Date : 24th March 2018
IMechE Southern India Panel's Learned Society Meeting, Bangalore.
The Southern India Panel of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers India Branch organized a learned society technical meeting on 24thMarch 2018 at Bengaluru. This is the tenth year since the India Branch started functioning and it was an honour that the India Chair, Shailendra Tripathi. attended the event. It was sponsored by the India Centre of the Railway Division and the India Branch. Twenty-six persons of whom 21 were IMechE Members attended the lectures. Vijay Raman, Southern India Panel Chairman, introduced the speakers and chaired the seminar. The three eminent engineers who spoke were. –
Girish Muraleedharakurup CEng, MIMechE who is a specialist on emissions and system integration. Presently, he leads the Commercial Vehicles and Off-road vehicle technologies business at Bosch Limited, Bengaluru, India. In “Bharat Stage VI Emission Standards“Girish给印度汽车3月的概述ket trends and the forthcoming introduction of BS VI emission standards that will leapfrog Stage V standards. he focused primarily on passenger cars and commercial vehicle diesel engines. Technology approaches required to achieve BS VI norms weree presented including fuel injection systems, air systems and exhaust gas after-treatment systems. Challenges associated with system integration were discussed.
Venkateswaran Anand, FIE, Member All India Management Association, had an illustrious career in the Indian Railways and retired as General Manager Southern Railway. Post retirement he advised Delhi Metro Railway Corporation (DMRC). In“The Making of a Metro Train”the process of design, engineering, manufacture, inspection, testing and commissioning of the DMRC trains was presented. These coaches introduced state-of-the art features not only in systems such as air conditioning and braking but also in passenger comfort and safety. Innovations in materials and manufacturing processes set a new benchmark resulting in a paradigm shift in passenger vehicles for other Indian Metro systems which followed Delhi’s.
Dr S Manikutty, Fellow Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), who is a distinguished management “guru”, worked for 21 years with the Indian Railways and for 22 at the IIMA. Besides IIMA he was a visiting scholar at Cornell and taught at ESSEC, France for four years. He was a member of the Board of Governors of IIMA. After retiring he continues to teach courses at IIMs Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Kozhikode. In “Do Engineers need Humanities?” he explained what humanities have to do with engineering, through aesthetics and beauty, internal logic, symmetry, internal structures and appealing designs that are required to sell products. Most engineers are also managers. Managing is a wholly different ball game that requires broader concepts than engineering alone, where understanding human relationships and seeing things in perspective are more important than just logic. The intricacies of human reactions are found in the humanities, produced by artists and writers who observe and interpret life and relationships. Engineers also have to view their actions in terms of ethics and values, taking recourse to the humanities and great classics to learn the answers. Humanities as a core input in management courses and engineering curricula provide the strengths to face challenges.
There were lively discussions after each lecture. The event concluded with Vijay Raman summing up the principal lessons and explaining why such learning events were useful to Members across sub-disciplines. Shailendra Tripathi complemented the speakers on the clarity and detail in their presentations. There was a vote of thanks by Magdhum Basha, Treasurer, Southern India Panel.
IMechE is the fastest growing professional engineering institution, headquartered in the UK. It mentors new talent, helps engineers build their careers, supports professional development, assists in solving engineering challenges that benefit society, improves the image of engineering and represents the profession. It has over 118,000 members in 140 countries in a wide range of industries including railways, automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, energy, medicine, and construction. The Southern India Panel was established in 2017 and has over 300 active members.