DIGITAL RADIOGARPHY WORKING GROUP (INDIA)

Ref: DRWGI/VRR/M-03/08 August 28, 2008

Minutes of the General Meeting of DRWGI held on August 23, 2008 at International Club, Kolkata

The third General meeting of DRWG (India) was held at International Club, Kolkata, on 23rd August 2008. This meeting was arranged in connection with the One Day Workshop on Digital Radiography organised by ISNT, Kolkata Chapter. The delegates of the workshop showed interest in the activities of the working group and 25 delegates took new membership in DRWGI. The meeting started at 16.30Hrs, after the workshop. The meeting was chaired by Sri.BC.Bhaumik, Chairman DRWGI, who welcomed the members. Sri B C. Bhaumik in his introductory remarks stressed the need of pursuing the Working Group activities to disseminate the knowledge of the Digital Radiography technology to the industries, as this new technology is presently being practiced in a few leading R&D institutions in the country.

Dr. V.R. Ravindran, Secretary, DRWGI, briefed the activities of the working Group in the past two years. The inaugural meeting was held at Thiruvananthapuram on August 26, 2006 in connection with the first Workshop on Digital Radiography. The second meeting was held at Hyderabad on December 08, 2006, during the National Seminar NDE2006. Secretary expressed his gratitude to ISNT, Kolkata Chapter for organizing a very successful Digital Radiography Workshop and providing an opportunity to conduct the third general meeting of DGWGI at Kolkata. Also the Kolkata programme happened to be the second anniversary of the DRWGI and it reminds in many ways the inaugural programme at Thiruvananthapuram. Secretary also pointed out that there were a few programmes organized in the related fields at different institutions during this period with participation of DRWGI members, such as National Seminar on Imaging 2007 at IGCAR during April 26-28, 2007, CT-2008 during Feb 15-17, 2008 at IIT Kanpur and Workshop on CR at GE Bangalore in June 2007.

Secretary presented the minutes of the previous meeting and the action points were discussed. The major decisions taken based on the discussions followed are the following.

1. Secretary informed that regarding the preparation of a comprehensive article on DR, a fairly good number of technical papers were published by our members in Journals and Seminar proceedings during this period. But some more effort are required to publish a consolidate document on the subject. The support of the EC members who are working in the field will be used for generating sufficient technical information on the subject. The material will be circulated among the members through electronic media. (Action- Dr. V R Ravindran, V. Manoharan and Sakaranarayanan)
2. Dr. DK. Bhattacharya suggested that the activities of DRWGI should get proper exposure to ISNT and for that the programmes of DRWGI should be notified through ISNT. The minutes of the present DRWGI meeting and a report on the Workshop has to be published in the NDE Journal. In the discussion followed, it has been decided to publish a basic article on DR in the next issue of NDE Journal. (Action - Dr. V R. Ravindran, Dr. DK. Bhattacharya and BC. Bhaumik)
3. Even though it was proposed in the last meeting to organize a Workshop on DR by Mumbai Chapter, it was not materialized, since the National Seminar NDE2008 is being organized by the Chapter in December 2008. A Pre-Conference tutorial in the field of DR has to be proposed in NDE2008. (Action - Dr. V R Ravindran, Dr. B. Venkatraman, BK Shah)
4. Prof. Prabhat Munshi told that the collaboration of academic sector with the activities of DRWGI will be very useful and the new technologies and related projects will excite the students to take up the challenges. Theoretical studies are being done in academic institutions, but the students and researches can see the actual application and get practical experience only from the industries and in this respect DRWGI can act as a very effective forum. Mr. Manoharan informed that in this respect GE can help in providing project support for students. Dr. V R Ravindran informed that project support guidance for M Tech, M Phil and PhD in DR Imaging and CT are being given at VSSC under his guidance.
5. Secretary informed that Dr. Shyamsunder, GE has already offered to organize a programme at Bangalore in association with DRWGI in March 2009. The committee accepted this proposal and requested Mr. Manoharan to proceed with the programme. Mr. Manoharan informed that GE has already organized 3 programmes in CT & DR in the last 2 years and there is no problem in organizing the next programme with DRWGI.
6. Secretary informed that as per the discussions in the last NGC and NCB meetings of ISNT, certification courses in Digital Radiography may be considered soon. The committee proposed that DRWGI has to take action in generating the necessary course material. It is proposed to prepare a draft in 3 months time and a review to be completed in 6 months time.
7. Members suggested starting a website for DRWGI. Secretary informed that ISNT Thiruvannathapuram Chapter website has got a linked section for activities of DRWGI and some details are already uploaded in the site. Members were requested to visit the site - www.isnttvm.org. The minutes of the meetings, technical details on DR and the programmes of DRWGI will be put in the website for immediate reference for the members.
8. Committee decided to have the next EC meeting of DRWGI at Mumbai during the National Seminar NDE2008.
   The minutes are approved by Sri. BC Bhaumik, Chairman.

Dr. V R Ravindran
Secretary, DRWG

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