ASEI virtual convention focusing on Sustainable Technology Innovations explores futuristic technologies
Indian American engineers took a leap into the future as they explored trends and technologies surrounding Space Tourism, Living on the Moon, Future of High-Speed Travel and Air Taxis.
The Aerospace Symposium at the American Society of Engineers of Indian Origin (ASEI)’s 34th National Convention held virtually on Jan 15 &16 “had a Star Trek like feeling,” according to a press release.
The convention focusing on Sustainable Technology Innovations (STI-2022) with three mini-conferences and over 35 speakers opened with the Aerospace Symposium and Youth Technology Exposition.
It also featured a power-packed CXO Summit with a number of C-Suite executives sharing their views with over 500 participants from many countries spread across three continents.
Read: Indian American engineers hosting virtual 34th annual convention (January 14, 2022)
The convention began with a welcome address by the ASEI president and convention chair Piyush Malik and a keynote address by former NASA Administrator Dr. Michael D. Griffin who shared his personal stories including those involving Indian food!
At the first panel focusing on High-Speed air travel moderated by Dr. Bala Bharadwaj, the participants learned how as a result of six decades of research on supersonic commercial aircraft design have paved the way for a new era in high-speed travel that is not too far from becoming a reality.
Dr. Vik Kachoria, Dr. Kevin Bowcutt and NASA’s Mary Di Joseph engaged in a panel discussion.
Living on the moon panel explored getting most efficiently and cheaply to the Moon not only for tourism, but to establish settlements on the Moon, to live and work there.
This time, it will be mining for the most important, life sustaining water-ice on the Moon, as well as exploring the lava tubes for habitats. Moderated by Dr. David Livingston, panelists Dr. Bhavya Lal, Prof. Haym Benoroya and Dr. Ajay Kothari shared their vision.
During the Space Access & Tourism session, panelists Dr. Kelley Weinershith, Richard French and Dr. David Livingston were engaged in a lively discussion by Dr. Kavya Manyapu.
Read: Take a flight into the future with Indian American engineers (January 10, 2022)
They discussed how cheaper and more frequent space access as offered by startups like Rocket Lab and Astra have shown a path to help humanity benefit from space by their launches of smaller satellites to near Earth orbits, thus helping improve life on Earth.
All these developments of late are what dreams can be made of now. With the advent and successful deployment of reusable rockets, these dreams will be in the grasp of many in the coming decade.
Flying cars have been in many dreams for a long time. The business potential for air taxis is expected to grow to $1.5 trillion by 2040.
All of this is possible now because of new and emerging technologies, including new batteries, autonomous operations, and advanced manufacturing. The symposium was co-chaired by Dr Shreekant Agrawal and Dr Ajay Kothari.
A physical device to help the visually impaired read money using ai/machine learning in third world countries by Nidhi Mathihali from Saratoga, California won the first place at the Youth Technology Exposition.
Second place went to a multistep, ML-based predictor of parkinson’s disease progression using GWAS, patient symptoms, and gene expression data by Isha Jagadish from Saratoga, California.
Read: Naveen Jain gets ASEI Lifetime Achievement award (December 22, 2020)
Third place went to creating a haptic 4D model along with machine learning analysis by developing a non-invasive pressure mapping method to screen genital skin cancer by Sidharth Jain and Aasimm Khan from Mumbai, India.
Dr. Preetha Ram aided by Mythli Srinivasan and Geetha Arun judged the finals.
The final day of the convention featured a CXO Summit where the invited speakers gave talks on latest emerging trends. ASEI president Piyush Malik talked about how Innovation and sustainable technologies are the imperatives for survival in the next decade.
From adaptive sustainable supply chains to becoming carbon neutral to adopting mandates emerging from United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, leaders across industries and organizations are forced to be prepared for the unexpected and he hoped the convention would encourage dialogue as well as solutions in this matter.
Opening keynote by City of Fremont Mayor Lily Mei highlighted how much infusion of advanced technology, AI, IOT etc. have made Fremont grow with safety, sustainability and Innovation into a Smart City.
Veteran philanthropist and venture capitalist MR Rangaswami captivated the audience with his whirlwind tour of 40 years’ journey of Indian engineers from the trenches to the corner office in the US.
CXO Symposium Co-chair Surbhi Kaul engaged Juniper networks CTO Dr Raj Yavatkar in an interesting chat. They answered questions like how leadership fosters Innovation in large organizations and how does one go from being an individual contributor to a technology leader and ultimately a C-Suite executive.
An innovation and sustainability panel moderated by Kunal Sood explored issues like what are public and corporate leaders doing in this realm of sustainability and innovation and how are they supporting the commercial entities within their jurisdiction.
Read: ASEI to have 34th national convention virtually (January 14, 2022)
The two-day event featured keynotes and multiple interactive sessions with prominent business and technology leaders, scientists, media personalities, educators, policy makers, and venture capitalists.