A five day virtual AICTE ATAL Faculty Development Programme on “Advances in Clean Energy Conversion Technologies & Materials for Energy Storage Applications” from 21-25th September 2020 was concluded at Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU). The programme was hosted by the School of Mechanical Engineering, SMVDU, and was coordinated by Prof. Eswaramoorthy Muthusamy and Dr. Yatheshth Anand, and Dr. R. K. Mishra, was the Organizing Secretary. The programme had a huge participation from different Indian states, and from various disciplines of Science and Engineering.

Programme was enriched with the technical talks (15 sessions) by the subject experts from the premier institutions of higher learning such as , IIT Jammu; IISc Bengaluru; Anna University, Chennai; NIT Kurukshetra; NIT Jalandar; NISE, Delhi; Saintgits College of Engineering, Kerala; RGMCET, Nandyal; Kongu Engineering College, Tamil Nadu and SMVDU, Katra. Also, two special sessions on the Stress Management, in the lieu to the ongoing pandemic, were delivered by the representatives of the Sahaja Yoga.

The technical talks were focused on various topics like: Power Plants Marching towards Renewable for Sustainable Future; Advances in direct energy conversion; Solar PV system, Energy system Holistic Approach; Advanced Thermodynamic Power Cycles; Thermoelectric Materials for Clean Energy Conversion; Novel Energy Storage Materials; Solar Thermal Energy Conversion, Advances in thermoelectric; Exergy analysis; Energy Storage Materials Research Insight, Smart Energy System; Energy and Environment and Advances in Phase Change Materials.

The FDP concluded with an outcome based methodology supported with an online examination. The first five scorers were awarded with the text book in the relevant area. The participants also expressed their sincere thanks and gratitude towards their learning.

The Coordinators acknowledged the AICTE ATAL team for providing the necessary technical and financial assistance.

Prof. (Dr.) Ravindra Kumar Sinha, HVC, SMVDU, was acknowledged by the Coordinators, for his adequate support and constant encouragement throughout the programme.