An assistant professor at the Alipurduar Government Engineering & Management College has been selected as one of the young associates by the Bangalore-based Indian Academy of Sciences (IAS) this year.

Swalpa Kumar Roy, who is also the head of the computer science and engineering department at the college, is the only candidate who has been selected from Bengal, along with 25 others who are associated with different educational institutions across the country.

The IAS offers an associates programme to encourage youth scientists and researchers. Swalpa, 32, will visit different colleges and universities where IAS will send him to deliver lectures. He will also have to generate awareness of science and technology and contribute to different science journals.

“It gives me a great feeling that I have been selected from a place like Alipurduar by the IAS. It is a major recognition for me and I believe in the coming days, I will be able to deliver my responsibilities,” said Swalpa, who is also in charge of the artificial intelligence (AI) department of the college.

Swalpa, who stays in Alipurduar with his mother, has been working on computer vision and AI and has a PhD from Calcutta University.

Before joining his present post, he was working in Jalpaiguri Government Engineering College, the oldest state-run engineering college in north Bengal.

In 2021 and 2023, Swalpa bagged the fellowship of engineering teacher mentoring from the Indian National Academy of Engineering (INAE).

Also, this year, he got the award of young visiting scientist from the Indian National Science Academy and has worked on several projects for the central and state governments.

“Swalpa has over 3,200 Google citations, with an H-index of 22, which is considered a good one. In due course, we believe his index will go up,” said a senior faculty member of the college.

H-index of Hirsch index is an author-level metric popular among researchers. It measures the productivity and the citation impact of publications of a researcher.

Sourish Sanyal, the officer-in-charge of Alipurduar Government Engineering & Management College, was appreciative of his colleague.

“We are proud of him. The opportunity to work as an associate in IAS will help him to work more on AI,” said Sanyal.