idrp ms/phd july nov 2017 admissions - project details · idrp ms/phd july – nov 2017 admissions...

IDRP MS/PhD July – Nov 2017 admissions - Project Details

Project ID No.

Project Title Description of Problem Research Area

Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-001 Condition Monitoring of power apparatus adopting Multi sensor Fusion technique

Recent times use of UHF sensors for condition monitoring of power apparatus especially for identification of incipient discharges is gaining popularity. It is not alone identification, its localisation has become important. In this project, an attempt will be made to develop variety of sensor and to identify its suitability for condition monitoring.

Advanced Sensors, Instrumentation and Control

PhD Electrical Engineering, Physics, M.Tech in power/ instrumentation

P-002 Aerosol cloud precipitation interaction: Role of changing aerosol properties on Indian summer monsoon

Atmospheric aerosol particles serving as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) are the key element of hydrological cycle and climate. The changing nature of atmospheric aerosols due to increasing anthropogenic activities can have direct (albedo change) and indirect (perturbation in cloud and precipitation formation processes) effect on climate. The detailed role of aerosol chemical and physical characteristics on the properties of CCN and hence on cloud formation, however, is poorly characterized over India. Thus this knowledge gap represents largest uncertainty about the current understanding about the climate change impact on the microphysical properties of the cloud and precipitation formation over India. In the present study we propose the detailed experimental physical and chemical characterization of atmospheric aerosols under the contrasting environments (clean, marine, polluted, semi-rural, etc.) during distinct seasons (monsoon vs. winter) over the Indian region to investigate the impact of changing properties of atmospheric aerosols on cloud and precipitation formation especially in view of Indian summer monsoon (ISM). It is important to note that of late ISM have shown an increase in intensity and frequency of extreme events along with strong shift in the spatial distribution of rainfall. The experimental data obtained in this project will be further utilized to develop the theoretical framework for accurate prediction of CCN over this part of the globe to be used in global/regional dynamic climate models.

Atmospheric Sciences and Technology (Climate science and climate change)

PhD Chemistry,,

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-003 Characterizing the ice nucleating bioaerosols over Indian tropical continental and marine boundary layer

Atmospheric aerosols of biological origin play a vital role in Earth system including ecosystem and climate. They play a major link of interactions between atmosphere, biosphere, climate, and public health. Typically airborne bacteria, fungal spores, pollens, and other bioparticles are essential for the reproduction and spread of organisms across various ecosystems. Moreover, it has now been well established that certain bacteria and fungal spores are effective ice nuclei at much warmer temperature than previously thought; thus having the capabilities to advance the precipitation. The role of bioaerosols in cloud and precipitation formation processes specifically for ice nuclei (IN) formation is very important. The type, diversity, and abundance of IN bacteria, however, is poorly characterized and requires immediate attention over Indian region in terms of better parameterization for improved monsoon predictions under climate change scenario.


PhD Biotechnology,,

P-004 Development of nanocomposite material for outdoor insulators

Power transmission at higher votlages has acquired considerable prominence in recent times. It is essential to develop compact, cost effective and reliable insulating material ( through nanocomposites) which have good electrical, thermal and mechanical properties and to work efficiently in highly polluted environment. This project will be in focus on this lines.


MS Electrical Engineering,Metallurgy and Materials Engineering,electrical/polymer engineering

P-005 Data based Fluid Dynamic Simulation Methodologies

Conventional approaches to studying fluid dynamic problems have either relied on experimental (EFD) or computational (CFD) methods. In all the previous studies, experimental data is typically is used to either validate a model or is incorporated as a boundary condition. In contrast, we propose a data based method where sparse experimental data can be intrinsically coupled with a reduced order, efficient physics-based model to create a high fidelity predictive tool. This approach will rely on time-continuous noisy experimental data becoming available at a relatively few, but strategic spatial locations in a flow field. The data will be coupled to a physics-based simulation tool in an appropriate Kalman filter framework. In this framework, model parameters will be tuned to achieve best overall optimized flow field predictions. The novelty of the above approach lies in coupling classical simulation tools with experimental data, in order to reduce overall prediction computational cost.

Big Data Direct PhD Chemical Engineering,Mechanical Engineering,

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-006 Manufacturing Analytics The current digital era has enabled collection of voluminous data in industrial facilities, be it buildings, process plants or discrete parts manufacturing facilities. The proliferation of affordable sensors also acts as an accelerant for this data collection. However, data is no substitute for knowledge and competitive advantage is gained only when data is converted to meaningful information. For example, information regarding the health of the process residing in the data still has to be uncovered. There are several challenges that need to be overcome if â€œmanufacturing analyticsâ€• has to deliver on the promise of attaining the next level of operational excellence using big data. The first challenge is in the development of a conceptual framework that can standardize the deployment of big data techniques in the manufacturing sector. The current scenario is that everyone feels that big data is critical to excellence, but in many cases, do not know how or why? In other words, from a notion of usefulness to a concrete problem statement is a non-trivial activity and currently tools are not available that help in this process, particularly in the domain of manufacturing analytics. The second challenge has larger conceptual implications. Unlike computational tools developed in other domains such as social media and so on, where these tools are largely agnostic to domain knowledge, tools in manufacturing have been substantially reliant on first principles modelling. However, with the variety and volume of data available now, hybridization of domain knowledge and data becomes crucial. There are several fundamental questions that need to be addressed here. This project will address these fundamental questions.

Big Data PhD Chemical Engineering, Electrical Engineering,

P-007 Estimating Origin - Destination Demand

Data driven estimation of the Origin-Destination matrix using a model free approach. Traditional OD estimation approaches rely heavily on traffic flow and route assignment models. In contrast, the proposed research envisages a purely data-driven framework. . In particular, the proposed methodology will be designed to simultaneously reconcile multiple sources of data, such as link counts, bluetooth IDs, GPS traces, and Call Detail Records (CDR). Notably, the proposed work will obviate modeling-heavy approaches such as assuming a Dynamic User Equilibrium (DUE) of the network-wide traffic flow. We also aim to bypass computationally-heavy modules such as Dynamic Traffic Assignment in the O & D estimation procedure, depending instead on the available data itself to infer the assignment of traffic over paths.

Big Data MS Electrical Engineering,Computer Science and Engineering,

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-008 Dynamic repositioning strategy for emergency medical vehicles

Emergency medical vehicles are located based on call demand as well as convenience. The call demands exhibit seasonal as well as daily patterns. There is significant scope to reduce response times by strategically repositioning ambulances throughout a day. We will be working closely with the emergency medical response team from Tamil Nadu on real-world data for mapping call patterns and determining dynamic repositioning strategies using OR and simulation based models.

Big Data MS Management Studies,Computer Science and Engineering,Operations Research / Industrial Engg

P-009 Application of polymer thin film as an assay based biosensor

Solvent responsive biopolymer thin films with engineered matrix characteristics can accomplish desirable shape changing properties such as self-folding. Self-folding response or behaviour of thin film is characterized by its nature of folding, total folding time and rate of folding. This self-folding behaviour can be applied to sense different biological species present in a solvent. The folding of the film is decided by the diffusion characteristics of solvent molecules inside polymer matrix and also the mechanical properties of the matrix. The polymer thin film matrix itself can also be applied as a site of binding for ligands with receptors or other small molecules. This binding can result into change in diffusion characteristics and mechanical properties which in turn can affect the folding nature. Thus, the specific receptor or binding molecules can be sensed. This biodegradable and biocompatible thin film can potentially function as an inexpensive alternative to different pathological tests.

Biological Engineering

MS Biotechnology,Chemistry,Polymer Chemistry

P-010 Environmentally-benign Ionic Liquids for Enhanced DNA/Protein Stability and Oil Recovery

Ionic liquids (ILs) are new class of solvents that are finding myriad of applications. However, the use of ILs in biological applications and in petroleum industry is very limited. We propose to explore the use of ILs in stabilizing DNA and proteins for long-periods. A series of ILs will be tested on DNA and proteins of different family for their long-term storage and to understand the mechanism of IL-biomolecule interactions. Recent reports have shown that ILs can be a good alternative to the conventional surfactants in various upstream petroleum engineering applications, such as drilling fluids, fracturing fluids, and in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) methods. Hence, we also propose to explore a range of ILs and find the specific ILs best for drilling fluid design, EOR and as demulsifiers of water-in-crude oil emulsions.

Biological Engineering

PhD Chemistry,Physics,Chemical Engineering

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-011 Optical and Acoustic Investigation of Thermoacoustic Instability as a Pattern Formation in a System Far from Equilibrium

Objectives and scope Interaction of flow, combustion and sound in aero-engines, rockets and industrial burners often results in thermoacoustic instabilities that produce high-amplitude sound waves. High amplitude sound pressure levels in these systems result in high levels of vibrations and heat transfer causing serious structural and thermal damage to these systems. In spite of the available traditional studies of such thermoacoustic instabilities involving setting up network models and examining the complex eigenvalues of the model to look for exponential growth of disturbances, there exist open issues in the understanding of mechanisms underlying the generation of thermoacoustic instabilities or their robust prediction. A novel approach is envisaged in this work, using the tools from dynamical systems and complex systems theory, providing a better understanding of thermoacoustic instability in turbulent combustors. Recently we have shown that the stable operation is not really a fixed point, and corresponds to combustion noise, which is chaotic. We have shown that intermittent fluctuations presage violent oscillations in confined turbulent reactive flow systems, the measure of complexity of which can provide an early warning signal. We defined the onset of thermoacoustic instability as a loss of multifractality. We then proceeded to analyze the complexity using complex network theory. We showed that the network representing combustion noise has a scale-free structure. At the onset of thermoacoustic instability, the network transitions to a regular network. We were also able to devise precursors for the onset of an impending thermoacoustic instability. We also generalized our findings to aeroacoustics and aeroelasticity. Methodology Appropriate acoustic and optical techniques such as acoustic pressure measurements using microphones and optical measurements such as high speed PIV and chemiluminescence using high speed digital imaging will be used to do this in the context of laboratory combustors that have turbulent flow.

Combustion PhD Physics,Aerospace Engineering,

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-012 Development of Immersed Boundary Method (IBM) with coupled Level Set and Volume of Fluid Method (CLVOF)

BM is developed to address the issue related to grid generation in Body Fitted coordinates. They are extensively used for moving geometries. Level Set method and Volume of Fluid Method are respectively interface tracking and capturing method. Each one of them have their merits and demerits in terms of satisfaction of continuity, discontinuity in the property across the interface and exact interface itself. The idea is to bring the merits of both the methods together by combining the two methods appropriately, which is refereed as Coupled Level Set and Volume of Fluid Method. In the proposed topic it is envisaged to develop a method and the code to incorporate IBM into CLVOF for moving boundary problems. Such a scheme will enable to study insects/birds/objectives moving through air and water and vice voce.

Computational Engineering

PhD;Direct PhD

Mechanical Engineering,Aerospace Engineering,Mathematics / Computational Knowledge

P-013 Materials ontology for knowledge representation in materials engineering domain

Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) is an emerging paradigm in the broad area of materials engineering where the effort is to reduce the time scale for development of engineered products. Apart from multi-scale modeling (vertical integration), through process simulation (horizontal integration) and soft computing techniques (reverse query), the aspect that is being addressed of late relates to ontology / knowledge representation. This aspect takes advantage of the developments in the computer science domain where the ecosystem is fast maturing with OWL 2.0 standard, SPARQL, SWRL, multiple reasoning engines, tools such as Protege. These developments make it possible today to develop materials ontologies that can also take advantage of meta descriptions of property databases and computational tools used in the materials domain.


MS Computer Science and Engineering,Mechanical Engineering,Materials Engineering

P-014 Modelling of damage in multiphase anisotropic materials

The main goal of this PhD is to model the nucleation and propagation of damage in multiphase anisotropic materials. In particular the project addresses the following: 1. Given a multiphase microstructure, can we predict where the damage (crack) is going to nucleate and the subsequent percolation of the damage. 2. Develop a strategy to design a microstructure that can postpone the damage. Finite element method and phase field method coupled with single crystal plasticity constitutive laws will be used to achieve the goals. The project involves extensive programming and combining physics and mechanics of deformation and failure in materials


PhD Mechanical Engineering,Aerospace Engineering,

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-015 Identification of human central nervous system strategy in dextrous object manipulation

Fine & dexterous hand/finger movements are believed to be one of the distinct features of human behaviour. The hands/fingers are rich in both kinematic and kinetic chains that allows for a large number of degrees of freedom to help in manipulation of objects with the hand. The presence of thumb opposition in humans is responsible for the special dexterity seen in humans (not seen in other species). Some natural questions that follow are: How does the central nervous system take advantage of the presence of excess degrees of freedom? What is the (control) strategy of the central nervous system to realize dextrous movements? It is proposed to find answers to these and related questions through experimental data analysis, especially by developing data-driven models of dextrous movements. The study is expected to offer valuable insights into the neural basis of dextrous hand functioning in humans. Further, this work is expected to help in identifying suitable rehabilitation strategies for people with neuro-motor disorders.


MS;PhD;Direct PhD

Electrical Engineering,Computer Science and Engineering,Mechanical Engineering/Bio engg

P-016 Electrical circuit theory for flow analysis in pipe networks

A pipe network is a system comprising of interconnected set of discrete pipes that transport fluid. The purpose of this network system is to control the fluid flow and pressure. In the field of Civil Engineering, the fluid is essentially water; hence, it is a water distribution network. In order to control the flow of water as per demands, engineers include reservoirs, pumps, valves, etc. in the network. A variety of solution-methods exist to solve the hydraulics in pipe network system for design purpose. On the other hand, the electrical circuits deal with current transport. This field of electrical engineering has got a rich theoretical foundation in the last few decades. Note that electrical circuits and pipe networks share similarities in both their network structure and underlying theory derived from conservation principles. These two disciplines have evolved separately and developed methods and models. It is true that the circuit theory has evolved rapidly and a complex circuit can be analyzed extremely fast compared to a pipe network using available hydraulic theories. Therefore, it is expected that the solution methods developed for circuit simulations, for example, SPICE can significantly improve the analysis and design of pipe networks. Therefore, the proposed research work emphasizes on bringing the circuit theories for flow analysis in the pipe networks. The research will provide a quick solution for pipe network flow and reference for future studies to transfer knowledge cutting across disciplinary boundaries.


MS;PhD;Direct PhD

Electrical Engineering,Civil Engineering,

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-017 Integrated Renewable Energy Systems with Energy Storage

Development of Energy Storage in solar energy based integrated renewable energy systems. Modeling of thermal energy storage for performance and reliability improvement. Exploring various energy storage options for cooling of solar pv systesms.

Energy Technology

PhD Mechanical Engineering,Electrical Engineering,Solar Energy

P-018 Modeling of Fluid Flow through Shale Gas Reservoirs

The depletion of conventional gas reservoirs has shifted the focus of the petroleum industry to unconventional resources. Unconventional gas resources such as shale gas account for a large majority of the remaining gas resources in the world. Unconventional resources inherent several specific characteristics, such as very low porosity and permeability, non-Darcy flow, and rock surface desorption. For this purpose, a numerical model is to be developed to solve Non-Linear and Hyperbolic PDEs using finite-volume technique that models the production of gas from tight shale formations considering various gas transport mechanisms (slip flow, Knudsen diffusive flow and non-Darcy flow) and different sorption isotherms. The gas is considered to be present in the state of free gas in the porous medium (within the shale matrix) and also as adsorbed gas onto the surfaces of the shale matrix. The model is to be developed for multi-phase flow of gas in a two-dimensional reservoir. The Shale gas needs to be produced at a constant bottom-hole pressure and the production rate at each time step is to be estimated. In addition, the variation in block pressure is to be investigated throughout the life of the well.

Energy Technology

PhD Mathematics,Chemical Engineering,Petroleum Enginering

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-019 Development of Marine Energy System for Indian Remote Islands

The potential of Wave, Tidal and Ocean Thermal Energy Converter (OTEC) have been investigated in Indian ocean since 1980s. However, small focus has been given to the islands and OTEC system, which is running presently in the Lakshandweep group of islands. The tidal system is being tried and installation is going on in some places, but not work comoletion report is there. Currently, a project with UKIERI (UK-India joint project, Dr Samad is the key member of the team) is going on to study and design an ocean current turbine for the Minicoy island, while the wave energy potential is still unexplored. The Data of INCOIS (Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services)-buoys were obtained and further analysis is needed to design a wave energy system. Dr Samad is aloso involed in redesigning the turbine for NIOT's wave energy plants. Those needs further fluid flow based prediction. The waves in ocean are irregular and unprectable. Hence, a detailed fluid dynamic analysis is required to propose and model a wave energy system. Hence, through this project, the data obtained from INCOIS will be analyzed and designed for the the proposed wave energy system for the Lakshadweep islands, India. The expertise of wave hydrodynamics and stochastic modeling of Dr Chaudhuri is highly required to analyze the flow behaviour. The free surface flow as well as ocean wave charisteristics will be modeled numerically and the numerical code will be validated against the INCOIS data. Afterwards, the model will be used to find the energy harvesting potential. Hence, the above-mentioned research is multidisciplinary in nature. Once, the project is completed, this will lead to a bigger project and will assist in supplementing ever yawning energy demand of India. Further, the difficulty in delivering fuel to the tiny islands of Lakshadweep will be discarded in the future. The target is to use blue power for the green energy.

Energy Technology

PhD Ocean Engineering,Mechanical Engineering,Aerospace Engineering

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-020 Interaction of Microorganisms on the Wettability of Rock Surface: Application towards Enhanced Oil Recovery

The demand for crude oil and natural gas is predicted to grow at much faster rate. Production from crude oil from matured reservoir pose challenges due to low crude oil recovery. Water-wet reservoirs have tendency to produce more crude oil than the oil-wet reservoir rock. However, due to the deposition of asphaltenes, resins, waxes and higher molecular weight hydrocarbons, the rock surface becomes oil-wet reducing the oil recovery. Therefore, it is necessary to change the surface properties of the rock from oil wet to water wet in order to increase the recovery of oil from the matured reservoirs. Though many enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques are being employed, microbial EOR shows promising use for matured reservoirs. Biosurfactants are amphiphilic molecules produced by microorganisms with a potential to change the surface properties of the reservoir rock. Biosurfactants are found to be low toxic relative to synthetic surfactants, environmentally safe, biocompatible and highly biodegradable. Biosurfactants reduce the interfacial tension between the rock and crude oil. Studies involving the interaction of microorganism on the wettability alteration and their implications for enhanced oil recovery are insignificant. This study will focus on the interaction of microorganism on the reservoir rock surface in the presence of variety of crude oil containing waxes, resins and aromatics. Studies will be carried out on the formation of biofilms with water-wet, intermediate-wet and oil-wet rock surfaces to understand their implications for enhanced oil recovery applications.

Energy Technology

PhD Chemical Engineering,Biotechnology,Petroleum Engineering

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Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-021 Novel carbon-metal carbide/oxide/oxynitride composite based light weight and low cost supercapacitors

Supercapacitors based on carbon-metal carbide/oxide/oxynitride composites can have a favorable combination of power and energy densities. This is because they can have both Faradaic and non-Faradaic capacitances. Furthermore they can be encased in a low weight container to form a high power density supercapacitor. The shunt and series resistance of the device can be tuned to a desirable value using appropriate surface and interface engineering of the nanocomposites. This project entails: (a) synthesis and electrochemical characterization of the novel composites mentioned herein, (b) appropriate optimization of nanomaterials based on charge transfer characteristics and equivalent circuit modeling, and (c) packaging of optimized material to make a supercapacitor with competitive charge-discharge characteristics. This project requires the research scholar to be open to developing a combination of chemical, materials science and elementary electrical engineering skills. Note: The scholar will work in the following departments to achieve the deliverables: Chemistry (with Prof. G. Ranga Rao), Materials (with Prof. Tiju Thomas) and Central Electronics Center (with Dr. Jeevandoss)

Energy Technology

MS;PhD Chemistry,Metallurgy and Materials Engineering,Chemistry, nano-materials science

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-022 Role of surfactants and hydrotropes on engineering behaviour of virgin soils and pillared clays

Many studies were conducted to assess role of ionic- and nonionic-surfactants, and surfactant blends using hydrotropes to ameliorate non-wetting soils, in view of enhancing yield of the rainfed crops. It has been demonstrated that, the degree of hydrophobicity of these soils highly depends on soil texture, particle size, mineralogy and importantly soil organic content present in them. However, not many efforts were conducted to highlight the influence of soil hydrophobicity on its engineering behaviour. In view of this, the present study aims to establish the role of cationic, non-ionic and anionic surfactants and surfactant blends on engineering behaviour of soils for their application as cover liner system of an engineered landfills, and buffer material of a deep geological repository. For this purpose, engineering properties (viz., hydraulic, contaminant transport, gas permeation and diffusion characteristics) of wide range of soils and pillared clays mixed with various surfactants will be assessed. The engineering behaviour of the materials will be correlated with their chemical, mineralogical and surface characteristics. The surfactant and soil interactions in the composite materials will be studied using powder XRD, FTIR, Raman, TGA, DTA, AFM, and zeta meter.

Environmental Science and Engineering

MS Chemistry,Biotechnology,Usage of Analytical Instruments

P-023 Role of Sorption Characteristics of Formation Media in Geological Storage of Carbon Dioxide

To meet the ever-growing energy demands majority of the nations depend on finite amount of fossil fuel sources. The utilization of fossil fuels result in emission of green house gases such as carbon dioxide, methane and carbon monoxide, which are believed to be responsible for global warming. To mitigate this problem, sequestration of green house gases into the geological formations seems to be a technically viable and feasible option. In view of this, the proposed study will evaluate the geomaterial-, brine fluid- and gas interaction properties in terms of sorption characteristics of formation media under simulated in-situ conditions, using high pressure gas sorption analyzer.


PhD Chemical Engineering,Civil Engineering,Biotechnology, Numerical modelling

P-024 Electromechanical properties of graphene-polymer composites

Conducting composites of various insulating polymers with graphene and modified graphene for electromechanical applications will be explored in this project. This involves dispersing graphene into polymers matrix using various techniques and optimizing the processing conditions, thin films and coatings using these composites and characterizing their electromechanical behaviour.

Material Science and Technology

PhD Chemical Engineering,Metallurgy and Materials Engineering,Mechanical engineering

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-025 Molecular engineering of substituted porphyrins for their application in dye-sensitized solar cells

The proposed project involves the design and synthesis of a new class of porphyrin dyes for their application in dye-sensitized solar cells, DSSCs. The synthetic porphyrin analogues are potentially useful molecular candidates because of their extended pi-electron conjugation and bear close resemblance to photosynthetic pigments (chlorophylls). In recent years, it is reported that the use of push pull porphyrins as sensitisers in DSSCs exhibited high (~13 %) photocurrent conversion efficiency (PCE). Molecular engineering of the porphyrin dyes is the topic of research in this project (Figure 1) with emphasis on three key factors. (1) The appended substituents at the peripheral (beta-pyrrole) and meso-phenyl positions supposed to induce push-pull effect on the porphyrin pi-system, (2) To enhance the porphyrin pi-conjugation to shift its electronic absorption spectrum to the NIR region and (3) These substituted porphyrins could provide robust stability under environmental and photo-irradiation conditions with long DSSC life having high PCEs. The synthesis, characterization and physicochemical properties of porphyrin dyes will be performed by the Ph.D. student under Prof. Bhyrappa group (Guide 1, Dept. Chemistry, IITMadras) and the device fabrication and testing of the DSSCs using porphyrin sensitizers will be carried out by the same student in Prof. Sudakar Chandran laboratory (Guide 2, Dept. of Physics, IITMadras). The prerequisite of the Ph. D student for this project is M.Sc. in Chemistry (or specialization in organic chemistry).


PhD;Direct PhD

Chemistry,Physics,M. Sc., Chemistry (or organic chemistry)

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Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-026 Femtosecond laser micro machining

The research scholar will be carrying out a fundamental study of femtosecond laser-material interactions, with a specific focus on the development of high energy femtosecond fiber lasers and its characterisation.


MS Electrical Engineering,Physics,

P-027 Interactions between grain boundaries and elastic waves in solids

Polycrystalline materials are made up of single crystallites (grains) and characterized by grain size distribution. The grain boundary regions in a polycrystal are known to play a significant role in several areas of materials physics. However, these grain boundary regions are complex structures and their role is not very well understood. Specifically, the manner by which grain size distribution and grain boundaries affect elastic wave propagation and heat conduction is not clear. The project envisages (a) computational realizations of grain-boundaries, and (b) dealing with the elastic wave interactions with grain boundaries through a hybrid approach combining the frameworks of molecular dynamics (MD) and of Finite Element Method (FEM).


MS Metallurgy and Materials Engineering,Physics,Mechanical Engineering

P-028 Development of Compatible Polymer and Bitumen Blends

Bitumen is the ubiquitous road construction material used in more than 90% of highways and runways. Bitumen is the by-product of refinery processing of crude oil. Since the chemical composition of the crude oils varies from source to source, the quality of the bitumen used also varies. To ensure that such variations do not drastically affect the expected performance of bitumen in real-world applications, modification using a wide variety of polymeric compounds is carried out. These polymers could be thermoplastic elastomer, plastomer or reactive polymers. One main issue that remains unresolved is related to the compatibility of such polymers with the bitumen. This proposed research project will focus on the compatibility of a wide variety of polymers with different categories of bitumen. Addition of polymers to complex material such as bitumen results in interaction at different levels. These interactions can be broadly classified under physical and chemical interactions. In physical interactions, the polymer swells absorbing the maltenes (mostly aromatics) and results in a three-dimensional network at the macromolecular scale and can be quantified by viewing in florescence microscope. In chemical interactions, new compounds are formed due to the molecular level interactions of polymer with bitumen and techniques such as FTIR have been used successfully. The success of the modification process in terms of enhanced performance is strongly related to the compatibility of the bitumen and polymer mixture.


PhD Chemistry,Civil Engineering,

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Type of candidate

Expected Background

During the production process of bituminous mixtures, polymer modified bitumen is heated to around 180 Â°C and instances of the bitumen-polymer structure breaking down is observed at such temperatures. Most of the investigations in this area ascribe this to incompatibility of the bitumen and polymer compounds and quantify it using empirical storage stability tests. Very little investigations documenting the nature of interactions of bitumen with polymers and the trigger for collapse of this structure is documented. The proposed investigation will focus on finding answers to the following questions: 1. What are the nature of interactions between polymer and bitumen and how to measure it? 2. What is the level of interactions that can lead to stable polymer-binder blends? 3. What is the influence of the nature of bitumen (paraffinic or naphthenic) on the compatibility of polymer-bitumen blends? 4. What is the nature and level of interactions necessary for an optimal performance in terms of requirements from a highway engineer?

P-029 Kinetics and kinematics of microstructures in colloidal systems

Self assembly of colloidal particles at a fluid-fluid interface leads to formation of microstructures consisting of 2D colloidal crystals or grains [1]. The overarching goal of this MS thesis is a study of the kinetics and kinematics of theses microstructures. (i) Comprehensive understanding on the role of both inter-particle and particle-fluid interactions on the resulting â€œcrystal structuresâ€• or 2D Bravais lattices. (ii) Detailed microstructural characterization such as the grain size, their distribution and the misorientation across the grain boundaries. (iii) Compare and contrast with the rules that are generally applicable in metallic systems [1] T Nallamilli, S Ragothaman, M G. Basavaraj. â€œSelf assembly of oppositely charged latex particles at oil-water interfaceâ€•. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science 486 (2017) 325â€“336


MS Chemical Engineering,Metallurgy and Materials Engineering,Chemistry

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P-030 Novel Ionic Liquids for Tribological applications in Engine Lubrication

The lubrication industry needs to be in continuous development to deal with the technological advances and also to improve the performance of the lubricants in terms of efficiency and environmental considerations. It is essential to modify and develop new lubricants for industrial applications. Some of the most recent and promising approaches are (i) addition of WS2 nanoparticles to base oils, (ii) exploring ionic liquids (ILs) and (iii) bio-lubricants. Ionic liquids are promising as lubricants over conventional lubricants because they are available in the liquid form at normal operating temperatures and thermally stable up to about 150 â•°C. They have very low vapour pressures and environmental friendly. ILs contains long chain non-polar organic moieties which can form tribo-films on surfaces. These films can be very stable, and protect the contact surfaces by reducing the friction and wear at interfaces. The formation of tribo-film protective layer also makes them potential additives to replace the existing anti-wear additives such as zinc dialkyl dithiophosphate (ZDDP) in engine lubrication. We propose to synthesize ILs in combination of metal-substituted lacunary Keggin anions of size ~1 nm and five tetraoctyl ammonium cations which should serve as stable tribo-film formation. They are very good anti-corrosive agents as well. The newly developed ILs will be investigated for their performance in terms of tribological properties against steel-steel and steel-ceramic contacts for engine applications. Experiments will be carried out using Pin-on-Disc tribometer rig to evaluate the effectiveness of ILs as additives as well as bare lubricants under boundary lubrication regime for different loadings at room and engine operating temperatures. The friction and wear responses, including wear mechanism, of ILs will be compared with conventional engine oils. The tribochemistry of ILs on the steel and ceramic surfaces will be analysed.


PhD Mechanical Engineering,Chemistry,

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Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-031 Design and development of plasmonic clinical diagnostic devices for tuberculosis

Early diagnosis of tuberculosis of either pulmonary or extra pulmonary origin using a screening test is very helpful in not only early treatment but also control of transmission of the disease. Currently, diagnosis of extra pulmonary tuberculosis is time-consuming and expensive as it involves a laborious procedure of biopsy followed by cell culture and PCR based nucleic acid sequence detection. TB diagnosis based on immunodetection of specific protein biomarkers allows to screen the large number of patients and follow up with more established laboratory based diagnostic techniques, if necessary. The project involves development of a hand-held fiber optic biosensor device for tuberculosis disease screening from blood/urine samples for extra pulmonary TB incidence. The diagnosis strategy involves simultaneous detection of two biomarkers Lipoarabino mannan (LAM) and Antigen85 in serum/urine, which have been shown to have high sensitivity and specificity in TB disease diagnosis. Indigenously developed fiber optic probes have been already established as excellent platform for sandwich assay with gold nanoparticle labels. It is proposed to utilize this technology to develop inexpensive and easy-to-use biomarker based diagnostic test suitable for resource-poor conditions.

Medicine and health care

MS;PhD;Direct PhD

Biotechnology,,Nanotechnology or Biomedical Engg.

P-032 Use of encapsulated microbubbles for early detection of atherosclerosis

The work involves identification of suitable bio-compatible material for encapsulation of microbubbles and ultrasound imaging of these microbubbles. The suitability of these microbubbles for early detection of stenosis will be attempted here.


MS Mechanical Engineering,Biotechnology,Polymer Technology

P-033 Better effective cancer therapy through reactive species rhythm considerations

In the treatment of cancer, the dynamic changes in the intracellular RS levels are usually not considered. Ignoring the rhythms in intracellular RS levels and their entrainment could lead to undesirable situations such as drastic side-effects of chemotherapeutic drugs in unaffected cells, or the ineffectiveness of the administered drug. Thus, planning chemotherapy strategies in conjunction with the RS rhythms are important. This project aims to develop more effective chemotherapy drug administration strategies to effectively entrain the rhythms of specific RS such as superoxide and hydroxyl, through the development of mathematical models and cell culture experiments


PhD Biotechnology,Chemical Engineering,

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Type of candidate

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P-035 Reliability Analysis of Radiographic Imaging Sytems

Radiographic Imaging is a dominant diagnostic medical system that is being widely used for identifying major abnormalities just as in Chest and Bones. However, results have shown wide variations during repeated measurements resulting in avoidable measurement errors. The aim of this project is to analyse the reliability of chest radiographic images using advanced statistical tools and algorithms. The purpose also to suggest a reliable protocol for image acquisition based on the outcome of the project.


MS;PhD Electrical Engineering,Computer Science and Engineering,Instrumentation

P-036 Investigating human grasp strategy in the presence of dynamic constraints using minimal measurement of kinematics

Grasp strategy in humans is much more complicated than in robots due to the presence of excess degrees of freedom in the human system. Success in grasping is achieved by neural control and coordination. We believe that by analysing human movement (kinematics) data along with muscle activity, we can better understand the strategy of human grasping in multi-fingered grasping. This can further help us develop better algorithms for control of multi-fingered robotic hands.


MS;PhD;Direct PhD

Electrical Engineering,Mechanical Engineering,Engineering Design

P-037 Slicon Photonics Lab-on-Chip Sensor Design, Fabrication, and Testing for Biomedical Applications

The waveguide sensor array along with microfluidic circuit will be fabricated in SOI platform. The sensor surface will be functionalized appropriately for biomedical application, such as early detection of dengue.

MEMS, NEMS, Lab on chip, microfluidics

PhD Electrical Engineering,Physics,

P-038 Development of a microfluidic platform for detection of sepsis

We plan to develop a microfluidic platform for detection of gasotransmitters in blood plasma for predicting sepsis. The proposed platform would integrate a microfluidic mixer module with an optofluidic detection module. The micromixer module would mix plasma collected from a blood plasma separation device with a probe. The mixed sample would flow through the optofluidic detection module for detection based on fluorescence. Based on the concentration of different gasotransmitters in the plasma, the fluorescence intensity will vary which will be quantified.

MEMS, NEMS, Lab on chip, microfluidics

PhD Electrical Engineering,Mechanical Engineering,

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-039 Studying structure, composition and charge distribution at atomic scale across bimetallic nanoparticle interfaces to correlate with catalytic properties

Bimetallic nanoparticles have unique optical, electrical and catalytic properties. Moreover, in the field of heterogeneous catalysis, bimetallic nanoparticles constitute a promising type of catalyst as properties of the material can be related with the elements forming the nanoparticles. The integration of two or more metals into the same particle is therefore highly desirable as these materials can accomplish more than one function at the time. Upon metal-metal contact, a transfer of electrons will occur between the metals until the Fermi levels in both phases are equal, resulting in a net charge difference across the metal-metal interface. In this project, the change of structure, composition and charge distribution at atomic scale across various metal-metal interfaces will be studied using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) to correlate with their catalytic properties. Inline holography will be used to study the charge distribution across interfaces which will be validated with the simulated results using density functional theory. Structural changes across the interfaces will be studied using High Angle Annular Dark Field Detector (HAADF) equipped Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM). The change of chemical composition across the interface will be studied using element specific imaging using energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS).

Nano Science and Technology

PhD Physics,Electrical Engineering,Nanotechnology

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-040 Water purification using nanomaterials

Access to clean water is one of the most important indicators of development. This water has to be affordable to make a meaningful impact to the society. We have been studying the chemistry of nanomaterials with the objective of developing affordable solutions for clean water. Creation of affordable materials for constant release of silver ions in water is one of the most promising ways to provide microbially safe drinking water for all. Combining the capacity of diverse nanocomposites to scavenge toxic species such as arsenic, lead, and other contaminants along with the above capability can result in affordable, all-inclusive drinking water purifiers that can function without electricity. The critical problem in achieving this is the synthesis of stable materials that can release or adsorb ions continuously in the presence of complex species usually present in drinking water that deposit and cause scaling on nanomaterial surfaces. We have shown that such constant release/adsorbing materials can be synthesized in a simple and effective fashion in water itself without the use of electrical power. In the current project, affordable solutions for fluoride removal will be developed using similar approaches. The materials synthesised will be characterised adequately with diverse tools of materials science. The materials so developed will be converted to products for point of use applications. The project will need two candidates, one for materials development (PhD) and another for product development (MS).


MS;PhD Chemistry,Chemical Engineering,Nanotechnology

P-041 Arsenic concentration mapping in water and cells using non-contact phosphometry

Technology requirements today require inline Arsenic (As) detection (down to ppb levels). Nanomaterials based sensing platforms provide new avenues for the same. In particular both in-situ (i.e in the water source) and in-vivo (within a living cell) As detection technologies are needed. The latter has value in understanding the diffusion and pathophysiology of As in living cells. A prospective tool for the same is non-contact phosphometry wherein a luminescent agent is carefully chosen to complex with As, and yield a light response, captured via imaging,â€‹ indicative of the local concentration of As. This technology has value to both the water resources and the pharmaco-analytic industry.


MS;PhD;Direct PhD

Biotechnology,Chemistry,Nanotechnology; Materials; Pharmacy/Med

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-042 Development of full spectrum solar absorbing materials for photochemical and photoelectrochemical CO2 reduction

TiO2 photoanodes have been widely used in photoelectrochemical cells for CO2 sequestration, to yield chemical fuels. However there is enormous scope for improving the photoanode material using absorbers that are photoactive, ideally over the full solar spectrum. Work in IITM has shown promise of Cu and (Mo, Cu) doped metal oxides, post passivation, for photofunctional applications. Furthermore the discovery of digestive ripening in binary oxides by Niya et al has opened up new avenues for band gap engineering. This research project will entail use of new full solar spectrum absorbers made in house in a photoelectrochemical cell for CO2 sequestration. Detailed investigations of (a) the electrochemical aspects of the photoanode and (b) chemical and an engineering analysis of the cell will be undertaken. Comparisons with the best competing technologies will be used to drive this project.


PhD;Direct PhD

Physics,Metallurgy and Materials Engineering,Chemistry/ Chemical Engineering

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-043 Micro-Machining of Titanium Alloys using a CVD Nano-crystalline Diamond Coated Tools

Titanium alloys (Ti6Al4V) are extensively used in aerospace industries owing to its properties such as high strength to weight ratio and good corrosion resistance. However machining of titanium alloys found to be a difficult task due to its poor thermal conductivity and hence geometry of cutting tool gets altered by the phenomenon of plastic deformation. On the other hand evolution of miniaturized titanium alloy products in electronic circuits, aerospace and medical application requires appropriate cutting tools to machine these products effectively. In this regard diamond coated tools found to be a suitable cutting tool for machining of this high performance alloys due to its high thermal conductivity and high hot hardness. However commercially available Polycrystalline diamond tools failed its limitation in making complicated miniaturized size diamond tools and hence uniform CVD diamond coatings on miniaturized carbide tools are the cost effective method to perform the machining successfully. Micro milling and drilling are the two significant process mostly involved in the manufacturing industry for shaping a raw material into the final product. Hence in this connection a detailed study on micro milling and drilling of titanium alloy using the nano-crystalline diamond coated tool is very significant to understand the physics of the machining process. Critical issues while machining with miniaturized size tools are poor surface quality, rapid tool wear, severe burr formation and tool breakage. These problems can be encountered by diamond coating due its superior properties such as high wear resistance and low friction coefficient. This research focuses on to evaluate the performance of NCD diamond coated cutting tool for titanium alloy machining in terms of cutting force, tool wear and surface integrity of the machined work piece. In addition to this, at higher cutting conditions phase transformation of titanium alloys from Î± to Î² phase is the important performance parameter which needs to be over looked. This research will be providing a strategy to efficient micro-machine the Titanium alloy using the NCD diamond coated cutting tools for aerospace and bio-medical applications.


PhD Metallurgy and Materials Engineering,Mechanical Engineering,Nano technology

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-045 Evaluating the Power of Intent in Organizational Contexts

Western management approaches involve analytical approaches to understand the interdependence of systems. The resultant theories and models are often associated with short-shelf-life, because they evolved more for expedient resolution of contemporary challenges. Often, such approaches have also resulted in creating ironies â€“ the collapse or public shaming of Enron, Worldcom, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, Volkswagen, etc., to cite a few at organization levels, unmitigated and non-stop conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and Syria at the nation levels. The very concept of separation of the personal from the professional in Western approaches has embedded into them a dilemma that sometimes erupts after reaching disastrous consequences. In contrast, traditional Indian philosophical thought always used holistic approaches aimed at synthesis of diverse alternatives while dealing with problems â€“ personal goals integrated smoothly into professional goals with least ambiguity. The entire Universe is seen to be in harmony and equilibrium with each ripple of change causing the system to move or evolve harmoniously to a new equilibrium in response to the change causing it as well as influence further changes. It is observable that Western scientists have indeed captured this wisdom in le Chateliers principle, Lenzâ€™s Law, Newtonâ€™s Law, etc. The wisdom texts of India are now being used by many leading Western management consultants to bring harmony and peace within organizations and the economy. However, while our ancient wisdom is gaining renewed respect in the West, we in India are still diffident in reaching out to our own heritage for fear of being ridiculed as being â€˜unscientificâ€™. Topic of Research: To establish the relevance and value of the wisdom in traditional Indian philosophical thought â€“ not just to individuals â€“ as is already being acknowledged by many through practice of yoga (focusing predominantly on the asana part), but to communities, corporations and countries as a whole. Aims of the Proposed Interdisciplinary Research: The research work aims at highlighting the altruistic backbone that is the very basis of Indian worldview and thought â€“ the Utopia of every world philosopher â€“ by showcasing how successful models in various management contexts have been nothing but accidental coincidences in relation to Indian wisdom traditions, while failed models were either the result of their erroneous interpretation or flawed implementation.

OTHER (see next question)

MS Management Studies,Metallurgy and Materials Engineering,

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

Methodological Approach: The research is planned to be conducted via structured interviews, questionnaire-surveys and behavioural experiments to reflect game theory. Planned Outcomes: (a) A framework to represent â€˜intentâ€™, (b) assess the â€˜nature of intentâ€™ in the context of management decisions across organizational levels, and (c) estimate the impacts of the decisions couples with â€˜intentâ€™.

P-046 DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF AIR PURIFIER FOR AC RAIL PASSENGER COACHES

Indoor air pollution is among the top five environmental health risks. Usually the best way to address this risk is to control or eliminate the sources of pollutants and ventilate the environment with clean outdoor air. Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) depends on various parameters like gaseous pollutants, particulate matter, bio aerosol concentration and thermal comfort parameters namely temperature and humidity. In proposed project has two parts. The first part will focus on monitoring of indoor air pollutants and thermal comfort parameters in AC rail passenger coaches to characterize the IAQ and human comfort. The second part will focus on design and development of indoor air purifier to control the indoor air pollution in AC passenger rail coaches.


PhD Mechanical Engineering,Civil Engineering,

P-047 Human Safety in Combat and Accidents

Human beings in different combat situations do encounter impacts of various types, which can cause injury and death. It is important to design safety structures of various types that will protect humans against such impact loads. The design of structures involves innvoatin in their structural form and the use of high energy absorbing materials. The effectiveness of any such structure in reducing the kinematic and kinetic loads on the humans also needs to be carefully assessed in any combat or accident situation. The current ID program tries to study the mechanics of impact on humans, in various engineering scenatrios such as vehicle crash, blast loading on vehicles, accidents in sports, accident protection vests etc.


PhD;Direct PhD

Mechanical Engineering,Civil Engineering,Material Science and Aerospace Engg

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-048 Femto-second pulse ultra-precision machining of soft and hard materials

Femtosecond laser micromachining of soft- and hard-materials: Femtosecond laser microprocessing is one of the most flexible manufacturing technologies to create features in the sub-micron sizes. Its ability to accurately and reproducibly produce structures in a wide range of materials makes it an indispensible technology in a wide array of applications such as, microcutting of cardiac stents, microdrilling of PCB via, microscribing of silicon/thin film solar cells, micro-lithography of electronic chips, microscribing/cutting of electrodes in flat panel displays, surface microtexturing of automotive engine parts, precision hole drilling in fuel injection nozzles, microfabrication of MEMS devices etc. The application domain of laser microprocessing is increasing steadily with more advanced ultrafast lasers with millijoule/femtosecond combination at kHz repetition rates are becoming commercially available. Moreover, with femtosecond pulses even the hardest of materials such ceramics can be finely machined. The key feature of femtosecond laser micromachining is the near-zero heat affected zone introduced in the process due to the fundamentally athermal nature of laser-matter interaction in this ultrashort pulse regime. We will work in this project on both: a) Soft-materials such as polymers, as well as b) Hard-materials such as ceramics and silicon. The goals of this project are: To develop and implement a femtosecond laser micromachining system and processes for: i) for polymer-based components and implants such as intra-ocular lenses, and ii) machining of Si-based photovoltaics and metallic injection nozzles.


PhD Mechanical Engineering,Electrical Engineering,Physics

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-049 Synthesis of organic small molecules towards fabrication of organic solar cells (OSCs)

Organic semiconductors have been studied extensively over a couple of decades due to their unique optoelectronic property, in addition to other advantages such as mechanical flexibility, light-weight, large area processing, chemical tenability, inexpensive processing cost, etc. As a consequence, several device applications such as organic light emitting diodes, organic thin film transistors, organic solar cells sensors etc. have shown stupendous potential. Out of them, OLED is already in the market and OTFT and OSC are equally potential candidates to be implemented in low cost flexible electronics. This project is an opportunity to synthesize organic molecules such as non-fullerene acceptors, as a replacement strategy for fullerene derivatives, their corresponding nanoparticles and their blends with polymers as nanocomposites towards fabrication and characterization of efficient OSCs. A part of this project will also involve simple chemical modification of fullerene derivatives with an aim to tune the bulk-heterojunction nanomorphology.

Energy Technology

MS;PhD Chemistry,Electrical Engineering,Physics

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-050 Perovskite: A new generation, low cost, high efficiency solar cell

The emergence of perovskite solar cells certainly represents one of the big scientific developments of the past few years. The highest certified solar-to-electrical power conversion efficiency of solid-state perovskite solar cells has rapidly risen to over 20% under 1 Sun (100mW cmâ€“2) illumination. The intrinsic properties of perovskites such as their broad absorption spectrum, fast charge separation, long transport distance of holes and electrons, long lifetime of the charge-separated state make them very promising materials for solid-state solar cells, yet some issues still need to be addressed before they can be widely used; in particular, their reproducibility and long-term stability. The architecture and working principle of perovskite solar cell is quite straightforward, an electron transport material (ETM, such as nanostructured TiO2) is coated on a conductive substrate (fluorine-doped tin oxide glass for example), and a photoactive layer of perovskite (typically CH3NH3PbI3 or CH3NH3PbI3-xClx) is ideally spin-coated on the ETM and also reported to be deposited using dual-source vapour deposition for superior uniformity of the coated perovskite films . Another layer of hole transport material (HTM) is then spin-coated on top of the perovskite, and a metal thin-film, which serves as the contact, is subsequently deposited. Since their operational methods are still relatively new, there is great opportunity for further research into the basic physics and chemistry around perovskites. There are numerous aspects to be explore in this arising technology likewise, the objective of project is to synthesize and characterize the absorber perovskite material with varying composition, optimizing the individual layers with extensive studies on of electrical properties, detail studies on interfaces and understanding the hurdles and overcome them. The proposed work will covers overall device fabrication procedure and to obtain highest achievable photon conversion efficiency.

Energy Technology

MS;PhD Physics,Electrical Engineering,Materials Science

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-051 Decentralised Traffic Signal Control

Traditional signal design has typically focused on optimizing throughput or delay at individual intersections. Subsequently, the focus shifted to coordinated signals, particularly along arterials with sequence of equispaced signals. With improvements to sensing technologies, actuated signal controllers gained prominence. Actuated signals, were then coupled with communication technologies, to usher in area-wide, centralized signal control policies. The complexity issues associated with centralised controllers have motivated subsequent research into decentralised schemes. We propose a decentralized approach to signal control. The novelty of the proposed research lies in pursuing decentralised control strategies with characterisable stability and performance metrics, specifically under Indian scenarios. The objective is to develop decentralized signal control algorithms using real-time data from localized sensors. Though data is from localized sensors, the proposed algorithms will consider network wide implications as well.

Big Data MS Civil Engineering,Electrical Engineering,Computer Science and Engineering

P-052 Bio catalytically inspired synthesis of Iron (III) complexes and its application for anti-tumor activity and ring-opening polymerization studies

The aim of this project is to develop an efficient synthetic route for Iron (III) complexes with bio catalytic approach for ligand synthesis. The unique chemical structure of iron complexes make them a highly attractive target because of its anticancer potency and its ability to act as a catalyst for ring-opening polymerization of lactides and caprolactone.


Direct PhD Chemistry,Biotechnology,Pharmacy

P-053 Cryptanalysis of Discrete Log Based Cryptosystems

Let G be a large cyclic group with generator g. Then given any element y=g^a in G, the problem of finding the exponent a is called DLP over G. El Gamal system is a public key cryptosystem based on DLP. In an elliptic curve group over a finite field, a similar problem of ECDLP can be formulated using the additive structure of the group. Based on the hardness of ECDLP and ECDHP (elliptic curve Diffie-Hellman problem), the notion of Elliptic Curve Cryptography was proposed independently by Koblitz and Miller. Subexponential algorithms like Number Field Scieve (NFS), Function Field Scieve (FFS) etc. exist to solve DLP on the modular multiplicative group. But on elliptic curve group, running time of the best algorithm is Pollard rho algorithm, which has exponential running time. However Semaev gave the idea of summation polynomials to solve ECDLP. This may give subexponential running time for ECDLP. In this project, we will study parallel Pollard rho both theoretically and experimentally on elliptic curve group. Also we will study the idea of Semaev to find subexponential algorithm for ECDLP.

Security and Defense

PhD Mathematics,Computer Science and Engineering,

Project ID No.


Type of candidate

Expected Background

P-054 Immobilization of Calnuc protein on ZnO nanostructured film for biosensor applications

Calnuc is a recently discovered multiIdomain protein having two EFIhand calcium binding sites. It interacts with DNA, G protein, COX, and amyloid precursor protein and involves in stress response and trafficking. Immobilization of the protein on a stable electrode surface will be an initial step for the development of ITS ACTIVITY. Here we will look at the immobilization of calnuc protein on ZnO nanostructured films to study its proteolytic activity and enzymatic activity. Our work has the potential of (i) enhancing the binding efficiency of the protein on an optimized ZnO nanostructure. and (ii) employing the immobilized calnuc protein as a biosensor. This is our attempt to understand the immobilization of novel protein with metal oxide surface and understanding the electrochemical properties of the ZnO thin film with and without protein attached to understand the possibility of using the ZnO matrix as a substrate to build novel bionsensors


PhD Physics

P-055 Mechanical properties of cluster-assembled solids

Atomically precise clusters of noble metals, protected with ligands belong to a class of new materials. They are molecular entities with precise structures and formulae and are a new family of nanoscale materials. Unusual luminescence and molecular properties make these distinctly different from nanoparticles of the same metals. They can be assembled today to create crystals and many such crystals are luminescent. While structure and properties of these materials have been investigated in the recent past, mechanical properties of these materials are not investigated at all. Use of these materials as tomorrow's building blocks would require their mechanical properties to be examined. In the proposed project, we will synthesize such materials, characterize them and investigate their mechanical properties applying nanomechanical characterization techniques, such as, nano-indentation, nano-scratch and nano-DMA experiments. The results will be understood in the light of molecular dynamics simulations. The results will pave the way for applications of these materials. The study will require interest in experimental materials science with a flair for molecular modeling.


PhD;Direct PhD

Chemical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Chemistyr/Physics

P-056 Wear studies on nanocomposites

Mechanical behaviour of advanced polymer nanocomposites decides the performance of components and structures. Adoption of nano composites, its behaviour and life estimation be studied as part of this work


PhD Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering

idrp ms/phd july nov 2017 admissions - project details · idrp ms/phd july – nov 2017 admissions...

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