29th to 31st January 2020
Report by Abhay Bansal
The department of Computer Science and Engineering, Amity School of Engineering and Technology (ASET), Amity University, Uttar Pradesh organized the 10th International Conference CONFLUENCE-2020, on the theme of “Cloud Computing, Data Science and Engineering” at Amity Campus, Sector-125, Noidawith the support of IEEE. The three-day enthralling conference was organized in industry partnership with AWS and academically with The University of Queensland, Australia; University of Florida, USA; Western Sydney University, Australia; RMIT University, Australia; University of Canberra, Australia; Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada; Deakin University, Australia; La Trobe University, Australia; University of Essex, UK; Liverpool John Moores University, UK; Iowa State University, USA; ESTP Paris; Curtin University, Australia; University of Salford Manchester, UK; University of South Alabama, USA; CITANDA; Melbourne Clouds Lab and Network N+i Educational Institution, France.
Honourable Chairperson, Amity Group of Schools, Dr. (Mrs.) Amita Chauhan speaking during the Valedictory session of Confluence 2020
Confluence has been regularly held in the last ten years to ignite young minds and to be the change of tomorrow as per the vision of Honourable Founder President Dr. Ashok K. Chauhan, who himself stands as a visionary leader and an inspiration for all Amitians. The summit got initiated under the dynamic leadership of Honourable Chancellor Dr. Atul Chauhan and support of the Vice-Chancellor, Prof. (Dr.) Balvinder Shukla.
Confluence witnessed 30+ international speakers from across the globe including University of Michigan, USA; Honda Research Institute, Japan; Technical University of Madrid, Spain; Deakin University, Australia; University of South Florida, USA; Monash University, Australia; University of Waikato, New Zealand; Liverpool John Moores, UK; Cranfield University, UK; Emory University, Atlanta; Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia; University of Pretoria, South Africa; University Technology Petronas, Malaysia and Open University, UK.
600 research paper submissions were received on the conference theme from faculty members and Ph.D. scholars from across the globe such as United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Argentina, South Africa, Malaysia, Greece, Spain, United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Myanmar, Nigeria, Oman, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Bangladesh, Guadeloupe, and Yemen to name a few. With an extensive review process, 147 manuscripts which met stringent requirements of high scientific quality and significance, originality, and priority were accepted and got registered for presentation during the three days of the Conference in various technical sessions. All the papers registered will be sent to IEEE Xplore Digital Library for publication and all published papers would be indexed in SCOPUS.
The guests of honor included Prof. (Dr.) Parosh Abdulla, Uppsala University, Sweden; Prof. (Dr.) John Domingue, Professor, Open University, UK; Prof. (Dr.) Mike Hinchey, Director of Lero & Professor, University of Limerick, Ireland; Dr. Kazuhiro Nakadai, Professor, Honda Research Institute, Japan and Prof. (Dr.) Bernhard Pfahringer, Waikato University, New Zealand, alongside Prof. (Dr.) Balvinder Shukla, Vice Chancellor, AUUP & Patron, Confluence 2020; Prof. (Dr.) Abhay Bansal, Jt. Head, ASET & HoD CSE; Prof. (Dr.) M.K. Pandey, Jt. Head, ASET; and Dr. Abhishek Singhal, Deputy HoD(CSE), ASET.
Prof. (Dr.) Balvinder Shukla shared Confluence’s vision to promote the spirit of waving the flags of research and innovation in order to infuse one and all with the essence of being the change of the globe and to build a solid foundation in technology. Prof. (Dr.) Abhay Bansal motivated the students to use this golden opportunity through concrete interactions with the renowned academicians.
Through a range of keynote speeches, special sessions like CXO Forum and plenary sessions, participants witnessed new ways to deal with the challenges faced in cutting-edge areas of cloud computing, data science and engineering. The conference highlight was the first ever AWS Workshop on Cloud Computing, wherein it’s speaker Mr. Pratap Singh, a technical instructor at AWS, sparked a sense of motivation in the students by telling them about Amazon’s journey and how it caters to million+ customers, comprises of a vast ecosystem of products and is a part of the leader’s quadrant for the 9th year.
During the Conference, Amity University signed MOUs with University of South Florida, USA; Eastern International University, Vietnam and LOI with University of Waikato, New Zealand to augment the ties between the organizations and profit from the inter disciplinary research. The MoU signing and collaboration session was chaired by Prof. (Dr.) Gurinder Singh, Group Vice Chancellor, Amity University. Valedictory Session was graced by Chairperson, Amity Group of Schools, Dr. (Mrs.) Amita Chauhan. Top officials from Ministry of Human Resource Development Innovation Cell, Government of India and National Board of Accreditation (NBA) graced the event. Amity Researcher Awards were conferred upon distinguished researchers and academicians for their significant contribution in their respective fields. Amity University also conferred Honorary Professorship to following eminent scientists, during Confluence 2020:
| Prof. (Dr.) Parosh Abdulla, Uppsala University, Sweden | Prof. (Dr.) John Domingue, Open University, UK |
| Prof. (Dr.) David Chesney, Michigan State University, USA | Dr. Kazuhiro Nakadai, Honda Research Institute Japan |
| Prof. (Dr.) Frada Burstein, Monash University, Australia | Dr. Sushil Chandra, Scientist ‘G’- INMAS, DRDO, Delhi |
| Prof. (Dr.) Bhuvanesh Unhelkar, University of South Florida, USA | Prof. (Dr.) Shanika Karunasekra, Melbourne University, Australia |
| Prof. (Dr.) Bernhard Pfahringer, University of Waikato, New Zealand | Prof. (Dr.) Ankit Agrawal, Northwestern University, USA |
The colloquium concluded by presenting leadership awards to the leaders in business excellence from Microsoft, ASUS, Inxee, Gesture Research, Lakshmi Kumaran & Sridharan Attorneys, Nokia, SSRX, Hungama Digital and THALES India. Showcasing the heritage of India, the audience was entertained through an exceptionally well performed series of cultural events. Further, to help foreign delegates explore and get a taste of the diverse Indian culture, the university arranged a trip to Taj Mahal, Agra.
