Welcome to the silver jubilee edition of one of the longest, continuously running events at IISc, the annual students' symposium of the Department of Materials Engineering. The level of student energy has increased substantially in the last year. From the highly successful open day, which will be repeated soon, we have now begun an ASM Advantage chapter with a number of activities planned for the forthcoming year. The UGC Networking Centre has also been busy with 2 winter workshops just completed and more coming up soon. Three new faculty members have joined us in the last 6 months, bringing with them research strengths in polymers, bio-materials and electronic devices. In fact, for the first time, our course offerings have become too numerous to avoid timetable clashes. But as our discipline evolves, and it is doing that at an alarming speed, it is something to be proud of, that our expertise is broadening to keep pace. And since we need to be reminded of what our neighbours are doing, especially when they seem to be doing some rather strange things, this symposium is particularly apposite. With all this increase in population, both staff as well as students, the availability of space has become a major worry. I am glad to tell you, however, that we will shortly expand our footprint in a small way outside our present building. The long term future of the department's needs will be served by a new four-storeyed structure which will house another 25,000 square feet of space at the site of our old bay. We expect construction to commence shortly after the completion of the demolition that has just started. This is a process that we announced a year ago but which, as with many construction – related issues, took a little longer than expected. Let me welcome all our participants to this year's symposium and congratulate our students for putting together another splendid programme. We look forward to a stimulating two days. Best wishes,

Vikram Jayaram

Chairman, Department of Materials Engineering