The Symposium on National Frontiers of Engineering (NatFOE) is one of the flagship events of INAE since 2006. The main objective of the event is to encourage Young Engineers (ages ~27-45) from industry, universities, and R&D labs to discuss leading-edge research and technical work across a range of engineering fields. The 17th National Frontiers of Engineering (NatFoE-23) symposium was organized by Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) in collaboration with Birla Institute of Technology Mesra under the aegis of INAE-SERB conclave on Atmanirbhar Technologies- Engineering Secured Future during June 24-25, 2023. This annual flagship event of INAE was attended by young researchers across various academic institutions, R & D laboratories and industries as speakers and participants.

Innovation in Manufacturing Processes (IMP) – 2023 conducted by INAE and BIT Mesra under the aegis of INAE-SERB conclave on Atmanirbhar Technologies- Engineering Secured Future on June 26, 2023, is a national level project competition open to all engineering students and practitioners with the endeavour to engage with the engineering youth of the country. The Innovation in Manufacturing Processes (IMP) – 2023 was dovetailed with the 17th National Frontiers of Engineering (NatFoE-23) Symposium. In addition to undergraduate and postgraduates (Master’s students) categories, start-ups were also invited scholars to showcase their project work related to innovations in manufacturing sector. The students participated from various eminent institutions such as NIT Rourkela, NIT Patna, NIT Jamshedpur, IIT (ISM), Dhanbad, IIEST Shibpur, IIT Guwahati, RCC Institute of Technology, Kolkata, Rai University, Sido Kanhu Murmu University, Dumka, BIT Polytechnic and BIT Mesra.

To view the brief report of NatFoE 2023 & IMP 2023  CLICK HERE

To view the brochure of  Innovation in Manufacturing Practices (IMP) -2023  CLICK HERE

To view the brochure of National Frontiers of Engineering’ (NatFOE)-2023 CLICK HERE

To View the website for NatFoE-23 & IMP-23 : https://bitmesra.ac.in/NaTFoE-23/

The Symposium on National Frontiers of Engineering (NatFOE) is one of the flagship events of INAE since 2006. The main objective of the event is to encourage Young Engineers (ages ~27-45) from industry, universities, and R&D labs to discuss leading-edge research and technical work across a range of engineering fields. The 16th National Frontiers of Engineering (NatFoE) Symposium was organized by the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) jointly with Jadavpur University and in collaboration with IIT Kharagpur on 18th and 19th June 2022. This annual flagship event of INAE was held at the Salt Lake campus of the Jadavpur University and was attended by young researchers across various academic institutions, R & D laboratories and industries as speakers and participants. It was a physical event organized after a long period of lockdown due to COVID pandemic and drew a huge enthusiasm from all quarters – participants, organizers and INAE fellows and office bearers.

The inaugural program was presided over by the INAE President Prof. Indranil Manna. During the inaugural session, Prof. Sivaji Chakravorti, Vice President, INAE, delivered the Welcome address and explained the objectives of the symposium. He emphasized the critical role of the symposium in shaping the course of future research in cutting–edge areas in engineering disciplines by bringing together young, talented and enterprising engineering professionals. Prof. Indranil Manna in his presidential address delved into the activities of INAE in forwarding the engineering education, research and knowledge transfer at various levels. He explained how INAE contributes towards nation building by advancing expertise to various governmental and non-governmental organizations. Prof. Ashutosh Sharma, Chair Professor of IIT Kanpur and former Secretary, Department of Science and Technology, GoI, delivered the inaugural address of the symposium as the Chief Guest. His inspiring speech covered wide areas of research scope overcoming disciplinary barrier. He also stressed upon the presentation of the research results along with the quality of research. Prof. Chiranjib Bhattacharjee, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Jadavpur University, was the Guest of Honour. Prof. Amitava Datta, Coordinator of the Symposium moved the vote of thanks and expressed heartfelt gratitude to INAE for giving Jadavpur University an opportunity to organize the prestigious event.

There were technical sessions on four thematic areas in the symposium and each session had one plenary talk and four invited talks by experts from the relevant disciplines. All the technical sessions were conducted by the respective theme conveners. In addition, a special session on Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav was organized to commemorate the seventy-fifth year of Indian independence and the achievements of the country during this period. The young participants attending the symposium also presented their research in a poster session separately organized for them. The speakers and participants from different corners of the country have been chosen by the theme conveners, symposium coordinator and Prof. Sivaji Chakravorti as adviser after thorough review of their research activities.

Poster Session

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The first technical session titled “Field-Deployable Miniaturized Sensors” was conducted by Prof. Ranjan Ganguly of Jadavpur University as the theme convener. Dr. Dhananjaya Dendukuri of Achira Labs Pvt. Ltd was the plenary speaker and Dr. Pallab Sinha Mahapatra (IIT Madras), Dr. Pranab Kumar Mandal (IIT Guwahati), Dr. (Mrs) Shrutidhara Sarma (IIT Jodhpur) and Dr. Dibyendu Das (IIEST Shibpur) were the invited speakers of the session.

The second thematic session on “Waste Valorization and Circular Economy” was chaired by the theme convener Prof. Achintya Mukhopadhyay of Jadavpur University. Prof. M.R.Ravi of IIT Delhi delivered the plenary talk of this session. It was followed by four invited lectures by Dr. R. Vinu (IIT Madras), Dr. Jayakrishna Kandasamy (Vellore Institute of Technology), Dr. (Mrs) Papita Das (Jadavpur University) and Dr. Amit Arora (IIT Bombay).

In the third thematic session titled “Resource-Constrained Translational Technology”, Prof. Rajib Bandyopadhyay of Jadavpur University chaired the session as the theme convener. The plenary talk of the session was delivered by Dr Arpan Pal of TCS Research. After that, Dr. Kumaravel S. (NIT Calicut), Dr. Debangshu Dey (Jadavpur University), Dr. Sri Krishna Kumar (IIT Kharagpur) and Dr. (Mrs) Chirasree Roy Chaudhuri (IIEST Shibpur) delivered the invited talks.

The fourth thematic session in the symposium on “Nanostructured Surfaces for Functional Materials and Systems” was conducted by Prof. Samit K Ray of IIT Kharagpur as the theme convener. The session covered lectures on nanomaterials-based surface engineering, nano-sensors and materials for energy harvesting with one Plenary and three Invited lectures. The Plenary lecture on “Liquid Infused Slippery Surfaces:  From Fabrication to Functionalities” was delivered by Prof. Suman Chakraborty of IIT Kharagpur. Following Prof. Chakraborty’s lecture, Dr. Ritesh Kumar (CSIR-CSIO, Chandigarh), Dr. Sayan Bayan (Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh) and Dr. Gururaj Telasang (ARCI, Hyderabad) delivered the invited talks.

The special session of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav had four very distinguished speakers – Prof. Samir Kumar Pal (S.N.Bose Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata), Prof. Avinash Kumar Agarwal (IIT Kanpur), Dr. (Mrs) Mahati Chittem (IIT Hyderabad) and Mr. K. Rashid (Genrobotics Innovation, a start-up company). The speakers elaborated different innovative areas, like medical diagnostics, methanol economy, behavioural aspects in medical science and robotic machines to replace manual scavenging, which will lead the country to the next level in science and technology in the coming years.

A plenary talk was delivered by Prof. P.P. Chakrabarti, former Director, IIT Kharagpur, in a special session on 18^th June evening. Prof. Chakrabarti in his unparalleled style enthralled the audience with an overview of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and portrayed the future perspectives of the subject.

All the talks of every session led to engaging discussions following the presentations and also beyond the session during the symposium. Strong synergistic areas were identified by the speakers and other participants in these domains, and engaging research collaborations are expected as a future outgrowth. The valedictory address was delivered by Prof. Purnendu Ghosh, Vice President, INAE, where he thanked all the speakers and participants for the rich presentations and high-quality research in their respective fields. He expressed strong conviction that with such excellent work from the young researchers, the country will prosper in the fields of science and technology in the coming years.

A Brochure of IMP 2022 can be viewed by clicking here….

The event can be viewed and the link for viewing the NatFoE and IMP event proceedings held at Jadavpur University are given below.

YouTube channel name: NatFoE-2022

Channel URL :- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzMtf1f4MYJl-UkVHsLV7OA

NatFoE-IMP Scheduled :-

NatFoE Day – 1- Jun-18-2022 https://youtu.be/mTN28q-uDkw

NatFoE Day – 2 -Jun -19-2022 https://youtu.be/BhOZuXN-seo

IMP Day – 3 – Jun-20-2022 https://youtu.be/DcAMIiC_SY0

INNOVATIONS IN MANUFACTURING PRACTICES (IMP) 2022

Changes in present day manufacturing reflect advancements in supply chain, markets, customer demands and engineering design. Growth of manufacturing sector of our country can significantly boost the national economy. Keeping this in mind, Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) and Jadavpur University, Kolkata (JU) organized a National Competition on Innovation in Manufacturing Practices (IMP 2022) at Jadavpur University, Kolkata on 20th June 2022 subsequent to the National Frontiers of Engineering Symposium 2022 to provide a platform for engineering students and startups to showcase innovations in manufacturing sector. After two years of pandemic, the event was organized in physical mode.

Participation was solicited in three categories – Undergraduate Students, Postgraduate Students and Startups. Total 55 innovations were submitted (22 in UG, 16 in PG and 6 in Startup categories) from different corners of our country. It was a two-round contest. The submitted entries were evaluated in the first round on the basis of their presentation video and submitted write-up.

A jury board was constituted of three members, of whom two are INAE Young Engineer awardees and one is INAE Woman Engineer awardee. The jury board selected total 18 entries (six from each category) in the first round for final physical presentation on 20^th June 2022. The final event was organized at UGC-HRDC Lecture Hall of Jadavpur University, Salt Lake Campus, Kolkata.

The event was inaugurated by Prof. Purnendu Ghosh, Vice President, INAE, and the participants were welcomed by Prof. Sivaji Chakravorti, Vice President, INAE. The Inaugural session was followed by three consecutive sessions for three categories. These sessions were chaired by three eminent academicians in the field of engineering & technology. However, the final event was attended by 12 participants (5 in UG, 4 in PG and 3 in Startup categories) out of the selected 18 participating teams, mainly due to the sudden disruption in railway services at that time.

As the contest is a prestigious one, it was decided that only the deserving innovations will be awarded, and it was declared in the inaugural session. The jury members accordingly applied their judgment for conferment of the award. Finally, the jury board did not recommend any entry for the award in PG and Startup categories. The first and the second prizes in the UG category went to two girl participants for their appreciable innovations. The awards were announced by Prof. Sivaji Chakravorti in the Valedictory Session of the event, after distribution of the participation certificates to the participants.

Indian National Academy of Engineering organized 15^th National Frontiers of Engineering (NatFoE) Symposium jointly with IIT Hyderabad on July 9-10, 2021 on virtual platform bringing together 50 bright young engineers to deliberate on emerging technologies in some key engineering sectors. Prof BS Murty, Director, IIT Hyderabad and Prof Sivaji Chakravorti, Vice-President, INAE were the coordinators of the event. Prof Chandrasekhar Sharma, IIT Hyderabad was the Convener of the event.

NatFoE Symposium is an annual flagship event of INAE aiming towards bringing together young engineers from academic institutes, R&D labs and industry on a single platform to deliberate upon emerging trends of research and cutting-edge technologies. About fifty young engineers discussed, deliberated and brainstormed the state-of-the-art knowledge and development, and highlighted the opportunities and challenges in the four major areas:

(i)      Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

(ii)    Advanced materials and Manufacturing Technologies

(iii)   Infrastructure and Unconventional Energy

(iv)   Rural Technology and Entrepreneurship.

All the four themes were chosen carefully as key areas to focus towards making India self-reliant in engineering & technology. As a part of seventy-five years of independence celebrations of India, a special session on ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsava’ was also organized in which speakers talked about various indigenous technologies in the area of female hygiene, mitigating greenhouse effects and developing green routes for hydrogen production as an alternative fuel. Another highlight of this session was the model technology to translate English text into 11 Indian languages that may play a key role in translating engineering text books into Indian languages in line with the new education policy to provide technical education in local languages.

Dr. Tessy Thomas, Director General (Aeronautical Systems), DRDO presented a detailed overview on the advances in aerospace materials and manufacturing technologies and highlighted their importance in the success of India’s space program. Dr. Debashish Bhattacharjee, Vice President (New Materials Business), Tata Steel in another keynote lecture presented some of the breakthrough technologies and innovations in the area of high strength, lightweight materials for automotive sector.

The symposium started with the welcome address by Prof. B. S. Murty, Director IIT, Hyderabad. Conveying the welcome greetings to the dignitaries and the attendees. Prof. Murty said, “despite the organization of the meeting on a virtual platform due to Covid-19 pandemic, organization of NatFoE2021 will achieve its goal in fostering the new collaborations and exchanging new ideas among the brightest minds and the deliberations will help in unveiling new innovations and the strategies for their commercialization paving the way for the country to become a leader in technology innovations ”.

Congratulating IIT Hyderabad for its efforts in organizing NatFoE, as an online event for the first time, Prof. Indranil Manna, President, INAE said the INAE will take appropriate steps in implementation of the recommendations and action items in the four themed areas as a final outcome of this symposium. As a satellite event of NatFoE 2021, a national design competition event, Innovations in Manufacturing Practices (IMP) was also organized for UG and PG students as well as start-ups. Out of 160 entries, 6 award winners were chosen. Prof. Sivaji Chakravorti, Vice President, INAE declared the award winners in each category and congratulated them for their innovation and extended further support to take them to the next level. Dr. Chandra Shekhar Sharma, Coordinator, NatFoE 2021 extended a vote of thanks to all speakers & participants, INAE Fellows and Young Associates and other guests for their active participation to make the NatFoE 2021 a grand success.

INNOVATIONS IN MANUFACTURING PRACTICES (IMP) 2021

Innovation in Manufacturing Processes (IMP), conducted by INAE and IIT Hyderabad jointly as a satellite event along with 15^thNatFoE symposium, is a national level project competition open to all engineering students and practitioners. In addition to undergraduate and postgraduates (Master’s students) categories, start-ups were also included as a new category this year. In the UG and PG category, the eligible branches were Aeronautical, Biomedical, Chemical, Civil, Computer/Information, Design, Electrical, Electronics, Industrial, Instrumentation, Material Science, Mechanical, Power, Production and other allied branches. Entrepreneurs-in-Residence (EiR) and Start-ups with less than two years and incubated at any of the Technology Business Incubators (TBI) in India were eligible in the Start-up category. In each of these categories, the award included a prize of Rs. 40,000 and Rs. 20,000 for first and second place winners, respectively. The event was coordinated by Prof. S. Surya Kumar and INAE Young Associate Dr. Mudrika Khandelwal of IIT Hyderabad.

Entries to this competition were taken in the form of a short video and a small write-up, floated through an online application portal which remained open from 1^st April to 15^th June. Based on the preliminary screening, out of 150 entries, 24 were selected for the “Virtual Showcasing” where the submitted project videos are hosted on a dedicated webpage (https://www.iith.ac.in/natfoe2021/imp/) as a run-up to the competition.

The winners were selected from these 24 applications by an eminent jury comprising of INAE Young Engineer awardees and chaired by Prof. Sivaji Chakravorti, Vice-President INAE. The jury included Dr. Amartya Mukhopadhyay (IIT Bombay), Dr. Aravind Kumar Rengan (IIT Hyderabad), Dr. Chirasree Roy Chaudhuri (IIEST, Shibpur), Dr. Pooja Devi (CSIR-CSIO) and Dr. Swati Ghosh Acharyya (University of Hyderabad).

On the day-1 of the NaTFoE event (9^th July in the 12:00 to 13:00 session), videos of the selected applicants were showcased as part of the event. The final winners were announced on the day-2 of the NaTFoE (by Jury-Chair, Prof. Sivaji Chakravorti.

14th National Frontiers of Engineering (NatFoE) Symposium, 2020  was not held due to Covid-19 Pandemic.

The Thirteenth National Frontiers of Engineering (13NatFoE) Symposium was organized by INAE jointly with IIT Bhubaneswar from May 31, 2019 to June 1, 2019 at IIT Bhubaneswar. The Inaugural Session of the two-day 13NatFoE Symposium was held on 31st May 2019 at IIT Bhubaneswar. Dr. Sanak Mishra, President, INAE was the Chief Guest and Prof. R.V. Raja Kumar, Director, IIT Bhubaneswar was the Guest of Honour. Prof. Indranil Manna, Vice -President, INAE and former Director, IIT Kanpur was also present at the Symposium. Prof Swarup Kumar Mahapatra, Dean- Continuing Education, Alumni Affairs and International Relations and Prof. S R Samantaray, Associate Professor, School of Electrical Sciences (SES) were the Coordinators of 13NatFoE Symposium.

The aim of the symposium was to bring together young and outstanding engineering professionals (aged~30-45 years) from the industry, universities, and research organizations to deliberate upon emerging and leading-edge research and development work in the domain of engineering and technology. Convening engineering professionals and technologists from various fields were provided a platform for brainstorming the contemporary and futuristic issues related to frontiers areas cross-disciplinary translational research and innovation. The overall purpose of the symposium was to interact and achieve synergy at distinctive scientific levels through presentations and discussions in the following four thematic areas: – Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality; Smart Grid; Advances in Materials and Manufacturing Technology and Next Generation Transportation Systems.

The speakers in their inaugural talks brought out very interesting points in their respective topics for meeting the pressing needs of the society. Prof. R.V. Rajakumar, Director, IIT Bhubaneswar during his Address emphasized the need for cross-disciplinary research and development to fulfil the needs of Industry. He touched upon the grand Science and Technology challenges facing the nation and the world at large and talked about the importance of the thematic areas of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Smart Grid, Next-Gen Grid, Micro & Additive Manufacturing, IOT and 5G Communication for serving the needs of the modern society. He then gave a brief overview of the research activities taking place in IIT Bhubaneswar in these areas. He advised the young engineers to come up with energy efficient systems, which will help in reducing the carbon footprint and pave the way for environment restoration and energy saving. He also informed the audience about the initiative of IIT Bhubaneswar in accurately estimating the pressure and wind-speed in collaboration with IMD before the arrival of the extremely severe cyclone, “FANI”. He also thanked INAE for choosing IIT Bhubaneswar as the host of the 13thNatFoE Symposium. He complimented the Institute for hosting the event despite significant damage to the infrastructure caused by the cyclone, “FANI”.

In the Inaugural Session, Dr. Sanak Mishra, President, INAE delivered an interesting Address with emphasis on Research & Development and the role of INAE in nation building; which was very well received by the audience. He appreciated the choice of the themes, as they were in line with NITI Aayog’s current projection of areas of national interest. The speakers in their technical presentations brought out very interesting points in their respective topics for meeting the pressing needs of the society.

Dignitaries at the Inaugural Session

About 60 professionals from various institutes and R&D labs, industries & start-ups attended the event and shared their contributions. A large number of research scholars and faculty members of IIT Bhubaneswar also attended the symposium and contributed in the organization of the symposium. The cross-functional interactions and networking between the participants from various domains of engineering in the Symposium allowed a larger perspective to the participants, and exposed them to some of the immediate needs of the society and also gave them an overview of research work happening in various parts of India.

Prof RV Raja Kumar, Director, IIT Bhubaneswar presenting a Memento to Dr Sanak Mishra, President, INAE

The programme of the Symposium included 21 presentations by domain experts in the thematic areas and Plenary Talks by eminent speakers such as Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, FNAE, Institute Professor, IIT Madras; Dr. Manish Gupta, FNAE, Co-founder and CEO, VideoKen; Shri. R.N, Nayak, FNAE, Former Chairman and Managing Director, Power Grid Corporation of India; Prof. Jayanta Mukhopadhyay, FNAE, IIT Kharagpur; Prof. S.A. Soman, FNAE, IIT Bombay; Prof. Rudra Pratap, FNAE, Centre for Nano Science and Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Prof. M. Parida, Dept. of Civil Engineering, IIT Roorkee. The Symposium provided an excellent opportunity for sharing of novel ideas and for catalysing the start of collaborative research partnerships between brilliant young engineers and researchers from different sectors of the engineering profession.

The Twelfth National Frontiers of Engineering (12NatFoE) Symposium was held from September 17-18, 2018 at IIT Guwahati. Prof Gautam Biswas, FNAE, Director, IIT Guwahati had kindly consented to host the 12NatFoE Symposium at IIT Guwahati. Prof Sukumar Nandi, FNAE was the Convenor of 12NatFoE Symposium. The aim of the symposium was to bring together young and outstanding engineering professionals (aged ~30-45 years) from industry, universities, and research organizations to deliberate upon emerging and leading-edge research and development work in the domain of engineering and technology. The objective of the Symposium is the convening of engineering professionals and technologists from various fields and providing a platform for brainstorming the contemporary and futuristic issues related to frontiers areas cross-disciplinary translational research and innovation. The overall purpose of the symposium was to interact and achieve synergy among Civil Engineering, Computer Engineering & Information Technology, Electronics and Communication Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering disciplines at distinctive scientific levels through presentations and discussions in the following four thematic areas:

Prof . Gautam Biswas, FNAE, Director IIT Guwahati Delivering Welcome Address

Forty professionals from various institutes and R&D labs, industries & start-ups attended the event and share their contributions. They discussed in respect to these themes for generation of useful new ideas that could culminate in technologies of new generation. Sixteen distinguished scholars presented very stimulating talks and closely interacted in four thematic sessions in two days. Prof. Gautam Biswas, FNAE, Director, IIT Guwahati in his Inaugural Address pointed out the need of cross-disciplinary Research and Development to fulfil the needs of Industry 4.0. A Panel Discussion was held with four overview talks, moderated by Padma Shri Prof. Sankar Pal, FNAE, Distinguish Scientist and Former Director of Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. The topic of the Panel Discussion was “Technology as the Bridge Between Science and Society” and the Panel Members chosen were those who have created technology for societal uses and who have successfully created their start-ups to help the society. The response of the audience to the Panel Discussion was very encouraging. Specifically, summarizing of the deliberations by the moderator was well conducted.

The two Pre-Dinner talks were delivered by distinguished personalities, Dr Gulshan Rai, National Cyber Security Coordinator, Prime Minister’s Office, Government of India and Shri V. P. Pathak, Director General Railway Stores, Ministry of Railways, Government of India. The speakers in their talks brought out very interesting points in their respective fields for meeting the pressing need of the society. Prof. Sankar K. Pal delivered an exceptional Valedictory Speech with emphasis on the need for R&D in India and role of INAE in the nation building; which was very well received by the audience. He also ascertained that themes of the Symposium were well chosen as they are in line with NITI Aayog’s current projection of areas of national interest.

A large number of Research Scholars and Faculty Members of IIT Guwahati also attended the Symposium and contributed in the organization of the symposium. The cross-functional interactions and networking between the participants from various domains of engineering in the Symposium allowed a larger perspective to the participants, and exposed them to some of the immediate needs of the society and also gave them an overview of research work happening in various parts of India.

Prof. Sankar Pal, FNAE, Distinguish Scientist, Former Director ISI and Shri V P Pathak, Director General Railway Stores, Ministry of Railways with participants