Events

• CISCO Campus Connect was held on May 8, 2015.
• IBM and IIIT Bangalore jointly organized a workshop on OpenPower Initiative at IIITB on June 5.
  
  
• The Third Workshop of the Center for Data Sciences was organized on June 16. Prof. Jayant Haritsa gave a talk on "Big Data, Small Testing". The workshop saw enthusiastic participation from the affiliated research labs. Quick project presentations and demos were given by the M.Tech students and some research scholars. 
• 20th HP Network University was held on June 17.
• The I-MACX Summit (Spring 2015) was held on June 18. The I-MACX Summit is a civic-tech focused event that intends to bring together innovators from government and social organizations along with civic-minded startups, influencers, activists, investors and entrepreneurs. The event featured Dr. Pramod Varma, Chief Architect - UIDAI as keynote speaker with other eminent personalities including Ms. Radha Kizhanattam (Unitus Seed Fund), Mr. Shyam Menon (Infuse Ventures), Mr. Rajith Shaji (Janaagraha), Mr. Syed Suhale Pervez (Emergency Management Research Institute), Mr. V. S. Prakash (IIITB, formerly with Karnataka State Natural Disasters Monitoring Center), Mr. Sunil Abraham (Center for Internet & Society) sharing their thoughts over a panel discussion, moderated by Prof. T. K. Srikanth. The keynote speech was on "Solving Civic Issues through Technology Platforms", and the panel discussion was on "Opportunities and Challenges in Civic-Tech Startup Space."
  For details: http://www.iiitb.org/
• June 18 also saw the formal closing of the 1st batch of I-MACX Axle Accelerator programme, with the participants pitching their solutions in front of a distinguished panel of business leaders and investors. The demo day also hosted quite a few investors and business leaders including Mr. Ravi (NASSCOM), Mr. Venkat (Kyron & IAN), Ms. Radha (Unitus), Mr. Shyam (Infuse), Mr. Murali (Sounding Board), Mr. Ramani (AirWatch), Ms. Chaitali (NEN), Mr. Muralidhar (Wealthbook), Mr. Sridhar (Namma Bengaluru Foundation), Mr. Atul & Mr. Gangaprasad (CDAC) to name a few. The I-MACX Axle Spring 2015 demo day featured the following 10 startups - Six from the I-MACX program: AbSimpl, Clytics, EasyM2M, KisanSaathi, QueryHome, OnlineRTI, Three from the Incubation program: Chipmonk, Shrishti, Redmed and one, an upcoming student startup: DonatEasy.
  
  
• International Yoga Day was celebrated on June 21. The celebration started with the lamp lighting ceremony and prayer, after which the Registrar, Mr. V. S. Prakash, formally welcomed the guests of the day Mr. Murali and Mr. K.V. Srinivasan. Mr. Murali is a district level Wrestler and a Chess player. He has been a Yoga instructor for the past 8 years. He currently advises the Oxford. Mr. K.V. Srinivasan is a member of the Institution of Engineers, Karnataka chapter. Prof. Ramanathan Chandrashekhar, the Associate Dean (Academics) shared his views on the importance of practising yoga in daily life. This was followed by a demonstration of Yoga asanas by Mr. Murali. The Physical Education instructor Mr. Harish Ponnappa K.L. explained the benefits of the various asanas. Mr. Murali completed his demonstration with pranayama. Concluding the whole programme, Aditya Jain (MT2014003) proposed a formal vote of thanks.
  For photos: https://goo.gl/photos/z7tSnkcnATD9SThh9


• Graduation Day for the first batch of I-MACX Axle Accelerator (Spring 2015), Analytics Essentials 3 and 4 was held on June 23. 14 students from Analytics Essentials 3, 27 students from Analytics Essentials 4 and 6 companies from I-MACX accelerator Programme received their graduation certificate. Mr. Srinivas Prasad, CEO, Philips Innovation Campus, Bangalore was the chief Guest. Prof. S. Sadagopan, Director, IIITB, Prof. Debabrata Das - Dean (Academics and R&D), Prof. Ramanathan Chandrashekhar - Associate Dean (Academics) and Prof. Ramesh Sundararaman, Adjunct Faculty & Co-Founder,  I-MACX Accelerator were part of this event.
  For Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/ugWNeXEUieJHXzfH9
  
  
• The Pivot Points workshop themed on designing and managing smart cities was organized during June 22 - 24. This was a joint effort by IIITB and University of Aberdeen. The workshop started with Welcome speech by Prof. Debabrata Das (Dean Academics and R&D) followed by the City Game by Fields of View. Prof. Jaisim, Jaisim-Fountainhead, gave the Keynote and emphasized the need for design of city spaces. Prof. Edwards gave a keynote talk on "Do lots of devices and data make a city smart?". He advised that we should focus on the right questions, and not get carried away by industry's agenda. The keynote speeches were followed by more specific talks on waste, water, traffic and city data management.
  For Details: : https://pivotpointsworkshop.wordpress.com
  
  
• MoU signing between IIITB and ABB for Research/Ph.D Fellowship was held on June 30.  IIITB and ABB (ABB Global Industries and Services Pvt. Ltd.) entered into an agreement to carry out Research & Development in collaboration in the area - Model Driven Software Engineering (MDSE) & Automated Testing (AST). ABB will provide scholarships for the research scholars involved in the R&D (Master of Science by Research & Ph.D. students)
  For Photos: https://goo.gl/photos/pKzbky3FJdUvQCfu8


• A project presentation by students of University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI) and IIITB on a project to create a map-based representation of property values on the web was made on June 25. The team had been working under the guidance of faculty members and researchers from UMSI, IIHS, IIMB and IIITB.

Publications: Acceptance to Presentation

• Rajesh Mishra and Balaji Parthasarathy presented their paper titled "Succeeding with Technology driven Foreign Direct Investments in Europe by Emerging Multinational Enterprises: Imbalances, perception gaps and the Indian experience" at the Workshop on Technology Driven FDI from Emerging Countries: Challenges and Opportunities for Europe hosted by the Istituto di Economia, Scuola Superiore Sant' Anna, Pisa, Italy, on May 28 -29. The paper was co-authored with Cristina Chaminade of the Lund University.
• Saptarshi Chaudhuri, Irfan Baig and Prof. Debabrata Das, presented a paper “Utility based QoS aware Uplink Scheduler Scheme for LTE Small Cell Network” at IEEE International Conference on Communication (ICC 2015), London on June 9. The paper will soon be accessible in IEEEXplorer.
  
  
• Prof. Dinesh Babu J presented his publication on “A Robust Lane Detection and Departure Warning System” at the IEEE Intelligent Vehicles Symposium, Seoul, South Korea, held during June 28 - July 1.


• Prof. Sridhar V., and Prof. Prasad R. MDI, Gurgaon wrote an article titled How complex is Net Neutrality. It appeared in the Oxford University Press blog. For Details:  http://blog.oup.com/2015/05/how-complex-is-net-neutrality/


• Prof. Sridhar V. and Prof. Srikanth, T.K., wrote an article titled For a win-win alliance in Telecom which appeared in Business Line on June 5.
  For details: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/for-a-winwin-alliance-in-telecom/article7283886.ece


• Prof. Prasad R. MDI, Gurgaon, R and Prof. Sridhar V. wrote an article titled Net Neutrality to digital dynamism which appeared in Economic & Political Weekly, on June 27.http://www.epw.in/commentary/net-neutrality-digital-dynamism.html


• “Hybrid Features based Classification of Alcoholic and Non-alcoholic EEG”, by Gopika Gopan K (PH2014003) Prof. Neelam Sinha and Prof. Dinesh Babu J, has been accepted for publication in the IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Computing and Communication Technologies (CONECCT), to be held at IIITB during July 10-11, 2015.


• The paper titled “Modified Oriented Gaussian Derivative Filter Based Texture Detection Algorithm and Parameter Estimation” by Sunil Kumar V (PH2014010), Prof. Neelam Sinha and Prof. Srinivas Raghavan has been accepted for publication in the IEEE International Conference on Electronics, Computing and Communication Technologies (CONECCT) to be held at IIITB during July 10-11.


• The paper titled "Efficient Format Preserving Encrypted Databases" by Prakruti Chandrashekar,  Sashank Dara, Prof. V.N Muralidhara got accepted in 2015 IEEE International Conference in electronics, computing and communication (IEEE CONNECT) , organized by IEEE Bangalore section, during July 10-11.


• The paper titled “Statistical Features based Epileptic Seizure EEG Detection - An Efficacy Evaluation” by Gopika Gopan K (PH2014003), Prof. Neelam Sinha and Prof. Dinesh Babu J has been accepted for publication in the International Symposium on Recent Advances in Medical Informatics (RAMI) to be held at Kochi, during August 10-13.


• The paper titled “EEG Signal Classification in Non-Linear Framework with Filtered Training Data”, by Gopika Gopan K, Prof. Neelam Sinha and Prof. Dinesh Babu J has been accepted for publication in the European Signal Processing Conference, (EUSIPCO), to be held at Nice, France, during August 31-September 4.

Mandar Kulkarni and Balaji Parthasarathy had their paper "Negotiating the antinomies of regional branching with intermediaries: Providing a “spatial fix” to innovation in new media industries" accepted for oral presentation at the 13th International GLOBELICS (Global Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems) Conference to be held in Havana, Cuba, during September 23-25.


• The paper titled "Rubrics for Assessment Item Difficulty in Engineering Courses" by Shilpi Banerjee, Prof. N.J.Rao, Prof. Chandrashekar Ramanathan has been accepted for publication at the 45th Annual IEEE Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference.



• Sridhar, Kala Seetharam and Sridhar, V. (2007). “Telecommunications Infrastructure and Economic Growth: Evidence from Developing Countries,” Applied Econometrics and International Development, 7 (2), 37-56, appeared in Social Science Research Network’s (SSRN) All Time Top papers list in the category: Political Economy - Development, during 1997-2015 (with 1,062 downloads, http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/topten/topTenResults.cfm?groupingId=2242143&netorjrnl=jrnl

Faculty & Staff

• Balaji Parthasarathy was invited by Samsung Research Institute Bangalore to deliver a talk titled "From infomediaries to infomediation at public access venues: Lessons from a 3-country study" on April 27.
• Prof. Janaki Srinivasan was invited by the UN Asian and Pacific Training Centre for Information and Communication Technologies (UN-APCICT) to attend an Expert Group Meeting on their Women and ICT Frontier Initiative (WIFI) programme in May 2015. The two-day meeting in Incheon, Korea brought together researchers, private entrepreneurs, civil society actors and UNAPCICT personnel to discuss the Centre's new training module focussed on Women Entrepreneurs and ICTs. Prof. Janaki will be contributing a module on Women's empowerment and ICTs to this training programme that will be launched in Pakistan later this year.
  
• Prof. Sridhar V. gave an invited talk titled “Telecom reforms in India: A chequered path” at Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore on May 11.
  For details: (http://lkyspp.nus.edu.sg/events/past-events/?y=2015&t=evening-talk)
  
  
• Prof. Janaki Srinivasan attended the 7th International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) 2015, held in Singapore during May 15 - 18. Prof. Janaki co-organized a session titled "Thinking about market information systems: Bridging theory and practice" as part of the conference. The session brought together academics from different disciplines and practitioners to debate the widely varying value of digital market information systems for different types of agricultural markets across the world and diverse actors within a market.
  


• Prof. Sridhar V. gave an invited talk titled “Telecom policy in India:  An analytical approach” at National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) on May 25.



• Prof. Sridhar V. was an invited panelist in the session titled “Net Neutrality” at the 13th International Symposium on Modelling and Optimization in Mobile, Ad hoc and Wireless Networks (WiOpt 2015), at IIT Bombay held during May 25-29.



• Prof. Sridhar V. gave an invited talk on “Net Neutrality” (Lecture No: 2636), organized by The Bangalore Science Forum, National College, Bangalore, June 3.


• Balaji Parthasarathy was invited by the International Chamber of Commerce, Paris, to present make a presentation on "The Dynamics of Global Technology and Knowledge Flows" at the Annual TRIPS (Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) meeting at the World Trade Organization in Geneva, during June 9 -10.



• Prof. Sridhar V. organized and co-chaired a workshop on Spectrum sharing and its applicability to India in New Delhi, on June 16.



•  Prof. Dinesh Babu J gave an invited talk on 'Human-Human Interaction Analysis: Trends and Challenges' at a workshop on 'Human Centered Computing: Tools and Applications' . The event was organized by the IT department of NIT Suratkal, during June 25-27.


• IBM selected Prof. Ramesh Sundararaman's research proposal titled "Golden Hour Linkages" for funding, as part of its Shared University Research Grant (2015). This proposal envisages research and development of a demonstrable solution that would potentially address some of the challenges faced by first responders, hospitals, patients and other players in the emergency healthcare ecosystem - during the so-called "Golden Hour". This research and development work would be executed as part of the newly launched I-MACX Cube program which envisages to offer part-time / full-time fellowship to interested students. For details: http://www.iiitb.org/  and ramesh.sundararaman@iiitb.ac.in


• Ms. Roshni D'Souza, Officer-Placement, PR and Outreach, wrote an article on “Placements and Outreach: The Connections between Institute and Industry”, which appeared on Higher Education Review. For Details: http://www.theher.in/magazine/placements-and-outreach-the-connection-between-institute-and-industry-GJNQ693140572.html


• There are new faces and roles on campus. Details of their joining:
  
June 22: Ms. Smriti Shukla, Assistant Manager Finance

Students & Alumni

• Arjun S. Bharadwaj (MT2013026)’s My app - Look Around, which was developed at I-MACX lab at IIITB, was featured in Mint Newspaper on June 8. For details: http://www.livemint.com/Consumer/vOiztEdM9AHNJ2A9J8xv5N/An-app-that-shows-you-whats-beyond-the-wall.html

Guest Talks

• May 6: "Minimum Bit Error Ratio (MBER) criterion based Wireless Transceiver Design: Opportunities and challenges" by Mr.Amit Kumar Dutta, LTE architect, Broadcom Ltd., Bangalore.
• June 15 : “Applications of Sliding Mode Control in Diverse Engineering Systems” by Dr. Sachit Rao, M.S. and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the Ohio State University in Dec 2002 and 2006, respectively. He then worked as a post-doctoral researcher, in the Institute of Automatic Control Engineering at the Technical University of Munich.

Campus Visitors

• May 8: Captain Shaunak Chatterjee, Director General of the Indian Naval Academy Project Director General Naval Academy Project.
• May 11: Mr. Pinkesh Shah, Director of Programs, Institute of Product Leadership.
• May 11: Ms. Malini Sen, National Editor, Education Times and mr. Manu Rao, The Times of India.
• May 28: Ms. Radha Kizhanattam, Principal – Unitus Seed Fund, visited the IIITB Innovation Center to evaluate and provide valuable feedback to the startups from the Incubation Center and the Product Accelerator, I-MACX.
• June 10: Mr. Selvaraj, AVP, Sasken Communication Technologies.
• June 29: Dr. Sudarsan Rachuri, Ph. D. Program Manager, Engineering Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, USA.


• June 29: Mr. Sanjay Nayak, Tejas CEO.