Dr. Snehanshu Saha wins PEACE Award - Distinguished Researcher of the Year Award, 2019 in Machine Learning & AstroInformatics.

Dr. Snehanshu Saha wins PEACE Award-Distinguished Researcher of the Year Award, 2019 in Machine Learning & AstroInformatics. World Research Peace Award powered by RULA recognizes distinguished contributions in a subject area of high potential impact by a thorough review of published work, open source contribution and pedagogy among other things. PEACE is a foundation in Far East.The award is based on impactful publications in the field and citations received against those publications. The award contains a plaque, trophy and citation and lifetime free membership of the foundation. Dr. Saha has been contributing vigorously in the development of AstroInformatics, a niche area at the intersection of Machine Learning and Astronomy, developing novel; algorithms and methods to understand complex patterns in large and diverse astronomical databases. He and his collaborators proposed two novel metrics for computing habitability of Extra-solar planets by a fusion of computational modeling and machine learning methods. His work in this area in well cited. He and his team are developing fast computing pipelines for classification of large, heterogeneous data. His contribution to this field in the last five years include setting up AstroInformatics Research Group in PES University, endorsed by IEEE and International Astrostatistics Association.

Talk on Human Robot Interaction by Prof. David Jenkins

The talk on Human Robot Interaction for Enhanced Perception and Social Wellbeing traced the evolution of user interface and robotics. The models used to represent perception in social interactions between human and robots, the challenges in the existing solutions were clearly brought out by Prof. Jenkins. He emphasised the ubiquitous presence of robots in the society and the need for developing intelligent and simple interfaces that will allow robots to be part of social interactions and well being. In the later part of the session, possible solutions for few applications and case studies like Brain Computer Interface, activating memory through music, behavioural therapy for Autism, use of robots for Stroke rehabilitation and challenges in robotics with respect to security, natural language synthesis and so on were deliberated. Prof. David Jenkins is a Professor at School of Computing, Electronics and Mathematics and his focus of research has been in the area of sensor development, microscopy and medical systemsThe session started with a welcome address by Dean of Research, Dr. Sudarshan. The session was presided over by Prof. KNB Murthy, Vice Chancellor. The event was organised by PES University in collaboration with Institute of Engineering & Technology (IET) and Board for IT Education Standards (BITES) GOK. There was a good participation from both Academia & Industry.

Indonesian Delegation visits PES University

An Indonesian oil industry delegation comprising of 45 persons visited PES University, Bangalore as part of leadership workshop organized by M/S. Deloitte. Prof. D. Jawahar, Pro Chancellor of the University presented an overview covering the history and journey of University, talent success stories and the establishment of the Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. The team visited the centre and learnt that students had innovatively developed prototypes to solve real world problems. The students also demonstrated the devices they had developed which received wide appreciation from the visiting team.

Project Mela raises the bar for innovation

PES University, Electronic City Campus held its annual Project Mela. The event which started on a small scale with the first batch of final year students in 2009, has grown into a huge showcase for the capstone projects of final year students. The students who had concentrated on their studies to earn good grades, have the freedom to explore their knowledge, inventiveness, and the nitty-gritty of starting, building and completion of a project. In a way, this was the culmination of their life as a student and the final stage in their preparation for a career in technology and beyond. The response this year was tremendous and the variety of the projects had to be seen to be believed. The projects covered a whole gamut of modern and futuristic technologies like Cloud Computing, Renewable Energy, Composite Materials and Robotics. The sheer ingenuity, and the spirit of innovation in the students was tangible in the projects. Hopefully, the students can build upon the foundations laid in this institution. The Project Mela initiative resulted in two US Patents this year besides encouraging a few of the students to turn entrepreneurs. The effort, time and finances that have gone into these projects is a testimony to PES Group’s commitment to provide education for the real world. PES Group is proud of its students’ achievements and wishes them all success in their future endeavours.

Datathon 2019 held

Thirty eight teams from different colleges competed in solving open ended problems in data analytics in a closely contested competition for data lovers. Five targets were given at 45 minutes interval and were evaluated by a panel of judges. The chief guests for the event were Amey Pathak, Head, Business solutions and Innvoations, Tata IQuants, and Giri Pathivadi, CTO, Power Research Development Corporation. Also present on the occasion were Kaartik, Data Architect, Thoughtworks, Giri Ganesh, Senior Data Analyst, Gramener, Manish, Project Manager, Impact Analytics, Mohan, Project Lead, Myntra, Dr.Viraj, Visiting Professor, IISc and Dr. Ram Rustagi, Professor, KSIT. All the prizes were bagged by students of PES University.

PES Alumni in the News: Manish Singh

CIO Review’s 20 Most Promising Machine Learning Startups featured Manish Singh, CEO Innovators Bay. He envisions the company as an India based innovation centre that constantly creates disruptive innovative products and as a production house for multiple startups. Manish was a student of MCA, of 2009-12 batch.

PES University celebrated the International Yoga Day 2019

PES University celebrated the International Yoga Day 2019 on 21st June with lots of enthusiasm and gaiety from 7.00am to 8.30am. The occasion was very well attended by over 600 students, teachers and staff organized in the Cricket grounds of PES University. The mass yoga practice organized was spearheaded by the Chancellor, Vice Chancellor and Registrar of the University. Speaking on the occasion Dr. M R Doreswamy, the Chancellor informed that PES University fully believes in the good effects of Yoga practice. The regular practice of Yoga is included in the academic timetable. He mentioned regular Yoga practice helps all the students to concentrate on studies by building immunity to fight against diseases. He expressed that PES University has decided to incorporate Certified Value added Courses such as Life and achievements of great persons like Swamy Vivekananda, Sir. M Visveswariah and Mahatma Gandhi. Chancellor urged the participants to practice the timetested Yoga and Pranayama regularly which facilitate physical , mental and spiritual health. At young age this practice is ideal, Dr. Doreswamy observed. International Yoga Day Celebrations - 2019 at PES University met with great success. The registrar thanked the assembly.

Winning top spot in Finnovatica 2018-19

Team NIXAR presented an Augmented Reality platform which helps in making marketing immersive and interactive to win the top spot at Finnovatica 2018-19. The Final Arena Round had seven dynamic prototypes from six teams from premier engineering institutes competing closely, with use cases within the realm of financial services. The enthusiasm and determination of the students was a clear sign of the new age of innovation and entrepreneurial spirit among young engineers in India. Team NIXAR comprising of Nikhil, Parth Sachdev, Prashant Verma, Kushal Agrawal and Lisa, from PES University Electronic City Campus won cash prize of 10 lakh rupees in finale. The team was mentored by Nitin from Fullerton India. Finnovatica programme seeks out ideas from talented students for developing innovative digital solutions that can be used to redefine the retail and rural lending landscape in India. The final round was held in Mumbai on June 4, 2019.

Transforming footpaths

The Faculty of Architecture and Design (FOAD) is taking forward Dr Doreswamy’s suggestion to transform service lanes near the university campus into pleasant walking tracks on the lines of footpaths in Hong Kong, which he happened to visit recently.

Bhaarat Chetty attends Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O - 2019, held at California, United States

Bhaarat Chetty, a final year B.Tech. Computer Science student of PES University Ring Road Campus attends Google’s annual developer conference, Google I/O - 2019, held at California, United States from May 7-9, 2019. He returned to India after his three-week long stay in USA. The conference provided him an opportunity to interact with some disruptive change-makers in technology including, but not limited to, the likes of Sundar Pichai (CEO, Google). According to Bhaarat, the reason technology fascinates him is that it has an answer to almost every problem the society faces today and it thrills him to be able to bring a change with his passion for science and technology. He is passionate about making tech more inclusive, especially for those from underrepresented backgrounds, and He wants to use design and technology for empowerment and accessibility. Bhaarat Chetty was the only student from the Developer Student Clubs 2017-19 INDIA to have made it to the annual Google I/O conference, California this May. Thrilled to have shared stage with global leaders and developers, he says the opportunity helped him engage in fruitful discussions on building applications with Google and many open source platforms (TensorFlow, Flutter, APIs, Google Web Toolkit, App Engine). “Travelling all the way to California to witness this landmark moment was nothing short of a life-changing moment for me. I would urge the other young students to realise that hard work can make dreams come true and take you places,” said Bhaarat. " Today, with technology at my fingertips, I keep updating my repertoire, with skills like ML and AI empowered apps, because there is no better way of implementing your idea than by doing it yourself. Learning something new everyday is a major means of my subsistence " The Google staff made sure we had enough opportunities to break ice — an AI Concert, a magic show, performances by a few international bands and a dinner with the Indian community. It helped us get to know each other better. It was nice talking to them about aspects that could enhance our career prospects.” He has been a part of the Machine Learning facilitator group with Google India, and has trained over 1200+ students through Google’s MLCC program. He currently leads the Google Developers Group (GDG) Bangalore chapter , as a part of the GDG program he helps evangelize technology. He is a tech speaker who loves, taking the stage on topics related to Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. For those aspiring to make it to future Google I/O conferences, he suggests, “Enrolling in many community programmes beyond college is necessary. It will give you a direction. One must focus on academics, but shouldn’t compromise on their true calling.”