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The event was hosted by the Aerospace Engineering Department of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru at its campus auditorium. Eighty engineers and scientists attended the event, including 39 were IMechE members and 3 IMechE staff. Prashant Mahindrakar was the Master of Ceremonies for the occasion.. Two eminent academicians of IISc, Professors Kamanio Chattopadhyay and KPJ Reddy graced the function, were joined by Sam Perera, International Strategy Board Vice Chair with Vijay Raman, AeD India Chair.
Vijay Raman introduced the three speakers and spoke about AED’s future activities in the context of establishing a long-term relationship between IMechE and IISc, cemented by learned society activities. The two Institutions have distinguished pedigrees stretching back for over a century; IISc’s eminence as the centre of scientific and engineering knowledge and excellence in the country has been established from the time of CV Raman. Though Indian academicians publish in IMechE’s Proceedings, its activities in engineering are not that well known. For instance, eight Nobel Laureates have been associated with IMechE either as members or as Honorary Fellows, together with several giants of the scientific and engineering world. Among them are Orville Wright, Sir Charles Algernon Parsons of the gas turbine and Frank Whittle of the jet engine, whose inventions are in everyday aerospace lexicon.
IMechE’s objectives in this partnership with IISc include enhancing the skills and knowledge of our membership and bringing the industry perspective to deliberations. In the future there could be other activities with each organisation leveraging its strengths in collaborative efforts. These could include facilitating training centres in areas such as additive manufacturing, or for facilities such as avionics research and development. Such initiatives would depend on needs and could assist the Indian aerospace sector qualitatively through the enhanced skills of engineers and others, as well as in advanced industrial and manufacturing activities.
Professor K. Chattopadhyay, Honorary Professor IISc and Past President of the Indian Institute of Metals, talked of the need for general awareness that at the frontiers of knowledge, the future is unknown. Cutting edge developments in engineering and science carry the risks of mishaps because they are progressing into uncharted areas. For example, Marie Curie’s research led to the understanding of radioactivity and she won two Nobel prizes. However, the unforeseen ill effects of the experiments also resulted in her untimely demise. The recent incident at a laboratory at IISc was part of this framework of risks and lessons would be learnt from it to avoid a recurrence.
The other significant matter he stressed was for all engineers and scientists to propagate and disseminate knowledge to young people so that they are inspired to study these subjects. This is important since young people are not attracted to engineering presently. The future development of science and engineering will be assured only if the situation is reversed. Each of us needed to take on a role in this task and he urged AeD India to do so too.
Professor KPJ Reddy, President International Shock Wave Institute, discussed the impact of shock wave technology in many fields of Aerospace engineering and sciences and its much broader technological application to solve problems of immediate iimport for a wide spectrum of society. He stressed that, though it was a relatively new field, most future developments in aerospace would have a link to research in shock wave technology.
Sam Perera conveyed the best wishes of Professor Alan Lau, the ISB chair, for the inaugural event and the future growth and development of AeD India. He said it was good that the IMechE was forging links with leading academic institutions in the country through learned society meetings and seminars. This would give opportunities to enhance the knowledge and skills of its membership and synergy in discussing and seeking to resolve problems and issues of interest to industry. He mentioned that IMechE. as an institution, encourages high profile education initiatives which inspire the next generation to work in engineering.
Vijay Raman presented mementos to all the distinguished speakers on behalf of IMechE.