Department of Metallurgical Engineering, IIT (BHU), Varanasi, India

BHUMET News
Volume 4 Issue 1

November 2015

Heads Desk
Dear friends,
I am happy to place before you second issue of newsletter. This issue covers mostly
activities of the department during January to June, 2015. The achievements of our
alumni wherever available are also given. The number of students who have passed
out is also reported. Kindly recall that we had mentioned in the previous newsletter
about peer review report of department the committee suggested introduction of a
course at UG level emphasizing importance of our profession for advancement in
engineering and technology. The department while framing syllabus for various
courses have decided to make provision for this. A course titled An Introduction to Metallurgy has been
included in the curriculum. The building of the department has also been revamped on priority basis.
I take this opportunity to inform you that Ministry of Railways Government of India has instituted
Malaviya chair for Railway Technology. The broad areas of research to be taken off related to physical
and mechanical metallurgy. The coordinator of this chair will be Head, Department of Metallurgical
Engineering. The MoU was signed between IIT (BHU) and Ministry of Railways on 8 June 2015 in
presence of honourable minister of Railways Shri Suresh Prabhu and honourable minister of state for
Railways Shri Manoj Sinha. We are looking forward to your guidance for running this chair in befitting
manner.
I would also like to apprise you that we are in touch with Ministry of Steel for release of funds for
creation of 'Advanced Research Centre on Iron and Steel'. I will keep you posted about this in the next
issue of newsletter.
Please do write for improving us. You are our mainstay.
R.K.Mandal

Malviya Chair for Railway Technology

The Department of Metallurgical Engineering IIT (BHU), Varanasi has
recently setup a Malviya Chair for Railway Technology where department is
the nodal centre and Head of Department is the coordinator for the centre.
Honourable minister of railway Shri Suresh Prabhu and Honourable minister
of state for railways presided on this important occasion on 8th June 2015.

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Metallurgy Day 15
Metallurgy Day Celebrations were held on 13th April, 2015. Dr. Baldev Raj, Director, National
Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore was the honourable Chief Guest for the event. Annual
report was presented by Dr. R.K.Mandal, Head of Department, Metallurgical Engineering, IIT (BHU).
Students and staffs of the department were awarded various awards and scholarships for
outstanding performance in their respective fields.
Dr. K.Madan Gopalakrishnan (BARC) and Prof. Anish Upadhayaya, Head of Department, Materials
Science and Engineering, IIT Kanpur were awarded Distinguished Alumnus Award. They shared their
sweet memories attached with the department. The event was followed by high tea and snacks.

Career and Internship Opportunities at GE

An interactive session was jointly organized by Indian Institute of Metals, Varanasi Student Affiliate
Chapter and Metallurgy Society with Dr. Sanjay Sondhi, Revered Alumnus, Department of
Metallurgical Engineering, IIT (BHU) and Senior Scientist, GE Global Research. He addressed the
students on career and internship opportunities at GE. The event was followed by high tea and
snacks.

Prof. T.R.
Lecture

Anantharaman

Memorial

Institute

In memory of the legendary metallurgist and academic leader, Prof. T.R. Anantharaman, who served
as Director, IT and Rector & Actg. VC, BHU, the Institute has initiated this lecture series. This lecture
is delivered by a metallurgist or materials scientist for outstanding contributions and carries a
memento and a cash award of Rs.30,000/-. This year, Dr. Baldev Raj, Director, National Institute of
Advanced Studies, Bangalore presented a lecture on the topic Energy Security and Sustainability:
Approaches and Priorities for Growing and Aspiring India. Dr. Baldev Raj praised Prof.
T.R.Anantharaman by narrating some of his anecdotes with Prof. Anantharaman. He stressed on the
importance of inter-relation of ethics, ecosystem, environment and energy. The lecture was presided
over by Prof. Rajeev Sangal, Director, IIT (BHU), Varanasi. After the lecture, snacks were served to all
the students and faculty members.

Maitri Shield
Apart from Technology, the department of metallurgical engineering, IIT (BHU) has its fair share of
sports activities. Maitri Shield, under the banner of MetSoc, is the commemoration of this very fact.
Similar to preceding year, this year also the department organized Maitri Shield which was held in the
month of March. There was a myriad of sports activities like cricket, badminton, table-tennis, etc. In
all the events, the faculty members were pitted against the students. The students emerged

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victorious after a very thrilling and hard-fought encounter cricket match held at IIT-BHU gymkhana. This
came as a much anticipated win for the students, as the faculty members emerged as winners for last
three consecutive years. A similar high pitched event took place on the badminton court of J&K Hall,
BHU. Representing students, a team of Shivendra Singh Chauhan and Bishal Sao, defeated the team of
Dr. C.K.Behra and Prof. R.K.Mandal in both singles as well as doubles events, thus breaking the trend
followed for the last three years. The result from the table-tennis event was however not favorable for the
students. Here, a team of Prof. R.K.Mandal and Prof. Bratindranath Mukherjee defeated the team of
students in the doubles as well as singles events. In addition to these events, other mind invigorating
sports like carom, chess etc. were also held during these two days which provided a much needed
amusement to both the professors as well as the students alike. The exhilarating encounters were
followed by lunch which provided the students an opportunity to mingle and interact with the faculty
members. A photography session followed whereby the faculty members got photograph clicked with the
final year undergraduate students. The event was finally concluded with the remarks of Head of
Department, Professor R.K.Mandal. In his concluding speech, he appreciated the organization of Maitri
Shield. The importance of holding such events intermittently was also stressed upon. He congratulated
Mr. Rohit Agrawal (General Secretary, Metallurgy Society (MetSoc)) and other members of MetSoc for the
successful organization of the event. Finally, he declared students as the winners of Maitri Shield and
congratulated them for their commendable performance. Though Maitri Shield was like an oasis in the
desert, it was the perfect picture of the harmony that exists between the faculty members and the
students of department of metallurgical engineering, IIT (BHU).

ANVESHAN-2015
The Department of Metallurgical
Engineering, IIT (BHU) has been at
the forefront in changing the
metallurgical landscape in India by
providing world class education and
conducting pioneering research,
imbibing the importance of
collaborative work between
academia and industry to bring
about significant changes. The
students of Metallurgical
Engineering, IIT (BHU) share the
same vision and tried to do their bit
by organising Anveshan15, one of
Prof. R.K.Mandal and Dr. K.K.Singh with the organising team of Anveshan-2015
the biggest and wellknown annual
festival in the arena of metallurgical and materials engineering all over the country.

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Anveshan, the Annual Technical Festival of Department of Metallurgical Engineering, IIT (BHU), Varanasi
was successfully organized on April 11-12 2015. The festival Anveshan has been known over the years
for being a weekend filled with extravaganza where the excitement can make your heartbeat resemble
Brownian motion.
The major events, crafted carefully to match mental palate of the students, were as mentioned:
1. INITIO - The challenge for revolutionary innovators to come forward with solutions that they deem
feasible for industry defined problems. It was an immaculate platform for students to become conversant
with glitches existing in industries and decipher them. The participants were expected to propose a
feasible solution to tackle the problem.
Problem statements of the following industries were released under initio with exciting prize money for
two industries, namely, i) Thermax, Pune ii) Sandvik, Pune
2. INTERNADO - Internado event was organized with the motive of providing a chance to win internships
in foreign universities, esteemed organizations, industries and under renowned personalities via simple
competitions as opposed to a real-life intern hunt with no ends. The participants were expected to deliver
a presentation by suggesting a viable solution to the problem statement proposed by the institutions and
industries.
Internships were provided in following institutions and
industries:
I. University of Vienna, Austria, II. Monash University, Australia,
III. Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, IV. TATA Steel Jamshedpur, V. DRDO (RCMA), VI. DRDO (RCI), VII. DRDO (ARCI), VIII.
BARC Mumbai, IX. JSPL, X. Department of Physics (BHU), XI.
Bharat Forge, XII. HINDALCO, Renukut, XIII. Thermax, Pune, XIV.
CSIR-4PI Bangalore, XV. NML Jamshedpur.
An outstation participant presenting during an event of
Anveshan

3. RIVISTA A Paper and Poster presentation event with the

motive of encouraging research among the young students was
organized under the banner of Anveshan 15 and cash prizes worth 60,000 were distributed to the
winners. Paper and Posters were presented under a wide range of topics.
4. CODEMET - No technical fest is validated without the incorporation of a coders' den. CODEMET was a
prestigious platform to showcase the coding skills on real life computational problems. CODEMET
provided the awareness about the diverse scope of Metallurgy where, a simple code of few lines
can manage a humongous plant. The winners were awarded with the cash prizes.

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Anveshan15- Career Orientation Workshop

Anveshan'15 conducted a pre-event career orientation workshop. Experienced and successful senior
undergraduate students elucidated methods of tackling final year hurdles like CAT, GRE, GATE and
nuances for interviews during placement season. Among these were Abhas Deva, Shobhit Pandey, Vibhav
Gupta, Abhijeet Nayak, Kartik Venkatraman, Tushar Chaudhary, Parth Shukla, Sidhant Ray and Rohit
Kumar Agrawal. The workshop was targeted at elimination of doubts in the minds of junior undergraduate
students with an objective to abate the unnecessary anxiety that the final year students had gone through
and would not repeat the same mistakes that were generally committed by students who tread on these
paths.

TEM Workshop

TEM workshop was conducted under Anveshan15 by

Dr. Bratindranath Mukherjee. Workshop was divided into two
sessions which covered the following topics:
1. Introduction to Transmission Electron Microscopy.
2. Instrumentation of TEM.
3. Sample preparation and analysis in TEM.
Dr. Bratindranath Mukherjee conducting the TEM workshop

Guest Lectures

1. Prof.Vakil Singh
The lecture was aimed at improving the perspective of new
entrants of institute towards the wide scope of Metallurgy and to
manifest the importance of Metallurgists over Mechanical
Engineers and IT techies.
He stressed on giving motivation to new entrants to remove their
uncertainty over metallurgy field through:
Prof.Vakil Singh giving his inaugural guest lecture at Anveshan-2015

Orientation Programme.

Awareness on the elaborated scope of metallurgy.

Regularly notifying students about achievements of the Department and its Alumni.

The lecture was thought-provoking and was attended by a large number of professors and students.
2 Dr.S.D.Kapoor
Dr.S.D.Kapoor shared his experiences at National Mineral Development Corporation. He explained the
spectators about the importance of M.B.A. in the field of mining and metallurgy.He suggested the
students to tap the potential of industry C.S.R. to undertake innovative projects in areas of mutual

interests. He also emphasized on prioritizing the area of research

and the importance of filing patents and technical papers. The
students were advised to take up societal and industrial problems as
their projects which will help them in long run.

Informal Events

Qriosity - Qriosity was an online quizzing event which provided an apt

platform to satisfy the urge to know more.
Snapshot - Snapshot was an informal event which encouraged
budding photographers to present their creativity and perceive
photogenic beauty in materials and metallurgical domain and to
capture the same with some thought behind every click.

Dr. R.K.Mandal provided memento to Dr. S.D.Kapoor

after the lecture.

Institute Day-2015
Maiden edition of the Institute Day was held over the course of two
days, 27-28 February 15, with an aim of showcasing the eminence Some of the captivating clicks by the participants
presented during snapshot
of the department. The department was open to the visitors to
observe and appreciate the state-of-the-art research work, advanced equipments and facilities existing in
the department. The research scholars and undergraduate students presented their scholarly work
through fascinating posters. Honourable Director Prof. Rajeev Sangal also appreciated the presented
research work and interacted with the students. The visitors enthusiastically watched a short video
created by the students on iron and steel making which gave them a birds eye view of metallurgy and its
beauty. The event was meticulously managed by the teachers and students of the department.

Achievements

Teachers Achievements

Prof. N.K. Mukhopadhyay Chaired a Technical Session, in National Workshop on High Entropy
Alloys: Prospects and challenges, IIT Madras, (March 28-29, 2015). Prof. Mukhopadhyay is also
awarded with INAE Chair Professorship, Indian National Academy of Engineering, New Delhi (2015).

Prof. S.N. Ojha Chaired Prof. P. Ramachandra Rao Memorial Lecture organized at NML Jamshedpur
on March 23, 2015.

Alumnis Achievements

Prof. Anish Upadhyaya, B.Tech (1994) Appointed as Head, Department of Materials Science and
Engineering, IIT Kanpur.

Prof. T.A. Abinandanan, B.Tech (1985) Appointed as Head, Department of Materials Engineering,
IISc Bangalore.

Dr. K. Muraleedharan, B.Tech (1983) - Appointed as Director, CGCRI, Kolkata.

Dr. N Eswara Prasad, B.Tech (1985) - Appointed as Director, DMSRDE, Kanpur.

Students Achievements

Abhas Deva - GATE AIR 1 & GRE score 321, currently enrolled as a PhD student, materials science
and engineering, Purdue University, USA.
Shobhit Pandey - GRE score 319, currently enrolled as a PhD student, materials science and
engineering, Northwestern University, USA.
Kartik Venkatraman -GRE score 326 & GATE AIR 79, currently enrolled as a PhD student, materials
science and engineering, Arizona State University, USA.
Sandhya Susarla GRE score 315, currently enrolled as PhD student, material science and Nano
engineering, Rice University, USA.
Anushka Bansal GRE score 317, currently enrolled as a PhD student in material science and
engineering, Pennsylvania State University, USA.
Aneeket J. Palankar - Currently pursuing MS from materials science and engineering, UCLA, USA.
Parth Shukla - CAT - 99%ile, currently enrolled as an MBA student at IIM Indore.
Sidhant Ray Currently enrolled as an MBA student at IIM Ahmedabad.

In the year 2015, 58 B.Tech students, 12 IDD students and 11 M.Tech students have been conferred
with their corresponding degrees.

PUBLICATIONS & CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS

During the year under review, students and faculty members of the department have published more
than 30 research papers in national and international journals of repute. In addition, they have
contributed more than 25 presentations in national and international conferences.

Published by: Head of Department, Dept. of Metallurgical Engineering, IIT-BHU. Editors: Dr. Kausik Chaattopadhyay, Student Editors:
Mr. Sarvesh Mundra (IDD Part V), Mr. Rajat Arora (IDD Part IV), Mr. Javed Nadindla (B.Tech Part III), Mr. Mayank Jha (B.tech Part III).