL in delivering LCA parts required for the future programmes. Dr. M.R. Madhava, Head ACD, who is superannuating on 30 April 2009, delivered the plenary talk on NDE of Composites. In his talk, he brought out clearly the important role played by NDE in qualifying LCA and SARAS components. After inaugural programme, two technical sessions were conducted, the first session was chaired by Mr M.Subba Rao, TAML, Bangalore and the second session was chaired by Dr.B.R.Somashekar, NALTECH, NAL, Bangalore. Six invited talks on current NDE techniques, such as, i) Acoustic wave based methods of SHM for composite structures ii)Emerging trends in NDE of composites iii) Guided ultrasonic wave techniques iv) Optical NDE methods v) Advanced NDE methods for spacecraft structural components vi) NADCAP road map – were delivered by the following eminent personalities:
Prof.C.R.L. Murthy, Dept. of Aerospace Engg. IISc., Bangalore, Dr.J.Lahiri, ASL, Hyderabad, Prof. Krishnan Balasubramaniam, IIT-Madras, Chennai, Dr.Annamalai Pillai, VSSC, Trivandrum, Sri M.Venkateswara Rao, ISAC, Bangalore, Sri K.Chandran, CMD, HAL
The interactive session "Way Forward" was chaired by Prof.C.R.L. Murthy, Dept. of Aerospace Engg. IISc., Bangalore.

Around 50 NDE practitioners from NAL, HAL, IISc., ASL, ISAC, TAML, ADE, ADA participated in the seminar and also actively participated in the interactive sessions . This seminar provided forum for the participants to get exposed to advanced NDE techniques for composite applications. Also, it is hoped that the interactive session would lead to enhancing the capabilities of existing NDE set-up in reducing cost and time of inspection

Safeguarding of Intellectual Property Rights 1 May 2009

Give a man a fish and you have fed him for a day, teach him fishing and you have fed him for a lifetime”. This was exactly the message of the one day seminar on “Safeguarding of Intellectual Property Rights” organized for the first time in the history of NAL on May 1, 2009 by Knowledge and Technology Management Division (KTMD) of National Aerospace Laboratories, Bangalore. Ironically, it was the concluding seminar of the series of conferences held as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of NAL, where it is anybody’s guess how much IPR must have been lost!

The most important objective of the seminar was to spread awareness, motivate and educate the scientists about the importance of intellectual property through an array of expert lectures on various topics of IPR. Mrs. Gomathy Sankaran, Group Head, PRRM, KTMD welcomed the audience to the seminar and struck the right chord of the seminar mentioning that the seminar aimed at protecting all that is created by the human mind and invited Mrs. Jyoti and Ms.Jayanti to soothe our souls and mind with a melodious invocation. The Dias was occupied by the dignitaries, Mr. R.K.Gupta Head, IPMD, CSIR as Chief Guest and Prof S Gopalakrishanan, Guest of Honour. Dr. A R Upadhya, Director NAL, presided over the inaugural programme.

Mr. Vasant Pilare, IP Coordinator, NAL, cordially welcomed the dignitaries, speakers, participants and audience of the seminar. He mentioned that seminar venue had to be changed due to the overwhelming response from seminar participants. Mr. Pilare in his welcome address took the opportunity and urged the audience to remember world IP day (April 26th) to recognize the creations of great inventors that have shaped our lives and brought us to present stage of civilization.

Dr. Ranjan Moodithaya, Head, KTMD in his indomitable style as always, mentioned that the seminar on May 1st – Labour Day was appropriate as scientists are intellectual workers. Citing the verse in Sanskrit from bhagvad Gita,
“Karmanya vadhikaraste ma phleshu kadaachan"

Dr. Ranjan mentioned that Scientists follow the verse literally, and are so busy in R&D and forget to protect their R&D output. This seminar was the right platform to get an insight on protecting our IP. Dr.Ranjan introduced the Chief Guest and Guest of Honor.
Mr. R.K.Gupta, Head, IPMD, CSIR with his 25 years of experience in CSIR and his various trainings at Europe, Japan, Sweden and WIPO was the appropriate person to give the keynote address on “IP management in CSIR- issues and challenges”. Mr. Gupta appreciated the title of the seminar and appreciated its aptness. He urged the Scientists to start IP right from the proposal stage. Mr. Gupta said it was very unfortunate that a project is picked up, safeguarded and then never worked on. This is unfortunate as it closes the doors for the other workers in the same area to pursue the research. Mr. Gupta shared information about the IP status of CSIR, several issues and challenges in IP management with focus on valuation, freedom to operate, enforcement and IP abuse. He also brought out the lead role of CSIR in fighting the patenting battles on turmeric and Basmati rice and emphasized the need for proper documentation. Mr. Gupta mentioned that the focus of CSIR is now on commercially and strategically important inventions.
The plenary lecture by Prof S.Gopalakrishnan, Department of Aerospace Engineering, IISc Bangalore, the founder of the IP cell in IISc was a very honest and informative talk on the IPR scenario at IISc. He also shared on how the awareness about IP was minimal at the Universities and in the faculty mindset. It was interesting to note that IISc never sells a patent and how the IIScians had used their IP in the betterment of the rural areas. IISc has adopted 2 villages in AP and Orissa and electrified the villages with 1 megawatt of power. Many technologies have been transferred to NGO’s free of cost. Dr. Gopalakrishnan talked about the incubation centers have been set up at IISc where the alumni are encouraged to incubate and germinate their ideas. He clearly stated the difficulties in the costing of a technology and elaborated on the FSDT theory – File, sell, drop theory for any innovation. It should be a win- win situation for the licensee and licensor.

Dr A R Upadhya, Director, NAL in his presidential address congratulated KTMD on their pioneer function. He mentioned that he was happy to preside over this seminar as KTMD had been giving their flesh and blood and providing brick and mortar to all the seminars during the golden jubilee celebrations. He remarked in lighter vein, that it was very pathetic that standards were set and we are forced to use it. Dr. Upadhya advised beautifully that we should create a fence to protect but be aware about what we have in the fence. He encouraged us not to be satisfied with Shrubs but have flower and fruit bearing shrubs. He urged the scientists to bring innovation and create a knowledge base which can be commercialized. Dr. Upadhya mentioned “Be there before your competitor, even if it is not the best”, because this is what keeps you in the race and pushes you to make innovations.
Dr. M. N Sathyanarayana, Jt. Head, KTMD delivered the vote of thanks and pointed out the how IPR could help us to convert knowledge to wealth. While thanking, he advised the youngsters to aim high and aim for the impossible and stated that we never get a thing by just desiring for it, but only by working for it.

The technical session was effectively coordinated by Dr. I.R.N. Goudar, Head, ICAST. Of the 6 IP lectures spread over 2 technical sessions the first speaker was Dr. T Jana, Scientist, NISCAIR, New Delhi who spoke on “Need for information driven innovation system in CSIR”. He emphasized the need for vertical integration in CSIR than horizontal. Dr. Jana introduced us to the concept of patent pooling for value added patents and returns. To explain how it works he cited the example of “Cows to Kilowatts”. Constraint of time did not permit him to share his vast experience and knowledge of patenting strategies with us, but assured that the services of NISCAIR were open to all CSIR labs and specially NAL for any patent search prior to project proposal submission on which Dr. Jana has a big team working.

Mr. Nishant Kewalramani, Portfolio Manager, Brain League IP services, Bangalore opened a new vista of patenting and let us have a peep on how corporate patenting works and the tricks of the competitors in the game. It was a real eye opener. Mr. Kewalramani explained the picket fence, toll gate and submarine strategies followed by companies to gain business advantage in competitive market through his impressive lecture. He explained the offensive as well as defensive strategies that are followed by various firms. Summing up Mr. Nishant mentioned that no two businesses have the same strategies; there is no straight jacket strategy.
Lecture on judging the patentability of an invention and how to arrive at Patent document was delivered by Dr.S.Ramamurthy, Patent expert, Intellvate Private Ltd. Bangalore. His lecture was well articulated step by step guide to a prospective inventor especially in the CSIR system. All the criteria those are essential for patenting an invention was clearly spelt out through his attractive style of presentation.

Dr. Raghnadh Vajjula, Research IP Analyst, John F Welch Technology Centre, Bangalore spoke on “Valuation of patent”. When, why and how the patent is valued was the focus of his presentation. According to him, for proper management of IP, one has to measure and value his IP. He has thrown the light on various models that are adopted for valuation of IP. Dr.Vajulla urged the audience and inventors to combine their strengths and use the available tools.
Dr. YVS Lakshmi, Manager – IPR – Legal & Reliability, Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), Bangalore spoke on various tools of IP that are adopted for protection of computer software and hardware. She has covered the theme of seminar in detail through her resourceful and informative lecture.

Mr. Vasant Pilare, IP Coodinator NAL in a short time effectively conveyed the mechanism of patent mapping, importance of patent analysis and patent mapping in deciding research and development programmes, key business decisions. Mr. Pilare remarked that visually presented matter is easily understandable hence Patent analysis is preferred over other methods of presentation. Patent mapping provides actionable, thoughtful and timely intelligence for organizations in taking decisions while studying many patents at a time reducing time for insight. He also presented the patenting trends in aerospace and aeronautics in India and Abroad through data mapping carried out by him on Indian patents and major foreign country patent databases.

Concluding session of seminar was chaired by the Panelist Mr. R K Gupta, Dr. M R Nayak Advisor (M&A) and Dr. Ranjan Moodithaya. Mr. R K Gupta explained the necessity of organizing such IP seminar is need of time and appropriate one. He summarized the lectures presented during the seminar and urged the participants to give more importance while carrying out their work while referring and reading the IP literature available in respective field. Dr. M.R. Nayak expressed his unhappiness over not finding a single unsatisfactory remark in the feedback sheets However, he invited the participants to be proactive actively participate in the discussions. Dr. Ranjan Moodithaya once again reminded the participants about the importance of IP in their day to day work and life. He found that one day was appropriate duration for organizing such seminar as the idea was to create an awareness and interest in IP rather than make experts in a day. The conference ended with the inventors Dr.V.Arunkumar, Joint Head, Propulsion Division and Mr. William Grips, Scientist SED and father of NAL’s NALSUN technology sharing their practical patenting experience. The number of industries to which NALSUN technology is sold was a sure shot motivator for prospective inventors. The seminar concluded with vote of thanks proposed by Mrs. Gomathy Sankaran. While delivering vote of thanks, she acknowledged everyone involved in organizing the seminar directly and indirectly and specifically the lead role played by KTMD colleagues for their unstinted support.

National Conference on Scientific Achivements of SC/ST Scientists and Technologies 14-16 April 2009
On 14 April, 2009 at the National Aerospace Laboratories’ Kodihalli campus, nearly 400 delegates and invitees had gathered in the specially decorated Dr SR Valluri Auditorium to celebrate the 118th Birth Anniversary of Bharath Ratna Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and for the inauguration of the first ever National Conference on Scientific Achievements of SC/ST Scientists and Technologists (NCSCST-09), as a part of CSIR-NAL’s Golden Jubilee Celebrations (1959 – 2009).
The theme of the conference was “Aerospace Science and Societal Contributions in Scientific Fields”. Mr M A Venkataswamy, Scientist, NAL and Convener, NCSCST-09 welcomed the gathering and gave a brief overview of the conference. Dr M R Nayak, Advisor (M&A), NAL and Chairman-NCSCST 09 delivered the welcome address and introduced the distinguished Chief Guest and the Guests of Honour to the audience. Dr AR Upadhya, Director, NAL, in his presidential address, observed that the day was important and special for NAL because it was an occasion for three-fold celebrations; the first and foremost, it was the 118th birthday of one of the greatest sons of modern India, Bharat Ratna Dr B R Ambedkar, the second was that the day was a part of CSIR-NAL’s Golden Jubilee events and the third was that it was the inauguration of a historic conference. Dr Upadhya said that it was most appropriate that a person of eminence like Dr Bhalchandra Mungekar, Member Planning Commission, who had professional contributions of the highest order to his credit in his specialized field of Economics and had been actively promoting welfare and uplifting of the under privileged and weaker sections of the society, was the Chief Guest of the function.
The Chief Guest, Dr Bhalchandra Mungekar , Guests of Honour, Dr Mandal and Mr Poongavanam, Dr A R Upadhya, Director, NAL and others on the dais paid their respects to the memory of Dr B R Ambedkar by offering flowers to his portrait. Dr Mungekar inaugurated the Conference by lighting the lamp and releasing the Conference Souvenir & Proceedings. Delivering NAL’s 16th Dr B R Ambedkar’s Birthday Lecture, he recounted the achievements and the multifaceted contributions of Dr B R Ambedkar to the country but lamented that he had been largely misunderstood by the country’s people. Dr Ambedkar was the chief architect of modern India; an India that assured creation of an egalitarian social order - free of exploitation, free from indignities, with liberty, equality and fraternity for all. It also assured affirmative action through reservation policies for SC/ST communities. Dr Ambedkar contributed to make India a just, equal, humanitarian society where human rights and human dignity were respected.
Guest of Honor, Dr AB Mandal, Director, CSIR-CLRI, Chennai delivered the keynote address on “How much we know about Self-assembled Systems? Paradigm shift from Chemical to Bio-processing of Leather, Helical mystery and Unwinding of triple helix and some Bio-material Systems”.
Guest of Honor Mr M Poongavanam, Director, BEML, KGF released the Directory of CSIR SC/ST Scientists and Technologists which was specially brought out on this occasion.
Every year, during the celebration of birthday of Dr B R Ambedkar, NAL recognized meritorious students who had secured the highest marks amongst those from the SC/ST community in the state in science subjects in the previous year’s Karnataka SSLC examination and also children of NAL’s SC/ST Employees who had secured the highest marks in SSLC or equivalent examinations. This year’s awards were presented to the students at the hands of Dr Bhalchandra Mungekar in the inaugural function.
The Inaugural programme concluded with a formal vote of thanks by Dr R Rajendran, President, NAL SC/ST Employees Welfare Association. The programme was compeered by Dr M N Sathyanarayana, Coordinator, NCSCST-09.