Research at BITS Pilani

Research is an integral and important part of any higher education system. BITS Pilani, actively promotes research among its staff and students. In addition to basic research, which is the backbone of any applied research, the Institute also gives adequate importance and support to applied research. 

Research at BITS relies on the motivated intellectual manpower pool available among its staff and students. Students undertake research projects as a component of their education programme itself. Teachers conduct research as an integral part of their responsibilities since this enables them to assimilate and disseminate the knowledge as well as generate new knowledge. In addition to this, BITS has devised innovative schemes to enable professionals-at-large to conduct research at their place of work and simultaneously work for the Ph.D. degree of the Institute. 

At BITS Pilani, the faculty are encouraged to publish their findings in reputed journals and present papers at conferences. Support is given to participate in national and international conferences and thereby network with experts from India and abroad. Recently, the Institute has taken steps to provide support to faculty to file for patents if the research is likely to fructify in a commercially viable products or processes. During the last 5 years, BITS has seen a healthy growth in the amount of funding received from different agencies. While most of these are from the government sector, the Institute through its existing collaboration with industries is trying to involve the corporate sector in funding of research projects.

• Promotional Efforts for Research at Doctoral Level

  We take special efforts to interest our students in research. Through various schemes, scholarships and grants, we try and develop students into junior faculty members. Some of these schemes are:

  • Faculty Development Scheme
  • Various research scholarships given by agencies like CSIR, UGC, DST, DRDO and ICMR
  • Seed Grant Scheme of the Institute
  • The Aditya Birla Group scheme for research funding
  • Arrangements for research at centers outside the university like CDRI, Lucknow; ITRC, Lucknow; Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS), Bethesda, Maryland, USA  
  • Ph.D. Aspirants' Scheme 

• Infrastructural Support for R&D

  The Institute through its faculty recruitment drive has been constantly adding manpower at the senior level to provide leadership for R&D and at junior levels to provide research work force. As a result of this effort, during this year, a number of faculty members and students at both these levels have joined. 

  Research facilities exist to support our existing efforts in almost all areas of research.. For example, the Institute has an Animal House (Central Animal Facility), which is a CPCSEA approved facility and a Green House along with a new Tissue Culture laboratory. The areas of energy and environmental studies, fibre optics, computer aided analysis and design, flexible manufacturing systems, digital systems, VLSI and embedded systems, communications, robotics and intelligent systems, biotechnology, drug design and delivery systems, image processing, power electronics, materials science and technology, etc. have been strengthened. A number of PC-Based systems and instruments have been added in various laboratories. Research facilities in areas of CAD, Robotics, Fibre Optics, Microelectronics, Materials Science and Technology, Biotechnology, Drug Design and Delivery and FMS areas have been augmented. Some experimental set-ups for process control and materials research have also been acquired. Various Groups and Centres, under UGC X Plan Fund, UGC SAP and DST FIST Fund have purchased several equipments/instruments. Internet facility has been augmented for providing global information access. Furthermore, Motorola (India) has established an Embedded Controllers Applications Centre at BITS. Tata IBM has established IBM Java Competency Centre and it is aimed at high quality people repository in software technologies. A state of the art VLSI design Laboratory called as Oyster Lab. has been set up. A Centre for Women Studies for gender related research and extension activities, a Radio- Isotope Laboratory, having atomic absorption spectro-photometer, −ραψ source & various radio-isotopes, a Biotechnology Laboratory having modern research tools such as Multi-channel Analyzer, Refrigerated Centrifuge etc., have also been set up to strengthen the research infrastructure. Also a number of machines and equipments have been added to the existing labs. For example, Industrial CNC Industrial Vertical Machining Centre (LMW KODI-40 Klein), CNC Turning Centre (XLTURN), CNC Train Master T-70 (HMT) Lathe have been added to FMS Lab. and facility has been created for CNC training and research. Similarly, acoustic emission equipment, acousto-ultrasonic equipment, microprocessor controlled servo- hydraulic UTM etc. have been added to the Centre for Materials Science and Technology for advanced research in materials area. Also a campus wide computer network – NEURON (Next Generation Enabled University-wide Redundant Optical Network) gives a big boost to research activities at the Institute. A new National MEMS Design Centre has also been established. 

  In the BITS Pilani, K.K. Birla Goa Campus, new laboratories such as micro-electronics, optics, & environmental and applied biotechnology have been added. New equipments such as a Sapphire Laser System, second harmonic generator, optical table with pneumatic support and ultracentrifuge have been procured.