IEEE DBCE Student Branch Organizes ‘Tech Insight: a Webinar Series’

The IEEE Student Branch of Don Bosco College of Engineering, Goa Organized “Tech Insight: a webinar series”, in association with the IEEE Bombay Section under the leadership of IEEE Branch Counselor, Prof. Yeshudas Muttu from 20 May 2020 to 28 May 2020 with unflinching support & motivation of Head of ETC Department, Dr. Varsha Turkar. The main aim to host this event was to continue the process of learning during the lockdown period in India by sharing technical insights on various research topics. Live Streaming of the Webinar was done on YouTube. The event received 500+ registrations & was open to students and faculties, for IEEE as well as non-IEEE members all over India. The event was hosted by Prof. Yeshudas Muttu.

Day 1: May 20, 2020

Topic: Image Forensics

Speaker: Dr. Sangita Chaudhari, Professor RAIT, Navi Mumbai

The first speaker of the webinar series, Dr. Sangita Chaudhari was introduced to the audience by IEEE student Branch- Vice-chair, Mr. Gautam Dessai. Dr. Sangita Chaudhari started with a history of image manipulation. Later on, she explained Image Forgery, its two approaches, enhancing & watermarking images and techniques involved in the detection of image forgery. Details on how to go about image splicing detection and inconsistencies of detection were stated. Towards the end of the session, the speaker has an interaction with Prof. Yeshudas Muttu to answer most of the questions posted by the attendees onto the YouTube live chat. The vote of thanks was delivered by Mr. Gautam Dessai.

Day 2: May 21, 2020

Topic: Data Science and Data Analytics- a paradigm shift from IoT Prospective     Speaker: Dr. Amiya Kumar Tripathy, Professor, DBIT, Mumbai

The introduction of the second speaker was given by Ms. Neha Joshi, Secretary of IEEE DBCE Student Branch. Dr. Tripathy commenced the session by introducing the basics of data science and the Internet of Things (IoT). He then played a video of ‘Life Simplified’ which showed how IoT simplifies our lives in daily use. The speaker proceeded to explain the basics of Analytics and its three types, the programming tools for data research which include SAS, R, Hadoop, Python, etc. He also gave an in-depth explanation of GeoSense and its use in the agricultural industry. The second webinar concluded by the speaker answering some of the questions asked by the attendees in the live chatbox.  The vote of thanks was delivered by Ms. Neha Joshi.

Day 3: May 22, 2020

Topic: Wireless Network Simulation Tools

Speaker: Dr. Saurabh Mehta, Chief Academic Officer, VIT, Mumbai

The speaker was introduced by Mr. Renvick Fernandes, Chairperson of IEEE DBCE Student Branch. Dr. Mehta introduced to the wireless networks & spoke on how it is related to IoT and the three standard acceptable ways to test wireless networks. He exhibited his work on case papers related to simulation tools and shared a few network tools and gave a brief comparison of different networks and systems with various aspects such as Applicability, Interface, Availability of Modules, License, etc. Later, different issues with simulation were presented. The attendees were actively engaged in this seminar by asking queries in the live chat box which were answered by Dr. Mehta at the end of the session. The vote of thanks was delivered by Mr. Renvick Fernandes

Day 4: May 26, 2020

Topic: Microelectronics in India: R&D training and career opportunities     Speaker: Dr. B Satyanarayana, TIFR, Mumbai

The session commenced with an introduction to the speaker by the joint secretary, Ms. Krystal Fernandes. Dr. Satyanarayana provided knowledge about study and manufacturing of small electronic circuits. Further, he explained industrial standard ICs, ASSP, ICs & VLSI. Dr. Satyanarayana spoke about the challenges of technology and various jobs available like design engineers, verification engineers, etc. To end with his presentation, various skill sets, expertise, qualifications, and courses which would help attain a job in this field were clearly mentioned. This was then followed by a Q & A session in which a few of the questions from the audience were put forward by Prof. Yeshudas Muttu to the speaker, which he answered in clearly. The session was concluded after a vote of thanks by the Joint Secretary Krystal Fernandes.

Day 5: May 27, 2020

Topic: Satellite Image Processing

Speaker: Dr. Varsha Turkar, Professor & Head of ETC Dept., DBCE, Goa

The IEEE Student Branch program committee lead- Mr. Musab Shaikh introduced the speaker for the fifth session. Dr. Varsha Turkar began her session with the basics of remote sensing, its need and techniques. SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) and POLSAR (Polarimetry SAR) with its various applications along with advantages and disadvantages were discussed. Data processing steps, thermic map, scattering matrix, image classification, methodology and data processing were elaborated. Lastly, the question and answer session was held which helped the viewers to clear their doubts. This was followed by the vote of thanks given by Shivam Bale, IEEE treasurer.

Day 6: May 28, 2020

Topic: Industrial Machine Learning: Considerations and Opportunities   

Speaker: Dr. Shaunak De, Data Scientist, Capella Space Corporation, USA

The guest speaker of the day was introduced by our IEEE student branch joint treasurer Mr. Suyog Borker.  Dr Shaunak De started off by making the session as interactive as he can by giving us access to a mini project created by him as well as a Discord channel for us to join, discuss and ask questions. He initially spoke about how he built his mini-project – various libraries used, the ideation, etc. He further went on by giving us the ‘Recipe for Deep Learning’. As Dr. Shaunak stated the ‘Level up’ for machine learning would be – Deep Learning theory/ Math – Training Deep Learning models – Shipping Deep Learning projects. With knowledge of about 20 programming languages, he stated that the basic Product Roadmap to deep learning is Data Labelling, Data Storage, Data Versioning and Data Processing. He also gave us a variety of platforms to pick and choose from to better our journey on the given roadmap. Dr. Shaunak was extremely helpful and patient while answering all our questions. Mr. Suyog Borker thanked the speaker for his interesting way to keep the audience engaged & making it interactive.

At the end of every session, a feedback form link was shared in the live chatbox. All attendees received an e-certificate of participation in sharing feedback.

Prof. Yeshudas Muttu requested a few participants to share their valuable feedback. Prof. Ajay Dhruva from Vidyalankar Institute of Technology & Prof. Mario Pinto from Goa College of Engineering shared their experience after attending all six sessions of the Webinar series. It was quite evident that the participants had a good learning experience. Dr. Varsha Turkar, Head of ETC Department, DBCE acknowledged and thanked the Director-Fr. Kinley D’cruz, Principal- Dr. Neena Panandikar, IEEE Student Branch Counselor-Prof. Yeshudas Muttu, Technical Staff- Mr. Romeo D’ Cruz, Ignatius Dias & students for their immense support in organizing this event. To conclude, Prof. Yeshudas Muttu appreciated the efforts put by the IEEE Student branch EXE-COM members & sub-committee leaders for their exuberance & diligence to organize this event and thanked each & every resource person for sharing their valuable time. The webinar series received appreciation from all for organizing and conducting an insightful event during the time of a pandemic.