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#IP 909, 22 - 28 Feb 2010

NAL team excels at Excel Engineering College, Erode

The IX ISTE Sate level students convention 2010 on “Innovation in Technical Education – Role of students’ was organized by Excel Engineering College in their premises near Pallakapalayam, Namakkal Dt, Tamilnadu on 29 - 31 January 2010.  Mr C V Giri Raj, Group Head-KTMD, NAL  and team participated in the event by organizing  Aero  Show   2010. The convention was inaugurated by Union Minister for State for Health and Family Welfare Mr S Gandhi Selvan. In his inaugural speech the minister  said application oriented research was the need of the hour and the government was allocating huge sums to stimulate path breaking research ideas. Dr P Murugesa Boopathy, Vice Chancellor, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, said technology was responsible for India’s attainment of self sufficiency in food. Mr  C V Giri Raj mentioned NAL has numerous programmes to help educational institutions gain from its expertise. Seminars, exchange programmes, sharing of sate of the art labs and libraries, hands on training in design and developing light, unmanned and remote controlled aircrafts used for strategic purposes are some of the institutional support of NAL. As a part of the event flight demos of UAV and MAV thrilled not only the students and also the  general public. Thus NAL  has become the common household name in the surrounding areas of Excel college. Dr A K Natesan, Hon Chairman, Excel Educational Institutions, Pallakapalayam welcomed the gathering and Dr Karthic, Vice Chairman rendered the vote of thanks.

NAL Team led by  Mr C V Giri Raj with Tulsi Durai, Rajinder Prakash, Mohd. Mahfooz Sheik, Senthilnathan, Rajendra, Roshan, Eswar, Vikram and Muthuraj

Below is a appreciation letter sent by the Hon Chairman of the Excel institution Prof A K Natesan to Dr A R Upadhya, Director NAL.

We, the Management, Principal, Staff and Students of Excel Institutions are very much thankful to you for sending Er. C V Giri Raj, Group Head-KTMD and his team members of NAL for the Aero Show during 9th ISTE State Level students convention on 29 , 30 and 31 January 2010 at our Excel Institutions.  Our Excel Institution are really fortunate for having the Air show and display of various Aircraft models, Posters etc. to students, staff members and for over 15,000 visitors.  Highly skilled members of NAL Team exhibited their talent and made the Air show a grand success.  It encouraged the students’ community and the visitors to take interest on NAL and in Aeronautical engineering field.  Thank you sir.

Our college is in the process of building up necessary laboratory facility for the benefit of Aeronautical Engineering students.  It is considered appropriate that, apart from regular theory classes, awareness on Aero products is an essential part of learning.  To provide first hand information, we wish to establish a separate Air craft Museum at our campus.  To establish a museum, we request you to provide us one set of all Posters and Aircraft models for setting up the museum in our college to create awareness on Aero field in this Salem Region.

The Souvenir “Suvarna Sadhana” prepared by you depicting 50 years of achievement in the Aero Space field is excellent and it is highly useful to our faculty members and students.  We thank you for presenting a copy to us.  We request you to give the copies of Poster either used or an CD format for reprint to display at our institution.

Since we are the Pioneer in providing Aeronautical Engineering Course in this Salem Region, we wish to act as a NODAL Center between College and NAL.  Hence we wish to have a MOU with NAL to have regular interaction between us to fulfill the needs of our Professors, students and us.  We may include training the students by NAL as a clause in MOU.  Hence, I request you to give me an appointment in the II or III week of Feb to meet you at your office to discuss our proposals.

News Clippings....

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Annual Innovative Festival Quark 2010

It was a matter of pride to be part of NAL’s team and participate at the Annual Innovative Festival Quark 2010 organized by Birla Institute of Technology (BITS – Pilani), Goa Campus from February 4 – 6, 2010.  CSIR, DRDO and other Government / Private organizations were part of this Festival Quark - 2010.  The objective of Quark was to provide a platform for the best minds in the country to showcase their talent and ingenuity. It aimed at providing a platform for students from different disciplines to come together and share their enthusiasm & love for science, technology, management & the humanities. During this event, CSIR showcased its technological excellence in the frontier areas of Science and Technology in civil aviation, genomics and oceanography.   

Under the CSIR umbrella, NAL exhibited its innovative achievements in the form of displaying the scale-down aircraft models of Hansa, Saras, NM5 as well as RTA. The composite products and models such as  ground based and airborne radomes,  co-bonding / co-curing of SARAS flap, LCA dry bay bracket, torsional box, smart materials such as shape memory alloys, smart repair kit, micro air vehicles, space components and the VHRR mirror was displayed.  Apart from the above, the patented flo-switches  for high performance computing, wind turbine model were also exhibited.

NAL also exhibited its achievements by displaying charts and Multimedia projection which reflected the contributions made to several national programmes, development of innovative technologies, new materials, advanced research programmes, indigenous development of autoclaves, parallel computing, societal welfare projects and much more.   During this event, the live demonstration of smart materials and autonomous flying models of MAV caught the attention of the young minds. Commander Ranganath and his team flew the autonomous MAV for a few minutes on 05/02/10 evening.

The Quark 2010 brought together students from different parts of the country. Thousands of students visited the stalls and were very eager to know about the latest technologies, the importance of the aerospace products developed.  They were surprised and happy to see few of the actual aerospace products displayed. Our stall captured the attention of many students who were carrying out projects in their institute and wanted to clarify their doubts in realizing them. Many of the students enquired about carrying out projects at NAL.    

The sprawling lawns and the lush greenery of the BITS-Pilani, Goa Campus was indeed very pleasant, which kept our minds fresh thoughout the day and a memorable one too.

Navaneetha & Thulasi Durai

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#IP 908, 15-21 Feb 2010

CSIR - NAL Leadership, Life & Sustainable Performance(L2SP) Workshop

On 1st Feb 2010  at 0829 hrs, the New Hangar at Belur was filled with excitement of future leaders looking forward to experience what the earlier LDPians had experienced.Today in CSIR, Ian Dean is synonymus with Leadership. As the session began with a Goooooooooooood morning, many of us sighed,Oh no ! not the same marketing stuff again. But very soon “Ian” proved us wrong ( He wants us to address him as “Ian”. Fair enough after all every child is christened with great love (after a lot of R&D), so that we use the name! In fact, he almost had quiet a few friendly fist fights with one of the participants when she called him “Ian Sir”) Continuing on the usage of “Sir” I remember being jokingly questioned abroad, as to when did we get the Knighthood to be addressed as “Sir”. As we went through the journey of understanding that leadership was a life skill and not a mere title or job, it was intresting to discover that each one of us has a small leader ( in our own microenvironment) waiting to be nurtured and groomed. This is what the 5 day workshop on Leadership , Life Sustainable Performance ( L2SP) helped us to do.It was evident on the closing day when each participant was asked or rather volunteered to “ speak in their own voice” ( as Ian encourages us to do) to share their experience with the Director.It was clear that each one , all geared with their adrenaline levels soaring were just waiting to reach their work places and  to make it a different world for themselves and of course, others. For Behaviour or Mindset cannot NOT influence.

The simulation workshop with 10 assignments to be submitted with close deadlines was “the” experience few of us will forget because maximum learning, bondage, understanding and fun came from there. 27 friends added! What with paper planes flying far in the hangar from the first floor, only to take a reverse and come back right back to where they took off!! A destresser assignment indeed, after the hectic assignment schedules. The lesson to take rejection and failure came when all our  vision NAL -2015 models , except one  were disqualified because they were not in the designated place on time.Lesson learnt ? OB2T – on Brief, on Budget, on Time, Everytime.  This experience jerked each one of us understand that Ian truly meant business. L2SP worked towards demything us of various illusions about leadership. Effective leaders roll out more leaders and practice more enquiry than advocacy.Management and Leadership are two dimensions of the same job varying in degree in a given situation.Competence and Profiency are two wheels of an effective leader.  Ian urged the future leaders to interact both horizontally and vertically with their colleagues to create an effcetive work environment.The session on identifying our competencies and our team members resonating the same revealed that Honesty was in the air. Our self analysis of ourselves matched with what our team had to say aout us. The “dream trip” to Capetown to represent NAL chiselled our skills as an assesor and assesse.The final message for me from the marvellous workshop was “ My capacity to choose and craft the person I want to be is in my hands”. ( Ian,I am speaking in my voice!).Practise man, Practise.

Amitha rani

 

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#IP 907, 8-14 Feb 2010

Lecture Course on Flow Measurement Techniques

The Experimental Aerodynamics Division of NAL conducted a three-day lecture course on Flow Measurement Techniques for engineering college faculty and undergraduate and graduate students from 02-04 February 2010. The aim of this lecture course was to leverage the vast knowledge base generated in the past decade by NAL on flow measurement and to enable its dissemination for the benefit of student and practitioner alike.

The course was inaugurated by Dr Sajeer Ahmed, Adviser (M&A) and Head, EAD on 02 Feb 2010. Dr G Ramesh welcomed the participants. Dr Venkatakrishnan, Coordinator of the lecture course, outlined the aims and objectives of the course and the schedule to be followed. Dr Sajeer Ahmed introduced the goals of EAD and purpose of the course. He elaborated on the need for new experimental tools to understand the flow. This understanding would then be used for flow modeling and later control. He explained the need for such tools to be non-intrusive and be able to address complex flows. The inaugural concluded with Dr K T Madhavan thanking the various people involved in organizing the course.

A total of 7 topics in flow measurement ranging from traditional to futuristic were covered over three days. Each afternoon was devoted to a demonstration of the practice of these techniques. The course ended on 04 February 2010.

While the initial envisaged participant strength for this course was 30; in order to maintain a class-room like atmosphere; there was an overwhelming response for this course with the final count at 53 participants. At the end of the course participants were given a feedback form to rate various aspects of the course on a scale of 1 to 5 with 5 being the highest. The overall averaged score was finally calculated at 4.25 showing that the course had significant impact. The major suggestions distilled from these forms were to (a) lengthen the course to a five day workshop to help them absorb the material slowly; (b) have this course at least once a year if not twice (c) Provide accommodation for out-of-town students with payment if necessary.

L Venkatakrishnan

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#IP 906, 1 - 7 Feb 2010

SAROD 2009

Symposium on Applied Aerodynamics and Design of Aerospace Vehicles, popularly known as SAROD is a biennial event that started with a unique objective of bringing together designers and aerodynamicists across the country to exchange ideas in order to provide boost to the prominent national programmes. The first edition of SAROD was held in Bangalore in 2003 that was followed by second and third editions held at Hyderabad and Thiruvananthapuram respectively. The responsibility of hosting the fourth SAROD was taken up by NAL jointly with ADA. The event was held during 10-13 December 2009.

Having finished several conferences, workshops and so on for the NAL golden jubilee, we felt that there may not be a very good technical response for SAROD 2009. But we were proven wrong when extended abstracts poured in, al beit a little late. We had a difficult task of choosing good papers. Eventually about 70 papers were slated for presentation over 18 sessions. Eighteen invited papers were also planned. Over and above a keynote lecture and three plenary talks were planned.

The event eventually unfolded on 10 December 2009 at Eagleton Golf Village premises with an inaugural session. Dr. Sajeer Ahmed, Chairman, National Organizing Committee (NOC), welcomed the gathering and introduced the objectives of SAROD 2009. Next he introduced the chief guest Dr. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, ISRO, and keynote speaker Prof. R. Narasimha. Dr. Upadhya, Director, NAL and Co-Chairman, National Advisory Committee, spoke on the importance of SAROD. He said that SAROD is a very unique symposium and assumed importance because of its focus on design. Mr. Biju Uthup, Co-chairman, NOC, spoke on the history and role of SAROD and its relevance to Indian aerospace programmes. On this occasion, the symposium proceedings were released along with Directory of Aerodynamicists and a 1:0.75 scaled model of an Indian boomerang.

Dr. Radhakrishnan, Chairman, ISRO, in his address as chief guest, spoke on space programme starting with early history of ISRO and covering up to present day programmes. Prof. Narasimha gave the keynote lecture on "Boomerangs - In India and elsewhere". He said he preferred to give a "Festive" talk on this subject. He spoke on the history and took the audience through the aerodynamic aspects of boomerang.

Previous SAROD events have set precedence by honouring three eminent aerodynamicists. On this occasion, Dr. Vasantha Sastry, former Director, SHAR, Dr. Aravamudhan, former Director, ADE and Dr. R. Balakrishnan, former Director, Vehicle Dynamics, DRDL were chosen to receive this honour. Dr. Vasantha was honoured during the inaugural session while Dr. Aravamudhan was honoured the following day. Dr. Balakrishnan was subsequently honoured at his residence in Chennai owing to his poor health.

The symposium covered several topics that included CFD applications, navigation and guidance, algorithms and modelling, aeroelasticity, space applications, hypersonic airbreathing engines, hypersonic flows, control and trajectory optimization, MAV/UAV applications and design aspects, laminar flow technology, flight data analysis, design and optimization and investigative aerodynamics. In general, the symposium addressed all aspects of current research in aerodynamics and design of aerospace vehicles, thus achieving the objectives.

Prof. Shevare of IIT Bombay gave a plenary talk on "Assessment of CFD work in India". Mr. P. Jayasimha of HAL, Bangalore gave the second plenary talk on "Aircraft Design - Indian Perspective". On the final day, Prof. Edward Greitzer of MIT, USA delivered the third plenary talk on "The Silent Aircraft and Beyond: an Industry-University Collaborative Enterprise."

Invited talks included presentations by Dr. Chittur Venkatasubban of Hawker Beechcraft, USA, on "CFD in Business Aviation: The Challenge and the Promise", Mr. K. Sivan of VSSC on "Autonomous Trajectory Control Strategies for Un-powered Winged Entry Vehicles", Dr. Francois Pepin of Bombardier, Canada, on "Development of High-Lift Systems for the Bombardier CRJ-700," Dr. Gautam SenGupta of Boeing, USA, on "Prediction of Transonic Flutter", Dr. Francois Falempin of MBDA, France on "French R&T Effort for High Speed Airbreathing Propulsion", Prof. Charbel Farahat on "Advances in Nonlinear Computational Aeroelasticity", Prof. Richard Morgan of University of Queensland, Australia, on "The Study of Radiating Hypervelocity Flows", Prof. M. S. Bhat, IISc, on "Development of UAV Research Platform for Randomized Path Planning and Control", Prof. C. Venkatesan, IIT Kanpur, on "Computational Aeroelastic Formulation for Helicopter Rotor Loads" and Dr. A. Lurdharaj, ADE, on "Design of Endurance UAVs". The invited lectures covered a broad spectrum of activities and speakers came from academia, industry and R&D organizations proving again that design and product development is an interdisciplinary and inter-organizational activity.

On the second day, a panel discussion on two topics was chaired by Dr. Prahlada, CC R&D, DRDL. The first topic dealt with configuration aerodynamics while the second topic dealt with enhancing the role of engineering students and faculty in aerospace design activities. The panel consisted of Prof. Sitaram Bhat, IISc, Prof. Venkatesan, IIT Kanpur, Dr. Chittur Venkatasubban, Hawker Beechcraft, Dr. Gautam SenGupta, Boeing and Dr. Aravamudhan, former Director, ADE. All the members clearly expressed urgent need to develop manpower in configuration aerodynamics and were of the opinion that the two topics went hand-in-hand. Need for establishing centre of excellence for aeroelasticity was clearly felt.

SAROD 2009 achieved an important objective set by the advisory committee that is to involve engineering students in aeronautics discipline. One faculty member and one student each was invited from nearly 40 engineering colleges teaching aeronautics in the southern region. The idea was to expose the students to the current research areas in aerodynamics and design of aerospace vehicles.

Technical sessions concluded with a brief closing function wherein Dr. A. R. Upadhya, Director, NAL and Co-Chairman, National Advisory Committee, distributed certificates to the student and faculty who were specially invited to attend.

SAROD 2009 also showcased an exhibition of technologies and services offered by the sponsors. In all 19 stalls were put up. It was a bit of a pity that the stalls were not visited by delegates in large number. Only a handful paid visit.

Several people toiled to ensure that the event was eventless! In particular, KTMD provided backbone support. Mr. Giriraj and team took full responsibility towards various arrangements such as exhibition stalls, stage preparation, cultural evening and so on apart from running the additional secretariat. Dr. Sathyanaryana and his team, especially assisted by Mrs. Gomathy Sankaran and Mr. Somanarayanan took care of registration, transportation, accommodation etc. Help from finance, purchase, administration came in plenty and on time.

As mentioned earlier, a scaled model of Indian boomerang was released during this event. Mr. Kamaleshaiah and his team of 32 made fine replicas, nearly 400 of them, of an ancient Indian boomerang on display at Government Museum, Egmore, Chennai. The original is made of ivory and is a non-returning type. Boomerangs are most ancient aerodynamic devices used primarily for hunting.

The event was sponsored by governmental organizations that included CSIR, ADA, DRDO, HAL, ARDB, ISRO and AeSI. However, there were several private organizations that came forward with financial assistance. These included IBM, Mahindra Aerospace, Josts Engineering, CAE, L&T (Defense, Nuclear and Aerospace Cluster), SUN Microsystems, HP, SGI, Altair Engineering, GridPro, Captronix, Metacomp, ESI, Tesscorn Systems, Laser Spectra Services and Dantec. The symposium banquet was hosted by HAL and the cultural evening, viz., Bharatanjali, was sponsored by L&T.

Vidyadhar Y Mudkavi

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