By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 8 Sep: The International Conference, ‘MIDAS-2020: Machine Intelligence & Data Science Applications’, has concluded successfully at UPES. The conference, conducted in virtual mode due to the prevailing ‘Covid-19’ pandemic, was the 6th Edition of the ‘NGCT Series’ event organised by the university. The two-day event organised by the ‘School of Computer Science (SCS)’, UPES, in association with the ‘Next Generation Computing Technologies (NGCT) Society’ of the University, was supported by University De Sfax from Tunisia and Duy Tan University from Vietnam as ‘Academic Partners’ and InderScience Publishers, IGI Global & Springer as its ‘Publication Partners’.
Briefing the media, Senior Director, UPES, Arun Dhand revealed that congratulatory messages were received from Prime Minister Narendra Modi; Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’; Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat; and Higher Education Minister of State Dr Dhan Singh Rawat for the grand success of the event. “Out of 385 papers submitted by authors from 22 countries, only 112 made it for presentation during the conference due to a rigorous peer review process,” Dhand added.
At the ‘Inaugural Ceremony’, the Chief Guest was Dr KK Aggarwal, Chairman, National Board of Accreditation (NBA). He applauded UPES for its efforts in keeping learning going during the pandemic. “Conferences & Webinars play a vital role in disseminating knowledge in the present environment. To be able to envisage next generation technology, while being in the present one, is indeed a commendable task. Quantum Computing is going to take the digital world ahead,” he added. Discussing the next generation technologies and the fast evolving technologies, he also shared how machine intelligence is being used for drug discovery and diagnosis. “The new education policy lays stress on three major components – critical thinking, communication skills and creativity,” he reminded.
Dr SJ Chopra, Chancellor, UPES, congratulated the Organising Team, while Dr Sunil Rai, Vice Chancellor, highlighted the importance of the conference theme. Dr Manish Prateek, Dean, SCS, and President, NGCT Society, shared, “Development of systems based on quantum computing and multivalued logic is the most sought after domain at the moment and this should be food for thought for next year’s agenda.” Dr Amit Aggarwal, Director, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Institute of Technology, Tanakpur, shared his insights on how the current technologies and 3D printing are shaping the world. The conference hosted eminent speakers and session chairs from USA, Australia, France, Bangladesh, Dubai, Uzbekistan, Egypt and South Africa.
Day-1 of the event saw ‘Keynote Sessions’ by eminent speakers Dr GP Li, Director, California Institute of Telecommunications & Information Technology, USA; Prof Simeon Simoff, Dean, School of Computing & Engineering, Western Sydney University; Prof Aninda Bose, Sr. Editor, Springer Nature; and Dr Martine Gadille, Sr. Lecturer, Aix Marseille University, France. Virtual release of Proceedings & Souvenirs by the dignitaries and paper presentations on the tracks of ‘Machine Learning Algorithms, Data Analytics & Optimization, Machine Intelligence Applications & Machine Intelligence in Interdisciplinary Areas’, etc., followed the keynote speeches.
On day two ‘Keynote Sessions’ included those by Prof Ajoy Kumar Ray; Dr Ahmed A Elngar of Beni-Suef University, Egypt; Prof Subarna Shakya from Department of Electronics & Computer Engineering, Tribhuvan University, Nepal; Prof Marwan Al-Akaidi from The American University in the Emirates-Dubai; and Dr Adheesh Budree from University of Cape Town, South Africa. Dr Saumi Dutta, Department of Computer Applications, Institute of Engineering & Management, Kolkata, also addressed the participants. Presiding over the ‘Valedictory Ceremony’ as the ‘Chief Guest’, Sanjeev K Varshney, Head International Relations, Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, congratulated the winners of the ‘Best Paper’ & ‘Best Paper Titles’ Awards. Dr Hussain Falih Mahdi from University of Diyala, Iraq, and Dr Thinagaran Perumal from Universiti Putra, Malaysia, announced the names of the 12 ‘Best Paper’ and 27 ‘Best Paper Titles’ awards.
Conference Convener Dr Tanupriya Choudhury proposed the vote of thanks, along with Conference Chair Dr TP Singh. The organising team included Dr Manish Prateek, Dr Ravi Tomar, Dr Amitava Choudhary, Avita Katal, Dr GL Prakash, Niharika Singh, Dr JC Patni, Bhupesh Dewangan, Sugandha Sharma, Dr Shweta Mongia, Rahul Singh, Amit Singh, Amar Shukla and Dr Abhiroop Khanna. Avita Katal was the ‘Master of Ceremonies’.
