“Tagore is in our blood. We should search for the unknown among what we know,” said Dr. Goutam Chattopadhyay, Senior Scientist, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA during his address on 29th April 2022 at Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata organized by the Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering & IEEE Microwave Theory & Techniques Society in association with AP-MTT Kolkata Chapter.
Speaking on the topic ‘Mars Landing: Rover & Helicopter’ Dr. Chattopadhyay said, “We did not find any form of life outside the planet earth, not even a cell. But there could be life and it is yet to be discovered. There are trillions of planets in the universe and we are studying 5000 exoplanets which requires a huge amount of investment. To make life survive on any planet, it should have a rocky surface and there should be a probability of the existence of water.” Citing various examples he gave a detailed presentation to the students about the Perseverance Rover that has landed on Mars in the previous year along with the first launch of a Helicopter at Mars which was also done recently creating a breakthrough in science & technology.
The session was also addressed by Dr. Shiban Koul, Emeritus Professor, Centre for Applied Research in Electronics, IIT Delhi and Dr. Chinmoy Saha, Associate Professor, Indian Institute of Space Science & Technology. Both of them spoke about the latest technologies on Microwave Integrated Circuit & Satellite Tracking Applications respectively.
“IEEE has started to offer internship opportunities across India for the students. Moreover we are also doing some projects as a part of our social initiatives where students can actively participate,” said Dr. Saha during the session.
“We are helping students with some live projects and that too can happen under the IEEE student chapter. I assure that every student will have his own paper presented in research journals after becoming a member of IEEE,” said Dr. Shiban Koul encouraging the future techies to be a part of the IEEE network.
“We are planning to open a MTT-AP student’s chapter at HITK apart from motivating our students to actively become a member of IEEE. The benefits of opening a MTT- AP student’s chapter in terms of getting grants to organize conferences where the students can actively participate and learn, are huge,” said Prof. Prabir Banerjee, Head of the Department, Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering, Heritage Institute of Technology, Kolkata. It’s a matter of pride that Prof. Prabir Banerjee had been featured among the Top 100 scientists across the world for the year 2022 by AD Scientific Index.
“Students learn a lot from interacting with the experts and they should capitalize on such opportunities developing their skills and knowledge,” said Mr. P.K.Agarwal, CEO, Heritage Group of Institutions, Kolkata.