Jamshedpur : The two- day seminar for the students of metallurgical engineering ‘Behind the Teacher’s Desk (BTTD) 2015’, organized jointly by The Indian Institute of Metals (IIM),Jamshedpur Chapter, Tata Steel Limited and CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory (NML) has been inaugurated today morning at the auditorium of NML. The programme was inaugurated through lighting of lamps by the guests and distinguished personalitiesand release of a technical souvenir by the chief guest Dr. Souvik Bhattacharyya, Deputy Director of IIT Kharagpur.
The seminar held at the CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory for the past four years, has been a great success. The participation of undergraduate and postgraduate students has been very large and is increasing over the years. This year 185 students from 24 engineering institutes of different parts of the country are participating. 53 papers will be presented in two parallel sessions and 52 works will be presented in the poster session in the following areas: raw materials & metal extraction, materials processing and characterization, damage mechanisms and failure analysis, Advanced materials and emergent technology, materials modeling and simulation ofmetallurgical processes, resource, energy, environment and recycling, Innovations in iron and steel.
Industrial and Laboratory visits for students will be organized to Tata Steel, Usha Martin, Tata Hitachi, CSIR-National Metallurgical Laboratory on April 10, 2015. A brain storming session on innovation, technology and entrepreneurship titled �cycle of development� has also been planned on 10th (tomorrow).
Dr. S Srikanth, Director CSIR- NML, in his welcome speech invited the students to take the benefit of this programme. He also discussed about the challenges in the area of engineering educations such as quality of educators, insufficient resources, investments and passion of the students. According to Dr. Srikanth, if academicians and job providers work jointly to design the curriculum, then only it can address the need of the day vis-�-vis it can be attractive to the students.
Dr. Souvik Bhattacharyya, presently Deputy Director of IIT Kharagpur and former vice- chancellor of Jadavpur University, inspired the students to participate in such programmes with zeal and vigour. He also mentioned that process of learning has been changed and accordingly, teachers need to shape their style of teaching. Technology being the oxygen of the age, it is unavoidable to come out from the traditional silo and to be innovative so that teachers become practicing engineers in the class room. This would help immensely for learning, retention and application of knowledge. He also wished that students would also show their sense of responsibility to make this journey a fruitful one.
Dr. Sandip Bhattacharya, chairman IIM Jamshedpur and organizing committee, mentioned in his speech that the budding metallurgists can show- case their novel ideas and perspectives about topics of different branches of metallurgical engineering and at the same time can have technical interactions with eminent scientists engineers, experts of the field. In his plenary lecture �Developments in Steel Industry�, Dr. T. Venugopalan, Technical Advisor, Tata Steel touched upon the glorious period of Indian Steel Industry, phenomenal production growth in the last decade, stagnant economy and current situation and expectations of steel ministry in 2025. He emphasised that judicious selection of Technology and R&D should address the sustainability issues of the Iron and Steel Industry. However, he hoped that there has been an excellent future for the budding metallurgist of 2025 India with an expected capacity of 200 million ton steel production.