Information Pasteboard
Weekly reports of meetings at NAL, snippets of R&D activity, conference announcements and other features of popular interest
|
|
Information Pasteboard |
|
News and Events
#IP 988 29 Aug - 4 Sep 2011 Seminar in Honour of Dr A R Upadhya The programme started with an invocation by Dr Girija Gopalarathnam, Deputy Head, FMCD. Mr M K Sridhar, Adviser M&A welcomed the gathering. In his address he said ‘this seminar is arranged to recount the achievement of each Division under the leadership of Dr A R Upadhya’. He then formally introduced Dr A R Upadhya, the Guest of Honour and mentioned briefly about his achievements and major contributions in the field of aerospace. Mr Shyam Chetty, Scientist H, Head, FMCD read out the messages received in honour of Dr A R Upadhya from Dr K Radhakrishna, Chairman, Space Commission and ISRO, Secretary, Department of Space, Government of India, Mr Ashok Nayak, Chairman, HAL and Dr G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, HPC, NCAD. Dr G Madhavan Nair released the commemorative volume - Recent Accomplishments and Future Initiatives brought out on this occasion. In his address Dr Madhavan Nair said ‘though the topics being covered in the seminar are only indicative of advanced technologies developed in NAL, NAL is a world class lab of repute’. Speaking on the occasion he said, ‘NAL has been very lucky to have Dr A R Upadhya as its Director for seven years because Dr Upadhya is a visionary with innovative leadership. Dr Upadhya has succeeded in making scientist groups work together, tapping the intellectual capability to channelize in the right direction and not lose the focus of what one is working for which is a big challenge’. He concluded his talk by saying ‘if you want to honour Dr A R Upadhya one seminar is not enough, you need to have dozens of them’. Wankel Engine by Mr K M Pillai, PR IFCAP and Drishti by Mr M K Sridhar / Dr V Shubha, MT Structural Health Monitoring by Mr Nitesh Gupta, ACD NM5 and HANSA by Mr M S Kamaleshaiah, C-CADD Initial Operational Clearance for LCA by Dr A Pashilkar, FMCD Developments in Structural Dynamics and Controls by Dr S Raja, STTD Radomes by Mr T H Samiulla, CSMST Air Ferry Systems by Dr S Selvarajan, C-CADD Achievements of the KTMD by Mr Raghavendra V M, KTMD CMMACS Achievements and Initiatives by Dr P Goswami, CMMACS The presentations provided a splendid overview of NAL's current R&D activity with special emphasis on the Dr Upadhya years. The Future Initiatives proposed for the 12th Five Year Plan by CSIR-NAL was presented by Mr Shyam Chetty. The day's proceedings had a fitting finale when Dr Upadhya made a marvellous speech. He complimented all the speakers for their focused presentation on the recent accomplishments. Dr Upadhya said ‘the celebration of NAL’s technologies, accomplishments, contributions and success made in his honour is as much as his as also that of everyone in NAL’. He said ‘the accomplishments do not come overnight, it is a result of the sustained effort and support of my predecessors and scientists and technicians past and present’. He said the ‘success has given us a lot of confidence to take on large things in future as projected in the 12th five year plan’. In all humility he stated before the NAL family that he does not belong to the family of fireflies. ‘I am not a great ideas man But I can identify men with ideas and support them’ he proudly pronounced. He said ‘he is very happy to see NAL move from isolated r&d to interdisciplinary programmes. He further said ‘we have seen lot of ups and downs in this lab’. His simple advice to all were ‘Failure is the stepping stone for success, we must take failure in our stride and learn from that and improve on that’. He added ‘Today our strength is the youth and we need to nurture them and guide them because they will be our future leaders’. In the end Dr Upadhya thanked NAL for the unconditional love extended to him. He appeared deeply touched by the day's proceedings. Dr S Sridhara Murthy, Head, KTMD proposed the vote of thanks; Dr V Mudkavi, Head, CTFD conducted the day's programme.
Change of leadership in CSIR-NAL Mr Shyam Chetty, Scientist H, Head, FMCD, Chairman Systems Cluster has taken over as acting Director, CSIR-NAL from Dr A R Upadhya with effect from 31 August, 2011 afternoon.
#IP 987 22-28 Aug 2011
On 22 August, 2011 NAL had the privilege of being the first lab in CSIR to have the new Vice President of CSIR Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh, Hon'ble Minister of Science & Technology & Earth Sciences formally visit the lab and address the NAL family. At a very brief function organized in the S R Valluri Auditorium Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh said “the vision of our forefathers, particularly our first Prime Minister, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, led to the founding of several scientific, technological and engineering institutions in diverse areas in the country”. He acknowledged CSIR’s support to the scientific and industrial development in the country, which he said, has helped the society in many ways through the technologies in the areas of water, environment, rural technologies, low cost technologies, health and hygiene etc.' He further said this has provided a growth engine in many sectors in forming the foundation'. He remarked that he was glad CSIR-NAL has provided the seed for the growth engine by setting up a small civil aircraft design and development activity in the last two decades. He concluded his talk saying he would be visiting NAL very often as Bangalore is very close to his heart. Shri Vilasrao Deshmukh released NAL’s Annual Report 2010-11 and also the Proceedings of the National Conference on Scientific Achievements of SC/ST Scientists and Technologists NCSCST during the NAL Golden Jubilee Celebrations. The Hon’ble Minister distributed the NAL Technology Shield for Outstanding Group Achievement, NAL Outstanding Performance Awards, prizes to children of NAL employees for excelling in the field of sports, academics and extra–curricular activities. Dr A R Upadhya, NAL Director welcomed the gathering and gave a brief overview of CSIR-NAL. Mr Shyam Chetty, Head FMCD, proposed the vote of thanks. The function was anchored by Ms Gomathy Sankaran, KTMD.
#IP 986 15 - 21 Aug 2011 NAL Foundation Day Function 2011
"The Aerospace industry in India to my mind is one of the most exciting businesses in the world. I for one am outrageously ambitious to see Indian aerospace to take its rightful place in the world because I see great opportunities out there. The question we should be asking ourselves - CSIR, NAL as well as industries is how do we collectively reach out and grab the opportunities ". This is how Mr Anand Mahindra started his talk in the 25th NAL Foundation Day lecture at Dr SR Valluri auditorium, NAL on 18th August 2011. He continued 'Institutions like NAL have so far focused on self sufficiency which is of course important especially in the defense arena. But global competitiveness today is the weapon of both offence and defense especially for a young and energetic country like ours, specially in civilian aerospace. As the world's largest democracy with strong economic fundamentals and long tradition of excellence in science and mathematics it is appropriate that India should seek a place at the high table of high technology. It is time for us to reach out and embrace the possibility that a very vibrant Indian aerospace industry can offer to our own people and world at large. This is the core of my talk today '. He enumerated some key trends in the global aerospace industries. The first being the growing demand for products and services in developing nations. 'It is projected that the civilian airliners requirement of India exceeds that of Australia and Japan combined. It is a huge market out there, can we use the joint expertise to get our rightful share' he asked. The second trend deals with the industry that provides those products and services. Today “do-it-all-ourselves” monolithic aerospace providers have been replaced by a widely distributed network of suppliers and partners. This is truly a global network, with goods and services flowing both ways between countries and continents. ‘What can we jointly contribute to this global network?’ he exclaimed. He continued, the third trend is a happy marriage between developing nation’s aspirations to be more than just consumers, and the necessity for the producers to be closer to their key markets. Current cost structures in developing economies make it inevitable that the OEMs increase their sourcing from the very countries that want to buy their products. ‘So there is a life and a business beyond offsets – and we should be looking for opportunities in this space’. The fourth trend – one which the Mahindra Group embraces whole-heartedly – is the global realisation and inefficiency are contributing to a rapid deterioration in our quality of life. Hence there is pressure to look beyond conventional business metrics to sustainability and green technologies. ‘Can we work together to create green technologies that are relevant and also outrageously affordable?’ he interjected. Mr Mahindra stressed the importance of Public Private Partnerships to cater to the projected increasing demand for air travel for education, health and pilgrimage. Towards this he mentioned about the commitment made by the Mahindra group for the development and marketing of light aircraft in the 2-20 seat range. The NAL-MAPL joint development, the NM5 (5 seater), is one initiative in this direction. Mr Mahindra released the CSIR-NAL’s Director’s Report 2010-11. Dr G Ramesh, Jt. Head, EAD presented the 12th NAL Technology Lecture on Challenges and Opportunities of MAV Development programme. Dr Ramesh narrated CSIR-NAL's adventure with MAV on this occasion. He spoke in length about the MAV Development programme undertaken at CSIR-NAL. He mentioned that some of the MAV’s developed at NAL are under field trials for surveillance applications. The function opened with a welcome address by Mr Shyam Chetty, Scientist H & Head, FMCD. Mr Shyam Chetty introduced the chief guest Mr Anand Mahindra, Vice Chairman and Managing Director Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., Mumbai. Mr Chetty applauded Mr Mahindra’s novel initiative 'Spark the Rise' multi-media movement. Mr Chetty elaborated on Mr Mahindra’s career mentioning that it is under Mr. Mahindra's tenure that Mahindra group has grown inorganically, seizing opportunities across the globe. Dr A R Upadhya, Director, NAL presided over the Foundation Day function. Dr Upadhya’s remarked that with leaders like Mr Anand Mahindra in the Aerospace business our country will go very far. He also highlighted the major achievements of NAL in 2010-11. He paid rich tribute to the Founder and former Directors of NAL. The function ended with the distribution of the various Foundation Day awards by Mr Anand Mahindra and, as always, a well-articulated vote of thanks by Dr S Sridhara Murthy, Head, KTMD. C. Divakar
Mr Pradeep Kumar Sahoo of STTD, NAL has been awarded PhD from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore for the thesis titled "Strength Prediction and fatigue De-Bond Growth in Bonded Joints in Metallic and Composite Structures” on 25 June, 2011. Independence Day Celebration 2011 at NAL Mr M K Sridhar, Adviser (M&A) and Chairman, S&M Cluster hoisted the National Flag and inspected the guard of honour given by NAL security at the NAL Independence Day Celebration 2011. Mr M K Sridhar in his brief presidential address recalled the efforts and valuable contribution made by Shri Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel in successfully integrating the vast majority of princely states into one India. He also recalled the progress made by the country during the last six decades in terms of food security, defense etc. The tiny tots from Vidyodaya Nal Nursery School set the air of patriotism by singing patriotic songs and displayed remarkable confidence by making some impressionable speeches.
|
| Down the memory lane A decade ago |
" 8 August 2001 10 August 2001 " |
lot of amusement on many occasions during my interactions with him which grew a great deal in the recent years. Giri Raj has a way with people and strikes conversation very quickly making the on- lookers feel as though he has known them for ages. I would say it is one of his key attributes which made him succeed in NAL. Not many have that knack, I am sure.
Giri Raj started off his career as a lecturer after completing his M. Sc. and joined CSIR system (20 January 1978). He would never have thought that he would end up in an aerospace lab with his formal degree in biological sciences let alone succeed here. But destiny brought him here and it was good for NAL in the end. I recall that he was assigned task of generating statistics about NAL scientists and divisions. He did that dutifully. We used to see some pie charts in our earlier lab reports. Later he started looking after information dissemination activities and became integral part of information management division. But when he moved to C-CADD and got involved in flight related activities, his real latent talent came to fore; that of projecting NAL technologies to the outside world and managing complex tasks. He talks passionately of ferrying HANSA across the country on a couple of occasions. Indeed it is a complex task and was really well handled by Giri Raj. Ground support to flight activity is rather crucial. Meticulous planning is essential with sufficient back up options. This is where Giri Raj really excelled. He could keep track of a number of activities and their time lines. A notable contribution was roll out of HANSA at Republic Day parade in 2003. He shouldered this responsibility almost single handedly in making this happen. He recounts this very passionately.
The next big challenge Giri Raj took up was the Air Shows. He really played a key role here. With every edition of Aero India until 2011, NAL's presence got bigger and better. Aero India shows also got more complex in terms of their logistics. There were more security and other related issues which resulted in NAL having to do a lot more preparation. I remember one thing well and that is he tried to satisfy as many as it was humanly possible in accommodating the NAL staff and engaging them in Aero India shows. With many Aero India shows behind him, he was rightly given major responsibility in arranging Air Shows abroad. He took this assignment very seriously and helped NAL make its mark in Air Shows in Singapore (Feb 2004), Dubai (October 2005) and Australia (March 2007).
It is generally said that as one grows older, one tends to go back to their roots. Giri Raj seems to have followed this thinking in his career. NAL used to arrange cross country microlight flights in which Giri Raj used to take care of all ground arrangements. During NAL's Golden Jubilee celebrations, he started giving a different touch to these events. He thought of Aerofest with primary objective of taking NAL to the Engg College students. So, his initial roots in teaching career seem to have taken him back to the students towards the end of his career. He wanted to show off to the students the achievements of NAL and thereby attract them to aerospace. The first major Aerofest was organized in NITK Surthkal which involved cross country flying, technology exhibition, Aeroquiz and one day seminar. Exhibition was held on Malpe beach as well. A lot of logistics were looked after by him. This event was followed by more editions of Aerofest. He took NAL to Park Engg College, Coimbatore (March 2009), SNIST in Hyderabad (April 2009), MIT Manipal (October 2009), Excel Engg College in Erode (January 2010), BLDEA in Bijapur (February 2010), Gogte Institute of Technology and KLE College of Engg in Belgaum (August 2010) and Dharwar in SDM College of Engg during November 2010. This event became very popular and a hit with students. It was much talked about.
Prof. SKB (DG, CSIR as he normally likes to be called) thought of Technofest to be arranged in Delhi last year. He wanted to ensure that this fest shows our strength as one-CSIR. Stalls were based on themes and not according to lab activities. Strict adherence was needed when brochures and display material were prepared. This required enormous coordination activity. Director, NAL called in Giri Raj to handle this as nodal officer. With so little time on hand, the job was done exceedingly well. NAL received PLATINUM award for the theme Aerospace.
In today's world, we can no longer sit like king and hope that the humble subject will approach us. It is a highly competitive world and it is essential to tell the world what you are doing. Here is where media and publicity play a crucial role, especially for a large organization like NAL with so many diverse activities. As head of Media and Publicity Management group, Giri Raj took his job very seriously and discharged his duties with high sense of professionalism, belonging and responsibility.
My real association with Giri Raj started only with Aerofest. During the last three years or so we grew more as friends than as colleagues. Aerofests are all over and our paths haven't crossed officially. But not a day has passed when we have not spoken to each other or had tea in the evening before ending the day. I wish him and his family the very best.
Vidyadhar Mudkavi
The Inaugural Session of ISAMPE was held on 29 July, 2011 at S R Valluri Auditoeium. At the outset, a minutes’ silence was observed by the gathering to pay homage to late Dr. B. R Somashekar, Past President and also a Honorary member of ISAMPE.
The AGM function started with a melodious invocation by Dr. Sandhya Rao & team. Dr K Vijayaraju, Vice President, ISAMPE welcomed all the members and delegates to the AGM. This was followed by the address of Dr. S Sankaran, President, ISAMPE. Dr. A. R Upadhya, Director, NAL released the ISAMPE Souvenir and delivered the presidential address.
Dr. J Narayana Das, OS & CC R&D (NS &M), DRDO HQ the Chief Guest of the day delivered the keynote address. He brilliantly narrated the roles played by all the classes of materials, including polymers, metals, ceramics and their composites in a wide variety of application environments encompassing marine, aerospace, energy harvesting stealth etc.. He also touched upon the certification issues of the same.
The Vijay Zaveri Memorial Lecture delivered by Dr. R. M. V. G. K. Rao, FNAE, Adjunct Professor, AVVP, Coimbatore on “Composites-Materials with a Difference”. The ISAMPE Awards 2011 were distributed by Dr. S Sankaran to the following members
(i)“Vijay Zaveri Award for Excellence in Technical Support - 2011” was conferred upon Mr. BL Dinesh, Senior Technical Officer-1, from the Advanced Composites Division of National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore for his contributions towards “Development of Novel Composite Tooling Technologies for Co-cured Wing Inter Spar Box of SARAS Aircraft”.
(ii) “ISAMPE Outstanding Design and / or Process Development Award – 2011” has been conferred on a team comprising Mr. RG Reviah, Scientist-D, Ms. MS Subbulakshmi, Scientist-E, Ms. SN Vijayalakshmi, Scientist-E, Dr. R Indushekar, Scientist-E, Dr. TM Kotresh, Scientist-F, Dr. ASK Prasad, Scientist-G and Dr. VC Padki, Scientist-H & Director from Defence Bioengineering & Electro-medical Laboratory (DEBEL), Bangalore for contributions towards “Development of Flexible Heating Tape & Electronically Controlled Heated Clothing”.
(iii)“ISAMPE Award for Smart Materials and Systems Technology Development - 2011” was conferred upon a team comprising of Mr. Nitesh Gupta, Scientist-C, Mr. Augustin MJ, Fellow, Mr. Kundan K Verma, Scientist-E, Mrs. P Sakthi Sathya, Scientist-B, Mr. B Ramanaiah, Principal Technical Officer, Dr. Byji Varughese, Scientist-E-II and Dr. Ramesh Sundaram, Scientist-F from the Advanced Composites Division of National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bangalore and Mr. M Hari Prasad, Scientist-E and Dr. ACR Pillai, Scientist-G from the Applied Research Division of Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bangalore for contributions towards “In-flight Structural Load Monitoring of Nishant Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) using Fiber Optic Sensors”.
(iv)”ISAMPE Student Award for Smart Materials and Systems Technology Development – 2011” has been conferred on Mr. Mamilla Ravi Sankar from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur for contributions towards “Universal Rotational Abrasive Flow Finishing Process”.
Mr. D. Saji, Secretary, ISAMPE proposed the formal Vote of Thanks to conclude the Inaugural Session.The programme was anchored by Shri Samudra Dasgupta, Jt. Secretary-1, ISAMPE.
D. Saji
#IP 984 1 - 7 Aug 2011
C-MMACS FOUNDATION DAY
C-MMACS FOUNDATION DAY was celebrated on 15th July 2011 in the network building of C-MMACS. The function
Starting this week we are introducing a new feature "Down the memory lane, A decade ago" to get a glimpse of what happened this week that year in NAL. |
| Down the memory lane A decade ago |
" 6 August 2001C-MMACS Foundation Day Dr K S Yajnik, Founder Head, C-MMACS delivered lecture on Impact of Digital Revolution on Dynamics of Research and Development. Dr R A Mashelkar, FRS, DG-CSIR presided. 3.00 p.m., C-MMACS Conference Hall " |
opened with an invocation by Dr G.K. Patra. Prof Seshu, Scientist-in-Charge, C-MMACS gave a brief welcome and introduced the speaker. Prof Seshu also spoke on the highlights of C-MMACS in the previous year. He said that the C-MMACS high performance computing facility was listed as the sixth best in the country. Also, he said that the C-MMACS exhibits have won several medals in the CSIR Technofest 2010.
The twenty third C-MMACS Foundation Day Lecture was delivered by the chief guest Prof. U.B. Desai, Director, IIT, Hyderabad. The foundation day program of C-MMACS started with lighting of a lamp, a sign of prosperity and growth.. The lamp was lit by eminent scientists. It was great to have the founder head of C-MMACS Dr. K.S. Yajnik on this occasion.
Prof. Desai spoke on “Mathematical Modeling and Innovations". It was a very interesting and truly illuminating lecture and he talked about unconventional modelling problems. He spoke about Modelling of Sunspot Numbers, Modeling of Music and how Beethoven's fifth and Symphony No. 5 could be modeled mathematically. Encouragement is a simple concept with innumerable variations. There are many ways for us to feel encouraged, and just as many ways to encourage those around us. But whatever form it takes, positive feedback is an essential component of success for most people; without it, even the most hardened stoics tend to lose heart and question the meaning of their actions and goals is what we learnt from the experts lecture.
In his lecture, Prof U.B. Desai also spoke about wavelets, modeling the social networks, modeling the literature and made the audience feel that everything in this world is a modeling problem. It is not often realised where we stand in modeling but when we hear the experts in the field of modeling it is really thrilling.
Prof Desai released the C-MMACS Annual Report 2009-2010 and copies of the same were distributed to the dignitaries.
The function, arranged meticulously by the Technical Secretariat of C-MMACS, with assistance from KTMD NAL ended with the vote of thanks by R P Thangavelu.
R P Thangavelu
Display-cum-Demonstration Exhibition of NPMASS projects
A Display-cum-Demonstration Exhibition of 30 NPMASS projects was organized during 13-14th July, 2011 at ADA, NAL and IISc. After initial remarks made by Dr. V. K. Aatre, Former SA to RM, Principal Investigators (PIs) of 16 projects made their presentations. Dr. Prahlada, CC (R&D), DRDO, Dr. A. R. Upadhya, Director, NAL and other dignitaries/members of B-Smart and NPMASS were present. After the presentations, PIs also arranged the demonstration of the products/devices developed in their projects. In the afternoon session, about 7 presentations were made by the PIs of the NPMASS projects sanctioned to NAL in the KTMD seminar hall. The presentations on the following projects were made: (i) HT shape memory alloys, (ii) Multi-layer PZT stack actuators, (iii) Magneto-resistive sensors, (iv) Active vibration control of engine mounts, (v) SMA based trim tab actuation, (vi) Active noise control of LCA pilot helmet and (vii) morphing of MAV using multi SMA actuators. Thereafter, the delegates visited the exhibition area to witness the demonstration of various products and working models. A similar program was conducted at IISc for seven more projects. Overall, the program was well conducted and the participants appreciated the research outcomes/developments under the projects.
P K Panda
Editor: Dr C Divakar, Joint Head, KTMD, NAL.
Editorial Support: N Shailaja Menon.
Production Support: A S Rajasekar.
Photography Support: D V Gopalakrishna and A B S Vijai.
NAL, P B No. 1779, Bangalore 560017.
To insert entries, or for programme confirmation, please call 2508 6673 or e-mail to divakar@nal.res.in
Recent issues of NAL Information Pasteboard Prev
Next
To
access previous issues of the Information Pasteboard please choose
the
month and year (starting Sep 2006) and click on the "goto" button
.gif)
.gif)
