Report on ISSS Technical Talk by Prof. Digbijoy Nath at Sir. MVIT,  on August 30, 2018

Title: Application of wide band gap semiconductors

The ISSS technical talk in Sir MVIT was conducted on 30^th August 2018. The talk was delivered by Prof. Digbijoy Nath of CeNSE IISc. Title of the talk was “Application of wide band gap semiconductors”. The talk was attended by students and faculty of Electronics and Communication Engineering.

The talk was well attended with over 50 UG students and faculty members participating. It began with an introduction to ISSS by Prof.Veda S.N. followed by the technical talk from Prof.Digbijoy. Concepts of semiconductor theory and device physics was well covered along with applications.

Report on ISSS Technical Talk by Dr. M. S. Thakur at Vidya Vikas Institute of Technology,  on May 22, 2018

Title: Applications of Smart Materials

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Vidya Vikas Institute of Engineering and Technology, Mysuru in association with ISSS Student Chapter had organized a Guest Lecture on “Applications of Smart Materials”. The Resource Person for the event was Dr. M. S. Thakur Chief Scientist (Retd) and former Head Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore, India Visiting Professor, Mysore University, Mysore, India. Dr. M S Thakur started the lecture by discussing about the applications smart materials in real life. He spoke about Bio-sensors, working and its applications in real time.He said that human body is the best example of sensors. He gave a message to the students that engineers can become inventors as long as they relate to themselves. Later he demonstrated the working of Bio-sensors through vedios and its real time applications. Dr. Sriram, Dean VVIET, Dr. Bindu A Thomas, Head of the Department, Faculty members, undergraduate students were present for the event.

Report on ISSS Technical Talk by Dr. Vidyashankar Buravalla at CMRIT,  on May 15, 2018

Title: Smart Materials: A Bird’s Eye View of Materials and Applications

A technical talk was arranged at CMRIT Bangalore on 15^th May 2018. Dr. Vidyashankar Buravalla, Senior Engineer at General Electric delivered a talk titled “Smart Materials: A Bird’s Eye View of Materials and Applications”. The talk was attended by faculty members and students from Mechanical Engineering Dept and Civil Engineering Dept of the Institute.

The talk began with Prof. Veda giving an introduction to ISSS and the advantages of different membership schemes under ISSS. Dr. Vidyashankar Buravalla began the talk by giving an introduction to MEMS, smart materials and its application. His talk concentrated a lot of Shape Memory Alloys and articulated by showing some videos in this regard. The talk ended with a note that students can take up project work in this regard and ISSS can be a platform for them to network.

Report on ISSS Technical Talk by COMSOL  Resource & Prof. Ananthsuresh at IISc,  on May 14, 2018

Title: COMSOL Talk

A  COMSOL technical talk was conducted at IISc Mechanical Engineering Department in association with ISSS on 14^th May 2018. It was attended by 65 people. Out of the 65, 35 participants were from MSRIT, PESIT and NMIT. COMSOL personnel gave a brief overview of the COMSOL Multiphysics software. Some of the participants interacted with the official and got their doubts clarified.

Report on ISSS Technical Talk by Prof. Rudra Pratap at Atria Institute of Technology,  on April 24, 2018

Title: MEMS Sensors : Development and opportunities

A technical talk was arranged at Atria Institute of Technology on 24^th April 2018 as a part of the series of talk in Bangalore region by ISSS. The talk was delivered by Prof. Rudra Pratap, Professor CeNSE IISc and was titled “MEMS Sensors : Development and opportunities” . The talk was attended by faculty members and students of ECE, EEE, Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering.

Prof. Veda began the lecture by giving an introduction to ISSS and also explaining the advantages of different membership schemes in ISSS.

Prof. Rudra Pratap began his talk by giving an introduction to MEMS and various aspects and application of MEMS. He talked about simple cantilever application for a biosensor and dwelt deep into applications in mobile phones. He demonstrated so live examples by using models of structures which gave a better understanding of actuation of devices.

The talk concluded with a session on biologically inspired sensors. Prof. Rudra Pratap talked about the work he had carried out on Cricket inspired micro speakers. The topic ignited many young minds as it gave a new world to explore. He demonstrated the sound produced by the cricket, by FEM simulation and the MEMS micro speaker. He concluded the talk by leaving a food for thought by giving details of fairy flies which is just a 200 µm length insect but has many sensors and processors inbuilt. He left with the ultimate challenge of mimicking this insect!!!

Report on ISSS Technical Talk by Prof. Saurab Chandorkar at M. S. Engineering College,  on April 13, 2018

Title: Epi Seal: A MEMS Wafer Level Packaging Process

A technical talk was arranged at M. S. Engineering College by ISSS on 13^th April 2018. The talk was delivered by Prof. Saurab Chandorkar from CeNSE IISc. The title of the talk was “Epi Seal: A MEMS Wafer Level Packaging Process”. It was attended by students and faculty members from ECE, EEE and Mechanical Engineering Department.

Prof. Veda began the lecture by giving an introduction to ISSS and also explaining the advantages of different membership schemes in ISSS.

Prof. Saurab’s talk gave a insight into the new world of packaging of MEMS devices.  Most researchers would think of packaging as a process after fabrication of the device and usually used when one needs to integrate with electronic readout circuitry. Prof. Saurab during his lecture gave a different perspective into the world of packaging. His lecture gave a new methodology wherein packaging can be incorporated as a part of fabrication process of the device.

Prof. Saurab also said that he would want more and more researchers using his new technology in the days to come. He would be transferring his technology to SCL Chandigargh and from their foundry it would be available for other researchers to use the same for their devices.

His talk was well received by the audience and ISSS hopes to continue its association with Prof. Saurab in the years to come.

Report on ISSS Technical Guest Lecture by Dr. Prosentjit Sen at M. S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology , on February 20, 2018

Title: MEMS Devices, Applications and Future

A guest lecture by Dr. Prosentjit Sen, Professor, CENSe, IISc, Bangalore was arranged at Ramaiah Institute of Technology , Bangalore on  20^th Feb 2018. Prof. Prosenjit covered a broad view of MEMS .  He started his lecture with an introduction to Smart sensors.  He elaborated on the various applications of Smart sensors, from smart glasses, smart homes to smart city.  He also said that these smart sensors are going to be the key component in Internet of Things (IOT) in the technology revolution. He also covered the various aspects of a SMART system consisting of sensors and actuators.

He then talked about MEMS fabrication, elaborating on the process of fabricating a microcantilever.  He explained from the basic mask patterning to deposition and development process in order arrive at a free standing micro cantilever.

He concluded his talk by discussing the various advantages that MEMS technology has with lower power consumption, lower foot print and lower cost.about the various advantages of using microstructures.

Report on Talk by Prof GK Ananthasuresh at Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, on January 29, 2018

Title: Micromachined Accelerometer

The Institute of Smart Structures and Systems (ISSS), began a series of technical talks across Bangalore for the year 2018 with a presentation of Prof. G.K. Ananthasuresh, Professor, Mechanical Engineering Dept. Indian Institute of Science, at Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology, Bengaluru, on 29^th January 2018. The title of the talk was Micromachined Accelerometer.

The audience for the talk were students of 4^th and 6^th semester of various engineering branches along with faculty members. The event began by Prof. Veda S.N. giving a brief introduction to ISSS and its objectives giving emphasis on the education subcommittee. Prof. Veda also apprised the audience on the benefits of joining ISSS as student / annual / life members.

Prof. Ananthasuresh began his lecture by introducing the audience on the fundamental principle of operation of an accelerometer. The lecture proceeded with him giving details of its application and design issues. Later his talk emphasized the design of a Displacement Amplification Compliant Mechanism (DaCM ). Prof. Ananthasuresh also had distributed a design worksheet to the audience and guided them to design many DaCMs during the course of his talk. He has also encouraged the students to design DaCMs and send him the design and has offered to fabricate the best DaCM in his next fabrication run in March 2018 if the design is sent my mid-February.

The talk was well attended and the audience was very enthusiastic about the topic and has shown a lot of interest. Post his talk, many students have approached Prof. Veda to join ISSS and also to get guidance towards continuing work in this area.