26th Indian Engineering Congress

The 26th Indian Engineering Congress, organized by the Institution of Engineers, India was held in Bangalore from 16th to 18th December 2011. The program includes key note address and invited talk from eminent personalities in the various major deciplines of engineering with the theme being the sustainable develeopment of India. Relevant sessions were organized with a separate session on Aerospace Engineering. Also, special talks were organized in the area of micro air vehicles with eminent personalities from abroad delivering the lectures. A number of stalls were setup by various engineering firms, government laboratories and academia  and  CSIR-NAL.

The conference was inaugurated by H H Basavaraj Bommai, Minister of Agriculture and Industries.  

 Dr. A.Ramachamdran, Chairman, Governing council, Engineering staff collage, Hyderabad delivered the 54th Sir MV memorial lecture. He spoke on the “Technology and Challenges of Sustainable Development”.  In this talk he brought out the critical role of our scientists and engineers in addressing myraid challenges of sustainable development. He emphasized the importance of three Es Viz. Economic development, Equity (social) and Ecological balance on which sustainable development rests.

There was a session  devoted to Green growth and  the topics covered in the presentations  included  Life cylcle analysis, carbon taxes, clean process technology, Eco Industrial park, alternate design process and green products.

There were  Colloquium talks on
Nano Satellites – Challenges & Opportunities by Dr. M. Annadurai (Programme Director – IRS & SSS Programme, ISRO, Bangalore). Spoke mostly about the need of nano satellites in the weight category of 1-10 Kg and the application areas of communications, earth observation, remote sensing etc.

Micro Air Vehicles: Technology Readiness Levels & Gaps: Possible Technology spin-off to Bird-Hazing at Airports, Micro Amphibians and emtomopters, by Dr. K. Ramachandra, Former Director, Gas Turbine Research Establishment and CEO, NPMICAV, Institution of Engineers (India), Bangalore, spoke about various ways in which the MAVs can be used. He also spoke about possible technology spin-offs in near future as a result of the current national program on micro air vehicles.

MRO in Civil Aviation in India, by Dr. N.S. Venkataraman, Former Director, MIT , AnnaUniversity, Former Director, TIFAC, DST, Govt. of India. He emphasized on the changing Global scenario in the MRO of Aircraft and challenges in the industry.

There were also Technical Paper Presentations from various universities on Antigravity Propulsion, Liquid Propellant Tank with application to Rocket Propulsion, Vision based navigation of UAVs, Attitude and orbit determination using laser light propagation and, Characterization of failure modes using acoustic emission data.

Nathan Chronister from New York and who is actively involved in the development of a flapping wing based micro air vehicle for last 20 years made a presentation on the development.

G. Ramesh

As we keep saying, it is not easy to say good bye to our colleagues who retire; and it comes in such a quick succession. But we have little choice; we thank them and salute them, wish them all the best for their retired life, and reconcile to work for the lab and await our turn for the same.

  Dr. M .N. Sathyanarayana, Chief Scientist, Jt. Head, KTMD  retired on super annuation on November 30, 2011, after serving CSIR for 38 years, out of which 9 years were in NAL.

 He graduated with a B.Sc. degree from Osmania University in 1971; and later obtained his  M.Sc. degree from Jabalpur University in 1973 with Physical Chemistry as the specilisation. He earned his Ph.D. degree from Jabalpur University in 1979 for his outstanding work on Surface Coatings.

After a short stint as a Junior Lecturer in A.U. College, Hyderabad, he worked as a JRF at I.I.C.T between Dec. 1973-Nov. 1976, and later as SRF from 1976 to 1978 which work led to his Ph.D. Degree. He became a Scientist B in 1981 at IICT, and grew up to become Scientist EII in 1996. He worked in the area of coatings during this prime part of his research career and has had many publications in many areas including water soluble coatings, resins and coatings,to name a few.

Later, he joined CSIR-PTC, Bangalore, in 1996 and became its Head, and continued in that capacity till 2002; He contributed towards many Technology Transfers as the Head of PTC. He moved to NAL in September in 2002 as Sc. F and served in the TS Division, and later in KTMD Division as is its Joint Head when it was formed; He was coordinating the activities of HRD, PR, visit of foreign dignitaries, organizing many workshops, seminars and conferences and which peaked during the Golden Jubilee celebrations. It would not be an exaggeration if I say that he led the GJ celebrations from the front in organizing countless workshops and seminars with pin point perfection, which was kicked off by the International conference in July 2008. He was elevated to Sc. G in 2008 and continues as the Jt. head shouldering many responsibilities.

Dr. MNS, as he is popularly, called has won as many as Five Honours & Awards: Indian Paint Association Biennial Award 1980, G.S. NEVETIA Award and R.B.G.V. SWAIKA Memorial Award, all these for his work in the area of development of various coatings and Paints. He has also wonRotary Award for Vocational Excellence in the field of Scientific and the research services for the year 2003-04. He has a total of 44 publications including many of them in reputed journals. 

Dr. MNS has served in many committees and bodies, as its Chairman or its Member, which are too numerous to list; some of them include: Governing Council, Karnataka Council for Technology Up gradation; Expert Advisory Committee, Bangalore University; HRD Coordinator, CSIR; Advisory Committee Member, Aero India 2007, 2009 & 2011. These bring out his ability to contribute in diverse fields and to work among many professionals, which I consider as his outstanding personality.

He is a member of many associations, and is a recognised Ph.D. guide for Osmania University. He has delivered Two Radio Talks. He also served as the Editor of PTC Quarterly published by PTC Bangalore Centre. 

Dr. MNS visited many countries on collaborative research programmes including: Germany under CSIR-DAAD Exchange; BAM institute in West Berlin, again under the CSIR-DAAD Exchange program; Attended the XVII Fetipec Congress at Lungano, Switzerland in 1984.

Though I knew Dr. MNS for a long time from a distance, it was from close quarters when I took over as the Head of KTMD. Dr. MNS extended his full cooperation and help to me, and helped me to understand and run the division. When I took over, many events came in succession, some of them for the first time: Technofest, for example, followed by Science congress. He helped along with Sri Giriraj to successfully conduct these events and  helped NAL to bag the highest award. He took care of all delegation visits to the last hilt, and, indeed, I owe my sincere thanks and appreciation for him for that.

Dr. MNS is a man of versatile talents, a very kind person at heart, and a thorough gentleman. He illustrates the famous Dictum of the Bhagavad Geeta: “Karmaneyva Adhikaraste ……”

I may  mention  that his father, Sri  Guptaji served as the Accounts officer in NAL; and his services are then, second generation.

I  thank Dr. MNS for his untiring services he has rendered to CSIR in general, NAL in particular and to KTMD in most particular. On behalf of the Director, and on behalf of all by KTMD colleagues and on by personal behalf I wish Dr. MNS and his family a happy, healthy and contended retired life. I am sure with his enormous experience and service mind he has many contributions to make to the society at large.

Dr S Sridhara Murthy

Best Paper Presentation Award
The paper titled “A Noncontact Experimental Investigation of  Structural Model Parameters using Nearfield Acoustic  Pressure Gradients” by Chandra N and Manjuprasad  M  has been awarded  the  Interscience Scholastic Award  with a medal and certificate in the category of  Best Presentation /Best Content at the International Conference  on Mechanical  and  Industrial Engineering, Organized by Interscience  Research  Network  (India), held at Bangalore on 20 November 2011. The paper was presented by Mr. Chandra N, Scientist, Structural Technologies Division.

UKIERI Workshop on ‘Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technologies ‘

A two day workshop on ‘Unmanned Aircraft Systems Technologies’ was organized by the Multi Sensor Data Fusion group,  Flight Mechanics and Control Division (FMCD) at Hotel Matthan, HAL Airport Road on 8th and 9th December 2011. The fourth UKIERI (UK - India Education and Research Initiative) workshop was hosted by NAL, one of the four Indian partners of a major award project funded by the UK and Indian governments. The UKIERI program was started in April 2006 with the aim of enhancing educational links between India and the UK.  In the year 2007, the group of institutions consisting of CSIR-NAL Bangalore, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, Indian Institute of technology (IIT) Bombay, National Institue of Technology (NITT) Trichy on the Indian side and the University of Leicester, Leicester, UK were among the first six to win a major award under this programme for their joint proposal entitled "Towards Reliable and smart Air vehicles".

In his welcome address at the inaugural session, Mr. Shyam Chetty, Officiating Director, NAL acknowledged the immense contribution made by Prof Ian Postlethwaite towards the UKIERI project. He mentioned that the final workshop organised by NAL is aimed at sharing the progress of the project and providing a platform to share expertise and knowledge in research, development and technologies in the vibrant and exciting area of autonomous unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) in India and UK.  He reiterated that the partnerships which have been forged between the two countries should be nurtured further to make it stronger.

Dr (Mrs) Girija Gopalratnam, Deputy Head, FMCD in her inaugural address described the work carried out at FMCD, NAL on application of Artificial Intelligence techniques for fault tolerant control.  Enhanced Synthetic Vision System for ground operator situation awareness and system identification for UAV flight data were additional technologies that were included and pursued under the UKIERI project. She mentioned that the activities described in the original work plan have been followed closely with each partner taking a lead in certain tasks. The progress has been discussed and presented at three  workshops held earlier at IISc, NITT and IIT Bombay.

Prof Ian Postelthwaite, Deputy Vice Chancellor, Northumbria University, UK in his inaugural remarks described the work carried out by each of the five partners. The IISc team, led by Prof Sitarama Bhat has made contributions in three main areas, namely, the design and construction of an instrumented light-weight long-endurance mini UAV capable of autonomous trajectory planning in cluttered environments, design of control laws for the automatic landing of UAVs and coordination problems in multi-vehicle systems. The IIT Bombay team of Professor Bandyopadhyay has worked on sliding mode control for UAVs using fast output sampling. The NITT team led by Prof Ramakalyan  has developed UAV path planning algorithms working closely with research staff at IISc. The Leicester research activities of Professors Postlethwaite, Gu and Edwards have been aimed at increasing the levels of autonomy that can be achieved in UAVs using methods and algorithms for flight path planning, mission planning and task assignment for single and multi-vehicle systems. A common theme in all of the above has been the need for real-time implementation in the presence of uncertainties arising from unpredictable operating environments.

Lt. Gen (Dr.) V.J. Sundaram, PVSM, AVSM, VSM (Retd.) Advisor, Micro and Nano Systems, National Design and Research Forum who has spearheaded the Unmanned Aircraft programs in India was the keynote speaker. In his keynote address, which was titled, MICRO / NANO / BIO AIR VEHICLES – INDIA, Gen Sundaram covered in detail the developments in India and the research areas that need to be pursued for future developments. The Research areas include low Reynolds number aerodynamics, light weight composite structures, robust control with vision and GPS based navigation and guidance and light weight propulsion.  The National Design and Research Forum  jointly supported by AR&DB and the Department of Science and Technology, supports R&D in micro and nano air vehicles based on fixed, rotary and flapping wings with special focus on insect flight aerodynamics / mechanics, Cooperative flying, Robust swarm control, Vision based navigation and guidance as well as appropriate  sensors.

The Two day workshop had four invited talks and twelve paper presentations by the team members from the five organizations.

In the concluding session, all the partners expressed that the UKIERI Program has established strong relationship between UK and India. Though the current project is over, the research work and the cooperation will continue.  The program brought institutions in India to work together and enabled a number of students to pursue and finish their PhD degrees.  It was felt that Government funding for future collaborative projects could be explored.

Girija Gopalratnam and Sudesh Kumar Kashyap

The Radome Technology and know-how documents for 13 mtrs- Doppler Weather Radar was handed over to BEL, Ghaziabad in the Director’s Conference Hall on December 13, 2011. Dr C Divakar, Joint Head, KTMD welcomed the gathering. Mr Samiulla, Deputy Head, CSMST gave a brief outline about the processes involved upto the commissioning stage of the Radome technology development. Mr Shyam Chetty, Acting Director, NAL said he was ‘happy NAL is handing over a technology to the industry’. The documents were received by  by Mr Ramakrishna, Director(Marketing), BEL, Bangalore and Mr M M Pandey, AGM (Manufacturing-Antenna), BEL, Ghaziabad. Mr Ramakrishna expressed his happiness about the quality of the product and congratulated the NAL Design and Fabrication team.

Karnataka Rajyotsava at CSIR-NAL

CSIR-NAL celebrated Karnataka Rajyotsava on November 28, 2011 at Dr S R Valluri Auditorium.  Ms Kshama and team rendered the invocation, a composition by Mr B R  Lakshman Rao glorifying the richness of the language and the state.  The Kannada Samskrithika Sangha President Dr. Poornima Narayana welcomed the chief guests Prof. T.N. Shankaranarayana, Former HOD, Department of Kannada Studies, Kuvempu University and an expert in Kannada Folk Lore, Dr. A.R. Upadhya, Former Director, NAL and Prof. Haldodderi Sudheendra, Professor at IIATM, Jain University and the gathering. The function was formally inaugurated by lighting of the traditional lamp by the guests. Mr Shyam Chetty the Chief Patron of the Sangha and Acting Director of CSIR-NAL felicitated the chief guests.

Shri H V Ramachandra, Editor of ‘Kanaada’ presented bird's-eye view of the annual popular S&T magazine. Dr. T.N. Shankaranarayana, released the 37th issue of ‘Kanaada’ which consisted of   6 invited and 20 contributed articles by NAL scientists and the school and college students in the state.    Dr. T.N. Shankaranarayana in his address appreciated the Sangha’s tireless effort in promoting science and technology to the student community in the state particularly to the rural areas.  He expressed his concern that though science has not made much progress in Kannada as in the other disciplines like art, culture, philosophy, it is laudable that CSIR-NAL has been promoting S&T through ‘Kanaada’.  He expressed happiness at both the quality of articles and also for  the fact that the magazine has been published uninterruptedly for the past 38 years.  He further suggested sangha could explore the possibilities of making available the magazine in the market at a nominal cost for the benefit of the general public. 

Dr. A R Upadhya in his address mentioned that though sangha has been actively involved in promotion of Kannada through ‘Kanaada’, in addition they should also take up some more activities in future like virtual depiction of the latest developments in S&T to the rural community, take up projects and follow up periodically. 

Prof. Haldodderi Sudheendra in his address traced back his association with NAL in the past 2 decades in various collaborative projects.  He mentioned that he is privileged to contribute invited articles to the magazine regularly.  He opined that writing articles in Kannada is not difficult if the science behind is understood properly. He hailed the efforts of scientists and the sangha members in keeping up the quality and coming out with unique features of the magazine every year.  Mr. Shyam Chetty in his  presidential address  gave an over view of the sangha’s achievements and activities.

The chief guests presented awards to all the authors and prize winners. Mr. Sadashiva, the Secretary proposed the vote of thanks. The function was compered by Ms Jyothi and Ms Navneetha.

In the evening a cultural program was organized.  Mr. Srinivasa Murthy, popular cine and theatre artist was felicitated.  Mr. Murthy in his speech mentioned that he felt honored to be in a prestigious institution amidst the ‘highly learned scientists at NAL’.  He humorously shared hilarious incidents during his initial theatre days.  He presented awards to the winners of various competitions organized by the sangha.  The highlight of the cultural program was music- dance recital of the famous early 17th century sage and poet ‘Sarvagna’s’ Vachanas – an excellent event enacted by the members of the sangha under the leadership of Mr A.B.S. Vijai and Ms  Kshama.  The audience at the jampacked auditorium were enthralled and wholeheartedly enjoyed the program.

Poornima Narayana

Awareness talk on Cancers affecting women

Dr Anthony Pais, Oncoplastic Breast Surgeon, from Narayana Hrudayalaya delivered an Awareness talk on Cancers affecting women particularly Breast and Cervical cancer at the S.R.Valluri Auditorium on November 24, 2011.

Dr  Pais talk focused on What you should know on BREAST and CERVICAL CANCER. In the beginning of the lecture he gave a   small introduction about the Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center, Narayana Hrudayalaya, Health city  which he said is the  first cancer center in India  with  an organ based specialization. He spoke about the origin of Pink ribbon (the universal symbol of breast cancer awareness) - “ A symbol of empathy and hope ”.

 He said the ‘Breast Cancer in India is a leading cause of cancer in women, there is one lakh new cases every year, the life time risk is  1 in 22, the Incidence is  31/100,000 in Bangalore and incidence will only double by 2020.The Mortality rate of breast cancer in India is 0.4 which  is the highest which is because cancers are not managed properly in our country'. According to Dr Pais  'a specialized breast unit will definitely improve survival chances’.

Regarding who is  susceptible he said ‘person with a past history of breast cancer have a  3-4 times risk,  a benign breast disease, dense breasts, late childbirth, dietary fat and hormone replacement therapy(HRT)’.

Dr Pais described the various symptoms of breast cancer and gynaec cancer and mentioned about the vaccines now available for gynaec cancer.  He said ‘ a clinical breast examination  is very important’.

Summing up his talk he said - a healthy life style, clinical examination every year after 30, biannual mammogram from  40 – 75 years, HRT for refractory  symptoms for  short periods, early pregnancy & prolonged lactation, exercise: for 30-40 minutes/day, control weight, High calcium and Vit. D act as protectives are the mantras for healthy life.

Dr Amarnarayan, Chief Medical Officer, NAL welcomed the gathering and introduced the speaker.

Seminar on Nowcasting Wind

A one day seminar on “Nowcasting Wind” was organised on 19th Nov. by the Karnataka RenewableEnergy Development Limited (KREDL), a govt. of Karnataka agency, in association with CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories (CSIR-NAL) and the Centre for Study of Science Technology and Policy (C-STEP) at Hotel Atria, Palace Road, Bangalore.  Energy sector professionals and officials from across the southern states of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu converged to discuss latest developments in wind forecasting.

In the inaugural session, Dr. G.N. Dayananda, CSMST, CSIR-NAL, greeted the dignitaries and the audience and briefed about the context of the seminar. Dr A R Upadhya, Former Director, CSIR-NAL, in his welcome address, stressed on the reliability of wind prediction and said, “Proper prediction is important to ensure grid reliability as well. Ten per cent of the current 160 GW generated in the country is being met by Wind Energy sources. This assumed special significance in light of the upcoming Indian Electricity Grid Code being formulated for the next year which sought to make wind energy generators responsible for wind forecasting.”  Dr Kota Harinarayana, Dr DS Kothari Chair, DRDO, Chairman RC, C-WET presented the keynote address.  He highlighted that the current estimates pegged Karnataka’s wind power potential at 8591MW based on the Wind Power Density map released by the Centre for Wind Energy Technology (C-WET) that measured the wind density at 50 meters height. He went on to add that turbines of up to 120 m height are being installed, which would roughly double the wind energy potential for states. “There have also been other advancements in the diameter of the blades, transmission systems and associated mechanics which help make the turbines more efficient.  Therefore, a turbine with bigger blades at greater heights, using more efficient parts would capture a greater amount of wind” he added. “Wind energy is perhaps the most mature industry but due to variable supply levels, it is difficult to incorporate it into our existing system of large grids, and many countries around the world are seized of the problem of integrating wind resource into the electric grid and efforts are being focused in this direction. The variable nature of wind power output clearly has implications on electric grid management. For this reason, wind forecasting has acquired enormous importance, which is relevant to wind rich states such as Karnataka". He concluded saying that ‘VARSHA’ which is a wind prediction software developed by NAL capable of making predictions upto 24 hours in advance could be  modified to achieve reasonable levels of accurate predictions meeting the industrial requirement”.

Appreciating the wind energy sector, Mr. P.Ravi Kumar, MD, KPTCL discussed how 1000MW of power from the wind energy sector was very invaluable and  had kept the state grid active preventing it from plunging into a deep energy crisis in September. “The generation however dropped to 100 MW in the last week of September and we all saw the results ( adverse effects of variable wind power),” he said speaking about the power crisis that the state went through at the time which led to severe load shedding.

Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission Chairman Mr. M R Sreenivas Murthy said that there was need for state transmission companies to balance variable power with hydro stations so that at times of high wind energy availability the hydro stations could be shut down and could be resumed only when there was a drop in wind energy supply. He also stressed the need to focus on finding ways to manage renewable energy rather than looking at thermal generation plants, which depend on imported or scarce domestic coal.

Mr. Shyam Chetty, Director CSIR-NAL told that “VARSHA is customized for the tropical climate in India. It is also capable of making monthly forecasts. It runs on a supercomputer capable of 10 Teraflops per second. Our forecasts go to the Prime Minister’s Office.” He further highlighted NAL’s pioneering efforts in wind resource monitoring in the early 70’s and mentioned the plan envisaged for VARSHA’s customization to suit short term wind forecasting needs. Dr U.N.Sinha’s ( Distinguished Scientist, CSIR) untiring effort over a span of more than 2 decades towards the development of VARSHA software and the supercomputer at NAL was specially applauded. 

Dr. Rahul Tongia, C-STEP said that the situation is not alarming at the moment as only six per cent of the total power came from variable sources such as wind and solar energy. However, once it crossed the threshold of ten per cent, the problem might surface and solutions must be put in place to ensure that there was no erratic supply of power to grid once wind power is off.

The seminar had two technical sessions. The first session on ‘nowcasting’ was chaired by    Dr. Kota Harinarayana with Dr. A.R. Upadhya, Dr.U.N. Sinha, Dr. J.J.Isaac,   Dr. V.Y.Mudkavi, Mr. M.P.Ramesh as panel members. The second session ‘grid management’ was chaired by Mr. P.C. Maithani, with several experts from KPTCL, SLDC, and CSTEP as the panel members.

The seminar also went on to include panel discussions on the technical aspects of Nowcasting and solutions to balance wind energy with national and state grids in view of its variable nature of power. The discussion included current estimation of wind trends and a session on the smart grid management and in addition highlighted the issues relating to evacuation of wind power due to lack of transmission infrastructure. The speakers included officials from various energy related departments in the state.

Mr. N.S. Prasanna Kumar, Managing Director of Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Limited said NOWCASTING was relevant to wind rich states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Gujarat. He said wind resource management and effective integration with other sources of electricity generation had to be continuously tuned by government policies and regulatory norms. Further he told that the Center and state governments were seized of the problems and efforts were being made to bring in proper regulatory mechanisms to improve the efficiency in harnessing wind resources in conjunction with other resources.

 In the concluding session Dr. G.N. Dayananda expressed confidence that NAL had all the required wherewithal to come out with VARSHA’s modified version to cater to the need of ‘nowcasting the wind’ for the wind power generators within a year or so. In response to the need expressed by Mr. Rajesh Katiyal, Scientist, C-WET, for indigenous development of    1.5 MW class wind turbines suitable for Indian conditions, Dr. Dayananda stated that NAL, based on its past experience in the development of a 500 kW machine, was open to joint venture with government institutions such as MNRE/C-WET as well as private industries in this effort.

G N Dayananda

Adieu

TEAM NAL wishes our colleagues a very happy, healthy and productive life after superannuation on 30 Nov 2011.

Dr M N Sathyanarayana, KTMD

Mr Thimmaiah M, ACD

Mr Nagarakatte G M, Transport

Mr Muthu Swamy, EAD