The Bangalore University will submit a memorandum to the Union Law Minister on January 2 urging him to upgrade University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) to an Indian Institute of Technology.
"The HRD ministry has announced that it would set up ten more IITs soon. UVCE has the necessary infrastructure, expertise, faculty and students. This can be converted into an IIT with a campus at Muddenahalli," Vice-chancellor N Prabhu Dev told reporters on Friday. The memorandum will be submitted at the mega reunion event of UVCE alumni, which will be held from January 1 to 3 on the occasion of Sir Visvesvaraya’s 150th anniversary. "UVCE might remain a constituent college of BU. Even if we have to let go of the administration of UVCE, we will not mind," he added.
VSSUT Burla must be watchful and take appropriate steps at the right time.
The following table lists the institutions that applied from Oidsha, their over all scores and the problems they had (if any).
Institution
Score (sub-component)
Problems
IGIT Sarang
66 (1.1)
None (found eligible)
VSSUT Burla
73 (1.1)
Faculty less than 50%; BOG not as per UGC
CET Bhubaneswar
63 (1.1)
Faculty less than 50%; BOG not as per UGC
NIT Rourkela
57 (1.2)
BOG not as per UGC
OSME Keonjhar
25 (1.1)
Number of courses less than 4
Synergy, Dhenaknal
39 (1.1)
BOG not as per UGC
NIST, Berhampur
35 (1.1)
BOG not as per UGC
CEB, Bhubaneswar
34 (1.1)
BOG not as per UGC
DRIEMS, Cuttack
36 (1.1)
BOG not as per UGC
OEC, Bhubaneswar
33 (1.1)
BOG not as per UGC
KISD, Bhubaneswar
37 (1.1)
BOG not as per UGC
CV Raman, Bhubaneswar
46 (1.2)
BOG not as per UGC
As per http://www.npiu.nic.in/faq.htm sub component 1.1 is about Strengthening institutions to improve learning outcomes and employability of graduates and Sub-component 1.2 is about Scaling-up postgraduate education and demand driven R&D and innovation.
One of the requirement for the BOG is that it be headed by an eminent industrialist/engineering academician with adequate representation from other stakeholders.
So it is not clear what the Telegraph article below is talking about.
The details of the program is at http://www.npiu.nic.in/faqi.htm. From a quick reading it seems that the government institutions will get about 10 crores each and the private ones about 4 crores each.
UCE Burla becoming VSSUT and the hiring of dynamic vice Chancellors at VSSUT (Prof. D K Tripathy from IIT Kharagpur) as well as at Sambalpur University (Prof. Arun Pujari from the University of Hyderabad) has given a huge momentum in making the Sambalpur area a knowledge hub and together with similar progress at Rourkela a western knowledge corridor is now in the making. In this write-up we will focus on the greater Sambalpur area ranging from Bargarh in the west of Sambalpur to Jharsuguda and Sundergarh in the north and north east.
Universities: Two exists; 2 more in the making
There are two universities with dynamic leadership at their helm: VSSUT and Sambalpur University
Sambalpur University has received approval and funding for a SU-IIT (Sambalpur University Institute of Information Technology) and is pursuing a sports institute.
VSSUT has significant expansion plans.
There is a proposal to upgrade GM college to a unitary university.
The health minister had announced to upgrade VSS Medical College to a university.
Branch of OUAT in Chipilima.
Engineering Colleges: Besides VSSUT, there are five more engineering colleges in the area. 2 in Baragarh, 1 in Jharsuguda, 1 in Sundergarh and 1 in Sason (Silicon West).
Management Institute: XIMB plans a campus in this area.
Centrally funded Institutes: IIHT (Indian Institute of Handloom Technology) in Baragarh.
Research Institute: CIFT Burla.
Other Colleges: Panchayat College Baragarh, NSCB College Sambalpur, Govt. Womens College Sambalpur, Govt. College Sundergarh and Govt. Womens College Sundergarh.
Airport: Jharsuguda airport is under construction.
The above gives the current status of this area. In addition to the efforts mentioned above, following should also be pursued.
The VSSUT must be upgraded to a national level institute such as an IIEST (Indian Institute of Engineering Science & Technology)
An STP must be established in Sambalpur.
Operationalization of Jharsuguda airport must be expedited.
One of the central government departments such as CSIR, DAE, Sc & Tech, etc. needs to open a research center here.
The Orissa government should push to upgrade the VSS Medical College to the AIIMS level.
Establishment of private medical colleges in this area must be encouraged.
The OUAT college in Chipilima needs to upgraded and expanded
A regional university (similar to the old regional engineering colleges, with 50-50 partnership between the state and the central govt.) should be established in Jharsuguda. (This could be part of the 12th five year plan starting from 2012.)
A state university should be established in Jharsuguda during the 13th plan. (by 2020)
A state university should be established in Baragarh during the 13th plan. (by 2020)
Considering the rapid industrialization of the area, the Govt. Engineering School in Jharsuguda should be upgraded to an engineering college, perhaps as a constituent college of VSSUT.
NOTE on Comments: Only constructive comments will be allowed. Please do not submit comments that advocate separatism, conspiracy theories, shifting, badmouthing, etc.
I was going through NIT Rourkela’s website. Although it has been always ranked pretty high (good research ranking, high ranking by India Today) among engineering colleges in India, over the last few years it is turning into a comprehensive university with new departments and programs. Prof. Sunil Sarangi has done wonders since he has arrived as the director of NIT Rourkela. Following are some of the highlights of the unique programs, new programs and new departments.
Ceramic Engineering Department: B.Tech and M.Tech programs in Ceramic Engineering. This is a unique department and program not available in many places.
Note: Among the above departments, the Applied Mathematics, Chemistry and Physics departments are not new but I think the M.Sc programs are new; I could not find when exactly they were started.
As one can notice from the above, one can do degrees in Molecular Biology or Humanities at NIT Rourkela. Soon one can pursue an MBA. This is really wonderful and kudos to Prof. Sarangi for making this happen.
In August this year when I met Prof. Sarangi in Orissa I broached the topic of having a medical college at NIT Rourkela. He was not opposed to the idea, but was worried that with only 1-2 years left in his tenure at NIT Rourkela, he would not be able to make it happen in that short time. I hope a way is found so that Prof. Sarangi stays for another 5 year term at NIT Rourkela. I am told every one likes him and respects him at NIT Rourkela. We should write him and thank him for all that he has done for NIT Rourkela, request him to stay longer in Rourkela and we should do something (perhaps write to CMO and MHRD) to give him another 5 year term. We should request Prof. Sarangi to start a medical college at NIT Rourkela. His parent institution, IIT Khragpur is starting one in Kharagpur, so if he is given time, he will be able to do it. Another program that NIT Rourkela should be encouraged to establish is "Architecture and Town Planning". (In this regard, NIT Warangal leads the pack of NITs in planning for a medical school and a law school.)
For our readers with Rourkela connection please spread the word about the availability of science, business and humanities programs at NIT Rourkela so that good students and faculty join these programs. Also, some of you students, go and pursue higher degrees (PhD) and come back and join NIT Rourkela and to the others become an entrepreneur and open companies in Rourkela.
Another good thing about all of these is that with the new VC at VSSUT Burla, who is also from IIT Khragapur and a good friend of Prof. Sarangi , a similar transformation can be expected at VSSUT Burla. Already, a new department of Humanities is being made at VSSUT Burla. VSSUT Burla has advertised for new faculty positions and its VC has mentioned some of his new plans. In an interview to TOI he is reported to have said:
Our priority will be to make the institution as one of the best of the country and for this we are planning to introduce few new branches of engineering courses. Textile engineering is one among them which will help to strengthen the development of the Sambalpuri fabric. We also plan to introduce Nano-science technology, Bio-medical engineering and surgical engineering soon”, the vice chancellor Dr Tripathy told.
Earlier this year Delhi College of Engineering became a state university and changed its name to Delhi Tech University. On November 10th, after 100 days of its completion as a university its VC had the following to report.
The Vice Chancellor informed the gathering that four new undergraduate courses and six new postgraduate courses have been added from 2009-10 in areas of high relevance to the country. "Nano-Science and Technology, VLSI Design, Microwave and Optical Communication, Software Engineering, Information Systems, Power Systems are the areas in which DTU has made a modest yet committed beginning," he said. The University has also forayed into management education this year by establishing ‘Delhi School of Management’ to offer MBA program in innovative areas like knowledge and technology management.
With a view to encourage excellence in education and research, DTU has established an ‘Innovation Fund’ with a seed money of Rs. 10 lakh and has introduced cash awards of Rs. 10,000 for the toppers of each semester, in each discipline and Reward of Rs 10,000 for faculty members who publish research papers in International Journals of High Impact Factor. The University has also recruited about 22 new faculty members at various levels recently.
… The thrust areas of R&D at DTU are going to be Biofuel and Clean Energy Technologies, Future Automobile Solutions, Nano Scale Devices and Photonics, New and Smart Materials, Conducting Polymers, Broadband on Power lines, Info Security and Network Management and Socially Relevant Technologies
"The total student strength in DTU will be almost three times of its current student intake in the next five years", the VC says.
The VC also announced the beginning of new programs including dual degree programs and integrated Master’s programs in areas of relevance to our country in Medical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Bio-informatics, Clean Energy and Environment Technology, New and Smart Materials and Nano-Technology.
Speaking to an NNE correspondent, the VC said that DTU’s board of management has already given its nod to construct a multi-storey academic block; a teaching block housing ICT enabled lecture theatres and additional hostel facilities for both boys and girls.
"As a part of our academic and research plan we shall set up transform selected research laboratories as world class test houses cum research centres, establish a knowledge park cum Technology Incubator in DTU campus to foster i2IP, student and faculty led techno-enterprises and facilitate effective industry institution interaction," Prof. Sharma added.
A finishing school in partnership with the industry and alumni to further boost employability of their graduates is also in the wish list of the VC.
A Staff College for Tech faculty development will also be set up in DTU to support the Faculty Development mission.
In an endeavour to attract the best talent to teaching and research, a leading technology university here has initiated 25 teaching-cum-research fellowships (TRFs), including 20 at the doctoral level and five at the post-doctoral level. …
Each teaching-cum-research fellow will be enrolled for a full-time Ph D. programme and will take 10 hours per week of teaching work at the B.Tech or M.Tech levels, a DTU statement said.
The incumbents will be initially appointed for two years, which will be further extended depending on academic and research performance.
The expenditure involved in the grant of TRFs has been estimated around Rs.60 lakh per annum, the statement said.
The first ordinance of the university relating to B.Tech. courses has already been approved by the government. The ordinance for M.Tech and MBA programmes was approved by the DTU board Saturday.
Highlighting the achievements of the institution during the last three months, DTU Vice Chancellor P.B. Sharma told the board: "Apart from a major R&D tie-up with US aerospace major Lockheed Martin for developing a next-generation unmanned aerial vehicle,the university has entered into a collaboration with the Groupe Des Ecoles Des Mines of France to foster collaboration, provide opportunities for global experience and facilitate advancement of knowledge in the field of engineering."
Overall Delhi plans 6 specialized universities. Following is an excerpt from an article about this.
Titled `Delhi as the knowledge capital’, and jointly organized by the Department of Training and Technical Education, government of NCT of Delhi and Delhi Technological University (DTU), the conference on Wednesday discussed a strategic framework for giving shape to the varsity system. Three out of the six universities are already functional. They include the National Law School University (NLU), IIIT-Delhi and Dr B R Ambedkar University.
"Under the new model of higher education, a number of discipline-focused smaller universities are being set up, which would be managed by a common apex system. The new institutes planned are the University of Science and Technology, University of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Research, and University College of Medical Sciences,” said Delhi chief secretary Rakesh Mehta.
The conference is being seen as a platform for creating a plan of action for the proposed initiatives of the Delhi government. It also discussed the public-private partnership model (PPP) of education where the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (GGSIPU) was cited as an instance. In this system, a majority of the affiliated colleges are privately run.
The above has some lessons for Orissa, its VCs and its higher education task force. In particular, the VC of VSSUT, Burla must take note of the speed at which Delhi Tech U is moving. The VSSUT VC must take the opportunity provided by the document being drafted by the Orissa higher education task force and put into it a visionary plan for VSSUT. In regards to BPUT it may have a new VC soon. Hopefully the new VC will help BPUT Rourkela transition from an administrative unit operating from Bhubaneswar to a real university operating from Rourkela.
(1) VSSUT is going to organize its First Convocation to award degrees to its 2009 batch graduands in December -2009/January-2010 in the auditorium with an invitation to a reputed personality from the country to deliver the convocation address as Chief Guest.
(2) A Webgroup with teachers and students be formed to develop and maintain our University website to make it one of the best website in the world.
(3)Construction of one 600 seated Boys hostel and 60 seated guest house.
(4) A digital library and 24X7 internet connectivity in the university campus, students hostels and staff quarters.
(5) Appointment of 39 new teaching faculties in next three months time and Phone, PC and Internet facility in individual faculty office rooms.
(7) Revision and Up gradation of Curriculum taking IIT-Kharagpur as a model.
(8) A Big Notice board at the Entrance near Golden Jubilee gate for coverage and information of all events of the University.
(9)Construction of A Big bounded campus with New staff quarters.
(10) Construction of another big auditorium with 2000 capacity.
Our priority will be to make the institution as one of the best of the country and for this we are planning to introduce few new branches of engineering courses. Textile engineering is one among them which will help to strengthen the development of the Sambalpuri fabric. We also plan to introduce Nano-science technology, Bio-medical engineering and surgical engineering soon”, the vice chancellor Dr Tripathy told.
According to him, several modification and changes are to be taken place in the infrastructure of the institution once it becomes university. But since it requires lot of expenditure we want to change it in phase manner. “I am meeting the industry secretary soon to place our immediate requirement. I am hopeful the government would give proper attention to solve the problem of the institution. We have shortage of faculty members. About 44 new faculty members are required immediately. So we advertise this in our website and soon we are able to fill up the posts”, Dr. Tripathy told.
These are good steps. VC Tripathy should take the Delhi Tech Univ plans as well has his own plans to our government and use that to leverage more support from the government.
In this regard I would like readers to comment on some future directions for VSSUT. We will collect those and give it to VSSUT VC as well as to the higher education task force. Thanks in advance.
After joining our alma-mater as its First Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Deb Kumar Tripathy has addressed the HODs, Deans, Faculty and Staff members of the University in the auditorium and shared his vision for the future. VSSUT Burla finally got a open minded and real visionary dynamic leader to excel in the field of technical education in the country. Here is a brief excerpts from his vision for VSSUT as delivered in his inaugural address.
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(1) Make VSSUT Burla the No. 1 University in the state and a top ranked university in the country in future.
(2) Develop a new colourful big campus for the University with the support of Govt.
(3) Establish various centres of excellence to promote quality teaching and research in the university.
(4) Strengthen Industry-academia interaction and set up research laboratories at our university in collaboration with industries.
(5) Improve the residential life of students and develop more hostels with modern facilities.
(6) Recruit well qualified and potential talents as faculty of the university.
(7) Bring a dynamic change in the system so that every stackholder contributes and delivers their best for the betterment of the University.
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Prof. Tripathy has a high aspiration from our 15,000 strong alumni to materialize his vision. He is soliciting high cooperation from our alumni association. He has requested the alumni to come forward with innovative ideas and constructive suggestions and join hands with him for the development of our alma-mater.
I request all the alumni members to congratulate our Vice-chancellor and put forward your valuable suggestions to help him build the VSSUT of our dream. His current e-mail id is as follows –
dkt@rtc.iitkgp.ernet.in
With best wishes and complements
Rakesh Mohanty
Secretary, VSSUT Alumni Association
Update: He has now joined as the VC. He will be felicitated by the alumni association in Bhubaneswar on 19th Sept 2009 at 6:30 PM in the Institue of Engineers building.
Governor and Chancellor of Universities Murlidhar Chandrakant Bhandare today appointed Prof Deba Kumar Tripathy as the new Vice-Chancellor of the Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT), Burla.
Prof Tripathy is currently Professor of Rubber Technology Department in Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur. The post was lying vacant as previously appointed Vice-Chancellor Ganapati Panda did not join.
He is considered an expert in metal and rubber forming, die mould, tool design for metal and elastomer, rubber product manufacturing, rubber processing, rubber blends and composites, vibration isolation, cellular rubber and plastic and environment engineering.
NOTE: Please note that I am in the board of advisors of BIT. I agreed to join the board because I believe in the people who are making it. Nevertheless I am obviously biased.
This year IIIT Bhubaneswar is starting B.Tech courses. See http://www.iiit-bh.in/ It could be a good alternative to CET and UCE.
Similarly, BIT, although private, could be a good alternative to CET and UCE as BIT is being made by several top professors in the USA. See http://www.bit.edu.in/. Just to elaborate on the later, following is the promoting body of BIT, as obtained from their web site http://www.bit.edu.in/promoting.htm. I know several of the professors in the BIT promoting body and they are very well respected internationally. I strongly believe that they will make BIT a top engineering college in Orissa.
Dr. Rabi Mahapatra is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Texas A&M University. He was a faculty at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur prior to his joining at Texas A&M University in 1995. He has also held visiting faculty position at IBM T.J Watson Research Center during 2001. Dr. Mahapatra received his PhD in Computer Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology in 1992. He directs the Embedded System Research Group at Texas A&M University since 2002. He was editor of the special Issue on Codesign of Embedded Systems for International Journal on Microelectronics in 2003. He is a cofounder of Orissa Information Technology Society (OITS) and International Conference on Information Technology in 1998. Dr. Mahapatra was the Steering Committee Chair of ICIT during 2004 – 2005, and the Program Chair of IEEE Workshop on Embedded System Codesign. He served in the technical program committee of ACM/IEEE Design Automation Conference (DAC) during 2005-2007; IEEE Intl Workshop on Large-scale Real-time Embedded Systems (2005, 2006), International Conference on Parallel & Distributed Systems (ICPADS) in 2004; International Conference on Parallel Processing (2004), Intl Workshop on System on Chip, and many other International events. He served as the Chairman of IEEE Kharagpur Section during 1994-95. Currently, he is serving as a Faculty Senator from College of Engineering at Texas A&M University for two years and also Associate Editor of ACM transaction of embedded computing.
Dr. Mahapatra’s principal areas of research are Embedded Systems, System on Chip, Network Router Architectures, Low-power Designs, and Cyber Physical Systems. He has published more than 100 research articles in the refereed international journals and conference proceedings. His research has been supported by several federal agencies such as National Science Foundation, NASA, Department of Federal Aviation Agency (DoT), and industries like IBM, Boeing, BAE, Lockheed Martin and Xilinx Corp. Dr. Rabi Mahapatra is Ford Fellow, BOYS-CAST Fellow, Senior-Member IEEE Computer Society, and a Distinguished Visitor of IEEE Computer Society. Dr. Mahapatra is currently serving as ABET coordinator for Computer Science, Faculty Senator of Texas A&M University, and Graduate Admission Committee Member in Computer Science.
Mrs. Sumita Panda with a Masters degree in Arts from the Sambalpur University in 1984 has been directly and indirectly engaged in a number of social projects relating to poverty alleviation, adult education and awareness creation on environmental issues. She takes active interest in woman empowerment by inspiring and helping formation of Self Help Groups among rural and semi urban women from lower economic strata. She is a yoga exponent and an active member of the movement for vegetarianism. Mrs. Panda hails from a reputed Oriya family of freedom fighters and social workers." She is married with two children.
Prof. Laxmi N. Bhuyan, Trustee Professor and Chairman, Department of Computer Science, University of California, Riverside, USA
Dr. Laxmi Narayan Bhuyan is a professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of California, Riverside since January 2001. Prior to that, he was a professor of Computer Science at Texas A&M University (1989-2000) and Program Director of the Computer System Architecture Program at the National Science Foundation (1998-2000). He has also worked as a consultant to Intel and HP labs.
Dr. Bhuyan received his Ph.D. degree in Computer Engineering from Wayne State University in 1982. His current research interests are in the areas of network computing, multiprocessor architectures, router and web server architectures, parallel and distributed processing, and performance evaluation. He has published more than 150 papers in these areas in IEEE Transactions on Computers (TC), IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS), Journal of Parallel and Distributed Computing (JPDC), and many refereed conference proceedings. Dr. Bhuyan currently serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the IEEE Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems (TPDS). He is a past Editor of the IEEE TC, JPDC, and Parallel Computing Journal. He was the founding Program Committee Chairman of the HPCA in 1995, Program Chair of the IPDPS in 1996, General Chair of ADCOM-2001, and General Chair of HPCA-9 (2003). He was elected Chair of the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Computer Architecture (1995-1998).
Dr. Bhuyan is a Fellow of the IEEE, the ACM, the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science), and the WIF (World Innovation Foundation). He has also been named as an ISI Highly Cited Researcher in Computer Science. He has received other awards such as Halliburton Professorship at Texas A&M University, and Senior Fellow of the Texas Engineering Experiment Station. He was also awarded the IEEE CS Outstanding Contribution Award in 1997.
Mr. Binoy Dash is currently a Software Engineer in Cisco Systems at San Jose, USA. He graduated with a Master’s degree in Computer Science from Texas A&M University in 2006. Before joining Cisco Systems, he worked as an Engineering Intern in wireless technology giant Qualcomm Inc. for several months, where he worked in WCDMA Physical layer Software, specifically the Cell Searcher algorithm implementation on the wireless chipset. In academics, he was the scholarship recipient from Foundation for Excellence Inc., USA and Industrial Affiliates Program (IAP) in Texas A&M University.
In his role as a Software Engineer in Cisco Systems, he is involved in the Design and Development of different applications and protocols that provides routing and switching infrastructure in IOS-XR Microkernel operating system, which drives the high end routers.
Maj Gen P.P. Das was commissioned into the Indian Army in June 1969 having been trained at The National Defense Academy (NDA). In the early stages of his career he took part in the 1971 INDO-PAK operations, in the state of Sikkim. He later went on to complete the Post Graduate program in Maintenance and Industrial Tribology at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
After a decade of service in the Army he was selected by the then Scientific Advisor to the Raksha Mantri to be part of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). During his tenure in the DRDO he worked in the specialized areas of satellites, electronic warfare, missiles and corporate governance. He spearheaded some projects to successful completion in the capacity of Project Director. He served as the interface of DRDO to promote Services’ interaction with a view to develop and design precision equipment to augment the actual requirements of Armed Forces under the Ministry of Defense and Corporate India as an Industry partner.
Mr. Rabindra Gaan graduated from IIT-BHU with B.Tech degree in Electronics & Communication during 1985 and obtained his Master Degree from PII, Eindhoven, The Netherlands in 1990. During 1985-89, Mr. Gaan worked with Bharat Electronics, at Bangalore on design, development and testing of VHF wireless .equipment for Indian Defense Forces. He was also responsible for development of encryption equipments for Indian Army on wireless communications. Subsequently, he joined with Punwire Wireless Communications and worked on Digital Multi Access Radio Telephone (DMART) for Indian Defense Forces (Army) as Principal Engineer during 1990 to 1992. Mr. Gaan was working with Shyam Telecom during 1992-1998 where he was a General Manager (R&D). He was instrumental in success of projects like MART (Multi Access Rural Telephony wireless), Optical Multiplexer, ATE (Automatic Test Equipment) and SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) technologies.
Since 1999, Mr. Gaan has been working with Bell Labs at Murray Hill, New Jersey as a consultant with expertise on Satellite Radio Broadcast Systems. He has more than 21 years of experience in field of Communication Engineering and Technology that includes several innovations to his credits.
Neelamadhaba Mahapatro is a General Manager and Partner at Microsoft Corporation. Since 1988, he has played key roles at Microsoft in different product groups in the company such as tools, system and office. He has envisioned several new products providing vision, strategy, and architecture roadmap and foreseeing the successful development of several key new products. To his credit, he has built up strong teams from scratch, working closely with senior executives at Microsoft. He is also a key investor in several technology start ups engaged in development of enterprise software, application servers, and user software development. Neel holds a bachelor’s degree in electronics and electrical engineering from IIT Kharagpur and owns several patents to his credit.
Dr. Gopal Mohapatra is a business/planning advisor at Hess Corporation, an integrated oil and gas company in the U.S. Prior to joining Hess, he worked in Exxon Mobil, the largest public oil and gas company, for 10 years. His expertise is in oil and gas exploration and development. Dr. Mohapatra holds a Ph.D. in Geophysics from University of Arizona, Tucson, an MBA from University of Houston and a BS/MS degree in Geophysics from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.
Dr. Prasant Mohapatra is currently a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at the University of California, Davis. In the past, he was on the faculty at Iowa State University and Michigan State University. He has also held Visiting Scientist positions at Intel Corporation, Panasonic Technologies, Institute of Infocomm Research (I2R), Singapore, and National ICT Australia (NICTA). Dr. Mohapatra received his Ph.D. in Computer Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University in 1993. He was/is on the editorial board of the IEEE Transactions on computers, ACM WINET, and Ad Hoc Networks. He has been on the program/organizational committees of several international conferences. He was the Program Vice-Chair of INFOCOM 2004, and the Program Co-Chair of the First IEEE International Conference on Sensor and Ad Hoc Communications and Networks (SECON 2004), Program Chair of QSHINE International Conference (2006), and a Guest Editor for IEEE Network, IEEE Communications, IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing and the IEEE Computer.
Dr. Mohapatra’s research interests are in the areas of wireless networks, sensor networks, Internet protocols and QoS. Dr. Mohapatra’s research has been funded through grants from the National Science Foundation, Intel Corporation, Siemens, Panasonic Technologies, Hewlett Packard, and EMC Corporation. On the administrative side, Dr. Mohapatra served as the CTO of Polyphasic Corporation from 2001-2003, and has been serving the Chair of Graduate Group in Computer Science at UC Davis since 2003.
Following is an excerpt from a report in the Statesman.
The 50 year-old elite technical institute of the state was named Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology (VSSUT) on the eve of the golden jubilee valedictory celebrations today.
It may be mentioned here that the change was effected through a gazette notification on 12 February.
Students, staff and general mass at large have been demanding unitary university status to this oldest technical institution of the state and that got materialised today in the presence of the chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik, Sambalpur MP Mr Prasanna Acharya, state industries minister Mr BB Harichandan, commerce and transport minister Mr Jayanarayan Mishra, secretary of the Alumni Association Mr Ashes Padhy, convener Prof. SK Sar and principal, Prof CR Tripathy.
… Dedicating VSSUT to the nation and unveiling the logo, the chief minister Mr Patnaik lauded in high words the commendable work of VSSUT, in spreading quality technical education in the country and producing technocrats of name and fame.
“The state is to witness a perceptible change soon due to investment of Rs 6 lakh crore in steel, aluminium, power and IT sectors. Globalisation and liberalisation has generated unprecedented demand for high quality technical people all over the world. VSSUT will take this challenge in catering the present demand,” Mr Patnaik said and appealed students and staff to be at par with international standards.
The CM also assured to fulfil all the demands of the students including allotment of 400 acres of land adjacent to it. “Young engineers will transform Orissa as the richest state of the country. At the same time, I hope, students here will uphold the great tradition and image of this institute,” Mr Patnaik said.
"There would be two more government engineering colleges at Bhawanipatna and Berhampur soon," he added.
… On this occasion, chief minister Mr Patnaik inaugurated a mammoth memorial gate erected by old students of VSSUT and at present working at Nalco in Angul. He also inaugurated a ladies hostel meant for the SC students of the university.
The Burla Engineering College has been accorded with a Unitary University status. A Bill to this effect on Wednesday got the nod of the State Assembly. After passing of the Bill, the university is now known as Vir Surendra Sai University of Technology.
As per the provision of the bill, a Management Committee, Academic Council of Studies, Finance Committee and other necessary committee, which is deemed to be necessary for the functioning of the university, would be set up.
One Vice-Chancellor, Registrar, Controller of Finance, Controller of Examination, Students’ Welfare Dean would be appointed. However, the Vice-Chancellor would be appointed on the recommendation of the Chancellor.
Does not matter where you are, I exhort you to celebrate the INDEPENDENCE DAY of our Alma Mater UCE, Burla. As I am writing this mail, the Orissa University of Technology (OUT) Bill is being debated in the House of Assembly of Orissa. Cutting across party line, everybody is overwhelmingly supporting this. In a matter of hour from now, (1) UCE, Burla loses its identity to a new-born Orissa University of Technology (2) The new-born institute is a Unitary State University whose state funding shall continue while UGC / AICTE shall start coming in; a University where Principal gives way to a Vice Chancellor assisted by a Registrar, a Comptroller of Finance and a Dean of Students Welfare; a University which will have its own Governing Body (3) This University goes beyond the jurisdiction of BPUT Act, 2002.
This is precisely for the last reasons, I called today her Independence Day. As the East India Company had to wind up its baggages after ruling India for 200 years, BPUT loses its control over an independent Orissa University of Technology.
Believe me, and you must do so, everybody in the Secretariat says that they have never seen a bill coming up so fast and so furiously. Shower your thanks on the Hon’ble Chief Minister. Uncharacteristically, he has called for our file to his home to sign it. Because he followed the University Bill so keenly, rest of the state machinaries were on their toes. Place your thanks to Minister Jay Narayan Misra who fought for us since last four years and still advocating it inside the Assembly selflessly. Give your thanks to Industry Minister Sri Biswa Bhusan Harichandan who kept his words. Give your thanks to Hon’ble Speaker who accomodated our bill. Give your thanks to ex-Industry Secretary Mr Aditya Prasad Padhy and present Industry Secretary Mr Ashok Mahadev Dalwai, Deputy Secretary of Finance Mr Das who have followed our files heart-out. Give your thanks to Mr Panda (Deputy Secretary- Industry), Mr Gouda (Deputy Secretary- Steel & Mines), and dozens of Guardians who did extra-ordinary helps. Touch the feets of the Senior Citizens of Sambalpur who rushed to Bhubaneswar with me to meet Chief Minister to plead for IIT status to UCE. Give your thanks to Dr Chitta Baral who inculcated in our minds the idea of State University rather than a Deemed University. But, mere thanks is not enough, just bow down to the students – especially duo called Biswajit Parida & Sharda Nayak, who have been camping in Bhubaneswar sacrificing their examinations.
Future is in our hands. The formative years of the new University requires leadership from a visionary and dynamic Vice Chancellor. Nothing can be more crucial than having a good VC. University needs a VC who unshackles the age-old psyche of the faculties & other staffs, brings new ideas & visions to this University of twenty-first century, designs an action plan to place this University alongside the NITs & IITs, and is ruthless in implementing the action plan.
Yes, we "Did It". And yet, our task is far from finished. The Government Gazzette must come within a fortnight. We have to get the 350 acres of free land which Government has agreed to give. We have to ensure that University becomes 12 (B) elgible in shortest span of time which earns him "eligible for funding" tag. We have to build the e-Learning Centre and other infrastructures which we embarked upon a year back. We have to garner International collaboration, Students exchange program with foreign Universities, expand the University-Industry tie-ups. We must make our University "Orissa’s answer to NITs & IITs".
Well, we are meeting shortly. Possibly on February 8 (Sunday) 2009 when we will lay the FOUNDATION DAY of the new-born University and bid GOLDEN JUBILEE VALEDICTION to 50-year old alma mater UCE, Burla. I promise, that will a day worth remembering.
As I am finishing the mail on an excited note, Minister Mr Biswa Bhusan, Opposition Leader Mr Narsimha Mishra, Mr Satya Bhusan Mishra, Mr Bimbadra Kuanra, Mr Ranendra Pratap Swain have already finished their talks. The mood is extremely upbeat inside Assembly. Discussions have continued for an hour now. I shall give detailed update tomorrow.
And, I am already flying. My feets are surely above ground. I have to buy a good drink. You will agree, I deserved one.
It is through the Orissa Cabinet. See http://www.tathya.in/2008/story.asp?sno=2413 and http://www.tathya.in/2008/story.asp?sno=2411. Many thanks to the industries department and especially the unsung SM, who I think did the bulk of the work in the government in such a speedy manner.
Following is a report from someone who attended the meeting.
Yesterday we (students + alumni + faculty) had a satisfying meeting with CM. salient points –
(1) Ordinance shall be moved to amend BPUT Act to delist UCE as Constituent College of BPUT
(2) CM agreed to move an Act to convert UCE as an Unitary State University subjected to condition given below
(3) CM asked his officials to examine how much acres can be given to UCE
(4) CM said he will look into our claim for Rs 300 crore infrastructure fund which includes Central Funding of 1/3rd.
CM asked what are the benefits of State University. We talked about 12(B) grant from UGC. We talked about an independent Governing Body who can augment the courses/students/faculty/research. We gave examples of BESU & CUSAT.
This was contested by VC and Industry Secretary Mr Aditya Padhy. They said that –
(a) UGC fund is very small – may be to the tune of Rs 1 to 2 crore a year.
(b) Guindy College is affiliated to Anna University, Pune Engg College is affiliated to Pune University and yet they are quality college. Why UCE wants University status, and resisting affilitaion to BPUT.
(c) Deemed University status is no inferior to State University as both get UGC grant against 12 (B) and get nearly same grant.
(d) Indian Institute of Science is Deemed University and yet the best institution.
(e) After Revensaw became University, the situation has not improved. They are still struggling for faculty & fund. VC said he is Revensaw’s Seante Member and knows the conditions better than all of us.
Though CM agreed our demand for State University, he asked us (as well Industry Secretary) to prepare a note with examples of other institutions as to how State University will help UCE to grow. Report should contain references to the growth of some Unitary State Universities (in addition to BESU & CUSAT) including Revensaw University. Report has to be submitted within a week.
