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Researchers’ Forum on Micro and Smart Systems

Institute of Smart Structures and Systems In Association with Dept of Electrical Communication Engineering, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore, India 26-27 April 2019

The Institute of Smart Structures and Systems (ISSS), is happy to announce the second Researchers’ Forum for Post Graduate Students and Researchers on Micro and Smart Systems. This event will be held in association with the Department of Electrical Communication Engineering (ECE) at the Indian Institute of Science on 26-27 April 2019. This event is intended to provide an excellent platform for researchers across the country to come together and interact with each other. In addition, the first ISSS Conclave for Women in Technology will be held at the same location.

The event will have inspiring talks by leaders of select Startup Companies on innovation landscape in this area, Prominent Academicians on opportunities in Academic Institutions, Industry leaders on opportunities available in Industries and Research Laboratories.

A highlight of this event will be three minute talk (3MT) and poster presentation by participating researchers in five streams namely, Physics of Devices, Modeling and Simulation, Smart Materials, Fabrication Technologies and Systems & Applications.

The best poster at this event will be rewarded. In addition, PhD students who are completing their work during the academic year 2018-19 will be considered for the ISSS PhD student Award for 2019. This award carries a cash prize of Rs 25,000 and an award certificate. This award will be decided based on overall evaluation of the research work among participants of this event. Criteria for this award include the poster presented, evaluation of relevance of the work in focus areas of ISSS, previous publication and contributions to ISSS. An Appreciation Certificate will be given to the research supervisor of the winner of this award.

JRF/ SRF / Full time research scholars / Postgraduate students of recognized institutions/universities anywhere in India are eligible to apply. National MEMS Design Centers and other institutes with research groups in the above areas are encouraged to sent participants. Only the first 50 participants will be accepted, on a first-come first-served basis. Those attended 2018 edition of this event will not be eligible for travel support from the organizers.

There is NO registration fee to attend this event. However, all candidates must fill the request form and upload a synopsis with details of their research work (with graphs and figures) to demonstrate their original research contributions. In addition, they may also include links to any previously published papers.

Prior registration using the online APPLICATION FORM is required to attend this event. Subject to availability, applicants will receive a provisional acceptance. In order to provide a fair opportunity the maximum number of interested participants, the registration will be confirmed only for the first 50 outstation participants AFTER uploading the soft copies of travel documents (ticket) and a draft for poster in the prescribed format within the deadline mentioned in the provisional acceptance mail.

Participants must make their own arrangements to travel to Bangalore to attend this event. Eligible ISSS members and full time research students who have completed at least three years of post graduate research work will be eligible for limited travel support from the organizers. Up to 3 Tier AC train fare by the shortest route may be reimbursed to outstation participants on production of actual travel bills, boarding pass etc. Those attended 2018 edition of this event will not be eligible for travel support from the organizers. If requested, a shared accommodation in may be arranged by the organizers for up to three nights only at a Guest House close to the Indian Institute of Science.

For details please Contact: Prof Veda Sandeep isss.forum@gmail.com

This event is collocated with ISSS Conclave for Womens in Technology. Apart from registered participants and special invitees, Principals and Heads of Departments of Academic Institutions and Managers and Project Leaders of industries are welcome to attend this event and interact with participants and invitees. Those charged with staff hiring are specially invited to join us.

TENTATIVE AGENDA

26.04.2019 Friday

Time Event
9:00AM Registration
9:30AM Inaugural Keynote Address by Prof Rohini Godbole
10:30AM Coffee/Tea
11:00AM Panel Session on Technology Landscape for Women
Panelists Prof Rohini Godbole (IISc), Dr. P. Srikumar, (NIAS), Dr Saritha (Green Cosmos Enery), Lt Gen VJ Sundaram (NDRF), Dr. Anjana Jain (NAL),
02:00PM 3MT Session I (3 minute Presentation by Researchers; 3 slides max by each participant)
03:00PM Visit to posters and Tea/Coffee
04:00PM Panel Session on Transformation Required in Academia for Achieving Gender Parity
Panelists Prof GK Ananthasuresh (IISc), Dr. Dheepa Srinivasan (Intech-DMLS), Dr Asha Garg (DRDO),
Dr. Jayanthi (NAL), Prof. Anurekha Sharma (Kurukshetra Univ)
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27.04.2019 Saturday

Time Event
9:30AM 3MT Session II (3 minute Presentation by Researchers; 3 slides max by each participant)
10:30AM Visit to posters and Tea/Coffee
11:00AM Panel Session on Funding Avenues for Startup and Academia
Panelists Prof. Navakanta Bhat (IISc/Pathshod), Dr. Rajiv Jain (GTRE), Prof. S. Mohan (IISc), Prof S. Gopalakrishnan (IISc), Dr Vidyashankar BR (GE)
12:15PM Valedictory Session, Distribution of Awards
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Application Form

Report on the First event held on 27-28 March 2018

ISSS in association with CeNSE, IISc., organized a Researchers’ Forum on 27th and 28th or March, 2018 at CeNSE. The event was organized to bring together research scholars from across the country and provide a platform to share their work. Dr. Kota Harinarayana inaugurated the event and provided a key-note address highlighting the current eco-system in the country for smart systems, smart technologies, especially in the context of initiatives like ‘Make in India’ and smart cities development. Prof. Rudra Pratap presented a brief overview of CeNSE and INUP initiatives to provide high quality and state of the art infrastructure for fabrication and characterization of micro systems to not just the IISc students and staff, but to the community in the country at large. He exhorted the research community to make full use of the infrastructure to realize the smart devices that are developed.

More than 35 posters presentations were arranged to showcase their work to the smart systems community at large. The topics ranged from Physics of Devices, Modeling and Simulation, Smart Materials, Fabrication Technologies to Systems & Applications. While a most of these posters were on sensors, a few actuators based applications development were also presented. A special feature of this event was the three panel discussions that were arranged to deliberate on some of the important aspects regarding the careers of researchers. These themes were a) career opportunities for researchers: Industry and Academia perspective, b) Funding avenues for startup and Academia and c) Career Opportunities -Research Perspective. Eminent panelists representing premier academic institutions, R&D Labs, Industries including start-ups took part to share their perspectives and respond to the questions and comments from the research scholars.  ISSS wishes to thank all panelists for their support.

It was refreshing to note that quite a few of the researchers doing their Masters or Ph.Ds considered becoming entrepreneurs. Hence quite a few discussion points were on what are the support mechanisms in terms of funding, mentoring and incubation for start-ups. Another prominent topic of discussion was paucity of fabrication facilities for MEMS devices. Notably only few fab facilities exist in the country and they are already loaded with long waiting lists. In this context, the idea of community chips where multiple compatible ideas would be combined into a single device and hence have a better chance of getting the design tested and validated.

From Career development perspective, the industry expectations in terms of having a more holistic awareness of the broad domain, product and process orientation, customer or application identification and cost consciousness were amply highlighted.  Awareness of Technology and Manufacturing Readiness Levels (TRL and MRL) is highly beneficial to differentiate in the industrial career opportunities realm. Overall the consensus among the panelists in different panels was that this is the right time for a budding researcher to pursue his career and blossom in this exciting technology domain.

Pitch talk sessions wherein researchers were given an opportunity to present for a few minutes to the audience a gist of their research work were also well received.  Based on the posters and their presentation, two awards were given away to the presenters. Springer sponsored gift coupons for 500 Euros each for these awardees and these were given away by Prof. V K Aatre.

Winners of the Springer sponsored best posters awards were

  • Sumeeth Sharma, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi
  • Richa Mishra, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur

ISSS expresses its gratitude to Springer for supporting these awards, and to CeNSE, IISc for cohosting the event and providing all logistic support.

Last but not the least, untiring efforts of Dr. Veda Sandeep Nagaraja, ISSS GC member and chairperson of the education sub-committee are appreciated and placed on record. Right from conception of the event to the successful completion of the same, Dr. Veda played an exemplary role and a fair share of the success of the event is due to her. ISSS is immensely grateful to her. ISSS is also thankful to several volunteers and members who strived to make this event a success.

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Award Nomination & Application Form

Last date to file nominations is June 30th, 2025.

ISSS Awards

ISSS Young Scientist Award

ISSS presents a Young Scientist Award for outstanding researchers (aged below 40 years as on the nomination/submission deadline) for their work done in India in the area of micro and smart systems. From 2015, this award carries an ISSS Medal, a Citation, and a Cash prize of Rs 50,000. This award is for someone who has carried out extensive research beyond their academic programs, on a topic relevant to this area.
Nomination in the prescribed form should include the list of publications and a short description of the nominee’s contributions. Nomination by “self” should be supported by reference letters by two experts familiar with the nominee’s work. Nomination by an ISSS member should be seconded by another ISSS member or a subject expert and should contain a brief justification for the nomination. Nomination by Head of Institution should contain details of the nominee’s work at the institute and a recommendation from an expert such as thesis supervisor or a senior member of faculty.
The winner is required to make a brief overview of his/her recent research work and receive the award at a special session organized by ISSS, online or in person.
Nomination format is available to download. Nominations will be carried forward for subsequent years, provided the nominee meets other requirements of this award. Nominations may be sent to admin@isssonline.in .
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ISSS Technology Award

ISSS has initiated a Technology Award for scientists/engineers who undertake major initiatives to commercialize a product in the area of micro and smart systems.  The award will carry a Citation and a Cash prize of Rs 50,000.

This award is intended to promote technology development, innovation and entrepreneurship in India in the area of micro and smart systems. This award is intended to recognize contributions made by (i) an entrepreneur who has set up, or is at an advanced stage of setting up start-ups pertinent to the general area devices or systems using micro and nano technologies and applications or (ii) someone who have championed the cause of commercialization with appropriate technology innovation, leading to a product or application.

Please note that the nominee is expected to have demonstrated maturity towards commercialization of the product or has made sustained progress towards commercialization during the recent years. Documentary proofs for claims may be included with the nomination form. Nominations for this award in the prescribed format may be sent to admin@isssonline.in by the deadline and may be made by self, head of organization or ISSS members.

Nomination by “self” should be supported by reference letters by two experts familiar with the nominee’s work. Nomination by an ISSS member or the Head of Institution should be seconded by another ISSS member or a subject expert. Nominations will be valid for up to three years.

Nomination format is available online.  Nominations may be sent to admin@isssonline.in.

The winner is required to make  a short presentation summarising his/her activities and receive the award at a special session at the ISSS conference.  In order to keep the standards high, the judging panel may choose not to offer this award in a given year.

ISSS presents distinguished service awards to deserving individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the research and development of the Micro and Smart Systems areas in India through their academic or professional work, service to ISSS or service to national initiatives/programs.  Nominees are selected solely by the Governing Council and no nominations or representations are solicited for this special honor.  In the past, society have recognized the following individuals

Prescribed Format
Nomination Format

Distinguished Service Awards

ISSS presents distinguished service awards to deserving individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the research and development of the Micro and Smart Systems areas in India through their academic or professional work, service to ISSS or service to national initiatives/programs. Nominees are selected solely by the Governing Council and no nominations or representations are solicited for this special honor. In the past, society have recognized the following individuals

ISSS Student Awards

ISSS has instituted special student awards for full time regular students in India to recognize their outstanding contributions in the area of micro and smart systems. There are separate categories for undergraduate (BSc, BE, BTech, etc) and postgraduate (MSc, MS, ME, MTech, MPhil, etc). To qualify for these awards, the student(s) should have completed the reported work during the respective academic programs.

A summary/synopsis of the research work during the tenure of the respective degree program may be sent for consideration for these awards.   In the case of UG award, an individual or a team of up to four members can submit their contributions. For the UG award, a three-minute video describing the project outcome and for PG and PhD award a five-minute video describing the project outcome should be submitted.

Supervisor/guide of the student(s) is required to give an undertaking that the work was carried out during the respective academic course program for which the submission is considered. The Academic supervisor(s) of award winning students will be given a Commendation Certificate.  Students of integrated degree programs may be considered for the award category based on their year of enrollment. Please note that one person will be considered only once for one category of award.

  • ISSS UG Student Project Awards: Rs. 15,000   Eligibility: Student of BSc, BE, B.Tech, or equivalent undergradualte degree programs.  Submissions are limited to 4 pages and should highlight the project work reported.
  • ISSS Post Graduate Student Award:  Rs. 20,000 Eligibility: MSc, ME, MTech, MS, or MPhil .or equivalent postgraduate degree programs.  Submissions are limited to 4 pages and should highlight the thesis/ research/ project work reported.
  • ISSS PhD Thesis Award:  Rs. 25,000  Submissions may include a synopsis of the research towards the PhD degree and a list of all publications and/or patents during the course of research.  The Award jury may select a winner who will be informed.

Submissions for these awards should be sent directly to admin@isssonline.in.

Award winners will be given a Memento, Cash prize as above, and an Award Certificate.  The Academic supervisor(s) of award winning students will be given a Commendation Certificate.

  • Student projects executed at NPMASS supported National MEMS Design Centres are specially welcome for this competition.
  • Decision of the awards committee appointed by the governing council of ISSS will be final in all respects.
  • The committee may not offer an award if it does not find a suitable candidate in a given category.
  • A second prize for up to one of the student award categories may be included in a given year.
Template for UG/PG/PhD submission
Template for certificate from guide/supervisor/advisor