Soumyaranjan Nayak, PhD 🇮🇳
Materials Scientist at University of Strathclyde
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Prof. K Narasimhan (my PhD supervisor) taught me Metal forming, Squash and Life. If asked to choose between destination and journey, I would choose the company and that company won’t be complete without Prof. K Narasimhan An avid Squash player, Prof. K Narasimhan has served at Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay for more than 33 years in teaching, research, training and consultancy in the field of Sheet metal forming, Superplasticity and Modelling and Simulation. He served as the head of the Department of Metallurgical Engineering and Materials Science, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay for 3 years. Prof. K Narasimhan has won the best teachers awards many times. His courses, computational analysis of metal forming was the most sought after. I can give part of his success to his teaching assistant Abhishek Kumar, also his PhD student. He is the honorary secretary and founding member of Sheet metal forming research association (SMFRA), originally called as the Indian Deep Drawing Research Group (INDDRG) founded in 1992-93. (https://lnkd.in/ebEwtcjy)Then, Prof. K Narasimhan went to explore additive manufacturing during his 1 years of sabbatical at UNT Department of Materials Science and Engineering. I salute his zeal to learn. My association with Prof. K Narasimhan began in 2015, when I joined his group for my PhD. Never did I know this association would change me so much. After I joined him, he asked me to play Squash, he taught me the rules, shots and most importantly the mindset of a player during the game. Abhishek Kumar, another PhD student in the group, went on to represent Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay at many tournaments outside campus and was a champion of the game. I was mostly limited to winning inter-departmental tournaments. Prof. K Narasimhan is a highly spiritual person. Every year in the beginning of January, he organises Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam Namavali. More than 100 people gather and you can watch the intensely of the puja below.https://lnkd.in/eYGhxF6nI am amazed at the strength of his inner peace, it simply can’t be disturbed. He never lost his cool, a rarity amongst Professors. He smiles everywhere he goes. Prof. K Narasimhan valued life beyond work a lot. He would organise picnics every monsoon. He would instruct us to invite as many people (batchmates, their friends and partners etc.) as possible. We saw him becoming a kid in the waterfalls. He would swim, play, splash for hours. Prof. K Narasimhan is a busy person, he holds many important positions at department and institution, but, rarely he would delay any meetings, he was always available, just a call away. He would often invite us for dinners and lunches. Many a times we were self invited 😂. But the idli and chanti prepared by Usha ma’am, his wife, is unparalleled. Ma’am would often call me to enquire about my health and if I slept on time, I was a night owl. Thank you sir.
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Mohammad Kadir
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Very informative
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Soumyaranjan Nayak, PhD 🇮🇳
Materials Scientist at University of Strathclyde
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Dear Master’s and Bachelor’s students, who are keen on PhD🎓, be it abroad or in India, this post should act as an eye opener 🔍..Just don’t jump into any PhD program only because you have a master’s/bachelor’s degree and you got selected in an institute.Just don’t jump into a program because you feel the tag of being “unemployed” will hurt your or your family’s reputation. Don’t give in to the societal pressure, until and unless, you are sure of 4-5 years of funding, just don’t go into any program. Managing PhD is stressful, managing a PhD without funding or irregular pay is awful. I wish there was a special place in hell for supervisors who push their students into this condition. Before you join it’s important to ask the supervisors about the funding and will there be any help in case there is a delay in completion. Rather work as a project staff/assistant in any lab for a year or so to improve your profile and keep on applying till you reach the very best place, where you are sure that you just need to worry about your work and system will take care of payments.
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Soumyaranjan Nayak, PhD 🇮🇳
Materials Scientist at University of Strathclyde
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Tweeting your research paper boosts engagement but not citations nature.comPosting about a research paper doesn’t increase its citation rate, though the visibility of the group or individual increaseshttps://lnkd.in/eeesiJK2
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Soumyaranjan Nayak, PhD 🇮🇳
Materials Scientist at University of Strathclyde
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~PhD admissions~“The world has enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.”―Mahatma GandhiLet's bell the cat!The astounding number of PhD recruitment drives that flood my feed everyday concerns me. Are we heading for a "degree inflation", where a person is recruited for a jobs that don't require a PhD and is simultaneously paid less, a thing that we should ponder about. Is anyone even looking into the data what the candidates are doing after a PhD, are they into some meaningful and worthwhile engagements? We should also acknowledge that a supervisor is no super-human being and there is a human limitation to how many PhD candidates a supervisor can effectively manage and guide. It is here the greed crops in and welfare of a PhD candidate takes a backseat. Somethings the supervisors should question themselves (but, will they?): 👉 Is a weekly/biweekly one-to-one meeting possible with the PhD candidate? 👉 Does the labs have enough place to accommodate new entrants; Can a PC be provided to the them?👉 Are the previous candidates helped enough to reach their goals?👉 Is the mental heath even a consideration, lack of resources and timely guidance can turn any bright candidate dull and depressed.For a supervisor, guiding a PhD is just an academic job- which benefits their profile the most- but, for most the PhD candidates, their family is dependent financially on them and a PhD degree mostly becomes a family goal for a better life, at least in South Asia depending on the family structure we have.So, my suggestion to PhD candidates:👉 Everyone does not need be a PhD, you don't become a lesser human being without this degree.👉 Do discuss with your family before taking a plunge, PhD is a long term commitment.👉 Research well about the condition of the existing and graduated PhD candidates from the group👉 Don't join a supervisor who treats you like a machine#PhD #PhDJourney #Academics #PhDTalks #PhDGuidance(The image is AI generated)
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Soumyaranjan Nayak, PhD 🇮🇳
Materials Scientist at University of Strathclyde
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The twists and turns in my GATE - Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering- journey. It has been more than a decade since I wrote this exam, but the memories will remain fresh forever. I secured an All India Rank of 133/3851 with 40.67/100 marks. Soon after seeing my results, a sea of darkness surrounded me because I knew, anything more than a 100 rank wont guarantee me a M.Tech (Master of Technology) seat in the older IITs (Indian Institute of Technology). Interestingly, my friends who appeared in Electronics, Mechanical, Electrical or civil engineering streams, where they competed with a quarter of a million students ,were perplexed, how can I cry with a 133 rank 😂. I can never forget those tears while walking back to my room in the second floor of Atri Hall of Residence at Veer Surendra Sai University Of Technology (VSSUT,Formerly UCE), Burla.Anyways, I knew my struggle has just begun, so in the application process, I applied in every department in every IIT that I was eligible in (around INR 6-7k was spent in the process). It was a long tedious process with multiple rejections. Ultimately, I had two options to choose from: (a) M.Tech in Maintenance Engineering and Tribology from Indian Institute of Technology (Indian School of Mines), Dhanbad (b) M.Tech in Industrial Metallurgy from Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee. Back then, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee used "relative rank" for candidature selection. Its (your mark/Topper's mark in your paper)*100. Both Mechanical and Production Engineering departments were eligible to apply for the Metallurgy department. Interestingly, in Production and Industrial paper topper's mark was 75 and in mechanical it was 89. Relative marking saved me.Additionally, Metallurgy department, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee conducted an additional written exam and thanks to the book, William D. Callister - Materials Science and Engineering, I could secure 2nd rank amongst all the applying candidates.Finally, I got a seat in Metallurgy department, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee . It has been a long journey since then. And I am happy for the decisions I took and luck played its role. #IITjourney #GATE #GATE2013 #MTech #MTechJourney
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Soumyaranjan Nayak, PhD 🇮🇳
Materials Scientist at University of Strathclyde
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Nowadays, whenever, I read a post about how India has become a "Vishwaguru- a global leader💪🏼", on LinkedIn, I become happy, but the next thing I do is copy paste the content to check if its AI generated. Forgive me for this practice, but it makes me sad that many influencers are too lazy to write a success story online. They just copy paste, a bad use of ChatGPT.
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Soumyaranjan Nayak, PhD 🇮🇳
Materials Scientist at University of Strathclyde
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Today commemorates the anniversary of the submission of my PhD thesis (3rd Feb, 2023). Some of you may notice grammatical mistakes in the email; it's solely because I was just 15 minutes away from the submission deadline (5:30 PM). 3rd Feb was a Friday, and there was a fine to pay if I submitted late. I guess my grammar got fined too! 😄#thesiswriting #phdlife #Ph_inally_D_one
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