RSF Research Scholars' Day 2018

The daylong event, Research Scholars' Day 2018, was held for the first time on 6th April 2018. It was initiated by an inaugural ceremony where HOD of EEE department, Prof. Rohit Sinha was the chief guest. His motivating speech was followed by a brief speech by our faculty advisor Dr. Debabrata Sikdar.

An invited talk by Prof. Pradeep G. Yammiyavar (from Department of Design) was organized and the topic for the same was "Interdisciplinary knowledge in product design". He stressed on the facts that how engineering is different from design. Audience gained valuable insight into the design aspect of research.

Oral and poster competition was organized for the students of our department. Students came up with interesting thoughts and showcased their research which were appealing to the judges. Prizes were awarded to winners and runners-up.

Painting and photography competition was also conducted where selected photographs and paintings were put up as an exhibition. It was open to all students of IIT Guwahati. The creative talent of the students came to the fore and was applauded by the viewers. There were prizes for the winners and runners-up.

A webpage workshop was conducted for the research scholars of EEE department where they were taught to design their customised webpage. A basic template was provided and they were taught to change it according to their whims. It was conducted by speakers from Ujudebug Company. At the end of the workshop, participants were able to upload their own webpages on the internet.

An innovative event named "Open Mind" was organized which was basically an open house discussion where audience could ask anything to Prof. S. Dandapat. There were varied queries ranging from personal life to spirituality to research. Questions were collected beforehand from the audience through a google form and sorted in a random order. Prof. Dandapat was able to satisfy the audience through his witty answers. It was an entertaining session which was enjoyed by one and all.

Following the open mind event, a panel discussion was also organized. The topic for the discussion was "Jobs and Post Docs after PhD". The panel comprised of Dr. Debabrata Sikdar, Dr. Salil Kashyap, Dr. Rishikesh Kulkarni and Dr. Srinivasan Krishnaswamy. Dr. Arun Tej joined in as a special invitee. The panel members shared their personal views regarding the opportunities in post doc and jobs in academia and industry. Thereafter, the floor was opened for questions and answers from the audience. It was an informative and eye opening event for audience members.

The daylong event ended with a cultural program and a valedictory session. The cultural program was a diverse one with poetry from our CEF, Vimal Yadav, dance by Ms. Trusna Meher who left the audience speechless with classical Odyssey dance and a group song performance by Uddipana, Shruti, Gurpreet and company.

The cultural program was a refreshing one and was followed by a valedictory session where awards were distributed to the winners of the various events. Two special awards were also given to motivate the research scholars. Budding Researcher Award was awarded to Ms. Shubh Lakshmi for her outstanding work in her 3 years of PhD tenure. It was open to all research scholars who are in the 3rd year or below of their PhD tenure. The other award named Model Researcher Award was open to scholars who are above 3rd year in their PhD tenure. It was won by Mr. Ripudaman Singh for his outstanding contribution during his PhD tenure. The event concluded with a vote of thanks from the CEF.

Thus RSD 18 was aimed to bring together faculties and research scholars of the institute to share and discuss the work going on in their respective areas, challenges involved and future prospects of the same.