NITRAA E-News Bulletin - 2

Page 1 (Registered under Societies Registration Act XXI of 1860, with SGD NO-4525-88 of 2002 dated 07-09-2002)Publication No: 02 Date: 15:11: 2014 No of Pages: 08 NITRAA WELCOMED FRESHERS TO THE ASSOCIATION NITRAA along with Rourkela Chapter heartily welcomed the new en- trants to their wing. They are 1) Abinash Lenka (Ceramic-2012), 2)Prakash Pradhan(Ceramic-2012) 3)Anup Agrawal (Metallurgy-2012), 4) Siddhart Pal (Metallurgy-2013), 5) Ms Divya Singh (Metallurgy-2013), 6) Sushant Sethi (Chemical-2014) 7) Arnab Mandal (Electronics-2014) 8) Suman Kumar (Metallurgy-2014) all joined Rourkela Steel Plant as Management Tranee this year along with 9) Ms Sandhya Nayak(MBA-2014), who has recently joined HDFC Bank, Rourkela. The welcome-cum-get-together was organized at Indo German Club on 27th October’ 2014. Sri Biswajit Mishra, Gen Secy, NITRAA, welcomed the gathering and briefed them about functioning of NITRAA & its various activi- ties, followed by a welcome address by Sri B.B. Mohanty, President, NI- TRAA. As a token of love Sri Mohanty also presented a small gift to all mem- ber on behalf of NITRAA. Mr Pradyumna Ku Gidhi, Secy Establishment, ex- plained them about the E-News Bulletin, and requested each one of them to contribute any valuable information pertaining to NITR & its alumni, as and when available to them. Many local alumni were also present on the occasion to make the event memorable, which was followed by Dinner.NITRAA CONGRATULATE TECHIE TEAM FORTHEIR OUTSTANDING INNOVATION- “VORTEX” NITRAA welcomed and congratulated the Techie team: Anu-rag Mishra, Kirti Sai Shukla and Mrityunjay Sharma for theirsuperb innovation- “Vortex”. “Vortex” is the smallest washingmachine designed by these students of NIT-Rourkela. Theydemonstrated the product at EC meeting held on 14th Septem-ber,2014. The student team has requested NITRAA to assist & support them in patenting & to commercial-ize “Vortex”- an ultra small detachable and lightest washing machine prepared by them with a high loadbearing capacity of up to 3.5 kg. EC members overwhelmingly applauded their venture and the team wasadvised to prepare a video clip, both in English and Hindi of a live demonstration and submit the same toNITRAA to decide further course of action in funding the project and till that time they will contact SriBiswajit Mishra, General Secretary, NITRAA and Sri Ashutosh Nayak, Secretary, Liaison & Development,NITRAA for necessary support. (more news in page#06) NITRAA © COPYRIGHT. Contact us at: [email protected]

Page 2NEW OFFICE FOR NITRAA plot area of 800 Sqr. Mtr. (approx.) with 50% carpet area having a central hall with two symmetrical wingsSoon after the authority of NIT, Rourkela took of 3 rooms on each side with attached toilets. The ap-back the Alumni Home constructed on the auspices of proximate monthly rental will be about Rs 8000/-, which will be equally shared by both NITRAA &Silver Jubilee Celebration, NITRAA has been facing a IIMM. But the building being an old and outdatedlot of problems for holding EC meetings. Though an one, requires refurbishing with an approximate budgetoffice space with a large room and a small one had been Rs. 7.00 lakhs for each co-sharer to provide a pleasantallotted in NIT, Rourkela to NITRAA during Chair- & inspiring environment, however, RSP has been re-manship of Sri Drona Rath, 1971 batch alumnus, but quested to waive the security deposit. In view of the above, a unanimous resolution was taken to take theafter his resignation, the larger room, where skype was allotment of the house with IIMM as the co-sharer. Itinstalled and used for some EC meetings, was 1st with has further been decided that NITRAA will go fordrawn by NITR authority. Now a feeler has been given funds-raising drive and each NITRAAN is requested toto vacate the small room (6’x8’) as well, where NI- donate at least Rs. 5000/- (Rupees Five Thousand only)TRAA operates its office with a PC to maintain its day- to extend the existing central hall in the proposed house to double its current capacity along with refurbishmentto-day activities. of the same and one office room with PC & Skype inBased on the request of General Secretary, NI- place. The other 2 rooms will also be refurbished asTRAA, RSP is gracious enough to offer a single-storey Guest Rooms for NITRAANs with state of the art facil-house in Sector-4 on monthly rent on co-sharing basis ities. The Job is expected to be complete by Janu-with IIMM, Rourkela chapter. the proposed house has a ary’2015DISAPOINTING ALUMNI NETWORK (Al NET) POLICY Launched BY THE INSTITUTEA document with above title has been circulated grades NITRAA to the status of its official alumni rela-among overseas NITRAANs in recent past. As is men- tion agency. But NITRAA wanted to remain independ-tioned, the document lays foundation of the NITR’s ent,Alumni Relation Policy. This document though con- vi) NITRAA will exclusively promote mutual camara-fusing, virtually has proposed to derecognize NI- derie among alumni and work for their welfare; andTRAA, the 50 years’ old Association. A few of theother most disturbing points mentioned in Alumni Re- vii) Requirement of ‘Rendezvous’ was for a few hun- dred senior alumni living in Rourkela who needed alation Policy note are as follows: small club space to spend their evenings and a tinyi) NITRAA shall not support the Institute or any stu- guest house to accommodate their guests.dent activity within the Institute, Even though, all EC members of NITRAA have ex-ii) NITRAA shall not collect membership dues from pressed their hurt feelings caused by this POLICYstudents till they graduate and join their respective as- Document circulated by the Director, NIT, Rourkela,sociations by choice, but it was unanimously agreed not to take a hasty ac-iii) NITRAA has been recognized as Independent As- tion and a resolution was taken to discuss with the Di-sociations, in the same bracket of several cyber groups, rector to clarify position and review the policy note toiv) Such associations (like NITRAA) shall be gov- get a mutually acceptable solution within a reasonableerned by policies stipulated in the document, including time, failing which, the matter will be taken up with the B.O.G. as the next step. It may also be noted thatpre-requisite of registration with AL-NET-NITR, Director has not responded to any of NITRAA’s com-v) Though there are quite a few social networks among munications within the last 3 months, so the responsealumni, one association stands out (NITRAA) originat- in this case can be well foreseen and hence President ofed as an Association of Rourkela based alumni but NITRAA was requested to initiate necessary action tonow has expanded to have a global membership and take up with B.O.G. at the earliest.universal appeal. The Institute made proposal to up- NITRAA © COPYRIGHT. Contact us at: [email protected]

Page 3 Engineers’ Day Celebrated by NITRAA- Rourkela Chapter 47th National Engineers’ Day was celebrated by the Rourkela Chapter of NIT Rourkela Alumni Association(NITRAA)- Rourkela Chapter as ‘Jnanagni-2014’ at the Indo German Club on 15th September. Mr. G.S. Prasad,CEO, Rourkela Steel Plant, graced the function as the Chief Guest. Prof. P. K. Jena, Padmashree, Director, IATES,Bhubaneswar, and Former Director General CSIR, was the Key Note Speaker on the occasion. Mr. B. B. Mohanty,President, NITRAA, and Former ED, RSP, was the Guest of Honour. Mr. S. S. Pradhan, Vice Chairman, NITRAA,Rourkela Chapter and Mr. M.P. Rajarao, General Secretary, NITRAA, Rourkela Chapter also graced the dais. The dignitaries began the proceedings by lighting the ceremonial lamp and offering floral tributes to theportrait of Sir M. Visvesvaraya. Addressing the gathering, Mr. Prasad said, “We have to lift ourselves from per-sonal interest to national interest to deliver world class engineering solutions. We have to create a culture ofexcellence to attain global standards.” He spoke about creating temples of excellence and contributing to thegrowth of the nation as responsible technocrats. Prof. Jena stressed on the importance of creating solutions for the problems being faced by the societyrather than focusing on sophisticated engineering solutions to make Indian engineering world class. Mr. Mohan-ty stressed on the need for engineers to update themselves regularly to attain excellence in their field of work. While, the entire Programme was crafted by Mr. Biswajit Mishra, General Secretary, NITRAA, Mr. S. S.Pradhan delivered the welcome address and Mr. Rajarao proposed a formal vote of thanks. Mr. Soumya RanjanPati, Member NITRAA, Rourkela Chapter coordinated the programme. A large number of alumni of NIT Rourkelawere also present on the occasion. NITRAA AWARDS CONTRACT TO M/s ALMABASE FOR WEBSITE DEGISN Recently NITRAA has entered into an agreement with M/s Almabase, Chennai to design and develop a new website for NITRAA with existing domain name, i.e. nitraa.org. The salient features of the agreement are listed below.  Almabase has agreed for a three month free trial period, which will be calculated from the date of public launch of the alumni website.  Once the free trial period is over, NITRAA has to pay the pre-decided amount per month to continue the service.  There won't be any additional charges. It will be inclusive of  Building the customized alumni website for NITRAA,  Building the NITRAA alumni database and keeping it always up-to-date,  Integrating our entire SaaS platform,  Hosting and complete maintenance,  Support over email and phone,  Deliverability and management of all emails,  All the future enhancements,  Every 12th month will be free and there won't be any charge,  There is no limit on the disk space, ram etc., and  Almabase will take responsibility to Data back-ups, security etc. We don`t have a choice on whether we DO social media, the question is How well we do it? - Erik Qualman NITRAA © COPYRIGHT. Contact us at: [email protected]

Page 4 ALUMNI OLD AGE HOME Sri K. K. Das of 1970 Seminar on “Secondary Steel Mak-batch, Electrical Engg in- ing” by Mr. Probodh Ranjan Padhee.tends to donate 2 acre ofland for Old Age Home at Mr P. R. Padhee, presently DGM I/C (Mech) SMS-Cuttack. Odisha. Persons I, RSP, who is an 1980 (Mech) batch alumni, deliv-interested to have a flat in ered a technical talk on the topic “Secondary Steelit may contact him Making” at Metallurgy Seminar Hall, NIT Rourkela onat [email protected], 10th Sept 2014. Audiences gained knowledge aboutmobile: 9439912749 the modern concept of steel making through secondary metallurgy.ODISHA CITIZENS AWARD FOR EDUCATION ALUMNI AS CHIEF GUEST IN A FRIENDLY FOOTBALL Prof. Damodar Acharya, Retd. Director, IIT MATCH Kharagpur; Ex-Chairman, AICTE; Founder VC of BPUT Odisha was awarded with Odisha Citizens Award for Education on 2nd Nov. 2014 by OTV. He is 1970 batch NITRAAN. A Seminar on “Rolling of Steel through Coil Box Technology “ by Sri P. Murali. Sri P. Murali delivered a technical talk on the topic Sri John PD, 1985 batch NITRAAN and a foot ball player, working in Saudi Arab(Sri P. Murali (left) shaking hand \"Rolling of Steel through Coil honoured as the Chief Guest here in NITwith Prof. S. K. Patel) Box Technology\" at NIT Rourkela stadium on the occasion of a Rourkela to staff and stu- friendly football match between students and staff in Aug, 2014 on his visit to Insti-dents on 13th August' 14. He is 1984 batch alumnus in Metal- tute.lurgy and is now working as DGM, Hot Strip Mill, RourkelaSteel Plant. A seminar on “Iron ore Sin- Sri Binoy Kumar Behera, IPS, son of tering” by Mr. Bhimsen Pra- Late Prof. Bhubanes- dhan war Behera, founder Principal of REC Mr Bhimsen Pradhan delivered a technical Rourkela became Di- talk on the topic \"Iron Ore Sintering\" at NIT rector General of Od- Rourkela to staff and students on 27th Au- isha Police.gust' 14. He is 1980 (Mech) batch alumnus and is now workingas DGM (O), Sintering Plant-I, Rourkela Steel Plant. NITRAA © COPYRIGHT. Contact us at: [email protected]

Page 5 INSTITUTE B.O.G Approves Al-Net NIT, Rourkela BOG on 4th Oct. 2014 showed green flag and approved the proposal for creation of ALNET NITR Networkof Net Alumni for management of alumni relations and generating resources for the next generation. ALNETNITR proposed by Prof. Sunil Ku. Sarangi, present Director of NIT, Rourkela on 6th Nov. 2014. The Constituen-cy of ALNET is very similar to that of NITRAA. It has an Apex Committee which will govern its activities andfor execution it has five sub committees. The chairperson of these committees will be nominated by Director.The activities that the sub committees are going to perform are maintaining alumni information & database,raising alumni fund for development of institute, innovation and entrepreneurship, guide next generation ineducation and employment and alumni service and publications. Independent groups or associations like NITRAA or other cyber groups need to register themselves withALNET and will not directly involve in any kind of activities related to institute or students. The primary func-tions defined in the constituency of ALNET for these groups are to fulfill social need of alumni and share nos-talgic feelings through congregations and publications and to stand by fellow alumni by the time of need. Mr. B.B.Mohanty, President of NITRAA and all EC members opposeed the very idea of having a ALNETand most important opposed the rule which restricts other independent association`s direct involvementwith institute and students. For the time being it is decided that NITRAA will not interfere with ALNET andalso will not stop its activities with institute and students. NIT– Rourkela gets DINNING HALL New Chairman NAMED AFTER PROFFESSER On 3rd Nov. 2014 top women executivesof technology firms have been appointed The newly constructedchairpersons of the board of governors of combined dining hall for Hall-five National Institutes of Technology 2 (M Visvesaraya Hall) and(NIT) in a bid to encourage enrolment of Hall-3 (GD Birla Hall) has beenmore girls and break the glass ceiling in named after Prof. Raghunathengineering. (Professor Raghunath Patel. Institute management Patel, retired Professor, Vasantha Ramaswamy, founder director Chemistry, NIT Rourkela) honoured him for his remark-of Aprameya Associates, has been made able contribution to NITRKLchairperson of the prestigious NIT- Hostel Management as past Chief Warden during 1990s.Rourkela. Now, he is living in his native place Sundargarh, Eleven NITs did not have chairpersons. Odisha.\"When you put the helmet on, it doesn't matter if you are woman or man: your mission is to compete to win.The important thing is your ability, your intelligence and your determination.\" - Milka Duno NITRAA © COPYRIGHT. Contact us at: [email protected]

Page 6 STUDENTTechies Build World's 'Smallest Wash-ing Machine'An innovative portable washing machine devel-oped by our students in our laboratory of NIT Rourkelafor which all students, staff, faculty and alumni shouldfeel proud of and sharing this good news with others.They are : Kirti Sai Shukla, [email protected]; Anu-rag Mishra, [email protected]; MrityunjaySharma, msharma @estinno.com Proving the adagethat necessity is the mother of invention, three engi- bucket and is easy to carry during travel.neering students of National Institute of Technology- “In fact, the available small washing machinesRourkela (NIT-R) have come up with an ultra small de-tachable washing machine, probably the world’s small- are no match to Vortex as far as portability is con- cerned. The machine is light-weight and consumes lessest of its kind. water. A definite power saver, Vortex needs hardly 80The students claimed that the difficulties faced Watts to run, is remote operated and packed with oth-by bachelors, especially students, made them invent er features like hard, soft, and delicate wash with soaking techniques,” he claimed.the machine. It is likely to hit the market soon.Final year engineering students, Kirti Sai Shukla NIT-R Director, Prof Sunil Kumar Sarangi isof Electronic and Communication wing, Mrityunjay buoyed with the achievement of the students. He said,Sharma of Electronic and Instrumentation, along with “India is lagging behind other countries in terms of re-pre-final year student Anurag Mishra of Metallurgy search and innovation and converting academic re-and Materials Engineering wing and faculty members search into useful products and services for the socie- ty. Such innovative works would go a long way indeveloped the machine. reducing the country’s technological dependence.”The machine has been named Vortex. “As India Prof S.S. Mahapatra, HoD of Mechanical Engi-largely imports electrical appliances, we thought of neering, Assistant Professors AK Swain and Rajiv Pan-inventing this machine,” Kirti said. da of Electronics and Communication and Institute’sMrityunjay said their washing machine will come School of Management respectively guided the stu-in handy for students who face immense difficulties in dents in design stability test, mathematical analysis,washing clothes manually everyday. technology and also filing for patent rights. Patent rights application for Vortex has been accepted by Kol- Anurag claimed Vortex is arguably the world’s kata-based head office of the Controller General ofsmallest and lightest washing machine with a high load Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (CGPDTM).bearing capacity of up to 3.5 kg, capable of washing abed-sheet, a jeans pant and one shirt at a single go as Funded by the Institute under TEQIP-II scheme,per ISI standards. Vortex has been developed indigenously at the labora- tory of NIT-R.He said it can be easily disassembled, packedinto a specially designed bag of 22 cm in length and 17 On commercial scale, it would cost between Rscm in height. It can easily fit into any standard size 3000 to Rs 4000.Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower. “Design is not just what it looks likeand feels like. Design is how it works.” - Steve Jobs NITRAA © COPYRIGHT. Contact us at: [email protected]

Page 7 STUDENT JOURNEY OF The Coureurs passionnes- The efficycle team of NIT Rourkela Coureurs passionnes- The efficycle team of NIT Rourkela, recently made the institute proud by securing an overall rank of 27 in the recently concluded SAE NISefficycle event held in Chandigarh on 9th- 12th October. The Efficycle event required the college students toconceptualize, design and manufacture a hybrid three wheeler that could run on manual power or electricpower alternatively and simultaneously. The event is seen as an opportunity for collegiate students to design avehicle of the future that is highly efficient and can reduce the pollution caused by the vehicles running on in-ternal combustion engines. In the month of the February a team of 8 students were selected for participating in the event. The team,led by Anshuman Swain, started their work on the project in April. Since the team comprised of members onlyfrom second and third years, the challenge was indeed daunting. The preparations for the virtual round werecompleted and the team participated in the south zone virtuals held in Chennai from 25th to 28th June. Theteam was one of the 45 teams that were selected from the south zone and one of the 90 teams selected from270 teams that had appeared in the virtual round all over the country. After the virtual success, the team em-barked on their journey to the final round in Chandigarh. Manufacturing work started in the central workshopfrom August. The team faced some logistical and financial difficulties as it was their first time fabrication expe-rience. There was also a problem with procurement of the motor as the attempt to get it sponsored was notsuccessful. Nevertheless, despite all problems , the team managed to successfully manufacture the efficycleand left for Chandigarh on 6th October. In the event, the team faced many new challenges and difficulties. On day one, we faced some problemsregarding the validity of the motor as the power rating was shown to be more than the allowed limit, but laterit was seen that the power measurement of all the BLDC motors in the competition were exaggerated. Afterclearing the motor hurdle, the team cleared the Technical inspection and the Brake test which were the quali-fying tests for the Dynamic events. The team’s performance in the static events was inspiring. In the dynamicevents, to everyone’s surprise, the team competed in all the dynamic events and cleared most of them withease. The vehicle only failed to complete the gradient test as our battery had been drained out before theevent. The event required the vehicle to move up a gradient of 10 degrees with only motor power. Since thebattery had been discharged, the vehicle couldn’t complete the test. However, the team was one of the 44teams that had qualified for the main event, the endurance run, which was held on the last day. In the endur-ance run, the vehicle had to run for 2 hours on both mechanical and electrical power trains. Our team was oneof the 25 teams that had completed the endurance test after 2 hours, an achievement over which the entireteam is proud of.Finally the results were announced and coureurs passionnes had secured a final rank of 27 . The team wouldlike to thank their faculty advisor Professor Subrat Kumar Panda for timely support and help. The team alsothanks the seniors for their guidance and support without which this journey wouldn’t have been successful. Imagination is more important than Knowledge— Albert Einstein NITRAA © COPYRIGHT. Contact us at: [email protected]

Page 8 STUDENT Nishant Nihar and Wasim Sajjad from National Institute of Technolo- gy, Rourkela crowned National Champion in Tata Mutual Fund's Simply Finance Quiz Nishant Nihar and Wasim Sajjad from NIT- Rourkela were crowned national champions nationalchampions in Tata Mutual Fund’s ‘Simply Finance Quiz’ – an inter-collegiate nationwide quiz competition onFinance held on October 11, 2014 at the Taj President. The Quiz was held across 8 cities with the aim of cre-ating awareness among the youth on finance and investing, starting with Coimbatore on the August 25, 2014.Other regional rounds were held at Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Delhi, Indore, Kolkata, and Mumbai.The semi-finals and finals were held in Mumbai. Over 700 teams (1400 students) participated in the regionalrounds.After beating all the teams regional round held at Kolkata they made it to the finals. The teams that made itto the finals were Government College of Technology, Ethiraj College for Women, NIT Rourkela, BMS Instituteof Technology, Shri Ramdeobaba College of Engineering and Management Nagpur, Institute of Managementand Technology Ghaziabad, Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology and Osmania Medical College Hydera-bad.When asked about their experience of the quiz, the winners had this to say: “We thoroughly enjoyed the quiz,it was well-organised and a fair event which made us explore the world of finance, an indispensable part ofthe modern world we live in. It is a great initiative to spread financial knowledge across the youth of the coun-try, we hope it will become more successful and widen its reach in the future.”The Quiz offered big reward money – They win a total of Rs. 4,00,000 as reward. NITRAA Congratulates bothof them for their success. EDITORIAL TEAM ~OBITUARY~ Sri Pradyumna Kumar Gidhi (BE,2012) (Chief Coordinator) Prof. L D Nayak passed away at the age of 74 in USA on 15th sept, Sri Biswajit Mishra (BE, 1997) 14. He was sick for about a month. He retired from NIT Rourkela in Sri Anup Agarwal (BE,2012) 2000 and was settled in Bhubanes- war. He was in Mechanical Engg Dr. Himansu Bhusan Sahu (BE,1995) Dept. He was also popularly known as Captain Nayak. We pray God for Dr. Santanu Behera (BE, 1998) and All Zonal Vice Presidents his departed soul to re-Note: Alumni members can email your valuable news/ main in peace and ex-information/message and feedback at: press condolence to [email protected]. Stay connected on Facebook: bereaved family mem-https://www.facebook.com/nitraapage bers. NITRAA © COPYRIGHT. Contact us at: [email protected]