• Prof. S Sadagopan, Prof Subir Roy, Prof Subhajit Sen and Prof Madhav Rao participated in the IESA (Indian Electronics and Semiconductor Association) Vision Summit 2014 on February 3, 2014: The event featured a powerful line-up of industry, academic experts and business leaders, offering their views and visions on the future of semiconductor and electronics, and exploring the trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the Indian industry. The IESA Vision Summit 2013 saw over 600 delegates and high profile speakers. The vision summit had participation's from Japan, UK, USA and Singapore too.
• Balaji Parthasarathy and Mandar Kulkarni were at the Center for Innovation Research and Competence in the Learning Economy (CIRCLE), Lund University, Sweden, between 2nd and 4th February to attend the kick-off meeting of the project "Global innovation networks, regional variety and its impact on the innovativeness of firms and regions: The IT and new media industry in Sweden in a global comparative Perspective'. This three year project brings together three European institutions and IIITB, and is supported by the Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation.
• Prof. Debabrata Das, has been selected as Vice-Chairman of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Bangalore Section on 9th February, Annual General Body meeting. IEEE is one of the world's largest professional body in Electrical and Computer Science areas, with 4, 50, 000 around members world wide and around 7500 members in Bangalore. It has one of the largest research papers depository and copyright in above areas.
• Prof. S Sadagopan, Director, IIIT-B gave a talk at NIAS-DST Training Programme for Women Scientist on February 11, 2014.
• Prof. Jyotsna Bapat and Prof. Debabrata Das, were invited to visit Indian Naval Academy (INA), Ezhimala, Kerala (Asia's largest Naval Academy). On 20th-22nd Feb, 2014. They visited the above campus of INA for curriculum and possible research collaboration for their Engineering cadet as well as faculty of ECE Dept.  Along with the above discussion they gave two technical talks to their cadets and faculty.
• "Concepts of MAC in Access Network till WiFi", Indian Naval Academy (INA), Ezhimala, Kerala, 20th Feb. 2014.
• "Concepts of Wireless Sensor Network MAC", Indian Naval Academy (INA), Ezhimala, Kerala, 21st Feb. 2014.
• Prof.Sujit Kumar Chakrabarti participated as an invited panelist in a panel discussion which was held as a part of the '3rd National Conference on Software Engineering' (http://msrit.azurewebsites.net/program-schedule/) at MS Ramaiah Institute of Technology on February 21, 2014. The topic of the panel discussion was 'Software Engineering Curriculum in Indian Universities: Is it meeting the expectation of industry/academia?' The fellow panelists in the discussion were: Dr. Santonu Sarkar, Infosys Labs, Mr. Sudeep Prasad, Lead Architect, Philips Health Care, Nanjangud C Narendra - Formerly with IBM IRL. The panel was moderated by Prof. Rajanikanth, formerly Principal, MSRIT.

• 54th board meeting of the IIIT-B held on February 4, 2014.
• Mr. R Chandrashekhar, President NASSCOM joined IIIT-B as member of the Governing body.
• A session with representatives from the industry as a part of the course on Software Testing on February 4, 2013: As a part of the software testing course, students do their industrial project in various companies Representatives from 2 such companies had come to meet the students to discuss with them about those projects. Interaction session held on February 4, 2014. The representatives were:
  
  • Mr. Vivek Mathur from Altisource.
  • Mr. Vidhyadharan Shine from SAP.
• IIITB launched, IIIT-B Entrepreneurship Cell along with National Entrepreneurship Network (NEN)on 5th Feb 2014.
  
• Social Media Analytics workshop:
  IIITB hosted a workshop on Social Media Analytics, conducted by the British High Council in India on February 5-6, 2014. The aim of the workshop is to bring together UK and Indian researchers working in this area for possible collaborations. There were a series of talks by several high profile speakers, including Dame Wendy Hall (former Chairperson of ACM and founder member of the WebScience Foundation).
• Prof. Debabrata Das and Prof. Jyotsna Bapat attended the Societe Generale Global Solution Centre Pvt Ltd Scholarship Program 2013 and press meet The Taj West End on February 6, 2014.
• 38th Senate meeting of IIITB held on February 12, 2014.
• SpicMacay Program on February 14, 2014 :
  SPIC MACAY Bangalore chapter organised a concert by Vid. Kumaresh Ji (Violin) on February 14, 2014 at IIIT-B. Kumaresh Ji accompanied by Sri Tumkur B. Ravishankar on Mridangam and Sri Pramath Kiran on Percussion.  
  The programme held the audience captive and the experience took everyone to a different world.
• Mid-Term exams for all the batches held from February 24, 2014 to March 1, 2014.

• Ms. Anvita Bajpai visited us and gave the talk on February 5, 2014 :
  Title of the talk is “In the Spirit of Life”!
  Abstract : Aspiration and Ambition are two very common human characteristics. We are typically never satisfied, and want more. We do evolve as a result of it. However, at times an unconscious-obsession of the same results in an dis-balanced personality.
  Hence, work-life balance is the starting point of the talk. Further, it also emphasises on what went wrong if things were not balanced. The talk titled “In the Spirit of Life” focuses on the thought of bringing balance to a human life.!
• Guest talk by Sandeep Singhal, Fibre Link on February 5, 2014.
• Prof. M. Muthukumar, of the Dept. of Polymer Science & Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA, gave a talk on February 13, 2014:  
  Title of the talk was “physics behind the assembly of biological viruses & genome assembly”
  Abstract:                                                                                                                                               
  Myriads of viruses keep on proliferating around us. How are the virus genomes, which carry information for making the next generation of viruses, organized inside viruses? Guided by experimental facts, and using field theoretic and statistical mechanics tools in combination with computer simulations, we show that simple physical principles underlie virus assembly. Our result is in contrast to the long-held view that specific interactions between the chemical sequences of proteins and polynucleotides dictate the assembled genome structure. Electrical charge balance between the genomes and the proteins enclosing them dictates the genome assembly and the kinetics follows the same nucleation and growth mechanism as seen in first order phase transitions. Our predictions capture the essential aspects of genome packing in diversely different viruses evolved over billions of years, and provide new strategies for packaging genes for medical applications while questioning the general applicability of the central dogma.                                                                                                                   
  About the Speaker:                                                                                                                
  Prof. M. Muthukumar is the Wilmer D. Barrett Professor of Polymer Science & Engineering at the Silvio O. Conte National Center for Polymer Research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He is one of the leading theoretical physicists in the world working in soft matter & statistical physics and is a world authority in polymer physics. Prof. Muthukumar's research group uses a combination of theoretical, computational, and experimental techniques to uncover the underlying mechanisms of macromolecular phenomena in Physical Biology and Polymer Physics.                                                     
   Some of the topics of current interest to him are: Polymer Translocation, Virus Assembly, Endocytosis / Exocystosis, Vision Physics, Polyelectrolyte Gel Physics, Polyelectrolyte Solutions and Ionic Liquids, Biomineralization and Polymer Crystallization.
• Lecture on "The Taiwan-US-China Technology Triangle: The End of an Era?" by Dr. Doug Fuller on February 13, 2014 organised by ISS (Information Society Student) club at IIIT-B:
  Abstract: 
  Significant technology links between the US and Greater China go back to prior to the Second World War. In recent decades the technology increasingly has flowed east as well as west across the Taiwan Strait and the Pacific to create a veritable technology triangle between Taiwan, the US and China. While Taiwan, China and the US have all benefited from this phenomenon, the institutional arrangements that support this technology triangle are under stress. This lecture seeks to outline the challenges emanating from within each economy as well as technology shifts that threaten to end this Pacific belle époque.
  About the Speaker: 
  Dr. Doug Fuller is Professor with Department of Business Administration at Zhejiyang University, in Hangzhou China. Prior to this, he was Associate Professor, with the Department of Management at King's College London. Dr. Fuller's research interests focus on technological development, entrepreneurship and the management of technology in Asia, with an emphasis on the IT industry. He is the editor of a recent book titled Technology Transfer between the US, China and Taiwan (Routledge, 2013). Dr.Fuller has a master's degree in Chinese studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and a PhD in Political Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
• Guest Talk by Professor Cheng Si-wei, University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences on February 21, 2014:
  Title of the talk is “From Electronic Business to Virtual Business in China”

Abstract: E-business is blooming in China. Virtual business is the extension and expansion of e-business from the supply chain point of view. Comprehensive integration and global optimization is being realized by using advanced information technology including cloud computing, internet of things, big data, etc. to achieve higher efficiency, lower cost and better service.
About the Speaker:: Professor Cheng Si-wei is Dean of the School of Management, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, and was Vice-Chairman, Standing Committee of 9th and 10th National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China. Professor Cheng graduated from East China Institute of Chemical Engineering and later earned his MBA from UCLA. He is the Chairman of International Finance Forum and served as the external advisor of World Bank Institute. Professor Cheng is a distinguished scholar in economic, financial and managerial fields as well as in the chemical industry. He initiated the school of fictitious economy and his work has extensive influence on academia and China’s economic and financial circles. He has published over 30 academic books in China and Europe, and over 120 articles in academic journals.

• Guest talk by Prof. Ravi Ahuja on February 25, 2014:                                                                         
  Title of the talk was “gap between academia and industry, and share his tips on what it takes for a CS professional to bridge the gap and have a successful career”                                                               
  About the Speaker:
  Dr Ahuja is a world-renowned researcher and academician with over 30 years of teaching, research and consulting experience. He founded Innovative Scheduling in 2000 and is the chief architect of the decision support solutions developed by the company. Ravi has co-authored three textbooks and over 100 refereed journal articles and book chapters in the areas of mathematical modeling, optimization, algorithms and data structures. One of his textbooks, “Network Flows: Theory, Algorithms, and Applications,” has been used at hundreds of universities and companies worldwide for over 20 years. Ravi obtained his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering, as well as his M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial and Management Engineering, from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur. In addition to his duties at Innovative Scheduling, he is also a part-time professor in the Industrial and Systems Engineering department at the University of Florida, Gainesville. For more details: www.ise.ufl.edu/ahuja.

Academia

• SBM Polytechnic, Mumbai, students visited IIIT-B on February 6, 2014.
• Prof. Srinivas Murthy, VC, Central University, Gulbarga and Prof. Yathindra, Director,  IBAB Visited IIITB on February 24, 2014.

Industry

• Neethi Mathur, Communication Head, SocGen visited IIIT-B on February 4, 2014.
• Prof. Karlheinz Brandenburg, Director of Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technology (IDMT) and co-inventor of the MP3 player visited IIIT-B on February 17, 2014 :
• Mr. Pradeep Angeveetil, Regional  Manager - MEA and CM –India, LifeSize Communications - a division of Logitech visited us on February 14, 2014.
• Dr. David L Tennenhouse, Corporate Vice President, Technology Policy Group, Microsoft Corporation visited IIIT-B on February 27, 2014.

Delegation

• A delegation comprises 10 people from France visited IIITB with SocGen team on February 20, 2014.

Others

• Dr. Mahendra Bhandari, MediCounsel Solutions Pvt Ltd) a noted Indian Urologist and Senior Bio-Scientist at the Vattikuti Urology Institute at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit visited IIITB on February 17, 2014.