At Mushtifund Aryaan Higher Secondary School, we have periodic interactions with experts. An online interactive session conducted on 17th July 2021, indeed had been a privileged opportunity for us as we got to interact with Padma Shree Professor B. Dattaguru, an eminent academician and researcher from the field of Aerospace Engineering and celebrity Professor from IISc. Bangalore.
Prof. B. Dattaguruhas completed B.E. in Electrical Engineering during 1959-62 and M.E. in aerospace technology during 1962–64.After his undergraduate and postgraduate studies,Professor joined IISc Bangalore as a faculty in aerospace engineering department. He worked as an Assistant Professor, Associate Professor and Professor and finally the Chairman of the Aerospace Engineering department. After his retirement in 2004, he became Emirates Professor at IISc, Bangalore and now he is a visiting professor at Jain university, Bangalore. During his time at the IISc, Dr. Dattaguru worked with the most renowned space technology researchers, including the President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, Kota Hari Narayana, Kasturi Rangan and R. Chidambaram. As a faculty, Dr. Dattaguru guided several research scholars. He visited the US, Australia, Hong Kong and several other countries as a visiting professor.
Professor Dattaguruhas rich experience in academics and has top level contributions in research in the area of aerospace engineering. Prof. Dattaguru has won many awards including the prestigious Padma Shree award. He was awarded lifetime service award by the society of Indian aerospace technologies and industries in 2012 with the outstanding contribution in the field of education and research in aerospace.
During the interaction session, we were honored to have Prof. Pant from IIT Bombay on the forum. Despite being very busy Prof. Pant always joins meetings to encourage us and this gesture of his is very inspiring.
On the behalf of Mushtifund Aryaan Higher Secondary School Sir Vyankatesh Prabhudesai, Director of Aryaan Study Circle,extended a warm welcome to Prof. Dattaguru and Prof. Pant.
Prof. Dattaguru has immense experience in the area of safety and cyber security in the specific domains of aerospace and aviation.He shared his recent research work in digital twins where the digital twin refers to the twin of the aircraft modelled using the software for experimentation purposes. He stated that the safety parameters of aircrafts can be configured and tested very effectively using the twin model. Prof. Dattaguru opened the forum for question answering as he encouraged the students to ask queries.
Considering vast experience of Prof. Dattaguru at IISC, Sir VPD requested him to throw light on the teaching/learning and research practices at IIScwith progress from 1964 till now.Prof. Dattaguru discussed about the pioneer diploma and degree programs in aeronautics offered in IISc. Earlier the work at IISc was confined to the areas of structures and aerodynamics and later the work progressed to the areas of rockets and missiles and control and guidance. He recalled that in 1975 the department was renamed from Aeronautics to Aerospace Engineering. Professor shared the progress in terms of research carried out in the Department Aerospace Engineering. He offered credits to the faculty of the department for their outstanding research contributions which included Prof. Gopal krishnan whose research papers have more than 8000 citations. Professor stated that most of the IISc faculty is involved in active research, and they work on national and international projects.
With his forty years of experience at IISc Prof. Dattaguru was happy to share few major research projects he worked on which încluded “Structured health monitoring”.Professor mentioned the importance of research at undergraduate and in specific to postgraduate studies. Though in terms of brand value IIT have dominance; the research contributions of IISc have gained worldwide recognition. In 1983, Prof. Dattaguru worked on Joint Advanced Technology Program with Dr. A. P. J Kalam, Dr. Mukunda, Dr. Deshpande, Dr Balakrishnan etc. He shared few of his interesting experiences which included importance of safety in saving lives and saving money. He also mentioned that aerospace is one of the important areas in economic development.
Prof. Dattaguru fondly recalled the instances at IISc during his work on funded projects. He mentioned how they utilized the funds for technical work involved in the projects. He also recalled memories with his aerodynamics teacher, Prof. Satish Dhawan. Prof. Dattaguru’s talk threw light on multiple aspects of academic and research work at IISc. His highly interactive session offered an opportunity to each one of us to learn so much about IISc, so much so that we got familiar with the essential dimensions of academic and research culture and related factors.
On the behalf of the students of Aryaan Study Circle, I would like to thank Prof. B. Dattaguru for spending his invaluable time for sharing his experiences with us. Also, we remain grateful to Sir Vyankatesh Prabhudesai for giving us the opportunity to interact with the eminent personalities of international repute.
Written by
Naisha Asnani,
XIth Student, MAHSS.