IIT Madras Hosts National Tech Symposium on Advances in Marine Engineering and Technology
Chennai: Indian Institute of Technology Madras hosted ‘TechSym 2020,’ a national tech symposium on the recent advances in marine engineering and technology on 29th February 2020 and 1st March 2020. It is the first national technical symposium to be organized jointly by IIT Madras Marine Technology Society (MTS) Student Section, Department of Ocean Engineering and MTS Indian Section.
The objective of TechSym 2020 was to showcase the importance of marine technology to the broader student community through experts from industries and academia and facilitate exchange of information. It also helped promote advancement in application tools and procedures to explore and to study a sustainable way to harness the potential of the oceans
Based in the U.S., the Marine Technology Society promotes advancement and application of marine technology and brings together businesses, institutions, professionals, academics, and students who are ocean engineers, technologists, policy makers, and educators. The MTS India Section was started in 2015 to attract young talent in the field of Marine Technology and Ocean Engineering.
During his inaugural address, Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, highlighted the start-ups from IIT Madras and in particular, the contribution of Planys in the field of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV), which are deployed in Search and Rescue during natural disasters.
TechSym 2020 was intended to be a platform for industry and academia experts to connect students with the industries through collaboration with the Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras and National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT).
Mr. S. Ranganathan, Vice President, L&T (Defence), briefed the students about the Importance of Security as India had a large coastline. He also emphasised that technology should not harm marine life.
The industry participants include L&T, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Danish Hydraulic Institute (DHI) and IIT Madras-incubated start-up, Planys, along with research institutes such as NCCR, NCPOR, NIO, CSIR SERC. They provided information on consultation, internships for students, knowledge transfers, workshops and research programs, which can help students understand the current scenario or issues faced by the industries and research institutes in order to solve and to find a sustainable and optimum solution to harness the potential from ocean in an efficient way.
The first day was exclusively for industries. The industry representatives who spoke on the occasion include Mr. S Ranganathan, Vice President, D&A Business (Defence IC), Larsen & Toubro Limited, Mr. Santhosh Ravichandran, Design Lead, Planys Technologies, Dr. N. T. Reddy, Head of Department, DHI (India) Water and Environment Pvt Ltd, Capy. Pakesh Bhatia, Vice President, ARI Simulation and Mr. S. Karunanithi, GM-Head Structures, Institute of Engineering and Ocean Technology (IEOT), ONGC. A panel discussion was also held on the topic of ‘Application of IoT (Internet of Things) and AI (Artificial Intelligence) in Marine and Ocean Engineering and its opportunities.’
Three parallel workshops were also held on Day One on sensors and data acquisition by National Instruments, High Precision Global Navigation Satellite Systems with Low Power WAN by Elektronik Lab India Pvt. Ltd. & 360 degrees full bridge Simulator by ARI Simulations NTCPWC.
Day two of TechSym 2020 focused on the academic perspective of marine and ocean engineering. ‘SciTech Expo,’ a Science Exhibition, was organized to provide a platform for budding scientists from schools. Around 20 teams from nine schools in Chennai and Madurai exhibited their student innovations and projects. A Poster Presentation was also conducted for college students representing 30 colleges/institutes that showcased their talents for a bright future in Marine Technology.