IEEE Day Celebration

The technical talks on the occasion of World IEEE Day kindled the interest of students in analog circuits and human-robot interaction. Prof. Shanthi Pavan, professor from the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, and a distinguished lecturer of the IEEE Solid-State Circuits Society, talked about Analog Circuits from First Principles. He addressed the common perception of analog circuits being perceived as complex and mysterious by beginners. Prof Pavan systematically broke down the derivation of commonly used circuit topologies in steps, explaining how these can be conceived logically from first principles, thus demystifying the field of analog design. His talk inspired the attendees by concluding that “Analog is not black magic anymore” and that any circuit can be derived through a fundamental understanding of its principles. Prof. Ravi Prakash, founder and director of the Human-interactive Robotics (HiRo) Lab at IISc Bengaluru, talked about Human-Robot Interaction delving into advanced concepts like reinforcement learning and its application in robotics. One fascinating example he shared was about teaching robots how to clean a whiteboard, illustrating the effectiveness of interactive learning. He also discussed the future of robotics, especially in areas of advanced driving assistance systems and nano-swimmer robots. The highlight of his talk was a demonstration of a robot playing table tennis with a human, capturing the audience’s attention and showcasing the progress in human-robot interaction. The EC Campus IEEE student branch chapters SSCS and Photonics and RAS hosted the distinguished lecture talk series, featuring Prof. Shanthi Pavan from IIT Madras and Prof. Ravi Prakash from IISc Bengaluru  as part of celebration IEEE Day on October 23, 2024.