Newsletter:February2010b
From IIITM-k-wiki
Contents |
IIITM-K : Knowledge partner for Conference on IT in Agriculture
Group of Technopark Companies (G-TECH) has organised one day Conference on "Re-Engineering the Kerala Agriculture Sector: Information and Communication Technologies in Agriculture" on 22nd of January 2010 at Travancore Hall, Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram. The conference was organised by G-Tech in partnership with NABARD, Kerala State IT Mission, Technopark and Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management in Kerala as the knowledge partner. IIITM-K was chosen as the knowledge partner, in consideration to several innovative ICT enabled agricultural Information systems developed at IIITM-K.
The conference was Inaugurated by Sri. Mullakkara Ratnakaran, Hon. Minister for Agriculture, Govt. of Kerala. While Inaugurating the minister said that IT should be made farmer friendly and should empower farmers and Government will support any initiative in this regard. In his special address, Dr. Ajay Kumar IAS, Principal Secretary IT, Government of Kerala highlighted that one of the areas where IT can be beneficially applied is agriculture but the challenge remains that the lowest level of IT implementation is in agriculture. He highlighted Kissan Kerala, the award winning project conceived and implemented by IIITM-K for the state of Kerala. As part of the conference, IIITM-K has set up stall on Kissan Kerala project and showcased several ICT enabled services that IIITM-K offers for the farmers.
Research Fellowship leading to Ph.D under SPEED-IT
Government of Kerala has introduced "SPEED IT Research Fellowship" for postgraduates to undertake research in IT related topics in Engineering sciences. IIITM-K is chosen as an institution to accept students for the PhD programme. Each selected student is eligible for a monthly fellowship of Rs 14,000/- for the first year, Rs 15,000/- for the second year and Rs 17,000/- for the third year. The scholarship shall be available to full time scholars and the grant will be for three years. Students must register for Ph.D in one of the Universities in Kerala, under an approved guide of the University. More details are available at www.iiitmk.ac.in.
IEEE Accepts research paper
Shri Sanil Shankar, a Student pursuing PhD under Kerala University has returned from University of York, UK after 10 months research work under the EURECA scholarship programme. His research work resulted in a research paper co-authored by Dr. Elizabeth Sherly, and Prof. Jim Austin of University of York. The paper titled "An Algorithm for Alignment-free Sequence Comparison using Logical Match" has been chosen for oral presentation at ICCAE 2010 to be held between 26 - 28, February 2010, Singapore. The ICCAE 2010 is sponsored by IACSIT, IEEE Computational Society, and IEEE. The paper will be included in the conference proceeding, and will be listed in IEEE Xplore and ISI Proceeding(ISTP).
Panel Discussion
Dr. C.S.P. Iyer, Emeritus Professor, speaking at the Panel discussion on Biotechnology, on Tuesday, the 5th of January, as a part of the 97th Indian Science Congress, held at the Kerala University Campus, Kariyavattam, emphasized the need to use Biotechnology to tap the rich living resources of the aquatic bodies.. Particularly he pointed out that recent studies have shown that Algae could be made to yield Petroleum. However, it is necessary to use biotechnology effectively to improve the yield. In passing, he mentioned that a complete database is still not available covering the 300,000 plant species and 30,000 vertebrates species reported in literature, as existing on land. This does not include invertebrates, which is still not documented properly. Similar is the case for those living resources of the aquatic bodies. Urgent attention is required on the important aspects of documentation and building databases
The panelists included Prof. G.M. Nair, University of Kerala, Dr. Vijay Farida, M.S. Swaminathan Foundation and Dr. Nanda Kumar, Himalya Drug Co.
Short courses
IIITM-K has planned a short term course on Systems and Network Administration of two weeks duration in March 2010. The course would benefit fresh graduates (B Tech / MCA / MSc (IT / CS / ECE) who wish to take up career as Systems & Network Administrators. Detailed information on course and for registration visit : www.iiitmk.ac.in
IIITM-K organises Soft Skills and Professional Development Program
IIITM-K organised a two-day training program on Soft Skills and Professional Development by Dr. Venu Reddy,MD,MRCP and Life Skills expert, USA for Postgraduate Diploma in E-Governance (PGDeG) students from Jan 18-19, 2010 in IIITM-K.
Invited Talks
- Dr. Elizabeth Sherly, Director, IIITM-K has delivered an invited talk on Fractal Neural Networks approach to Image processing at NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON ADVANCED COMPUTING (NCAC-’10) , at Union College, Alwaye on January 20, 2010 .
- Mr. Ajith Kumar. R, Project Coordinator of Kissan Kerala has delivered an invited talk on ICT enabled Agricultural Extension Services : A kissan Kerala Approach at the conference on Re-Engineering the Kerala Agriculture Sector: Information and Communication Technologies in Agriculture on 22nd of January 2010 at Travancore Hall, Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala
Seminars
- 08 January 2010: Seminar on "Software Estimation" by Prof. Clif Kussmaul, Visiting Fulbright-Nehru Scholar in Computer Science and Bioinformatics at the University of Kerala,Karyavattom.
- 15 January 2010: Seminar on "Ecological Informatics initiatives in IIITM-K" by Dr. R. Jaishanker, Asst. Professor, IIITM-K,Nila,Technopark Campus, Trivandrum.
- 22 Jan. 2010: Seminar on "Entrepreneurship Development" Mr. C. Chandrasekharan Nair, CFO & Programme Co-ordinator New Initiatives, Technopark, Secretary and Registrar, Technopark - TBI.
Visitors
- Prof. Liginlal Divakaran, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Associate professor at Carneige Mellon University visited IIITM-K on Jan 2, 2010. Dr. Elizabeth Sherly, Director, IIITM- K gave an Introduction to the Institute Academic and Research activities and discussions were held with IIITM-K Faculty and staff on possible areas for collaboration.
- Prof. P.S. Ramakrishnan, Emeritus Professor, JNU, New Delhi and Chairman Advisory Council, School of Ecological Informatics at IIITM-K visited the Institute and reviewed the progress of the M.Phil in Ecological Informatics programme and also interacted with the students.
