By Team Mangalorean

Surathkal, December 3, 2009: As part of its Golden Jubilee celebrations, the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal will be hosting one of the most prestigious programmes -- the 24th Indian Engineering Congress which will be jointly organized by NITK and the Institution of Engineers (India).
 
The Engineering Congress will be inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Mr. B. S. Yeddyurappa at 10 am on December 11, 2009. Dr. V. S. Acharya, Honble. Minister for Home, Government of Karnataka will preside over the function while Vice Admiral Ganesh Mahadevan, AVSM, VSM, IN, Chief of material, Sena Bhavan, New Delhi will be Guest of Honour.

Several eminent engineering personalities will be honoured during the Congress. Each year the Institution of Engineers (India) awards a number of prizes to the authors of technical papers published in its various journals. This year also a number of awards and prizes as finalized by the Prize and Award Committee of the Institution will be presented.

According to Sandeep Sancheti, director of NITK, the theme of the Congress is National Growth and Security - Technological Challenges. A panel of experts, scholars, professionals and visionaries will provide direction, motivation to the discussions with the objective of facilitating free exchange of ideas, views and concepts in open forums.
 
The liberalisation of the Indian economy has led to massive changes in all facets of our life. We have now increasing freedom of choice in practically every field. The opening up of travel, telecommunications, entertainment and the accessibility to the internet has opened up our society and given us a wide range of options.

The opening up of society also has a flip side as the developed democracies have realized long back. The need to balance between individual freedom and the concerns of national security has always been subjects of heated debates. Recent events have brought these to our shores. Telecommunication and the internet have broken all barriers, geographical and political. Wars are no more confined to the borders, with the armed forces facing each other. Security forces have to confront with forces which are trained and controlled from beyond the borders using modern communication technologies. India needs to address these issues.
 
The research and development in defence sectors have progressed so much that they tend to outpace the speed at which the users in the defence and security forces can absorb them. Further the transfer of technology gained through defence research and development is necessarily to be transferred for civilian use, so that production and usage can be fruitful for the security of the country. This also means the training of the armed forces personnel in the use of the latest advanced technology in security of civilians.
 
The growth of the economy and the increasing demands of a burgeoning population not only for essential amenities, such as, food, water, power, but also for goods and services have also brought into focus the need to secure our resources to meet the aspirations of the people. Food security, energy security, etc are new terms that the country needs to address to sustain the growth.
 
Technology has tried to provide solutions to many problems. Be it the green revolution in agriculture, the alternate sources of energy and alternate materials for various applications, the ways to reduce and recycle waste, ways to exploit leaner mineral resources. Technology has answered many problems faced by society. Engineers need not only to exploit and upgrade existing technologies, but also look for newer technologies to solve these problems.
 
The conference will address these issues and try to formulate solutions to take the country’s progress to new levels.
 
There will be also six memorial lectures including Sir M. Vivesvarya Memorial Lecture by           Sri M. Annadurai, Project Director, Chandrayan 1 & 2, ISRO Staellite Center, Bnagalore; Sri R. N. Mookherjee Memorial Lecture by General Noble Thamburaj; Bhaikaka Memorial lecture by Prof. D. P. Agarwal, Chairman Union Public Service Commission; Dr. A. N. Khosla memorial Lecture by Sri Shekhar Dutt, Dy NSA, New delhi; and Nidhu Bhushan memorial lecture by Professor Baek, President Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers.
 
About 80 technical papers will be presented in 12 technical sessions during the three days. Out of these 60 are contributed papers and the remaining 20 are invited papers. The invited papers are being presented in 5 sessions dedicated to specific sub themes of the Congress namely Nuclear energy, Ports and shipping, GIS and applications, Oil and gas and Ecology and environment.

About NITK

The National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), Surathkal is an internationally reputed institute imparting quality technical education to students from within India and abroad. Since its inception in 1960 as the Karnataka Regional Engineering College, Surathkal, the Institute has grown from strength to strength and made significant progress in academic, research and outreach activities. In recognition of its noteworthy achievements in the field of technical education, Government of India has conferred on NITK the status of ‘Institute of National Importance’.
 
A key ingredient to the successful growth of NITK has been the availability of high quality infrastructural facilities and human resources. Over the years, sustained efforts have been made to attract the best students and faculty, establish new state-of-art infrastructure, improve existing facilities and remove obsolescence with funding from the Government of India and the World Bank sponsored Technical Education Quality Improvement (TEQIP) program. With rapid changes taking place in the technical education sector due to globalization, NITK realizes the importance of improving the quality of technical education by expanding its horizon of activities through enhanced R&D activities, interactions with industry and alumni, collaborations with other organizations and services to community.

Several unique initiatives such as establishment of professorial chairs sponsored by government agencies, industry and alumni; seed grant for new faculty to initiate research activities and inking of MoUs with several reputed universities, industries and R&D laboratories both within India and abroad have been taken up with the aim of creating a research culture in the Institute. Faculty of the Institute are actively engaged in imparting globally relevant technical knowledge to students within the framework of a credit-based academic structure, executing R&D projects sponsored by industry and government, visiting universities within India and abroad for research interactions and publishing research findings in reputed journals and conferences.
 
NITK provides the ideal environment conducive for student-centric learning – well equipped class rooms and laboratories, a beautiful green pollution-free campus, campus wide network with 24x7 internet connectivity to over 5000 nodes, well-stocked library with a large collection of books, CD ROMs, e-books and access to online journals. NITK boasts of a fully-residential campus with separate hostel blocks for boys and girls and housing for all faculty and staff. Students are provided with all facilities and opportunities to excel in extra and co-curricular activities to enable all-round personality development. Excellent sports and games facilities; conforming to international standards are provided to residents of the campus.
 
Undoubtedly, NITK, Surathkal is a jewel in the crown of Karnataka State and the Dakshina Kannada District and has been discharging its responsibilities in the best possible manner in providing high quality technological education in service of the nation and humanity.