Mahindra University: Latest News, Events, Photos & Campus Reports

Mahindra University is considered to be the best private university in the state of Hyderabad. MU is an international quality, technology school with assured career progression for students. Every day is like a surprising or a buzzing day at the institute. Read on to know about the events and happenings:

Mahindra University School of Law organizes a post Budget event Budget –2022: A discussion

Date: February 09, 2022

Mahindra University School of Law organized an analytical discussion on the Budget–2022 and highlighted the need for a better strategy in spending the money rather than increased allocations. The Budget meeting was attended by a large number of academicians, lawyers and scholars of Mahindra University.

Speaking on Tax on digital assets, Prof. Shruti Kakkar highlighted that taxation precedes policy in the category. She spoke on how there is no law so far in India authorizing the use of digital currency/assets and stated that we need an appropriate digital currency policy preceding the taxation on digital assets.

Speaking on CapEx in the Budget, Prof. Vinay Sharma said that the strategy to spending is more important than increased allocations. He said that the government increased Capital Expenditure to 7.5 lakh crores, which may result in inflation but more employment would be created too with increased spending. Though the Government is committed to limiting the fiscal deficit to 6.4 percent of GDP (last year it was 6.9%), it is a bold initiative to increase the outlay of capital expenditure. He added that the budget has continued the impetus for the growth of the MSMEs sector and maintained through Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme, Green Bonds, etc.

Prof. Rishi Raj talked about the replacement of the SEZ Act and how that should result in the creation of more jobs, in addition to exports aimed at production. It also increased the scope of involving the states as partners in building the development hub. The Budget also focussed upon the potential of the semiconductor industry in India- to be the next manufacturing destination on the globe.

Dr. Samyukta Bhupatiraju, while assessing the impact of allocations in the budget, said that the schemes like National Employment Guarantee should have been increased so that employability could have continued and prevented sudden loss of jobs. She felt at least the same fund should have been allocated. Though there is a small increase in allocation to Education, up to 3.1 percent of GDP, it is far less than 6% recommended by the New Education Policy. 

Recalling the popularity of budget lectures of eminent Advocate Nani Palkhivala, Prof. (Dr.) M. Sridhar Acharyulu, Dean, School of Law, Mahindra University, explained the Constitutional link to the budget, which is legally called the annual financial statement, and the mandate that not a single rupee could be spent without the sanction by the Parliament, which necessitated national debate on the economy every year. He emphasized the need for high allocations to the tune of 6 % of GDP to the Education sector. He thanked all the faculty members, students and scholars for a very spirited and mentally stimulating session.

Mahindra University School of Law organizes its Orientation Lectures Series

Date: September 30, 2021

Mahindra University School of Law organized a series of lectures as part of its orientation lecture series, from 6^th- to 17^th September 2021 in online as well as offline modes. Each session was an enlightening and enriching experience for all its newly admitted students of BA-LLB and BBA-LLB programs.

“We welcome the students of the first batch of School of Law at Mahindra University. Our School of Law is founded on the principles of justice, equality and service to all sections of society. Gandhiji, a renowned lawyer himself, always placed honesty and service above the perks of the profession. We are focused on providing education for and of a better world and there is no better way to begin their education than by exposing them to the thoughts of the best legal luminaries in the country”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Vice-Chancellor, Mahindra University.

Each day of the orientation began with a lecture from top practitioners of the profession, who shared their wisdom and experiences to instill the values and skills required in the legal profession, to the prospective lawyers of the foundation batch.

“The Orientation Lecture series sessions were designed to introduce the students the elementary principles of legal profession which shall serve as a lighthouse for their 5-year journey in their respective integrated course with law. I firmly believe that destinies are not encountered, they are created with dedication, passion and values towards the profession and we believe in inculcating these in the students”, says Dr. M. Sridhar Acharyulu, Dean and Professor, School of Law Mahindra University.

Prof. Dr. M. Sridhar Acharyulu introduced the students of the program to the concept of law and natural rights through interesting anecdotes and episodes from his long career as a lawyer and professor of law at several reputed institutions of legal education in the country. In the first session of the lecture series, Prof. VC Vivekanandan, Vice-Chancellor, Hitayatullah National Law University (HNLU), Raipur, undertook a virtual session on the required skillsets for the legal profession. He spoke about how the strength of ethics, the discipline of law and the applicability of law in uncharted fields.

Advocate Ramchandra Rao, Member of Telangana Legislative Committee, Hyderabad talked about the Inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary roles of the legal profession. His talk focused on the expanding dimensions of law such as Conventional Practice, Corporate Practice, High Court Practice, Supreme Court Practice and Advising Chamber Practice.

Advocate P. Vishnuvardhan Reddy, Member - Bar Council of India and Board member of NALSAR, and NLSIU talked about upholding justice and dharma in the legal profession. He said that without law there is no government, no court; and consequently, no democracy.

Prof. Dr. Srikrishna Deva Rao, Vice-Chancellor, National Law University, Delhi emphasized the principles of studying law. He accentuated the importance of the cultivation of the imaginative faculties for lawyers by reading poetry, seeing great paintings, and involving oneself in other creative activities so that a truly complete legal professional can be groomed.

Prof. Dr. Vijaya Kumar, Vice-Chancellor, National Law Institute University NLIU, Bhopal undertook a session on how to read the constitution of India. He emphasized that the Constitution is the supreme law of the land or also as the fundamental law of superior obligations. He also remarked on the distinctive value of the Constitution, Constitutional Law and Constitutionalism.

Shri P. Yadagiri, the Senior Journalist, spoke about Integrating India after Independence and showcased the case of Hyderabad. He explained how Historiography is a dimension of History and epistolography is a dimension of truth. He repeatedly emphasized that the truth is always critical and may bring upon many enemies, but it must prevail.

Dr. R.V. Ramana Murthy, Dean and Professor of Economics, University of Hyderabad spoke about the interrelationships between law and economics. Elaborating on the evolution of society since the dawn of civilization, he spoke on the Pre-capital, capital and post-capital societies. He also explained Production, Distribution and Consumption as the three primary economic activities, since the beginning of society.

In the final lecture of the series, Justice J. Chelameswar, Judge (Retd.) Supreme Court of India, spoke on Understanding Law and Justice. He emphasized the crucial role of history in the creation of a society. He asserted that democracy is a system of Government; and in order to create a just and lawful society, the aim should be that of democratic governance. He also stated that if power is not checked, it can corrupt the system and adversely affect the functioning of society.

Ecole Centrale School of Engineering, Mahindra University, Hyderabad announces the last and final call for Admissions to its B.Tech. Degree Programs (2021-25) 

Date: September 17, 2021

Ecole Centrale School of Engineering, Mahindra University (ECSE-MU) announces the last and final call for admissions to its B.Tech. program for the 2021-25 session. The students can apply online through the admissions portal www.mahindrauniversity.edu.in. Last date for application is 22nd of September 2021.  

“With the exams being cancelled or deferred indefinitely, the higher learning institutions have to evolve to ensure that the students do not become demoralized or unsure of their future. We at Mahindra University are rapidly adapting to the changing scenario in the education space and modifying the eligibility parameters to reflect the new reality. Our only focus in these times is to ensure a seamless admission process which is transparent and offers a level playing field to eligible candidates”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Vice Chancellor, Mahindra University.

The admissions at ECSE-MU will be on the basis of either the JEE/SAT/ACT score, or the grades in the Class 12 exams, or on the basis of Class 10 board exams. The eligible students will be counselled online on the branches available to them and online offers will be rolled out. For admission through JEE/SAT/ACT, the student should have qualified in JEE Mains 2021 exam, or have a valid SAT Subject Score of score of 1800 or more or a valid SAT score of 800 or more or a valid ACT Composite Score of 18 or more.

For admission through the 12th Boards, the score of 80% or equivalent is the cut-off for applications. For the students who wish to join through their 10th class examination scores, the eligibility is 90% or equivalent grade followed by a written test and a personal interview. For 96% and above category, students are eligible for direct personal interviews, where they would be assessed on their knowledge in 11th & 12th Standard Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry as per CBSE syllabus.

To apply, a student will have to log on to the application portal through www.mahindrauniversity.edu.in and fill in the application form online. ECSE-MU has a total of around 720 seats available for admission to its B.Tech. Programmes in Artificial Intelligence, Civil Engineering, Computation & Mathematics, Computer Science & Engineering, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Electronics & Computer Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mechatronics and Nanotechnology for the 2021 academic session.

Mahindra University offers an interdisciplinary programme in engineering. The four-year B.Tech. Degree will empower students with the unique ability to adapt to global engineering challenges and adopt new technologies that would help redefine the future and at the same time create professionals with the ability to master the complexities in work demanded by multinational organizations.

Ecole Centrale School of Engineering, Mahindra University (ECSE-MU) was established through a high-level Industry and Academia synergy. The course curriculum has been designed to ensure that the students are multi-faceted, equipped with excellent engineering education and graduate as industry-ready engineers. ECSE-MU provides world-class infrastructure to support a strong research program for its students and faculty. Its vision is to train engineers, both men and women, to be entrepreneurial and innovative with good leadership qualities, so that they are capable of meeting the most demanding engineering challenges of the 21st Century.

Mahindra University SoM welcomes its first batch of 90 UG Students on campus

Date: September 10, 2021

Mahindra University School of Management(MU-SoM) welcomed its first batch of undergraduate students on campus in a day-long orientation program. Mahindra University has launched its School of Management in academic collaboration with SC Johnson College of Business, Cornell University, USA.

A full house of newly admitted 90 students from B.A. in Economics and Finance, BBA in Digital Technologies and BBA in Computation Business Analytics were welcomed on the campus by the Dean of MU-SoM, the Programme Heads, and Faculty.

Dr. Yajulu Medury, Vice Chancellor, Mahindra University, said in a statement, “We welcome you all to Mahindra University and for the next three years, to look after you is our responsibility. The School of Management and our collaboration with SC Johnson College of Management, Cornell University, USA will ensure that your education and training at MU is comparable with the best in the world”.

In addition, at MU-SoM, the focus on innovation, entrepreneurship, technology and research will ensure that the students are empowered with the most important skills needed to excel in their professional life. A major part of the curriculum will also focus on ethical, cultural and social tenets that help develop the student into a socially conscious professional, who will be capable of making a contribution to the society and economy.

Prof. Ramakrishna Velamuri, Dean, School of Management, Mahindra University delivered the inaugural address. In his welcome speech, he focused on Mahindra University’s stated objective of providing a strong foundation in digital and emerging technologies across all the programs. He said, “We at Mahindra University School of Management will endeavour to transform the way the millennials are studying by providing a strong foundation in digital and other emerging technologies, besides in-depth academic inputs and constant industry interface”.

The students were also addressed by the Program Heads, Professor Pradeep Racherla and Professor Nilanjan Banik. Chief Coordinator of Student Affairs, Major General (Retd.) Sukesh Rakshit also addressed the students at the orientation. The students and their guardians were then taken through a campus tour.

The First batch of MU-SoM, named “The Pioneers”, is a diverse one with not just brilliant academic scores but also expressing major creative and extra-curricular focus. The students comprise of national level sports players, kuchipudi, kathak, and Bharatanatyam dancers, Trinity trained drummers and guitarists, and many with excellent GPAs in their school. MU-SoM will channelize these various energies to hone their skills to equip them into well-qualified and trained business and economics professionals.

“The Pioneers” come from diverse geographical locations - the batch has students from AP & Telangana, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Bangalore, etc., making it culturally rich and versatile. In addition the school has a vibrant girls-boys ratio of 45 and 55 possibly the best across the country.

Mahindra University’s Prof. Bishnu P. Pal awarded The 2021 SPIE (USA) Maria J. Yzuel Educator Award

Date: January 21, 2021

Prof. Bishnu Pal, Dean Academics and Professor of Natural Sciences at Mahindra University’s Ecole Centrale School of Engineering, has been awarded “The 2021 SPIE Maria J. Yzuel Educator Award” by The International Society for Optics and Photonics (SPIE). The SPIE Maria J. Yzuel Educator Award recognizes outstanding contributions to optics education by an educator in the field. Prof Pal has been named for this award “in recognition of four decades of sustained contributions in education, outreach, research, technical program committees of global flagship conferences, and editing of four popular publications in guided wave optics and photonics”. The award will be formally given to him at the annual award Banquet during SPIE Optics+ Photonics conference scheduled at San Diego USA on August 1-5, 2021.

“We congratulate Prof. Bishnu Pal, for having been named the 2021 SPIE Maria J Yzuel Educator Award. Prof. Bishnu Pal continues to lead from the front in the field of Optics and Photonics and this is just another acknowledgement of his contribution to the sector, as several thousands of his students can vouch for. Mahindra University is so proud to have such an eminent academic as its Dean: There is hardly any recognition in the field that he has not won and his exceptional list of awards is unparalleled in the sector”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Vice Chancellor, Mahindra University.

Congratulating Prof. Bishnu Pal, the 2018 Nobel Laureate in Physics, Prof Donna Strickland from Waterloo University, Canada, says, “It is a well-deserved for your many contributions to training optical scientists from your own teaching to the incredible service you do for the optics community’.SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, was founded in 1955 to advance light-based technologies. In its citation, SPIE says “Prof. Bishnu Pal has made multi-dimensional contributions to the education and dissemination of optics and photonics-related knowledge and development and continues to support the growth and advancement of new areas in photonics such as metamaterials and THz frequencies”.

“It is an honor to be recognized by the World’s foremost community of Optics and Photonics.SPIE has over 255000 constituents from 183 countries and being appreciated by your own peer group is always heartening. When I look back at my career and the students that I taught and researchers that I worked with, I’m amazed at the caliber of the people I came in contact and it is always a delight to see them excel”, says Dr. Bishnu Pal, Dean Academics, Mahindra University.

Prof. Pal has been with Mahindra Ecole Centrale since its inception in 2014 and prior to that he worked with IIT Delhi as a Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Physics. He has more than 45 years of teaching and research experience. His current areas of research include Guided Wave Photonics and Optical Communication that broadly encompasses application-specific specialty optical fibers for telecommunication, mid-IR and THz photonics and also contemporary topics like silicon photonics and is widely recognized as an authority on Optoelectronics. Prof. Pal has extensive research and consulting experience, with over 200 papers in peer reviewed journals and large number of research projects sponsored by national and international agencies.

Some of the prestigious awards that Dr. Pal has received in the past include: Esther Hoffman Beller Medal by the Optical Society of America (OSA) in 2016, Distinguished Lecturer of IEEE Photonics Society (IPS, USA) 2005-07, Prof A. Selvarajan award for outstanding contributions to Photonics education and research given by IPS India chapter in 2017, Om Prakash Bhasin award for distinguished contributions to Electronics and Telecommunications Networks, Khosla National Research Award 2014 (India) for life time research contributions by IIT Roorkee,  'OSI Award' of the Optical Society of India (OSI) 2010 for significant lifetime contribution to education and diffusion of knowledge in Optics and Photonics, Homi J Bhabha Award 2006 of the University Grants Commission (UGC), India for outstanding contributions in Applied Sciences, and Fiber Optics Person of the Year 1998 established by Lucent Technology in India and Voice & Data Magazine.

Mahindra University students score high percentiles in CAT 2020

Date: January 11, 2020

In what has turned out to be a great start to the new year for Mahindra University, several MU students have scored high percentiles in CAT 2020, the results for which were declared on January 2, 2021. While the highest score was 99.97 by a 2017 batch student, 3 more students from the 2016 batch have scored 98.25, 97.57 and 96.29 percentiles.

“Our students continue to make us proud: Be it academics research projects, or an exam or even a competition like a hackathon, they never fail to excel. We believe that our focus on holistic learning, accent on core concepts and fundamentals, and unstinted efforts at creating the ‘New Engineer’ are the reason why this has become more of a norm than an exception.  We are very happy that our students are doing exceptionally well in anything that they attempt or choose to pursue. They have scored high in their CAT exams this time around and are amongst the top scorers in the results that have been declared earlier this week”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Vice Chancellor, Mahindra University.

Interestingly, all these students with the high percentiles are from the Electrical and Electronics Engineering (EEE) stream of Mahindra University’s Ecole Centrale School of Engineering.“I am happy to have scored 98.25 percentile in my CAT 2020 exam. Mahindra University facilitated my CAT preparation through various test prep courses that were made available on campus for interested students to opt for additional studies. This helped me immensely and I am hopeful that I will gain admission into the IIM of my choice”, says Chilamakuru Praharsha, B.Tech. (EEE), 2016-2020 batch.

Mahindra University is a multi-disciplinary and research-focused university based in Hyderabad that currently offers a Bachelor’s and a Ph.D. program in Engineering through its Ecole Centrale School of Engineering. Mahindra University is likely to begin its intake for the School of Management, School of Law and Indira Mahindra School of Education from 2021-22, while intake for the School of Media and Liberal Arts, and School of Design would follow in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

Mahindra University’s e-Hub incubated e-learning start-up Widhya, Asia’s largest innovation and start-up ecosystem

Date: January 04, 2020

Mahindra University’s e-Hub incubated e-Learning start-up Widhya, is now a part of the fastest growing startup and innovation ecosystem in India, T-Hub. Widhya is an e-learning platform for students to get industrial experience without having to work at a company. Widhya partners with various organisations, takes projects from them and puts it out for its learners to solve. What is interesting is that, this isn’t traditional video-based approach that has been adopted by a large number of the e-learning players. Widhya is India’s first real gamified platform for e-learning.

“We are happy that a start-up incubated by us at Mahindra University is winning accolades and is now being mentored and fast-tracked by T-Hub. We at Mahindra E-hub help students bring out proof of concept, mentor the students and showcase their strengths and opportunities to industry experts, mentors and investors. We work closely with startups to bring them to a critical mass at the beta phase with testing and trials, so that they can take off with ease once they get to the stage of formal launch. We are glad that in a short time, we’ve been able to help many startups and each success story motivates us to go far”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Vice Chancellor, Mahindra University.

Set up by two College room-mates, who had graduated in 2018 from our B.Tech. programme of study at Mahindra University, Widhya was born out of the need to undertake industrial training of choice, irrespective of the area of the background or specialization. Rahul Arulkumaran (B.Tech.– Computer Science & Engineering) and Rishabh Singh (B.Tech. – Electrical and Electronics Engineering) hit upon the novel idea and they conducted offline trials to validate the product immediately and found that this product was indeed the need of the hour.  Both the founders had plans of doing their masters. However, when COVID struck, both of them knew that now was the time for developing the product and they decided to postpone their plans to go for masters.

They got their online Minimum Viable Product (MVP) out in March 2020 and were in private beta testing until October 1st. Till October they had just 679 users but since then have more than 7000 users, out of which more than 40% are active each month. They have already been named as one of the "Top 10 Fastest Growing E-learning Start-Ups in 2021". The student profile is that on the one hand, students from top IITs, IIMs, NITs, IIITs and BITS actively use the platform and on the other working professionals at Amazon, Google, Adobe, E-Kart, etc. are also active here. The Widhya platform is already being referred to by many training institutes to help them gain real-time industrial exposure and over 1,00,000 project hours have been recorded on it.

Widhya has users from India, USA, UK, Singapore, Vietnam, Germany, Brazil, Canada, France, Australia and many more and over 10,000 students have used its core platform for learning programs, live webinars, and internships.

“Over 500 students have already received internship experiences through Widhya and other partner startups and we are now launching a new program in January, 2021 called the "Winternship Program" which is India's Largest Tech Internship Program in 2021 with over 5000 learners expected to participate. One of the main reasons for our popularity is that we are India's first Real-Time Gamified E-Learning Platform”, says Rahul Arulkumaran, CEO & Co-Founder, Widhya.

Widhya is also a part of the Y-Combinator's Startup School (Y-Combinator in one of the world's most renowned investment and startup mentorship organisations - Top companies like Airbnb, Razorpay, etc. are YC startups).  Widhya is a completely bootstrapped company with no external investments - It generates revenue on a monthly basis to keep going and is profitable too.  Widhya was also a part of the "Google Cloud For Startups Program" earlier, through which they received some support from Google Cloud Platform.

Mahindra University announces admissions to Ph.D. Programs for major programs for session of 2021

Date: December 18, 2020

Mahindra University, Hyderabad, announces the launch of its second intake for admission to its Ph.D. Program in Engineering, Applied Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences for the 2021 Spring academic session. The last date for submission of applications for admission to the program is December 24, 2020, for the session that will commence from January 25, 2021.

“One of the founding principles of Mahindra University has been strong focus on quality research in inter-disciplinary fields. We promote research at an institutional level so that we can focus on actual problem solving and contribute to the rise of a New India. Our unwavering commitment to quality research has made us allocate sizable resources to the activity as well as create well equipped research infrastructure and modern laboratories. Our first batch of 29 Ph.D. scholars are already working on their chosen fields with their mentors and with the full backing of the Mahindra Group and Tech Mahindra”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Vice Chancellor, Mahindra University.

Ph.D. programs are offered in Computer Sciences and Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Electronics and Computer Engineering & Mechanical Engineering disciplines in the engineering area and in the Applied Sciences domain in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics. In the Entrepreneurship area, scholars wishing to carry out research on Innovation, start-ups and tech entrepreneurship, may apply. For those who wish to pursue liberal arts at Ph.D. level are welcome to apply as   Mahindra University has a strong Humanities and Social Sciences program, where students can focus on English and American Literature, Quality & Strategic Management, Cultural and Gandhian Studies, Philosophy, etc..

Full time Ph.D. scholars will get an assistantship of Rs. 25,000 per month plus free boarding and lodging in the MU campus. They will have to mandatorily provide Teaching Assistantship of 8 hours a week. The last date to apply for this program is 24^thDecember, 2020.  

MU focuses on promoting research at an institutional level and the focus is on real-world problem solving as well as fundamental problems in science and technology. It works on local and global Government and Corporate Research projects, mainly towards the development of Basic and Applied Research. Sponsored research grants, industrial research, and focus on research publications and presentations in international journals and conferences ensure that there is unwavering commitment to quality research.

MU is well equipped in terms of research infrastructure and modern laboratories. Over 100 papers in peer reviewed international journals and a similar number in international and national conferences over the last 4 years, with over 20 active research teams working on Indian and Global research projects showcase its commitment towards quality research.

23 well-equipped labs enable the students to get first-hand experience in various technologies relevant to their segment of expertise. Some of these include a Super Computer Lab, VLSI Lab, Automotive Systems and Internal Combustion Engines Laboratory, Centre for Robotics, Environmental Engineering Lab, Photolithography Lab, and more.The various research areas at MU include Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Materials, Optics & Optoelectronics, Applied Mathematics & Statistics, Earth & Environmental Sciences and Digital Media & Technology, to name a few.

Mahindra University organizes its third annual R&D showcase, (MURS), on “Sustainable Development”

Date: December 10, 2020

Over 350 participants from engineering colleges across India took part in Mahindra University’s third annual R&D showcase, the Mahindra University Research Symposium (MURS) that took recently. Due to the pandemic, it was totally a virtual symposium.Over 150 research papers were submitted for presentation at MURS2020, out of which 60 were selected after careful review for presentation under different tracks like oral, poster and prototype presentation – all around the symposium theme ‘Sustainable Development’. All categories of students - UG, PG and PhD had submitted papers.

The Vice Chancellor of Mahindra University Dr. Yajulu Medury inaugurated MURS and there were brief addresses by the Dean Academics Dr. Bishnu Pal, and the Dean Research Dr. Arya Kumar Bhattacharya. The event was coordinated by a faculty team consisting of Drs. Jayasri Dontabhaktuni (Lead), Gomathi Anandhanatarajan, Prafulla Kalapatapu, Venkata Dilip Kumar Pasupuleti, and Prasad Pokkunuri. The colleges that participated in the MURS included besides the host Mahindra University, included IIT Roorkee, IIT-ISM Dhanbad, NIT Warangal,  SRM IST, VIT, NIT Surathkal, IIT Bhubaneswar, Rajiv Gandhi University of Knowledge & Technologies, Maturi Venkata Subba Rao Engineering College, Punjab University, IIT Hyderabad etc.

The guest speakers for MURS 2020 included renowned academicians and industrialists, as well as Mahindra University Alumni, who shared their experience and work with the students.The keynote speaker for the event was Prof. Santanu Chaudhury, Director at IIT Jodhpur. His multimedia talk dwelt on recent advancements in the areas of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) and their applications in the virtual reconstruction and multimedia depiction of national heritage sites like Hampi Temple, Viswanath Temple etc., for example. This was followed by a plenary talk by Prof. Ganesh Baglar from IIIT Delhi on Computational Gastronomy, and a talk by Dr. Shankar Venugopal, VP of Mahindra Research Valley on the topic ‘Mobility Engineer 2030’. Their talks seeded the young minds with knowledge about the latest developments in various technical fields of immense general interest.

On the second day, the event started off with the inauguration of Green office logo of MU. GO is a student body devoted to promote sustainability in education, research and various other institutional activities. This was followed by plenary talks by Mr. Prashant Lingam, founder of Bamboo House India and Prof. Prasanta Panigrahi from IISER Kolkata on Quantum Computing.

Each presentation and talk introduced many interesting ideas and promoted stimulating discussions amongst the students, who gained a lot of knowledge and motivation.The series of interesting and thought-provoking sessions ended with the poster presentations, in which the participating students presented their research ideas and projects in the form of posters to the panel of faculty judges.The winners of MURS in the oral presentation category were: Rahul Arepaka (Mahindra University) who presented work on Cable lifted automated robot for Agriculture, Subhajit Karmarkar(IIT Delhi and MU) who shared concepts of Fano resonance in meta materials - an important phenomena in optical physics, characterized by sharp asymmetric spectral feature and low radiative loss channel, and Pritam Singh (IIT Roorkee) - Zero-waste sustainable and environment friendly technology for 2G-ethanol production from lignocellulosic biomass.

 In the poster category presentations, the winners  were: Krishna Shankar (IIT Roorkee) - Homogentisic acid-based whole-cell biosensor for detection of Alkaptonuria disease, Anil Kumar (NIT Surathkal) - Solar Cooker with Low Cost Sensible Heat Storage medium, and Phurba Tamang (Royal University, Bhutan) - Stability Analysis and Stabilization of Recurring Slope Failure along Dewathang-SamdrupJongkhar Highway.The winners in the Prototype Presentation category were: Sai Bhargav Reddy (IIT-ISM  Dhanbad) - Model to forecast crop yield using satellite multispectral & hyperspectral remote sensing to support better agricultural practices and Dr. Shailendra Singh (IIT Roorkee) - Real time monitoring of biomass, lipid and nitrate dynamic profile using innovative light evolution kinetic model.

MEC’s student launches Chakshu Face Attendance app

Date: October 22, 2020

Mahindra University’s student, Kartikeya Bhardwaj (Mechanical Engineering Student, Class of 2020), has created a deep learning app, Chakshu Face Attendance, to provideemployers / institutions / organizations with touchless recording of attendance attributes. Especially relevant in today’s Covid outbreak, this app provides a safe alternative to touch-based fingerprint attendance systems.  The start-up is being incubated at Mahindra e-hub, an incubation centre of Mahindra University under the University’s Centre of Entrepreneurship & Innovation.

“Mahindra University focuses on providing an enabling atmosphere to the students so that they can apply their learning in creating innovative solutions to everyday problems. One such focus has been on Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning, wherein we have not just created state-of-the-art labs but also made available live projects for students to work on. It is indeed exciting to witness these efforts coming to fruition and our Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation is providing a platform for these start-ups to grow and grow on their own by providing all necessary assistance in sync with the Indian Government’s mission”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Vice Chancellor, Mahindra University.

In big organizations, for attendance, fingerprint or ID scanners are the norm. In Covid times, “touchless” technology is the call of the hour since anything that is used by many people may turn out to be conduit for transmission of the virus. In MSMEs, this isn’t so, primarily because of the issue of costs, e.g. RFID systems require expensive hardware and regular maintenance. In addition, a common issue is that of Buddy Punching, where employees do proxy attendance of their colleagues using their IDs results in huge losses and is an unethical practice that still floats around in offices all over the world.

Chakshu.ai has developed an app named Chakshu Face Attendance, a Touchless Employee Attendance App that lets an organization Clock attendance through an android device (phone or a tablet), using Face Recognition. The Attendance process is Completely Touch-Free, and Covid-19 ready. It also eliminates the Buddy Punching problem through SpoofSense: Chakshu’s AI algorithm is trained to detect Spoofing attacks and reject them, thereby making the process secure and trustable.

Chakshu Face Attendance App uses PyTorch (a Powerful Machine Learning Framework by Facebook) to build and deploy Deep learning algorithms. Scaling AI algorithms to thousands of users is a compute intensive process and often results in high latency situations. Chakshu App involves careful model optimizations that makes the backend capable to serve a huge volume of traffic at Peak Performance, ensuring a frictionless User Experience.“A Strong Anti Spoofing Provision makes Chakshu Face Attendance a highly reliable Face Attendance System. The app is Secure, Efficient and Highly Scalable”, says Kartikeya Bhardwaj, Founder, Chakshu.ai.

MEC, Hyderabad announces eligibility criterion for B.Tech. Admissions(2020-24)

Date: August 13, 2020

Mahindra University’s Ecole Centrale School of Engineering (MEC), Hyderabad, announces the eligibility criterion for admissions to the 4-year B.Tech. programme at its Hyderabad campus for the academic session 2020-2024. The students who apply on www.mechyd.ac.in by the 15^th of August 2020, will be eligible for the early round of counselling. Eligible students will be counselled online on the branches available to them and online offers will be rolled out.

“Mahindra University is focused on students’ welfare and in these Covid times when the exams JEE Mains and SAT are being cancelled and rescheduled, the students and their guardians are justifiably worried about the admissions of their wards. Our eligibility parameters have therefore included the Boards results to ensure that the eligible students are able to apply without any stress”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Vice Chancellor, Mahindra University.

The admissions will be granted on the basis of either JEE Mains (Qualify in JEE Main examination: and eligible to write the JEE Advanced 2020 exam) or Valid SAT Subject Test Scores or SAT Scores or ACT scores or Class 10+2 exams result (80% or equivalent grade cumulatively in Mathematics, Physics & Chemistry Subjects in 10+2 from any Statutory Board).

MEC has a total of around 400 seats available in its B.Tech. Programme offered in 7 academic disciplines - Computer Science & Engineering, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Electronics & Computer Engineering, and Computation & Mathematics.MEC’s UG programs in engineering are interdisciplinary in nature. The four-year B.Tech. Degree will empower students with the unique ability to adapt to global engineering challenges and adopt new technologies that would help redefine the future, at the same time creating professionals with the ability to master the complexities of multinational organizations.

Mahindra Ecole Centrale the deadline date to apply for 1^st round of online B.Tech Admissions 

Date: May 01, 2020

The first phase of admissions counselling at Mahindra Ecole Centrale (MEC), Hyderabad for admissions to the 4-year B.Tech programme at its Hyderabad campus for the academic session 2020-2024 is going completely online this year due to the Corona Virus lockdown. Those students who apply online through the admissions portal by the 10^th May 2020 will be eligible for this round of counselling. The admissions will be on the basis of the JEE Mains Percentile secured in Jan’20 by the applicant.MEC has a total of 240 seats available in its B.Tech. Programme - 60 each for the four academic disciplines offered - in Computer Science & Engineering, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Civil Engineering.

Those students who have a 10+2 or equivalent qualification from any statutory board with 60% aggregate marks in all subjects or equivalent grade for the students from IB or other approved Boards are eligible to apply for admission. The admissions will be granted on the basis of either JEE Mains (Qualify in JEE Main examination and eligible to write the JEE Advanced 2020 exam) or Valid SAT Subject Test Scores or SAT Scores or ACT scores.To apply, a student will have to log on to the application portal and fill application form online.

“These are unprecedented times, and the lockdown has left students and their guardians justifiably worried about their educational prospects. We were receiving many queries about the admissions process and requests for an early round of counselling. We at MEC are committed to ensuring students’ safety and have therefore taken the process completely online. May 10^th is an early round of admission counselling and the eligible students will be counselled on the branches available and offers will be rolled out”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Director, Mahindra Ecole Centrale.

MEC offers an interdisciplinary programme in engineering. The four-year B.Tech. Degree will empower students with the unique ability to adapt to global engineering challenges and adopt new technologies that would help redefine the future, at the same time creating professionals with the ability to master the complexities of multinational organizations.

Mahindra Ecole Centrale was established through a high-level Industry and Academia synergy. MEC’s course curriculum has been designed to ensure that the students are multi-faceted, equipped with excellent engineering education and graduate as industry-ready engineers.MEC (Mahindra Ecole Centrale) provides world-class infrastructure to support a strong research program for its students and faculty.MEC's vision is to train engineers, both men and women, to be entrepreneurial and innovative with good leadership qualities, so that they are capable of meeting the most demanding engineering challenges of the 21st Century.

To fill in the application form students can click here

Students of Mahindra Ecole Centrale create a live, district-wise, COVID-19 tracker

Date: Mar 18, 2020

The students of Mahindra Ecole Centrale College of Engineering, Hyderabad, under the guidance of its faculty, have developed a live District-wise tracker for COVID-19 cases in India. The website has been developed by the students of MEC: Raghav NS, Ananta Srikar, Rishab Ramanathan, Rohith Gilla, Anchit Sharma and V. Meghana Reddy under the guidance of Mahindra Ecole Centrale faculty Dr. Achal Agrawal, Dr. Bharghava Rajaram and Mr. Raj Narayanan.

The data for the tracker is obtained from credible and reliable sources such as the Ministry of Health, Pharmaceutical Technology, and reputed news outlets. A dedicated team of students has been assigned to pull out data from relevant sources and update the map on the tracker after thorough cross-checking and verification.This is probably the only district-wise tracker in existence. It will prove helpful for people travelling in the country in avoiding virus-prone zones and would also help the authorities to mobilize resources more efficiently.This application can also be installed as a web-app on any smart phone.

Mahindra Ecole Centrale’s Centre of Entrepreneurship & Innovation organizes its first E-Summit

Date: January 24, 2020

Mahindra Ecole Centrale’s Centre of Entrepreneurship & Innovation in partnership with Hyderabad Angels and AIC-IIIT is organizing its first E-SUMMIT themed ‘Addressing UN Sustainability Goals through Entrepreneurship’.

It is a two-day workshop scheduled to take place in January. The event will bring together successful entrepreneurs, investors, mentors, policymakers, and budding entrepreneurs for the exchange of ideas, and face to face discussions. Dr. Rajkumar Phatate, Professor and Head – Centre of Entrepreneurship & Innovation at Mahindra Ecole Centrale is the coordinator for the event. 

A power-packed keynote address, speeches by eminent guests, as well as panel discussion will set and reinforce the tone for the event at MEC E-Summit, which will also feature unique Startup Sprint, a Startup Showcase and a Business Idea Competition. Students and participants will get an opportunity to interact with successful entrepreneurs, mentors, and investors. 

“At the core of MEC’s vision lie Entrepreneurship and innovation. We focus on promoting a strong ecosystem by providing mentoring, networking, and funding support. Our E-Summit is a concerted effort to provide an enabling environment wherein the young budding entrepreneurs can meet, learn, and discuss their ideas. We are hopeful that some of these ideas would also be taken towards fruition”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Director, Mahindra Ecole Centrale.

The Keynote speakers and panelists include Dr. Aravind Chinchure, Founder and CEO of QLEAP Academy, Pune; Mr. Rajesh Jog, Venture Capitalist, Founder, Waygate Capital, and Co-Founder eVentures India; Mr. Rajiv Vaishnav, Managing Partner, Cornerstone Ventures, Mumbai; Ms. Amrutha Valli, Founder of PurpleApple Infosystems; Mr. Ramesh Loganathan, Professor Co-Innovation at IIIT Hyderabad; and several others.

MEC E-Summit will also host an interesting event called Startup Sprint, a Business hackathon. Teams of up to four undergraduate students will be given a topic, and within 48 hours, the teams will have to produce a working prototype and business model/idea to go alongside the prototype. Three teams with the best ideas will be awarded prizes. 

Another event called Startup Showcase will provide a platform for already established or prototype stage startups to showcase their product/service/prototype and validate their ideas with potential customers/ mentors and investors in addition to winning handsome prizes.  

The final event will be a Business Idea Competition wherein creative, and disruptive business ideas that address one of the UN Sustainability Development goals will be considered. The best three business ideas will be awarded prizes.

Mahindra Ecole Centrale to Launch its First AUV “Black Pearl”

Date: January 9, 2020

Mahindra Ecole Centrale (MEC) announces the launch of its first Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) named Black Pearl. Created by MEC students and mentored by their professors, the Black Pearl is a self-propelled, unmanned, untethered underwater vehicle capable of carrying out simple activities with little or no human supervision. Simply put, it is a computer-controlled system (or a Robot) operating underwater.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) operate independently of humans and are self-guiding and self-powered vehicles. AUVs have a wide range of applications in marine sciences and are increasingly being tested and used by commercial, civil and defence sectors. Being the most complicated in-house projects to take shape at Mahindra Ecole Centrale, it inherits innovative integration of computer science, mechanical, electrical and electronics engineering.

“Our students continue to exhibit strong interests in R&D and creativity in building workable prototype devices and gadgets for different segments. Black Pearl is another such product where the students and their academic and research mentors worked tirelessly at our Centre for Robotics and created a robust Autonomous Underwater Vehicle. We are very proud to be creating New Engineers who work on complex projects, sharpen their technical and project management skills becoming more competitive, innovative and future-ready, true to the “Rise” philosophy of the Mahindra Group”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Director, Mahindra Ecole Centrale.

Prof. Arya Kumar Bhattacharya, Dean R&D, MEC, ensured knowledge sharing and mentoring on principles of system engineering went a long way in enabling the near-flawless output within pre-set timelines. Faculty mentor, Dr. Sebastian Uppapalli of the Mechanical Engineering Department at MEC tirelessly mentored the students assigned to the project. The team primarily responsible for creating the AUV included Naval Pattar (Fabrication), Nishith (Design), Pulkit (Simulations), Suresh (Control and Embedded Systems), Srikanth Gadde (Control and Embedded Systems), Kartikeya (Vision Systems) while the overall project was led by Sai Madhavan (Team Lead), and Sai Kiran Kumar (Deputy Team Lead).

About Black Pearl:

Weighing 19.6 Kgs, the machine is a fully autonomous operation and carries power onboard through a Lithium Polymer Battery. Powered by NVidia Jetson Nano Single board computer and Arduino microcontroller, MEC’s Black Pearl is a free-swimming, untethered robot boasting of a Logical 270 vertical camera and Raspberry Pi V2 horizontal camera to take good quality images. Nearly INR 370000 were spent in developing the vehicle in-house.

Mahindra Ecole Centrale signs an MoU with Government of Telangana

Date: January 3, 2020

Government of Telangana and Mahindra Ecole Centrale (MEC) College of Engineering, Hyderabad, recently signed an MoU in the area of Artificial intelligence (AI). As per the MoU, Mahindra Ecole Centrale will provide skill development and consultancy in the AI segment and extend its Supercomputer Lab facilities for individuals and startups to build compelling propositions and solutions in the area of Artificial Intelligence.

“Public-Private Partnerships and sharing of resources is the way to learn and move forward in the future. The government of Telangana is committed to building a startup ecosystem and we are happy to partner with the Government in helping the young entrepreneurs undertake even bigger strides in the area of Artificial Intelligence. MEC’s focus on setting up world-class labs for the people researching/working in the segment will hopefully create a viable AI ecosystem in the state and the country at large”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Director, Mahindra Ecole Centrale.

Mahindra Ecole Centrale launched its Supercomputer Lab in August 2019 and is already working on several projects on Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning. In order to address the requirements for faster computing performance and providing a robust platform for Deep Learning & Analytics and multi-disciplinary engineering simulations, the MEC Supercomputer lab was established at the MEC campus.

The Supercomputer Lab supports high-intensity computations both for Artificial Intelligence applications and for complex simulations in physical sciences and engineering, covering different aspects of fluid dynamics, structural mechanics, electromagnetics, integrated and optimized engineering design, molecular physics, and related fields. 

MEC organizes 3rd International Conference on Machine Learning and Data Science

Date: December 17, 2019

The 3rd International Conference on Machine Learning and Data Science (ICMLDS 2019) technically co-sponsored by ACM Digital Library was held at Mahindra Ecole Centrale (MEC), Hyderabad recently. The two-day conference focused on algorithms, systems, applied, and research aspects of Machine Learning and Data Science.

ICMLDS 2019 brought together researchers and practitioners from academia, industry, government and featured multiple eminent speakers and presentations of peer-reviewed original research papers and exhibits.

Mr. Navin Mittal, Commissioner, Collegiate Education & Technical Education, Government of Telangana, inaugurated the conference. Prof. Prafulla Kalapatapu, from the Computer Science department at MEC and Prof. Sartaj Sahni, Distinguished Professor of Computer Science, University of Florida, was the General Co-chairs of the conference.

Delivering the welcome address, Dr. Yajulu Medury, Director, Mahindra Ecole Centrale said, "MEC is proud to be hosting the third ICMLDS and we are happy that some of the biggest names in the industry are partnering with the conference. Machine Learning, Big Data, and Data Sciences are so much a part of our lives today that we barely even notice them or realize the breakthrough scientific research that made them possible. We at MEC are committed to partnering research in the segment and have set up a specialized Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning Research Centre on campus".

In his inauguration address, Mr. Mittal focused on the coming together of a truly international community for the ICMLDS 2019 including many renowned global experts of Machine Learning and Data Sciences. He reiterated that the whole field is getting increasingly integrated into our lives. He also stated that in the Government of India's Smart Cities Project, increased use of ML & Data Integration is helping us avoid wastage and is instrumental in keeping us safe.

The main speakers over the two days included Prof Viktor K. Prasanna, University of Southern California, Sri Ram D. Sriram, Chief, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Prof Srinivas Aluru, Georgia Institute of Technology, Prof Rama Govindaraju, Director of Engineering, Google AI, Prof Ananth Kalyanaraman, Pullman, WA, Prof Dhabaleswar K. Panda, The Ohio State University, Prof Laxmidhar Behera, IIT Kanpur, Prof Sanjay Ranka, University of Florida, Mr. Ananda Deshmukh, Lead AI, TechM, Prof Arya K Bhattacharya, Dean Research, Mahindra Ecole Centrale, among others.

MEC to organize an info-session for its B.Tech. program

Date: December 14, 2019

Mahindra Ecole Centrale (MEC) College of Engineering is organizing an Information Session for B.Tech aspirants in Noida, Delhi NCR on December 15, 2019. MEC will share details of admissions to the 4 year B.Tech program at its Hyderabad campus for the academic batch 2020-2024 with prospective students and their parents.

• Venue: Tech Mahindra Ltd., A-6, A block road, B block, Sector 64, Noida 
• Time: between 10:30 am and 12 noon

Dr. Aditya Abburi, Assistant Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at Mahindra Ecole Centrale College of Engineering will address the students and their guardians and answer any queries.

About MEC

Formed in collaboration with Ecole Centrale Paris (now CentraleSupelec) and JNTU Hyderabad, MEC is an international quality, technology school set up in Hyderabad for engineering aspirants. Key aspects of education at MEC are the focus on multi-disciplinary knowledge, personality development, and critical-creative thinking. MEC is approved by AICTE and Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) Hyderabad, a premier institution with academic and research-oriented courses.

“At Mahindra Ecole Centrale, our vision is to become an institution playing a significant role in the global dynamics of research, development and higher learning in science, technology, and liberal arts, where students are motivated to attain their true potential and global leadership. The Info-session will take aspirants and their parents through a comprehensive module that showcases the MEC differentiation. We provide a holistic, futuristic and integrated curriculum that ensures that the student is equipped with international best practices in his subject of study, learns through “doing” and has the best of the industry to mentor him”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Director, Mahindra Ecole Centrale.

About MEC B.Tech Program

MEC has a total of 240 seats available in its B.Tech Program - 60 each for the four courses offered - in Computer Science & Engineering, Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, and Civil Engineering.

The four-year B.Tech. Degree will shape students with the unique ability to adapt to global engineering challenges and adopt new technologies that would help redefine the future, at the same time creating professionals with the ability to master the complexities of multinational organizations.

MEC Hyderabad concludes another smashing edition of its Inter-college Fest ‘Aether’

Mahindra Ecole Centrale College of Engineering, Hyderabad, presented the fifth edition of AETHER, a technological cum cultural inter-college festival recently. More than 200 students from over 25 colleges participated in the fest. A total of 12 cultural events and 5 technical events took place in the power and adrenalin-packed two days.

“MEC’s Aether is already recognized as an event that gets the finest intellectual and cultural activities going for students from colleges across India. As usual, this Aether 2019 included a swirl of eclectic technical and cultural events and we were happy to host a large number of students on our campus”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Director, Mahindra Ecole Centrale.

The creative events included Mastershot, a film making a contest that focused on the participants’ creative and critical thinking skills to create a short film from scratch. Battle of Bands focused on the quality of music, versatility and crowd interaction. Groove, showcased the dancing talents of the teams.

Bridgeit, the bridge design competition was a big draw as was the hackathon MECHacks on the theme of Augmented Reality. Point Blanc, Aether’s intercollege eSports, and gaming convention witnessed an amazing turnout from the like-minded. Cicada, the lateral thinking puzzle game, and Reverse Coding, a contest to crack codes underneath the program, also elicited great response.

Cultural Events included Aether Quiz, Brain Wars (Puzzle-solving game), Character Collision (Story writing contest), Devil’s Advocate (defending an unpopular theme/idea), Filmy Fungama (Movie Trivia game), Beat the Clock (Completing tasks within a stipulated time), Guesstimate (fun guessing game), Newkonomy (A market simulation game), Unclue (a murder mystery treasure hunt), What’s Poppin (a clue based game focusing on seeing, hearing and acting) and  Slam Poetry (Quick poetry contest). All these events were keenly contested and the event winners also took away handsome prize purses as well as goodies.

MEC Hyderabad creates an Electric Vehicle Technology (EVT) Laboratory on campus

Date: October 24, 2019

Mahindra Ecole Centrale (MEC), an international engineering college based at Hyderabad has set up an Electric Vehicle Technology (EVT) laboratory at its campus. This laboratory will work towards the scientific and technological aspects of green and clean mobility. Students from all streams of Engineering at MEC will work on the design, development, and testing of electric vehicles.

“Clean Mobility has been given high priority by the Government of India and we at MEC are also committed to working towards finding solutions for issues of national interest. Electric Vehicles are the future and so are fast charging Li-Ion batteries (this year’s Nobel Prize-winning topic in Chemistry) as well as energy sources to power these vehicles. MEC’s EVT lab will work on these and more and will research all aspects that will propel this technology sector. We are looking at tying up with relevant partners to work on exciting live projects together”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Director, Mahindra Ecole Centrale.

The EVT lab will mainly focus on aspects of mechanical, electrical and embedded systems. Under the mechanical segment, the laboratory will focus on Thermal Management Systems for batteries, testing facility to analyse and optimize the battery characteristics under different running conditions, development of robust battery management system, transmission system of an EV, methods of recycling and reuse of spent battery, new materials to serve as catalyst of Li-ion battery and new energy source technology for EVs.

From the electrical engineering perspective, the focus on MEC’s EVT lab will be on Electric motor control, Power Electronic Converters, Battery charging technology, robust charging infrastructure, and regenerative braking system. It is expected that the Embedded system and intra, as well as inter-vehicle communication, will be also be investigated in the near future.

Mahindra Ecole Centrale launches a specialized Internal Combustion Engines Laboratory

Date: October 17, 2019

Mahindra Ecole Centrale, an international Engineering college, based at Hyderabad announces the setting up of a Specialized Automotive Systems & internal Combustion Engine (AIC) Laboratory at its campus. This lab aims to introduce undergraduate students to the working of various automobile and its power train, the IC Engine.

“At MEC, our emphasis is to provide an enabling atmosphere to our young students and provide an atmosphere where they can learn by doing as well as research relevant areas. Our AIC laboratory is well equipped to handle cutting edge research initiatives and we hope that it will help our engineering students to immerse themselves in the latest equipment and technologies and come up with innovative solutions to current day auto issues”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Director, Mahindra Ecole Centrale.

Starting from a ready-to-drive automobile, down to its various sub-systems and components, this facility will have the entire gamut of automotive and IC engine related equipment. A vehicle inspection pit is also planned. Performance testing of IC Engines will be the other major focus of this lab. Separate equipment for functional multi-cylinder Spark Ignition (SI) and Compression Ignition (CI) engines, with dynamometer loading, and essential add-ons for data acquisition, and fuel & emissions characterization are also planned.

The lab will have high-end equipment that would include Ready-to-drive 25 tonnes HCV, 6 tonnes LCV chassis and engine aggregates, Aggregates such as Power Train (Chassis, Engine, Transmission, Axles, Tyres) with cut sections (and motorized for demo), Brakes, Cooling System, Steering, After Treatment Systems, Fuel Characterization and Emissions Measurement Facilities.

Mahindra Ecole Centrale launches its Supercomputer Lab

Date: September 19, 2019

Mahindra Ecole Centrale (MEC), an international engineering college based at Hyderabad, launches its Supercomputer Lab. MEC has a strong research focus, and several projects on Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning are already underway at the campus. To address the requirements for faster computing performance and to provide a robust platform for deep learning & analytics and multi-disciplinary engineering simulations, the MEC Supercomputer lab was created at the campus.

The Supercomputer Lab supports high-intensity computations both for Artificial Intelligence applications and for complex simulations in physical sciences and engineering covering different aspects of fluid dynamics, structural mechanics, electromagnetics, integrated and optimized engineering design, molecular physics, and related fields.

“To be a success in today’s rapidly evolving technological scenario, it is imperative that we expose our students with the latest technological advancements and get them to work on the best of products available globally. The MEC Supercomputer Lab comprises of the DGX-1 supercomputer platform that includes a complex stack of components and software including AI Deep Learning frameworks, libraries, and drivers. Our students will be trained on this platform that forms the base for most globally recognized initiatives”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Director, Mahindra Ecole Centrale.

The DGX-1 heart of the MEC Supercomputer Lab is reinforced with several CPU Servers that can be seamlessly scaled up in numbers. Fast Infiniband-based network connectivity is in the process of installation to connect these servers so that CPU-based parallelism can also be attained for simulations not attuned to GPU processing.

A Dassault-Systemes based 3D-Experience package is also being installed in this lab. This package is an overlay on a suite of software that includes CATIA, DELPHI and other related modules, and facilitates Augmented Reality – Virtual Reality based immersive experience. A set of 30 Workstations coupled with a Server are being installed and linked to the other platforms of this laboratory for the facilitation of the complete 3D-Experience package. This will enable the attainment of a 3D-Experience Centre of Excellence at this lab.

The Supercomputer Laboratory is home to two of MEC’s Centers of Excellence: Artificial Intelligence and 3D-Experience. At the core of this is, of course, massive computing power, enabled by the DGX-1 Supercomputer, multiple powerful Servers, and a set of 30Workstations, all interconnected through a high-speed data communication network. These co-located CoEs can themselves be the trigger for a new and unique experience in an Indian Research Institution, namely, the coupling of AI with the world of engineering in multiple new and creative ways of which visionaries can see possibilities that have yet to be manifested in the mundane world.

Mahindra Ecole Centrale organizes a National Undergraduate Research Symposium URS@MEC2019

Date: September 12, 2019

Mahindra Ecole Centrale (MEC) College of Engineering organized its second annual Undergraduate Research symposium URS@MEC 2019. URS at MEC has grown from internal research focused symposium to a national platform for showcasing the research across Undergraduate colleges. Over 300 students participated in the second URS@MEC2019. 12 Oral presentations and 30 Posters were presented on the research work carried out by the participants during their B. Tech.

The keynote addresses were delivered to packed auditoriums by Prof. Ajoy Ghatak, Eminent Professor, IIT Delhi, who spoke on Relativity and Dr. Sriram Birudavolu, CEO - Cyber Security Centre of Excellence DSCI (A NASSCOM Initiative), who spoke on startups and entrepreneurship for young engineers.

The highlights of the MEC Undergraduate Symposium were concurrent events that kept the participants enthralled. Prizes worth INR 65000 were distributed to the winners in various contests held during URS@2019.

MEC Club Enigma, in association with Machine Learning Group of Tech Mahindra, organized a 12-hour coding challenge. This was to test the coding skills of undergraduates of B.Tech and encourage students to solve complex problems at one go. A “Startup Idea Contest” was organized by the Entrepreneurial and Innovation Centre (EIC) at MEC. This was judged by an eminent panel comprising of eminent entrepreneurs and leaders that included Dr. Srinivas A (Founder Director, AIPER), Mr. Raghavendra Prasad (Director & Co-founder, Fairgate Advisory Solutions) and Mr. Sricharan Lakkaraju (CEO, Stumagz- listed as Forbes 30 under 30). One of the winning teams was offered spot investments by the jury panel. In addition, the 4 Winning teams will be mentored by Dr. Rajkumar Phatate, Head Centre for Entrepreneurship at MEC, and if they lead to a startup, it will be incubated at MEC.

“In 2018, going by the amazing response that we had received to our first-ever Undergraduate symposium, we had decided to take it national. URS@MEC 2019 witnessed the participation of teams from across the country that showcased their research work undertaken at the undergraduate level. As we grow to become a global economy and the third-largest in the world, it is this culture of research and innovation at the campuses and mentoring of the students that will help us excel in global tech and take an undisputed position on the world stage”, says Prof. Yajulu Medury, Director, Mahindra Ecole Centrale.

MEC organizes its First National Conference on Futuristic Approaches in Civil Engineering (FACE)

Date: September 3, 2019

Mahindra Ecole Centrale College of Engineering, Hyderabad organized its First National Conference on Futuristic Approaches in Civil Engineering, FACE 2019. The stated objective of the Civil Engineering Department for the conference was to connect the past and current practices with future approaches and technologies.

Mr. P Ravinder Rao, Engineer in Chief, Roads & Buildings Department, Government of Telangana, and Managing Director, TSRDC graced the event as the Chief Guest. Renowned experts like Dr. Satish Chandra, Director, CSIR-CRRI, Dr. Gopalakrishnan, Director, CSIR-CBRI, Dr. Ligy Philip, Professor, IIT Madras, Dr. KVL Subramaniam, Professor, IIT Hyderabad, and Dr. Uma Shankar, Associate Professor, IIT Hyderabad delivered the keynote lectures at the conference.

“At Mahindra Ecole Centrale, our constant focus is to contribute back to the domains that we operate in meaningfully. We take pride in the fact that our first national conference on FACE not only presented the best developments in the field of Civil Engineering but also focused on sustainability. We will be coming out with books on the proceedings so that practitioners can benefit from the key takeaways at the conference”, says Dr. Yajulu Medury, Director, Mahindra Ecole Centrale.

The participants at the conference contributed papers and presentations under the categories “Structural engineering,” “Geotechnical and transportation engineering” and “Environmental and water resources engineering,” and the proceedings will be published in three book volumes by Springer. Faculty of Civil Engineering Department, Dr. Saladi SV Subbarao, and Dr. Hariprasad Chennarapu convened the conference with Dr. Deepti Avirneni and Dr. Arun Narayan as Co-Convenors.

MEC College of Engineering organizes its 2nd Convocation Ceremony

Mahindra Ecole Centrale (MEC) College of Engineering organized the second edition of its convocation ceremony. The event saw a participating of 218 graduated, where the engineers of the 2015-2019 batch received their degrees.

The convocation was held in the MEC Campus at Bahadurpally, Hyderabad, which was graced by Hon’ble Governor of Maharashtra, Shri C. Vidyasagar Rao as the Chief Guest. Shri Vineet Nayyar,  as Chairman, Mahindra Educational Institutions and Chairman, Executive Committee, Mahindra Ecole Centrale, and Shri CP Gurnani, Managing Director and CEO, Tech Mahindra as Member, Executive Committee (MEI), conferred degrees upon the second batch of graduating students during the convocation.

Shri Jayesh Ranjan, IAS, Vice-Chancellor in-charge, Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU) Hyderabad and Principal Secretary of the Industries and Commerce (I&C) and Information Technology (IT) Departments of the Government of Telangana and Police Commissioner Cyberabad Police were special invitees. Shri C. Vidyasagar Rao also inaugurated the new NVIDIA Supercomputer-based high-performance computation (HPC) Laboratory and the e-Mahindra Business Incubation Centre.

Dr. Yajulu Medury, Director, Mahindra Ecole Centrale (MEC) in his address called upon its graduating students to give their best to their chosen profession and do MEC proud. He said “We at MEC are focused on giving a holistic education so that our students become well-rounded professionals. We will continue to provide guidance and mentorship to young engineers and hope that the students will excel in whatever they undertake”.

Shri Jayesh Ranjan was highly appreciative of the excellent training imparted to engineering students at MEC on new generation technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data, Robotics, etc. and said: “I am happy to note the focused attempt of MEC faculty to provide exposure to these frontier technologies and their applications to the students”. He expects that the students will gain immensely from such exposure.

Shri. Vineet Nayyar, Chairman, Mahindra Educational Institutions and Chairman, Executive Committee, Mahindra Ecole Centrale, said, "At the Mahindra Ecole Centrale (MEC) College of Engineering, we train students to leverage next-generation technologies, along with teaching liberal arts and soft skills like Humanities, Economics, History, Cinema and Philosophy, making of topical documentary films, communication skills, etc. - so that the students can relate technical sciences to the real business environment. Our goal is to shape leaders of tomorrow by offering best in class education and job opportunities.”

Shri CP Gurnani said “Providing the young workforce with a platform where they can learn to leverage disruptive technologies is key to drive innovation and future business growth. Through Mahindra Ecole Centrale, we aim at bringing industry and academia together to address the skill gap in the industry today and foster a future-ready talent pool." With the intent to build upon next-generation Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, Tech Mahindra assisted Supercomputer Lab of Mahindra Ecole Centrale is created out of the baseline requirements for supporting high-performance computations for AI research and applications by incorporating Machine learning, Deep learning, and Data Science”.