IIT-H to Host Major Metallurgy Meet From December 4 to 6

Hyderabad: Hyderabad is getting ready to host one of India’s biggest gatherings of metallurgists and materials scientists at IIT Hyderabad from December 4 to 6. IIT-H director Prof. B.S. Murty will be the president of Indian Institute of Metals, one of India’s oldest metallurgical and materials engineering associations, that will host the event.

The conference will deepen industry-academia ties through presentations by leading experts and researchers, Prof. Murty said. The three-day event combines the 79th annual technical meeting of the Indian Institute of Metals (IIM) and an international conference on advanced materials and critical minerals for energy transition.

Organisers are expecting more than 1,600 participants, including a large number of students presenting their work. Prof. Suhash R. Dey of IIT-H called the event “a Kumbh Mela for metallurgists and materials scientists,” pointing out that the edition had received over 1,400 abstracts across 14 themes. Technical committees reviewed the submissions and recommended 409 oral presentations across 14 parallel sessions and about 750 posters, with around 70 invited speakers spread over the sessions.

Dr S.V.S. Narayana Murty, vice-president of the IIM and CMD of Midhani (Mishra Dhatu Nigam), said, the events would set the stage for meaningful discussions among stakeholders to advance self-sustainability.”

During on December 5 and 6, IIM will host two sessions on advances in steel in cooperation with the Japan Institute of Metals and Materials (JIMM), along with two sessions on high-entropy alloys and Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) in collaboration with The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society (TMS), USA. Prof Murty said 40 distinguished international speakers are expected to speak in frontier areas, while Prof Dey noted that every abstract went to subject experts across the country to avoid bias, and that this is the largest number of abstracts an IIM-ATM has ever received.

The conference announcement comes on the same day the Prime Minister unveiled Skyroot Aerospace’s Vikram 1 rocket and its new Infinity campus. Dr S.K. Jha, chairman, IIM Hyderabad chapter, spoke of the Infinity facility and the cluster of aerospace and defence majors already in the city, from Tata-Boeing to Lockheed Martin, and said this combination has brought global attention to Hyderabad’s manufacturing strength. “Hyderabad is a hub for materials research which is being carried out in research labs, academic institutes and industries, especially for strategic applications,” he said.

IIT Hyderabad will use the event to show what it has been building in materials and allied areas. After the India Semiconductor Mission was announced on May 1, 2022, the institute started what Prof Murty called the country’s first BTech in IC Design and Technology, followed quickly by an MTech in semiconductor packaging.

IIM has also invited more than 100 BTech and diploma students from leading institutions across India to attend and interact with professionals. Morning sessions from December 4 to 6, between 9 am and 10 am, have been set aside for award presentations, for which invitations are being extended to ministers from mining, steel and related departments along with heads of public sector units and private companies. Prof Murty also noted that senior figures from Tata Steel, JSW, NMDC and other organisations are expected to be present at the event.