CSIR-Fourth Paradigm Institute (CSIR-4PI), Bengaluru, a constituent laboratory of CSIR organised the “One Week, One Lab” Campaign during 10-15 July 2023, which culminated with the Foundation Day celebrations on 15 July 2023.
The curtain raiser of the campaign was formally launched on 21 June 2023 with the inauguration of the CSIR centralised Super Computing facility by Dr N Kalaiselvi, DG, CSIR and Secretary, DSIR. This facility will cater to the traditional as well as AI computing computational needs of CSIR laboratories with an enhanced total peak performance of 4.2 Peta-flops. The “One Week, One Lab” brochure and outline of daily events were also released during the curtain raiser.
The campaign was formally inaugurated on 10 July 2023 at CSIR 4PI. Dr Sridevi Jade, Head and Outstanding Scientist, CSIR-4PI, welcomed the gathering. Chief Guest, Dr KS Yajnik, Founder Head, CSIR-4PI (Formerly C-MMACS), inaugurated the event by releasing the CSIR-4PI campaign inaugural video. Prof. Annapurni Subramaniam, Director, Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA) and Guest of Eminence released the brochure of the day-to-day detailed agenda of the event. Dr IA Parvez, Chief Scientist and Chairman, “One Week, One Lab” organising committee, briefed the audience about the activities of the week-long programme.
After the inauguration, about 150 school children from several schools participated in the event “Scientist-Student Connect”. They were explained, “What is this AI all about” followed by another interesting class on “GNSS and its applications in earth sciences”. Students visited the state-of-art infrastructure facilities such as Cyber Security testbed, High-Performance Computing (CHAMP) facility and Greenhouse Gases (GHG) data acquisition. The first day’s activities concluded with a keynote address by Dr Narahari Sastry, Director, CSIR-NEIST, Jorhat.
Day 2 event “College Youth Interaction” was inaugurated by Chief Guest Dr Sastry with an inspiring lecture on the importance of students and their upcoming role in shaping the future of cutting-edge technology in India. Dr Jade gave a presidential address to the college students from Karnataka and emphasised on human behaviour and the authenticity of data information flowing on social media. The event started with a brief introduction of CSIR-4PI activities through a video followed by a presentation on High Performance Computing (HPC) activities and the application of HPC in the modelling and simulation of extreme weather events across India.
A resource person from Advanced Micro Device (AMD) India Pvt. Ltd conducted a workshop on “Introduction to Compiler Optimisation in AOCC” and AMD Optimise CPU libraries”. After the workshop, Dr Anilkumar V, Chief Scientist, CSIR-4PI, interacted with students to make them aware of Intellectual Property Rights as part of the ongoing National Intellectual Property festival. The students visited CHAMP facility, cyber security R&D Lab and participated in the demonstration of GHG data acquisition. Day 2 concluded with a keynote address by Dr Parvez and a feedback session from the students about the daylong event.
Day 3 was held at Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), Yelahanka, Bengaluru, on 12 July 2023. Dr Jade chaired the meeting and gave the welcome address. Shri Karee Gowda, IAS, Director, KSNDMC Co-Chaired the meeting and Dr Sridevi Annapurna Singh, Director, CFTRI, Mysuru, addressed the gathering as the Chief Guest. This Day was dedicated to interaction with different stakeholders from Karnataka State on various R&D activities and technologies of CSIR 4PI relevant to the State. Experts from different government agencies and academic institutes presented ongoing and future possible collaborations. In the afternoon session of the meeting, theme-based round table discussions in areas such as natural disaster forecasting and management, hydrology and water management, geospatial crop monitoring and smart agro-technologies, etc. were conducted followed by theme-wise recommendations, possible areas of new collaborations and formulation of MoUs in the concluding section of the meeting.
Day 4 was dedicated to boosting the collaboration between Industry, Academia and R&D. The event was inaugurated on 13 July 2023 by Chief Guest, Dr VS Prasad, Head of National Centre of Medium Range Weather Forecasting (MoES, Govt of India). Guest of Honour, Prof. RV Ravikrishna, IISc, Bengaluru, delivered the keynote lecture on ‘How to Foster a Strong Industry-Academia Connect'. Dr Jade presided over the function and emphasised the need for collaboration among scientists, academia and industry for the benefit of common people of various sectors. Dr KC Gouda, Sr Principal Scientist and convener of this event outlined the day-long programme which mainly aimed at stimulating trans-disciplinary discussions between scientists, scholars, academicians and industry managers. Dr Manish Modani, Principal Solution Architect at NVIDIA, delivered another interesting talk from the Industry, where he presented the application of modern computing in different sectorial applications. The session also witnessed the signing of MoU with NCMRWF and NIT-K Surathkal.
In the technical sessions, several distinguished speakers presented their case studies and success stories on applied science & engineering research and potential for industry collaborations. Representatives from the MSME and start-ups i.e. Ranjita Encons, Cropin, Armtronix, Medvise Futurekare, Srava Labs, Research Realm, Radio2pir, Cognizant, etc. presented their work and actively interacted with scientists, scholars from different organisations, and academicians from various higher educational institutes. Karthikeyan, CSIR-NAL and coordinator of DSIR-PRISM presented the funding opportunities for the innovators. This was followed by a panel discussion moderated by Dr Parvez, and the discussion concluded with suggestions to create a synergy between research labs, industry and academia for the betterment of society.
On Day 5 (14 July 2023), Science Outreach and Road Show event was held at colleges in Bengaluru. Dr Parvez addressed the gathering and explained the programme. Dr KC Gouda presented the idea of interdisciplinary collaboration with colleges. The Principal, all faculty members and students appreciated the science outreach and roadshow programme. They also spoke about how their students benefited from the MoU with CSIR-4PI on collaborative research. Dr Anil gave a talk on Intellectual Property and also discussed the advanced cybersecurity research work at CSIR-4PI. Other scientists and research scholars demonstrated the research technologies of CSIR-4PI at the event.
Day 6 event was dedicated to Farmer-Student-Scientist interaction to create awareness on region-specific smart agro-technologies at CSIR-4PI among students and the farming community, on 15 July 2023 at CSIR 4PI. Dr Jade chaired the meeting and welcomed the gathering. Shri Mahendra Kumar Gupta, Joint Secretary (Admin), CSIR, was the Chief Guest of the event and he addressed the farmers, agriculture students and the guests. Dr Mahendra P Darokar, Chief Scientist, CSIR, Head Quarter, was the Guest of Honour and gave introductory remarks related to CSIR’s contribution, particularly in the farming and agriculture sectors. Shri Prabhudev, a farmer from Hosahalli, Vijayanagar District, Karnataka, gave feedback on R&D works carried out at his paddy field by the CSIR-4PI team and shared the experience of realisation of improved yield in his paddy field following farming practice. An interactive session of Farmer-Student-Scientist on critical issues and challenges in the farming environment was also carried out. This was followed by the demonstration of hand-held instruments for agricultural field measurements for the participants of the programme.
In the afternoon, the “One Week, One Lab” programme was concluded during the CSIR-4PI 35th Foundation Day celebrations. Prof. KK Aggarwal, Former Chairman, National Board Accreditation, gave the Foundation Day talk on ‘Importance of data and increasing relevance of the Institute’. Prior to that, a glimpse of the day-wise activities was presented in the form of a video to formally conclude the programme.
The culmination of the day’s event was the award ceremony where scientific and non-scientist staff of CSIR 4PI were recognised for their contribution in building up the organisation.
