Tributes to late Dr A. W. Deshpande - a pioneer in Fuzzy Logic

Last week, I had contacted Shri Avinash Sangamnerkar, Walchand Past Student ( 1987 batch) in connection with our plan to start Nagpur branch of Dnyandeep Infotech. When I told him that Dr. N. S. Raman, Dy. Director of NEERI has joined us as director, he informed me about the sad demise of his relative, Dr. Ashok W. Deshpande, Retired Dy. Director of NEERI, Nagpur. 

आमचे मामा (माझा अशोकमामाच) डॉ अशोक वासुदेवराव (A W) देशपांडे यांचे २० मे ला अल्पशा आजारानंतर नागपूरला दुःखद निधन झाले. अगदी अखेरपर्यंत सतत कार्यरत असलेले साक्षात कर्मयोगी व्यक्तिमत्व.त्यावेळी श्री ह्रदयनाथ मंगेशकरांनी मांडलेले आणि माझ्या मनांत खोलवर रुतलेले विचार सहजच आठवले,डोळे पाणावले....आणि श्रीमद्भगवद्गीतेतील अर्जुनाच्या मनातील भगवंताबद्दल भाव व्यक्त करणारा श्लोक मी गुणगुणायला लागलो...

#सखेति मत्वा प्रसभं यदुक्तं हे क्रुष्ण हे यादव हे सखेति।                                
अजानता महिमानं तवेदं मया प्रमादात प्रणयेन वापि।।#      

                            
 कल का इतिहास हमारे सम्मुख घट रहा है,एवं कल के  इतिहासपुरुष प्रत्यक्ष हमारे निकट में अपने स्वधर्म का निर्वहन कर अपना अद्भुत जीवनकाल व्यतित कर रहे है।

हम सामान्य बुद्धि से इस कल के इतिहास को आज का वर्तमान मानकर,समझकर वैसी भूल कतई ना करे,इसमे हमारा सहयोग क्या हो सकता है,इसका हमे अवश्य चिंतन करना चाहिये....    

                       #समझेजानेयेआजका_ वर्तमानकलकाइतिहासहै।#

 सौजन्य - अविनाश संगमनेरकर, बी.ई. सिव्हील ( १९८७), वालचंद माजी विद्यार्थी, नागपूर
 

I was shocked.  I knew him personnaly as he was instrumental in giving Post Graduate Recognition for Environmental Engg. Courses in Walchand College of Engineering. I had no contact with him for last few years and felt very sorry for missing him.

He was  pioneer in development of Fuzzy logic for solving complex multivariate problems not only in Environmental Engineering, but all national and global problems in various fields. 

Prof. Deshpande had a passion and mission to propagate the use of fuzzy logic nationally and internationally. All his doctoral students worked only on fuzzy logic related topics.

Few  years back, I had an occasion to attend  his lecture on Fuzzy logic in our college, where he explained the power of fuzzy logic in decision making when the opinions of many medical experts about the cause of heart attack based on analysis reports vary widely. He gave the example of 24 doctors in Pune giving different dignosis reports on the same test results.  The judgement of each expert is influenced by personal experience of such cases and it is possible to get correct  diagnosis with maximum probability, if fuzzy logic is used for accommodating all opinions with varying impressions.

Dr. Deshpande had over four decades of research and development experience and published 140 research papers.  He was the founding chair of Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing (BISC)-Special Interest Group (SIG)-Environment Management Systems (EMS). 

He was visiting/guest/adjunct professor at

• College of Engineering (COEP) Pune. 
• University of Canberra, Australia
• University of British Columbia (Kelwona Unit), Canada
• Essen University, Germany
• University of California, Berkeley, USA, 
• NIT Silchar
  

In the past, Dr. Deshpande was WHO Adviser, Commonwealth Science Council Resource Scientist, World Bank Project Director for the studies on Probabilistic Risk Assessment for Chemical Process industry; also assisted Danish International Development Authority (DANIDA) as a Project Advisor.

He  delivered many invited talks in various universities including University of Maryland, Harvard University, Hope University, University of Aberdeen, University of Newcastle, University of New South Wales, Essen University, Notre Dame University, Tijuana University to name a few.

He has created a ideal role model for environmental engineers to do  research using latest techniques of computing and use the knowledge so gained for solution to problems in other fields and also lead the movement of training and new applications.  

I appeal to all my students of Environmental engineering and our Dnyandeep team to follow his path of constant dedicated work and efforts to disseminate knowledge to the society. 

This will be the real tribute to the great service rendered by late Dr. Deshpande in use of computing skills in engineering and social disciplines.