IEEE ComSoc Kolkata Chapter Winner of the 2015 Chapter Achievement Award, Asia Pacific Region

By Iti Saha Misra - Kolkata Chapter Chair, India

It is our great pleasure to share the ComSoc Kolkata Chapter activities for the year 2014, which led to our Chapter Achievement Award this year. The Chapter activities start with executive meetings in the first week of February, when members decide the next year’s activities and make their commitment to volunteer for various programs. We the members of Chapter executive committee thought of conducting a DLT/DLP event, technical seminars, student activity programs, technical programs involving industry, along with membership development and awareness generation programs. Our chapter hosted an “Algomaniac Student Contest Event,” one of the major events under Convolution- 2014, organized by the students of Electrical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, on 14–15 Feb. 2014. Interdepartmental Engineering students participated the contest to test their programming capability along with algorithmic design.

IEEE ComSoc Kolkata Chapter

The next big event was the Distinguished Lecturer Tour: DLT 2014. The Chapter organized two DLT tours in the months of March and December involving engineering students from Jadavpur University and the neighboring Institutes, Ph.D. scholars, and young faculty members.

Mobile health care, sensor networks, and automation have become very popular areas of research in the recent years. The Kolkata ComSoC Chapter conducted two very successful DLTs on these areas. One of the DLT programs was on the topic “Towards an Intelligent and Ubiquitous Healthcare Infrastructure: Challenges and Trends.” The DLT speaker was Prof. Pradeep Kumar Ray, Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on eHealth, Asia Pacific Ubiquitous Healthcare Research Centre (APuHC), University of New South Wales, Australia. It was a very nice experience to gather 104 participants from Jadavpur University itself and the other Institutions, as well as industry, for this DLT, which included extensive interaction with the speaker. The Chapter Chairperson, Iti Saha Misra, highlighted the various activities of the Kolkata Chapter and invited young professionals and students to join IEEE as part of their career growth path. The second DLT program was on the topic “Robotics, Automation and Machine Learning,” delivered by Prof. (Dr.) G. Sengupta, Masse University, Newzeland, on 22 Dec. 2014. It was a mesmerizing lecture event with 70 enthusiastic participants.

IEEE ComSoc Kolkata Chapter

The year 2014 was the year of industry and R&D interaction in the Kolkata Chapter. Several technical lectures and interactive session were organized for the academic benefit of the student community and researchers. The Chapter invited ISRO Senior Scientist, Tosicul Wara (Scientist-SF) to deliver the video of the ISRO Satellite for Navigation Application in Indian Context on 13 May 2014. A series of lectures was organized with industry Interaction in a program involving TCS Innovation Lab of Kolkata Centre, where the current industry research activities were discussed on the topics of Internet of Things (IOT), Security Aspects and Signal Processing aspects on 29 Auguat 2014. The one-day seminar program was very special to the young professionals and students of ECE, inspiring them in their research activities. This also helped the young students to develop their interest in recent research beyond their curricula. A technical training program from Industry personnel for PG Communication Specialization students held on April 3, 2014, ETCE Department, Jadavpur University. These types of technical programs help students link their subject of study with the application domains.

There was a wonderful program for the three-day workshop on the topic “Introduction to Android Operating Systems for Touch Screen Smart Phones” for the undergraduate students of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering in the midst of summer vacation, under the auspices of TEQIP Phase–II of Jadavpur University on 11-13 June 2014. The Dean of the Engineering Faculty and also theTEQIP Coordinator inaugurated the workshop. CASS Chapter Chair, Prof. S.K. Sanyal, delivered a wonderful lecture to the students on how the technology is changing and encouraged the students to adapt in this ever changing environment of technology. The workshop was a great success with the fantastic delivery of the speaker, Mr. Dipanjan Biswas from a local company, SkyBits Kolkata.

IEEE ComSoc Kolkata Chapter

The Chapter is also aware of its membership development program. During each program, the Chairperson, Prof. Iti Saha Misra, addresses the audience, inviting them to be a part of the IEEE programs through their membership, and she discusses the benefits of IEEE. She encourages young researchers to volunteer for the organization of the programs as a way to improve their organizing capabilities, as well as for the added opportunitiues to network with others in the field. They will be the future torch bearers of IEEE societies. In return, volunteers are given a certificate from the Chapter Chair.