Srinagar, May 01 (KNS): The five-day long short-term course (STC) on “Semiconductor Physics to Smart Devices to Intelligent Automation” began at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Srinagar on Saturday, in which more than 800 participants are expected to participate.
The virtual event was organized by the Department of Physics NIT Srinagar in collaboration with the Semiconductor Society of India through virtual mode and the inaugural session was attended by more than 400 participants. Prof. MA Shah is the convener of the five-day-long event.
The event was presided over by Director NIT Srinagar, Prof. (Dr.) Rakesh Sehgal appreciated the physics department faculty for taking this great initiative to educate the youth about the importance of semiconductor devices and their applications enabled with artificial intelligence.
“To complement these efforts, over the years, we have done a lot of work at NIT Srinagar and developed lab for materials including Central Research Facility Centre, where we can both develop and test material,” Dr. Sehgal said.
“I hope as a team, we can work jointly and allot such research projects for both undergraduate and postgraduate students, where they can work across the departments to develop some useful devices which will benefit the common people,” he said.
Director NIT Srinagar said technological institutions have a big responsibility to make the life of people around them easy, cost-effective, and more beneficial.
Dr. Sehgal said in this direction, all NIT’s, IIT’s and other technical intuitions are doing great work and apart from gadgets for big companies, now they are providing gadgets for medical practitioners.
“The 5-day STC will be beneficial for the participants and definitely, we will learn from each other’s experience and NIT Srinagar will be always ahead to conduct such webinars and conferences,” he added.
Director NIT also lauded the role of Dr shah in organizing many scientific events on the campus.
On the occasion, Chairman Semi-conductor society of India, Prof R. K Sharma said now technology has advanced in health care, even in a present pandemic, the HRCT Scan is proving lifeline for early detection of Covid19 and saving lives.
Dr Sharma said the importance of semiconductor devices, particularly the micro-senses and systems on chip which are required for a variety of requirements in the country. They are mostly imported as we are not able to take them to production irrespective hundreds of papers have been published on the topic, he said.
“Technologists at NIT’s and IIT’s should take the responsibility to get produced in the country to bridge this gap. We are still lagging in developing our material for our own devices; a lot of more work should be done in the development of semiconductor materials unless we will be always dependent," he said.
Dr. Sharma also announced that the semi-conductor society of India will have its chapter in NIT Srinagar in future and it will be more helpful for students and faculty.
Registrar NIT Prof. Kaiser Bukhari said in the present world if we think of any sort of development then the presence of science and technology can be ignored.
“If we look back, we will find that every next decade one generation is advancing in the field of mobile technology, starting from first-generation up to now 5th generation, we are advancing towards more and more sophisticated and smaller technologies,” he said.
Prof. Bukhari said over the past few years, significant research efforts have been devoted to improving the efficiencies of semiconductor materials. In recent years this technology has shown great potential as a low-cost, environmentally friendly, and sustainable technology and has become a hot research topic, he said.
“The present webinar aims to address the various aspects of the growing technology including working principles of semi-conductors, latest advances in the field and the future of semiconductor devices. The webinar will of great importance to transfer the knowledge to benefit all with heaps and bounds,” Prof. Bukhari said.
Former Director of NIT, Prof A. M Wani said when he joined the institute in 1960’s as a student, there was only an electrical engineering branch and no electronic, mechanical, civil, and computer engineering departments.
“Dr Wani said expressed his gratitude to Director NIT, Registrar NIT and organizers of the event. Over the years NIT Srinagar has come into the limelight once again under the dynamic leadership of Dr Sehgal, he said.
HOD Physics Department and Chairman Short Term Course, Dr. Prince A. Ganai in his welcome address said the department is actively engaged with online activities since the breakdown of the pandemic.
“With support from our Director NIT, we took lead in organizing online conferences, webinars, and short term courses to keep our students in touch with current happenings in the different fields of research in Physical science,” he said.
Dr. Ganai said this course is the need of the hour. Smart grids, autonomous vehicles, medical systems, and robotics are revolutionizing the way we live and work, he said.
Convener and the coordinator of the program, Prof. MA Shah expressed his gratitude to Director NIT and Dr. Shara for supporting them in organising the virtual summit. He said the department has received more than 800 registrations from across the country including few students from abroad also.
Shah urged students to make small groups and work on new projects so that people outside your laboratories could be benefitted. During the pandemic and after the pandemic, there is no doubt that new technologies will continue to develop, benefit society and improve life in various ways, he said.
"Medical electronics is mostly widely developing field of this era and using this, doctors and surgeons practitioners are being benefitted and how patients feel relieved. He said there are many fronts where this field can be further explored or the crisis which the world is facing,” Dr. Shah said.
“The overall feedback from the Chatbox yields that such programs are indeed beneficial to humanity and event has been appreciated by one and all,” he said.
A vote of thanks for the inaugural session was presented by Dr Seemin Rubab Associate Professor, Physics department. She said the administration has been very supportive of the department and they take no time for approvals.
Later the day, the second session of the technical session was hosted by Prof. J. Kumar, UGC-BSR Faculty Fellow, Anna University, Chennai and he spoke over the Review of Semiconductor crystals for technological applications.
While another lecture was delivered by Semiconductor Nanostructures: Principles, Fabrications, and Applications by Prof. Mohamed Henini.
The other resource persons for five days webinar are Prof. K. L. Chopra, Former Director: IIT Kharagpur will deliver his session on Selected Thin Film Device Applications- An Overview, Prof. K. B. Jinesh, IIST, Trivandrum will speak on Brief Review on Semiconductor Physics, Prof. Sajad Ah Lone, ECE, JMI New Delhi will deliver his lecture on Multifunctional Nano-electronic Devices: A way to keep Moore’s Law Alive.
Dr Rajendra Singh, Secretary SSI, Chair Professor Physics, IIT Delhi will speak over Electrical Analysis of Semiconductor Materials and Devices. Prof. Aloke Kanjilal, dept. of Physics, Shiv Nadar University, New Delhi will deliver his lecture on Fundamentals and frontier applications of low dimensional semiconductors.
Prof. A. M. Wani, First Director NIT Srinagar will speak on Introducing semiconductors and integrated chips in NIT Srinagar, Prof. R. K. Sharma, Chairman SSI, SSP Lab, New Delhi will also deliver his session on Fundamentals of Semiconductor Crystal Growth and Epitaxy.
Prof. Shenoy, dept. of Physics, IIT Delhi will deliver a lecture on Semiconductor Optoelectronic Devices, Prof. Chennupati Jagdish, AC, MNAE (Australian National University) will deliver a lecture on Semiconductor Nanowires: Optoelectronics, Energy and Neuroscience Applications.
The five-day-long webinar is moderated and hosted by Nikhilesh K. Dilwaliya, Vikash Dahiya, Surbhi Rajpoot and Sahreena Imtiyaz.(KNS)