She leads the Emerging Technologies Wing of the Information Technologies, Electronics, and Communication Department (ITE&C) of the government of Telangana, India. Her role is to formulate and execute policy frameworks in frontier technologies such as AI, Blockchain, Cloud, Drones, Cyber Security, and others that would create a conducive ecosystem for the growth of emerging technologies in the State; and to build institutions of excellence and assist the government in leveraging technologies to create impact and improve lives. She was instrumental in setting up institutions of Excellences or CoEs in Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, eWaste, and Additive Manufacturing. She also had a brief stint with start-ups in Silicon Valley, US. She holds a Post Graduate Degree in Environmental Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University and an Executive Program in Business Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata. Recipient of the Digital India Award from the Hon’ble President of India for implementing Machine Learning based Nutrient Management solution that helps farmers. Received the Women Achiever’s award from the Government of Telangana State in 2022. She is responsible for implementing several innovative projects that use emerging technologies, just to name a few – ‘Medicine from the Sky’ which delivers vaccines and medicines using drones, Blockchain for traceability of seeds and food products, smart phone based evoting that uses AI and blockchain. Deployed an AI pest Management tool that helped farmers to prevent significant damage to crops, increasing their income and thereby improving their livelihoods. She is heading the Web 3.0 Regulatory Sandbox to help startups navigate the regulatory landscape. Prior to joining (ITE&C Dept.) she worked at National Institute for Smart Government (NISG) and was involved in a number of e-Governance projects that were crucial in bringing in reforms and transformation in various domains such as Health, Visa-Immigration, Civil Aviation etc, She was involved in the implementation strategy of the Meghraj policy of cloud for Government of India.

Many of us are aware of how technology is being used by the enterprises to improve operational efficiency, increase customer acquisition or xxx. I would like to bring another dimension , which some of you may be aware, how technology can be used to deliver social benefits, or Tech for Social good - which is gaining traction in India and elsewhere.
India offers a unique proposition that offers diversity, scale and size. There are innumerable problems in agriculture, climate change, healthcare, mobility etc that can be solved by technology, more specifically using emerging technologies such as AI, blockchain, IoT, drones etc. Any problem that you pick up and solve for India has the potential of scaling up not just in India but across the globe. Now, the mantra is - when we build solutions for India, we are building the solutions for the world. Many companies are focussing on solving problems in India, investing in projects and initiatives that deliver social good in India, and later taking the solutions to other countries.
We realized that the government cannot solve the problems alone, and partnered with the industry, academia, startups and foundations to leverage their experience and expertise in building solutions. Today we are working on more than 40 projects in AI, blockchain, drones and other technologies with over 50 partners. I would be sharing a few projects and initiatives, how emerging technologies are being used in the areas of agriculture, health care and mobility thereby improving lives. The discussion would provide an opportunity for students and entrepreneurs to understand the landscape and could help chart their career paths.

Dr. Shailesh Kumar is currently the Chief Data Scientist at the Centre of Excellence in AI/ML, Reliance Jio, Program mentor for the AI/DS program at the Jio Institute of Eminence, and a Visiting faculty of Machine Learning at the Indian School of Business. Prior to this he worked as a Distinguished Scientist at Ola cabs, Chief Scientist and Cofounder of Third Leap, an EdTech startup, Researcher in the Google Brain team, Sr. Scientist at Yahoo! Labs and Principal Scientist at Fair Isaac Research. Dr. Kumar has 20 years of experience in building AI solutions in a variety of domains including Telecom, Retail, Finance, Fleet Management, Healthcare, Agriculture, Education, Computer Vision, Knowledge Graph, Natural Language Processing, and Conversational computing.He has published over 20 international papers and book chapters and holds more than 30 patents in AI/ML.He was recognized as one of the top 10 data scientists in India in 2015 and Top 10 most influential Analytics Leaders in India in 2020 by Analytics India Magazine.Dr. Kumar holds a Masters and PhD in AI from UT-Austin and B.Tech. in Computer Science from IIT-Varanasi.

Data Science - with a wide variety of learning paradigms, well understood data-to-decision process, scalable infrastructure and platforms for training and inferencing, and applications across a wide variety of domains and data types - has matured quite well.
While we have mastered the art of building and deploying “individual models” well, the complex ecosystems of the future - Telecom, Retail, Manufacturing, Smart Cities, etc. - will require us to think systematically about a whole “Architecture of AI” for such complex systems.
In this talk, we will explore the eight (Ashtaang = eight parts) different types of AI capabilities needed to complete an end-to-end AI Stack. Components from such an AI stack form the building blocks of an “AI Architecture” for complex ecosystems.

Dr. Satyajit Das is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Data Science, and Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Palakkad, India. He received his joint Ph.D. degree from the University of South Brittany, France, and the University of Bologna, Italy in 2018. Prior to joining IIT Palakkad, he was a postdoctoral fellow at LabSTICC, UBS. He has been a visiting faculty at the University of South Brittany. Dr. Das received his M.Tech and B.Tech degrees from the Haldia Institute of Technology, India in 2012 and 2009 respectively. He was a research fellow at the CR Rao AIMSCS, India from 2012 to 2014. His research spans the areas of Systems for Artificial Intelligence, architecture, methods, and tools for low-power systems. These include CGRAs, custom processors, domain-specific accelerators, high-level synthesis, and compilers. The main focus of Dr. Das's research is to implement highly energy-efficient solutions for digital architectures in the domain of heterogeneous and reconfigurable multi-core System on Chips (SoCs).

For nearly four decades Moore's Law has been the governing computing dynamics, impacting every industry. The exponential performance increase at constant cost and power has slowed down. However, computing advance has gone to lightspeed with the popularity of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications. In this context, the domain-specific accelerators along with the computing stack create a bridge to tackle the sustainability of AI for the future. The use of full-stack optimization is necessary to cater to the explosive growth in application data and advancements of AI algorithms.
This helps to create a sustainable framework for AI supporting a balanced approach for a data-algorithm-computing power trio. The complete stack for AI consists of nine discrete layers from hardware and interface to services that enable seamless training and inference. While deploying the AI models, it is necessary to look at all the different layers for optimization opportunities. This talk will discuss opportunities and challenges in accelerating AI from the perspective of application, design, and architecture.

A rare combination of technical and leadership skills, Shankar Kambhampaty offers over 33 years of extensive experience in the IT sector. Over these years, he has handled responsibilities in various capacities in an array of functions viz. architecture, design, development and management of solution platforms and IT projects executed globally.Shankar has lent his talents to eminent organizations viz. Polaris Financial Technology Limited, India as Chief Technology Officer & Senior Vice President – Investment Banking Services Unit; Satyam Computer Services Ltd., India in various positions; Satyam Computer Services, USA as Senior Consultant; Medi-Projects Pte. Ltd., Singapore as Manager; Kanishka Systems Pte. Ltd., Singapore as Senior Systems Engineer; American Megatrends Pte. Ltd., Singapore as Senior Systems Engineer; AMI Sanag Micromation Ltd., Hyderabad, India as Senior Software Engineer; Bell South Marketing Programs Inc., Atlanta, Georgia, USA as Systems Consultant;Telecommunications Consultants India Limited, New Delhi, India as Engineer and Engineers India Limited, New Delhi, India as Management Trainee.Since February 2013, he is associated with DXC Technology (DXC Technologies India) as Global Chief Technology Officer – Zurich Account. Shankar was recognized as CSC Distinguished Architect (one of the 10 architects globally), and subsequently, as DXC Distinguished Architect (one the 5 architects globally). Winner of the Global winner of Architecture Excellence Award for the year 2017 in the category " SOA Vision for Enterprise Services" , an industry award instituted by iCMG Consulting, he was also presented the Global Chief Architects award. On the education front, he has completed Master’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India; Bachelor‚s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India. With focus on upskilling, he has completed numerous certifications. To name a few, Shankar is AWS Certified Solution Architect (Professional); AWS Certified Solution Architect (Associate); TOGAF 8 Certified Architect. Author of several papers for International Conferences in the areas of Service Oriented Architecture and Enterprise Architecture, Shankar has also written a book " Service - Oriented Architecture & Microservices Architecture for Enterprise, Cloud, Big Data and Mobile" , published by Wiley India. He has also the author of the book " Infrastructure Architecture Essentials for Data Center and Cloud" . Apart from this, Shankar has been a frequent speaker at architecture / technology events. He is an invited member of Forbes Technology Council and has written several thought leadership articles that have been published by Forbes. Shankar has architected and guided implementation of platforms for applications, infrastructure and workplace for large enterprises. He has been instrumental in providing recommendations for public cloud and private cloud solutions for clients and specifying migration patterns and automation for moving application workloads to public cloud and private cloud. He has also setup Center of Excellence (CoE) to build accelerators for solutions involving Data & Analytics and automation. Shankar‚s ability to identify business requirements and apply technologies to meet business needs in innovative and cost-effective ways sets him apart from others. His technical skills complemented by sound communication, and user interaction abilities are key enablers of his growth. He consistently coordinates with professionals at all levels across the enterprise to ensure reliable solutions as well as promote business growth. Shankar is a continuous learner who enjoys learning new technologies. In the coming years, he looks forward to taking up roles with greater responsibilities.

Cloud Computing is gaining widespread adoption in organizations across the world. The evolving strategy for cloud computing in enterprises will be first presented in the talk followed by the approaches used by enterprises for migration of applications to the cloud. The architecture of environments on the cloud and the automation required to support application deployments is next presented. Finally, the considerations for operations teams to run and maintain the environments and applications in cloud is presented.

Dr. Onur Cihan received BS degrees in Control Engineering and Electrical Engineering from Istanbul Technical University in 2007. He got MS and PhD degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Bogazici University in 2009 and 2014, respectively. His PhD thesis was on convergence rate optimization of distributed consensus algorithms, which received the best PhD dissertation award from Bogazici University in 2014. From February 2014 until March 2015, he worked at Migros Research and Development Center, Turkey. In May 2015, he started working as a post doctoral researcher at Center for Systems Science, Yale University, New Haven, CT, before joining the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at Marmara University in 2016. His research interests are in the areas of mathematical systems theory, multi-agent systems, distributed control and data mining. He was the Principal Investigator of TUBITAK 3501 Project - "Distributed Algorithms for Solving Linear Equations in Multi-Agent Networks" worth $70.000.

Due to its possible applications in diverse fields of engineering, consensus algorithms received considerable attention from researchers in the last two decades. The basic idea behind consensus-based control is to enable a group of agents to reach an agreement on some common task, such as the formation of a network, the coordination of a fleet of unmanned vehicles, or the synchronization of power grids. This is achieved by iteratively exchanging information between the agents and adjusting their behavior based on the received information. Consensus-based control has several advantages over centralized control, such as scalability, robustness, and fault tolerance.
One of the most promising applications of consensus-based control is in the field of autonomous vehicles. By using consensus-based control techniques, autonomous vehicles can cooperate to achieve common goals, such as maintaining safe distances, avoiding collisions, and optimizing traffic flow. This can lead to significant improvements in road safety, traffic efficiency, and environmental sustainability. However, there are also important challenges associated with consensus-based control which include the design of appropriate communication and decision-making protocols, the management of conflicting objectives and constraints, the robustness to external disturbances and uncertainties, and scalability.
Looking ahead, the future of consensus-based control is promising. Advances in communication, computing, and sensing technologies are enabling more complex and sophisticated control strategies to be developed. In addition, the integration of machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques with consensus-based control is opening up new opportunities for adaptive and data-driven control. In this invited talk, we will discuss the current state of the art in consensus-based control, its key applications, challenges, and the future of this exciting research area.

Prof. Reddy, a doctorate from IISc Bangalore, is currently working as a Professor at the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar and is also the Dean of International Relations and Alumni Affairs. He is a Fellow of IET and IEI, Senior member of IEEE and executive council member of IEEE Delhi Section. He is an Associate Editor of IEEE Transactions on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation. He is a member of IEC, member of the Bureau of Indian Standards committee on Dielectrics, member of the Board of Studies of several universities in India. Prof. Reddy participated in academic-industry collaborative research in Japan with several universities of Japan (Toyohashi University; Waseda University; Tokyo City University; Numazu Institute of Technology, etc.). He also participated in the deliberations of the technical standards committee on Space Charge Measurements in dielectric materials. Prof. Reddy has published 160 papers in reputed journals and conferences (IEEE/IET/IEEJ), in the fields of Nano-dielectrics, Power Cables (HVDC/AC), Power Transformers, Bushings; Mechanism of Breakdown, Space Charges, and Conduction in dielectric materials. He has guided seven Ph.D. students to their defense and currently guiding ten Ph.D. students apart from several master's and bachelor students. He had authored a book on "Reliability and Life Estimation of Power Equipment", with New Age International Publishers. He is worked on several projects with private industries like Reliance, Adani, KEI Industries, APAR Industries, Raychem Polymers etc. apart from public industries such as CPWD, CPRI, etc. He has been the Organizing Chair of (IEEE) CATCON 2017, General Chair of IEEE ICIIS 2018 and 2020, General Co-Chair of IEEE ICIIS 2017, 2019 and TPC Chair of CATCON 2020, and International Advisory Member of ISEIM since 2011, being held in Japan.

“Power cable transmission and distribution are gaining momentum due to right-of-way issues as well as modern smart cities. The reliability of power supply under such transmission and distribution directly depends on condition monitoring and diagnosis of cables. An accurate prediction of pre-fault and post-fault locations is essential for enhancing reliability. The speaker presents new technology for the estimation of the location of faults in power cables. Conventional time domain reflectometry technology (TDR) is also presented for comparison. The new technology has been verified in the speaker's lab, IIT Ropar, and published in IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.”

Prof. Akshay Kumar Rathore (IEEE Fellow) is an expert in power electronics and control of electrical motor drives. He received the Gold Medal for securing the highest academic standing in his Master‚s degree among all electrical engineering specializations at Indian Institute of Technology (BHU) Varanasi, India. He had two subsequent postdoctoral research appointments with the University of Wuppertal, Germany (2008-2009), and the University of Illinois at Chicago, USA (2009-2010). From November 2010 to February 2016, he served as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, National University of Singapore. From March 2016-Dec 2021, he served as an Associate Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada where he was listed in the Provost Circle of Distinction in 2021. He served as Graduate Program Director and Chair of Graduate Awards during 2020-21. His research is mainly focused on the analysis and design of novel current-fed converters (topologies and modulation), soft-switching design and modulation schemes for the dc/dc converters, pulsating DC link (electrolytic capacitorless) inverters, and control of multilevel inverters. He supervised 11 PhD theses and 14 MASc (research) theses. Dr. Rathore is a recipient of the 2013 IEEE IAS Andrew W. Smith Outstanding Young Member Achievement Award, 2014 Isao Takahashi Power Electronics Award, 2017 IEEE IES David Irwin Early Career Award, 2019 IEEE IES Publications Service Recognition Award, 2020 IEEE IAS Outstanding Area Chair Award, 2020 IEEE Bimal Bose Award for Industrial Electronics Applications in Energy Systems and 2021 Nagamori Award. He published about 285 research papers in international journals and conferences, including 96 IEEE TRANSACTIONS. He is currently serving as a co-Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, the Awards Department Chair of the IEEE Industry Applications Society, AdCom Member-at-Large and Fellow Evaluation Committee member of the IEEE Industrial Electronics Society. He is serving as the Chair of IEEE IAS Renewable and Sustainable Energy Conversion Systems Committee. He led and chaired the IEEE IAS Industrial Automation and Control Committee (2018-19) and IEEE IAS Technical Committee on Transportation Electrification (2016-17). He served as a member of IEEE IES Publications Committee (2016-2021) and IEEE IAS Andrew W Smith Outstanding Young Member Achievement Award Committee (2014-2019). He served as the Chair of IEEE IAS Montreal Chapter from 2017-2021 and received the best Chapter award in 2017 from IEEE Montreal Section for its activities. He served as the Paper Review Chair (eq. to co-EIC) of IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications (2016-17 and 2020-21), Editor-in-Chief of IEEE IES Technology News (ITeN) (2016-18), Associate Editor of various journals, i.e., IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics (2014-19), IEEE Transactions on Industry Applications (2013-present), IEEE Transactions on Transportation Electrification (2014-19), IEEE Journal of Emerging Selected Topic in Power Electronics (2013-19), IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology (2016-19), IEEE Transactions on Sustainable Energy (2014-2021) and IET Power Electronics (2015-19). He edited 5 special issues on the topics of electric transportation, EV charging, marine systems, more electric aircraft, machine learning in power electronics, and renewable energy conversion in different IEEE Transactions as a guest associate editor and as guest-EIC of 2 special issues. He served as the distinguished lecturer (2017-18) and prominent lecturer (2019-21) of the IEEE IAS society.

India is the second largest population of the world and shares 296 Million out of 1.4 Billion vehicles in the world as of 2019. The coal-based generation shares 75% of the total electricity generation of India. Hydrogen fuel cell based electric vehicles and battery-based e-mobility have been applauded by the Government. With the progress and recent growth on the electrification of the transportation/vehicles, battery charging, and hydrogen production infrastructure and supply chain will be of major concern to meet the usual energy demand plus the recharging/refilling. It, in other ways, will push for sustainable generation. This keynote will discuss the global trends and developments, key challenges, and future scopes of e-mobility in India along with the future scope of the development of advanced power electronics technologies for hydrogen energy based applications. It covers the scope for the transportation technologies for land, sea and air transportation.

Director (Transmission), TSTRANSCO from 27.11.2014 onwards having experience of 30 years in APSEB, APTRANSCO & APCPDCL in the field of procurement, projects, Master Plan and Operation.
As Director (Transmission), the following have been engineered and commissioned in line with the objective of providing

• Uninterrupted Quality power supply to all consumers within 6 months of state formation.
• Instrumental in enhancement of 7900MVA Transformation Capacity within a record time of 11months for providing 9Hrs day time power supply to Agricultural & Other Consumers from 01.04.2016 and in extending 24 Hrs supply to all consumers including Agricultural w.e.f 01.01.2018 in Telangana
• Commissioned 19Nos. 400kV, 50Nos. of 220kV and 74Nos. of 132kV new Substations including augmentation of existing 277Nos Power Transformers with a total Capacity addition of 24340.9MVA. Further, added 4673.88CKm of 400kV lines, 3755.92CKm of 220KV lines and 3040.53 CKm of 132KV lines.
• Transmission availability improved to 99.98% and losses reduced from 4.5% to 2.5%

Telanagana state was formed on 2nd June 2014 and was reeling under severe power crisis. Better Load Management and power procurement at lower price has resulted in lifting power cuts to all consumers from 20.11.2014. 9Hrs Agricultural Power Supply was extended to all districts from 1st April 2016 and 24Hrs supply from 01.01.2018 to all consumers. Transmission availability is 99.98% and the system losses are reduced from 4.5% to 2.52%.
New technologies like Substation Automation, HTLS conductor, outdoor GIS, GIS Bus sectionalizers, monopoles, GPS mapping of assets & integration to ERP, remote operation, composite insulators for upgrading the voltage level utilizing the same corridor, Cyber security are few to name which has kept TSTRANSCO abreast with the emerging trends in the market. Future technologies Variable Shunt Reactor(VSC), Digital substations & Smart Grid are under study. Recently commissioned state-of-the-art 400KV GIS at Raidurg in an area of 5 acre in highly density software hub in GHMC is one of its kinds not only in the state but country.
TSTRANSCO is fully geared up to meet the challenges due to the future load growth and the penetration of renewable energy in the grid.

He is the Market Intelligence Leader responsible for the end-end process of Asset Management for the Services business that has an annual turnaround of $15 Billion.He is the author of well received white papers on the future of energy with focus on sustainable climate goals for India and Japan. His white papers were lauded by the Niti Aayog, the policy think-tank of the Indian government. His interests include deep rooted market research on the topics of Clean Energy Future, Decarbonization, COP goals and actions. He has been with the Energy business for more than 2 decades and has a critical understanding of the ecosystem of Power and Infrastructure.He has received degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering and Masters in Finance Management. This was followed by a 1-year immersion program in Advanced General Management in Indian Institute of Management(IIM), Ahmedabad.He has received many awards in his career ‐ some of the highlights being Best Greenbelt (Six Sigma ) project, Management Award on ERP implementation, Best Product Award for Product Configuration Management and Best Team Award for Customer Centricity.He is an active coach and trained many students/employees in reaching their career

India is now the 5th largest economy in the world and slated to grow in the next few decades with a rate that's higher than most of the world. In this context, the energy demands of the country would see tremendous growth as well; in fact India is expected to see the largest growth in Per-capita KWH consumption in the world.
To secure the energy demands of the country, India finds itself at a crossroads where it has to provide reliable, affordable and sustainable power to it's people. Green Hydrogen and Carbon Capture can be some of the options along with dedicated focus on improving Battery Storage technologies.
This talk predicts the energy demands while articulating various pathways to achieve Renewables growth, Gas based economy ( using Hydrogen as a fuel), technologies that are currently available to decarbonize and finally focuses on investment and technology required on Grid Control required to balance the variable renewable energy with fixed thermal power.

Er. Siva M Kumar is an experienced professional in Power sector. In his career spanning close to 20 years, he has worked across the value chain ie Power Generation, Transmission, Distribution and Trading. He has done Electrical & Electronics Engg followed by MBA in finance. He is a recipient of Chevening Science Innovation and Leadership Award– a UK Govt Fellowship Program. He has worked in various leadership roles at KPMG Advisory Services, Adani Power and is currently with Greenko Energies Pvt ltd. He is having vast experience in the areas of Renewable Energy procurement, energy storage solutions, grid integration measures, policy support, regulatory and commercial aspects of power utility operations. He has worked extensively with power utilities in multiple states in India

With the stated objective of Govt of India to achieve 500 GW RE, onus is on all the stakeholders in the power sector to work diligently towards achieving the target. This would entail achieving expertise in adding Renewable Energy (RE) capacities in a cost-effective manner and in exploring commercialization of new/ emerging technologies in RE space.
Adding the above RE capacities would cause grid integration challenges due to the inherent variability in the generation of RE capacities such as wind and solar which are dependent on weather conditions. Hence, the above efforts of adding RE needs to be supplemented by measures which are aimed at smoothly integrating them into the grid. The talk will give an overview of some of the key emerging RE technologies, its commercial viability and some measures for integrating them in the grid. sounds at short scan times of 7 sec. These tools providing a unique window to non-invasively assess various speech patterns.

Er. A. Kamesh is experienced in Power Distribution Sector for over 33 years, which covers the exposure in various segments ranging from Managing E.H.V Sub-Stations, Managing Sub-Transmission System, Protection of Power System, Testing of Protective Devices, Preparing Standards & settings for Relays and other protective devices, Testing of all Types of Meters, Analysis of Meter Data, Energy Audit Management, Maintenance of Switch gear, Construction of Lines and Sub- Stations, Operation & Maintenance of Distribution System, Transformer Management and Customer Services Management. SCADA monitoring and Maintenance. Experienced in System Analysis, Identification of problem, process Re- Engineering, Development and implementation of Information Technology in the Power Sector.On the education front, he has completed Master of Science from Osmania University, India; B.E (Bachelor of Engineering) from Osmania University, India; P.G.D.E.N.M (Energy Management) from University of Hyderabad, India;M.B.A from IGNOU India.

Reliable and quality power supply to customers is the primary duty of electrical power Utilities. Power Interruptions and poor quality of power supply to the customer results in significant revenue loss to the utilities and also lead to poor customer satisfaction levels. SCADA system is being implemented in Hyderabad. The SCADA system is imparting results in the improvement of reliable power supply to customers and paving ways for modifying the procedures in the power quality management. The New Technologies adopted in SCADA system are discussed here. The Communication Network, the Software Systems and Infrastructure in compared in the SCADA system are also discussed. Acquiring of Bulk Data and its utilization for taking necessary decisions by the management from time to time towards management of assets and management of quality and reliable Power Supply is also discussed.

Prof. K V S Hari is a Professor in the Department of ECE, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. He holds a BE (ECE) degree from Osmania University, Hyderabad, MTech (Radar and Communication Systems) from IIT Delhi and PhD (Systems science) from U C San Diego. He has been a visiting faculty at Stanford University and KTH- Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm. His research interests are in Signal Processing with applications to 5G wireless communications, radar systems, autonomous vehicles, and affordable MRI systems. He is a co-author of an IEEE 802.16 standard on wireless channel models. He was an Editor of EURASIP's Signal Processing from 2006 to 2016 and is currently the Chief Editor (Electrical Sciences) of Sadhana, the journal of the Indian Academy of Sciences published by Springer. He is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of IEEE and also on the Board of Governors, IEEE Signal Processing Society.

Dual-function Radar Communication (DFRC) systems integrate Radar and Communication systems using the same hardware. We consider a Multiple-Input Multiple- Output (MIMO) DFRC system based on Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). We present the data model and the existing Fourier-based methods to estimate the direction, range and velocity of the targets. First, we present the data model for the MIMO-OFDM-DFRC System and use it to develop a new waveform which improves the performance of the Fourier method. Next, we design a waveform to enable a subspace framework to estimate the range and velocity of the target. Simulation results show that the proposed approaches improve the performance of the system.

Mohammed Zafar Ali Khan (SM'15) received a B.E degree in electronics and communications from Osmania University, Hyderabad, India, in 1996, the M.Tech. Degree in electrical engineering from IIT Delhi, New Delhi, India, in 1998, and a PhD degree in Electrical Communication Engineering from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru, India, in 2003. In 1999, he was a Design Engineer with Sasken, Bengaluru. From 2003 to 2005, he was a Senior Design Engineer with Silica Semiconductors, Bengaluru. In 2005, he was a Senior Member of the Technical Staff with Hellosoft, Hyderabad. He is currently a Professor at IIT Hyderabad, Hyderabad. He has more than 15 years of experience in teaching and research and has been a Chief Investigator for a number of sponsored and consultancy projects. He has made noteworthy contributions to space‐time codes, and space‐time block codes designed by him have been adopted by the WiMAX Standard. His current research interests include signal processing for wireless communications, mMIMO, cyber-physical systems, cognitive radio and Commensal radar. Dr Khan was a recipient of the INAE Young Engineer Award in 2006 and the Visvesvarya Young Faculty Research Fellowship from 2016-2021.

Next Generation Networks (NGNs) employ multiple radio access technologies (RATS) simultaneously. Along with multi-RAT, a user may connect to multiple base stations of networks to leverage multi-connectivity, as in the case of HetNets. Researchers have proposed Multi-RAT based Multi-connectivity (MRMC) for data-offloading or for data duplication. Offloading of data offers an increase in data rate, while duplication offers reliability gains in terms of improved block error rates. In this talk, we show that the MRMC allows for the deployment of more powerful coding techniques to leverage the benefits of both offloading and diversity. Full stack implementations are presented for WIFI+LTE, LTE+5G, WIFI+5G using buffer bits in the PDCP and MAC Headers (So does not require any change to the standards and works with existing devices) . Typical gains for Rayleigh Fading Channels show significant gains both in terms of Throughput and Block error rate (BLER).

Dr. Tanveer Syeda-Mahmood is an IBM Fellow and Global Imaging AI Leader in IBM Research. Currently, her group is leading the charge on advancing multimodal and bioinspired AI. The goal is to advance the science of AI by drawing inspiration from computational models of various brain functions such as memory and learning and modeling the fusion of multiple modalities for information processing. The applications of the core technologies developed in the group are in various domains ranging from healthcare decision support, accelerated scientific discovery, to the building of next generation hybrid cloud data management and storage infrastructures. Among the projects in the team is one called Bioinspired Memories that is at the intersection area of AI, Neuroscience and Cloud technologies. It has healthcare applications for the memory-impaired individuals but also key to generating a new technological infrastructure for next generation storage systems modeled after human declarative memory.Dr. Syeda-Mahmood graduated from the MIT AI Lab in 1993 with a Ph.D in Computer Science. Prior to IBM, she worked as a Research Staff Member at Xerox Webster Research Center, Webster, NY. She joined IBM Almaden Research Center in 1998.Prior to coming to IBM, Dr. Syeda-Mahmood led the image indexing program at Xerox Research and was one of the early originators of the field of content-based image and video retrieval. Currently, she is working on applications of content-based retrieval in healthcare and medical imaging. Over the past 30 years, her research interests have been in a variety of areas relating to artificial intelligence including computer vision, image and video databases, medical image analysis, bioinformatics, signal processing, document analysis, and distributed computing frameworks. She has over 250 refereed publications and over 120 patents filed.Dr. Syeda-Mahmood is a Fellow of IEEE. She is also the first IBMer to become an AIMBE Fellow and a MICCAI Fellow. She is also a member of IBM Academy of Technology. Dr. Syeda-Mahmood was declared Master Inventor in 2011, 2019, and 2022. She is the recipient of key awards including IBM Corporate Award 2015, Best of IBM Award 2015, 2016 and several outstanding innovation awards.

Combining information from many sources to reach decisions is common in many applications ranging from healthcare informatics to visual surveillance. With the emergence of multimodal electronic health records, for example, the evidence for an outcome may be captured across multiple modalities ranging from clinical to imaging and genomic data. Predicting outcomes effectively requires fusion frameworks capable of modeling fine-grained and multi-faceted complex interactions between modality features within and across patients. The emergence of large data-driven model such as GPT-4 has sparked a lot of interest in foundational models. In this talk I will present our lab’s work in developing foundational models for fusing information from multiple modalities. I will discuss methods for early, intermediate, and late fusion as well as the latest approaches using multiplexed graph neural networks for solving complex fusion problems in different application domains.

Dr. Nirmal R. Saxena is currently a distinguished engineer at NVIDIA and is responsible for high-performance and automotive resilient computing. From 2011 through 2015, Nirmal was associated with Inphi Corp as CTO for Storage & Computing and with Samsung Electronics as Sr. Director working on fault-tolerant DRAM memory and storage array architectures. During 2006 through 2011, Nirmal held roles as a Principal Architect, Chief Server Hardware Architect & VP at NVIDIA. From 1991 through 2009, he was also associated with Stanford University's Center for Reliable Computing and EE Department as Associate Director and Consulting Professor respectively. During his association with Stanford University, he taught courses in Logic Design, Computer Architecture, Fault-Tolerant Computing, supervised six PhD students and was co-investigator with Professor Edward J. McCluskey on DARPA's ROAR (Reliability Obtained through Adaptive Reconfiguration) project. Nirmal was the Executive VP, CTO, and COO at Alliance Semiconductor, Santa Clara. Prior to Alliance, Nirmal was VP of Architecture at Chip Engines. Nirmal has served in senior technical and management positions at Tiara Networks, Silicon Graphics, HaL Computers, and Hewlett Packard.Nirmal received his Ph.D. EE degree (1991) from Stanford University. He is a Fellow of IEEE (2002) and was cited for his contributions to reliable computing.

This talk introduces the concept of error model (EM) that replaces a traditional fault model (FM) based simulation. EM is a temporal simulation of fault symptoms in an application processing system. Simulation studies assess the resiliency of mission critical applications like: AI path perception, object detection, and path planning for autonomous driving, industrial and medical robotics, HPC, data analytics, AI training/inference in datacenters and supercomputing installations. Application resiliency metrics, such as fault coverage, derived through EM are more comprehensive and effective than those derived through FM. Moreover, EM can be used on high-level simulation models (behavioral RTL, emulation or in some cases in‑silicon). EM approach gives greater than three orders of performance improvement over gate netlist models using stuck-at fault simulation. This talk presents recent results that show that the coverage metrics, for a billion-logic-gate GPU design, obtained through in-silicon EM closely match the corresponding coverage metrics estimated from a low-level netlist with single stuck-at fault simulation.

Dr. Carlos A. Gonzalez-Calderon is an Associate Professor of Transportation Engineering at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia at Medellin. He has strong theoretical foundations and practical experience in transportation. His research interests are: freight transportation, freight modeling and economics, sustainable transportation systems, and transportation planning. He worked as an Assistant Professor of Transportation Engineering at the Universidad de Antioquia in Colombia from 2006 to 2009 and as a Research Associate at the Center for Infrastructure, Transportation, and the Environment and at the Volvo Research and Educational Foundation's Center of Excellence for Sustainable Urban Freight Systems at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute after obtaining his Ph.D. Dr. Gonzalez-Calderon has played a role in multiple research projects funded by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Transportation, the National Cooperative Freight Research Program, the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, among others. He has been involved in important signature projects such as NCFRP 25 (Freight Trip Generation and land use), NCFRP 26 (Freight Cost Data Elements), NCFRP 38 (Improving Freight System in Metropolitan Areas), and NCFRP 44 (Impacts of Policy-Induced Freight Modal Shifts).

Using modelling techniques as Ordinary Least Squares-OLS, this paper studies the main variables that affect service trip generation (STG) (production and attraction) by the service sector (e.g., maintenance, repairs) in commercial establishments located in urban areas of developing countries. Data obtained from Medellin Metropolitan Area (Colombia) origin–destination freightsurveys conducted in 2017–2018 were used to analyze service trips for the first time in the region.
This helped determine the number of produced and attracted service trips, average duration per service, most used modes of transport in service trips, and other characteristics that improve the understanding of how service trips work in urban areas This information might help in analyses of variables that mainly influence STG. To this effect, the authors estimated more than 30 service trip production and attraction models for establishments; these models depend on independent variables, such as employment, and establishment＇s area. Finally, the freight community will benefit from these models because transport planners would analyze service trips as part of the freight and service activities in urban areas to contribute to improve the mobility using themodels to plan better transportation in the areas.

Prof. M R Madhav, AICTE-INAE Distinguished Visiting Professor, Visiting Professor, IIT, Hyderabad, Professor Emeritus, J.N.T.U, Hyderabad, Resource Person, Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge Technology, Guest Faculty, Engineering Staff College, Formerly Chairman, Research Council, CSIR-CRRI & Governing Council, JNT University, Kakinada, Advisor/Consultant to Strata Geosystems, KSK, Halcrow, Energy Infratech, retired as Professor of Civil Engineering, IIT, Kanpur. He graduated in Civil Engineering from Andhra University in 1960, obtained the Master of Engineering and the Doctorate of Philosophy degrees from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore in the years 1961 and 1967 respectively. Prof. Madhav worked at several universities abroad ‑ Australia, Canada, Japan, Belgium, UK, etc. Prof. Madhav's research interests span the whole gamut of Geotechnical Engineering. He guided more than 45 doctoral and several master's theses and final year projects. He co-edited book entitled 'Lowlands - Development and Management' and on Foundations and Soft Ground Engineering Challenges in Mekong Delta, and authored more than 500 publications in refereed international and national journals and conferences. Prof. Madhav is a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering, the Indian Geotechnical Society, The Institution of Engineers (India), etc. and was awarded the Keucklemann Award of the IGS, the Prof. Mehra Research Award of the University of Roorkee, Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Research Award of CBIP, the Doctor of Science degree of the Indian Institute of Science, the Bharat Ratna M Visweswaraya Award, the Gopal Ranjan Research Award of IIT, Roorkee, IGS ‑ M S Jain award, the Distinguished Teacher award of IIT, Kanpur, the Vishwakarma Award for Academic Excellence from CIDC, Prof. Dinesh Mohan award for Excellence in Geotechnical Engineering Practice, the IGS-AIMIL Innovation in Design Award, the Outstanding Researcher Award from IANAMG, the Distinguished Alumnus Award of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore etc. He was the President of IGS, Vice President for Asia (2005-9) of IS SM & GE, and President of the International Association of Lowland Technology (2010-8). He delivered the first Miura lecture in 2008, IGS-Ferroco Terzaghi Oration, in 2010 and the first Victor de Mellow Goa lecture in 2017, keynote lecture 'Geotechnics of Soft Ground' at Ind. Geotech. Conf. 2017, Guwahati, the first Prof. Sriramarao lecture at Guntur and another keynote lecture for TC 207 of ISSMGE at Bangalore. He received the Reviewer of the Year Award for the years 2016 and 2017 from Springer and IGS.

Historically and conventionally, Geotechnical Practice has evolved by limited geotechnical investigations and testing soil samples collected from the field. It is believed that soil samples so collected are 'undisturbed' even though there is no such thing as 'undistrurbed' as even the process of obtaining the samples changes the stress the stress state and several other aspects. In the present talk, it is postulated that 'Ground' is an entity while 'Soil' is a material as other engineering materials such as steel, aluminum, cement, concrete, etc. Soil Mechanics followed the path of 'Engineering Mechanics' in the traditional approach where in one ascribes specific and unique properties as for all other engineering material. The new postulate attempts to change to focus to the 'Ground' on which all construction practice gets initiated and completed. As Terzaghi stated way back nearly hundred years ago that 'humans' and 'soil/ground' are made by nature and hence they are difficult to be characterized easily or simplistically. Amongst humans, we recognize distinct characteristics of 'individuals', 'small groups' and large assemblages such as 'crowds'. Similar approach is required and advocated in the present presentation for which the response of the 'ground' to the engineering practices such as preloading without or with PVDs, load tests, etc. Engineering parameters such as compression index, coefficient of consolidation for both vertical and horizontal flow, pile ‑ ground interactions (shaft-ground and pile base ‑ ground stiffnesses and ultimate values are evaluated from observed responses. These parameters when compared to the pre‑construction values based on laboratory testing or empirical correlations show distinct differences thus validating the postulate that 'Ground' is distinctly different with 'Soil' in terms of their characterization and in the so‑called parameters. As an obvious corollary to the above study, it becomes imperative to study the response of the 'Ground' to the engineering activity through Case Studies already available in the literature and supplemented by insisting on observations during and post-construction.

Dr. Fouad H. Jaber is a Professor and Extension Specialist at the Texas A&M AgriLife Research Center at Dallas Research and Extension Center. He is also an affiliated faculty in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering at Texas A&M University, College Station. He obtained his Ph.D. in Agricultural and Biological Engineering from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana, USA, in 2001; M.Sc. in Irrigation from American University of Beirut, in 1995; and B.Sc. in Agricultural from American University of Beirut, in 1992. Before moving to the USA, he served as Water Resources Engineer for Dar Al-Handassah, Lebanonan, from 1995 to 1996.Prof. Jaber has extensive experience in hydrologic and water quality, focusing on Integrated Water Resources Management for urban catchments. Prof. Jaber's main duties are to develop a program of national recognition in biological and agricultural engineering with a focus on managing water resources to meet future water needs. His research program aims to develop, apply and popularize climate- resilient blue-green infrastructure for conserving water and reducing risks of urban flooding. He has one patent on his credit. Along with his research team, he focuses explicitly on surface water resources, stormwater, and rainfall, evaluating the effect of water quantity and quality interactions on water resources and watershed management programs. Over the past three decades, he has led or contributed to various research projects in the USA and abroad. Prof Jaber has published 57 journal and extension articles and delivered 72 conference presentations and 35 invited talks. He has also given several popular talks and published articles on various media platforms for the benefit of the public. He has been professionally very active in the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) and serving as Associate Editor for Transactions of the ASABE and Applied Engineering in Agriculture. He has won several awards at multiple levels in his career, including Texas A&M BAEN Excellence in Extension Education in 2020, 2014; Standards Development Award NRES-07 Nomenclature- ASAE S526.4 in 2016, Blue Ribbon Award of The American Society for Horticultural Sciences Southern Region in 2014 and 2011; Best Poster Award EPA Region 6th MS4 Operators Conference; First prize in North Texas Low Impact Development Competition; Best Technical Note Award of Watershed Council, Journal of Hydrologic Engineering in 2008; Best Paper Award of the Information and Electrical Technologies Division of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers in 2001; Research Fellowship of Purdue University in 1999 and Magoon Award for Excellence in Teaching in Engineering, Purdue University in 1998.

Blue Green infrastructure (BGI) is a stormwater management practice that uses nature-based techniques to improve water quality and reduce runoff volume in urban areas. Design and performance studies of such systems will be presented at this lecture. In addition, the performance of BGI at large scale will be presented through modeling studies done at various scales. Such studies show that BGI can be a cost-effective water quality improvement and flood reduction tool when these practices are adopted at a wide scale. Research and engagement activities to increase GSI adoption will also be presented. These include the development of a modeling methodology to identify undersized drainage networks and targeting these watersheds for GSI prioritization and developing an approach for sustainable maintenance and funding of BGI and a roadmap to engage communities in selection and monitoring of BGI practices to inform city maintenance and implementation plans. Most of these programs address transferability as well as scalability so that other communities can adopt the same approaches.

Prof. K. V. L. Subramaniam is currently a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH). He is the Dean (Planning and Development) at IIT Hyderabad and oversaw the construction of the campus. Prior to joining IITH, he was a Professor and Catell Research Fellow in Department of Civil Engineering at the Grove School of Engineering, the City College of New York (CCNY). Dr. Subramaniam obtained a B.Tech. in Civil Engineering from IIT Delhi and Ph.D. in Structural Engineering and Materials from Northwestern University, Evanston. Dr. Subramaniam was awarded the Early Career Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) of USA. He received the James Instrument Award from the American Concrete Institute (ACI) in 1999 for his research on nondestructive evaluation of concrete. He was the Chairman, committee 215 on Fatigue of Concrete of the ACI. In 2009, he was elected a Fellow of the American Concrete Institute (ACI) for notable contributions in concrete materials.He is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Cement and Concrete Composites (Elsevier).He is a life member of the Indian Concrete Institute. He was elected a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) in 2021.

Conventional concrete construction involves the use of site-formed formwork, which contributes to the overall cost, requirement of labor and the time involved. The need for assembling shuttering and formwork limits the structural forms to rectilinear shapes, which do not permit an efficient use of material, besides constraining the geometrical forms, which can be produced in the field. In conventional concrete construction, the geometrical freedom is restricted and there are limitations like casting angles, non-re-entrant shapes. Fast and Efficient concrete construction therefore requires developing a form-free method of construction, which is free from the limitations imposed by formwork. Additive manufacturing technology provides potential solution for developing form-free methods of construction. Adopting additive construction would combine digital technology with new insights from materials technology to allow free-form construction without the use of formwork.
Extrusion-based layer deposition is the method of additive manufacturing that is most suited for adoption in construction. This method of forming involves depositing layers along predefined contours and is broadly referred to as 3D concrete printing (3DCP). This free form construction eliminates the geometrical restriction leading to the construction of unique shapes which improves the architectural appearance freeing up from the regular rectangular box. This method is also reported to be more efficient in terms of the time, cost, material, and labor as compared to conventional construction methods. The free form construction using extrusion based printing reduces the formwork cost which is 40-50% of total construction cost. With this free-form construction, the difficulties in quality control at construction sites, high levels of wastes and cost blowouts can be eliminated. Currently such techniques are not sufficiently developed for industrial application. Moreover, printing-based technology promotes a safer work environment through the elimination of dangerous situations, such as the installation of structural elements at high elevations. These potential advantages have been the main forces behind the rapid development of 3DCP in the past decade.

Dr. Karunanidhi has joined DRDL/RCI Hyderabad in 1987. He has wide experience in the design and development of aerospace actuation components and system such as pneumatic, electro mechanical and hydraulic systems. He has designed pneumatic control actuation system for project AKASH. He was instrumental in designing and realizing aerospace grade Electro Hydraulic Servo Valve (EHSV) - banned under MTCR - for the first time in the country for all national aerospace programs like PRITHVI& variants, AGNI& variants, TEJAS, PSLV, GSLV, RLV, etc. He has visited many countries for the establishment of state-of-the-art facilities in the country. He has established the Centre for Aerospace Products (CAP) which has produced EHSVs for aerospace applications through the Government Owned Company Operated (GOCO) mode of operation. These EHSVs have been flown successfully in PRITHVI & variants, AGNI & variants, PSLV and GSLV and LCA. He designed and developed highly reliable Jet Pipe Servo Valve which has been successfully flown in AGNI program.He designed, developed and produced high pressure, quick response Solenoid Valves for all variants of AGNI, PRITHVI, K4, AKASHmissile programs and NISHANT. The Rapid Reaction Control Valve (RRCV) developed by him has been instrumental in the success of Anti SatelliteMission SAKTI. He has initiated work on futuristic technologies like Smart Actuators, High Frequency Actuation Systems, High Pressure Hydraulic & Pneumatic Systems, FPGA based Controller for Electro Mechanical Actuator, Electro Permanent Magnet (EPM) based actuation system, Ultra-Fast Response Compact On-Off Valve, SOC based controller, Autonomous Hydraulic System and Mechatronics Design Approach for aerospace products and systems. He has also realized Smart Actuator Integrated Servo Valve. Dr. Karunanidhi has contributed to academia in several ways. He had been author/co-author for publications in international journals. He is a regular reviewer for international journals like ‘Sensors and Actuators – A Physical’, ‘Precision Engineering’, ‘Systems and Control’, etc. He jointly owns two patents with IIT Madras. He has delivered several keynote addresses and invited talks in reputed institutes and universities for national and international conferences and seminar. Presently he is delivering motivational talks in various educational institutes, R&D labs and training institutes, etc.
Awards &Honors
Dr. Karunanidhi is recipient of numerous accolades including • Pascal Award by Fluid Power Society of India in year 2021. • ‘AGNI award for Excellence in Self-Reliance’ for 2009 & 2008; • Dr. V.M. GHATAGE award for excellence 2008 (sponsored by AeSI) • ‘Scientist of the Year’ award for the year 2006 for the contribution of actuation system and components for various programslike AKASH, NAG, AGNI, PRITHVI.
Fellowships/Memberships
He is the members of many professional societies such as IEI, VEDAS, ISSS, ASI, AeSI, IIPE, INSARM, MSI, FPSI, IITMAA, SRS, ISSE etc.

Precision engineering involves not only manufacturing the components as per the design but also being able to measure and quantify them. This paper deals with the techniques and sequence of operations required for precision machining and metrological inspection of the components in the second- stage of a Hydraulic Spool Valve. The requirements of high accuracies in dimensions, form and surface quality are the prime requirements to meet the stringent valve specifications such as leakage, threshold, pressure gain, hysteresis, linearity etc. The body and spool assembly of the spool valve forms the second stage of the valve. The body has many rectangular slots or flow openings. These slots are machined by Wire Cut Electrical Discharge Machining (WEDM) process. The spool has to be then machined to the dimensions obtained from the body, in order to meet the required valve performance such as leakage and dynamic response. This assembly has very critical clearance (between body and spool), cylindricity, lap condition and finish requirements. The paper presents the various precision machining techniques such as WEDM, cylindrical grinding, honing, lapping, Micro drilling and precision joining of components used in achieving these requirements. These components have been assembled in the valve. The metrological and the valve performance results obtained have been given. The paper also briefly covers sustainable manufacturing, ultra-precision engineering and additive manufacturing.

Dr. N Kishore Nath is a Scientist G and Project Director - VEDA and Technology Director of Space Systems at DRDO Hyderabad. Dr. Kishore had over 26 years of experience in the Design and Development of Advanced composite structures for missiles and aircrafts.
Kishore Nath completed his B Tech from JNTU, 1995, PG Diploma in International Business from Pondicherry Central University, Diploma in Rail Transport Management from Institute of Rail Transport, New Delhi in 1997, P.G. Diploma in Marketing Management from IGNOU, New Delhi in 1998, M.B.A in Financial Management from Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University, Hyderabad, in 2000, M. E in Automation & Robotics from Osmania University, Hyderabad, in 2003, Ph. D in Mechanical Engineering, from Osmania University, Hyderabad, in 2013.
He Designed & Developed Composite Airframes & Payload Pairing in Sandwich Carbon Composite and worked for AGNI - 4 Long-range Missile Systems along with various Ground Support EquipmentsLaunchers, Integrated Mobile Systems, Long Range Transporter, Short Range Transporter Storage Trailer. He also Designed and Developed Composite Flame Deflector, Radome&Pre Fragmented War Head for Prithvi Project.
He has been awarded as, EMINENT ENGINEERING PERSONALITY, M P BAYA AWARD and ENGINEERING EXCELLENCE AWARD by Institution of Engineers in 2021, BEST SCIENTIST AWARDin 2018, AGNI AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN SELF RELIANCEin 2015, BHARAT GAURAV AWARD in 2016, BEST RESEARCHER AWARD in 2016, DRDO Performance Excellence Award in 2011, DRDO Laboratory Scientist of the Year 2003 and many more.
He had published 50+ papers in International and National journals and Conferences. And he delivered 60 Invited talks in various National Symposiums/Seminars/Workshops/FDP/STTP and Webinars.

Advanced composite structures are used in modern aerospace vehicles because of its specific strength and weight advantage. We have developed largest Composite Rocket Motor Casing having 02.4mx 8 m length cylindrical thickness of 16 mm made with High Strength Carbon Fiber (T-700) & Epoline Resin using Filament Winding Technology on Large PU Foam Mandral. The casing is Proof Pressure Tested up to 9.45 MPa and Structural Tested up to 2840 KN.
Composite airframe (02x 2.7 m) developed for the first time with An-isogrid triangular lattice structure with offset hoop bonds having Integral bulkheads. Structural tested up to axial force of -238 KN and bending moment of 215 KN-m Composite airframe intersection 4 (02.4 x 1.07 m) using Aluminium alloy honey comb flex core with bi-directional carbon fabric face sheets with integral bulkheads, Number of cuts made for mounting antennas, passengers and thrusters, Structural tested up to axial force of -412 KN and bending moment of 292 KN-m.
The payload fairing having 02m x 3 m length is configured with cylindrical and the ogive configuration, sandwich construction with carbon epoxy face sheets (1mm) and aluminium alloy super flex honeycomb core (14 mm) made in two halves using single tool.
Composite Propellant tank 325ltrs (e650 x 1300 mm) over aluminium liner 1 mm thick made up of Carbon Fiber (T-700) & Epofine Resin using Filament Winding Technology thickness of 2 helical and 1 hoop of 3 mm thickness is realized and Proof Pressure tested up to 40 bar.
Composite Helium gas tank 52ltrs (0250 x 1250 mm) over Titanium liner 1 mm thick made up of Carbon Fiber (T-700) & Epoline Resin using Filament Winding Technology thickness of 7 helical and 8 hoop of 12.5 mm thickness is realized and Proot Pressure tested up to 487 bar.

Er. Pravin Swaminathan, Head of Software Business and Product Management for India Asia-Pacific region, Stellantis is responsible for building the future driven Transformative and Customer-Centric Software solutions. Currently, he is playing a key role in leading the transformation of Stellantis from an automotive company to a Sustainable and Mobility Tech company. In addition to this, he is also responsible for delivering Customer Excellence by enhancing the Connectivity solutions in India.His previous stints include leadership roles in Bosch and Harman. He has been pivotal in delivering Turn Key Connectivity Programs for Global OEMs and Smart Cities. He firmly believes Innovation is the key and also has 2 Patents to his credit.

Future Automobile/car will be the second home and the transformation that is ahead of us in the next 2 decades has not happened in the last 100 years. Starting from Electric Mobility to Autonomy and Entertainment to Smartphone, the complete User experience is going to change tremendously. Autonomy, Electric and Artificial Intelligence are the 3 Technological nodes that will pave way for the future experience of the Automobile.
Outside of an Automobile the ecosystem from roads to networks and Smart cities to mass transportation will also impact the landscape of mobility and transportation.

Ramana Mallysetty is the CEO of DigiFyde, a technology innovator delivering a disruptive and paradigm-shifting "No COde" Digital Platform and Solutions. Ramana graduated from OU Mechanical Engineering in 1987 and subsequently received a master's degree from Oregon State University.
As a recognized Advisor with over 25 years of experience, hr provided strategy to executives and delivered digital solutions for American Express, Proctor and Gamble, Starwood Hotels, Delta Airlines and other global leaders and multi-national companies.Ramana lives in Miami, Florida (USA)

Traditional programming based approach to application development is reaching its end of life. Businesses want to respond fast to meet their needs and keep up with competition, economy and global change. Long development projects with large teams of developers to produce a tangible value to business is no longer a viable nor acceptable approach.
Low/No code platforms along with AI are already taking over and businesses are beginning to adopt these technologies. This is expected to rapidly increase over the next 2-3 years and replace the cumbersome programming based lifecycle in all the new development at companies. Speaker will share an overview of these technologies, and how businesses are embracing these. He also provide his thoughts and suggestions on how to leverage these technologies in manufacturing and engineering areas for high impact.

Dr. Inumula Satyanarayana is presently working as DDMS at Directorate General of Mines Safety, Southern Zone, Bengalore and also served in different capacities at M/s Singareni Collieries Company Limited.His expertise is mines safety and planning, mining methods and slope stability. He graduated in Mining Engineering from Kakatiya University- Telangana State, acquired M.Tech in Mining Engineering from IIT- Kharagpur, and Ph.D in slope stability from IIT(ISM), Dhanbad. He holds prestigious professional statutory certificates both FMMC(Coal), and FMMC(Metal). He also obtained MBA in HR and MCA. He was state topper in ECET, Diploma and Bachelor Degrees in Mining Engineering He has vast experience and expertise in different mining technologies and working for mining industry for the last 20 years. He published around 30 research papers on Strata Control, Pit Slope failure, Improvement of production and productivity, Numerical methods, statistical analysis and Use of Continuous Miner Technology, etc. in National/International Journals/Conferences. He has delivered more than 50 expert lectures in India. He is the recipient of national awards like “SRG IT Award- 2021” and Dr. M L Jhanwar Award-2021 from Mining Engineers Association of India and “Best Idea Singareni” award. He also taught mining engineering at different engineering colleges as part-time lecturer. He played key role in successful completion of Stowing Panel under Jallaram Vagu at GDK No. 3 Incline without disturbing it which is first of its kind in the history of SCCL. He was instrumental in achieving record production of 1393 Tonnnes by 3 LHDs on 09.12.2005 creating history in SCCL. He worked as a member of Board of governors for TEQUIP at University College of Engineering, Telangana. He played a key role in building DGMS as DIGITAL DGMS, implementation of comprehensive end-to-end e-procurement through GeM and CPP Portals, Geo-tagging of all DGMS offices in Bhuvan Portal, preparation of documentary films and organization of National Safety Awards (Mines) and contributing in improving safety in mines for the last 9 years.

It is of prime concern for the design engineers to ensure safe working environment in an open-pit highwall mine when negotiating greater depths, as is the trend in India. Umpteen researchers have contributed towards understanding the mechanism of slope failure in highways, open-pit mines and dump slopes etc. However, it has been observed that hardly any studies have been undertaken concerning analyzing highwall slope stability. Therefore, this study has explored the likelihood of simulating six highwall slopes covering the Godavari Coal Basin using simulation softwares. In order to ascertain the factor of safety (FoS) the shear strength reduction method has been implemented. Parametric analysis has been conducted to decipher the influence of five factors namely, cohesion, overall pit slope angle, depth, internal angle of friction and density. It has been inferred from the study that the factors considered for parametric analysis are critical to influence instability in highwall slopes. The data extracted from the parametric study has been utilized to develop a non-linear regression (NLR) based robust model to predict the FoS precisely for all the highwall slopes.

Dr. Ramakrishna Morla, Senior Ventilation & Projects Engineer, Norton Gold Fields, Australia. He has intense research and practical experience in underground mine ventilation and cooling. He received mining degree from IIT Kharagpur and PhD in mining engineering from the University of Wollongong, Australia. Dr. Ramakrishna has been giving guest lectures on underground mine ventilation and safety at various International Universities. He published over 30 journal articles and book chapters. He worked as an Undermanager and R&D Ventilation and Fire Control Cell In-charge for the RG region of SCCL mines. Later he worked as a Research Scientist Engineer for Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Australia. He also worked as a Specialist Ventilation Engineer for Glencore, Australia, and ventilation officer for the second-deepest mine in Australia. Currently, he is working as a Ventilation department in-charge of three underground gold mines for Norton Gold Fields, Australia.

Diesel-operated vehicles are commonly used in underground coal, metal and non-metal mines for loading and transporting men and materials. The main drawback of diesel-operated vehicle usage in unventilated dead-end crosscuts is that they generate diesel particulate matter (DPM), a known carcinogenic agent. Since DPM particles are nanometers in size, they do not settle easily under their own weight and will require a longer duration to dilute. This paper presents different Australian mine ventilation systems and detailed investigations of DPM dispersion in underground mines and control strategies.

Dr. Purushotham Tukkaraja, Associate Professor, holds a B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Mining Engineering and specializes in underground ventilation and air conditioning, mine safety and health, rock fragmentation, and bulk materials handling. He is the Director of the South Dakota MSHA State Grants Program at South Dakota Mines and MSHA-approved mine safety and health instructor for surface and underground mines. He is an ABET Program Evaluator (PEV); and Qualified Professional (QP) Member of the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America (MMSA). He has organized the 2021 North American Mine Ventilation Symposium. He serves on the University Research Committee at SD Mines and SME's Underground Ventilation Committee (UVC) Executive Board. He is the advisor for the South Dakota Mines student chapter of the International Society of Explosives Engineers (ISEE). He is also an Associate Editor, Editorial Board Member, and Reviewer for several Mining Engineering Journals. He served as the President of the Black Hills Chapter of ISEE. He is an active member of SME, MMSA, BHISEE, and ISEE.

This talk presents the summary of the underground health and safety research projects completed by our research team over the last 5 years. Specifically, investigation of gas and airflow characteristics in block cave mines and design of effective ventilation system, radon emission and its control in the underground environment, blast fumes behavior in underground openings, real-time monitoring and assessment of underground climatic conditions, and design of emergency ventilation systems. We used several research methods for these studies, including computational fluid dynamics (CFD)—continuum and discrete approaches in conjunction with advanced geo-mechanical analysis through numerical modeling, scale model studies, mathematical modeling, field observations, discrete fracture network (DFN), flow through porous media, particle flow code (PFC), Ventsim, MATLAB, Python programming, and machine learning tools.
These studies investigated several research questions, including the effect of geometrical configurations and climatic conditions on ventilation systems, and related to block cave mines: immature and mature cave properties, radon and airflow behavior, radon control measures, cave characteristics, ventilation on demand, blasting fumes, prediction of porosity, and permeability of different cave zones, the effect of undercut ventilation, forcing, exhaust and the push-pull system, the effect of airgap, and broken rock porosity and permeability on the cave ventilation system. The research findings from these studies provide useful information for designing effective ventilation systems to create a safe and comfortable working environment for personnel and equipment working underground.

Dr. K. Ram Chandar presently working as Associate Professor of Mining Engineering at NITK Surathkal and also served as Head of the Department. His expertise is rock blasting and slope stability. Dr. Ram Chandar graduated in Mining Engineering from Kothagudem School of Mines (Kakatiya University- Telangana State), obtained M.Tech in Rock Mechanics from IIT-Banaras Hindu University, Ph.D in Rock Blasting from NITK-Surathkal and Post Doctoral Fellowship from University of Illinois at Chicago - USA. He also holds MBA in degree in HR. He has been working with NITK for the past 20years, he has involved in 8 R&D projects and 150 Industry sponsored consultancy projects, published around 100 research papers in National/International Journals/Conferences. He has delivered more than 50 expert lectures in India and other countries. He has produced 4 Ph.Ds and 6 more scholars are working at present. His technical expertise in Rock Blasting especially in controlled blasting in protecting important structures is being utilised in various Mining Industries (Coal, Iron ore sector, Limestone sector, quarries etc.,) and also in Civil Projects like Canals, Metros, Hydel Projects etc. He has been doing slope stability studies for various mines and quarries also. He is the recipient of many national awards like “SRG IT Award- 2008-09” from Mining Engineers Association of India, “Outstanding Young Person Award -2011” from Junior Chamber International, Mangalore. “ISTE- SGSITS National Award -2012” for the best research work done by Young Teachers of Engineering Colleges in India, “Institute of Engineers-India Young Engineer Award-2012”, “MEAI- Smt. Kiran Devi Singhal Memorial Award- 2014”, “National Design Award- 2017 in Mining Engineering” for Outstanding Contribution in the field of Engineering Design by National Design Research Forum (NDRF) of Institution of Engineers, “Engineering Gold Medal-2018” from MGMI for outstanding contribution in earth sciences. Dr. Ram Chandar is Chief Editor of International Journal of Mining & Geosciences, consulting Editor of The Indian Mining & Engineering Journal, and on the editorial board of Mining Engineer’s Journal, Goematerials, Frontiers in Geotechnical Engineering, International Journal of Earth Sciences & Engineering and also reviewer for many international journals. He is a life member of more than 10 professional societies like ISRM, MGMI, ISTE, IE, MEAI, etc. Dr. Ram Chandar has travelled widely, visited many universities/ countries for research interaction, presentation of research paper etc, to name a few: South Dakota School of Mines- USA, Southern Illinois University- USA, Arizona State University - USA, University of Illinois at Chicago- USA, Monash University- Australia, Kagoshima University - Japan, Institute of Petroleum- Abu Dhabi, Monash University − Malaysia. University of Hong Kong Etc.

Rock blasting using chemical energy in the form of explosives for breaking and displacing the rock mass in mines is essential activity. Blasting is the cheapest form of energy to break the rock mass and influences all the downstream operations, influencing the total economy of the project. There have been lot of developments in explosives and initiating devices starting from gown powder to SMS/SME and safety fuse to electronic detonator. But, still the effective energy utilization is less than 20% only. Infact, it is very difficult to assess the performance of a blast, though there are various conventional and imperial based approaches are available. Various researchers have been working continuously to improve blast performance and reduce the side effects like ground vibrations, fly rock and noise, back break etc. Optimization of delay timing using sophisticated electronic detonators, energy distribution-based blast performance assessment, wireless sensor-based ground vibration monitoring, etc, are some of the ongoing research in the area of rock blasting. However, the new edge technologies should be reliable, cost effective and user friendly then only its application would be successful in the area of rock blasting. Though various attempts are being made to go for alternative technologies for rock blasting, because of the fast and cost effectiveness, still rock blasting is going to be the main activity on day-to-day operation of mining. So, this talk gives brief detail about the developments in explosives and initiating devises, present day technology is being used and some of the ongoing research aspects and the need for further research.

Laxminarayana (Laxmi) Chikatamarla has over 35 years of industry and academic experience in the coal mining and unconventional gas sector from exploration to production. Laxmi has working experience as an Engineer, Project Manager, Corporate Policy Adviser, Research Associate and Consultant for coal mining, coalbed methane and Shale gas projects. He has worked in Australia, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Mozambique; and travelled globally for consulting work. He has consulting, project management and development experience with United Nations projects as well as with North American companies involved with Coal and CBM development projects in China, India and Canada. Laxmi holds bachelor's degree in Mining Engineering from Osmania University, India, Master's degree in Geotechnical Engineering (Rock Mechanics) from Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, PhD degree in Geology from James Cook University, Australia and post-doctoral fellow ship from University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. He gained expertise in Coalbed methane and Shale gas reservoir engineering from both a fundamental experimental basis to practical field applications. Laxmi's experience covers, 10 years in the field of coal mining project development (both underground and open pit); 6 years in project planning and policy development for Coal, Coalbed methane and shale gas projects in the Government of India (Planning Commission); and more than 18 years in research and consulting experience in Canada and Australia on global projects on coalbed methane and shale gas exploration & field development involving reservoir engineering and geological sequestration of CO2 gases in coal beds. Laxmi is also a respected author and reviewer of technical journal and conference papers on coal seam gas and CO2 sequestration. Laxmi has published and presented more than 25 papers in International journals and conferences. Laxmi authored 'Chapter 27' for AAPG Studies in Geology #59 (pp. 457 - 474). Laxmi is responsible for starting 'Far East Energy Corporation', USA and was on their advisory board for number of years. Laxmi also served on the board of small oil and gas exploration companies in Canada during 2003 to 2008. Laxmi won number of awards during his career and one of which is a Best paper award for his presentation in a meeting held at the Geological Society of America at the National Meeting of 2003 held in Seattle, USA. Laxmi is a certified engineer for Coal and CBM reserves reporting in Canada. He is also a registered Professional Engineer in Queensland and Member AusIMM (CP) in Australia.

The Indian mining industry plays a vital role in the country's economy, but its slow adoption of digital mining technologies compared to other developed countries, coupled with its significant negative impact on the environment, pose challenges to achieving sustainable development. Integrating technological advancements and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors is crucial for driving sustainable development in the mining industry.
This paper explores the reasons behind the limited adoption of modern technologies in the Indian mining sector, including attracting talent, shortage of skilled workforce, complex regulations, lack of international collaborations, inadequate infrastructure in remote mining areas, lack of government support, and environmental challenges. Additionally, the mindset of mining professionals (i.e. fear of learning new technologies, resistance to change, transparency in operations, concerns over job security, complex procurement process, fear of scrutiny, etc.) may hinder the adoption of digital technologies. Further, the paper draws insights from the significant advances made by the Indian space industry and its similarity with the mining industry as space science and geoscience subjects are interconnected, i.e. both explore the science beyond our visual perceptions and emphasizes the importance of adopting sustainable practices for the benefit of the environment and human society.
The paper recommends solutions to these challenges, including more government funding for research and development, modernising mining education system, investment in training programs for a skilled workforce, incentives for private mining companies including MDO operators to adopt digital technologies, adoption of sustainable practices, simplification of regulations, collaboration with international partners, and improvement of infrastructure.
In conclusion, integrating digital technologies and ESG factors is essential for sustainable mining in India. International collaborations, improved infrastructure, and investment in training programs can overcome the challenges facing the industry and accelerate its growth towards sustainable mining practices.