Notes from DEI IEEE R10 Humanitarian Technology Conference

The Dayalbagh Way of Life is not fixed at some point of time in the past. It is evolving with immense innovation, with Dayalbagh and its institutions imbibing and contributing technology to make human life on this planet more sustainable. The innovation cycle followed by Dayalbagh is evolutionary and not revolutionary, so that we can take each person along.

In the words of Revered Prof. Prem Saran Satsangi, from his book, Management of Rural Energy Systems, published in 1983, “…in the service of The Last, The Least, The Lowest, and the Lost Among Mankind”. So, we are looking at implementation of technology that furthers the Humanitarian cause.

In December 2016, Dayalbagh Educational Institute hosted and conducted the IEEE Region 10 Humanitarian Technology Conference (HTC). IEEE, as many of you may be aware is the world's largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity, with ~450,000 IEEE members in over 160 countries.

The focus of this Conference was on Sigma Six Q & Smart Villages: making sustainability a way of life. The scope of conference papers included, the application/innovation of technology to improve quality in the following areas: Energy, Education Systems, Environment Systems, Healthcare, Agriculture & Dairy, Smart Village and Women Empowerment & Security.

Here is a summary of the topics of the Conference Speakers, speakers outside of DEI and IEEE...

On Day 1, in the Theme Session, the first speaker was Padma Bhushan Dr. V K Saraswat, Former Secretary Defence R&D, Member NITI Aayog.

Dr. Vijay Kumar Saraswat is an Indian scientist who formerly served as the Director General of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Chief Scientific Advisor to the Indian Minister of Defence. He is presently member of NITI Aayog i.e. the organization that replaced the Planning Commission of India and Chancellor of Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Dr. Saraswat kick-started the Theme Session on Gandhiji's quote on our working for a Planet that we will not see. He walked us through the past, the damages caused by our advancement, like land-fills, impact on rivers, depletion of non-renewable sources, loss of habitat and other staggering challenges like global health, food, water, rising temperatures, species extinction, coral bleaching and mortality, coastal flooding and reconfiguration of coast lines, droughts, disease vectors. He took us through disruptions like Global Urbanization, accelerating climate change, aging world, greater global connections. He gave us a glimpse and road map for the future, developing and deploying transformative and enabling technologies and the necessary and desirable transformations for sustainability and ushering in a human centric era.

Dr. Anoop Srivastava, IG, Indian Railways, presented his views on “Sigma Six Q practices in Dayalbagh, a smart eco-village”.

Abstract from his talk…

Establishment of Dayalbagh has a unique place in the history of India. The metaphorical foundation stone of Dayalbagh was laid on 15th Jan 1915 in the form of plantation of a mulberry tree by its August Founder, Sir Anand Swarup Sahab, which heralded conversion of a sandy, barren land into a lively green-belt created and maintained by the settlement of like-minded people. At the time when planned development of the kind we know today was rare, it was only a divine plan that could envisage enrichment of the colony with Sigma Six Q practices in the days to come.

A term coined by Revered Prof. Prem Saran Satsangi, to describe the Dayalbagh way of life, Sigma Six Q refers to the six salient qualities that are inherent in the dynamics of this eco village. Summation of these qualities, viz., Innovation, Air Quality, Water Quality, Health and Education, Agriculture and Dairy, and Values- such as duty, beauty, humility courage, temperance, wisdom, loyalty and justice-leads to synergistically enhanced impact on the system. Dr. Srivastava’s talk covered the highlights of Sigma Six Q Model as practised in Dayalbagh and its importance for sustainable growth.

The third speaker in the Theme Session was Padma Shri Dr. Ashok Gulati, India’s top Agricultural Economist whose topic was “Growing the Third Crop – Doubling farmers’ incomes by harvesting solar power”.

Abstract from his talk…

Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi said, “Poverty is the worst form of violence” and also considered “Science without Humanity” as a spiritual sin. He suggested the use of technology to alleviate poverty and thus uplift humanity.

Government of India has set an ambitious target of 100,000 MW of solar power capacity to be achieved by 2022. Interestingly, Government of India has also set another ambitious target of doubling farmers' incomes by 2022!

The uppermost question in everyone's mind is: can these targets be achieved by 2022?

This is particularly so when the current solar power capacity in the country touched 8000 MW by July end, 2016, and no country in the world has such an ambitious target as India has set out for 2022.  On farmers' real incomes, the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in the recent past (FY 2003 to FY 2013) has been a mere 3.5%; and doubling these incomes by 2022 would mean increasing this CAGR from 3.5% to more than 12%. 

Our global review suggests that costs of solar power have come down across the world, by about 70 per cent since 2010-11. Most projects have been executed as ground mounted utilities or as rooftop solar. But we submit an innovative policy- that saves on land as well as help to augment farmers’ incomes. A significant progress can be made towards achievement of both of these goals of Government of India, provided both are conceived and implemented in unison, a sort of marrying each other, with innovative policies- like the guaranteed feed-in-tariffs (FIT) for solar power generated on farmers' fields- to back this alliance. Solar power can be used all along the agriculture value chain- as a third crop for farmer fields, for solar powered irrigation systems, for cold storage's and processing industries like dehydration. A true model of Competitiveness with Inclusiveness, this can be Scaled up in a Sustainable manner (CISS Model). This will also help to reduce power subsidies of state electricity boards (SEBs), wherever solar power can substitute existing connections.

The only thing to be seen is how to raise advance capital funds, how to organize farmers on these lines, how to convince the Discoms for guaranteed feed-in-tariffs, and how long it is persevered till the goals are reached!

On Day 2, we had a Special Session on Science of Consciousness (more on this in a separate post - a small summary here)

Prof. Vishal Sahni presented a paper on “Innovative (Superintelligence with Spiritual-Quality and Value Based Control-) Graph Theoretic Quantum System Modelling (IGTQSM)”.

This was followed by a session by Dr. Anirban Bandyopadhyay on “Consciousness is music of the primes”.

Dr. Dayal Pyari Srivastava presented her research on “Scientific Epistemology and the Phenomenology of Consciousness: Looking for Correspondence between them using SQUID based MEG Device”.

The session ended with Dr. Bani Dayal Dhir giving an overview of (i-c-n-c-) TALL, “(iNFORMATION-cOMMUNICATION-nEURO-cOGNITIVE-) Technologies Assisted Language Lab at Dayalbagh Educational Institute.

On Day 3, we had Mr. Jayant Krishna, COO, National Skill Development Corporation, whose talk was on “Reaping the Demographic Dividend through Skilling India, leveraging technology for Skill delivery”.

Abstract from his talk...

Education is the key to sustainable development. It is the creation, adaptation and sharing of knowledge, skills and values that is essential to development – both at the individual level as well as at the macro level. Right to Education is not only an excellent catalyst for social change and justice, it helps us understand and realise our other rights – economic, social and cultural.

Education combined with skills form the driving forces of economic growth and social development for any country. With the rise of the knowledge society and growth of digital media, the goal posts keep changing for what might constitute as basic functional literacy.

India has developed a national higher education system that offers multiple choices and pathways to acquire a variety of skills. With nearly 700 universities and more than 35,000 affiliated colleges enrolling more than 20 million students. In contrast to the ageing population of the western world, India has a unique 20–25 years window of opportunity called the “demographic dividend”. This demographic dividend presents a tremendous opportunity for India to become a global economic leader. It is expected that India will have more than 700 million people in the working population by 2022, with 12 million people expected to join the workforce each year. This talent pool needs to be adequately skilled.

In order to prevent demographic dividend from turning into a demographic disaster, the government has taken several steps to empower people at the grass root level and help them acquire skills in order to earn a better livelihood. In November 2014, the government also formed the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, which will catalyse skill development initiatives across the country.  The single biggest reform is the amendment to the archaic Apprenticeship Act, which now make it easier for companies to hire and train apprentices. Apprenticeship has been a successful model of skilling youth in countries all over the world. This reform alone can increase the number of apprenticeships in India from the current 2.4 lakh to 30 lakh a year. The motivation through Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) has driven more than 20 lakh candidates to get skilled and certified in the last one year. The journey has just started; the path has just been laid to lead India into an era of becoming the skills capital of the World. 

Editor’s Note: Dayalbagh Educational Institute is one of the top Institutes for Vocational Education.

The Valedictory Speaker was Dr. Ajoy K Bhattacharya, MD, National Green Highway Mission who talked about his mission, “Carbon Sequestration – My Way is the Highway”

Abstract from his talk...

Dr. Bhattacharya talked about developing eco-friendly National Highways for Sustainable Environment & Inclusive Growth, with objectives of develop a systematic framework for Integrated Green Corridor Development along National Highways, Build resilient ecosystem in the form of “Green Corridors” along National Highways for Combating global warming and climate change effects, Optimum GHG sequestration, conservation of native species of the region, develop unique green corridors with aesthetic appeal, reduce the impacts of air, noise pollution and dust, reduce soil erosion at embankment slopes, reduce the effects of wind and incoming UV radiation.

Additionally, there were two special tracks and a Hackathon.

Special Track 1: Women in Engineering track

The theme of the session was, “Women Empowerment to break barriers and lead the smart world”.

The chief guest was Ms. Sneh Bijlani, Treasurer of Dayalbagh Educational Institute. She captivated the audience by narrating her own experiences in achieving top level positions and the hardships one has to face as a woman and how she overcame these with perseverance.

Special Track 2: Young Professionals Track

This track was focused on “The Digital Revolution and its implications in everyday life”. The speakers view was that with the dawn of digital technologies, we are in the early stages of significant changes leading us into the age of “Systems”. The machine age which has industrial revolution as its counterpart is now giving way to “Systems Age” having automation and AI (Artificial Intelligence) as its technological counterparts. “The Rise of the Robots” and “Machine Learning” technologies are will cause unemployment so much so in about thirty years, half of world population will be out of jobs according to a report. As one computer scientist put it, "We are approaching a time when machines will be able to outperform humans at almost any task. I believe that society needs to confront this question before it is upon us: if machines are capable of doing almost any work humans can do, what will humans do?” In the years to come life could be absolute leisure with no work and this could be death knell for human survival, particularly if the developing technology is not kept as a good servant. These sentiments were echoed when Stephan Hawking had said that AI, if left unchecked, "could spell the end of the human race". Elon Musk (Tesla Inc.) also sounded that future advancements in AI could be akin to "we are summoning the demon".

In order to understand the revolution, we are experiencing we need to look more closely at the concepts, ideas and philosophies that are shaping the evolving world view. This calls for a shift in our thinking that is required as the world unfolds around us in this “Systems Age”. The globalized world is a giant social system, interdependent and interconnected (hyper connected). So, our approaches to understand and solve problems cannot be based on mechanistic view of the world, hitherto followed. If we are complacent and maintain status quo on how we think and act in a reactive mode, there will be “degradation of our quality of life, if not our standard of living”. As we move into the systems age, we need to supplement our high-tech abilities, with thinking abilities that are high concept (systemic ideas, detecting patterns, creativity) and high touch (empathize, purpose and meaning).

And in parallel to all these sessions we had the fun-filled Hackathon

Typically, these conferences tend to be academic in nature, with limited industry and student interaction. In this conference, a hackathon/makethon was launched, as it offers the opportunity to bring together the best of:

• Academia – latest technology and research ideas. Bringing theoretical concepts to real world through building prototypes.
• Industry – state of the art engineering and design concepts, science in action. A platform where the academic and student community provides new ideas and new talent to fuel the next generation of their products and service offerings.
• Students – motivated, enthusiastic next generation leaders of technology. This event offers access to cutting edge technology, which helps them gain hands on technical skills in line with industry trends.

There were over 150 registrations and 70 final participants. It represented how the next generation of student members will be indispensable in our search for sustainable solutions to some of the major, existential problems that lie before us – climate change, unprecedented pollution, population growth, diseases and epidemics, and natural disasters.

The winning projects were:

Efficient Water Management

Water is a big problem: Today, India ranks second worldwide in farm output. Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry and fisheries accounted for 13.7% of the GDP (gross domestic product) in 2013, about 50% of the workforce. We have come up with an Efficient Water supply management System in which adequate amount of water will be used, based on the crop, time during the crop cycle and in a drip irrigation way and not flood. 

Real Time Automatic Plougher and Sower (RAPS)

Nowadays farmers face problem in getting adequate labour. This system will reduce labour work of farmers and help in increasing the preciseness in seed sowing system. The system is a robotic vehicle that facilitates ploughing fields and sowing seeds without human intervention.

Park IT

Majority of the Traffic problem is due to improper parking system.  In India 25% Accidents are due to improper parking in Metro Cities. This prototype consists of a mobile app and hardware unit that helps user book the parking slot in real time. This system will solve daily life parking problem faced by people in Metro cities. This system will allow you to register your vehicle number in the parking system through mobile app. The system will also notify you about the available parking space nearby.

Sound of Silence

Speech impaired people always face difficulty in communicating and socializing with people around them. The system recognizes gestures of speech impaired people and convert them into sound signals. Hence this system helps speech impaired people to communicate effectively with the people around them. This will overall create a change in their day to day life.

Any Time Medicine (ATM)

We come across long queues around medical shops and at times there is an early shutdown of medical shops. This causes inconvenience to public who require medicines in urgency. The project aims at providing medicine anytime and anywhere. This system helps to get the medicine you require in case of emergency. Tap on the medicine of your choice and you can pay by scanning QR code. In case the medicine is not available a message will be displayed to convey the same.

Smart cycle sharing system

Going from one place to another in big educational, corporate and community campus is very time consuming. The density of vehicles is exponentially rising not only causing health related issues, but also rising environmental concerns.  The complete system consists of GPS based tracking device that helps in real time tracking of bicycle. The user has an option to pre-book the cycle through mobile app.

That’s it for now.

Thanks to Prof. Bhagwan Das for his inputs and help. We will take you through further details of some of the Plenary talks in later posts.

The above post is by Anurag Singh, the Sigma Six Q Blog Editor.