convocation 2016 - birla institute of technology and ...27 pm the convocation is dissolved by the...

K K Birla Goa CampusConvocation 2016

BITS Vision

“ What do we propose to do here? We want to teach real science

whether it is engineering, chemistry, humanities, physics or any other

branch. We want to develop a scientific approach in Pilani, which

means there would be no dogma. There will be a search for truth. What

we propose to do here is to cultivate a scientific mind.”

--The Late Shri G. D. BirlaFounder Chairman, BITS Pilani.

“….to prepare young men and women to act as leaders for the

promotion of the economic and industrial development of the country

and to play a creative role in service to humanity.”

--The Late Dr. K. K. BirlaFormer Chancellor, BITS Pilani.

“What is it that can empower our nation? The most obvious answer is

education. Education that enhances livelihoods but also education that

is value-based. Education that gives roots and gives wings as well.”

--Dr. Kumar Mangalam Birla Chancellor, BITS Pilani

MINUTE TO MINUTE PROGRAMME OF CONVOCATION 2016th7 August 2016

10:30 AM Assembly of Members of the Senate at the entrance to Auditorium

10:45 AM Chief Guest arrives; received by Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Members BoG, Directors & Registrar at B-Dome

10:47 AM Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Members BoG, Directors & Registrar meet the Chief Guest in the Director's Conference Room.

Chief Guest is helped with wearing the robe & escorted to the Auditorium

10:50 AM Introduction of the Members of BoG and Senate members to the Chief Guest & Chancellor by the Vice-Chancellor and Director

10:57 AM Academic procession proceeds in columns of two, led by Registrar to the Convocation Hall. Procession music is played.

When the procession enters the Convocation Hall, all assembled will rise in their seats, & remain standing until the members forming the procession have taken their seats on the stage

11:00 AM Invocation

11:02 AM Registrar requests the Chancellor to declare the Convocation open. The Convocation is declared open by the Chancellor

11:03 AM Welcome to guests and report on activities of the Institute by the Vice- Chancellor

11:15 AM Chancellor's Address

11:22 AM Address by Director, K K Birla Goa campus

11:30 AM Introduction of the Chief Guest by the Vice-Chancellor

11:32 AM Convocation address by the Chief Guest

11:52 AM Presentation of Memento to the Chief Guest by the Chancellor

11:54 AM Announcement and presentation of Distinguished Alumnus Awards

12:00 PM Award of Degrees: Registrar presents the candidates who have qualified for various Degrees. All the candidates will rise in their seats & keep standing as the citation is read by the Vice-Chancellor

12:02 PM Award of Medals by the Chief Guest

12:05 PM Award of higher degrees by Vice-Chancellor

12:12 PM Award of first degrees by Director

01:24 PM Administration of Oath to the recipients of various Degrees by the Gold Medalist. Gold medalist will lead the Oath. Recipients of Degrees will stand & repeat the oath word by word

01:26PM Vote of Thanks

01:27 PM The Convocation is dissolved by the Chancellor

01:28 PM National Anthem. All assembled will rise and stand while the National Anthem is played, and remain standing till the procession completely leaves the Hall.

01:32 PM Academic procession departs. Procession music is played.

01:45 PM Convocation Lunch

Convocation 2016, K K Birla Goa Campus 1

MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS

Dr. Kumar Mangalam Birla

Chancellor

Smt. Shobhana Bhartia

Pro-Chancellor

Prof. Souvik BhattacharyyaVice-Chancellor

Shri B.K. Birla Shri Rajiv Verma

Shri Sidharth Birla Shri Hemant Kumar

Smt. Manjushree Khaitan Shri Kris Ramachandran

Prof. G. Sundar Prof. S.C. Sivasubramanian

(Acting Registrar), Non-member

Secretary

SENATE MEMBERS

Chairman

Prof. Souvik Bhattacharyya

Vice-Chancellor

Vice-Chairman

Prof. Ashoke Kumar Sarkar

Director, Pilani Campus

Secretary

Prof. S.C. Sivasubramanian, Acting Registrar

Other Members

Directors

Prof. Ranendra N. Saha, Dubai Campus

Prof. Sasikumar Punnekkat, K K Birla Goa Campus

Prof. G. Sundar Hyderabad Campus & Off-Campus Programmes

& Industry Engagement

2 Convocation 2016, K K Birla Goa Campus

Deputy Director

Prof. Ashwin Srinivasan, K K Birla Goa Campus

University Wide Deans

Pilani Campus

Prof. S. Balasubramaniam (PROF) Prof. R. Mahesh (PROF)

Prof. S. Gurunarayanan (PROF) Prof. Sanjay Kumar Verma (PROF)

K.K. Birla Goa Campus

Prof. Sunil Bhand (PROF)

Hyderabad Campus

Prof. Suman Kapur (Sr. PROF) Prof. Niranjan Swain (PROF)

Campus Wide Deans

Pilani Campus

Prof. S.C. Sivasubramanian (PROF)


Prof. Dhananjay M Kulkarni (PROF)

Hyderabad Campus

Prof. M.B. Srinivas (PROF)

Dubai Campus

Prof. Priti Bajpai (PROF) Prof. B. Muralidharan (PROF)

Prof. Ramadoss Roop Kumar (PROF) Prof. Thoppil George Thomas (PROF)

ASSOCIATE DEANS

Pilani Campus

Prof. Hari Om Bansal (ASOP) Prof. Hitesh Datt Mathur (ASOP)

Prof. Anshuman Dalvi (ASOP) Prof. Bijay Kumar Rout (ASOP)

Prof. Hemant Ramanlal Jadhav (ASOP) Prof. Srikanta Routroy (ASOP)

Prof. Anil Kumar (ASOP) Prof. Kumar Neeraj Sachdev (ASOP)

Prof. Dalip Kumar (PROF) Prof. P. Srinivasan (ASOP)

Prof. Sanjeev Kumar (ASOP) Prof. K. Venkatasubramanian (ASOP)



Off-Campus Centre

Prof. S. Sindhu (ASOP), Bangalore Prof. G. Venkiteswaran (ASOP), Chennai


Prof. K. R. Anupama (PROF) Prof. Sampatrao D. Manjare (ASOP)

Prof. Prasanta Kumar Das (ASOP) Prof. Srikanth Mutnuri (ASOP)

Prof. Ranjan Dey (ASOP) Prof. Jagarlamudi V. Rao (ASOP)

Prof. Neena Goveas (ASOP) Prof. Raghunath A. Ratabole (ASOP)

Prof. Aditya Prasad Koley (PROF) Prof. Sutapa Roy Ramanan (PROF)

ASSOCIATE DEANS

Hyderabad Campus

Prof. Souri Banerjee (PROF) Prof. Srinivasa Prakash Regalla (PROF)

Prof. K.V.G. Chandrasekhar (ASOP) Prof. Morapakala Srinivas (ASOP)

Prof. Sandip Shridharrao Deshmukh (ASOP) Prof. P.K. Thiruvikraman (ASOP)

Prof. P. Sankar Ganesh (ASOP) Prof. A. Vasan (ASOP)

Prof. Chittaranjan Hota (PROF) Prof. P. Yogeeswari (PROF)

Prof. Vidya Rajesh (ASOP)

Dubai Campus

Prof. Somasundaram Arumugam (ASOP) Prof. K. Kumar (PROF)

Prof. Anand Kumar (PROF) Prof. Neeru Sood (PROF)

PROFESSORS (PROF)

Pilani Campus

Prof. Debashish Bandyopadhyay Prof. Janardan Prasad Misra

Prof. Surekha Bhanot Prof. Sudeept Mohan

Prof. V.K. Chaubey Prof. Rajendra Prasad Pareek

Prof. Ashis Kumar Das Prof. Bandi Venkata Prasad

Prof. Balram Dubey Prof. N.V. Muralidhar Rao

Prof. Navneet Goyal Prof. Ram Kinkar Roy

Prof. Chandra Bhan Gupta Prof. Subit Kumar Saha

Prof. Rajiv Gupta (Sr. PROF) Prof. Kuldip Singh Sangwan

Prof. Rajiv Kumar Prof. Chandra Shekhar

Prof. Rashmi Ranjan Mishra Prof. Shamsher Bahadur Singh



Prof. Arun V. Kulkarni Prof. K.E. Raman (PROF Emeritus)

Prof. S. Krishnaswamy Prof. G. Raghurama (Sr. PROF)

Prof. Dipankar Pal Prof. Santonu Sarkar

Hyderabad Campus

Prof. Arup Maharatna Prof. P.N.K. Rao

Prof. N. Rajesh Prof. D. Sriram

Prof. Komaragiri Srinivasa Raju Prof. S. Swaminathan

Prof. Addepalli Ramu

PROFESSORS (PROF)

Dubai Campus

Prof. S. Karthiyayini Prof. Shah Jabeen Shazi

Prof. C. Periasamy Prof. Krishna Kumar Singh

Prof. Dawood Jalaluddin Shariff Prof. R. Udayakumar

Prof. S. Vadivel

ASSOCIATE PROFESSORS (ASOP)

Pilani Campus

Prof. Anshuman Prof. Inamur Rehman Laskar

Prof. Rakesh Choubisa Prof. Kusum Lata

Prof. Sanjiv Kumar Choudhary Prof. Pushp Lata

Prof. P.R. Deepa Prof. Arun Maity

Prof. Devika Prof. V. Manjuladevi

Prof. A.K. Digalwar Prof. Ravi Kant Mittal

Prof. Uma S. Dubey Prof. Rakhee

Prof. Poonam Goyal Prof. Saumi Ray

Prof. Lalita Gupta Prof. Jitendra Panwar

Prof. Navneet Gupta Prof. Mukesh Kumar Rohil

Prof. Raj Kumar Gupta Prof. Ajay Kumar Sah

Prof. Subhash Narayan Karbelkar Prof. Vishal Saxena

Prof. Pradipkumar Haribhau Keskar Prof. Arvind Kumar Sharma

Prof. Bharti Khungar Prof. Sangeeta Sharma

Prof. Anupam Singhal Prof. Praphat Nath Jha


Prof. Dheerendra Singh Prof. Rajesh Prasad Mishra

Prof. Hare Krishna Mohanta

Off-Campus Centre

Prof. Krishnamurthy B. Hyderabad Prof. Brajabandhu Mishra, Bangalore

Prof. Sandeep Kayastha, Hyderabad Prof. T. Venkateswara Rao, Hyderabad

Prof. Koneru Gopal Krishna, Hyderabad Prof. H. Viswanathan, Bangalore

Prof. P.B. Venkataraman, Bangalore Prof. Satya S. Yedlapalli, Bangalore


Prof. Geetha B Prof. Patincharath Nandakumar

Prof. Saroj S. Baral Prof. Vijayashree Nayak

Prof. Raghu Nath Behera Prof. Bhavana P.

Prof. Dibakar Chakrabarty Prof. Rabi Narayan Panda

Prof. Gaurav Dar Prof. R.P. Pradhan

Prof. Narendra Nath Ghosh Prof. Halan Prakash

Prof. Mridula Goel Prof. Utpal Roy

Prof. Meenal Kowshik Prof. Tarkeshwar Singh

Prof. Basavadatta Mitra Prof. Pravin M. Singru

Prof. Mainak Banerjee Prof. Radhika Vathsan

Prof. Amrita Chatterjee Prof. Angshuman Sarkar

ASSOCIATE PROFESSORS (ASOP)

Hyderabad Campus

Prof. A. Michael Alphonse Prof. Sridhar Raju

Prof. A. Sajeli Begum Prof. Kannan Ramaswamy

Prof. Manab Chakravarty Prof. BVVSN Prabhakar Rao

Prof. Tathagata Ray Prof. V.R. Vinayaka Rao

Prof. Srikanta Dinda Prof. Punna Rao Ravi

Prof. Sanket Goel Prof. N. Suresh Kumar Reddy

Prof. Sunny Jose Gosman Prof. Pradyumn Kumar Sahoo

Prof. Amit Kumar Gupta Prof. Dipak Kumar Satpathi

Prof. R. Gururaj Prof. I. Sreedhar

Prof. Jeevan Jaidi Prof. Jayanty Subbalakshmi

Prof. R. Krishnan Prof. K. Sumithra


Prof. Anand Magadi Narasimhamurthy Prof. Ramakrishna Vadrevu

Prof. Subhendu Kumar Sahoo Prof. Naga Mohan Kommu

Dubai Campus

Prof. Tapan Kumar Datta Prof. Sankaram M.

Prof. Bharat Bhushan Gulyani Prof. Jagadish Nayak

Prof. Vijaya Ilango Prof. Mary Lourde R.

Prof. Kavita Sunil Jerath Prof. Ramachandran Subramanian

Prof. Geetha Kannan

HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS

Pilani Campus

Prof. Rahul Banerjee (PROF) Prof. Manoj Kumar (ASOP)

Prof. Anil Kumar Bhat (PROF) Prof. Rajesh Mehrotra (ASOP)

Prof. Gajendra Singh Chauhan (ASOP) Prof. S. Murugesan (ASOP)

Prof. Arun Kumar Giri (ASOP) Prof. Debi Datt Pant (ASOP)

Prof. Anu Gupta (PROF) Prof. Chandra Shekhar (ASOP)

Prof. Suresh Gupta (ASOP)


Prof. Judith Maria Braganca (ASOP) Prof. Saibal Ganguly (PROF)

Prof. Anjan Chattopadhyay (ASOP) Dr. Toby Joseph (ASTP)

Prof. Shibu Clement (ASOP) Dr. Aswini Kumar Mishra (ASTP)

Prof. Mukund Keshavrao Deshmukh (PROF) Prof. Prasanna Kumar N. (ASOP)

Prof. Bharat M. Deshpande (ASOP) Prof. Meenakshi Raman (PROF)

HEADS OF DEPARTMENTS

Hyderabad Campus

Prof. Jagdeesh Anmala (ASOP) Prof. M.G. Prasuna (ASOP)

Dr. A. Ramesh Babu (ASTP) Dr. Aravinda N. Raghavan (ASTP)

Prof. Anupam Bhattacharya (ASTP) Prof. Y.V. Daseswara Rao (ASOP)

Prof. Shrikant Yashwant Charde (ASOP) Dr. Sudatta Banerjee (ASOP)

Prof. Bivudutta Mishra (ASOP) Prof. Y. Yoganandam (PROF)

Prof. N.L. Bhanu Murthy (ASOP)


Dubai Campus

Prof. Maneesha Bhagchandani (ASOP) Prof. Ram Karthikeyan (PROF)

Prof. Adhir Baran Chattopadhyay (PROF) Prof. A.P. Singh (PROF)

Prof. Trupti Swarup Gokhale (ASOP) Prof. A. Srinivasa Rao (ASOP)

Dr. Lajwanti Aidasani (ASTP) Prof. B. Vijayakumar (PROF)

Dr. Santhosh Kumar Vasudevan (ASTP) Dr. Nishant Harishbhai Panya (ASTP)

Dr. Abdul Rajak A.R. (ASTP)

Co-opted Members

Dr. Amarnath G (ASTP), Dubai Campus

Dr. V. Kalaichelvi (ASTP), Dubai Campus

Dr. Shuvendu Narayan Patel (ASTP), Pilani Campus

Mr. Karri Babu Ravi Teja (Lect.), Pilani Campus

Dr. Indrani Talukdar (ASTP) K K Birla Goa Campus

Dr. Vamsi Krishna Venuganti (ASTP), Hyderabad Campus

Dr. Chandu Parimi (ASTP), Hyderabad Campus

Mr. Amol Deshpande (Lect.), K K Birla Goa Campus

Librarians

Shri Giridhar M. Kunkur, Pilani Campus

Shri R. Sivakumar, Dubai Campus

Workshop Superintendent

Shri G.J. Desai, K K Birla Goa Campus

Chief Wardens

Prof. Shibasish Chowdhury (ASOP),Pilani Campus

Prof. Kumar Pranav Narayan (ASTP), Hyderabad Campus

Dr. Ramesha C.K. (ASTP), K K Birla Goa Campus


Admissions Officer

Prof. S. Gurunarayanan (PROF), Pilani Campus

Prof. Thoppil George Thomas (PROF), Dubai Campus

Placement Officer

Prof. Mani Sankar Dasgupta (PROF)

Student Members

Shri Akshith Reddy Saddi, 2013B3A7673P

Shri Himanshu Bagga, 2013B4A7864H

Shri Yashoraj Tyagi, 2013A8PS287G

Shri Rishav Jalan,, 2013A7TS183U

INTRODUCING THE BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND

SCIENCE, PILANI AND THE K K BIRLA GOA CAMPUS

The Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani is an all-India Institution declared

as deemed to be university established under Section 3 of the UGC act. It is privately

supported, fully residential and admits both male and female students. The primary

objectives of the Institute are "to provide for and otherwise promote education and research

in the fields of Technology, Science, Humanities, Industry, Business, Public Administration

and to collate and disseminate in such fields effective ideas, methods, techniques and

information as are likely to promote the material and industrial welfare of India" and to "train

young men and women able and eager to create and put into action such ideas, methods,

techniques and information".

The Institute was initially registered as a Society under the Rajasthan Societies Registration

Act of 1958 on the 13th May, 1964. Subsequently, by notification published in the Gazette of

India dated the 27th June, 1964, the Ministry of Education, Government of India, declared

that the Institute being an institution for higher education shall be "deemed to be a

University". The Institute started functioning with effect from 1st July, 1964 with late Shri G.D.

Birla as its Founder Chairman.

The Institute started as a small "Pathshala" in Pilani way back in the year 1901 by Seth Shri

Narainji Birla with one teacher for educating his grandsons, late Shri G.D. Birla and late Shri

R.D. Birla. Pilani was then a small isolated desert village in Rajasthan. The Pathshala

evolved slowly and steadily into a High School in 1925 and became an Intermediate College

in 1929. The Birla Education Trust was founded in the same year. The Intermediate College

developed into a Degree College in 1943. In 1947, this college was raised to postgraduate

level. In 1950, Pharmacy courses were started in this college, and in 1952, it was bifurcated

into College of Arts and the College of Science, Commerce and Pharmacy.

During World War II, the Government of India established a Technical Training Centre at

Pilani for the supply of technicians for Defence Services and industry. In 1946, late Shri G.D.

Birla decided to convert it into an engineering college with degree programmes in Electrical

and Mechanical Engineering. Master's programme in Electronics was started in 1955. B.E.

programmes in Civil Engineering and Chemical Engineering were started later. In 1964 with

the inception of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, the colleges, viz., Birla College

of Science, Commerce and Pharmacy, Birla College of Arts and Birla College of Engineering


situated at Pilani, as also all properties, movable and immovable, together with educational

facilities, hostels, staff quarters, playgrounds, etc., became part of the Institute and all these

properties were vested in it. During the early years of its inception, i.e., 1964 to 1970, the

Institute with the support of Ford Foundation Grant had the advantage of having

collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. It adopted the

semester system, modular structure of courses, continuous and internal evaluation, letter

grading, etc. It also created institutionalized linkages with the industries. Over a period of

time, the Institute also introduced several flexibilities in its educational programmes.

Dr. K.K. Birla who took over as the Chairman of BITS in 1983 was deeply involved and

closely associated with his visionary father in running both the earlier Birla Colleges and the

current institute BITS, since its inception. With his spirited involvement in all the activities of

the Institute, he was able to see the vision of his father Late Shri G.D. Birla unfolding. Taking

over the responsibility of running the institute, Dr. K.K Birla who became the Chancellor in

2003 realized the need for greater number of promising graduates in the field of science and

technology in shaping up the nation's development. Hence he initiated an increase in the

number of students at Pilani campus during 1999 which gradually carried the total strength

from 2500 to 4000. Under his patronage, BITS started expanding by establishing three

campuses, one in Dubai in the year 2000, in Goa in the year 2004 and in Hyderabad in the

year 2008.

Consequent upon the sad demise of Dr. K.K. Birla on 30 August 2008, Dr. Kumar Mangalam

Birla was elected as the Chancellor and Smt. Shobhana Bhartia was nominated as the Pro-

Chancellor of the Institute. Under the leadership of young and dynamic Chancellor, BITS is

taking steps to scale greater heights.

In the year 2000, BITS was accredited by NAAC with the highest possible rank in University

accreditation. In 2008-2009, the NAAC peer team visited BITS campuses at Pilani, Goa and

Dubai and BITS has been reaccredited with CGPA 3.71 on four point scale at the highest 'A'

grade.

Vision 2020: A Strategic Plan for BITS

The Institute has embarked on a journey to become one of the leading universities in the

world by the year 2020. Initially, a task force was constituted to prepare the Vision 2020

document and the draft 'Vision 2020' was released in February 2009. After several

deliberations and discussions, Vision 2020 was formalized and logically split into 3 year long

milestones, known as 'Mission Programmes'. First such milestone, Mission 2012, was


accomplished in the year 2012, after being formally launched in October 2009.

Mission 2012 focused and achieved significantly in six thrust areas - Academic Programs

and Pedagogy, People, Research & Consultancy, Campus Life, Infrastructure & Facilities

and University Administration. 16 Task Forces comprising of more than 110 faculty members

were involved in realizing 33 different goals under these six thrust areas. Several initiatives

such as curriculum bench marking and redesign, strengthening student feedback, seed

grant, research initiation grant, sabbatical leave policy, performance appraisal, faculty

recruitment among others were fully completed and institutionalized into regular operations

at BITS.

Other initiatives with varying degrees of completion would be taken up by existing offices,

completed and institutionalized. Off Campus programmes (WILP), initially an intrinsic part of

the People thrust area, was recognized to be a significant component in realizing Vision

2020. Several initiatives to engage with the industry have been taken up that will be achieved

over 2-3 years.

Mission 2012 was formally concluded on a celebratory note, with a formal event 'Reflections

2012', presided by the Chancellor, Dr Kumar Mangalam Birla. The event was held in the K K

Birla Goa campus, and was attended by several faculty & staff members. The Task force

members were felicitated for their valuable contribution towards Mission 2012 goals.

In March 2013, Mission 2015, the next milestone in the journey towards Vision 2020, was

formally launched. The Mission 2015, expected to bring a quantum jump in the aspirations of

the objectives set forth, entails focusing on 7 imperatives: Faculty & Staff Development,

Industry Engagement, Inter-Disciplinary Research, Internationalization, Innovation &

Entrepreneurship, Quality Assurance & Assessments and Technology Enablement. One

team per imperative has been identified and the teams have already started working on

refining and actioning the goals.

A growth plan for the next 10 years has been developed and under implementation. While

projecting growth in number of students from 11,000 to more than 17,000 by 2020-21 across

its four campuses, the plan outlines a strategy for transforming BITS into a research-focused

university while continuing to consolidate its First degree and Higher degree programmes.

Establishment of new research labs is an important ingredient of the growth plan, for which

the plan envisages an aggressive push to sponsored research grants from Govt. agencies

and from industry. As a result of extensive efforts to benchmark the First degree and Higher


degree programmes against the best in the world, the curricula of all First degree and Higher

degree programmes have been completely re-designed while ensuring greater focus on

discipline-specific courses, on courses in Humanities, and on hands-on learning through

lab-based experimentation and thesis work. The new curricula was implemented starting

August 2011.

Transforming BITS into a research-focused university is at the top of BITS' agenda. To take

that forward, BITS has undertaken several measures. These include (i) Significant increase

in the number of “teaching assistantships” that offer tuition waiver and stipend to full-time

PhD students and (ii) Streamlining of its processes from admissions to evaluation of PhD

dissertation. BITS has undertaken several initiatives to encourage, facilitate and incentivize

faculty to seek and execute research grants.

BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus

The idyllic and sylvan beauty of Goa sets the right ambience for BITS Pilani, K.K. Birla Goa

Campus, an Institute of excellence in Technology and Science. Nestling in the lap of verdant

hills, overlooking the Zuari River, the campus is spread over an area of 180 acres. The

location of campus is unique in the respect of scenic beauty and panoramic view of

picturesque surroundings encompassing the river Zuari, hillocks, waterways, forests and

landscape. The Campus is about 25 kms south of Panaji (capital of Goa), 10 kms west of

Vasco-da-Gama, 22 kms north of Margao and 5.5 kms from the Goa airport, along National

Highway 17B. The campus houses the main building, having academic and administrative

offices, Visitor's Guest house, hostels for boys & girls, student activity centre, faculty & staff

quarters, medical centre, playground and shopping complex.

BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa campus was commissioned in August 2004 and was formally

inaugurated by Honorable Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh on May 5, 2006. In

keeping with the tradition of innovation and creativity, it has given a state-of-the art touch to

the infrastructure of the entire institute without diminishing in the least, the natural beauty of

Goa surrounding its campus. Spacious laboratories, state of art classrooms with soundproof

acoustics, modern furniture, computer labs with Internet facility and library define the

infrastructural pillars of the institution. Being fully residential, separate hostels are provided

for girls and boys with single rooms.

http://www.bits-goa.ac.in


CHANCELLOR’S ADDRESS

Hon'ble Minister, Shri Manohar Parrikar, Vice Chancellor Prof. Bhattacharyya, Director of the

Goa Campus, Prof. Punnekkat, Directors of the Pilani, Dubai, and Hyderabad Campuses,

Faculty and Staff, ladies and gentlemen, and graduating students:

It is a great honour and a privilege to have Mr. Parrikar, Defence Minister of India as our Chief

Guest today. Sir, this Campus, in many ways owes much to you. I recall, 14 years ago, when

you were the then Chief Minister of Goa, and my Granduncle, Shree K. K. Birla the

Chancellor, approached you for instituting the BITS Pilani Campus at Goa. It was very

encouraging for us to get your approval immediately. Your unflinching support went a long

way in our setting up this BITS Pilani campus in a record time. It was also during your second

term as Chief Minister that you supported our continuing education Work Integrated

Learning Programme in Environmental Engineering for the Goa State Pollution Control

Board employees. A second Programme for the Goa Public Works Department is

operational today. We deeply appreciate your engagement with our Institute.

I believe, a great, high quality education is an enabler, and not an end in itself, or a mere

means to a job. If we, as a nation, are to invest in high quality education, a vastly different

model, in terms of vision, programmes, enablers, execution, and regulation, is required. For

a developing economy, investment in education is as critical, or perhaps more critical than

investment in physical infrastructure, manufacturing and agriculture. India's future

competitiveness lies in the investments we make in education.

I am proud to say that BITS, a privately funded institution, is today a centre of educational

excellence, and our graduates have gone on to serve the country in numerous ways and

have distinguished themselves across the globe. As with BITS, many privately funded

Dr. Kumar Mangalam Birla



institutions, at every level - primary, secondary, higher education, vocational, skill building

- have emerged as centres of educational excellence.

To the students graduating today, I am sure that all of you have it in you to make full use of and

unleash your capabilities for the next phase of your journey and beyond. Four years of

demanding and smart work have tested your mettle and equipped you for taking on the

opportunities and challenges ahead.

I want you to reflect on how privileged you are, and how you must seize the opportunities this

education has opened up for you. There is a French phrase 'noblesse oblige'. It literally

means 'nobility obligates': that those who are privileged have an implicit obligation to those

who are less privileged, and to the larger society and world around you.

You are privileged because the education you have received is among the best our country

offers. You belong to the less than 1% of students who complete high school and aspire for

admission to a great institution. No more than 10% of those who complete high school have

access to a university or a college education in India. You do the arithmetic. You are

privileged because you will have access to the best employment opportunities in India and in

the world. And this opportunity will only further enhance your position of privilege.

This privilege places an obligation on you, to be aware of the responsibility on you to better

the world around you, and reach out to those who are not as fortunate as you have been. So

think beyond yourself.

Also, think BIG. Do not trap yourself into an insulated cocoon of timidity. Do not be a slave to

the small, the incremental, the usual, the routine, the accepted, or the safe. In setting your

targets turn your gaze to the heavens, the stars, the ocean, the vast forest and the mightiest

peak. Get your inspiration from your heroes, the titans of civilization, no matter who they are -

Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs, the Dalai Lama, Don Bradman, whoever.

You pick the star you want to navigate by!

And you choose the challenges you want to confront and tackle. There is no shortage there.

There are problems related to water scarcity, housing, cleanliness, energy efficiency, mass

transportation, educational opportunity, climate change, inequity, justice, inclusion. Define

and zero in on the problems that excite you, that energize you. Pick the ones that you would

give everything to solve, and you would sacrifice everything for. The name of the game is

passion. And once you have done that, drop everything else and get to work. And don't look

back.

iAnd remember, no matter how good and noble your cause and your intentions, no matter

how hard your efforts, the course of events will always take the kind of turns that shake your

resolve and make you doubt yourself and your beliefs. A purposeful life is never a straight,

nor a smooth road. And you will, all the time, keep bumping into the sceptics, the cynics, the

detractors, the naysayers.

If by all this you are still not shaken, and if you are true to and stand steadfast to your values

and beliefs, you will awaken to the fact that what really shapes you and gets the best out of

you are not the easy moments, but the failures, the missteps, and the unexpected obstacles.

That's what moulds you and gives you the solidity. It's trial by fire.

The world you step out into is a world that is not just full of opportunity, but is also full of

challenges, uncertainties, contradictions, and ambiguities. Consider some of the

dysfunctionalities and points of stress.

The gap between the have and the have nots, between the educated and the not-so-well-

educated is widening. These have divides could have repercussions on the social fabric.

The Leave EU vote in Britain has brought to the fore huge uncertainties. It seems a new

world. Most political pundits and pollsters did not predict the outcome. The jury is still out on

how the next few years will play out, and what the consequences will be on markets and

political structures around the world.

In the US, the radical, divisive and ugly forces of society are rearing their head. In Europe, the

surge in refugee inflows has brought in different kinds of issues.

Even as the entire free world struggles to come to grips with this turn of events, we see acts of

terror and violence surface.

The conventional constructs of economics too are also proving inadequate in today's world.

Global as the world is, voices of protectionism are cropping up everywhere. The values and

ethos of the world of finance seem to have gone astray. We live in a world of negative interest

rates, where savers pay to keep their money in a bank. While those who spend beyond their

means are rewarded by being able to borrow at low interest rates. And amidst all this, the

developed economies cannot find a way out of their slow growth.

Closer home, some of our universities are experiencing churn and unrest. Against this

troubled backdrop, there is undoubtedly new hope rising in India. In today's slow-growth

world, India's economy is a beacon of hope. We are embarked on a fresh round of


liberalization that promises to take our economy to greater heights. Only higher growth and a

bigger pie can bring about the jobs and better quality of life that all of us aspire for.

So there you have, the clouds swirling about us, as also a silver lining.

To those who are graduating today, this is the world you will face. And in this complex world,

you will have to take a position, express opinion, shape it, and lead.

As part of an elite, with an enviable education under your belt, what will be your response? I

say, make a mark.

I believe there are a few basic tenets that can serve as guideposts.

First, know the difference between 'doing things right', and 'doing the right things'. The two

are totally different. Great technocrats and managers do things right, and they perfect this

ability. But great leaders focus on doing the right things. There is no textbook that will tell

you what and where the difference lies. But a few unshakeable values will guide you when

you reach each crossroad in your life. Do the right thing, the right thing by your gut and

instinct, even if conventional opinion suggests otherwise.

Second, be aware that what is 'right' in one context, may not right be in another context.

Times change, social mores change, economic necessities change, and circumstances

change. A deep awareness of context, and what is right in a particular context, is valuable.

For instance, freedom of expression is a value; so is respect for the sensitivities of others.

How you balance the two and make the two coexist in a given situation – that's a skill to learn.

Third, always be aware. Being aware is to open up your senses to all that is going on around

you. Listen, see, feel, perceive, and experience. Seek to understand. This higher level of

sensitivity will enable you to understand where and how different opinions come from, and

why. With practice, this ability will allow you to better understand the context, and help you

make the right choices. Never be judgemental.

There is an ancient parable on the Sound of the Forest which describes these principles:

Nearly two thousand years ago, the King sent his son, the Prince to the temple to study under

the Great Master. Because the Prince was to succeed his father as king, the Master was to

teach the boy the basics of being a good ruler. When the prince arrived at the temple, the

Master sent him alone to Forest. After a year, the prince was to return to the temple to

describe the sound of the forest.


When the young Prince returned, the Great Master asked the boy to describe all that he

could hear. The Prince replied, “I could hear the birds sing, the leaves rustle, the

hummingbirds hum, the crickets chirp, the grass blow, the bees buzz, and the wind whisper

and howl.” When the Prince had finished, the Master told him to go back to the forest to listen

to what more he could hear. The Prince was puzzled by the master's request. Had he not

heard every sound already?

For days and nights on end, the young Prince sat alone in the forest listening. But he heard

no sounds other than those he had already heard. Then one morning, as the prince sat

silently beneath the trees, he started to discern faint sounds unlike those he had ever heard

before. The more acutely he listened, the clearer the sounds became. The feeling of

awareness enveloped the boy. “These must be the sounds the master wished me to

discern,” he reflected.

When the Prince returned to the temple, the Master asked him what more he had heard.

“Master,” responded the prince reverently, “when I listened most closely, I could hear the

unheard—the sound of flowers opening, the sound of the sun warming the earth, and the

sound of the grass drinking the morning dew.” The master nodded approvingly. “To hear the

unheard,” remarked the Master, “is a necessary discipline to be a good ruler. For only when a

ruler has learned to listen closely to the people's hearts, hearing their feelings

uncommunicated, pains unexpressed, and complaints not spoken of, can he hope to inspire

confidence in his people, understand when something is wrong, and meet the true needs of

his citizens.

Awareness of what is around us, and mastering the ability to do the right thing for that

situation is what a great education imparts. You have received a great education: go out

there and serve your nation in the best way you can.

In closing, my heartiest congratulations to all of you. I wish you all success. But I wish more

than just success for you. In the words of Don Bradman: “The finest of athletes have, along

with skill, a few more essential qualities: to conduct their life with dignity, with integrity, with

courage and modesty. All these, are totally compatible with pride, ambition, determination

and competitiveness”.

Take this course. Make it happen.


VICE-CHANCELLOR’S REPORT

Chief Guest for the occasion, Honourable Defence Minister of India Shri Manohar

Gopalkrishna Prabhu Parrikar, Honourable Chancellor, Dr. Kumar Mangalam Birla,

Members of the Board of Governors, Directors of BITS Pilani Campuses, Members of the

Senate, Faculty and Staff of Goa campus, the graduating Class of 2016, Ladies and

Gentlemen -it is my proud privilege to extend a very warm welcome to you all to the

Convocation 2016 of our Goa Campus.

He is a distinguished Alumnus awardee of IIT Bombay. It's quite a fascinating journey from

the portals of IIT Bombay to Indian political landscape; he is the first IITian Chief Minister in

the country and the 2012 CNN-IBN Indian of the Year awardee. We deeply appreciate your

presence here Shri Parrikar - I am sure our graduating class is eagerly awaiting to listen to

your inspiring words.It is a special honor for us to have you as the Chief Guest.

While I present an overview report to highlight the achievements of BITS Pilani, and its four

campuses, Prof. Sasi Punnekkat, Director of the Goa campus, will present a report specific

to Goa campus.

BITS Pilani offers undergraduate, post-graduate and PhD programmes in science,

engineering, pharmacy, management and social sciences to over 12,000 students from its

four campuses in Pilani, Goa, Hyderabadand Dubai.

I am pleased to share with you the graduation statistics; during 2015-16, 3332studentshave

graduated from BITS Pilani out of which 836 (25%) are female students. Of these, 2270 are

in UG (23% female students), 409 are in PG (35% female students), 552 (25% female

students) will receive two degrees under the Dual-degree programme, an option that only

BITS Pilani provides. 101 students (36% female students) have graduated this year with a

PhD which we expect will grow significantly in the coming years.

Prof. Souvik Bhattacharyya


You are aware of BITS Pilani's pioneering role in offering UG/PG programmes to over

21,500 industry professionals. Many of these are run in partnership with industrial

organizations. This year, 8322 industry professionals will graduate with a formal degree

for the first time in their lives or will have upgraded their skills to keep up with a fast

changing world.

BITS started admissions for International students in 2015. Last year we admitted 28

international students at the Hyderabad campus. I am happy to announce that this year we

have expanded our international admission to Goa campus as well. We have admitted 27

students in Hyderabad campus and18 in Goa campus this year. These students were

admitted on the basis of their scores in the advanced SAT. With growing number of students

from different countries, we look forward to providing enriching global experience inside and

outside the classrooms and laboratories to its diverse student population.

The Institute has set up a Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE)

which will be an integrated structure for academic and incubation services related to

entrepreneurship across ourfour campuses. The mandate of the CIIE includes facilitating

technology transfer and commercialization, executing filing of patents, custodian of

intellectual property of BITS, supporting entrepreneurial activities, interfacing with

technology business incubators of all campuses and fostering collaboration with alumni and

industry for several entrepreneurial activities. This year we are competing with the very best

in this country seeking support under the Atal Incubation Mission under NITI-Aayog. We are

partnering with other organisations in such efforts including CSIR-CEERI, Pilani.

The Pilani Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (PIED) Society, has received

funding of over Rs. 86 L from DietY (Dept. of Electronics and IT), Government of India under

TIDE Scheme during 2014-15 for funding Start-up companies. In 2015-16, PIED society

disbursed over Rs. 47 L as Seed Loan Fund to 4 Start-up companies under the same

scheme. An incubatee startup We Make Scholars became one among 5 winners in the

Silicon Valley Challenge USA organized by Action For India (AFI) in New Delhi. Students

connected with three startups from Pilani campus were approved for incubation at PIED

Society. One of these, TapChief, won an ideathon organized by Mind batteries, receiving

mentorship and an investment of Rs. 1 Crore from PayTM. The consistent commitment to

Entrepreneurship activities has resulted in the Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL)

of Pilani Campus receiving the Entrepreneurship Week India 2016 AWARD for Highest

Impact from NEN - Wadhwani Foundation.


The TBI at the K K Birla Goa campus in 2015-16 had 6startups incubating. Project Mudra, a

start-up associated with Braille-based education for visually impaired people and innovative

solutions for non-visual data delivery to meet the growing accessibility needs of smart urban

spaces is one of 6 Indian companies to win the GREAT Tech Rocketships award 2016

(GTRS). Sattva Med Tech founded in 2014 have developed Sattva FetalLite, a next-

generation smartphone integrated and portable fetal monitoring device which will address

300,000 annual perinatal deaths in India. This year they have obtained one patent and won

the Your Story Tech30 Startups and the Millennium Alliance Grant Award.

The TBI at the Hyderabad campus enrolled the first batch of startups full time in 2014 and

since then six startup shave graduated. The TBI has around 24 start-ups and 4 start-ups

have raised close to Rs. 3 Crore in external funding. To promote entrepreneurship and start-

up related activities in the Hyderabad campus, TBI has set up an IoT Sandbox where

students may develop devices for everyday use such as smart appliances and other

common items which communicate with each other using low cost communications

technologies. A HealthTech Lab is being set up in collaboration with two leading hospitals to

improve the health of humanity by boosting innovation and entrepreneurship in Health

Technology. An MoU has been signed with M/s Hemair Systems to set up the MEMS clean

room. In addition, a TBI student Incubation program initiative helps students through weekly

training by experienced professionals on entrepreneurship, product development,

commercialization of technology, and intellectual property.

CIIE was established at the Dubai campus in 2012 and Entrepreneurship courses have been

offered regularly in every semester. ATiE students' chapter has been set up through an MoU

withTiE Dubai with an objective to promote entrepreneurship in the Institute. Several teams

reached the semi-finals stage in TiE Dubai Business Plan competition in association with

RICE University, USA, and in the Business Challenge competition held by Emirates Islamic

Bank, UAE. Eight students have completed study projects / MBA dissertations in

entrepreneurship in the UAE region.

In this year's rankings published by various leading organisations in India, BITS Pilani has

been ranked well ranging from the best among top Non-Government Technical Universities thto 6 among top 100 engineering institute in India this year, and a place in the top 200

universities of Asia in Times Higher Education Asia University ranking, while in QS BRICS

Ranking it is in the band of 101-110. We believe we can do much better in the near future with


improvement in metrics such as research particularly translational research,

entrepreneurship, teacher-student ratio, social engineering and outreach.

Our aggressive plan to recruit research-focused faculty members continues to gain traction.

In the last 5+ years, we have made over 500 faculty offers out of which nearly 400 have joined

us from about 43,000 applicants. I am glad to share that a significant number of them have

doctoral or post-doctoral experience from the leadinginstitutes in India or abroad. Going

forward, we propose to empower existing faculty in various ways to ensure they contribute to

growth and excellence at BITS Pilani. This includes two innovative programmes industry-

immersionandexposure to universities abroad. So far 43 faculty members have

visitedindustries for about 2 months and another 40 faculty members have spent time in

leading overseas universities. We intend to review our research seed grant scheme for

newly inducted faculty members including the OPERA (Outstanding Potential for Excellence

inResearch andAcademics) award so that we can continue to compete well with the very

best in India.

Our PhD programme and sponsored research projects are now feeding into each other's

growth. Success in these two areas gives us the confidence that we are on track to be

recognized globally for our focus on research. PhD scholar population has grown from 417 to

844 in the last 5 years with a very healthy 38% being female; we need to garner additional

financial support for a greater population of research scholars since this forms the core

workforce to enhance research quantity and quality.Total number of publications by the

faculty members for the year is 786 with 3097 Citations in the last 5 years. To enhance the

quality of doctoral theses, we plan toreview some of the guidelines

During 2015-16, 42 new sponsored research projects worth Rs. 12.5Crore have been

sanctioned while a total of 296 projects worth nearly Rs. 72 Crore were ongoing. Of this, 202

projects worth nearly Rs. 50 Crore were from government funding agencies and 42 projects

worth Rs. 10.5 Crore from various industries were received. Currently there are 16

international projects funded through DAAD Germany, Indo Russian, Indo Canada, Bill and

Mellinda Gates Foundation USA, Indo-UK (DST-UKIERI), Indo Ukraine, Indo Swedish, Indo

French, Indo Portugal, Indo Brazil, Indo Japan, Indo Belarus, DBT-MRC, UK, British Council,

Accenture USA and Lockheed Martin, USA. I am happy to announce that BITS has filed 6

new patent applications and 2 technologies have been transferred to the industry. We will

enhance our capability and capacity to the level of a world class university where excellence


in both teaching and research is visible. We will enable our faculty and students together to

excel in teaching, research, innovation, entrepreneurship, and industry engagement.

In order to bolster our research capabilities, major research equipments worth Rs. 15 Crore

have been procured by BITS Pilani during 2015-16. Two such major equipment (Scanning

Electron Microscope SEM and Liquid Chromatography- Mass Spectrometry LC-MS system)

have been procured at the KK Birla Goa Campus. About Rs. 2.5 Crore have been sanctioned

to faculty projects in competitive mode through Additional Competitive Grant during 2015-16

and an equal amount has been sanctioned for 2016-17 for the three Indian campuses.

Under Centre of Research Excellence in Water, Waste water and Energy Management

(CORE WWEM) funded internally, five ongoing major projects worth Rs. 2.34 crore are

currently supported and new projects will be identified to enhance our research and

innovation for societal benefit.

I am happy to announce that BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council)

has selected the KK Birla Goa Campus under its BIS (Bio-incubator Support) programme.

This will help the institute to establish a world class Bio-incubator, to provide incubation

space and other required services to start-ups as well as for their initial growth. The focus of

the Bio-incubator, namedBIRAC Bio-NEST (Bio-incubators nurturing Entrepreneurship for

scaling Technologies), will be on Healthcare and Environmental Engineering. The targeted

audience will mostly be our students and faculty members. The establishment of this facility

will also strengthen the innovation ecosystem within BITS Pilani, Goa Campus and the

nearby region of Goa. BIRAC will be supporting the 3000 sq ft incubator facility with Rs. 3.04

croreover 3 years, while the institute contribution will be just over Rs 1 crore (in kind).

Our plans to upgrade the physical infrastructure across all Indian campuses have now been

cast in stone. Project Parivartan in Pilani campus envisages very significant investment to

expand or renovate academic areas and housing for students and faculty. Similar projects

for expanding capacity in Goa and Hyderabad campuses have also taken a flight. Expansion

of Hyderabad and Goa campus will happen in three phases starting from this year till 2019.

The Goa Campus will be added with 8.5 lakh sqft of new construction increasing the total

built up area to 21.5 lakh sqft. The new expansion shall comprise academic area of 2 lakh

sqft, 3 lakh sqft of student accommodation, and 3.5 lakh sqft of faculty housing. This is being

done at a total cost of Rs 425 crore. The student strength of Goa campus will be increased by

2500 students making the total campus strength of 5000 students by 2019.The cost for

renovation


of all three campuses will be Rs. 1450 Crore.

Let me highlight the unique importance of integrating work experience into the educational

process which has been a recurring theme in the recommendations of successive policy

documents on education. In the context of engineering education in particular, while there

has been significant creation of capacity in the last few decades, the inability to bridge the

gap between theory and practice, and the low level of industry readiness of the graduates

that results, has remained a matter of serious concern. This is especially so given the rapid

pace of evolution of technology. This is where BITS Pilani has done exemplary work through

several decades which others including the best in this country failed to implement. Industry

engagement is one of the cornerstones of the educational philosophy of BITS Pilani

exemplified by two of its largest and most successful such programmes, the Practice School,

and the Work Integrated Learning Programme (WILP) which are outstanding models of

industry-academia cooperation.

WILPs are technical continuing education programmes designed for employed

professionals. The effective partnerships among stakeholders provide valuable learning

opportunities to advance the notion of work 'readiness' and it goes far beyond mere outreach

activities to the very conduct of university research and teaching. These meet the needs of

industry, students and universities in developing, delivering and reflecting on learning

experiences that benefit everyone. BITS Pilani value work experience as a significant

element of student learning and help students discover how they learn via work experience.

Help students to develop the language to describe their skills and abilities and recognise the

importance of all types of WILP. It develops more flexible course programs that allow

students to take up project-linked WILP opportunities throughout the academic year. BITS

Pilani ensures that appropriate orientation and training is given to students so that all the

objectives are attained.

The Practice School programme presents a shining example that has addressed this subject

effectively over the last four decades. This is unmatched in our country to the depth and

breadth it is conducted. The model has ensured value for all stakeholders, the students, the

industry, and the Institute. For the industry, the programme offers a continuous stream of

well-educated and skilled manpower leading to increased productivity, an opportunity for

branding and attracting potential recruits, and access to expertise from academia. For the

student, it is an opportunity to do engineering, for career planning, for overall personality

development, and an aid to a smooth transition to the profession. A spin-off benefit is a


significant number of pre-placement offers of employment. For the Institute, the programme

offers the means for its faculty members to engage with industry, obtain valuable feedback

on its educational programmes, and potentially build partnerships. An important

prerequisite, of course, is a significant commitment of faculty time and effort in this process of

education.

The model is one where there is a sustained and immersive industry experience for the

student, structured as it is in two stages of the educational process, the first an eight week

first exposure at the end of two years, and the second a twenty-two week engagement in a

live assignment, both organized in the industry premises, with the guidance and mentoring of

professional experts from the industry, and under the supervision and instruction provided by

faculty members.

It is a model worthy of study, adaptation, and adoption by other Institutions, and surely, BITS

Pilani will be ready to work with, and support other Institutions in creating their own versions. I

urge regulatory bodies and the government to take note so that we can spread this model to

other systems and institutions.

Recently we have concluded Mission 2015 under which various initiatives were taken; here

are some of the notable achievements:

· International studentadmission through an alternate procedure using SAT scores

has started. a

· Redesigned Performance Management System to be more comprehensive and

inclusive for faculty and staff a

· BITS faculty has started submitting multi-campus, multi discipline research

proposals to funding agencies. a

· Created a new channel for multi-level, deep engagement with industry called

Industry Day, where 5-6 companies spend a day at one of the BITS campuses to

understand various engagement opportunities availabl a

· Developed and launched our own open source MOOC platform based on Open

EdX; significantly enhanced high definition video conferencing facilities across all

campuses.e. a

· Set upTeaching Learning Centre at all campuses to help improve pedagogy and

instruction, and bring innovation into student learning. BITS Pilani is currently

engaging with IIT Kharagpur on contributing to developing suitable pedagogical


methods for various classes, intellectual calibres and research in e-Learning under

the NMEICT initiative.

We have recently started Prof L K Maheshwari Foundation award to honour the best

graduating male & female student of the year who have accomplished excellent academic

record along while showcasing leadership skills.

Let me share with you some of the laurels our faculty members and students have won.

Dr. Indresh Kumar, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Pilani Campus has won

the Indian Society of Chemists and Biologists YOUNG SCIENTIST AWARD 2016 in

Chemical Sciences.

Prof. Dalip Kumar has been awarded the Chemical Research Society of India (CRSI) Bronze thMedal - 2017 and the Professor R. D. Desai 80 Birthday Commemoration Medal & Prize by

Indian Chemical Society in 2016.

Prof. Sunil Bhand has received the Joseph Wang award for a novel fluorescence imaging

array device for aflatoxin analysis for his outstanding research work.

Prof. Suman Kapur has been awarded as one of 100 Women Achievers in the category of

Innovation Science and Technology.

Prof. Rahul Banerjee has been elected as the Senior member of IEEE in view of his research

accomplishments.

Avery Dennison Foundation has selected 10 students from five colleges for Avery Dennison

Foundation InvEnt Scholarship Program, in which six students of BITS Pilani, Pilani Campus

have been selected for 2016 Spirit of Invention (InvEnt) Scholarship Awards who will receive

US $1,300 scholarship to be used in their second year of study. Ms. Saima Rashid, a fresher

from Pilani campus, was awarded the prestigious Aditya Birla award.

There are more. We congratulate them heartily.

Let us spare a thought on research funding issues for a leading privately funded institute.

Competitive research grants from government agencies and the industry remains the

primary source apart from the institute's own support. Independent universities such as BITS

Pilani that are not publicly funded and that has the capability to do good research remain

vulnerable to spiraling costs, perception issues, absence of routine financial support for all

recruited research scholars as it exists in the IITs, IISERs and NITs, and difficulty to recruit


top individuals as research scholars and faculty members. While remaining aligned with the

national higher education agenda and vision, one could envisage an alternate model of

financing research in independent universities that are not publicly funded which are

competing with the best CFTIs. Government could consider outcome-based monitoring of all

higher education institutes against pre-fixed targets irrespective of their public/private

status. We urge the government to support in creation of centres of excellence in grand

challenge domains such as water, energy, environment, food, infrastructure, etc. ensuring

attributes such as translational research, industry engagement, innovation and

entrepreneurship, social engineering initiatives and its impact, admission quality of students

and long-term placement statistics. Funds could be earmarked based on dashboard

parameters or key performance metrics.

With a population of nearly 35,000, our students are the emerging leaders who will help

shape tomorrow's world employing game changing skills with a strong integrity and societal

values leading to an all-round winner.

I would like my faculty and staff to join me in congratulating all our students who will be

graduating today. We wish you every success as you enter this next exciting stage of your life

and career.

They say life is a journey ….

I hope that with the end of your tenure here in BITS you step onto the next part of your journey

in life as a more capable individual – equipped with a stronger foundation to build on. I urge

you to be an astute listener and an engaged learner lifelong. Do not limit your learning to the

grades, but use it to broaden your knowledge and insight. Let it guide you to be a better

individual. Whatever path you may choose in life, follow it with the fervour and passion of an

explorer – build on your strengths, work on your limitations and never leave your curiosity

aside.

Life has its own roller coaster ride and adversaries may come your way – do not lose heart -

every hurdle is a test to make you stronger. Stressors and adversaries may come your way –

but courage lies not in avoiding them, but dealing with them with optimism and rationale for a

better tomorrow. As the saying goes: the greatest glory is not in failing but rising every time

we fall.

You are young, energetic, and vivacious! You have the potential to change the world! You

have the power to bring a better tomorrow! You are and you will be what you want to be! We


believe in you, just believe in yourself. Let the world know your strengths – the blend of

empathy and intellect that you bear.

I thank you all for becoming a part of our community, please stay connected; if you do, we

both win. I congratulate you once again & Look forward to your successes in the years to

come. On a parting note, I would like to add that as a graduate and ambassador of BITS

Pilani, you are the torch bearer of a rich heritage. I believe that you, like many of your seniors,

will make us a few inches taller in pride.

They say life is a journey; your journey has just begun.

Shri Parrikar, we thank you once again for gracing this joyous event. My faculty, staff and

students are as grateful as I am.

Let me express thanks to our Chancellor and members of the Board of Governors for their

unflinching support to BITS Pilani.

Finally, I express my gratitude for my faculty and staff members for their commitment to excel

in every aspect of teaching and research, both in classrooms and laboratories and beyond.

They are ensuring that BITS Pilani remains a top destination for students, faculty members

and recruiters in India.

Thank you very much for your patient attention.

Souvik Bhattacharyya

Senior Professor & Vice Chancellor

Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani

Pilani | Dubai | Goa | Hyderabad


DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Chief Guest of today's Convocation, Honorable Defence Minister, Shri. Manohar Parrikar;

Respected Chancellor, Dr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, Vice Chancellor, Prof. Souvik

Bhattacharyya; Members of the Board of Governors; Directors; Members of the Senate;

distinguished guests; parents and relatives of the graduating students; students, faculty and

staff of K K Birla Goa campus; members of the press; and most importantly, the shining stars

of today –the graduating students from this campus;

A very good morning and a hearty welcome to all of you!

This year, 785 of our students are eligible to receive their degrees, 405 of them their first

degree; 169 of them their first degree along with another degree under the dual degree

scheme; 30 of them their higher degree; and 12 of them their PhD degree. In this batch, we

have four medalists: Gold medal — Ms. Vishakha Gupta, Silver medal – Mr. Shah Ujash

Dipakbhai and Bronze medals – Ms. Dave Mihika Himanshu and Ms. Vasundhara Bhargava.

At the outset, let me congratulate each and every one of you.

Our campus

This campus is the dream-come-true of our respected former Chancellor, Late Dr. K. K. Birla,

the son of the legendary Dr. G. D. Birla. Dr. K.K.Birla was a successful industrialist, a

renowned philanthropist and an active Parliamentarian. Known for his vision and meticulous

planning, Dr. Birla saw to it that the campus came up with all the necessary infrastructure in

two years time, well before admitting the first batch of 600 students in August 2004. This fully

residential campus has been built on an area of 180 acres with a capital investment of about

155 crores and has been named after him.

Prof. Sasikumar Punnekkat



Educational system

The Goa campus of BITS Pilani offers 10 first degree programmes, 5 higher degree

programmes and PhD programme. With an annual intake of 660 students, the campus now

has a total strength of about 2800 students. We have embarked upon an ambitious growth

plan over the next 3-4 years, wherein the student population as well as the faculty strength

will almost be doubled with added focus on post-graduate and research programmes.

Since the seventies, BITS had pioneered several educational reforms, such as semester

system, credit based system, transparent admission process, continuous and total internal

evaluation, letter grading, academic flexibilities which include the well known dual degree

scheme, periodic revision of curriculum in tune with the needs of industry and practice-

oriented learning apart from classroom teaching.

The BITS Practice School programme running for the past 4 decades is unique in this

country wherein students spend seven and a half months on projects in the industry. This

programme is an integral part of the curriculum enabling our students to practice what they

learn in the classrooms. Every semester, about 300 students of this campus are occupied in

about 50 locations supervised by an equal number of faculty members. We have been

fortunate to receive industrial patronage for this innovative programme and most of our

students receive generous stipends during this period.

A new PS-II station in Goa, Cipla Biotec was started in 2016, where the first batch of four ME

(Biotechnology) students went through an orientation programme and did couple of projects.

These projects were highly appreciated by the company, and all the four students were

offered PPO with approximately INR 5 Lakhs PA package.

In recent years, many of our students have been pursuing their thesis work either at our

research labs or in prestigious institutions of national and international repute, as an

alternative to Practice School. Students of this campus have been carrying out their thesis

work sat various prestigious Universities and Labs across the globe such as: Belgium:Vrije

University, Brussels, Canada: University of Montreal, University of British Columbia

Finland: Aalto University, France: INRIA, ENSTA Paris Tech, LIAFA University, Paris,

Telecom Paristech, TSI department, Paris Descartes University, Germany: IECR (Institute

of Energy and Climate Research), TU Darmstadt, University of Heidelberg, Technische

Universitat Munchen, Universitat Leipzig, Schoeller Water, RWTH Aachen Iceland:

Reykjavik University, India: IITs, IISC, TIFR, ISRO, IISERs, NPL, Microsoft Research labs,


Italy: University of Brescia, Netherlands: Delft University of Technology Portugal: IST,

Singapore: National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Spain:

University of Zaragoza, Sweden: Uppsala University, Switzerland: EPFL STI,

UK:University of Westminster, Imperial College and USA: Carnegie Mellon University,

University of Virginia, University of Michigan, University of Maryland, Georgia Institute of

Technology, University of California Davis, Vanderbilt University, MIT, Stevens Institute of

Technology, New Jersey.

Library

We have a substantial collection of more than 30,000 good reference books, 85% of the total

collection, mainly useful for research and encyclopedic reference, apart from the textbooks.

We subscribe to a carefully selected collection of journals and periodicals, both print and

online, and online libraries that also include conference proceedings and e-books. All the

reading spaces provided have very good wireless connectivity for sharing and collaboration,

and some tethered connectivity for speed. As part of making Library 'a happening place', we

have designed a new lounge with nice interiors, comfortable furniture and carpet flooring to

dampen sound thus facilitating discussions between students without disturbing those

outside the room.

New Initiatives

Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE) has an integrated structure

for academic and incubation services related to entrepreneurship at BITS Pilani across its 4

campuses. The mandate of the CIIE includes facilitating technology transfer and

commercialization, filing of patents, custodian of intellectual property of BITS, supporting

entrepreneurial activities and interfacing with alumni and industry for entrepreneurial

activities. In 2015-16, BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa campus had 4 start ups incubating

physically and 2 virtually in the on –campus TBI. Project Mudra, is a start-up associated with

Braille-based education for visually impaired people and offers innovative solutions for non-

visual data delivery to meet the growing accessibility needs of smart urban spaces. It is one

of 6 Indian companies to win the GREAT Tech Rocketships award 2016 (GTRS). Sattva Med

Tech founded in 2014 have developed Sattva Fetal Lite, a next-generation smartphone

integrated and portable fetal monitoring device which will address the issue of 300,000

annual perinatal deaths in India. This year they have obtained one patent and won the

YourStory Tech30 Startups and the Millennium Alliance Grant Award.Our faculty and

students have received 4 patents and have filed another 5 patent applications.


CIIE student Chapter of Goa campus held the annual National E-Summit: Coalescence in

September 2015.The aim of the event was to provide a platform for entrepreneurship ideas

and to receive funding and mentorship from renowned incubators and accelerators and to

provide an opportunity to interact with some successful entrepreneurs. Coalescence also

hosted its third annual conference, ACT 3.0. The conference was attended by over 2000

students and guests and speakers included innovators such as A. Muruganantham (listed by

'Time' as 100 most influential People in 2014), Vijay Nair- Founder of Only Much louder,

Rahul Yadav- Co Founder, Housing.com, TVF Pitchers–Team from the popular web series

on start up challenges, Hussain Zaidi- Investigative journalist, Indian Express and Actors

Taapsee Pannu and Rajat Kapoor.

The Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership (CEL) along with Alumni Affairs Division and

BITSAA International instituted the Mantra Awards. These awards are to recognize and

reward students who have demonstrated extraordinary leadership potential and/or

entrepreneurial initiative. This year's awards were given to the following: Mantra Award for

Outstanding Leadership: Anadi Rakesh, Mantra Entrepreneur of the Year Award: Prakhar

Sharma, Mantra Award for Social Leadership: Sanskriti Dawle, Mantra Innovator of the Year

Award: Aman Srivastava.

To keep the alumni of BITS connected to their alma mater and to maintain the unity and

strength of the vast alumni community, Alumni Affairs Division – Student Team Goa,

conducted the first Alumni Summit in August 2015, with several established alumni as

speakers.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has been conducting an outreach programme, and BITS Goa

was among those selected for this programme during 2015. A team of officers (headed by

Shri Sanjay Hansda) from the Reserve Bank visited the campus on 11 September 2015 and

delivered a presentation on the economy, its prospect and challenges, and on the working of

the Reserve Bank and answered the queries from audience comprised of faculty and

students .

Research at BITS

Research at BITS is an integral activity that encompasses teaching and utilizes its linkages

with the outside world of academia and Industry. A large number of students from all the

three-tiers are involved in research. Apart from Doctoral research, First degree and Higher

degree students can pursue research through thesis –cum –seminar and dissertation

courses respectively.


Research Highlights

· At present, the campus has 60 ongoing sponsored research projects including 6 industry

projects worth Rs. 15 Crores funded by various National and International funding

agencies. Among these research projects, 14 new projects worth Rs. 2.7 Crores have

been approved during 2015-16. Since 2010, about 105 sponsored projects worth Rs. 26

Crores have been received from the government and Industry.The funding agencies are

DST, CSIR, DBT, UKIERI, GAIL, ICAR, UGC- DAE, BRNS, DRDO, MOEF, The Swedish

Research Council, Ministry of Mines ICSSR, DSTE, Goa, Kurade Agro, ONGC, Hitachi,

Lockheed Martin, USA,, Accenture USA, Cipla Biotec Ltd. Goa, & Tea Board of India.

· BIRAC (Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council) has approved funding of

Rs. 304 Lakhs for setting up a world class Bio incubation centre named Bio-NEST (Bio

incubators nurturing Entrepreneurship at BITS Goa campus. The focus of the Bio

Incubator will be on Healthcare and Environmental Engineering.

· Under DST-FIST scheme, major infrastructural support worth Rs. 2.5 Crores was given

to Departments of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, EEE&I, Mechanical Engineering

and Mathematics.

· The research infrastructure at the campus was significantly enhanced during 2016 by

the commissioning of SEM and LCMS as part of the central instrumentation facility.

· A Cognitive Neuroscience Lab funded by DST was jointly set up by Dr. Veeky Baths

(Biological Sciences) & Prof. Bharat Deshpande (Computer Science)

· During 2015-16, 4 Indian patent applications and 1 International (UK) patent application

have been filed by faculty (Prof. Sunil Bhand, Prof. K R Anupama, Dr. Halan Prakash and

Dr. Pravin Singru) of which 3 are jointly with the Govt. of India (ICAR, DAE and GAIL).

· Some of our significant ongoing research projects include: Dr. Meenal Kowshik

(Biological Sciences), DST Nano mission, Rs. 39.64 lakhs, Dr. Veeky Baths (Biological

Sciences), DST,Rs. 38.50 lakhs, Dr. Gaurav Singh (Mechanical Engg.), Ministry of

Mines, Rs. 30 lakhs, Dr. A Prince (EEE&I), BRNS, Rs. 24 lakhs, Prof. Santonu Sarkar

(Computer Sci.), Accenture - USA, USD 25,000, Dr. Kundam Kumar (Biological

Sciences), CSIR, Rs. 20 lakhs and Dr. R P Pradhan (Humanities), ICSSR, Rs. 15 lakhs.


Collaborations

The Institute has collaborative arrangements with several foreign universities in order to

promote joint research activities and the exchange of faculty, students and research

publications. Notable among them is the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences,

Bethesda, Maryland, USA, Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l'Environnement, INRA,

Narbonne, France, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research, Leipzig, Germany and

Cypress Semiconductors, California, USA. National collaborations include Indian Naval

Academy, Ezhimala, Kerala, Goa state pollution control board (GSPCB), Hitachi India Pvt

Ltd, R.D. Aga Research Technology and Innovation Centre of Thermax Limited, M/s Kurade

Agro Goa and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited.

· To foster our collaborative research, 7 new MoUs were signed during 2015-16 with

University of Leeds UK, University of Tartu, Estonia, University of Perpignan, France,

CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography Goa, SIEMENS Technology Services Pvt. Ltd.

Bangalore, SKA Consortium and JSW Steel Limited Mumbai.

· The Goa Regional Centre of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers (IIChE) was

inaugurated by Prof. M. M. Sharma at BITS Pilani, K. K. Birla Goa Campus. IIChE

student chapter was also formed under the Goa Regional Centre.

· Indian Institute of Metals, Goa Regional Centre was constituted in July 2016 after an

initiative from BITS Goa faculty.

· Desalination Pilot plant was inaugurated by Mr. R.K. Kashyap, Executive director (R&D

and TQM) GAIL (India) Ltd.

· Goa campus in collaboration with French Embassy hosted Mr. Nicolas Hutchet who has

a prosthetic hand developed at Labfab, France.

· Mechanical Engineering Department developed a prosthetic hand in collaboration with

Labfab, France. Thomas Meghe, Research Engineer from Labfab, France visited BITS

Goa during November 2015.

Achievements

Since 2011, researchers from Goa campus have authored 700+ research publications.

During 2015, our researchershave published 169 articles inpeer-reviewed journals and 13

book chapters.So far, 44 Ph.D. students graduated from the Goa Campus and the number of


Ph.D. students currently registered is 200.

Many of our faculty members have brought laurels to this campus through their

academicand research endeavors- some examples are:

· Prof. Sunil Bhand received the Joseph Wang Award from Cognizure publishers in

recognition of his outstanding research work.

· Prof. Srikanth Mutnuri has received three projects funded by International agencies

CEFIPRA (France), German Technical Cooperation (GIZ) and the prestigious Bill and

Melinda Gates Foundation collaborative research grant with CALTECH, USA.

· Prof. Srikanth Mutnuri and Dr. Anasuya Ganguly's Start up Bactreat Environmental

Solutions LLP was awarded DBT BIRAC Sparsh grant for the project titled “Resource

recovery from septage”.

· Prof. Santonu Sarkar organized the first workshop on Software Engineering Methods for

Parallel and High Performance Applications (SEM4HPC), Kyoto, Japan, May 31, 2016,

which was collocated with the prestigious 25th International Symposium on High

Performance Parallel and Distributed Computing. Prof. Santonu Sarkar received USD

25000/- from Accenture University Grant committee for the project titled “A cost-

effectiveapproach of making software dependable”, other recipients being from

Stanford, CMU, Purdue, Georgia Tech, University of Barcelona, IIT-M and IISC

Bangalore.

· Prof. Narendra Nath Ghosh of the Department of Chemistry has received Visiting

Professorship from University of Leeds, UK. Prof. Narendra Nath Ghosh received the

Newton Research Collaboration Programme award jointly with Professor Gerard Franklyn

Fernando University of Birmingham, UK. This award is funded by The Royal Academy

of Engineering (UK).K.

· Prof. Ranjan Dey has been appointed as Visiting Associate Professor at National Taiwan

University of Science and Technology and taught a Course titled “ Solution

Thermodynamics and its Applications to Electrochemical Systems” to higher degree

students in Jun- July 2016.

· Prof. Narendra Nath Ghosh and Prof. Halan Prakash of Department of Chemistry have

received Visiting Scholar award for teaching in Erasmus Mundus Joint Master Degree

programme EACH - Excellence in Analytical Chemistry in University of Tartu, Estonia.


· Prof. William Henry Spates joined the HSS department in October 2015 as the first

international faculty among all HSS departments across the University.

· Prof. Meenakshi Raman (HSS) received the Outstanding Paper award for her research

paper in the area of Soft Skills at the ICMIS, Bangkok during September 2015. Prof.

Meenakshi Raman (HSS) received Industrial consultancy of Rs. 6.5 lakhs from

Ms. Cipla Biotec, Goa.

· Dr. Shashidhara Kotian (EEE) received the M K. POSOCO Power System Award -2016

· Dr. Asima Shaukat received 'Early Career Research (ECR) Award' under DST-SERB

(Rs 60 Lakhs).

· Dr. Jegatha Nambi Krishnan received 'Early Career Research (ECR) Award' under DST-

SERB (Rs 49 Lakhs).

· Ms. Mouna H. M. received 'Late Lakshmi Nandakumar Award of the Institute' for best

presentation in SCHEMCON 2015.

· Mr. Solano Da Silva of Department of Humanities and Social Sciences received a grant

from Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi to conduct a Research

Study on 'Land dispossession for a golf Course in Tiracol Goa' .

Patents Granted

· Method and system for analyzing an extent of speedup achievable for an application in a

heterogeneous system- S Mitra, S Sarkar, US Patent US9223571 B2

· System and Method for detecting and preventing service level agreement violation in a

virtualized environment-- R Ganesan, S Sarkar, A Roy, US Patent 20,150,372,878

· System and method for job scheduling optimization-- S Sarkar, N Tewari, R Bhose, US

Patent App. 13/554,615

· A method, system and computer readable medium for providing a scalable bio-

informatics sequence search on cloud-- Shyam Kumar Doddavula, Madhavi Rani,

Anirban Ghosh, Akansha Jain, Santonu Sarkar, Mudit Kaushik, and Harsh Vachhani, US

Patent App. US 13/495,753

Patents Filed

· A biochip device for screening of infectious diseases has been developed jointly by Prof.


Sunil Bhand of the Department of Chemistry BARC DAE Govt of India and MGM

Mumbai. Indian Patent Application No. 3620/MUM/2015 dated 23-Sep-2015.

· Prof Sunil Bhand has also filed one UK Patent application for a device for detection of

mycotoxins. United Kingdom 07.10.2015 Patent Application No. 1517725.6 funded

through ICAR project.

· Dr. Halan Prakash, along with Phd Scholars Parakh Priyadarshini and Subramanian

Gokulakrishnan from the Department of Chemistry and Dr. Panzade Prasad from Aditya

Birla Science & Technology Company has filed for 'Supported metal complex as photo

bactericidal agent' Application no. 201611017381, 18 May 2016, The Indian Patent

Office.

· Dr. Singru Pravin of the Department of Electrical Engineering along with

students Gupta Appurv, Kalola Meet Govindbhai and Bana Ankit from Department of

Mechanical Engineering BITS Pilani - Goa Campus has filed a patent for 'Human

powered multi-purpose machine'.

Notable visits for collaborations

Several of our faculty members have presented their research findings and participated in

international conferences at USA, The Netherlands, Italy, Japan and Bangkok.

A number of international dignitaries visited the campus. Notable amongst them are Prof.

Graeme Fairweather, Executive Editor, Mathematical Reviews, American Mathematical

Society, U.S.A, and Prof. Ross King, University of Manchester, UK.

· A delegation from Memorial University, Canada, visited the Department of Chemical

Engineering for collaborative research and academic activities.

· A delegation from Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Sweden visited Goa campus

during Jan 2016 to explore research and educational collaboration opportunities

· Philippines Ambassador, Her Excellency Ma. Teresita C. Daza, and a delegation visited

BITS Goa campus in April 2016

· A collaboration proposal of Mälardalen University, Sweden (MDH) with BITS-Pilani had

been selected under the Linnaeus Palme Program of Swedish Government to promote

international exchanges within the computer science and related disciplines.

Dr. Radu Dobrin from MDH visited BITS- Goa campus during April 2016 and BITS Team


visited MDH in July 2016 to explore possibilities of student/teacher exchanges.

· A delegation from University of Aviero & University of Porto, Portugal visited the campus

during July 2016 to explore potential venues for collaborations.

· Under the University Immersion Programme, Dr. Sachin Waigaonkar (Mechanical

Engineering) visited Poznan University of Technology, Poland to conduct research in the

area of Rotational Moulding and Polymer Composites at the Institute of Materials

Technology. Dr. Anil Kumar (Mathematics) visited University of Newcastle, Australia to

research on numerical computation of optimal control problems.

· Under the Industry Immersion Programme, Dr. Amalin Prince (EEE&I) visited the

Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar; Dr. Mainak Banerjee visited Syngenta

Bioscience Pvt. Ltd., Goa and Dr. Amrita Chatterjee visited National Institute of

Oceanography, Goa.

Conferences and workshops

A number of conferences and workshops were hosted at Goa campus during 2015 –16:

· A two-day workshop on Modern Underwater Systems was organized by BITS Goa

campus and CSIR-NIO, Goa, covering all aspects of underwater/ocean systems in

August 2015.

· EURAXESS Information Session was jointly organized by Department of Economics,

and International Programmes and Collaboration division during September 2015. The

next edition of the EURAXESS Science Slam India will be organized in partnership with

BITS Pilani in addition to IndiaBioscience and NufficNeso India-Study in Holland.

· The second edition of tiNai Eco Film Festival (TEFF) and national conference on Eco

Cinema were held in October 2015.

· A two – day workshop on “Recent Trends in Automobiles" was conducted by Department

of Mechanical Engineering for students and faculty of all disciplines in October 2015.

The workshop served as a comprehensive forum with live demonstrations on engines.

· Terra Preta Sanitation & Decentralised waste water system conference was held in

November 2015 sponsored by German Technical Cooperation (GIZ),DST and DBT.

· The Conference on 'New Frontiers In Chemistry - From Fundamentals To Applications'

was hosted by the Department of Chemistry in December 2015. This conference

covered a wide range of contemporary research areas of chemistry including Synthetic

Methodologies, Green Chemistry and Environmental Science.

· The first international conference on 'Trends in Cell and Molecular Biology' (TCMB 2015)

was organized by the Department of Biological Sciences in December 2015.

· The 2nd INDO- UK International workshop on Advanced Materials and their applications

in Nanotechnology (AMAN 2016) was held in January 2016.This workshop was a part of

ongoing Indo- UK project sponsored by DST-UKIERI.

· The BIRAC workshop on Bio-Entrepreneurship, grant-writing & intellectual property

management was organized by the Department of Biological Sciences, SRCD and CIIE i n

February 2016.

· The 9th ACM India Software Engineering Conference was organized by the Department

of Computer Science in Feb 2016 at the BITS Goa campus.

· The Department of Chemistry organized a Technical Session titled “Chemistry &

Industry- An Outlook” in August 2015.

· Department of Mechanical Engineering conducted a two- day PRO-E Creo training

workshop in September 2015.

· The Department of Mathematics, organized a 3 day workshop on “Number Theory and

Cryptography” in December 2015.

· Department of Physics organized IUCAA workshop on observational astronomy in

March 2016.

· The Department of Humanities and Social sciences organized a Workshop on Script

Writing and Film Making in March 2016.

· A Workshop on “MATLAB” was organized in March2016 .

· Department of EEE conducted a 5-day Workshop on EDA tools titled "Workshop on

Cadence, Mentor Graphics & Synopsis" in May 2016. The major sponsor was DSTE,

Govt. of Goa, and technically sponsored by IEEE Bombay Section.

Students achievements

Our students have always enjoyed a pride of place in our success by winning honors in

various spheres. Often we find number of students opting for internships abroad (France,


Germany, and USA) out of their own initiatives, during the summer of their third year. They

participate in various competitions and win accolades for the campus. Some of the

significant achievements of the students for the year 2015-16 are:

· Varsheeth Talluri (2013A7PS045G) Summer Research Internship at the University of

Southern California, Los Angeles, under the Viterbi-India Program, 2016. This program i s

a fully funded internship organised by Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF),

wherein 20 students from all over India are selected for the same. He worked o n a

Computer Vision & Machine Learning project titled 'Blot Image Analysis and

Extraction'.

· A team headed by Sumit Jain (2013A4PS385G) attended SAE-SUPRA India held at

Buddh International Circuit, Noida in July 2015.The team haddesigned and built a

Formula one type car in our workshop during the year.The total budget of the project was 9

lakhs.

· Parth Madan, Kartik Aggarwal, Shourya Bose, and Sagar Bildani participated in global

social enterprise business model challenge called the HULT Prize supported by the

Clinton Global Initiative in March 2016. They were the campus winners of the HULT Prize

at BITS Pilaniand at the Hult Business School, Dubai.

· B Rachith Aiyappa (2014B5A4469G) won the Men's Singles and Doubles Lawn Tennis

event conducted by Cidade De Goa in association with the Goa State Tennis Association

(GSTA ) in Feb 2016.

· Kartik Sathyanarayanan secured an internship at INRIA, Rennes in France, which is

anacclaimed research organization specializing in Computer Science research. He won

the Charpak Research Internship Scholarship funded by the French Government.

· Om Prakash Chouhan (PhD Scholar, Biological Sciences) was awarded the DAAD

Sandwich Fellowship for carrying out part of his Ph.D. work in Max Delbruck Centre,

Berlin from 1st August 2016.

· The project idea '"HITCH: An interactive platform that facilitates communication, remote

control and local positioning/tracking system for mobile devices" done by the students:

Akshay Sonandkar, Yash Bardapurkar and Vandan Phadke was selected for Prof.

Suresh Ramaswamy Memorial Award 2015-16.


· Our alumnus Mr. Satish Sankaralingam initiated a research scholarship for BE students

and an amount of Rs. 15,000/- was awarded to Praneet Bhatia, AmanSri vastava,

Sanskriti Dawle and Ankur Omar as recognition of their research work.

· 23 students were selected for Google Summer of Code (GSoC) 2016 from our Goa

campus. Our Campus is also among the top 5 for most number of selections worldwide.

· Mr. Raghav Choudhary, student of B.E. (Electronics & instrumentation) secured all India

rank 5 in GATE-2016.

· Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), Robocon and Aerodynamics-club teams have

participated in multiple national level events

Apart from their scholastic records, students of Goa campus are actively involved in various

extracurricular activities: Three festivals, namely, Waves (cultural), Quark (Techno-

management) and Spree (Sports) are all organized by students at the All-India level with a

host of interesting and challenging events. Students also demonstrate their sensitivity to the

needs of society by organizing social service activities through two forums, Nirman and

Abhigyan.

BITS Pilani is at an important stage of growth and all the faculty, staff and students at the Goa

Campus are geared up to meet the challenges in achieving our Vision 2020. The growing

profile of achievements of our faculty and students, increased national and international

focus on collaborating with our campus, together with the dynamic leaderships of our

Chancellor and Vice-chancellor, make us absolutely confident of reaching higher heights in

terms of educational, scientific and technological excellence in the years to come.

The graduating students; All of you are capable of excelling in your careers and future

endeavors and I am sure that you will bring laurels to self, your families, BITSPilani and our

nation. Let me wish you all the very best in your lives and careers.

Sasikumar Punnekkat

Senior Professor & Director

Birla Institute of Technology and Science

KK Birla Goa Campus


INTRODUCTION TO THE CHIEF GUEST

Shri Manohar Parrikar is currently the Hon'ble Defence Minister of India. Born in Mapuca in

North Goa, he studied at Loyola High School, Margao and did a BTech in Metallurgical

Engineering from IIT Bombay in 1978. Following graduation, he returned to Goa and entered

into the manufacturing business.

He is the first IITian Chief Minister ever in the country; he became the Chief Minister of Goa in

October 2000. He was first elected to the Legislative Assembly of the State of Goa in 1994.

He was the leader of the opposition from June to November 1999. He is credited with

bringing the IFFI (International Film Festival of India) to Goa single handedly, and creating

international quality infrastructure in Goa for the event in a short time. IFFI now has become

an annual fixture in Goan life, providing it the world attention.

As Chief Minister, he is credited with bringing about innovative social upliftment schemes

that benefited spectrum of Goan population:

· Dayanand Samajik Suraksha Yojana (DSSY), which provides financial assistance to

senior citizens, widows and specially-abled persons by way of assured monthly

p e n s i o n . a .

· Student education by means of interest free loans, · a

The Cyberage Scheme which provides computers to students thus ushering in a

tech-ready student community · a

Kamdhenu Scheme for increasing yield of Milk · a

CM Rozgar Yojana (CMRY) for providing low interest loans to individuals to start

their own enterprise.

Shri Manohar Parrikar

Hon'ble Defence Minister of India


Acknowledging his pioneering work, which put Goa on a path of development, the Best Chief

Minister award was conferred on him in 2004 by India Today and Goa received the award for

the Best Governed State in India for three years in a row in independent surveys of the

Planning Commission of India and India Today. He received the CNN IBN Indian of the Year

award in 2012.

Widely respected even amongst his rivals, he is known to be a man of action and principles.


DISTINGUISHED ALUMNUS AWARD 2016

Prof. Alok Choudhary received his BE (Hons) in Electrical and Electronics Engineering

degree from BITS Pilani in 1982. He obtained his Masters in Computer Engineering degree

from University of Massachusetts, USA in 1986. He received his Doctoral Degree in

Electrical and Computer Engineering in 1989 from University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign,

USA.

At Northwestern University, USA, Prof. Choudhary is currently the Henry and Isabella Dever

Professor at Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, McCormick

School of Engineering and Applied Sciences; Professor at technology Industry Management

and Marketing, Kellogg School of Management and Director for Center for Ultra-Scale

Computing and Information Security (CUCIS). He is also the Founder, Chairman and Chief

Scientist of 4 Cinsights, a big-data science and social media analytics company.

Prof. Choudhary was a co-founder and VP of Technology of Accelchip Inc., in 2000, which

was eventually acquired by Xilinx. He also served as the chair of Electrical Engineering and

Computer Science department from 2007 to 2011. From 1989 to 1996, he was on the faculty

of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at Syracuse University. He served

as a Member of the National Academy of Science's committee on "Impact of High-End

Computing on Sciences", which was formed on behalf of the office of Science of the U.S.

government and various federal agencies to identify critical areas of HEC for solving most

important scientific problems.

Prof. Choudhary has consulted for many companies including Itel, IBM, ZS Associates,

Microsoft, Sun, Microsystems, Southwest Airlines, Publics Groupe, etc. He has served on

the board/TABs of many companies and his work has appeared in New York Times, Chicago

Prof. Alok Choudhary


Tribune, The Telegraph and many international media outlets all over the world. He is a fellow

of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), ACM (Association of

Computing Machinery) and AAAS (American Academy of Advancement of Science).

Prof. Choudhary has published more than 400 papers in various journals and conferences,

holds multiple patents and has graduated 35+ PhD students. He has received numerous

awards including Excellence in Research, Teaching and Service Award, McCormick School

of Engineering, Northwestern University in 2006, IBM Faculty Development Award in 1994 &

2005, Intel Research Council Award for the years 1993-1997 & 2003-2005.

The Distinguished Alumnus Award in the Category of Academic Teaching and Research is

awarded to Prof. Alok Choudhary in recognition of his outstanding contributions to

dissemination and creation of knowledge and his services to his profession and the society

at large. Through his achievements, Prof. Alok Choudhary has brought glory to the name of

institute.



Prof. Gattamraju Ravindra Kumar received his BE (Hons.) in Mechanical Engineering and

MSc (Hons.) in Physics form BITS Pilani in 1983. He obtained his Doctoral degree in Physics

from IIT Kanpur in 1990. He is currently a Senior Professor at the Department of Nuclear and

Atomic Physics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai.

Prof. Kumar has established a strong laboratory for studying the physics of hot dense matter

produced by ultra-short laser pulses at TIFR, where his studies span different areas of

nonlinear optics and interaction of very intense light beams with matter. His notable findings

include the first demonstration of ultra-short, giant magnetic pulses in dense solid plasmas,

enhancement of hard X-ray emission from nanostructured surfaces, real-time

demonstration of wave breaking in plasmas, and demonstration of novel experimental

strategies for in situ monitoring of transport of fast electrons in dense, hot matter.

Prof. Kumar has been instrumental in setting up a highly competitive, internationally visible

experimental research programme in India. His laboratory at TIFR was the first to observe

and quantity turbulent magnetic fields created by instabilities of high current electron beams

driven by the laser pulse. His research has significant implications for laboratory testing of

astrophysical scenarios like supernova explosions and high energy particle production.

Prof. Kumar has over 150 publications in peer reviewed international journals, three review

articles and a book chapter to his credit and has also mentored a dozen PhD students so far.

He received the BM Birla Prize for Physics in 2000, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for

Physics in 2003, a Salute Mumbai Award in 2005, a DAE-SRC Outstanding Research

Investigator Award in 2006 and the Infosys Prize in Physical sciences in 2015.

Prof. Kumar has been a J.C. Bose Fellow since 2010. He was elected a Fellow of the Indian

Prof. G Ravindra Kumar


Academy of Sciences in 2004 and of the Indian National Science Academy in 2008. He is

Life Member of Indian laser Association, the Plasma Science Society of India, the Indian

Society of Atomic and Molecular Physics and the American Physical Society and member of

the Optical Society of America. He is on the Executive Committee of the International

Committee on Ultra Intense Lasers (ICUIL) and co-chaired the biennial ICUIL conference in

2014.

The Distinguished Alumnus Award in the Category of Academic Teaching and Research is

awarded to Prof. Ravindra Kumar in recognition of his outstanding contributions to

dissemination and creation of knowledge and his services to his profession and the society

at large. Through his achievements, Prof. G. Ravindra Kumar has brought glory to the name

of institute.



Mr. Mathew Cherian received his BE in Civil Engineering degree from BITS Pilani in 1980.

He obtained his Post Graduate in Rural Management from IRMA, Gujrat. He is currently the

CEO of HelpAge India which works for the cause and care of disadvantaged older persons to

improve their quality of life. he is also a fellow from the Advocacy Institute, Washington DC.

Inspired by Baba Amte, Mr. Cherian started his journey as a social worker and worked in rural

areas. He was soon approached by Oxfam, a UK charity fighting global poverty, to take

charge as its director of central India. He worked in tribal areas and became the International

Director of Oxfam. It was then that the President of HelpAge India wanted him to head the

non-profit organization for the aged, following which he joined as the CEO of the organization

in 2004.

As a CEO, Mr. Cherian has impacted 24 million elderly in the last 10 years and has also built

up an Age Care Centre in Pilani. he has worked in the area of rural development with

cooperatives, in association with the National Dairy Development Board. He was a

consultant to voluntary agencies and to the National Wastelands Development Board. He is

the Founder of Association of Third Sector researchers in India, Resource Mobilization

Network in India, Campaign for Human Rights (Dalits and Tribals), Credibility Alliance and

Charities Aid Foundation in India.

Mr. Cherian has spoken at BITS Global Meet and World Economic Forum on Ageing and

many international/national conferences on ageing. His further assignments include the post

of Director, Oxfam, UK and India, Programme Director, South Asia, Plan International, and

Country Representative, Charities Aid Foundation. He serves on the international boards of

HelpAge International and Guide Star International, He also serves on the Indian boards of

Mr. Mathew Cherian


CARE India, Royal Commonwealth Society of the Blind and with the National Foundation of

Communal Harmony. He is a member of the National Council of Senior citizens, the highest

policy making body for the elderly.

Mr. Cherian has written a book: "A million missions" on the nonprofit sector and has been

instrumental in creating approximately 1000 jobs for elderly post retired people. He provides

health care to more than 1.25 million destitute elderly every year and has created

accountability standards. He was awarded "Vayoshreshta Samman" for providing services

to the senior citizens by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, received Times of

India "Social Impact Award" for extensive work in Mobile Medicare, received "Global CDR

Excellence Leadership Award" from ABP News.

The Distinguished Alumnus Award in the Category of Social Entrepreneurship is awarded to

Mr. Mathew Cherian in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the society. Through

his achievement Mr. Mathew Cherian has brought glory to the name of the institute.



Mr. N.S. Parthasarathy received his Masters in Mathematics degree from BITS Pilani in

1983. He obtained his MTech in Computer Science degree from IIT Kharagpur, India in

1984.He has done an Advanced Management Program in 2010 from Harvard Business

School. He is the Co-founder, President ,COO and Board Member of Mindtree Limited, a

new generation IT Services Company.

Mr. Parthasarathy Started his career in Wipro"s R&D where he handled various technical

roles. After a long stint of 15 years in Wipro, he along with a few others started Mindtree

Limited. In a short span of 16 years, Mindtree has achieved a coveted spot as seen from

many angles: Revenues rose from zero to approximately US s715 million (approx ,INR 4,755

Crores), created direct jobs for over 16,000 globally, with a majority of them in India ,was

ranked as the 7th largest IT Services Company and was well Known for the high standards of

Corporate governance and transparency.

Mindtree was listed on the stock market in March-2007 and its current market cap is approx.

US $1.7 billion. He strongly believes that the engineers of tomorrow need to have a different

mindset and to achieve that he has personally been involved in setting a Global Learning

Centre for Mindtree in Bhubaneswar which is a one of its kind in terms of creating the

Engineers of tomorrow. In addition he has been actively involved in Mindtree Foundation, the

CSR arm of Mindtree which has been focusing on specific areas and has already made a

significant impact. The focus areas of Mindtree foundation are: primary education, livelihood

and helping differently-abled people.

Mr. Parthasarathy is passionate about education, sports and IT services Industry. He serves

on the NASSCOM IT services Council and is a Founder Trustee of India Amateurs Runners

Mr. N.S. Parthasarathy


Trust to promote runners from underprivileged parts of society. He is also on the Board of

WhiteSwan Foundation to create awareness on Mental Health Issues which works along

with Mana Mali in BITS Pilani campuses to create awareness of mental health among

students.

Mindtree was named in Forbes India's first ever Super 50 list based on consistent

shareholder returns, sales growth and return on equity, was ranked #1 under the categories

"Best Managed IT/Software/Technology Company in Asia" and "Best Managed Company in

India" for 2013 by Euromoney's Annual Asia Company Ranking, won "Most Promising

Company of the Year" Award from CNBC TV18 in 2013, was selected by Forbes Asia as on of

the "200 Best Under A Billion companies" of 2012, was positioned as the third leading

semiconductor R&D service provider in a survey conducted by Zinnov Management

Consulting that covered India, China, Russia and Eastern Europe and Texas Instruments

2008 Supplier Excellence Award - the first Indian company to win this award.

The Distinguished Alumnus Award in the Category of Entrepreneurship is awarded to Mr.

N.S. Parthasarathy in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the society. Through his

achievement Mr. N.S. Parthasarathy has brought glory to the name of the institute.


LIST OF STUDENTS WHO ARE AWARDED MEDALS

Sl.No

Name and ID No. Photograph CGPAobtained

Positionobtained

Type ofMedal to

be awarded

1

2

VISHAKHA GUPTA

2011B5A3258G

SHAH UJASH

DIPAKBHAI

2012A4TS134G

DAVE MIHIKA

HIMANSHU

2012A3TS163G

9.76

9.66

FIRST

SECOND

GOLD

SILVER

3 9.60 THIRD BRONZE

VASUNDHARA

BHARGAVA

2012A7PS487G

4 9.60 THIRD BRONZE


th thGRADUATION DATA (78 and 79 AWARD)

BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus

CONVOCATION 2016

M.E.Biotechnology

M.E. Chemical

M.E. Embedded Systems

M.E. Software Systems

M.E. Microelectronics

Chemical Engineering

Electrical & Electronics

Engineering

Electronics & Instrumentation

Mechanical Engineering

Computer Science

Information Systems

Biological Sciences

Chemistry

Economics

Mathematics

Physics

ProgrammesB.E./B.Pharm.

(Hons.)S. No.

M.Sc.

(Hons.)

M.Sc.

(Tech.)H.D Ph.D. Total

73 - - - - 73

109 - - - 2 111

112 - 112

116 - - - 2 118

116 - - - - 116

- - 43 - - 43

- 32 - - 4 36

- 34 - - 3 37

- 41 - - - 41

- 35 - - - 35

- 32 - - 1 33Physics

- - - 7 - 7

- - - 4 - 4

- - - 5 - 5

- - - 8 - 8

526 174 43 30 12 785

- - - 6 - 6


th th78 and 79 Award

CONVOCATION - 20167th August, 2016

LIST OF STUDENTS RECOMMENDED FOR CONFERMENT OF VARIOUS DEGREESBITS PILANI, K K BIRLA GOA CAMPUS


“On this solemn occasion, Convocation 2016 at Goa and in the

presence of my teachers and family, I pledge to use my

knowledge and experience gained at BITS Pilani and

elsewhere in the service of the people of my country and of the

world. I will do so while adhering to the highest ethical

standards, in harmony with the environment, and with utmost

humility, honesty and devotion, and thereby bring glory to my

family, my Alma mater, my profession, and my country.”

Oath

leadinnovate achievevate

Phone: +91 832 2580139www.bits-goa.ac.in

Birla Institute of Technology & Science, PilaniK K Birla Goa Campus NH 17B, Zuarinagar, Goa, India.

convocation 2016 - birla institute of technology and ...27 pm the convocation is dissolved by the...

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