IEEE PES/IAS joint SB Chapter, IIT, Mandi organized a PES DL talk delivered by Dr. Siri Varadan and conducted membership drive through donation of IEEE magazines.

On 3rd and 4th of September 2021, the volunteers of IEEE PES/IAS joint chapter, Dr. Rajesh Pindoriya (branch mentor), Mr. Vinit Srivastava (branch treasurer) in association with the IEEE MDC Delhi Section, conducted an IEEE Membership Drive and Magazines Donation program with an objective to motivate the aspiring students of the technical institutes, universities in the nearby localities and to enlighten them of the benefits of an IEEE membership.

Magazine_Donations
Volunteers stacking the magazines to be donated
Donation drive
Donation drive at Industrial Training Institute, Mandi

As a part of the two day program, over 2000 magazines that were lying unused in the campus due to the absence of students during the pandemic, were donated to fulfil our mission to expand the reach of IEEE membership benefits to all possible local colleges around IIT Mandi. The drive started covered the following institutes that were nearby to IIT Mandi.

  1. Sardar Vallabhai Patel Cluster University, Mandi
  2. Industrial Training Institute, Mandi
  3. Abhilashi University
  4. Government Polytechnic College, Sundernagar
  5. Industrial Training Institute, Sundernagar
  6. SIRDA Institute
  7. Government Girls S.S. School, Mandi

The management of the recipient institutions thanked the IEEE student branch IIT Mandi for their support in helping the students to learn about the benefits of IEEE membership and also the latest advancements in technology through the IEEE magazines.

IEEE PES/IAS joint student branch chapter, Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi, India organized a virtual PES distinguished lecture on Using the power of Data Analytics in Electric Utilities, delivered by Dr. Siri Varadan, Director, Global Asset Management Solutions, Hitachi- Abb Powergrids on 9th September, 2021.

Dr. Siri
Dr. Siri explaining to the audience the complexity of data generated in an electric utility

The speaker started by summarising the basic techniques of data analytics and their applications through very basic examples. Later, he emphasized the importance of the field data that is obtained through measurements from different equipment in the distribution system or a power system. He focussed on asking the right question as it leads to a judicial use of the data obtained. To visualise the amount of data that could be obtained through the equipment, the speaker took an example of a distribution transformer and showed all the possible useful data that could be obtained from it which we often neglect. With the help of the data obtained, the speaker showed how an in-house application was developed in ABB that gives ratings to the equipment based on the results of the analysis. These ratings are used in Asset management which help the personnel to either diagnose/repair the asset or replace it based on the severity of the rating given. With this example, the speaker deep dived into the fundamentals of asset management and how data driven techniques help the companies in managing the critical assets. The session then concluded with a very active QnA session. 

Venkata Aditya Duggaraju
Chair, IEEE PES/IAS joint student branch chapter
Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi