Jamshedpur : The two-day students� seminar on metallurgical engineering �Behind The Teacher�s Desk� (BTTD-2017), organised jointly by The Indian Institute of Metals (IIM), Tata Steel Limited and CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML) kicked off today at CSIR-NML.
The seminar was formally inaugurated with the release of seminar souvenir by the Chief Guest Shri Sudhanshu Pathak, Vice President, Steel Manufacturing, TATA Steel Ltd., Jamshedpur, and the Guest of Honor, Dr. Indranil Chatterajee, Director, CSIR-NML, Jamshedpur.
This students� seminar is being held at the CSIR-NML for the past six years and has been a great success. Like previous years, this year also more than 80 students from 32 engineering colleges/institutes from different parts of the country are participating, and around 62 technical papers are to be presented in two parallel sessions.
Sudhanshu Pathak, vice president, steel manufacturing, Tata Steel addressed the student participants. He appreciated the unique thought behind organising this event and to bring academia, industry and R&D together. He also emphasised the need for such events particularly when the nation is in an interesting phase of development and witnessing unprecedented growing economy.
He mentioned that the Indian steel policy 2017 emphasised doubling the per capita steel consumption in India by 2030. He specifically pointed out that the Indian steel industry would grow differently than the other Asian and European industries and focus would be on sustainability, safety and environment. He stressed on the need of innovative solutions for the energy conservation, developing high strength steels and new alloys for bringing the country on the forefront of the growth path.
Dr. IndranilChattoraj, Director, CSIR-NML, Jamshedpur, and the Guest of Honor of today�s function delivered the inaugural talk and gave a glimpse of the innovations in metallurgy highlighting the historical development of various metallurgical processes beginning 5000 BC.
He dwelt in detail upon the evolution of processes for steel, copper and gold, and also brought to light the new generation products such as single crystals for turbine blades, high strength nano-bainitic steels, electrical steels and the future of thin strip casting.
He mentioned that necessity, intellectual imperatives, resource scarcity, threats and hazards are some of the major drivers for bringing innovations, which can be achieved only by hard work and perseverance. He also said that the development of blast furnace around 1500 AD led to the industrial revolution in process metallurgy. He also brought out the marvelous Indian metallurgical knowledge witnessing products such as Damascus sword, Tipu�s missiles, iron pillar and seamless globe.
Dr. Ashok Kumar, Chairman IIM Jamshedpur Chapter and the organising committee, briefed about the Indian Institute of Metals and also on the students� seminar BTTD-2017. He mentioned that Jamshedpur, being the root of Tata Steel, CSIR-NML and NIT, is the mentor of metallurgy.
