Maheshkumar H. Kolekar
Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, INDIA
Biography:
Dr. Maheshkumar H. Kolekar is working as Associate Professor in Dept of Electrical Engg at Indian Institute of Technology Patna, India. He received the Ph.D. degree in Electronics and Electrical Communication Engg from the IIT Kharagpur in 2007. From 2008 to 2009, he was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Department of Computer Science, University of Missouri, Columbia, USA where he worked on intelligent video surveillance systems. During May to July 2017, he worked as DAAD fellow in Technical University Berlin where he worked on EEG signal analysis using machine learning and deep learning. He has authored a book titled, “Intelligent Video Surveillance Systems: An Algorithmic Approach”, CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, (2018). He served as a Head, Dept of Electrical Engg, IIT Patna in 2013 for one year and Head of the Center (HoC) for Advanced Systems Engineering, IIT Patna during 2014 to 2016 for two years. He served as Professor-in-charge, National Knowledge Network of IIT Patna during August 2017 to Sept 2019. He has successfully completed R and D project sponsored by Principal Scientific Advisor to Govt of India on abnormal human activity recognition.He is serving as Editor, IETE Journal of Research since 2022 and Associate Editor in IEEE Transactions on Multimedia since 2025. His name has appeared continuously for five years (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025) in the top 2% of scientists in the world in the area of artificial intelligence and image processing, according to a list released by Stanford University, USA.
Somak Bhattacharyya
Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi, INDIA
Biography:
Somak Bhattacharyya has received Honours in Physics from Scottish Church College, Kolkata in 2003. Next to it, he has received both Bachelor of Technology and Master of Technology from Institute of Radiophysics and Electronics in University of Calcutta in 2006 and 2008 respectively. He had carried out the M.Tech thesis in Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope of Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. He is the recipient of University gold medal due to securing first position in M.Tech. He had also served as a Lecturer in Academy of Technology in 2009. He received his PhD degree in 2015 from Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India. He had continued as Senior Project Engineer (Ad-hoc) in the Department of Electrical Engineering in Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur for a brief period of 6 months after which he had joined Department of Electronics & Communication Engineering at Indian Institute of Information Technology, Allahabad in December 2015. Since 2016 December, he was working as Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronics Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology (Banaras Hindu University), Varanasi where he is currently serving as Associate Professor since September, 2023. He has published more than 70 International Journals and 190 reputed peer-reviewed International and national conference proceedings. He has received the prestigious Young Scientist Award from International Union of Radio Sciences (URSI) three times: Electromagnetic Theory Symposium 2013 in Hiroshima, Regional Radio Science Conference 2015 in New Delhi and Asia Pacific Radio Science Conference 2016 in Seoul. Owing to his contributions in the area of radio sciences, URSI has conferred him honorary lifetime membership. He has served as potential reviewers to more than 100 journals including IEEE Transactions on Antennas and Wave Propagation, IEEE Antennas & Wireless Propagation Letters, IEEE Microwave and Wireless Component Letters, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Electronics Letters, Nature Scientific Reports etc. He has organized 2020 URSI Regional Conference on Radio Science (URSI-RCRS 2020) in IIT (BHU) Varanasi where nearly 300 delegates were present all over India. Dr. Bhattacharyya is a senior member of IEEE and Optica (Erstwhile, Optical Society of America). He has been elected as the Associate Fellow of West Bengal Academy of Science and Technology as well as Fellow of IETE, Optical Society of India (OSI) and Antenna Test and Measurement Society (ATMS), India. He served as the coordinator of IEEE Region 10 in the Young Professional Group of MTT Society during 2021-23. He has been inducted in the technical program committee of IEEE MTT Society and the first representative from India to be included in the Speakers Bureau program. Under his guidance, IEEE MTT Society Student Branch Chapter IITBHU Varanasi has received the prestigious Outstanding Chapter Award in 2022. Recently, he has received the innovation award in Microwave field-2021 from IEEE AP-MTT Joint Chapter, Gujrat Section. Very recently, he has been conferred with IETE-Smt. Manorama Rathore Memorial Award 2022 and Outstanding Section Volunteer Award 2022 from IEEE UP Section. He is the Honorary Associate of Institute of Astronomy Space and Earth Science (IASES), Kolkata and has been honored as Young Alumni Achiever from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in July 2024. He has been selected as Outstanding Volunteer Award from IEEE MTT-S R10 in December 2024. He has also been selected as Senior Individual Member of Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE) since January 2025. He has also been enlisted in the Travelling Lecturer of Optica. His current areas of interest lie in metasurface, periodic structures, opto-microwave devices, microwave photonics etc.
Abhilash Mandloi
Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat, INDIA
Biography:
Dr. Abhilash S. Mandloi is an Associate Professor at SVNIT Surat with a research profile centered on optical communication and networking, free-space optical communication, photonics, and optical wireless systems. His more recent research also extends into AI and deep learning applications in optical networks.

