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Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham’s UNESCO Chair on Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation and DevelopmentAmrita School for Sustainable Development, and Amrita Center for Wireless Networks and Applications are hosting an international symposium on IoT & ML for Ecosystem Restoration & Multi-hazard Resilience (ISIM 2021) to explore the emerging role of IoT and ML to manage ecosystem restoration and multi-hazards resilience on global and local scales.

The symposium will unveil the application of multi-disciplinary modern technologies for biodiversity conservation and promotion of a green economy; propose creative and innovative approaches to revitalize degraded forest ecosystem; monitor disasters through and early warning systems; elucidate the interrelationship of multi-hazards and their impacts; and empower local communities to enhance livelihoods and protect and counteract climate change.

The major objective of the symposium is to explore challenges and opportunities as well as scientific and practical outcomes in designing, developing, and deploying interventions, tools, and techniques for community-empowered ecosystem restoration and multi-hazard resilience.

In addition to keynote addresses by the leading experts, the symposium also provides a platform for young researchers and Ph.D. scholars to present their work in these areas, receive expert comments, and build a virtual academic and professional network. There is a PhD colloquium for PhD scholars as well as a virtual poster session open to master’s students, faculty, and other researchers to display their research.

Organized By: Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham’s UNESCO Chair on Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation and Development,  the Amrita School for Sustainable Development, the Amrita Center for Wireless Networks and Applications, and ESRI India

Dates & Times:

  • June 5th: 2 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. (IST), 10:30 a.m. (CET), 8:30 a.m. (GMT), and 4:30 a.m. (EST U.S.A)
  • June 6th & 7th: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. (IST), 6:30 a.m. (CET), 4:30 a.m. (CMT), and 12:30 a.m. (EST U.S.A.)
  • June 8th & 9th: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. (IST), 6:30 a.m. (CET), 4:30 a.m. (CMT), and 12:30 a.m. (EST U.S.A.)

 

About

Background

There is a scientific basis and growing consensus among scientists that human activities are the primary cause of the recent increase in frequency and magnitude of multi-hazards in different ecosystems. Types of ecosystems include farmlands, forests, grasslands, fresh water, wetlands, mountains, oceans and coasts, peatlands and marshes, glaciated terrain, fluvial systems and lakes, deserts and drylands, urban areas, wildlife sanctuaries and recreational woodlands, etc. Evaluation of degraded ecosystems should be addressed through near-, mid-, and long-term strategies for mitigation of and adaptation. Aside from empowering communities, international collaboration among nations will be required on the deployment of emerging technologies for the mitigation of and adaptation to climate change and ecosystem restoration. Only with healthy ecosystems can we enhance people’s livelihoods, counteract climate change, and stop the collapse of biodiversity.

Every year, June 5th is celebrated as World Environment Day, which provides a global platform to address environmental issues. The United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) organizes events associated with a specific theme every year. Drawing inspiration from this year’s theme of ‘ecosystem restoration’, ISIM 2021 aims to highlight the role of cutting-edge technologies such as IoT, ML, and AI to effectively monitor, detect and provide early warnings of disasters, aid in the restoration of ecosystems, and build a framework for multi-hazard resilience. The symposium will provide a platform to explore ML, AI, and IoT-based techniques and approaches that will play increasingly greater roles in developing strategies and building momentum to guide the comprehensive restoration of ecosystems and mitigate associated multi-hazards.

Symposium Objectives

ISIM 2021 seeks to provide a dynamic platform to interact and share knowledge among academia, industry, and government sectors to:

  • Understand and explore emerging technologies: IoT and ML for ecosystem restoration and managing multi-hazards
  • Study the multidisciplinary impact of climate change on ecosystem & adaptation techniques for protecting biodiversity and promoting community resilience
  • Potentially develop a framework that will cater to multi-dimensional challenges in the application of IoT and ML for sustainable restoration of degraded ecosystem and community empowerment
  • Evolve developmental strategies aimed at formulating perspectives for effective participatory approaches towards nature-based solutions to climate change and sustainable growth of communities and societies
  • Analyze and provide a package of ideas on a comprehensive assessment of ecosystem and management of multi-hazards, development of agroforestry and optimum utilization of environmental resources across the world.

Themes

Day 1: Theme 1: Emerging Technologies for Ecosystem Restoration

This session focuses on understanding and addressing the emerging technologies for ecosystem restoration. It seeks to develop a framework that will cater to challenges in the regeneration of degraded ecosystems and conservation of the intact ecosystems. Studies related to the application of advanced technologies for sustainable restoration/conservation of ecosystems are invited in this session.

Day 2: Theme 2: Impact of Climate Change on Ecosystem & Multi Hazards

This session seeks to evaluate manifestations of climate change and its impacts on ecosystems and catalyzing or triggering multi-hazards. It looks into studying the multidisciplinary impact of climate change on ecosystem & adaptation techniques to protect biodiversity and promoting community resilience to mitigate multi-hazards.

Day 3: Theme 3: IoT and ML for Managing Ecosystem & Multi Hazards

The session seeks contributions from studies that are focused on the application of modern and emerging technologies like ML, AI, and IoT to build ecosystem adaptation techniques. It seeks to develop and promote techniques and strategies for disaster risk reduction, ecosystem management, and reducing the cascading effect of multi-hazards.

Day 4: Theme 4: Climate Change Adaptation Techniques & Community Resilience

The world is already experiencing a warming climate and increase in intensity and frequency of extreme events, making the ecosystem even more susceptible. This session seeks interdisciplinary studies on timely estimation and prediction of these events enabling better preparedness and empowering communities with assured livelihoods. Studies are welcome on community response and resilience against changing climate and recurring of multiple disasters like flooding, sea level rise, damming glacial lakes, drought, forest fire, heatwaves, etc for sustainable regional development.

Day 4: Theme 5: Case Studies for Ecosystems Restoration & Multi-Hazard Resilience

This session seeks to explore and document case studies from global to local scales on various types of ecosystems that include farmlands, forests, grasslands, fresh water, wetlands, mountains, oceans and coasts, peatlands and marshes, glaciated terrain, fluvial systems and lakes, deserts and drylands, urban areas, wildlife sanctuaries and recreational woodlands, etc.

Program

Agenda

DAY 1: June 5, 2021

Inauguration Ceremony

Time Zone: IST Item
02:00 PM – 02:03 PM Introduction
02:03 PM – 02:05 PM Prayer
02:05 PM – 02:10 PM Welcome Address
Dr. Maneesha Vinodini Ramesh
Dean, School for Sustainable Development & International Programs;
UNESCO Chair on Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation & Development;
Professor & Director, Amrita Center for Wireless Networks & Applications, Amrita Vishwa VIdyapeetham, India
02:10 PM – 02:20 PM Introduction to Amrita Sustainability Initiatives
Video Presentation
02:20 PM – 02:35 PM Inaugural Address by Chief Guest of Honour
Shri. K. Rajan
Minister, Land Revenue, Survey and Land Records, Land Reforms, Housing, State of Kerala, India
02:35 PM – 02:55 PM Keynote Address by Guest of HonourEcosystem Restoration & Multihazard Resilience: Challenges & Opportunities
Dr. V. Thiruppugazh, IAS,
Additional Secretary (Policy and Plan), National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Government of India
02:55 PM – 03:05 PM Guest of Honor
Mr. Eric Falt
Director and UNESCO Representative to Bhutan, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka
03:05 PM – 03:15 PM Guest of Honor
Mr. Agendra Kumar
Managing Director, ESRI, India
03:15 PM – 03:25 PM Guest of Honor
Shri. Swami Atmananda Puri

In-Charge, Mata Amritanandamayi Math, Australia & New Zealand
03:25 PM – 03:30 PM Vote of Thanks
Dr. Balakrishnan Shankar

Dean, Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences,
Professor & Associate Dean, School of Engineering, Amritapuri,
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India

Click Here to Download Inauguration Ceremony Agenda

Time Zone: IST Theme 1: Emerging Technologies for Ecosystem Restoration
Theme 2: Impact of Climate Change on Ecosystem & Multi Hazards
3:30 PM – 3:45 PM Break
3:45 PM – 4:15 PM Keynote Talk 1

Dr. Saibal Ghosh
Director, Landslide Studies Division, Geohazard Research & Management (GHRM) Centre, Geological Survey of India

Title: Creation and updation of national geoscientific information for use in geohazard research and management – A core activity by Geological Survey of India

4:15 pm – 4:45 pm Keynote Talk 2

Dr. Samir Kumar Adhikari
Chief, National Health Emergency Operation Center, Joint Spokesperson and Multi-sector Coordination Chief, Ministry of Health and Population, Government of Nepal

Title: Impact of Climate Change on Ecosystems and Multi-hazards: Challenges and Approaches

4:45pm – 5:15 pm Keynote Talk 3

Prof. Bruce Malamud
Professor, Natural and Environmental Hazards Department of Geography, King’s College, London UK

Title: Multi-hazard Interrelationship Scenarios

5:15 pm – 5:45 pm Keynote Talk 4

Prof. A. C. Narayana
Professor Centre for Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Hyderabad,India

Title: Imminent Climate Change and Response of Ecosystems and Natural hazards: Challenges Ahead

5:45 pm – 5:50 pm Discussion & Break
5:50 pm – 6:05 pm Keynote Talk 5

Dr. Tarek Rasheed
VP of Civilizology LLC, International Consultant with UNDP and FAO, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Social Work, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India

Title: Modeling Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Socio-Ecological Systems

6:05 pm – 6:30 pm Keynote Talk 6

Dr. Sreevalsa Kolathayar
Assistant Professor, National Institute of Technology, Karnataka India

Title: Disaster Geotechnics – Geotechnical Engineering in Disaster Risk Reduction

6:30 pm – 6:45 pm Keynote Talk 7

Dr. Sudesh Wadhawan
Advisor [Geosciences] and Adjunct Professor, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham; Director General [retd.], Geological Survey of India

Title: Integrated Strategies for Conservation of Geodiversity and Biodiversity- Implications for Restoring Ecosystem in Western Thar Desert, India

6:45 pm – 7:00 pm Keynote Talk 8

Dr. Geetha Srikanth
Assistant Professor, Computational Engineering and Networking, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India

Title: Geospatial Technology in Disaster Management

7:00 pm – 7:30 pm Keynote Talk 9

Dr. Susheela Devi Visweswariah
Principal Research Scientist, Indian Institute of Science, India

Title: Benefits and applications of predictive ecology modeling

7:30 pm – 7:35 pm Discussion & Break
7:35 pm – 7:55 pm Keynote Talk – 10

Mr. Vikas Brahmavar
Director, Transwater Systems, India

Title: Urban – Ecosystem Revival with Waste Water Recovery

7:55 pm – 8:15 pm Keynote Talk 11

Mr. Ganesh Shankar
Founder & CEO, FluxGen, India

Title: IoT and Data Science for Cleantech Industry

8:15 pm – 8:45 pm Keynote Talk 12

Dr. Albert Chiang
Scientist-C (Restoration Ecology) Animal & Plant Resources Department Institute of Bioresources and Sustainable Development Government of India

Title: Catalysing international partnerships for Ecosystem Restoration and Sustainable Tourism

8:45 pm – 9:15 pm Keynote Talk 13

Dr. Falk Huettmann
Associate Professor,Wildlife Ecology, University of Alaska,USA

Title: New and Established Emerging Technologies to the Rescue: A Global Overview of Sustainable/Good Governance with Machine Learning/AI and Open Access

9:15 pm – 9:30 pm Keynote Talk 14

Dr. Anupam Joshi
Senior Environment Specialist, Environment, Natural Resources and Blue Economy Practice, World Bank India

9:30 pm – 10:00 pm Keynote Talk 15

Dr. Alireza Farahmand
Science Data Engineer, JPL, NASA; Adjunct Faculty, Department of Geography, California State University Los Angeles, USA

Title: Frameworks for Improving Monitoring and Prediction of Hydro-Climate Extremes

DAY 2: June 6, 2021

Time Zone: IST Theme 2: Impact of Climate Change on Ecosystem & Multi Hazards
Theme 3: IoT and ML for Managing Ecosystem & Multi Hazards
10:00 am – 10:30 am Poster Presentation
10:30 am – 11:30 am Ph.D. Colloquium
11:30 am – 12:30 pm Lunch Break
12:30 pm – 12:45 pm Keynote Talk 16

Dr. E. A. Gopalakrishnan
Assistant Professor, Computational Engineering and Networking, Coimbatore Campus
Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, Coimbatore Campus
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India

AI based early warning signals for rate dependent transitions in Ecosystems

12:45 pm – 1:00 pm Keynote Talk 17

Dr. Maya Mahajan
Associate Professor, Centre for Sustainable Future, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India

Ecosystem Restoration by community participation

1:00 pm – 1:15 pm Keynote Talk 18

Dr. Alka Singh
Assistant Professor,Amrita Center for Wireless Networks & Applications,Amritapuri Campus, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India

Title: Evolution of flash drought and vegetation resilience: a remote sensing based analysis

1:15 pm – 1:30 pm Keynote Talk 19

Dr. Sudheesh Manalil
Head of Research, Chairperson & Professor, School of Agricultural Sciences, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India

Conservation agriculture: a climate change resilient practice and its compliance and performance in small holding rice farming unit.

1:30 pm – 1:45 pm Keynote Talk 20

Dr. Dhanya M.
Assistant Professor, Amrita Center for Wireless Networks and Applications (AmritaWNA), Department of Physics, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India

Use of genetic algorithm in rainfall threshold modelling for landslide early warning systems

1:45 pm – 2:00 pm Discussions / Break
2:00 pm – 2:30 pm Keynote Talk 21

Dr. D. Vasudevan
General Manager and Head, Information Systems, Varanasi Smart City Limited India

IoT Integration with GIS in Smart Cities as Latest Technology trend

2:30 pm – 3:00 pm Keynote Talk 22

Mr. Chethan Seegehalli
Head Digitalization and Technology Solutions and Solution Engineering, Siemens Advanta, India

Role of Emerging Technologies in Building Sustainable Ecosystem

3:00 pm – 3:30 pm Keynote Talk 23

Prof. Pascal Perez
Director,SMART Infrastructure Facility University of Wollongong, Australia

Title: FloodAware: An Integrated and Real Time Flood Management System using IOT and ML

3:30 pm – 4:00 pm Keynote Talk 24

Prof. Rajiv Ranjan
Distinguished Professor and Academic Director, School of Computing, Newcastle University, UK

Title: Osmotic Computing: A New IoT Application Programing Paradigm for Smart Cities

4:00 pm – 4:15 pm Discussion & Break
4:15 pm – 4:45 pm Keynote Talk 25

Dr. Mauro Rossi
Researcher,Istituto di Ricerca per la Protezione Idrogeologica (IRPI), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR), Italy

Title: LAND-SUITE a set of tools for landslide susceptibility zonation

4:45pm – 5:15 pm Keynote Talk 26

Dr. Maneesha Vinodini Ramesh
Dean, School for Sustainable Development & International Programs; UNESCO Chair on Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation & Development; Professor & Director, Amrita Center for Wireless Networks & Applications, Amrita Vishwa VIdyapeetham, India

Title:IoT Systems Integrated with ML Techniques for Ecosystem Monitoring & Community based Disaster Resilience

5:15 pm – 5:45 pm Keynote Talk 27

Dr. Dilip Krishnaswamy
Vice President New Technology Initiatives Reliance Jio Platforms Ltd, India

Title: Distributed Edge Microservices-based IoT and ML platforms for Managing Ecosystem and Multi Hazards

5:45 pm – 5:50 pm Discussion & Break
5:50 pm – 7:00 pm Panel Discussion 1
Impact of Climate Change on Ecosystem and Multi hazard : Challenges and Technologies
Chair : Dr. Joost Monks
Members : Dr. Nicola Casagli, Mr. Virupakshappa Hovale, Mr. Soichiro Yasukawa, Dr. K.R Viswanathan, Dr. Karthik Sankaranarayanan, Dr. Sudesh Wadhawan, Dr. Matjaz Mikos, Dr. A A Virajh Dias
7:00 pm – 7:30 pm Keynote Talk 28

Mr. Virupakshappa Hovale
Country General Manager, Bosch Rexroth, India

Title: IoT and Machine Learning as an enabler for sustainability

7:30 pm – 7:45 pm Discussion & Break
7:45 pm – 8:15 pm Keynote Talk 29

Mr. Jayaraj Rajapandian
Director of Engineering, Smart City, Honeywell, India

8:15 pm – 8:45 pm Keynote Talk 30

Prof. David G. Toll
Professor,Department of Engineering, Durham University, UK

Title: Resilience of Transportation Infrastructure to Climate Impacts

8:45 pm – 9:15 pm Keynote Talk 31

Dr. Muhammad Imran
Senior Scientist Qatar Computing Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Qatar

Title: How AI is Transforming Disaster Response

9:15 pm – 9:35 pm Keynote Talk 32

Mr. Ravi Teja Chilukuri
Cheif Technology Office Sentienz, India

Title: The crucial partnership – IoT with Bigdata

9:35 pm – 10 :00 pm Keynote Talk 33

Prof. Dr. Kostas Nikolopoulos
Professor, Business Information Systems & Analytics, Durham University, UK

TitleWe need to talk about intermittent demand forecasting

DAY 3: June 7, 2021

Time Zone: IST Theme 4 : Climate Change Adaptation Techniques & Community Resilience
Theme 5 : Case Studies for Ecosystems Restoration & Multi Hazard Resilience
10:00 am – 10:40 am Poster Presentation
10:40 am – 11:00 am Keynote Talk 34
Dr. K. R. Viswanathan,Landslip – Lead InvestigatorTitle:Innovative climate adaptation approaches and technologies towards strengthening of community resilience and promoting gender balanced development
11:00 am – 11:30 am Ph.D. Colloquium
11:30 am – 12:30 pm Lunch Break
12:30 pm – 1:00 pm Keynote Talk 35

Prof. David Demeritt
Professor of Geography, King’s College London, UK

1:00 pm – 1:30 pm Keynote Talk 36

Mr. Vijay Prasad Kesari
Project Management Officer, UNDP Pacific Office, Fiji

Title: Climate Change Adaptation Techniques & Community Resilience : Similarities and Difference in Mountainous Country and Small Islands Developing States

1:30 pm – 1:45 pm Keynote Talk 37

Prof. Sethuraman Rao
Associate Professor, Amrita Center for Wireless Networks and Applications (AmritaWNA), Amritapuri Campus, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India

Title:Community Resilience through Horizontal Linkages in the Age of Mobile Internet

1:45 pm – 2:00 pm Discussions/Break
2:00 pm – 2:30 pm Keynote Talk 38

Dr. Jonathan Chambers
BGS Geophysical Tomography Team Leader BGS Keyworth, UK

2:30 pm – 3:00 pm Keynote Talk 39

Dr. Hari srinivasan
Coordinator, Global Development Research Centre Professor of Environmental Policy and Sustainability, Graduate School of Policy Studies, Kwansei Gakuin University, Japan

Title: Innovative climate adaptation approaches and technologies towards strengthening of community resilience and promoting gender balanced development

3:00 pm – 3:30 pm Keynote Talk 40

Dr. Maria J. Santos
Professor, Earth System Science,University of Zurich, Switzerland

Title: Ecosystem service resilience in global delta systems

3:30 pm – 4:00 pm Keynote Talk 41

Dr. Robert Tiong Lee Kong
Associate Professor,School of Civil & Environmental Engineering Nanyang Technological University Singapore

Title: Climate Change Actions

4:00 pm – 4:15 pm Discussion & Break
4:15 pm – 4:45 pm Keynote Talk – 42

Prof. Davide Geneletti
Associate Professor,Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering University Of Trento,Italy

Title: Nature-based solutions for urban sustainability

4:45pm – 5:15 pm Keynote Talk – 43

Dr. Nambi Appadurai
Director,Climate Resilience Practice, World Resources Institute, UK

5:15 pm – 5:45 pm Keynote Talk 44

Prof. Anand Patwardhan
Professor,School of Public Policy University of Maryland, USA

Title: What constitutes “success” in adaptation?

5:45 pm – 5:50 pm Discussion & Break
5:50 pm – 6:10 pm Keynote Talk 45

Dr. Debapriya Dutta
Head & Scientist “G”/Adviser Mission Societal-Science for Equity Empowerment and Development(SEED) Department of Science & Technology, Government of India

Title: Climate Change and Community Resilience

6:10 pm – 7:30 pm Panel Discussion 2
Ecosystem Restoration & Community Resilience : Challenges And Way Forward
Chair : Prof. Vinod Chandra Menon
Members: Mr. Vijay Prasad Kesari, Dr. Nava Subramaniam, Dr. Dharam Uprety, Dr. Maneesha Vinodini Ramesh, Dr. Veronica Tofani, Dr. Faith Taylor, Dr.Debapriya Dutta, Dr. Gretchen C. Coffman
7:30 pm – 7:45 pm Discussion & Break
7:45 pm – 8:15 pm Keynote Talk 46

Dr. Ramesh Sivanpillai
Research Scientist Wyoming GIS Center University of Wyoming, U.S.

Title: Multi-satellite remotely sensed data for tracking major environmental disasters

8:15 pm – 8:35 pm Keynote Talk 47

Mr.Sudhir Dembi
General Manager, Schneider Automation, India

8:35 pm – 8:45 pm Poster Presentations
8:45 pm – 9:15 pm Keynote Talk 48

Dr. Ivan Marchesini
Researcher,Istituto di Ricerca per la Protezione Idrogeologica (IRPI), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche,(CNR),Italy

Title: Data-driven flood hazard zonation. An application to Italy

9:15 pm – 9:45 pm Keynote Talk 49

Prof. Michele Calvello
Associate Professor, Geotechnical Engineering, University of Salerno, Italy

Title: Landslide risk community governance and resilience

9:45 pm – 10 :00 pm Keynote Talk 50

Dr. Viswanathan P. K.
Professor, Department of Management, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India

Title: Will Incentivising Farmers Help Eco-restoration? The case of Royalty payments for Protection of Paddy Wetlands in Kerala

DAY 4: June 8, 2021

Workshop 1: Introduction to Python Programming
Time Topic
10:00 AM – 11:30 AM
Introduction to Python – Basics
11:00AM – 11:05AM Break
11:05AM – 12:00PM Introduction to GitHub
12.00PM – 1.00 PM
Basic Python Programming
1:00PM – 2:00PM Lunch Break
2:00PM – 3:30PM Advanced Python Programming
Workshop 2: Getting started with IoT
Time Topic
3:30PM – 4:00PM Green Economy & IOT in Lighting & Relevance to Smart Building Workspaces for the Future.
4:00PM – 4:45PM Single Board Computers, Microprocessors, and Simulation Platforms
4:45PM – 5:00PM Discussion & Q&A
5:00PM – 5:15PM Break
5:15PM – 6:45PM Demo: Industrial IoT Applications & Visualisation
6:45PM – 6:50PM Break
6:50PM – 8:00PM Demo on IoT Platform
8:00PM – 8:15PM Break

DAY 5: June 9, 2021 

Workshop 3: An Introduction to Machine Learning
Time Topic
10:00 AM – 10:30 AM Introduction to Machine Learning – types of ML algorithms, need and applications
10:30 AM – 10:45 AM Break
10:45 AM – 11:30 AM ML Algorithm: Introduction to Linear regression (theory)
11:30 AM – 11.40 AM Break
11:40 AM- 12:10 PM Hand-on demo and explanation of Linear Regression using scikit learn
12:10 PM – 1 PM Hands-on student implementing Linear Regression
1:00 PM – 2 PM Lunch Break
2.00 PM – 2.30 PM Talk on Geospatial Modeling
2:30 PM – 2.45 PM Q&A
2.45 PM – 3.30 PM Introduction to Classification problems and using Support Vector Machines (SVM)
3.30 PM – 3.40 PM Break
3.40 PM – 4.30 PM Hand-on demo and explanation of SVM code using scikit learn
4.30 PM – 5.00 PM Overview of Datascience Applications
Workshop 4 : An Introduction to Geospatial technology
Time Topic
5:00 PM – 5:40 PM Geospatial applications overview with ESRI tools
• Smart Mapping • Analysis • Sharing and Collaboration
5:40 PM – 6:30 PM Hands-on Exercise: Site a new hospital – Find possible locations for a new hospital based on spatial criteria
6:30 PM – 6:45 PM Break / Discussion
6:45 PM – 7:15 PM Sharing GIS Content Using ArcGIS Online
Create apps from maps: • Building a web application using Experience Builder • Scripting Using Arcade • Story Maps
7:15 PM – 8:00 PM Hands-on Exercise: Building a web application using Experience Builder and Scripting Using Arcade
8:00 PM – 8:35 PM Demonstration of Multi-criteria analysis using Geoplanner / Suitability Modeler
8:35 PM – 8:45 PM Q/A Session

Valedictory Ceremony

Time Zone: IST Item
08:00 PM – 09:05 PM Introduction
09:05 PM – 09:10 PM Welcome Address
Dr. Krishnashree Achuthan
Dean, Post Graduate Programs Director & Professor, Center for Cybersecurity Systems and Networks
09:10 PM – 09:25 PM Amrita Ecosystem Restoration Initiatives
Dr. P. Venkat Rangan

Vice Chancellor, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
09:25 PM – 09:30 PM Summary of Symposium
Dr. Maneesha Vinodini Ramesh
Dean, School of Sustainable Development; International Programs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India
&
Dr. Sudhesh Kumar Wadhwan
Advisor [Geosciences] and Adjunct Professor, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham; Director General [retd.], Geological Survey of India
09:30 PM – 09:50 PM Valedictory Address by Chief Guest
Mr. Atul Bagai
Head, India Country Office, UN Environment
09:50 PM- 09:55 PM Release of Proceedings of ISIM 2021
Mr. Atul Bagai
Head, India Country Office, UN Environment
09:55 – 10:00 pm Vote of Thanks
Dr. Bipin Nair

Dean, School of Biotechnology, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India

Panel Discussions

Panel 1- Impact of Climate Change on Ecosystems and Multi-Hazards: Challenges & Approaches

This panel discussion seeks to consolidate an improved understanding of the impact of climate change on ecosystem restoration and mitigation of related multi-hazards. Its goal is to identify key vulnerabilities of nations to climate change, in particular impacts on water resources, forests, coastal areas, agriculture, and health. There is also a need to assess and recommend techniques for adaptation to climate change and facilitate stakeholder participation.

The focus areas for this panel are 1) to develop techniques and strategies for disaster risk reduction, sustainable restoration of degraded ecosystems, and reducing the interrelated effects of multi-hazards; 2) to analyze and provide innovative approaches to tackle the multidisciplinary impact of climate change on ecosystem susceptibility and monitoring of multi-hazards from the local to global scale; and 3) to formulate strategies for sustainable and optimum utilization of environmental resources and adaptation of modern techniques, such as IoT, AI, and ML, to protect biodiversity and enhance safety and food security across the world.

Panel 2- Ecosystem Restoration and Community Resilience: Challenges & Ways Forward

Several pathways and key biotic processes have been enumerated that contribute to environmental degradation(link is external) or impoverished ecosystems owing to disruption of biotic interactions and over-exploitation of natural resources. Promoting healthy ecosystems can enhance people’s livelihoods by empowering communities to counteract the impacts of climate change and support sustainable regional development. This panel discussion seeks to 1) formulate doable guidelines and operating procedures aimed at providing perspectives to promote community resilience, socio-economic relevance of medicinal plants and agroforestry, effective participatory approaches towards nature-based solutions to climate change, and sustainable growth of communities and societies; 2) enumerate stake-holder perspectives and the challenges they face while implementing innovative strategies for the sustainable restoration of degraded ecosystems and community empowerment; and 3) recommend pathways towards international collaborations on the deployment of emerging technologies to mitigate multi-hazards and adapt to climate change and ecosystem restoration and management.

Hackathon

Important Dates

  • Hackathon Phase 1 Submission: 15th June 2021

Welcome to the ISIM Hackathon!

Our objective is to find impactful solutions to the key issues and problems that are being explored throughout the ISIM Symposium. The hackathon will progress in three stages:

  1. Problem Identification – will run concurrently with the ISIM Symposium.
  2. Solution Design
  3. Implementation

We invite you to form teams, and innovate with us!

Participants can register individually or form their own team (max 3 members) and register.

NOTE: Registration details will be uploaded soon.

Phase 1: Problem identification (June 5th to June 15th)

The ISIM symposium is an excellent place to learn about our natural ecosystem and key issues precipitated by climate change and multi-hazard situations. Key domain experts will provide inputs throughout the ISIM symposium on key issues, ecosystem dynamics, climate change trajectories, as well as emerging technologies and multi-modal responses being adopted to address the situation.

Hackathon teams are required to attend the Symposium sessions and also the post-symposium workshop where we will provide you with information on technologies, tools, platforms, and techniques that could help you develop your innovative solution. The workshop will give you an opportunity to get some hands-on experience on platforms we will make available for the Hackathon.

Hackathon Themes:

  1. Theme 1: Emerging Technologies for Ecosystem Restoration
  2. Theme 2: Impact of Climate Change on Ecosystem & Multi Hazards
  3. Theme 3: IoT and ML for Managing Ecosystem & Multi Hazards
  4. Theme 4: Climate Change Adaptation Techniques & Community Resilience
  5. Theme 5: Case Studies for Ecosystems Restoration & Multi-Hazard Resilience
  6. Theme 6: Open topic

Based on these broad themes, some EXAMPLE areas to explore are:

  • Solutions for measuring and monitoring our natural ecosystem. May include, but not limited to, new sensing technologies, architectures for large scale, high-resolution real-time data gathering, long term sustainable and robust low-energy sensing networks, etc
  • Solutions that analyze, detect, and predict critical ecosystem changes. May include, but not limited to, the development of AI/ML models to predict ecosystem changes, prediction and advanced detection of critical hazards, emergency response management solutions, etc.
  • Solutions that Enhance community Resilience to Climate Change. May include, but not limited to, solutions that help boost agricultural efficiency in the face of climate change, solutions that generate water and nutrition security for communities, solutions that help maintain community health, enhance health-seeking behaviours, enhance environment-friendly behaviors, etc.
  • Solutions that repair and restore ecosystems adversely affected by climate change or Multi-hazards
  • You can suggest your own theme during the workshop. If enough participants are interested in that topic, we can work on it.

Participants need to submit a short proposal (max. number words:300) based on the chosen problem and proposed methods to solve it. All submissions should follow the template provided by the organizers. In this phase, candidates should clearly identify the tools/hardware/software that they require to solve the problem.

Eligibility for participation in phase 2 is based on the evaluation by the expert committee.

NOTE: Hackathon Submission Closed

Phase 2 Theoretical Design (June 21st to June 30th)

Each team will be assigned with a technical mentor and regular one to one meetings will be conducted with the team to support designing. A technical support person will also be available to support the teams with the tools/hardware/software they use.

Participants should design the proposed solution and present it before the panel

The panel will evaluate and grade each presentation. Only eligible teams based on their evaluation would be allowed to participate in the next phase

Phase 3: Complete Implementation (July 5th to July 15th)

Participants should implement the proposed solution in its entirety, and present the completed solution to the panel.

They will have discussions with mentors and take the necessary support.

Industry and Amrita will provide all required supports – hardware/software/tools.

The top 2 best projects in each theme will be selected and awarded.

Judging Panel

  • Dr. Maneesha V Ramesh
  • Dr. Gopal Krishna
  • Dr. Alka Singh
  • Dr. Dhanya M.
  • Dr. Rahul Krishnan P.
  • Dr. Sudesh K. Wadhawan
  • Prof. Sethuraman N. Rao
  • Mr. Rahul Vamanan
  • Dr. Rekha P.

Selection Criteria

The project proposal will be evaluated based on the following criteria

    • The project that has high market needs and business viability will be selected.
      1. Functionality
      2. Novelty
      3. Technical Difficulty level
      4. Useful/Fits the theme
      5. Business value
    • Quality of the Idea: Includes creativity and originality of the idea.
    • Implementation of the Idea: Includes how well the idea was executed by the participant.
    • Potential Value to Businesses: Includes the extent to which the proposed system can help businesses grow.

Prize

  1. Esri India will provide Rs. 50,000 cash prize and 1-year license to Esri Platform for 1 winning team. Two other winning teams will receive a 1-year license to the Esri platform
  2. Three winning teams of the hackathon will be mentored by Amrita TBI. The winning teams will avail of free incubation service for one year. During this period mentor support will be provided from the external mentor network of Amrita TBI.
  3. Complimentary Prize: Two more teams will get an internship opportunity at the Center for Wireless Networks & Applications

Workshop

Introduction to Python Programming

In this workshop, the participants will learn how to get started with python programming language. They will learn about the basic concepts such as variables, operators, conditions, functions and classes. The workshop also covers the usage of tools such as Jupyter Notebooks and Google Collab.

Tools used: Anaconda, Jupyter Notebooks, Google Collab

Getting started with IoT Sensor data collection using database and Python

In this workshop, the participants will learn how to perform data acquisition from IoT-enabled sensors, transmit it to a remote server using MQTT and store data in a server using databases. They will also learn how to set up a MySQL database and use python to write data to the database.

Tools/Libraries used: pymysql, paho-mqtt

An Introduction to ML for Ecosystem Modelling

In this workshop, participants will have a unique opportunity to understand the fundamental principles of machine learning as well as experience a hands-on demo of using a simple machine learning technique to model the environment and ecosystems.

Tools used: Google Collab

Introduction to Geospatial Applications

Geographical information system (GIS) is an applied science and technology which uses the infrastructure of various disciplines to address the problems in the world. The workshop highlights the scope and opportunities in spatial thinking pertaining to its growing applications in various fields and sectors of society. The sessions are designed to involve students in exploring the applied aspects of Geospatial technology. They will be provided with details on methodologies, available resources, software, and other contents related to spatial data collection, analysis, modeling, and visualization with exciting hands-on experience.

Resource Persons

Industry

  • Mr. Virupakshappa H K, Bosch Rexton
  • Mr. Santhosh, Bosch Rexton
  • Mr. Ravi Teja, Sentienz

Academia

  • Dr. V. Susheela Devi, Department of Computer Science and Automation, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
  • Dr. Karthik Sankaranarayanan, Ontario Tech University, Canada & Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Dr. Reka P, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Dr. Ram Kumar, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Dr. Rahul Krishnan P, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Mr. Sai Shibu N B, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Ms. Anjana M S, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Ms. Durga P, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Ms. Liya M L, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Mr. Balmukund Singh, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Ms. Hari Chandana, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Mr. Arjun D, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Ms. Shereena Shaji, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Dr. Uma Gopalakrishnan, Assistant Professor, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Ms. Lakshmi S Gopal, Doctoral Student, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

Important Dates

Hackathon

  • Hackathon Phase 1 Submission: 15th June 2021
  • Last date to register for the symposium: 5th June 2021 (01.00 PM IST)

Ph.D. Colloquium

  • Last date for abstract submission: 30th May 2021 (11.59 PM IST)
  • Acceptance notification date: 2nd June 2021
  • Last date for PPT submission: 5th June 2021 (12 PM IST)

Poster Presentation

  • Last date for abstract & poster submission: 30th May 2021 (11.59 PM IST)
  • Acceptance notification date: 1st June 2021
  • Last date for registering as Presenter: 3rd June 2021 (11.59 PM IST)

Symposium Dates

  • Theme 1: 5th June 2021 (2PM to 8.30 PM IST)
  • Theme 2: 6th June 2021 (2PM to 8.30 PM IST)
  • Theme 3: 6th June 2021 (2PM to 8.30 PM IST)
  • Theme 4: 7th June 2021 (2PM to 8.30 PM IST)
  • Theme 5: 7th June 2021 (2PM to 8.30 PM IST)

Workshop Dates

  • Introduction to Python:  8th June 2021
  • Getting started with IoT sensor data collection and storage with Python: 8th June 2021
  • An Introduction to ML for Ecosystem Modelling: 9th June 2021
  • Introduction to Geospatial Applications: 9th June 2021

Poster Presentations

Important Dates

  • Last date for abstract & poster submission: 30th May 2021 (11.59 PM IST)
  • Acceptance notification date: 1st June 2021
  • Last date for registering as Presenter: 3rd June 2021 (11.59 PM IST)

We invite you to present your research ideas and findings related to the thematic areas under ISIM 2021 during the poster sessions, organized under each theme. Students, faculty and researchers from academia and industry are welcome to present posters of their research work in this session and avail this opportunity to get exposure for your research, learn about the research happening globally and receive feedback from the peer group and experts. We encourage you to submit abstracts and posters which present innovative ideas, case study examples or ongoing research activities, pertaining to any of the thematic areas of the symposium

Interested candidates can upload their abstracts along with the poster when registering here, on or before 30th May 2021. BOTH the abstract and poster should mandatorily be submitted together for the review. Please note that if the submitted abstract and poster does not fully meet the requirements listed below, it will automatically be discarded without further notice. Final selection of the abstract will be done based on the technical relevance of the abstract to the symposium theme and the quality of work presented through the abstract and poster. The evaluation committee will notify you about your abstract selection status before 1st June 2021.

The presenting author must register here(General Registration) for the symposium as a PRESENTER before 3rd June 2021, once your abstract gets accepted for presentation.

For each accepted abstract, the candidates will receive confirmation about their session timing and presentation time slots two days prior to the event date. Each candidate will be allowed to present his or her research work within a strict time slot of 5 minutes, and our symposium assistant will display your poster on the screen during your talk. You will NOT be allowed to make any revisions to your poster once it is accepted by the committee. Please strictly follow the guidelines listed below for preparing the abstract and posters. For any queries related to the poster sessions, please email us at isim2021@amrita.edu(link sends e-mail).

Poster Presentation Schedule

Sunday: June 6, 2021 

Poster ID Name Affiliation Title
PP2.01 Ms. Chaithanya Kapoor Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Network topology for connected cities
PP2.02 Mr. R.V. Pankajavalli Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Connected smart cities
PP2.03 Dr. R. Vaira Vignesh Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Composite paver block
PP2.04 Mr. Vishal Menon Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Exploring IoT enabled multi-hazard warning system for disaster-prone areas
PP2.05 Mr. Aneesh Rajendran College of Engineering, Trivandrum & Energy Management Centre Kerala, India Optimal placement of EV charging stations

Monday: June 7, 2021 

Poster ID Name Affiliation Title
PP3.01 Ms. Dhivyapriya D. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Climate-resilient rice variety – A climate change mitigation strategy for sustaining rice production in the changing environment
PP3.02 Ms. V. Navya Department of Civil Engineering, Vardhaman College of Engineering, Hyderabad Assessment of area of major surface water bodies in Hyderabad City, India
PP3.03 Ms. Ekaterin Lenegfeld Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Behavior change and sustainability of ecological restoration projects
PP3.04 Ms. Sathyapriya E Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Adaptation strategies of farmers to mitigate climate change effects
PP3.05 Ms. Shreeparna Sahoo Urban Planner, M. Plan, SPA-B Environmental Sustainability
PP3.06 Ms. Suvish S. Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli Assessment of vegetation index for reserve forests on the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu using GIS techniques
PP3.07 Ms. Laxmi Prasad NA Restoring forests: Regeneration and ecosystem function for the future
PP3.08 Mr. Aneesh Energy Management Centre, Department of Power, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala Carbon Neutral Educational Institutions
  • The abstract of your work along with the title, author’s names, and author’s affiliations should be uploaded as a word document. Author affiliation should include .
  • A maximum of 5 keywords can also be included in the document.
  • The content of the abstract excluding the title, author’s details, and keywords should NOT go above 300 words.
  • The abstract content should include the problem statement, proposed/implemented methods or solutions to the problem, and concluding remarks.
  • Relevant references can also be included and cited in the abstract content.

Guidelines for Preparing the Poster

  • The poster must include text in a large enough font (~18 point font) to be read easily by everyone. Use standard fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri or Helvetica for the textual contents. Lettering on figures/diagrams should be large enough and legible.
  • Avoid overcrowding figures and tables. Appropriate legends and titles should accompany all figures and tables. All the images included in the poster should have a resolution of no less than 300 dpi.
  • You can prepare your poster as a single PowerPoint slide in A3 size (template provided below).
  • The poster must be submitted in *.pdf format.
  • The file size of the poster is limited to 50 MB.
  • The poster should include the title of your abstract, the author’s names, and the author’s affiliations, as shown in the template provided.
  • Please download the template provided hereto help you prepare your poster. You are free to position the contents related to your work within the main body of the poster based on your convenience. The placeholders provided in the main body are just a sample.

Guidelines for Live Presentation

  • All presenters must be registered for the symposium in order to get access to the live sessions.
  • Once you register successfully, you will receive the zoom link to join the live session.
  • We advise that all participants use some form of external microphone or headset during their presentation for better audio quality. We also expect participants to have a stable internet connection.
  • You can access the zoom session using the link provided on all 3 days (June 5th to June 7th). Only participants registered for the workshop will be allowed to attend on June 8th and 9th.
  • When you join the session, one of our hosts will promote you as a panelist. Please accept the request to join as a panelist. You should mute and keep your camera turned off until you are called for presenting.
  • You can unmute and turn on the camera during your presentation slot and complete the presentation.
  • Our host will share their screen to show your posters/presentations.
  • Please download the Zoom desktop client for better performance.

PHD Colloquium

Important Dates

  • Last date for abstract submission: 30th May 2021 (11.59 PM IST)
  • Acceptance notification date: 2nd June 2021
  • Last date for PPT submission: 5th June 2021 (12 PM IST)

We are delighted to welcome you to the Ph.D. Colloquium for the International Symposium on IoT & ML for Ecosystem Restoration & Multi-hazard Resilience (ISIM 2021) organized by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. This platform is for budding Ph.D. scholars who are pursuing cutting-edge research on various geoscience issues within India and abroad related to any of the symposium themes. Ph.D. scholars who have submitted their thesis or were recently awarded their Ph.D. (2020-2021) are eligible to participate.

  • Interested candidates can submit their research as an extended abstract as per the given guidelines.
  •  Please register for the Ph.D. colloquium through the registration tab.
  • An extended abstract should be submitted below while registering on or before May 30, 2021 by 11:55PM IST.
  • Final selection of the abstract will be done based on the technical relevance of the abstract to the conference theme and the quality of work presented in an extended abstract.
  • The evaluation committee will inform you if your abstract has been selected for the colloquium before 2nd June 2021.
  • If your abstract is selected, you must send your PPT presentation before 5th June 2021 (12 PM IST), otherwise, your presentation will be removed.
  • The colloquium will have expert panelists to provide constructive feedback on your work and suggestions on how to take your research work forward.
  • The colloquium will give you a unique opportunity to expand your network via a virtual space.

Schedule of Colloquium Presenters

Sunday: June 6, 2021 

Name University Abstract title
Ms. Anjana Ekka Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Understanding the impact of anthropogenic modifications on river flow regime: A case study of Cauvery River basin in India
Mr. Douglas Marowa
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Climate shocks and women’s livelihood in Zimbabwe: A case study of Chimanimani District
Ms. Sindhu Sreeranga Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Community-based portable breakwaters for mangrove restoration
Mr. Prince Destiny Ugo Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Integrated water demand management: Prospects and challenges in India – A case study

Monday: June 7, 2021 

Name University Abstract
Mr. Balmukund Singh Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham  Spatio-temporal comparative evaluation of landslide incidences in catchment of Muthirappuzayar River, Kerala
Ms. Leela Kaur Maharaja Ganga Singh University, Bikaner Climate change: An environmental challenge for ‘New India’

Guidelines for Colloquium Submissions

The extended abstract MUST include the following sections:

  • Introduction: A description of the problem you are trying to solve and the research questions/objectives you are addressing
  • Background: Literature review showing the significance of the problem and why it is essential to address it.
  • Study Area: A very brief description of the relevant geography of the place where your study is situated. If it’s an urban area, then you might discuss how densely populated, rural or suburban, how big, etc. If it’s rural, then perhaps hilly or not, how many roads, how many people, dry or not, etc. Whatever is relevant in the context of your question.
  • Data: A description of the data are you using, including contents, sources, formats, and if/how you prepared it
  • Methodology: What approach(es) you took to prepare your data and maps, including specification of any intermediate steps, the logic behind your analysis model, how you processed the data, and how you generated your results. Also include a simple illustration (flow chart) of the steps in your project work. This flowchart should be general and include only the major steps of your project, such as particular data inputs, data processing tasks, visualization or analysis steps, and the final output. Note: you can also put the same flowchart in your presentation)
  • Results: Discussion including final visual interpretation or summary related to maps produced and relevant figures showing the answers you found to your problem.
  • Conclusion: What went right, what went wrong, and if/how you will improve on this project in the future
  • References: Data sources and references

Format

The instructions below MUST be followed to make your extended abstract as readable as possible:

  • Font: Recommended fonts and font sizes are 12 pt Times New Roman or 11 pt Arial.
  • Spacing: The proposal must be doubled-spaced throughout.
  • Margin: Margins should be 1 inch from all sides
  • Length: Lengthy proposals are discouraged, and so are very short proposals that fail to deliver its intended message. 2-4 page max.
  • Style: use short sentences whenever possible
  • Title: You should strive for informative and concise titles
  • Abstract: 150 words or less. The abstract should be complete, informative, succinct and understandable for a reader to have an idea about the problem you are addressing and why this work is useful.
  • Figures and Tables: All figures and tables must be cited in the text. Table Captions should be placed at the top of each Table, and all Tables should be properly labelled. Figure Captions should be placed at the bottom of each Figure, and all Figures should be properly labelled.
  • References: Properly cite references of published literature in the text.

Presentation

Here are a few tips to help you with your oral presentations:

  • Time: Max. allocated time for the presentation is 10 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion and feedback
  • Structure: The presentation should follow the structure of the extended abstract (as mentioned above). It must have clarity of thoughts and proper flow with a clear message for the audience.
  • If you have difficulty keeping to time (either over or underestimating), have some spare slides you can ‘drop in’ or take out of your presentation depending on how time is progressing.
  • Be enthusiastic. Enthusiasm can do a lot to hide nerves and perhaps some content lacking from your presentation. The audience will remain on the edge of their seats when they see how interested you are in your work and will become motivated and supportive of you as well.

Guidelines for Live Presentation

  • All presenters must be registered for the symposium in order to get access to the live sessions.
  • Once you register successfully, you will receive the zoom link to join the live session.
  • We advise that all participants use some form of external microphone or headset during their presentation for better audio quality. We also expect participants to have a stable internet connection.
  • You can access the zoom session using the link provided on all 3 days (June 5th to June 7th). Only participants registered for the workshop will be allowed to attend on June 8th and 9th.
  • When you join the session, one of our hosts will promote you as a panelist. Please accept the request to join as a panelist. You should mute and keep your camera turned off until you are called for presenting.
  • You can unmute and turn on the camera during your presentation slot and complete the presentation.
  • Our host will share their screen to show your posters/presentations.
  • Please download the Zoom desktop client for better performance.
Hackathon

Important Dates

  • Hackathon Phase 1 Submission: 15th June 2021

Welcome to the ISIM Hackathon!

Our objective is to find impactful solutions to the key issues and problems that are being explored throughout the ISIM Symposium. The hackathon will progress in three stages:

  1. Problem Identification – will run concurrently with the ISIM Symposium.
  2. Solution Design
  3. Implementation

We invite you to form teams, and innovate with us!

Participants can register individually or form their own team (max 3 members) and register.

Phase 1: Problem identification (June 5th to June 15th)

The ISIM symposium is an excellent place to learn about our natural ecosystem and key issues precipitated by climate change and multi-hazard situations. Key domain experts will provide inputs throughout the ISIM symposium on key issues, ecosystem dynamics, climate change trajectories, as well as emerging technologies and multi-modal responses being adopted to address the situation.

Hackathon teams are required to attend the Symposium sessions and also the post-symposium workshop where we will provide you with information on technologies, tools, platforms, and techniques that could help you develop your innovative solution. The workshop will give you an opportunity to get some hands-on experience on platforms we will make available for the Hackathon.

Hackathon Themes:

  1. Theme 1: Emerging Technologies for Ecosystem Restoration
  2. Theme 2: Impact of Climate Change on Ecosystem & Multi Hazards
  3. Theme 3: IoT and ML for Managing Ecosystem & Multi Hazards
  4. Theme 4: Climate Change Adaptation Techniques & Community Resilience
  5. Theme 5: Case Studies for Ecosystems Restoration & Multi-Hazard Resilience
  6. Theme 6: Open topic

Based on these broad themes, some EXAMPLE areas to explore are:

  • Solutions for measuring and monitoring our natural ecosystem. May include, but not limited to, new sensing technologies, architectures for large scale, high-resolution real-time data gathering, long term sustainable and robust low-energy sensing networks, etc
  • Solutions that analyze, detect, and predict critical ecosystem changes. May include, but not limited to, the development of AI/ML models to predict ecosystem changes, prediction and advanced detection of critical hazards, emergency response management solutions, etc.
  • Solutions that Enhance community Resilience to Climate Change. May include, but not limited to, solutions that help boost agricultural efficiency in the face of climate change, solutions that generate water and nutrition security for communities, solutions that help maintain community health, enhance health-seeking behaviours, enhance environment-friendly behaviors, etc.
  • Solutions that repair and restore ecosystems adversely affected by climate change or Multi-hazards
  • You can suggest your own theme during the workshop. If enough participants are interested in that topic, we can work on it.

Participants need to submit a short proposal (max. number words:300) based on the chosen problem and proposed methods to solve it. All submissions should follow the template provided by the organizers. In this phase, candidates should clearly identify the tools/hardware/software that they require to solve the problem.

Eligibility for participation in phase 2 is based on the evaluation by the expert committee.

Phase 2 Theoretical Design (June 21st to June 30th)

Each team will be assigned with a technical mentor and regular one to one meetings will be conducted with the team to support designing. A technical support person will also be available to support the teams with the tools/hardware/software they use.

Participants should design the proposed solution and present it before the panel

The panel will evaluate and grade each presentation. Only eligible teams based on their evaluation would be allowed to participate in the next phase

Phase 3: Complete Implementation (July 5th to July 15th)

Participants should implement the proposed solution in its entirety, and present the completed solution to the panel.

They will have discussions with mentors and take the necessary support.

Industry and Amrita will provide all required supports – hardware/software/tools.

The top 2 best projects in each theme will be selected and awarded.

Judging Panel

  • Dr. Maneesha V Ramesh
  • Dr. Gopal Krishna
  • Dr. Alka Singh
  • Dr. Dhanya M.
  • Dr. Rahul Krishnan P.
  • Dr. Sudesh K Wadhawan
  • Prof. Sethuraman N. Rao
  • Mr. Rahul Vamanan
  • Dr. Rekha P.

Selection Criteria

The project proposal will be evaluated based on the following criteria

    • The project that has high market needs and business viability will be selected.
      1. Functionality
      2. Novelty
      3. Technical Difficulty level
      4. Useful/Fits the theme
      5. Business value
    • Quality of the Idea: Includes creativity and originality of the idea.
    • Implementation of the Idea: Includes how well the idea was executed by the participant.
    • Potential Value to Businesses: Includes the extent to which the proposed system can help businesses grow.

Prize

  1. Esri India will provide Rs. 50,000 cash prize and 1-year license to Esri Platform for 1 winning team. Two other winning teams will receive a 1-year license to the Esri platform
  2. Three winning teams of the hackathon will be mentored by Amrita TBI. The winning teams will avail of free incubation service for one year. During this period mentor support will be provided from the external mentor network of Amrita TBI.
  3. Complimentary Prize: Two more teams will get an internship opportunity at the Center for Wireless Networks & Applications
Hackathon Phase II

Phase-1 Problem Identification and Definition

In Phase – 1 of the hackathon you identified a critical problem that you will address by innovating an effective and sustainable solution. Please refine and review your problem statement. An accurate and precise problem statement is the starting point for solution development. If your problem statement is too broad or vague, your solution will not be effective and will not create the intended impact.

Phase – 2 Solution Definition and Design – We recommend that you look at the following aspects of your solution in Phase-2. At the end of this Phase, your submissions should touch up on all these aspects.

In every step in Phase 2, the team should do a sort of retrospection to see if the Product or Solution Specification, Architecture Design, Implementation Strategy & Testing is in sync with the Problem Definition and applicable to the target customer.

Product or Solution Specification

We recommend that you start with documenting your product or solution specification. The product of solution specification is the document that captures all the functionality and features that the product of solution provides. It describes all the operational modes and establishes the performance metrics for your product or solution. You will need to submit a product/solution spec at the end of this Phase as a part of your required submissions to qualify for the next Phase of the hackathon.

The problem definition should be crip and should clearly mention what is the problem you are trying to solve, value (benefits) expected to the end customer. This area should reflect Empathize and Define stages in the Design Thinking Process.

By studying your product of solution specification, one should be able to tell if your solution indeed solves the problem that you have chosen in Phase-1.

Architecture and Microarchitecture Design

Establish the high-level architecture of your product or solution. This involves determining the Hardware and Software partitions (which functions will be implemented in hardware/firmware and which functions will be implemented in high level Software). Ideally, this step should result in a high-level functional block diagram of your product or solution, identifying all sub-components, both in HW and SW.

Further, you will need to work out the details of the functions each block will perform, the communications between the sub-blocks, as well as all the input requirements and output generation for successful operation.

You may also want to understand the internal timing aspects of the design, so that successful communication between sub-blocks, between HW/SW and the external world is established for robust solution performance. If this is required for your design a high-level timing diagram will be useful.

Implementation Strategy

How will you implement your solution? What off the shelf hardware can you use? Which HW sections will you need to design yourself? How will you design the HW? Which available SW platforms will you use? Which SW components will you develop yourself? What methodology will you use to schedule and track your design development?

These are aspects that you as a team should plan out in detail before embarking on Phase-3.

Theoretical Design of the Product or Solution

Once your detailed design is done, you will need to analyze its performance. Will it operate like you think it will? How do you theoretically check this? Will it meet its performance goals? How do you analyze this to ensure that your implementation will indeed work as you designed it?

The output of this activity is a report that cross checks the design functionality against the product specification, and also does performance projection for your solution.

Design Validation & Performance Analysis and Projection

How are you going to test the functionality and performance of your design? The output of this analysis will be a product or solution test and validation plan. Testing is to ensure that all components of your design function as they should under all operating conditions. Validation is to ensure that the solution works in its operating environment (real world) like it has been designed to. What are the extreme conditions that you will face? Will your solution hold up?

Phase-2 Outputs for Submission

At the end of Phase-2, we expect all teams to submit the following documents:

  1. Refined Problem Statement (If you think your old statement is fine, just resubmit it).
  2. Product/Solution Specification – should include at least the following:
    • All primary Inputs monitored or Data ingested
    • All primary outputs generated: Data, Control, Communication, etc
    • All functions performed by the product or solution
    • Operating conditions within with the product or solution will operate
    • Performance targets for this solution (You have to figure out how you define good performance for your own Product or solution).
  3. Architecture block diagram and high level description. This should say what off the shelf components you plan to use (HW or SW), and which components you will develop Should also state how you will integrate everything together and what external communication links you will need to use, if any.
  4. Validation Plan – How will you check that your solution or product works like you have specified it? What resources will you need to do the test or validation?
Poster Presentations

Important Dates

  • Last date for abstract & poster submission: 30th May 2021 (11.59 PM IST)
  • Acceptance notification date: 1st June 2021
  • Last date for registering as Presenter: 3rd June 2021 (11.59 PM IST)

We invite you to present your research ideas and findings related to the thematic areas under ISIM 2021 during the poster sessions, organized under each theme. Students, faculty and researchers from academia and industry are welcome to present posters of their research work in this session and avail this opportunity to get exposure for your research, learn about the research happening globally and receive feedback from the peer group and experts. We encourage you to submit abstracts and posters which present innovative ideas, case study examples or ongoing research activities, pertaining to any of the thematic areas of the symposium

Interested candidates can upload their abstracts along with the poster when registering here, on or before 30th May 2021. BOTH the abstract and poster should mandatorily be submitted together for the review. Please note that if the submitted abstract and poster does not fully meet the requirements listed below, it will automatically be discarded without further notice. Final selection of the abstract will be done based on the technical relevance of the abstract to the symposium theme and the quality of work presented through the abstract and poster. The evaluation committee will notify you about your abstract selection status before 1st June 2021.

The presenting author must register here(General Registration) for the symposium as a PRESENTER before 3rd June 2021, once your abstract gets accepted for presentation.

For each accepted abstract, the candidates will receive confirmation about their session timing and presentation time slots two days prior to the event date. Each candidate will be allowed to present his or her research work within a strict time slot of 5 minutes, and our symposium assistant will display your poster on the screen during your talk. You will NOT be allowed to make any revisions to your poster once it is accepted by the committee. Please strictly follow the guidelines listed below for preparing the abstract and posters. For any queries related to the poster sessions, please email us at isim2021@amrita.edu(link sends e-mail).

Poster Presentation Schedule

Sunday: June 6, 2021 

Poster ID Name Affiliation Title
PP2.01 Ms. Chaithanya Kapoor Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Network topology for connected cities
PP2.02 Mr. R.V. Pankajavalli Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Connected smart cities
PP2.03 Dr. R. Vaira Vignesh Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Composite paver block
PP2.04 Mr. Vishal Menon Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Exploring IoT enabled multi-hazard warning system for disaster-prone areas
PP2.05 Mr. Aneesh Rajendran College of Engineering, Trivandrum & Energy Management Centre Kerala, India Optimal placement of EV charging stations

Monday: June 7, 2021 

Poster ID Name Affiliation Title
PP3.01 Ms. Dhivyapriya D. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Climate-resilient rice variety – A climate change mitigation strategy for sustaining rice production in the changing environment
PP3.02 Ms. V. Navya Department of Civil Engineering, Vardhaman College of Engineering, Hyderabad Assessment of area of major surface water bodies in Hyderabad City, India
PP3.03 Ms. Ekaterin Lenegfeld Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Behavior change and sustainability of ecological restoration projects
PP3.04 Ms. Sathyapriya E Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Adaptation strategies of farmers to mitigate climate change effects
PP3.05 Ms. Shreeparna Sahoo Urban Planner, M. Plan, SPA-B Environmental Sustainability
PP3.06 Ms. Suvish S. Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli Assessment of vegetation index for reserve forests on the Western Ghats in Tamil Nadu using GIS techniques
PP3.07 Ms. Laxmi Prasad NA Restoring forests: Regeneration and ecosystem function for the future
PP3.08 Mr. Aneesh Energy Management Centre, Department of Power, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala Carbon Neutral Educational Institutions

Guidelines to Prepare Your Abstract:

  • The abstract of your work along with the title, author’s names, and author’s affiliations should be uploaded as a word document. Author affiliation should include .
  • A maximum of 5 keywords can also be included in the document.
  • The content of the abstract excluding the title, author’s details, and keywords should NOT go above 300 words.
  • The abstract content should include the problem statement, proposed/implemented methods or solutions to the problem, and concluding remarks.
  • Relevant references can also be included and cited in the abstract content.

Guidelines for Preparing the Poster

  • The poster must include text in a large enough font (~18 point font) to be read easily by everyone. Use standard fonts such as Times New Roman, Arial, Calibri or Helvetica for the textual contents. Lettering on figures/diagrams should be large enough and legible.
  • Avoid overcrowding figures and tables. Appropriate legends and titles should accompany all figures and tables. All the images included in the poster should have a resolution of no less than 300 dpi.
  • You can prepare your poster as a single PowerPoint slide in A3 size (template provided below).
  • The poster must be submitted in *.pdf format.
  • The file size of the poster is limited to 50 MB.
  • The poster should include the title of your abstract, the author’s names, and the author’s affiliations, as shown in the template provided.
  • Please download the template provided here to help you prepare your poster. You are free to position the contents related to your work within the main body of the poster based on your convenience. The placeholders provided in the main body are just a sample.

Guidelines for Live Presentation

  • All presenters must be registered for the symposium in order to get access to the live sessions.
  • Once you register successfully, you will receive the zoom link to join the live session.
  • We advise that all participants use some form of external microphone or headset during their presentation for better audio quality. We also expect participants to have a stable internet connection.
  • You can access the zoom session using the link provided on all 3 days (June 5th to June 7th). Only participants registered for the workshop will be allowed to attend on June 8th and 9th.
  • When you join the session, one of our hosts will promote you as a panelist. Please accept the request to join as a panelist. You should mute and keep your camera turned off until you are called for presenting.
  • You can unmute and turn on the camera during your presentation slot and complete the presentation.
  • Our host will share their screen to show your posters/presentations.
  • Please download the Zoom desktop client for better performance.

 

PhD Colloquium

Important Dates

  • Last date for abstract submission: 30th May 2021 (11.59 PM IST)
  • Acceptance notification date: 2nd June 2021
  • Last date for PPT submission: 5th June 2021 (12 PM IST)

We are delighted to welcome you to the Ph.D. Colloquium for the International Symposium on IoT & ML for Ecosystem Restoration & Multi-hazard Resilience (ISIM 2021) organized by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham. This platform is for budding Ph.D. scholars who are pursuing cutting-edge research on various geoscience issues within India and abroad related to any of the symposium themes. Ph.D. scholars who have submitted their thesis or were recently awarded their Ph.D. (2020-2021) are eligible to participate.

  • Interested candidates can submit their research as an extended abstract as per the given guidelines.
  •  Please register for the Ph.D. colloquium through the registration tab.
  • An extended abstract should be submitted below while registering on or before May 30, 2021 by 11:55PM IST.
  • Final selection of the abstract will be done based on the technical relevance of the abstract to the conference theme and the quality of work presented in an extended abstract.
  • The evaluation committee will inform you if your abstract has been selected for the colloquium before 2nd June 2021.
  • If your abstract is selected, you must send your PPT presentation before 5th June 2021 (12 PM IST), otherwise, your presentation will be removed.
  • The colloquium will have expert panelists to provide constructive feedback on your work and suggestions on how to take your research work forward.
  • The colloquium will give you a unique opportunity to expand your network via a virtual space.

Schedule of Colloquium Presenters

Sunday: June 6, 2021 

Name University Abstract title
Ms. Anjana Ekka Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands Understanding the impact of anthropogenic modifications on river flow regime: A case study of Cauvery River basin in India
Mr. Douglas Marowa
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
Climate shocks and women’s livelihood in Zimbabwe: A case study of Chimanimani District
Ms. Sindhu Sreeranga Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan Community-based portable breakwaters for mangrove restoration
Mr. Prince Destiny Ugo Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Integrated water demand management: Prospects and challenges in India – A case study

Monday: June 7, 2021 

Name University Abstract
Mr. Balmukund Singh Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham  Spatio-temporal comparative evaluation of landslide incidences in catchment of Muthirappuzayar River, Kerala
Ms. Leela Kaur Maharaja Ganga Singh University, Bikaner Climate change: An environmental challenge for ‘New India’

Guidelines for Colloquium Submissions

The extended abstract MUST include the following sections:

  • Introduction: A description of the problem you are trying to solve and the research questions/objectives you are addressing
  • Background: Literature review showing the significance of the problem and why it is essential to address it.
  • Study Area: A very brief description of the relevant geography of the place where your study is situated. If it’s an urban area, then you might discuss how densely populated, rural or suburban, how big, etc. If it’s rural, then perhaps hilly or not, how many roads, how many people, dry or not, etc. Whatever is relevant in the context of your question.
  • Data: A description of the data are you using, including contents, sources, formats, and if/how you prepared it
  • Methodology: What approach(es) you took to prepare your data and maps, including specification of any intermediate steps, the logic behind your analysis model, how you processed the data, and how you generated your results. Also include a simple illustration (flow chart) of the steps in your project work. This flowchart should be general and include only the major steps of your project, such as particular data inputs, data processing tasks, visualization or analysis steps, and the final output. Note: you can also put the same flowchart in your presentation)
  • Results: Discussion including final visual interpretation or summary related to maps produced and relevant figures showing the answers you found to your problem.
  • Conclusion: What went right, what went wrong, and if/how you will improve on this project in the future
  • References: Data sources and references

Format

The instructions below MUST be followed to make your extended abstract as readable as possible:

  • Font: Recommended fonts and font sizes are 12 pt Times New Roman or 11 pt Arial.
  • Spacing: The proposal must be doubled-spaced throughout.
  • Margin: Margins should be 1 inch from all sides
  • Length: Lengthy proposals are discouraged, and so are very short proposals that fail to deliver its intended message. 2-4 page max.
  • Style: use short sentences whenever possible
  • Title: You should strive for informative and concise titles
  • Abstract: 150 words or less. The abstract should be complete, informative, succinct and understandable for a reader to have an idea about the problem you are addressing and why this work is useful.
  • Figures and Tables: All figures and tables must be cited in the text. Table Captions should be placed at the top of each Table, and all Tables should be properly labelled. Figure Captions should be placed at the bottom of each Figure, and all Figures should be properly labelled.
  • References: Properly cite references of published literature in the text.

Presentation

Here are a few tips to help you with your oral presentations:

  • Time: Max. allocated time for the presentation is 10 minutes, followed by 10 minutes of discussion and feedback
  • Structure: The presentation should follow the structure of the extended abstract (as mentioned above). It must have clarity of thoughts and proper flow with a clear message for the audience.
  • If you have difficulty keeping to time (either over or underestimating), have some spare slides you can ‘drop in’ or take out of your presentation depending on how time is progressing.
  • Be enthusiastic. Enthusiasm can do a lot to hide nerves and perhaps some content lacking from your presentation. The audience will remain on the edge of their seats when they see how interested you are in your work and will become motivated and supportive of you as well.

Guidelines for Live Presentation

  • All presenters must be registered for the symposium in order to get access to the live sessions.
  • Once you register successfully, you will receive the zoom link to join the live session.
  • We advise that all participants use some form of external microphone or headset during their presentation for better audio quality. We also expect participants to have a stable internet connection.
  • You can access the zoom session using the link provided on all 3 days (June 5th to June 7th). Only participants registered for the workshop will be allowed to attend on June 8th and 9th.
  • When you join the session, one of our hosts will promote you as a panelist. Please accept the request to join as a panelist. You should mute and keep your camera turned off until you are called for presenting.
  • You can unmute and turn on the camera during your presentation slot and complete the presentation.
  • Our host will share their screen to show your posters/presentations.
  • Please download the Zoom desktop client for better performance.

 

Workshop

Introduction to Python Programming

In this workshop, the participants will learn how to get started with python programming language. They will learn about the basic concepts such as variables, operators, conditions, functions and classes. The workshop also covers the usage of tools such as Jupyter Notebooks and Google Collab.

Tools used: Anaconda, Jupyter Notebooks, Google Collab

Getting started with IoT Sensor data collection using database and Python

In this workshop, the participants will learn how to perform data acquisition from IoT-enabled sensors, transmit it to a remote server using MQTT and store data in a server using databases. They will also learn how to set up a MySQL database and use python to write data to the database.

Tools/Libraries used: pymysql, paho-mqtt

An Introduction to ML for Ecosystem Modelling

In this workshop, participants will have a unique opportunity to understand the fundamental principles of machine learning as well as experience a hands-on demo of using a simple machine learning technique to model the environment and ecosystems.

Tools used: Google Collab

Introduction to Geospatial Applications

Geographical information system (GIS) is an applied science and technology which uses the infrastructure of various disciplines to address the problems in the world. The workshop highlights the scope and opportunities in spatial thinking pertaining to its growing applications in various fields and sectors of society. The sessions are designed to involve students in exploring the applied aspects of Geospatial technology. They will be provided with details on methodologies, available resources, software, and other contents related to spatial data collection, analysis, modeling, and visualization with exciting hands-on experience.

Resource Persons

Industry

  • Mr. Virupakshappa H K, Bosch Rexton
  • Mr. Santhosh, Bosch Rexton
  • Mr. Ravi Teja, Sentienz

Academia

  • Dr. V. Susheela Devi, Department of Computer Science and Automation, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
  • Dr. Karthik Sankaranarayanan, Ontario Tech University, Canada & Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Dr. Reka P, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Dr. Ram Kumar, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Dr. Rahul Krishnan P, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Mr. Sai Shibu N B, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Ms. Anjana M S, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Ms. Durga P, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Ms. Liya M L, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Mr. Balmukund Singh, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Ms. Hari Chandana, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Mr. Arjun D, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Ms. Shereena Shaji, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Dr. Uma Gopalakrishnan, Assistant Professor, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham
  • Ms. Lakshmi S Gopal, Doctoral Student, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham

 

Core Organizing Committee

Advisory Panel

Inauguration & Valedictory Guests

Distinguished Speakers

Industry Speakers

Videos

Contact

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