BENGALURU: After a gap of around one and a half years, the Bangalore India Nano is back with several new segments to the popular nanotech summit. In its ninth edition, the conference will feature a session on nano-science for the young aimed at making the sector popular among undergraduates, the organisers said on Thursday. It will be held on December 7 and 8 at the Lalit Ashok hotel in the city.
Professor C.N.R. Rao, the main visionary behind the establishment of Bangalore India Nano, said that nano-tech would soon outpace the Information Technology sector in the city. “There is so much interest all around the world that it has become very difficult to keep up. Even countries like Nepal are showing interest in this sector,” he said.
Professor Rao also spoke about the state of the IT sector in the city and said that it was affecting minds as every small thing was referred to a laptop or the internet. “In nano research, everytime we meet, we have a new area to discuss. This past year has been one of the happiest in my life. I have been working on fusing two materials in atom level layers with chemical bonds. This creates new materials, properties and phenomena,” he said.
However, in the field of nano-medicine, the country needs to progress more, he said. Nano-medicine will be one of the focus areas of the event along with nanosensors, nano-energy and nanomanufacturing and scalability. “Outside India, this field has several startups and small scale companies doing research and manufacturing. We need to encourage this in India as well. Last time, we had a few success stories at the exhibition and we need more,” said Professor Ajay K Sood, Chairman, Executive Committee, Bangalore India Nano 2017.
Around 30 speakers will speak at more than 13 sessions and will see the participation of over 500 delegates from industry, academia and research from countries like USA, Japan, UK and Korea. There will also be a Nano SparX contest which will aim at encouraging feasible ideas which can be implemented in a short duration, a statement from the organizers said.