Dr. Rakesh Kumar, faculty member from School of Mathematics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), Katra was invited as a resource person in the One Week International Faculty Development Program on “Real, Applied and Computational Mathematics” at PRDS College, Kerala, affiliated to MG University, India. This international FDP was organized in collaboration with Kerala Mathematics Association. Dr. Kumar delivered his talk (online) on “Role of Queuing Theory in Cloud Computing” on 28th August, 2020.

In this FDP a number of faculty and research scholars participated from India and abroad. Dr. Kumar focussed his talk on the role that queuing theory can play in the performance analysis of cloud computing systems. He first discussed the basic concepts of queuing theory, simple single server queuing models, and the Jackson queuing network. Then, he discussed the framework of cloud computing systems, the service models, QoS, and the deployment models. After that he discussed how queuing models can be used to study the congestion situations in cloud computing service systems. It is pertinent to mention here that Dr. Kumar and his research group are currently doing research on the application of queuing theory in cloud computing.

Dr. Kumar would like to thank the organizers for inviting him and providing an opportunity to showcase his work. He is further thankful to Prof. R. K. Sinha, HVC, SMVDU for his constant encouragement and support.

SMVDU Katra, December 2019. Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Faculty, School of Mathematics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), delivered an invited talk in an international conference on Mathematics in Space and Applied Sciences (ICMSAS-2019) organized by Department of Mathematics, NSCBM Government College, Hamirpur, Himachal Pradesh, India, during 29-30 November, 2019. This conference was sponsored by the National Board for Higher Mathematics (NBHM), and Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO). The conference witnessed a huge participation from all over the world, and a total of 250 research papers were presented. The keynote address was delivered by Prof. G.P. Rao, member UNESCO-EOL Joint Committee (UAE). Other invited speakers were Dr. S.K. Pal, Scientist-G (DRDO), Prof. (Dr.) Anil Vashisth & Prof. (Dr.) Rajneesh Kumar from Kurukshetra University, Prof. (Dr.) R.P. Sharma, Prof. (Dr.) Veena Sharma & Prof. (Dr.) J. S. Dhiman from H.P.U. Shimla, Prof. (Dr.) K. L. Verma (Career Point University, Hamirpur), Dr. Tarun Sharma (G.M.C. Kangra) and Prof. (Dr.) Dr. Gajendra Pratap Singh (J. N. U., New Delhi). A number of deliberations were made on the applications of Mathematics in Space, and in applied sciences. Dr. Kumar discussed the mathematical modelling of Queuing Systems and their applications. Dr. Kumar has expressed his deep sense of gratitude towards the organizers of the conference for inviting him in this prestigious conference. He has also thanked the Vice-Chancellor, SMVDU, Prof. (Dr.) Ravindra Kumar Sinha for his support and encouragement.

Dr. Rakesh Kumar, faculty member School of Mathematics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra delivered an invited talk (online) on “Queuing models with reverse balking and their extensions” in the One Week International Faculty Development Program on “Application and Implements of Mathematics” at Hindustan College of Engineering and Technology (Affiliated to Anna University Chennai) on 22nd August, 2020. In this FDP 220 faculty/research scholars participated from India and abroad.

Dr. Kumar discussed the concept of reverse balking in queuing theory, which was developed in 2004 by him along with Prof. N. K. Jain and Dr. B. K. Som. In conventional balking, large queue size discourages the customers to join the queuing systems. In reverse balking, the probability of a customer to join a queuing system is more when the queue size is more and vice-versa. This idea fits well to the real life scenarios like queuing systems at reputed hospitals, reputed investment companies, famous restaurants etc. where the customers do not worry about the wait but prefer the service level. Dr. Kumar further discussed various extensions to the concept of reverse balking. A number of researchers worldwide are now working on this concept, and publishing their work in reputed journals.

Charu Sharma D/o Smt. Ranjana and Sh. Jugal Kumar R/o Ward no. 5 Chowk Chabutra Main Bazar Reasi, District Reasi, J&K who has been declared qualified for the award of degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Mathematics by Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University Katra, J&K. She worked on the topic, “Some Difference Sequence Spaces and Weighted Composition Operators”, under the supervision of Dr. Kuldip Raj, Assistant Professor, School of mathematics, SMVDU. She has published more than 13 research papers in SCI/SCOPUS indexed journals of international repute.

Dr. Rakesh Kumar a senior faculty member in the School of Mathematics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University “Chaired a Session” in the 27th International Science Conference on Computer Networks CN2020 (http://cn.polsl.pl/) during June 23-24, 2020, Cyberspace Gdańsk, Poland. The CN Conference is dedicated to all activities related to computer networks, distributed computer systems, communications and tele-informatics.The conference has been organized every year since 1994. It is the first and oldest one in Poland on the subject of computer networks. CN 2020 was organized by the Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science, Silesian University of Technology (SUT) and supported by the Committee on Informatics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (PAN), the Section of Computer Networks and Distributed Systems in technical co-operation with the IEEE, and consulting support of the iNEER organization. The official co-organizer was the Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics (ETI) of the Gdańsk University of Technology (GUT) in Gdańsk, Poland.

Dr. Kumar has expressed his gratitude towards the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University for providing him the suitable work atmosphere. He has also thanked the organizers of the conference for providing him this opportunity.

Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Senior Faculty, School of Mathematics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), Katra, has been awarded with the Certificate of Official Distinction of the 26th International Science Conference on Computer Networks (CN 2019) for his outstanding research paper entitled, “Transient solution of a heterogeneous queuing system with balking and retention of reneging customers”, co-authored by Sapana Sharma and Vladimir Rykov during June 25-27, 2019 at Gliwice, Poland. This paper is published in the Scopus and Web of Science indexed proceedings, titled ‘Communication in Computer and Information Science (CCIS)’ by Springer. The conference was organized by the Institute of Informatics of the Faculty of Automatic Control, Electronics and Computer Science, Silesian University of Technology, Poland, and supported by the Committee on Informatics of the Polish Academy of Sciences, the Section of Computer Networks and Distributed Systems in technical co-operation with the IEEE and consulting support of the iNEER organization. This conference was attended by a number participants from France, Turkey, Germany, Ukraine, Russia, Morocco, Poland, Italy, USA and many more. Dr. Kumar expressed his gratitude towards the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University for providing him the suitable working atmosphere and supporting this visit.

Dr. Rakesh Kumar, faculty member School of Mathematics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra conducted a national level one day workshop (webinar) on “Queuing with retention of impatient customers” at department of science and humanities, Hindustan College of Engineering and Technology (Affiliated to Anna University Chennai) on 12th June, 2020. In this webinar 250 faculty/research scholars participated from India and abroad. Dr. Kumar would like to thank the organizers, especially Prof. K. P. Uma (HOD, Science and Humanities) for inviting me to conduct this workshop.

On 21st March, 2018 Ms. Adytee Bargotra a passout of 2009-11 batch of M.Sc. Mathematics visited the school and interacted with M.Sc. students. After M.Sc. she did B.Ed. and M.Ed. In M. Ed. she topped the Jammu University. Now she has got selected as a lecturer of Mathematics in Higher Secondary School, Majjam, Jammu. She had an hour long interaction with students and faculty members. She shared her experiences and motivated the students for the career they should adopt. She appreciated a lot the educational environment at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University. Dr. A.K. Das, Head School of Mathematics highlighted the role of such alumni interactions in the betterment of university. Dr. Rakesh Kumar thanked Ms. Adytee for sparing her valuable time to come at School of Mathematics. During this event all faculty members of the school were present. The whole event was coordinated by Dr. Rakesh Kumar.

Ms. Sapana Sharma has been declared qualified for the award of degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Mathematics by Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University. She has worked on the topic, “A Transient Study of Queues with Impatience and Retention”, under the supervision of Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Senior Faculty, School of Mathematics, SMVDU. She has published 03 SCIE and 06 SCOPUS indexed research papers in v international journals of good repute. The work based on her Ph.D. thesis has been awarded the certificate of official distinction in 26th International Science Conference on Computer Networks (CN 2019) at Gliwice, Poland.

Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Assistant Professor, School of Mathematics delivered an invited talk in the 27th Annual Conference of the Jammu Mathematical Society which is held during 15-17 February, 2018 at the Department of Mathematics, University of Jammu. The title of his talk was “Getting Familiar with Operations Research (OR)”. He discussed the meaning, nature, and methodology of Operations Research. Dr. Kumar in his talk cited various real life examples where OR can be useful, like in the formulation of minimum cost balanced diet, in the determination of optimal transportation schedules, optimal deployment of Police personnel, in the management of Construction projects etc. He further talked on the history and developments of OR. Operations Research came into being during the World War II in Britain with the establishment of teams of scientists to study the strategic and tactical problems involved in military operations. The objective was to find the most effective utilization of limited military resources by the use of quantitative techniques. After that a number of OR societies have been formed worldwide for its growth and development. Lastly, he shared some real cases where OR has benefitted a lot the organizations worldwide.

Dr. Rakesh would like to thank Prof. Romesh Kumar (Convener and Head, Deptt. of Mathematics, University of Jammu) for inviting him for this invited talk.

Ms. Renu Anand, Research Student, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), has been declared qualified for the award of degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Mathematics. The candidate worked on the topic, “A Study of Certain Sequence Spaces and Matrix Transformations”, under the supervision of Dr. Kuldip Raj, Senior Faculty, School of Mathematics, SMVDU. Ms. Anand has published many quality research papers in SCI/SCOPUS indexed journals of international repute.

SMVDU Katra: Sehar Shakeel Raina, research scholar of School of Mathematics, Shri Mata Viashno Devi University attended 3 days International Conference in conjunction with 14th Biennial Conference of Industrial and Applied Mathematics jointly organized by Indian Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics and International Council of Industrial and Applied Mathematics at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. During the conference Sehar presented a research paper entitled “On -Normality and -Normality in Relative Topology”. She was awarded with the fellowship from International Council of Industrial and Applied Mathematics for attending this conference. It is worth mentioning that Sehar Shakeel Raina is an INSPIRE fellow and pursuing her Ph.D. under Dr. A. K. Das, Head School of Mathematics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University. Prof. Sanjeev Jain congratulated Sehar Shakeel Raina.

SMVDU Katra, FEB 2020. Dr. Rakesh Kumar, Faculty, School of Mathematics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, Katra delivered a Plenary Talk on “Queuing Systems with Customers’ Impatience and Retention” in the 11th International Conference on “Operations Research for Sustainable Development” held at Janapriya Multiple Campus, Pokhara, Nepal (February 1-2, 2020). Dr. Kumar discussed the mathematical modelling of queuing systems with customers’ impatience and retention of reneging customers. He informed the audience about the usefulness of the concept “retention of reneging customers” in various real life applications. He also chairs a session and highlighted the role of transient solutions of queuing models.

The conference witnessed a huge participation from China, Japan, India and Nepal. Dr. Kumar expressed his gratitude to the organizers for inviting him, and also thanked Prof. (Dr.) Ravindra Kumar Sinha, Vice-Chancellor, SMVDU, for allowing him to attend the conference.

SMVDU Katra: Dr. Sandeep Bhougal, Assistant Professor, School of Mathematics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University, attended the International Conference organized by Department of Mathematics, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar, in conjunction with 14th Biennial Conference of Indian Society of Industrial and Applied Mathematics (ISIAM). He presented a research paper entitled, "Sequential Procedures for the Point Estimation of the Mean of an Inverse Gaussian Reliability Model", which was well received and applauded. Dr. A.K. Das, Head School of Mathematics and other faculty members congratulated Dr. Bhougal.

Dr. Surender Singh, Assistant Professor, School of Mathematics, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU) attended 29th MTMI International conference on “Emerging Issues in Business, Technology and Applied Sciences” at Amity Institute of Higher Education, Mauritius held during 20th-22nd December, 2019. Dr. Singh presented the research paper titled “Some Novel Correlation Coefficients with Applications” and chaired a session on “Soft Computing Applications” during the conference. The conference was attended by eminent experts from different countries like the USA, India, UK, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Mauritius etc. The participation in this conference was supported by Professional Development Assistance (PDA) of SMVDU. Dr. Surender Singh thanked Padam Sri Prof. R. K. Sinha, Hon’ble Vice Chancellor, SMVDU for allowing him to attend this conference, and SMVDU administration for timely processing of all necessary requirements of the visit. Dr. Singh interacted with eminent researchers working on applied and interdisciplinary aspects of Mathematics, and expects some value addition and collaborations in his future research work.