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Weekly reports of meetings at NAL, snippets of R&D activity, conference announcements and other features of popular interest
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News and Events #IP 992 26 Sep - 2 Oct 2011
Speaking on Sixty-Ninth CSIR Foundation Day Dr K Tamilmani the Chief Executive & Distinguished Scientist, Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification, Ministry of Defence, Bangalore applauded NAL’s contribution to LCA programme and endorsed the point TEJAS would not have been a reality without NAL. Currently as the chief of the regulatory body he assured NAL full support and said "We can work together and we can succeed in the programmes we take up". He gave an account of the progress India has made in aeronautics collectively as a nation and also gave suggestions on what we should do in the future. He remarked “We have matured enough to say today we have arrived. Internationally we are accepted; we are on par or better in some of the areas.” He complimented Mr M K Sridhar and his team for the successful development of carbon fiber technology and transferring the know-how for commercialization to M/s Kemrock Industries & Exports Limited, Vadodara. He also mentioned “The confidence in Indian design team has gone up and so we have to take up adequate technical responsibility in joint venture programmes.” He suggested we could improve our production facilities and interconnect R&D with academic institutions to get quality man power. Dr G N Dayananda, Senior Principal Scientist & Head, CSMST, NAL delivered the 14th NAL Business lecture on “Impact of autoclave technologies developed at CSIR-NAL”. He said the lecture gives an opportunity to take stock of Indigenous Autoclave Technology and assess the business prospect. He described Autoclave as a special equipment in which required conditions (such as high or low pressure or temp.) can be established for a variety of applications like medical, constructive industry, mining industry, sports etc.. About the Autoclave development at CSIR-NAL he mentioned that CSIR-NAL embarked on the development of autoclaves in the early eighties to meet the requirements of military and civil aircraft programs. The first indigenous autoclave was commissioned in 1986 and the state of the art computer controlled autoclave commissioned in 1994. The largest autoclave for aerospace in the country was commissioned in 2009. He added the challenge is to develop robust, rugged autoclave technologies that can safely and reliably process prepreg based expensive polymeric composites with wide vendor base and to suit Indian conditions. He gave a firsthand account of the The Torrid Journey of a giant Autoclave Shell to NAL. He highlighted the need to Revamping of Imported Autoclaves, the Economic Impact, the Public Private Partnership with UCE, Mumbai and Datasol, Bangalore and the Market forecast. His vision for Futuristic Autoclave is the Microwave-Autoclave Hybrid. Mr M K Sridhar, advisor, M&A welcomed the gathering. In his welcome address he said "CSIR is looking for a kind of transformation perhaps a rebirth, this foundation day would augur the beginning of a new CSIR that is what all of us hope". He formally introduced the chief guest Dr K Tamilmani the Chief Executive & Distinguished Scientist Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification, Ministry of Defence, Bangalore and Dr G N Dayananda Senior Principal Scientist & Head, CSMST, NAL who delivered the Fourteenth NAL Business Lecture. Mr Shyam Chetty, Acting Director, NAL presided over the function. He recollected the glorious achievements of CSIR tracing the evolution and proudly recalled the vital role played by CSIR laboratories in general in the nation building in variety of areas and CSIR-NAL in particular. He said "In short CSIR and CSIR-NAL today is the nation’s repository of scientific talent, technological advancements, industrial innovations and indigenous knowledge base. CSIR is striving hard to synergise the might and speed of the private sector on one hand and the incredible R&D infrastructure and intellectual manpower from the publicly funded institutions on the other for the effective transfer the benefits of S & T to the poorest of poor while continue to receiving accolades in the developments in cutting edge technology. We are going to have a total change in the way CSIR is going to address the S& T and CSIR-NAL will play a major role in its success". Dr Tamilmani presented the CSIR Foundation Day awards and IPR Certificates to NAL employees and to the children of NAL employees for their outstanding academic and sport performance. The function was compeered bilingually in Hindi and English by Mrs. Gomathy Shankaran, Scientist, KTMD; Dr S Sridhara Murthy, Head, KTMD, delivered the vote of thanks.
Accomplishment S. SUNDAR ADITYA, son of Dr. S. Selvarajan, Scientist G, C-CADD, CSIR-NAL, one of CSIR (IIT) Studentship awardees, has been conferred with B. Tech and M. Tech Dual Degrees at IIT Madras in the recently held convocation. With a CGPA at 9.0, he is continuing his higher studies in the Department of Electrical and Communication Engineering at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA, since August 2011. He is fully supported by the Fellowship awarded by the Graduate School of the USC.
#IP 991 19-25 Sep 2011 C-NM5 Takes Off
Developmental flight testing and evaluations are continuing, with the ultimate objective of achieving Type Certification in keeping with international regulatory standards, followed by global sales and marketing programme. It is hoped to achieve FAR Part 23 certification in another 9 to 12 months under CASA in Australia. This is the first public-private joint venture in the aircraft design and development in India. The C-NM5 is a 5-seat all metal aircraft powered by a Lycoming IO-540 engine, and features non-retractable landing gear and a spacious cabin with large access doors. The cabin interior is reconfigurable to adapt the aircraft to different roles, while simplicity of systems and ease of maintenance are design drivers throughout the aircraft. We had started working on the project during 2006 during which period an MOU was signed between CSIR-NAL and M/s Mahindra Aerospace Pvt. Ltd (MAPL) for the joint development of a five seat, multi-role, general aviation airplane. The airplane is to be certified under FAR 23 in the Normal category. The USP of the airplane is a roomy cabin which can comfortably seat five adults, and can also be equipped to perform different roles: air-taxi, a luxury four seater, training, casualty evacuation and as cargo carrier. The CSIR-NAL team holds the major responsibility in configuration design: starting from the preliminary sizing to detail design. Preliminary and Critical Design Reviews were carried out during April 2009 and May 2010 respectively, progressing to detail design drawings and tooling design. Several design improvements were made during the process. However, fabrication of the Indian prototype could not commence due to procedural delays related to CSIR-NAL acquiring a Production Organization Approval (POA) from the DGCA and the implementation of QA procedures at CSIR-NAL as well as sub-contractors facilities. Thanks to Mahindra Aerospace, who in the due course acquired major stakes in GippsAero of Australia: it was then decided to progress the prototype fabrication in Australia and we are now able to see the culmination of these many years of work. It took just over ten months to build and fly the prototype under the experimental aircraft category starting from the drawings supplied by CSIR-NAL and MAPL. Bhaskar Chakravarthy Sixth Prof. A K Rao Memorial Lecture Dr Anil Kakodkar DAE Homi Bhabha Chair Professor, BARC, Mumbai & Former Chairman, Dept. of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India delivered the sixth Prof A K Rao Memorial Lecture at NAL on 23 September 2011. Dr Anil Kakodkar fondly remembered his association with Prof A K Rao and described him as a teacher par excellence, mentor par excellence, person with foresight who could see the things for tomorrow today. Dr Anil Kakodkar spoke on Ensuring Energy Security for India. His lecture focused on India’s future energy requirements and options. He said “Energy is the crucial inputs for all of us to exist. I am going to talk about electrical energy. We need as much additional electricity as we produce today to provide a reasonable standard of living (~5000 kWh per capita) in the developing world by 2050. India alone would need around 40% of present global electricity generation to be added to reach the average 5000 kWh per capita electricity generation”. He added “We do not know how close we are to the tipping point. However we need to act now to secure survival of our future generations. For Sustainable development of energy sector we need to have a transition to Fossil Carbon Free Energy Cycle by a greater share for nuclear in electricity supply, replace fossil hydro-carbon in a progressive manner, recycle carbon-dioxide, derive most of primary energy through solar & nuclear sources)”. He mentioned “The Indian Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) is a quick, safe, secure and proliferation resistant solution for the energy hungry world. He concluded his talk by saying "To ensure energy security we need to do research and developmental work in India in the Indian context and then hope to see India as a fully energy secure place”. The Indian Society for Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering (ISAMPE) has instituted a memorial lecture in memory of Prof Akella Kameswara Rao who was also the Founder President of ISAMPE. Prof Rao was the guiding spirit behind the ISAMPE movement. Mr M K Sridhar, Advisor, M&A presided over the meeting. Dr K Vijayaraju, President, ISAMPE welcomed the gathering. Mr D Saji, Secretary, proposed the vote of thanks.
#IP 990 12 - 18 Sep 2011 The Hindi Month celebration started in NAL from August 2011 featuring various events and culminated on 14 Sep, 2011 with the Hindi Day celebration at the S R Valluri Auditorium. The Hindi Cell of NAL meticulously planned and organised a seminar ANSH, number of competitions for the staff in Hindi like Typing, Essay writing, Terminology, Anthakshari, Crossword, Song, Quiz, Dictation, Manoranjan, Kavitha Paath etc. Like in the previous year competitions for Kendriya Vidyalaya students and other central government offices in Bangalore was also arranged at NAL. A large number of employees participated in these events with great enthusiasm and won prizes. Dr Jatinder Singh, Scientist, FMCD, delivered the Hindi Day Keynote Lecture on Flight – Test Estimation of Aircraft Aerodynamic Characteristics. In his talk in Hindi on a technical subject, Dr Singh had taken good care to make the language simple and easy to understand. He gave a brief introduction about the Aerodynamics forces and movements then spoke about the need of Model Estimation and its uses and illustrated the results with examples. Mr Mahadev G Savadatti, Deputy Director-OL (Retd.) Dept. of Official Language, GOI was the Chief Guest. Dr P S R Murthy introduced the chief guest as a pandit of Hindi grammer. Mr Mahadev in his talk explained why Hindi? And then went on to elaborate the meaning of Hindi hai hum. He emphasized the point that Hindi is the official language along with English but it is neither anyone’s mother tongue nor is it the national language of India as misunderstood by many. He finally remarked he found NAL is doing fine in Hindi and hoped the same would continue. The chief guest distributed prizes to all the winners of various competitions conducted during Hindi Month Celebration. Mr M K Sridhar, M&A presided over the function. He congratulated the Hindi cell for carrying out constructive work in NAL. Dr P S R Murthy, Sr. Hindi Officer welcomed the gathering and anchored the programme. Ms Jayashree, Hindi Officer proposed the vote of thanks.
Photo and photo collage designed by Team Photography, KTMD, NAL
The Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research (AcSIR) Bill, 2010 was introduced in the Lok Sabha in July last year. It was taken up for consideration in the Lower House in March but discussion on it remained inconclusive. The proposed legislation aims to establish the academy for advancement of learning and promotion of research in the field of science and technology in association with the CSIR. Source: Economics Times, PTI Sep 5, 2011 PGRPE Convocation Ceremony at CSIR The first graduating batch of PGRPE students received their diploma certificates on September 15, 2011 the Engineers Day at the Anusandhan Bhawan, Auditorium. Mr Zakir Thomas, Project Director, Open Source Drug Discovery and Head, Director General’s Technical Cell welcomed the gathering. Prof (Dr) Gautam Biswas, Director, AcSIR and Director, CMERI gave a brief outline of the PGRPE programme. Prof. Samir K Brahmachari, the Acting Chairman of Board of Governors and Secretary to the Government of India, DSIR and Director General, CSIR presided over the function. The PGRPE Convocation Lecture was delivered by Dr Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister and Chairman, National Innovation Council. His message to the students was ‘Question’ everything starting from your parents, teachers, bosses and everybody. He said ‘focus on right things and not do things right. Don’t underestimate the value of ideas. Ideas rule and dominate the world. You are never poor if you think’. He emphasized the power of ideas and gave two personal examples - inventions of Digital diary and Electronic wallet. He concluded ‘ Innovation is the key to solving India’s problems. We need low cost affordable, scalable and sustainable solutions’. The Open Source Drug Discovery Foundation Day Lecture was delivered by Dr A V RAMA RAO, Founder Chairman and Managing Director, (AVRA Laboratories Pvt. Ltd. Hyderabad).
#IP 989 5 - 11 Sep 2011 A Farewell to Dr Alevoor Raghupathy Upadhya
A farewell function was arranged for Dr Alevoor Raghupathy Upadhya on 30 August, 2011 in the NAL lawns. Dr Upadhya was laying down office after completing seven illustrious years as Director CSIR-NAL. In a long and distinguished career, he served as a scientist at the Structures Division of CSIR-NAL, Bangalore from 1974 to 1986. He returned to CSIR-NAL as its Director in 2004 after serving at the Aeronautical Development Agency, Bangalore as Associate Program Director (LCA Navy) and Programme Director (NPSM). Dr Upadhya is also a recipient of many prestigious honours and awards, which include the distinguished Alumnus Award from IISc, Bangalore (2003) and IIT, Kharagpur (2006). He is a fellow of INAE & AeSI, member of various professional bodies; prominent among them are AIAA, AeSI, ISAMPE, VTU and Swadeshi Vijnana Andolana. Dr A Muthukrishnan, Sr COA welcomed the NAL family. He said though his association with Dr Upadhya was for a very short period he admitted he had learnt a lot under his leadership. Mr Shyam Chetty, Acting Director, NAL in his speech briefly spoke about Dr Upadhya’s educational background. He mentioned Dr Upadhya’s early education up to the level of state boards was in Udipi with Kannada as his medium of instruction. He was a distinction student throughout his school days and a national merit scholar. An academic record with degrees from renowned schools of Aeronautics; B Tech (Aero) from IIT-Kharagpur, M E (Aero) from IISc and a Ph D from CIT-Cranfield, UK in 1980, on a Commonwealth Fellowship. As Director, NAL a leading Aerospace Laboratory under CSIR, he spearheaded several activities in applied aerospace research, technology development and its application to several major national programmes. He also mentioned it was during his tenure that the laboratory celebrated its Golden Jubilee and organized large number of events including National and International Conferences / Seminars, Workshops, Aero-festivals and Flight Displays which amply showcased the various achievements / capabilities of the laboratory. He strived extremely hard to harness the R&D potential in the country to develop aerospace technologies and competence to bring India on par with the advanced countries. Prof Seshu, Scientist Incharge, C-MMACS spoke about his association with Dr Upadhya and thanked Dr A R Upadhya for the support extended to C-MMACS. He also joked to Prof Sarala Upadhya saying retired husbands are full time job for the wife. Dr Girija Gopalarathnam, Deputy Head, FMCD and Chairperson Women’s Day thanked Dr A R Upadhya for all the encouragement extended in conducting Women’s Day and making it NAL’s calendered event. She also recalled the support and encouragement extended by Dr Upadhya for rejuvenating NAL’s officers club. Dr Satish Chandra, Head, STTD and Project Director, NCAD thanked Dr Upadhya for the tremendous support provided to the Structures Division and mentioned but for the support and meticulousness of Dr A R Upadhya NCAD would not be in the position it is now. Dr Vidyadhar Mudkavi, Head CTFD, brought out the humane side of Dr Upadhya. He narrated two incidents where in we got a glimpse of how simple and caring Dr Upadhya was about his colleagues. Dr Poornima Narayan, Head, ICAST thanked Dr Upadhya for all the support extended to ICAST under his regime. And Dr Poornima in the capacity of President, Kannada Samskriti Sangha thanked him for the encouragement Kannada Sangha got under his leadership. Dr Madhavan Nair, Chairman, HPC-NCAD, recalled his association with Dr Upadhya and hoped the services of Dr Upadhya would be available for NCAD in the future. Prof Sarala Upadhya wife of Dr A R Upadhya thanked everyone at NAL for the support extended to Dr Upadhya in discharging his duties as Director, NAL. The regional NAL clubs (tamil, telugu and malayalam) and NAL SCST Association showed their appreciation for all the support extended to them by presenting bouquets to Dr A R Upadhya. Dr A R Upadhya in his response thanked the gathering for the love and appreciation bestowed on him. He said NAL has had major technical accomplishments in various Divisions over the years and complimented NAL Team. He said in CSIR Technofest NAL stall with its display said it all. Dr Upadhya recalled his fruitful association with Dr B R Somasekhar, Dr Kota Harinarayana and Dr G Madhavan Nair during his early NAL days, ADA and as Director, NAL respectively. He thanked each one of the CSIR-NAL colleagues for making NAL what it is and expected that Mr Shyam Chetty the Acting Director will get the same kind of support. He wished Mr Shyam Chetty all the best in the new position. Mr Shyam Chetty remarked that it would be an onerous responsibility to carry on from where Dr Upadhya has left and hoped for co-operation from Team NAL. Mr Chandrasekhar, FAO, in his vote of thanks said Dr Upadhya had streamlined the general administrative and finance procedures in NAL and developed better co-ordination between the admin, finance and purchase groups. The programme was ably anchored by Ms Vimala Srinivasan.
Photo and photo collage designed by Team Photography, KTMD, NAL Dr Anjana Jain, Scientist, NAL, Bangalore has been awarded Raman Research Fellowship for the year 2011-12. The fellowship commencing from November 2011 will be for a period of four months. Dr Anjana will be working in University of Illinois at Chicago on Development and Characterization of PVDF-PZT films for transducer applications under Prof Constantine M Megaridis. Editor: Dr C Divakar, Joint Head, KTMD, NAL.
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