IITaV
Newsletter
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President's Message
Dear IIT Alumni,
Welcome to this edition of our newsletter that reports on
our professional and social events held since the end of
last year. I hope in this difficult period of COVID-19,
everyone is staying safe, and your family and friends are
keeping well. We believe that you are also coping well
with your work and business arrangements by either working
from home or by occasionally attending office.
First, thanks to Members and Corporate Members (Swinburne
University of Technology, Envision IT and the University
of Melbourne) for their continued support and entrusting
confidence in IITaV. Despite the shadows of Corona virus
circling around us since January this year, we have
been able to organise a social event (Holi celebration -
keeping up the spirit the IITaV way) and a Professional
networking event (Seminar by Dr Mandvi Bharadwaj on
Regulation of Therapeutic Goods in Australia). IITaV also
participated in the Melbourne India Post Graduate Program
and Academy Conference at University of Melbourne last
year. Further details of these events are provided below
in the newsletter.
We
are also happy to inform that IITaV has had a fruitful
discussion with Monash University to become a corporate
member. We are now working to formalise this relationship
with Monash University.
We have postponed our AGM 2020 to a date late in September
when the pandemic allows us to hold one. The committee
will discuss if this should be held on Zoom and the
Members will be accordingly informed once a decision is
made on the meeting. I would like to encourage our
Members to renew their membership possibly for 5 years,
with significant discount offered for this option.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank current and
past Committee members and their families for their great
contribution and commitment that allows us to organise
these professional and social events regularly. My special
thanks to the IIT wives’ group and the IIT juniors’ group
for their efforts and support in the organisation of the
big events like Holi.
Look forward to your continued support.
Dr Sarbjit Giddey
Mob 0422341379
sarb.giddey@gmail.com
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Holi
celebration - keeping up the spirit the
IITaV way
13th March 2020
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IITaV’s
Holi celebration is one of the two signature
events in the IITaV event calendar. Despite the
gathering clouds of the coronavirus in early
March, there was no change in the enthusiasm and
creativity of the IITaV community who attended
this memorable occasion. In fact there wasn’t a
cloud in the sky on the day, which provided the
best complement to the expansive views of the
Melbourne suburbs and CBD from the viewing balcony
of the classy Sky High venue. With Namrata in
charge of the ceremonies to get the proceedings
underway, we knew we were in good hands. Her
responsible introduction included the need to be
mindful to minimise hugging and shaking hands as
precautionary measure.
Yogendra’s poem
got the entertainment segment of the event
underway. It was a creative and engaging poem
about the Holi spirit being maintained despite the
current coronavirus context, all of it showing his
mastery of the Hindi language. This was
complemented by devotional song and dance
combination by Janani, Anhadh and Gurnaaz. Between
the events, the mezze platters and the canapé
service by Sky High staff provided the perfect
complement to the performances. Following the
devotional dance we had Krishna, our Asssociate
Member mesmerise us with her beautiful voice.
Everyone got a chance to participate in the Holi
themed quiz conducted by Pallavi and Harvinder.
The quiz contest played in a good spirit showed
how much or how little we all knew about the role
of Holi in Bollywood. The finale of the
entertainment segment was the dance by Chaitanya
who got everyone into the dancing spirit as the
dance floor was opened up to all. In between the
entertainment segments, Sarbjit formally welcomed
all the guests and acknowledged the contributions
of the various members in making the event a
success. Having the Holi function as a cocktail
event was an experiment which proved to be a great
success – thanks to the great company, engaging
performances and the picturesque venue.
The committee is
happy to have hosted the Holi function and thanks
all those who joined and made the evening engaging
and vibrant and showed their support for the
organisation.
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Regulation of
Therapeutic Goods in Australia
Dr Mandvi Bharadwaj
08th February 2020 |
IITaV organized an informative session on regulation of
Therapeutic Goods in Australia (TGA) at Swinburne
University, our Gold Corporate Member.
Dr Mandvi Bharadwaj, Director of Biomedicines and
Influenza Vaccines Section, TGA was invited to give a talk
for the benefit of our members and general public. Prof
Ajay Kapoor, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research - Sarawak),
Swinburne University of Technology, welcomed IITaV members
and others in the audience before handing over to our
speaker.
Dr Bharadwaj gave an overview on the TGA act and the
Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG) under
which a wide range of medical products, from our simple
Panadol to a broad range of medical devices, are
regulated. She explained in detail to the audience the
two-pronged approach taken by the regulatory authorities,
from pre-market assessment to post-market compliance and
surprise visits. She also explained the approval and
regulation process of vaccines in detail, generated a lot
of interest judging by the range of questions from the
audience.
This event was well attended by over 40 people involving
academics, entrepreneurs and people in corporate roles.
IITaV President Dr Sarbjit Giddey, thanked Dr Bharadwaj
and presented her with a gift of appreciation. IITaV
thanks Swinburne University for hosting this event.
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Melbourne
India Post Graduate Program and Academy Conference
by MIPPAC Team
19th December and 20th December 2019
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A much-awaited Melbourne
India Post Graduate Program and Academy Conference,
MIPPAC-2019 started on December 9th with academics joining
from four partnering Indian institutions; IIT Madras, IIT
Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur and IISc Bangalore. With the strong
support from University of Melbourne Chancellery members
and active participation of over 70 academics and 30
MIPP/A PhD students, it was an intellectually stimulating
gathering of researchers. Professor McCluskey, Deputy Vice
Chancellor Research and the chief guest of the plenary
session, unveiled the MIPP/A report for 2019. The report
highlights the MIPP/A activities, achievements and
research work of students under the MIPP/A scheme and can
be found in the
University of Melbourne blogs.
The Conference dinner was
held at iconic MCG followed by a tour of the museum and
the ground. Dr. Meenakshi Arora welcomed the guests to a
slideshow of MIPP/MIPA achievements. The program started 5
years ago and has led to over 60 joint PhD projects
between UoM and 4 Indian partners. The IITAV was
represented by Dr. Sarbjit Giddey and Mrs. Harvinder
Giddey. They interacted with Prof. Mark Cassidy, Dean
Melbourne School of Engineering and many other UoM and
Visiting academics including Prof. Bhattacharya, Director
IIT Kharagpur.
Day 2 of MIPPAC 2019
started at 8am with the fourth technical presentations.
PhD researchers presented diverse interesting topics such
as Urban water management, Acoustics, Microfluidic flow
dynamics, Nanomaterial’s mechanics etc. This was
immediately followed by a coffee break and the fifth
technical session. Novel studies were presented in the
fields of computer science, biomedical, electrical,
environmental engineering by PhD researchers. After two
interactive technical sessions, lunch break provided an
excellent networking opportunity for students and
academics. The last session of the day was a panel
discussion co-hosted by IITaV Members on ‘Career
opportunities after PhD’. Prof. Ashok Sharma (Victoria
university), Mr. Abaran Deep (Angel investor), Mrs.
Harvinder Giddey (chief consultant), Mr. Steve Bungay
(CEO, Envision IT), and Mr. Rakesh Aggrawal (Co-Founder at
NeoKare Nutrition) provided useful insights on working in
Australia and India during this interactive session.
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IITaV
Gold Corporate Members
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Swinburne
University of Technology is an Australian public
university based in Melbourne, Victoria. Swinburne
operates five campuses in two countries and has an
enrolment of students across vocational,
undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Swinburne houses advanced labs such as Design for
Ageing, Smart Structure and Factory of Future labs.
“Being a corporate member of IITAV, we benefit from
collaborations and industry experts to create a new
forum for engineering students,” Professor
Ajay Kapoor, said.
Swinburne has been ranked one of the world's top 400
universities by the prestigious 2015 Academic Ranking of
World Universities (ARWU). This result places
Swinburne among the top 3% of universities in the world.
Swinburne was named one of the world’s top 400
universities by the Times Higher Education University
World Rankings 2014–2015. In 2015, Swinburne was ranked
for the first time in the Times Higher Education Top 100
Under 50 Rankings, an index of the world’s top
universities under the age of 50.
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Established in 2002 in
Melbourne, Envision
IT develops software products for global markets.
This includes Standalone, Cloud based SaaS, Enterprise,
Line of Business and mobile applications.
Envision IT products are known for their ease of use, high
productivity, efficiency and reliability. Typically, our
products offer an ROI under 3 months.
We are able to achieve this through decades of experience
in industry, developing 100+ innovative projects and
technology alliances (see below). This enables us deliver
products that are seamlessly integrated, diligently
automate tasks and streamline business processes.
Microsoft technologies and agile methodology provide a
base platform for all our projects. The projects however
invariably involve disparate software and hardware from
vendors such as Adobe, Autodesk, Cameras, CISCO, Devices,
Equipment, Hadoop, Hortonworks, IBM, MongoDB, Oracle, Pay
by Phone, RFID, SAP, SenSen Networks, Sensors etc. We
maintain alliances with all major and many niche
technology vendors.
Envision IT products has consistently won awards right
from TravelSmart (2004) to Encarp for employee parking
management (FMA 2011 Runners up) to our new product –
Audispect that eases Audits and Inspections and saves
40-85% in routine workload. In addition, we develop
product for global and government organisations that run
their core business. |
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The University of Melbourne has
had a long standing involvement with India. During its
formative years, The University of Melbourne received
high recognition when Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India
(1899-1905), invited Professor Masson, Chair of
Chemistry at The University, to India to advise on the
establishment of the Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore. Later, at the time of Indian Independence,
Professor David Derham, who was to become Vice
Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, was involved
in drafting the Indian constitution. Today The
University of Melbourne is engaged with the Indian
Institute of Science and the Indian Institutes of
Technology Kanpur, Madras and Kharagpur through the
Melbourne-India Postgraduate Program, which offers
graduate researchers the opportunity to work under joint
supervision with leading academics from The University
of Melbourne and one of the program’s Indian partners.
Currently, the University
of Melbourne has more than 40 IIT alumni either working
as academics or enrolled in PHD. IIT student
association@Melbourne has recently been established. The
University of Melbourne is pleased to join IITaV as a
Corporate member. This collaboration would provide IIT
alumni working/studying at the University of Melbourne
various opportunities to engage with IIT alumni living
across Victoria.
IIT Student association @ Melbourne could be
contacted by email or phone:
Mr. Pawan Kumar
M/ +61 434 928 312
pawank@student.unimelb.edu.au
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Contact
Us
We take this opportunity to thank
everyone for their contributions, especially our Committee Member
Mr. Ravi Rajasekhar for his work on publishing this
Newsletter. To help us improve the newsletter, please
send your feedback and contributions (news, views and memories)
for the next issue to mail@iitav.org.au.
Previous editions of the newsletter are available here.
Thank you.
IITaV Management Committee |
Indian Institutes of
Technology (IIT) are the premier institutes of engineering
education in India.
IITaV is the Alumni
Association for IIT alumni in Victoria.
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