Home 24th Annual Student Symposium on Metallurgical and Materials Research  January, 27-29, 2011 Message from Conveners Contact: sympo_at_platinum.materials.iisc.ernet.in Symposium Department Of Materials Engineering Message from Chairman Another year and another students’ symposium! This occasion is usually a time for a retrospective on what has been and will be happening in our department. The most interesting and, to some, alarming piece of news is that our research student strength touched 100 last semester. By the time these students start to make their presence felt at future editions of this symposium, we may need 3 days or parallel sessions, God forbid. On the faculty scene we have had one more addition at the senior level in the form of Dipankar Banerjee and, if all goes well, yet another will be joining us in May later this year. A highlight of the last year of course was the successful NMD-ATM 2010 that was conducted with our department taking a lead role. Another event full of fun and entertainment, and to be repeated soon this year, was the open day, when more than a 1000 visitors to our department saw everything from nucleation in the form of exploding coke bottles to thermit reactions that came perilously close to igniting some students. In a few months, the first undergraduates will be entering IISc and changing our lives forever. Two new campuses are emerging in Chitradurga and in Andhra Pradesh and I think it is likely that our department will have a role to play in both of them. Behind all this excitement is a sustained process of faculty, staff and student engagement that has ensured that our laboratories are up to date and functioning, that our research is being seen and heard through students and faculty members at conferences in India and around the world and finally, that through our UGC Networking Centre and our soon-to-be-formed ASM Advantage Chapter we are engaged in the task of taking Materials Engineering to the outside world. Let me welcome all our participants to this year’s symposium and congratulate our students for maintaining this hoary tradition. We all look forward to a stimulating two days. Best wishes, Vikram Jayaram Chairman, Department of Materials Engineering