Past Webinars (In reverse chronological order)
14th Webinar (10th March, 2024 18:00 – 19:30 IST)
“Signal Processing for Joint Radar-Communications” by Kumar Vijay Mishra, Institute for Systems Research, United States DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory, USA (See poster Here)
In this talk, we focus on the recent developments toward integrated sensing and communications (ISAC). We consider a broad definition of coexistence, which covers ISAC, collaborative communications, and sensing with interference. Toward fully realizing the coexistence of the two systems, optimization of resources for both new/futuristic sensing and wireless communications modalities is crucial. These synergistic approaches that exploit the interplay between state sensing and communications are both driving factors and opportunities for many current signal processing and information-theoretic techniques. In addition, a large body of prior works considers co-located ISAC systems while distributed systems remain relatively unexamined. Building on the existing approaches, the tutorial focuses on highlighting emerging scenarios in collaborative and distributed ISAC, particularly at mm-Wave and THz frequencies, highly dynamic vehicular/automotive environments that would benefit from information exchange between the two systems. It presents the architectures and possible methodologies for mutually beneficial distributed co-existence and co-design, including sensor fusion and heterogeneously distributed radar and communications. The tutorial also considers recent developments such as the deployment of intelligent reflecting surfaces (IRS) in ISAC, 5G systems, passive internet-of-things, and ISAC secrecy rate optimization. This tutorial aims to draw the attention of the radar, communications, and signal processing communities toward an emerging area, which can benefit from the cross-fertilization of ideas in distributed systems.
This Webinar recording is available in the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWA0strbhjM
13th Webinar (25th February, 2024 18:00 – 19:30 IST)
“Narendra Singh Kapany, the Father of Fibre Optics – the Unsung Hero and his missed Nobel Prize” by Prasanta Kumar Basu, Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, INDIA (See poster Here)
Narinder Singh Kapany, Padmabibhushan (posthumous) was the first to transmit images through fiber optics back in 1954 laying the foundation for high speed internet technology. He also used his own inventions for business. Kapany is called the father of Fibre Optics, and has been listed as one of the seven unsung heroes who have changed the face of the 20th century by Fortune Magazine in 1999.
The talk will cover the life, work and achievements of Kapany. It is a debatable issue why Kapany did not get the Nobel prize in Physics in 2009 along with C K Kao. The talk will also present views expressed by experts, by Kapany himself and will mention the differences in the approaches by the two stalwarts.
This Webinar recording is available in the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P7ZHDDtmpyk
12th Webinar (28th January, 2024 17:30 – 19:00 IST)
“Creativity and Innovation: Challenges in Scientific Research -Part 2: In Search of a Great Challenge in the History of Radio Science” by Debatosh Guha, Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, INDIA (See poster Here)
There are different views and opinions about creativity in a scientific researcher, which can be defined in multiple ways. This talk, comprising two parts, will address the topic from a different perspective – aiming to demonstrate the reality and focusing on some interesting observations.
In Part 2 of the talk, the speaker will examine the Maxwellian Electrodynamics and try to explain the reason for Maxwell himself failing to experimentally validate of his own theory! The speaker has tried to identify the challenges behind this and for this purpose he visited the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Karlsruhe and Deutsches Museum in Munich to experience the original experiments and setup of Heinrich Hertz. This talk will showcase some important evidences too.
This Webinar recording is available in the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmdFa8AlwMg
11th Webinar (14th January, 2024 17:30 – 19:00 IST)
“Creativity and Innovation: Challenges in Scientific Research -Part 1: Interesting Observations and Personal Experiences” by Debatosh Guha, Institute of Radio Physics and Electronics, University of Calcutta, Kolkata, INDIA (See poster Here)
There are different views and opinions about creativity in a scientific researcher, which can be defined in multiple ways. This talk, comprised of two parts, will address the topic from a different perspective – aiming to demonstrate the reality and focusing on some interesting observations.
Part 1 of the talk will encompass some general queries that commonly come to our minds and the speaker will try to address them based on his personal experiences.
This Webinar recording is available in the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jbv2nOkaATU
10th Webinar (17th December, 2023 18:00 – 19:30 IST)
“The new paradigm of 6G Mobile Wireless – Merging the Physical and the Digital” by Subramanian (Vasu) Vasudevan, Senior Research Scientist, Nokia Bell Labs Solutions Research, Morristown, New Jersey, United States (See poster Here)
The sixth generation of wireless technology will be a commercial reality in 2030. It will be both an evolution and a revolution. It will be the first wireless technology natively integrated with AI. It will support the imminent fusion of the physical and digital worlds – the concept also referred to as the metaverse. 6G communication will be multi-sensory and it will change how we humans interact and collaborate with each other. In an increasingly automated world it will be our means of working closely with robots. 6G will include joint communication and sensing as well as extensions to MIMO technology to leverage new spectrum that is envisaged to support its deployment. In this talk we will look at the awesome potential of 6G and early technologies proposals for beyond 6G.
This Webinar recording is available in the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0CcSygvOhA
9th Webinar (3rd December, 2023 18:00 – 19:30 IST)
“Five Generations in Roughly Five Decades – The Rapid March of Mobile Wireless Technology” by Subramanian (Vasu) Vasudevan, Senior Research Scientist, Nokia Bell Labs Solutions Research, Morristown, New Jersey, United States (See poster Here)
It has taken less than five decades from early research on the first generation of cellular wireless to broad commercial deployment of the fifth generation. Starting from delivering just narrowband voice, broadband video is available today to most end users. The data rates delivered to wireless users have also gone up in this time period by five orders of magnitude. During this talk, I want to call out the paradigm changing ideas – from the cellular concept itself, to ideas and discoveries in multiple-access communications, coding, error control, and data scheduling, and finally MIMO technology – that undergird this evolution. Communication technology over this period has also been the beneficiary of Moore’s law as well as the administrative and regulatory environment for spectrum allocation. I’ll cover salient developments in these areas that have helped sustain the pace of progress.
This Webinar recording is available in the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HcwUeCpOdaM
8th Webinar (29th October, 2023 18:00 – 19:30 IST)
“Energy Constraints in Wireless Technologies – how to improve efficiency” by Nuno Borges Carvalho, Professor, Departamento de Electrónica, Telecomunicações e Informática, Instituto de Telecomunicações, Universidade de Aveiro, Portugal (See poster Here)
Energy is central to all our activities, especially now, as electricity is needed for basic human survival. Nevertheless, the resources are limited. On certain occasions, we need to rely on the opportunity to have specific energy availability and energy on demand so that sensors, emergency communications, and ICT will continue to operate even if the energy grid is not there.
This talk will discuss the electricity generation problem and how to cope with the huge demand for ICT (Information Communication Technologies) technologies. We will address new paradigms for radio communications and alternatives to make energy available when needed and where needed. It is expected that Net Zero Radio alternatives will be available on the market in the future.
This Webinar recording is available in the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXwDjkrzzbw
7th Webinar (1st October, 2023 18:00 – 19:30 IST)
“Metamaterials and their Applications” by Achanta Venu Gopal, Director, CSIR – National Physical Laboratory (See poster Here)
In the previous talk (6th talk InRaSS Colloquium), we have seen how effective media can be realized by combining metals and dielectrics, how patterning helps to get resonant structures, metasurfaces, and plasmonic structures. There are several types of metamaterials that have been proposed and demonstrated. In the present talk, I will present examples of metamaterials that are a combination of metals and dielectrics as well as all-dielectrics. These range from perfect absorbers, anti-reflection or stealth coatings, hyperbolic metamaterials, bound state in continuum, and metasurfaces.
This Webinar recording is available in the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk4_TIZR51o
6th Webinar (24th September, 2023 18:00 – 19:30 IST)
“Introduction to Metamaterials” by Achanta Venu Gopal, Director, CSIR – National Physical Laboratory (See poster Here)
Metamaterials are designed materials with sub-wavelength features arranged in either periodic or aperiodic patterns. Though the field started with the invention of negative index materials, it evolved to encompass a wider range of materials. Two broad classifications are, metal-dielectric and all-dielectric metamaterials. Metal-dielectric metamaterials support plasmons that localize light to sub-wavelength dimensions and this beat diffraction limit. The plasmon mediated local field as well as resonances originating from the structure lead to exotic properties for this class of metamaterials. All-dielectric metamaterials on the other hand offer advantages like low or no loss and can have unique properties. In this talk, negative index, plasmonic, and all-dielectric metamaterials will be introduced and examples of metamaterial structures will be discussed.
This Webinar recording is available in the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0VKoHDhtn-0
5th Webinar (10th September, 2023 18:00 – 19:30 IST)
“Early History of Radio Research in India” by Animesh Maitra, Professor, Institute of Radiophysics and Electronics, University of Calcutta, Kolkata (See poster Here)
Radio research in India began nearly simultaneously with the advent of wireless telegraphy in Europe during the 1890s. Sir J. C. Bose took a groundbreaking step by generating microwave signals in his laboratory at Presidency College, Calcutta in 1894. His pioneering work not only demonstrated the quasi-optical properties of electromagnetic waves but also led to the development of various components crucial for radio communication systems.
Later, Professor S. K. Mitra, at the University of Calcutta, embarked on experimental investigations into the ionospheric propagation of radio waves shortly after the discovery of the ionosphere by Appleton and Barnett in 1924 that had significant implications on radio probing of the atmosphere. Efforts of these two pioneers resulted in many significant inventions and advancements that laid the foundation of radio and space research in India.
This talk will highlight the accomplishments of these two pioneers and the impact their work had on the courses of radio research in India.
This Webinar recording is available in the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvu5IDOaFLE
4th Webinar (13st August, 2023 18:00 – 19:30 IST)
“Lunar Missions of India” by A S Kiran Kumar (Padma Shri), Vikram Sarabhai Professor, ISRO & Member of Space Commission, Govt of India (Formerly, Chairman, ISRO (See poster Here)
Moon the closest celestial companion of the Earth has always fascinated and enthralled humans from time immemorial. As the technological capability of India grew since its Independence in 1947, it has developed probes which have been sent to the Moon and the Mars.
This talk brings some details of India’s efforts to reach and explore the Moon through space probes Chandrayaan One (2008), Two (2019) and Three (2023).
This Webinar recording is available in the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIe2k-pwPvs
3rd Webinar (1st August, 2023 18:00 – 19:30 IST)
“Ultra-low frequency gravitational wave search using radio astronomy” by Bhal Chandra Joshi, Raja Ramanna Chair (Emeritus Professor), National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), Pune (See poster Here)
Gravitational waves (GWs) are an essential outcome of Einstein’s General theory of relativity, but eluded detection for about a century. High frequency GWs were announced in 2015, while the low frequency GWs window appears to be opening in a recent announcement last month by experiments world-wide including Indian Pulsar Timing Array experiment (InPTA), which uses a radio astronomy means employing the premier Indian radio astronomy facility, the upgraded Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope (uGMRT).
In this talk, linkage of radio science with a totally different messenger that GWs are will be examined after a brief introduction to GWs and recent announcement. After highlighting the need for precision, the required radio instrumentation in the form of antennas, receivers and clocks will be discussed in the context of the uGMRT. The talk will conclude with a description of the InPTA experiment and its results in the context of three other international experiments, namely the European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA), the North American Gravitational Wave Observatory (NANOGrav) and the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA), outlining the road ahead with the currently in progress data combination of all these experiments under the auspices of the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA).
This Webinar recording is available in the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea4LF86wJ4Y
2nd Webinar (25th July, 2023 18:00 – 19:30 IST)
“Probing the Universe using radio waves with the GMRT” by Yashwant Gupta, Distinguished Professor & Centre Director, National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), Pune (See poster Here)
The demonstration of how to transmit and receive radio waves, first done by Sir J.C. Bose in 1894, led to the opening up of a new window to the Universe. India has a strong tradition in this branch of astronomy, starting with Prof Govind Swarup who kicked off activities in this area at TIFR in 1963.
In this talk, we will trace the fascinating story of radio astronomy and the engineering behind it, with special emphasis on its growth and current status in India, ending with the frontline Indian facility — the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). The GMRT, a world class low frequency radio observatory has been operational since 2002. We have recently completed a major upgrade of the GMRT employing some cutting edge new technologies. This will keep the GMRT at the forefront as one of the most sensitive facilities in the world in the 100 to 1500 MHz range for the next decade or so.
This talk will spotlight some of these multi-disciplinary technological aspects of the GMRT, and also take a look into how it has improved our understanding of the Universe, and what the future holds. In particular, we will look closely at how the GMRT is used to carry out interesting and precise observations of pulsars – rapidly spinning neutron stars.
The Webinar recording is available in the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qx28uO4pBiM
1st Webinar (20th July, 2023 18:00 – 19:30 IST)
“Solar Magnetic Fields and Explosive Solar Events: Can they Impact Our Technologically Dependent Life?” by Janardhan Padmanabhan, INSA senior Scientist, Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad, India (See poster Here)
Mankind’s future in the 21st century is coupled inextricably to satellite systems which modulate all facets of human life from trade and commerce to transport, navigation, communication, science, education, medicine, warfare, and global peace. The strong link between solar activity [flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), changing solar magnetic fields] and conditions in near-earth space, and the terrestrial magnetosphere, which can adversely affect communication, terrestrial power grids or even destroy satellite systems, is therefore vitally important. Understanding and eventually being able to predict these events is crucial as it would enable protecting our satellite systems, our very future as a modern race, and also in understanding the ionosphere, radio communication and non-anthropogenic climate effects associated with global cooling, and unusual weather patterns. A deep understanding of the physics driving solar explosive events, using the best available technology is the key to mitigating this clear and present danger to our way of life.
In this talk I will present our observations using around four decades of solar magnetic field data, radio observations of solar wind micro-turbulence levels, and our data driven modelling of the Terrestrial Magnetosphere that together gives us valuable insights into many of these issues.
This Webinar recording is available in the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WJZqhjyflc