'Tremendous progress made by India in indigenous growth of mechanisms to make life easier'

India has made tremendous progress in the indigenous development of mechanisms that can make life easier for humans and also contribute to the growth of the country, a leading scientist also known as the 'Missile Woman' of India' said on Thursday.

Tessy Thomas, the Director General, Aeronautical Systems at DRDO, said this at the 4th International and 19th National Conference on Machines and Mechanisms - iNaCoMM 2019 which is underway at the Indian Institute of Technology - Mandi (IIT Mandi), in Himachal Pradesh.

Thomas, who was the Chief Guest of the inauguration, said that "Indigenous development has seen tremendous progress in the past decade in mechanism as researchers have been making efforts to make life easier for humans. Indian aerospace has also contributed a lot in the growth of the country. This conference will create a forum for researchers to find solutions related to human advancements.

The conference is jointly sponsored by IIT Mandi, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY), and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) among others.

Researchers, including Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize awardee G. K. Ananthasuresh from IISc Bangalore, Sambit Bhattacharya from Fayetteville State University in the US, and industry experts such as Jayant Patil, Whole Time Director (Defence) at Larsen and Toubro Ltd, attended the inaugural day of the conference.

The schedule for three-day conference from December 5-7 also includes poster and paper presentation events participated by B.Tech and M.Tech students from various colleges including IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, and IISc Bangalore.

The lectures and the presentations are planned to cover various topics such as the design and analysis of machines, mechanisms and robotics, machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI).

"iNaCoMM 2019 is creating a cross-disciplinary summit that transcends public and private research organizations and lends itself to the integration of research and education in the vital field of machines and mechanisms," said B D Chaudhary from the School of Computing and Electrical Engineering at IIT Mandi while addressing the gathering.