Prof. V.V.S.Sarma Memorial Lecture by Prof. Thomas Kailath in Faculty Hall @ 4 pm

Title: Channel Identification-the evolution of an idea

Speaker: Prof. Thomas Kailath
Professor Emeritus,
Stanford University
USA

Date: December 12 (Wednesday), 2018
Time: 4:00PM
Venue: Faculty Hall, IISc

Abstract: A large class of communication channels can be characterized as linear time- variant systems with bandwidth and delay constraints. My 1959 Master’s thesis at MIT addressed the characterization and identification of such systems from input-output measurements. I found a necessary and sufficient condition for identification, namely that the product of the time delay spread and the frequency spread of the channel should be less than unity. My proof used an idea put forward by Shannon and others that signals of duration T and bandwidth W could be considered as having 2 TW degrees of freedom. In my
thesis, I acknowledged that my proof was not rigorous because mathematically a signal cannot simultaneously have finite time and finite bandwidth. Then in 2006, two mathematicians used new mathematical tools to give a rigorous proof of my necessary and sufficient condition. Since then there have been several refinements using even more powerful tools. I will tell the story of these developments, while trying to keep the most of the mathematics at the level of elementary linear algebra .

Biosketch: Thomas Kailath (B.E., Pune, 1956; Sc.D., MIT, 1961) has been at Stanford University since 1963, where he is now Hitachi America Professor of Engineering, Emeritus. His research has ranged over several fields of engineering and mathematics, resulting in over 300 journal papers, a dozen patents, and the co-founding of several high-technology companies. In these varied efforts, he has been aided by a stellar array of over a hundred doctoral and postdoctoral scholars. Among his numerous honors are the US National Medal of Science “for transformative contributions to the fields of information and system science, for distinctive and sustained mentoring of young scholars, and for translation of scientific ideas into entrepreneurial ventures that have had a significant impact on industry,” the IEEE Medal of Honor, the Simon Ramo Award of the US National Academy of Engineering, the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Marconi Society, and the Padma Bhushan from the President of India. He is a Fellow of the IEEE, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics, and the American Mathematical Society. He is a member of the major US and Indian National Academies of Engineering and of Sciences and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London and the Royal Spanish Academy of Engineering. He has received several honorary degrees, most recently from the Technion in Israel and the National Technical University of Athens, and he has held Guggenheim, Churchill and Humboldt Fellowships.

Inauguration of the event and lecture series will be done by Prof. B.L. Deekshatulu.

Prof. Anurag Kumar, Director, IISc, will preside.

High Tea at 5:00PM

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Professor V.V.S. Sarma (May 1944 – January 2018)

Professor Vallury Subrahmanya Sarma, an extraordinary teacher and researcher, passed away on 13th January 2018 at his home in Bangalore. He is survived by his wife Mrs. Subbalaxmi and three daughters Vijaya, Janaki and Aruna. Professor V.V.S. Sarma was born on May 7, 1944 in Vijayawada. After graduation with a University gold medal in Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry (called MPC) from Andhra University in 1961, he obtained his BE, ME and PhD degrees from IISc, Bangalore. He served the IISc as faculty in various capacities from 1967. He became a full professor in 1983, and continued his service until his retirement in 2006. He was a visiting Professor at the University of Southwestern Louisiana, USA between1984-86 and at Tata Research Development and Design Centre, Pune between 1995-97. He was elected to the fellowships of Indian Academy of Science, Indian National Science Academy and Indian National Academy of Engineering. Post retirement, he was an Honorary Professor in CSA and an INAE Distinguished Professor.

Professor V.V.S. Sarma fondly called VVS by his students and friends, spent most of his academic career at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore. Over nearly four decades, he has initiated research at IISc in the then emerging areas of reliability engineering, pattern recognition, artificial Intelligence and machine learning, which are areas of utmost importance in the industry today. His survey paper in a special issue on AI in management with some new material in IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering entitled “Knowledge-based approaches for scheduling problems: A survey” was widely cited. He has guided a generation of researchers in these areas. His students were drawn from CSA, ECE, Aerospace, Mathematics and Metallurgy departments and engineers from organizations such as IAF, NAL, ISRO, DRDO, BHEL under the external registration program. Many of his students are currently senior professors in universities or senior engineering researchers in Defense and ISRO across India, USA and Canada. With his friends N.Viswanadham and M.G. Singh, he has written a book Reliability of Computer and Control Systems published by North-Holland Systems and Control series in 1987. He co-edited the book “Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems in Indian Context,” published by TataMcGraw-Hill, 1990 jointly with N.Viswanadham, B.L.Deekshatulu, and B. Yegnanarayana.

Prof. VVS Sarma was a very inspiring teacher. He used to enthuse and motivate his students to learn many topics of current research. As early as 1976, when the field was still in its infancy, he taught a course on Artificial Intelligence at IISc. He was a very gentle person and used to be affectionate towards all his students. In the passing away of Prof. VVS Sarma the research community has lost a mentor, an influential researcher and an outstanding teacher. All his students lost a father figure whom they will continue to look up to.