Annual Piyush Dutta Innovation and Invention Prize of Rs. 1 lakh was established in January 2019 through a MOU between Piyush K. Dutta (‘60Min.Eng), IIT(ISM) and ISM Alumni Association of North America (ISMAANA). For year 2020, the event was announced in the month of June 2020 and the last date for submitting the entries was 15th October 2020.

In response to the announcement, a good number of entries were received. The selection of the winner (s) was made in two stages. In the first stage, six entries were shortlisted after the preliminary screening of the proposals received.

In the second stage, subsequent to the first screening of the proposals, the selected nominations were called for the final presentation in front of an approved panel of experts on 11th November 2020. The following jury members were present in the meeting:

• Prof. Shalivahan, Dean (R&D), IIT (ISM) Dhanbad : Chairman
• Prof. R. M. Bhattacharya, HOD, Dept. of Mining Engineering, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad : Member
• Prof. L. A. Kumaraswamidhas, HOD, Dept. of Mining Machinery Engineering : Member
• Mr. Praveen Singh, Innovation Manager, HZL & Alumnus of IIT(ISM) Dhanbad : Member
• Prof. Pankaj Mishra, Associate Dean (Innovation), IIT (ISM) Dhanbad : Member
• Prof. Ajit Kumar, Coordinator, Institute Events, NVCTI & Assistant Professor, Dept. of Mining Machinery Engineering : Member Secretary

The participants were allotted 15 minutes for presentation and demonstration via the Zoom online platform of their innovation, followed by 5 minutes of Question and Answer session related to their proposal. Based on the originality of the innovation (i.e., well-defined problem statement & its relevance, novelty, and creativity), methods and techniques (i.e., depth of understanding of the problem, approach, and solution), and model validation, following entries/students were declared joint winners:

1. Sanchit Kumar (17JE002925) Mining Engineering – Deployment of Drones enabled with Satellite Imagery sensors along with custom algorithm in the Mining Industry
2. Darshil Asawa (17JE002727) Mining Engineering and Kapil Verma (17JE003547) Electronics and Instrumentation Engineering – DAAP Guidance System

The winning idea by Mr. Sanchit Kumar was related to the development of AI based drone enabled satellite imagery technology which uses the knowledge of the mining industry in association with applied AI and analytics to create a custom algorithm that enables a safer and more sustainable mining process. In short, their algorithm allows mining industry to use imagery and drone technology to precisely locate more minerals above and below the surface”.

Team DAAP proposed a new machine that would revolutionize the marble and stone mining industry by making the process of hole finding more efficient, quicker and economical. As India is the second-largest producer of these stones in the world, contributing a massive 14% of the global output, this indigenous machine can change the way the world mines in the future.

Further, looking into the relevance of the innovation, readiness of the prototype, and based on the clarity of presentation, the committee recommended the distribution the prize with 65% of prize money to Team 1 (Mr. Sanchit Kumar, Dept. of Mining Engineering) and 35% of prize money to Team 2 (Darshil Asawa, Dept. of Mining Engineering & Mr. Kapil Verma, Dept. of Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering).

Project Development

The lab is completed and is located in one of the floors in the newly constructed GRIHA Compliant building inside the institute. The approx. floor space of the Centre is about 10,000 sq. feet. The building along with all the facilities and equipment are shared by all the students of the Institute.

Some of the major facilities and equipment that the lab provides include 3D Printers, 3D Scanners, CNC Lathes, sheet metal cutting, welding and carpentry tools, CO2 Laser Acrylic cutter, and soldering and woodworking stations.

Other electronic and computer equipment includes GPU workstations, Electronics/robotics workstations, IoT (Internet of things) workstations, multilayer PCB printers, and laser workstation.

In short, this lab has all the necessary equipment to build a prototype of any innovation. Work on equipment acquisition is near completion.

Project Cost and funding:

The cost of the project is slightly above US $1.2 million. Mr. Naresh Vashisht (PE’67) President Omimex Resources, Fort Worth TX and ISMAANA member has generously funded the lab which is named “Naresh Vashisht Centre for Innovation”.

IIT(ISM) has chosen 10 existing premier lecture halls to be converted to world class smart classrooms. The objectives of smart classrooms are to provide enhanced learning experience to students via real-time e-learning with help of audios and videos, multimedia, images, online web conferences, PPT presentations, and 2D & 3D animations. The work includes sound proofing, adding latest audiovisual equipment and installing computer equipment to teach online classes.

Five ISMAANA alumni have graciously come forward to sponsor six lecture hall upgrades. They are Dr Pramod Thakur (61ME) who is sponsoring upgrade of MIN1, Mining Engineering lecture hall in the Heritage building, Dr. Mohinder Gulati (62PE), who is sponsoring upgrading of 2 lecture halls, one in the Petroleum Engineering building and one in the new lecture hall complex. Avinash Ahuja (67PE) is sponsoring one upgrade at the new lecture hall complex, Yugal Gupta (68PE) is sponsoring the upgrade of IT classroom in the new lecture hall complex. Hemanta Mukherji (68PE) is sponsoring upgrade of one Lecture Hall Complex classroom.

Funding requirement of each lecture hall upgrade is Rs. 18 Lakhs. We appreciate the generous contribution of above alumni for the smart classroom upgrades.

Final contactor for the smart classroom upgrade project is selected and the work is scheduled to start soon with project completion scheduled for March 2021.

Dr. Ganesh Thakur (PE’70) conducted a successful Zoom seminar on the topic of waterflooding and well management on August 15, 2020. It was attended by 100+ students and faculty of IIT (ISM). The seminar was about one hour in length followed by about an hour of Q & A. Based on the success of this seminar ISMAANA embarked on an ongoing program of online seminars on topics of high interest. A small team consisting of experts from ISMAANA and IIT (ISM) department heads is formed. Dr. Thakur has kindly agreed to lead this team consisting of following members.

• Dr. Ganesh Thakur – Chairman emeritus ISMAANA – Lead
• Dr. Jitendra Kikani – Board member ISMAANA
• Prof Dheeraj Kumar – Dean International Relations IIT (ISM)
• Prof. R.M. Bhattacharjee – HOD Mining Engineering IIT (ISM)
• Prof Ajay Mandal – HOD Petroleum Engineering IIT (ISM)
• Prof Shalivahan – HOD Applied Geophysics IIT (ISM)

The team had a very productive Zoom VC meeting on December 1 2020 with Dheeraj Kumar and the three department heads of PE, Geophysics and Mining. Dheeraj will be sending about 15 topics of high interest for online seminars, and we hope to start various sessions beginning January 2021.

We wish the team great success in this valuable interchange of intellectual ideas and resources.

Mr. Shivaji N Dasgupta, Alumnus, 1970 Batch Applied Geophysics has kindly agreed to support conversion of two existing lecture rooms to Smart Studios at New Lecture Hall Complex, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad. These Studios will have latest equipment for carrying out teaching-learning-recording process, both in physical and virtual mode including recording of lecture sessions in line to allow online courses for a wider reach. These two smart studios will be named after Shivaji Dasgupta’s parents Meera and N. N. Dasgupta. Total funds required for the project is estimated at Rs. 49.79 Lakhs.
Scope

• Design, Supply, Installation and commissioning a total integrated system solution for the audio-visual with Interactive Virtual Lecture room collaboration with in-campus& out campus’s 3rd party live-e-Learning architecture of Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad.
• Virtual lecture is a digital replica of a traditional lecture room/classroom/training room.
• The professor/instructors teach, and the participants learn in real-time, face-to-face but via Intranet or Internet-enabled technology devices. Brainstorming, ideation and discussions happen in real-time.
• The system is intended to create a virtual multiple session based multi lecture room which is available for Intranet and Internet network

Dear ISMAANA members:
The current outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic is creating a great sense of personal and social insecurity around the world. We in the USA have gone through over 2 months of stay at home orders. The pandemic has inflicted a high level of infection and death in the USA. We express our profound sorrow for any alumni who have lost their loved ones or who are hurting due to pandemic caused economic distress. We are hoping and praying that this pandemic would slow down and end so that life can come back to some level of normalcy.

India has gone through several weeks of national lockdown to combat this virus. This has created an immense amount of hardship among poor and disadvantaged people many of whom have lost their means of livelihood and in some cases their shelter. We at ISMAANA are helping our mother country in this time of great suffering and need. We sent a fund-raising appeal in April 2020 to our alumni, who have generously donated to this fund drive. One very generous alumnus has matched our collection 2 to 1. We have sent $67,800 in a wire transfer to IIT (ISM) the week of May 4th. This comes to approx. Rs 50 lakhs at the current exchange rate. This along with an estimated collection of over Rs.59 lakhs from the college staff and India based alumni associations makes the total contribution from IIT (ISM) and alumni associations to over Rs.1.00 crores. This respectable amount will help many needy and suffering persons in India.

We at ISMAANA continue to work on many projects to assist our alma mater as well as our North America based alumni. During the current academic year (2019-20) all 52 merit cum means scholarships were awarded to needy meritorious students. These included 25 scholarship carried forwards from last year’s recipients and 27 new awardees. While visiting Dhanbad in February 2020. Dipak Sarkar, ISMAANA President met with several scholarship recipients and took a group photograph, which is included in this newsletter.

This is in addition to 8 merit scholarship being awarded to eight fourth-year students in four earth science branches based on their academic performance during the first 3 years. More details are provided under ISMAANA scholarship programs.

Work has started to build an innovation and tinkering lab at IIT (ISM). Naresh Vashisht (PE’67) has generously agreed to fund this project estimated to cost $1.2 million. Construction of the building is completed, and more details of the project are provided in this newsletter.

ISMAANA newsletter is being published on a regular basis to exchange communication with our North America based alumni. Our thanks to Vishal Gupta, Secretary, (vishal27@gmail.com) for this sincere effort.

An alumni database development program is ongoing for the last two years with dedicated efforts of Gaurav Seth. If you know of any alumnus who is not receiving our newsletter, please let Gaurav know.

We started a fund-raising program in 2018 to enhance our endowment funds to continue and expand the merit scholarship program and to fund outstanding research projects at our alma mater. Additional funds are also needed to help IIT (ISM) students attend international seminars and conferences. The scarcity of funds limits us from considering many such requests during the year. Many of you have already contributed to the alumni fund. We seek your continuous support to enhance the ISMAANA endowment fund. You may write your tax-deductible donation check to “Indian School of Mines Alumni” and send it to our treasurer Atul Kumar at 46 Huntsman Horn Circle, The Woodlands, TX 77380.

If you have any feedback to improve ISMAANA’s role or would like to contribute articles or news events or have any other comments, please send us a note.

Thank you.
Sincerely
Dipak Sarkar
President ISMAANA (’67 PE)

Currently, ISMAANA has two types of ongoing scholarship programs.

1) Merit Scholarships: Eight final year students were awarded the ISMAANA merit scholarship in December 2020. ISMAANA started these scholarships in 2015 to recognize the top two students from four earth science branches based on the first three years of academic performance. As our funds permit, we plan to extend these scholarships to other branches of study.

2) Merit cum means scholarships: These scholarships started in 2017 and currently, ISMAANA has alumni commitment for 52 such scholarships that are based on family income and academic performance. The amount of these scholarships range from $1000/year to $1370/year. These scholarships are intended to mainly cover student expenses related to room, board, and transportation. During the 2019-20 academic year, all 52 scholarships were awarded to undergraduate students. This included 25 students who carried over their scholarships from last year while 27 new awardees were selected.

Scholarship donors with the number of committed scholarships in parenthesis are Naresh Vashisht (20), Avinash Ahuja (10), Suresh Chugh (4), Mohinder Gulati (1), Pramod Thakur (1), Jatinder Tuli (1) Dipak Sarkar (1), Zoeb Mogri (1), Shishir Agrawal (1), Yugal Gupta (4), Mahendra Verma (2), Atul Arya (1), Sriram Muralidharan (1), Raj Prasad (1), Bijay Banthia (2) and Rana Roy (1). Below is a picture of some of the ISMAANA scholarship recipients with Dipak Sarkar, when he visited IIT (ISM) Dhanbad campus in February 2020.

As news of these scholarships spread, more alumni are coming forward to offer these scholarships to the needy meritorious students. If you need more information about these scholarships, please call Dipak Sarkar at 714 826-2810 or write to dksarkar@aol.com.

The current outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic is creating a great sense of personal and social insecurity around the world. India has gone through several weeks of national lockdown to combat this virus. This has created an immense amount of hardship among poor and disadvantaged people many of whom have lost their means of livelihood and in some cases their shelter. PM Narendra Modi has created PM’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations (PM-Cares) Fund primarily to deal with the emergency situation posed by the Corona Virus pandemic. PM is the head of this fund along with defense, home, and finance ministers as the members.

We at ISMAANA are helping our mother country in this time of great suffering and need. Director IIT (ISM) requested any contributions to the PM Cares fund to be routed through IIT (ISM) Dhanbad. IIT (ISM) will direct the funds to PM Cares along with contributions from other alumni groups as well as donations from faculty members and staff who have committed to contribute two days’ salary to the fund.

We sent a fund-raising appeal to our alumni in April 2020 who generously donated to this fund drive. One very generous alumni donor who wants to stay anonymous has matched our collection 2 to 1. We have sent $67,800 in a wire transfer to IIT (ISM) the week of May 4th. This comes to approx. Rs 50 lakhs at the current exchange rate. Dheeraj Kumar of IIT (ISM) mentioned their estimated collection of over Rs.50 lakhs from the college staff and India based alumni associations, which makes the total contribution from IIT (ISM) and alumni associations to over Rs.1.00 crores. This respectable amount will help many needy and suffering persons in India.