SMCS Distinguished Lecturer Visit to India

On December 12-16, 2008, Dr. Bill Gruver visited two SMC chapters in India as a Distinguished Lecturer of the SMC Society. His trip started in Bombay which was still reeling under the effects of the ghastly terror attack. Bombay, now also known as Mumbai, is home to 10 million people. It is a thriving cosmopolitan, multi-cultural city, and is the centre of India's entertainment industry. In 1534, the Portuguese captured the islands and established a trading centre there. The Portuguese called the place Bom Bahia, meaning 'the good bay', which the English pronounced Bombay.

Dr. Gruver’s visit to Bombay was hosted by the IEEE Bombay Section and coordinated by the SMC Bombay Chapter which was recently established with 39 members. Even though Dr. Gruver enjoys cooking and eating Indian food, this was only his second trip to India. Earlier in 2008, as IEEE Division Director, he was a delegate at the Region 10 Meeting in Ahmedabad which also is the home of the newly established SMC Gujarat Chapter.

Students preparing for the Intelligent Systems Competition of the SMC Bombay Chapter

On the evening of December 13 he participated in the Annual General Meeting of the Bombay Section and spoke to its members about the organization and growth of IEEE, the SMC Society, and the other societies and councils of Division X. On December 14, he gave an overview of the IEEE and delivered a lecture on the background, theory, and applications of distributed intelligence at the Sardar Patel Institute of Technology. Professor Mahendra Shah, Past Chair of the Section, Mayank Pande, SMCS Chapter Chair, faculty, and students were among the attendees at the presentation. Dr. Gruver’s presentation contrasted the differences between centralized and distributed systems and discussed the technnologies that are the basis for distributed intelligence. Afterwards he discussed with Mr. Pande the plans for a student competition in intelligent systems that is being sponsored by the SMC Society.

Annual General Meeting of the IEEE Bombay Section

On December 14 he traveled to Bangalore, the sixth largest city of India and the hub of the aerospace, electronics, and information technology industries in India. Bangalore is the capital city of the Indian State called Karnataka, where people speak Kannada, a member of the Dravidian family of languages. Dr. Gopalasamy Athithan, Additional Director of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) and Chair of the Bangalore Chapter of the SMC Society hosted the event. Being a public-funded research laboratory located in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, CAIR has about 150 scientists and an equal number of supporting staff. Intelligent systems including robotics and information security are among the important areas of research and development being carried out in this laboratory.

Ms. Paromita presenting flowers to Dr. Gruver

Dr. Gruver delivered his lecture "Distributed Intelligence: A New Paradigm for Systems Integration" in the assembly hall of CAIR. The lecture was attended by 65 professionals, including members of the SMC Bangalore Chapter and the IEEE Bangalore Section. The lecture included an overview of holonic and multi-agent system technologies that have been developed in cooperation with the Holonic Manufacturing Systems Consortium, and members of the SMC Technical Committee on Distributed Intelligent Systems. The audience participated in a lively question and answer period.

Distinguished Lecturer presentation at the Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics in Bangalore
(Dr. G. Athithan, left; Mr. M. R. Kesheorey, right)

Dr. Gruver mentioned that througout his trip he received an enthusiastic welcome by the members of the Bombay and Bangalore chapters that demonstrates their support of the missions of IEEE and the SMC Society, and indicates opportunities for establishing more SMCS chapters in other regions of India.

Submitted by:
Mayank Pande, SMC Bombay Chapter Chair Gopalasamy Athithan, SMC Bangalore Chapter Chair

February 15, 2009