The Freshmen Orientation Programme-2021 is thoughtfully designed to provide students with a holistic induction in academics and beyond academic matters. With the pandemic and other stressful things surrounding us, it has become crucial to take care of our mental health. Surprisingly, even today, many people do not understand the importance of mental health and the need to visit a specialist to keep it sound. Today, this critical issue will be discussed by Ms Shipra Dhingra, Psychologist and Art Therapist. On Thursday, September 02, 2021, she will deliver an address at 2.30 pm on “How to know if you need help”.

Shipra Dhingra is an expressive art-based therapist licensed by UNESCO-CID and Fortis Healthcare, Shalimar Bagh, Delhi. She has completed her master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Amity University, Noida. She is also working as a Counselling Psychologist cum journalist cum mental health advocate. Shipra Dhingra, a versatile woman, has also founded Happyness Peddler, an initiative to fight the stigma attached to mental health and spread awareness. Ms Shipra has been associated with the COVID-19 helpline for helping people go through these difficult times.

Yuvraj Tankala and Joseph K Paul from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SRM University-AP has successfully bagged a cash prize of $1750 at the Datastax Hackathon held from Dec 2020 to Feb 2021. The duo formed the “Team Hexagon” and demonstrated their full-stack AI monitored online classroom and examination portal project at the international competition conducted by Datastax. It powered the innovative data apps to the Home Depot, T-Mobile, Intuit, and half of the Fortune 100 companies.

Rakuten India Enterprise Private Limited conducted this 24-hour challenge competition amongst 7000+ participants. Based on three rounds- 1) Ideation Phase 2) Build Phase 3) Finals-winners were decided. Each team comprised of one to four members and they were allotted various themes such as Mobile and Web Development, Web Analytics, Platform Development and Backend Engineering, Data Science, Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence.

While briefing on the project, Team Hexagon elucidated, “We were excited to participate in the competition and immediately started working on the project. After outlining the base of the project, we were assured that it could create a positive impact during this unprecedented time of Covid-19 outbreak. The education system is facing tough times while managing online assessments. We introduced an AI model-based monitoring system for examiners and examinees involved in the evaluation process. The application follows the head and lip movements of the examinee by considering the various parameters. It tracks the head movement in two axes (up-down and right-left) and warns the examinee to concentrate on the screen. In a similar way, it follows the lip movement and alerts the examiner when found any abnormal movements in between assessment”.

Yuvraj and Joseph presented their project before Technology Business Incubator’s panel, which was shortlisted from 34 other proposals. Under this programme, they went under rigorous training for 12 months and received the felicitation of industry support, seed funding, innovation fund support, industry connectivity with the key players in the market. Winning over the competitive challenges has given the duo high confidence to work on multiple projects and plan to lead off a venture after the completion of academic years.

School of Entrepreneurship and Management Studies, SRM University-AP is organising an interactive session by the faculty with prospective students of the MBA program. Prof R S Desikan and Dr A V S Kamesh will elaborate on the latest trends in management education on September 08, 2021, at 04.00 pm.

The Department of Management has a team of outstanding faculty with extensive experience in their respective fields of expertise. General MBA, MBA (Data Science) Business Analytics, and MBA in Banking and Financial Services courses provide outcome-based education with contemporary curricula designed by reputed academicians and industry experts. The department aims to nurture entrepreneurs and game-changers who create a competitive advantage for new-age businesses and governance. Graduates from the department are placed in top companies throughout India.

The speakers will enlighten the audience in detail about the MBA Programs offered by the university and focus on potential career opportunities for the graduates who study the MBA (General/BFS/Data Science) specialisations at SRM University-AP.

Join this engaging webinar on September 08, 2021, at 04.00 pm to know how MBA at SRM University-AP can shape your career in the ever-changing business environment.

Register here: https://srmap.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN__UbYvSyvRKexu3pP36HHYA

Title of the Patent: A Process for Preparing Magnesium Foams

Patent applicant: SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh

Patent Application number: 202041001715

Date of Filing: 14/01/2020

Date of Publication: 24/01/2020

Date of Grant: 16/08/2021

Prof G S Vinod Kumar and his PhD Scholar Mr Dipak Nandkumar Bhosale from the Department of Mechanical Engineering has brought the first granted patent to SRM University-AP. The patent titled “A Process for Preparing Magnesium Foams” is on the novel processing of Magnesium alloy foams via molten metal route. Metal foams are the class of novel ultra-lightweight and high strength materials used for engineering structures. Under the light-alloy category, Magnesium alloys possess greater challenges to foam and the inventors Mr Dipak Bhosale, PhD scholar and Prof Vinod Kumar (PhD supervisor) of Dept. of Mechanical Engineering have come up with a novel process to foam Magnesium alloy effectively. The patent was filed on January 14, 2020, and granted on August 16, 2021. It is indeed commendable that the patent grant is obtained in just 16 months from the date of application.

Metal foam is a cellular structure consists of solid metal with gas-filled pores. The pores can be sealed (closed-cell foam) or interconnected (open-cell foam). The present patent relates to a process for the preparation of closed-cell Magnesium foams using dolomite [CaMg (CO3)2] as a blowing agent (gas source), through a liquid metal route. The inventors have demonstrated economical and naturally occurring mineral dolomite to be an effective blowing agent for preparing magnesium foams and in-situ formed MgAl2O4 (spinel) particles as the stabilizing agent during stabilization of foams. The Magnesium foams produced by the process of the present disclosure have a good expansion, lower density, uniform pore size distribution and polyhedral pore structure. Through the present process Magnesium foams with 88% porosity 0.20 g/cm3 foam density was obtained. Magnesium foam is an attractive material that exhibits a unique combination of mechanical, physical, thermal, electrical and acoustic properties. It has high strength to weight ratio, good compressive strength and high energy/shock/vibration/sound absorption efficiency. Owing to these properties the magnesium foam finds potential in lightweight structural applications, sound-absorbing, energy and vibration and shock damping application.

SRM University-AP is one of the University partners in organising The First International Conference on Technologies for Smart Green Connected Society (ICTSGS-1), 29-30 November 2021, in virtual mode along with The Electrochemical Society, USA; United Nations FAO, Italy and Yamagata University, Japan.

The conference Chairs will be Professors Hidemitsu Furukawa and Ajit Khosla from Yamagata University. Dr Sujith Kalluri, Assistant Professor in Electronics and Communication Engineering and Coordinator of SRM – Amara Raja Center for Energy Storage Devices, SRM University-AP will be the Conference Co-chair.

The meeting agenda is dedicated to the cause of UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It is committed to taking the bold and transformative changes that are required to move the world toward a more sustainable and resilient future. The purpose of this transdisciplinary/interdisciplinary conference is to engage and bring awareness at the grassroots level such as students, scientists, academia and industry. Therefore, engaging the community to develop technologies to achieve and accelerate Ecosystem restoration and SDGs.

To know more, visit the conference website:https://www.ictsgs.com/