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Prof S.Venkateswaran Faculty Excellence Award: (Instituted by Karthik Krishna 1993)

About the Award

The award is instituted by the generosity of BITS Alumnus Mr. Karthik Krishna in the name Prof. S Venkateswaran, former Director & Vice Chancellor of BITS Pilani who was very close to his heart. In Karthik’s own words, "The biggest issue faced by educational institutions today is the lack of faculty. Faculty are the key part of student development and hence it is important for alumni to do their maximum to help retain, encourage and develop faculty. This is my humble effort to contribute to this thought."

Prof. S Venkateswaran joined this Institute on 30th January, 1974 as a faculty member and later served in various capacities as Dean, Deputy Director, Director, Vice Chancellor and Advisor till 31st December 2009. During his tenure, the Institute expanded and also established new campuses in Dubai, Goa and Hyderabad. He was an outstanding administrator, excellent human being and was highly respected by students, staff, faculty and alumni of the Institute. He was a well-known personality in education in India and abroad.

Establishment of the Award

i. An yearly contribution of INR 100,000 shall be made by BITS alumnus Karthik Krishna for a period of 5 years.

ii. The award is to be named "Prof. S Venkateswaran Faculty Excellence Award" instituted by Karthik Krishna (1993 Batch).

iii. The award will commence from 2012

iv. The Excellence Awards shall be announced each year before the end of Semester II (January-June)

v. One Faculty Excellence Award shall be awarded each year.

vi. The award shall consist of a Rolling Plaque (with name of the winner inscribed), and framed along with a certificate and a cash award of INR 100,000.

vii. All shortlisted candidates shall be presented with a certificate of appreciation.

Eligibility

i. Any full-time faculty member of BITS Pilani at its Pilani, Dubai, Goa or Hyderabad campuses are eligible to apply

ii. The faculty member must have experience of atleast three years at any of the BITS campuses

iii. The faculty member must hold a Doctorate degree

iv. The faculty member must be at least an Assistant Professor at BITS

v. The faculty member must not have won any other Faculty Excellence Award the previous year

Selection Process

i. Applications will be received based on nominations whereby any full-time faculty member teaching at any of the BITS Pilani campuses - Pilani, Dubai, Goa or Hyderabad may nominate herself/himself , accompanied by a Letter of Support from another faculty member of the Institute.

ii. Any full-time faculty member teaching at any of the BITS Pilani campuses - Pilani, Dubai, Goa or Hyderabad may nominate a fellow faculty member, accompanied by a Letter of Acceptance from the nominee.

iii. The selection panel consists of four members. Two will be from BITS and two from alumni. Two members from BITS shall be directors from any two campuses of BITS. The alumni members for the first two years will be Karthik Krishna(krishnamurthy.karthik@gmail.com) and Mukul Chawla (mukul.chawla@gmail.com), both from 1993 batch. They might want to delegate the nomination responsibility to BITSAA/BITS thereafter.

iv. The Committee will shortlist a max of 6 from the received nominations and announce the shortlist.

v. The faculty member’s shortlist shall be assessed based on the professional achievements provided on the application as well as on the essays.

vi. Students and other faculty members will be invited to give their recommendations for the shortlisted candidates and 3 nominations will be selected out of the 6.

vii. A personal discussion will also be held with the applicants via teleconference or video conference.

A few measurable parameters for selection, by no means to be considered exhaustive, are listed below.

a. Innovation in Instruction (creative methods/courses which enhanced the students’ understanding and learning)

b. Professional Achievement (publications, projects, committee membership etc.)

c. Contributions to BITS Pilani (involvement in activities outside the classroom)

d. Commitment to student success (success of students in his/her courses, involvement of students in his/her projects/publications)

e. Contributions towards neighbourhood societal development

If you would like more information about this award, or have any questions / comments / suggestions, please send an email to scholarships@bitsaa.org

2012 Award Winner : Prof. Dhananjay Madhukar Kulkarni

Prof. Dhananjay Madhukar Kulkarni (Prof. DMK) is currently Associate professor at BITS Pilani, K.K Birla Goa campus where he is engaged in research projects with industrial collaborators. He had been working at the same campus as Assistant Professor and lecturer for nearly six years. Prior to this, he worked as a design executive, designed and developed a "single bearing alternator” for Crompton Greaves Ltd, Ahemadnagar. He worked as a lecturer for four years in Pune University. He worked as trainee Engineer in MICO Bosch for a year. His areas of interest are Fracture mechanics, Biomechanics and Biomaterial and Advanced Finite Element Analysis.

Prof. Kulkarni has received certificate of Instructorship for Training Industry Professionals in India by ASME, USA 2010, Certifcate of Excellence, Kris Ramchandran Faculty Excellence Award by BITS-Pilani in 2010 and Distinguished Faculty Award, BITSAA 2011. He was Invited to present the Keynote Address at the International Conference on Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering August 2011, Bangkok. He was invited to chair the programme committee at the "International Conference on Manufacturing Sci & Tech (ICMST)", November 2010, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He is a Member of the editorial board for World Journal of Mechanics, International Journal of Vehicle Structure and Systems.  In the last f ive years, Prof. Kulkarni has published six papers in international journals, two papers in national journal and has attended various national and intenational conferences. He has published two books namely "Engineering Graphics with AutoCAD" and "Axisymmetric Contact Stress Analysis for Artificial Hip Joint". He was offered instructorship for training industrial professionals in India by ASME. He has conducted training programmes for L&T and other companies for Advanced Finite Element Analysis. He was invited by several Universities for training their faculty in Mechanical Engineering for the course "Engineering Graphics with AutoCAD" on which he has published a book. This course model along with the book is implemented in several deemed universities and autonomous colleges in India. IIT Bombay and IIT Indore will implement the same shortly. Prof. Kulkarni developed a lab set up for Fracture Mechanics at the Pilani and Goa campuses, which is used by ME and PhD students of diverse disciplines to study fracture behavior of various materials. Three research scholars are currently working towards their PhD under his guidance. He has  now extended his research on fracture from engineering materials to biomaterials. His team has collaborated with a world known BioTribo Testing industry, DUCOM Instruments, Bangalore as well as medical doctors to work on hip and dental implant testing. The team has helped DUCOM industry with modification of a conventional tribotester which can be utilized for tribotesting of hip implants and customize it as a biotribotester. This project has a sponsorship each  from DUCOM Instruments , Aditya Birla Sci & Tech Center and DST. With the industrial and Government funding, he is planning to introduce the BioMedical Engineering programme at UG level.

Prof S. Venkateswaran Faculty Excellence Award is awarded to Prof. Dhananjay Madhurkar Kulkarni in recognition of his outstanding contributions to teaching, research and institute development at BITS Pilani. Through his achievements, Prof. Kulkarni has brought glory to the name of the institute. The award was presented by Chancellor Dr. Kumar Mangalam Birla at the first convocation ceremony of BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus on 12-Aug,2012.

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