International Conference on Instrumentation INCON 2004 was organized during 19~21 December 2004 under the auspices of Instrument society of India at Department of Instrumentation and Control, Pune Institute of Engineering and Technology, Pune. The focal theme of INCON 2004 was “Process Instrumentation and Control”. The areas for INCON 2004 includes Instrumentation and Control in core Engineering sectors, Agricultural and Food processing, Solar / wind renewable energy, Chemical and Pharmaceutical surfaces, Marine and aerospace transportation, Biology, Medical and Clinical, Robotics and Advanced control, Research and Development, Fire and Gas detection and protection, Building management and security, Smart sensors, Instrumentation on chip / embedded sensors, Neural network applications in Instrumentation, Instrumentation education, Standards and  Practices, Environmental Instrumentation, Instrumentation for wireless communication and  related areas.

As a part of INCON 2004 activity, Pre-conference interactive program (PIP) on Virtual Instrumentation, Distributed Control Systems, Advanced Process Control, Programmable Logic Controller were conducted. Two parallel sessions were arranged in the first and second half on 18^th December 2004.  The experts  / personnel from National Instruments have delivered the PIP on Virtual Instrumentation.  About 90 delegates / students have participated / attended the VI Programme. Mr. Unmesh Buchke and Mr. Rudraksh Kulkarni, Senior Engineer, Emerson Engineering Export Center Pune delivered the PIP talk of Distributed Control Systems. Prof. Ravindra Gudi and Prof. Sachin Patwardhan, Dept. of Chemical Engg. IIT Bombay delivered the PIP on Advanced Process Control.  Mr. C. S. Limaye and Mr. Sudhir Panditrao, consultant, Consulting Process Control Engineer, delivered the PIP on Programmable Logic Controller.  About one hundred fifty delegates, students have attended / participated the PIP on PLC, APC and DCS.  The registration fee for students was waived for all PIP’s.

 On 19^th December 2004 for the inauguration of INCON 2004 Dr. G. B. Pant, Director, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Pune, Mr. Prataprao Pawar, Managing Director and Managing editor of Sakal papers Ltd, Prof. R. K. Shevagaonkar, Professor and Head, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay, Prof. K. P. Madhavan, Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay, Prof. R. S. Sirohi, President, Instrument Society of India and Director, IIT Delhi, Prof. S. Asokan, General Secretary,   Instrument Society of India, Dr. A. A. Ghatol, Director, Pune Institute of Engineering and Technology Pune and  Chairman of Instrument Society of India Pune Chapter and Prof. S. D. Agashe, Convener, INCON 2004 and Secretary, Instrument Society of India Pune Chapter were present on the dais. Due to ill health Dr. V. G. Bhide, Former Vice Chancellor, University of Poona couldn’t attend the inaugural function of INCON 2004.    Five hundred and Seventy-five delegates / students / Research Scholars / Institution Representatives / Company Representatives / dignitaries were present for the inaugural function of INCON 2004.

The inauguration of INCON 2004 started with traditional deep prajwalan.  Prof. R. S. Sirohi, President, Instrument society of India briefed about ISOI activities, Instrumentation activities in India and enlightened   the august gathering. Prof. S. Asokan, General Secretary, Instrument society of India highlighted the facets of INCON 2004 and discussed the significance of focal theme of INCON 2004.

   The conference was inaugurated at the auspicious hands of Dr. G. B. Pant, Director, Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology Pune and addressed Instrumentation fraternity. Dr. Pant has briefed about research activities and facilities available at IITM. He also discussed role of Instrumentation for weather forecasting and Instrumentation would play a vital role for weather prediction. The souvenir of INCON 2004 was released at the auspicious hands of Dr. G. B. Pant.

During the conference various events were organized such as Products and Systems exhibition, Education pavilion and Cultural Programmes and Industrial Visits.

Mr. Prataprao Pawar, Managing Director and Managing editor of Sakal papers Ltd. inaugurated the products and systems exhibition and briefed about the role of Maratha Chambers of Commerce and industries, the importance of Industry Institute interaction, Entrepreneurial development activities for students. In products and systems exhibition the companies offering instrumentation and related services have participated. All the companies have displayed their latest products during the exhibition. The companies participated in the exhibition were National Instruments, Rockwell Automation, TATA Honeywell, Jost’s Engineering, Ascent Technologies, Sarala technologies, APLAB, B & R Automation, Keithley, BSNL, Endress-Hauser, Pyro Instruments, Forbes Marshal. About four hundred students / industry personnel / faculties from various Engineering colleges / R & D Engineers have visited the Products and Systems exhibition. The participated companies were happy with the overwhelming response of delegates / students for the exhibition.

The Education Pavilion (EP) was a unique and multifaceted event organized first time during the international conference. The EP was inaugurated by Prof. R. K. Shevgoankar, Prof and Head, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay and appreciated the idea of EP.  Prof. R. K. Shevgaonkar discussed about the research activities of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bhabha Atomic Research Center and Indian Space Research Organization and education culture of Pune.  EP was a very good platform for what kind of research is going on in various institutions / organizations / linkage between Educational institute and R & D organizations. There were 23 stalls comprising of various R & D organizations, Educational kit manufacturers, Educational Institutions, Book Publishers and students projects. Various organizations and Institutions have displayed their strengths, infrastructure and facilities available. Publishers have displayed their latest titles. The leading participating institutes were National chemical Laboratory, Central Water Power Research Station, Neeshionics, Cummins College of Engineering for women Pune, Maharashtra Academy of engineering Pune, Vishwakarma Institute of Technology Pune, Vivekanand Education Society’s Institute of Technology Mumbai, College of Engineering and Technology Belgam. Ten research students’ projects have participated and demonstrated during the EP.  The enough publicity for EP was given through hoardings, Newspapers, Akashwani Radio. The response for EP was overwhelming.  About two thousand and five hundred students and their parents have visited EP and interacted with various educational institutes.

  Prof. K. P. Madhavan Professor Emeritus, Department of Chemical Engineering, IIT Bombay has delivered key note address on “Instrumentation and Control strategies and recent trends”. Prof. K. P. Madhavan has briefed about role of instrumentation in manufacturing Scenario and new technologies in Process Control. Also discussed about feature of modern plant, emerging need for a knowledge centric approach, Instrumentation systems some issues, Data handling, Advanced process monitoring, Process Control and optimization, Advanced control strategies etc. The proceeding of conference entitled on “Trends in Process Instrumentation and Control” was released at the hands of Prof. K. P. Madhavan.  Thomson Learning printed the conference proceeding.

During conference two panel discussions were organized. First panel discussion was “Instrumentation 2020”. In this panel discussion participants were Mr. D. S. Purohit, President, Jost’s Engineering, V. P. Raman Vice President WARRI, Dr. S. S. Sundarajan, Consultant Instrumentation, Prof. Sachin Patwardhan, Professor Department of Chemical engineering, IIT Bombay. They have expressed their views, Challenges and Opportunities in Instrumentation field. Also discussed about world market of Instrumentation and Instrumentation would be very powerful in 2020.  The second panel discussion was on “Impact of globalization on Instrumentation field”. The participants for this discussion were Mr. Vilas Chitnis President, Control and Solutions, Dr. S. K. Jain Major General (Retired) Armed Forces Medical College Pune, Mrs. V. S. Bendre, Director CWPRS Pune, Mr. Kautubh Oak, USA, Narendra  Kulkarni, Abu-Dhabi. They have expressed their views as research areas in Instrumentation, opportunities for Instrumentation Engineer abroad, Brain drain. Dr. S. K. Jain has briefed about the technological changes in Biomedical Instrumentation.

Dr. Vasantrao Gowariker, Former Scientific Adviser, Prime minister of India delivered second Prof. Satish Dhawan Memorial Lecture. The topic for talk was “Role of Instrumentation in Launching Indian Space Vehicle”. Firstly Dr. Gowariker has briefed about late Prof. Satish Dhawan, Director, Indian Institute of Science Bangalore. Also discussed about sensors / transducers like pressure, flow, temperature, strain, humidity, control systems, propulsion system required for launching space vehicle and shown a simulated demonstration of launched Indian space vehicle. In the conclusion he talked about capabilities of Indian engineers who has graduated from Indian education systems, which is two thousand years old.

 The cultural programmes on Maharashtrachi Lokdhara, Gazals and Classical Music’s were arranged during the conference.

For the conference we received the paper through e-mail as per ISOI standard format. After receiving the papers, papers were sent to the respective referee.  The detail list of referees is included in the souvenir.  All the comments of referees had communicated to the respective authors.  After comments we received the corrected papers from the authors. The sixty-six quality papers were selected for oral presentation and two hundred and forty papers for poster presentation. The details of paper title, authors are included in Souvenir and CD. The chairpersons for various sessions are given in the detail schedule.

Industrial visits for National Chemical Laboratory, Institute of Armament Technology, Defense Research and Development Organizations, Central Water Power Research Station, Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Forbes Marshal were arranged. More than one hundred and fifty delegates have visited the various industries and interacted with practicing Engineers.

 Six hundred delegates, students from various institutions, organizations, and Industry personnel have attended the conference.

The valedictory function of INCON 2004 was organized on 21^st   December 2004.

For the valedictory function Dr. M. S. Valiathan, President, Indian National Science Academy,  Mrs V. S. Bendre, Director., CWPRS Pune,  Prof. G. Mohan Rao, General Secretary (Newly Elected) Instrument Society of India, Prof. A. A. Ghatol, Director. PIET Pune, Prof. S. D. Agashe, Convener INCON 2004 were present on the dais. Prof. G. Mohan Rao read about the citation of ISOI award. The ISOI awards of 2004 are conferred to Dr. M. S. Valiathan, President, Indian National Science Academy for significant contribution in the field of Biomedical Instrumentation and Mr. Arun Toshniwal, Director, Toshniwal industries for outstanding contribution in the development of commercial Analytical and Process Instruments at the hands of Mrs. V. S. Bendre, Director, Central water Power Research Station Pune.  The Laboratory workbook of Medical Instrumentation was also released at the auspicious hands of Dr. M. S. Valithan. Dr. Valitahn has discussed the role of instrumentation, material science, and developments in medical field.  Also suggested platform for establishing linkage between Indian National Science Academy and Instrument Society of India.

Annexure:

1. First announcement of INCON 2004

2. Second announcement of INCON 2004

3. CDs of Souvenir of INCON 2004

4. Delegates Kits

5. Copies of Souvenir of INCON 2004

6. Copies of Proceeding of INCON 2004

7. Photographs of INCON 2004

8. List of Registered delegates

9. Profile of Eminent Persons

10. Profiles of Chair sessions

11. Copies of Lab Workbook of Medical Instrumentation

12. Video CD’s of INCON 2004