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Manjusha Panthanalil

Lab Instructor, Department of General Sciences

Inorganic Chemistry, organic chemistry

SPONSORED PROJECTS / COMPETETIVE GRANTS

  • SPARC PHASE 3 PROJECT WITH STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY, & University of CAPE TOWN SOUTH AFRICA – APRIL 2024; 24 MONTHS : FUNDING INR 73,20,000/-.

  • CDRF PROJECT OF RS. 50 LAKHS (WITH MANPOWER) – SEPT. 2023- 2 YEARS; PI

 

  • UNIVERSITY IMMERSION GRANT IN 2018 (COMPETITIVE GRANT) FROM BITS PILANI UNIVERSITY FOR ACADEMIC EXPOSURE IN A WORLD CLASS UNIVERSITY.

 

  • RESEARCH PROJECT: CSIR, NEW DELHI, INDIA .

    Completed: 30/11/2015

    SANCTIONED AMOUNT: 10.3 LAKHS - P I and Sole Investigator

 

  • INTERIM RESEARCH GRANT OF Rs. 93,650/- IN 2020 BY SRCD, BITS GOA.

    CO – PI OF PROJECT FUNDED BY MINISTRY OF FERTILIZERS (2007-2010);

    FUNDING: 70 LAKHS (Rs. 7 MILLION)

 

  • 2 INTERNATIONAL & 2 NATIONAL projects submitted to Funding Agencies for Approval


Sponsored Research Projects

  1. New Generation of Sustainable Lightweight Cold-Formed Steel Structures, International Exchanges Scheme Standard Programme 2023 - Round 2, sponsored by UK Royal Society, £12,000 (Approximately equivalent to Twelve Lakh Indian Rupees), Co-Principal Investigator, (Awarded & ongoing) (Oct 2023-Sept 2025).
  2. New Generation of Lightweight Steel Elements for Sustainable Resilient Construction, sponsored by UK Research and Innovation, Government of the United Kingdom, £204,031 (Approximately equivalent to Two Crore & Five Lakh Indian Rupees), Principal Investigator, (Completed) (Oct 2022-Sept 2024).  https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=EP%2FX021203%2F1

Development of Design Codes


Research Interest

  • Cognitive Radio
  • Cooperative Relaying
  • Device to Device Communications
  • Software Defined Radio (SDR)
  • mmWave
  • OTFS
  • Intelligent Reflecting Surface
  • Machine Learning applications for future cellular networks
  • URLLC
  • Resource allocations algorithms for next-generation cellular systems, 5G and beyond... 

Research Interest

Understanding of complex biological processes by integrating data from many inter-related yet heterogeneous resources, which help to improve drug discovery. Sequence-structural analysis of proteins to reveal sequence- and structure-function relationships of proteins. The main aim is rational discovery of molecular mechanisms and sites for protein-protein and protein-ligand interactions. Understanding how protein flexibility, mobility and specificity can affect protein interactions.


Active Student Projects

  1. A graph-traverser robot with obstacle detection.
  2. Wearable Piezoelectric Energy Harvester.
  3. Tangible Notional Machine for Teaching Computational thinking at scale.
  4. Motion Tracking and gesture detection using IMU.
  5. Neonatal incubator.
  6. Automatic Melting Point Detection and display.
  7. Automatic cart-update for in-store shopping.
  8. Personalized language translation system.
  9. Supervisory Control of Social Networks.
  10. Opinion Diffusion in Social Networks.

Ongoing and Completed Projects

 

  1. Joint collaborative project BITS Pilani India and Linköping University Sweden, funded under SPARC scheme  of MHRD, Government of India.
  • Title :Novel sensors for monitoring and reuse of agricultural runoff water (Ongoing)
     
  • Indian PI : Prof. Sunil Bhand (Birla Institute of Technology & Science)
  • Indian Co-PI(s) : Prof. Utpal Roy (Birla Institute of Technology & Science), Prof Gautam Bacher (EEE&I)
  • International PI : Prof. Magnus Willander (LiU, Sweden )
  • International Co-PI(s) : Prof Bengt Danielsson
  • Duration 2 years : Aug 08, 2023, Aug 07, 2025
  • Amount: Rs. 59  lakh

 

2. CSR funding by Birla Carbon (ABG) Ongoing

  • Title of the project : Recovery of resources from worn-out tires for enabling circular economy  
  • Duration: 5 years for 2 full time PhD fellowship
  • Project activity funding : 3 years  (total funding about Rs. 50 lakh)
  • PI of the Project: Prof Sunil Bhand (Chemistry)
  • Co-PI : Prof Utpal Roy (Biological Sciences)
  • Start date: Jan 2021

 

Completed Research Projects

 

3. Joint collaborative project BITS Pilani India and Lund University Sweden, funded under SPARC scheme  of MHRD, Government of India.

  • Title : Novel micro and nano sensors for antibiotic resistance measurement
  • Indian PI : Prof. Sunil Bhand (Birla Institute of Technology & Science)
  • Indian Co-PI(s) : Prof. Utpal Roy (Birla Institute of Technology & Science)
  • International PI : Dr. Bin Xie (LU, Sweden )
  • International Co-PI(s) : Dr. Nelida Leiva Eriksson (LU, Sweden)
  • Duration 2 years : March 2019 to Feb 2021 EXTENDED UP TO MARCH 31, 2022
  • Amount: Rs. 51 lak

 

4. Joint collaborative project funded by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), under   Malaria Elimination Research Alliance (MERA), India  

  • Title of the project: 28S Ribosomal RNA Capture Assay for the Sensitive Detection of Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax
  • Sanction date and duration : Sep. 01, 2020 (2 years)
  • PI of the project: Prof A.K .Das (Biological Sciences, Pilani Campus)
  • Co-PI  : Prof Sunil Bhand (Chemistry, KK Birla Goa Campus)
  • Co-PI :  Prof Sanket Goel  ( EEE, Hyderabad Campus)
  • Co-PI : Dr A Talukdar (Medical College & Hospital Kolkata)Total approved amount. Rs 1.25 crore, 1st year sanction of Project Rs. 80 lakh.

 

 

5. Multi-institute Consortium Project entitled “Nano-based detection of organophosphate pesticides using metal-organic framework conjugates” funded by NASF, ICAR Govt. of India.

Duration of Project: Jan. 2017-Dec .2019 (3 years)

Total amount Rs. 212 lakh (BITS Goa share Rs. 43.20 lakh)

Consortia of BITS Pilani K.K.Birla Goa Campus, Amity Institute of Nanotechnology and Indian Agricultural Research Institute IARI, N Delhi

Prof Sunil Bhand is CCPI from BITS Goa (Department of Chemistry)  

1 SRF supported for 3 years

1 Major Equipment procured worth Rs. 19 lakh procured

 

6. Multi-institute Consortium Project entitled “Development of sensing system for residual pesticide and harmful chemical detection in fruits and vegetables" funded by  R.D Tata Trust, Mumbai

 Duration: Aug. 2016-Jul 2018. (Extended  up to Oct. 31, 2018)  2.3 years

Total amount Rs. 212 lakh.  BITS Goa with a share of Rs. 53.5 lakh

Consortium of CDAC Kolkata, BITS Pilani K.K.Birla Goa Campus, Jadavpur University Kolkata for a period of two years and 3 months.

Prof Sunil Bhand is PI from. Co-PI Dr Gautam Bacher (EEE). 

1 Research Associate supported for 2.3 yrs

2 Major equipment worth Rs 20 lakh procured

 

7. Title of the project: “Development of field portable device for the analysis of contaminant in water” funded by BRNS, DAE GOI No. Ref No: (36)/14/25/2014-BRNS-445  (Up to Dec 2018)

Funding & duration: Rs. 24.138 lakh : 3 years (start June 2015), Staff: 1 SRF

Principal Investigator: Prof. Sunil Bhand ( Department  of Chemistry)  

Principal Collaborator: Dr R. Balasubramaniam, Ashwin Rathod (PED,   BARC) Dr VK Suri (MGM ,Mumbai)

1 portable Equipment procured worth Rs. 5 lakh

1 Patent filed

 

8. National Facility of DAE –Indus II Synchrotron Source: (usage of X-Ray Lithography beam Line).

Novel micro biosensor device for heavy metal analysis in vegetables CSR-IC- BL40/CRS-137-2014-15/1233 for fabrication of micro devices using BL-9 at RRCAT DAE Indore. 2 years PI: Prof Sunil Bhand, Dr Gautam Bacher Co-PI. Dr V. Dhamgaye and Dr G S Lodha, RRCAT, DAE. (2 years 1 year renewal twice) travel and accommodation and equipment time paid by RRCAT DAE Indore. 2014-15 and 2015-16

 

9. Industry Project: A proof of concept proposal on Bio- Sensory Computing for Detection of Pesticide in Tea

CDAC Kolkata, BITS Goa and TRA Jorhat DR-22(5)/XII Plan Project/Bio-sensor/2015. 3 months (total cost 41 lakh) sanctioned in Jan 2016 ended March 2016.

BITS Goa -PI Prof. Sunil Bhand. (BITS Goa share 5.5 lakh)

1 Patent filed

 

10. Centre of Research Excellence in Water, Waste water and Energy Management (CORE WWEM)   funded by BITS, Pilani.

Subproject title: Development of Field Deployable biosensor for analysis of bacterial contaminant in potable water

Funding to sub-project : Rs. 91 lakh, Duration : 3 years (2014- March 2017)

PI : Proj Ravij Gupta (Pilani Campus)

  • Co PI : Prof. Sunil Bhand ( KK Birla Goa Campus)   biosensor

Co-Investigator(s) I: Prof.  Utpal Roy (Dept of Biological Sciences, K.K. Birla Goa  

Campus)  microbiology

Co-Investigator(s) Prof. Neeru Sood  & Dr Turpti Gokhale : (: Biological Science)

1 RT-PCR Roche procured and in use jointly

1 Patent filed jointly with  Co-PI

 

11. International: The Swedish Research Council

Title: Functional composite materials and their application in smart sensors

Funding Agency: The Swedish Research Council   Duration: 3 years (2014-2017)

PI : Dr. Cedtic Dicko, Co-P Dr Estera Dey Pure and Applied Biochemistry, Lund University Sweden

Invited PI: Prof. Sunil Bhand (funding for Exchange visit of PI and researcher), BITS Goa.

 

12. Multi-institute Consortium Project entitled “Imprinted polymer for sensing and removal of selected antibiotic and pesticide residue” Project no. NFBSFARA/PHT-4007/2013-14

Funding Agency: National Funds for Basic and Strategic Research in Frontier Areas of Agricultural Science,  ICAR, New Delhi

Project Funding Period: 1st October 2013 to 31st March, 2015. (18 months)

1 major equipment procured (Prober) about 12 lakh

1 microfluidic setup Rs 7 lakh

BITS, Pilani-KK Birla Goa Campus: Prof. Sunil Bhand (Principal Investigator)

BITS Goa, Co-Investigator (Prof. NN Ghosh)

NDRI Karnal: Dr. Y.S. Rajput (Cooperating Centre PI, CCPI)

IIT Delhi: Prof Sudhir Chandra (Cooperating Centre PI, CCPI)

Total Sanctioned Amount: Rs. 156 Lakh,  

BITS, Pilani-Goa Campus funding share Rs. 54.00 lakh

 

13. nternational Bilateral Project (Indo-UK)

Joint Indo-UK project  under UKIERI-DST Thematic research awards 2012,  “Development and characterization of nanomaterials for biosensors and biocatalysts” (reference number INT/UK/UKIERI/P-41/2013)

Duration 2 years (May 2013-May 2015)

Funding agency: UKIERI (DST and British Council) Amount: Rs 91 lakh

  • PI- UK: Prof Paul Millner (Faculty of Biological sciences)   biocatalysis

Indian PI BITS Goa: Prof. NN Ghosh (Department of chemistry)  nanomaterials 

  • Co-PI BITS Goa:  Prof Sunil Bhand (Department of Chemistry)   nano-biosensors

 

14. Multi-institute Consortium Project entitled “Development of biosensors and micro techniques for analysis of pesticide residues, aflatoxin, heavy metals and bacterial contamination in milk Project no. Comp 4/C10125.

Funding Agency: National Agricultural Innovation Project, ICAR, India & The World Bank USA.

  • BITS, Pilani-KK Birla Goa Campus: Prof. Sunil Bhand (Consortium PI)
  • NDRI Karnal: Dr. Naresh Kumar Consortium (partner)
  • IIT Delhi: Prof Sudhir Chandra & Prof Ratnamala Chatterjee (partner)
  • Punjabi University Patiala: Prof Neelam Verma (partner)

Total Revised funding  ₹  3107.318 lakh (USD 5 Million)

Project Funding Period: Feb 2008- June 30, 2014.

BITS, Pilani-Goa Campus funding share Rs. 450.4799 lakh

 

15. Multi-institute Consortium Project entitled “Detection and mitigation of dairy pathogens and adulterants using chemical biology, Project No. C4/C30032

  • Funding Agency: National Agricultural Innovation Project “NAIP’ financed    by ICAR (Govt of India &  The   World  Bank, USA). Total funding     amount: Rs. 695.7363 lakh

BITS, Pilani-Goa Campus funding share Rs. 91.34975 lakh

Funding period February 2009- March 30 2014

IIT Roorkee: Dr Naveen K Navani (Consortium PI)

BITS, Pilani-KK Birla Goa Campus: Dr. Sunil Bhand (Consortium Co-PI)

NDRI Karnal: Dr. YS Rajput (partner)

 

16. International: The Swedish Research Council

Joint Indo-Swedish project entitled “Validation of field-portable and high       throughput       biosensor    techniques for environmental pesticide analysis”

Funding Agency: The Swedish Research Council, Sweden

Total funding Amount: Rs. 27.50 lakh (550,000 Swedish Kroner)

Funding period: June 2003- Dec. 2007.

Prof Bengt Danielsson (Principal Investigator, Sweden)

Department of Pure & Applied Biochemistry

Lund University, Sweden

Dr. Sunil Bhand (Principal Investigator, India)

 

17. Novel biosensor techniques for monitoring heavy metals and pesticides in  coastal waters and sediments. No. 23(0002)/06/EMR-II

Funding Agency: Council of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), N. Delhi  under  Monitoring Coastal Hazards program”.

Total funding Amount: Rs. 16.5 lakh

Funding period: Dec. 2006- March 2010 (3yrs)

Principal Investigator: Dr. Sunil Bhand, Department of Chemistry

 

18. Project completed (as Co-Investigator):

Preparation and characterization of Nano- Ferrite Powders and Polybenzoxazine-  Nanoferrite Composite, (ERIP/ER/060/5042/M/01/929)

Funding DRDO, Period: May 2007-March 2010,

Duration: 3 years


List of Grants Received

1. 15/05/2024 - 14/05/2026

“Computational Design of Hyperfluorescence Based Narrowband Organic Emitters for OLED Applications (File Number: NFSG/HYD/2024/H0942)” from New Faculty Seed Grant, BITS-Pilani for funding of Rs. 20.00 lakhs(Principal Investigator)


Open-Source Projects

Analysis of Bigscholarly Data – https://github.com/santonus/bigscholarlydata (2014-2019 )

  • Collection of projects to crawl, extract topics, and perform predictive analytics on big scholarly data
  • Data crawled from ACM/IEEE, AMiner, and Microsoft academic graph

CUDA Microbenchmark – https://github.com/santonus/benchmark (2017 )

  • A set of microbenchmark programs for CUDA

Data analysis for vehicular safety – https://github.com/santonus/iot_safetyanalysis (2018 )

  • Analysis of publicly available vehicle accident A part of my student’s masters thesis, jointly supervised from ABB Corp. Research

Dependability Analysis from application and system logs – https://github.com/santonus/loganalysis (2017 )

  • Set of scripts for fault analysis from logs

Predictive Model for Energy Consumption – https://github.com/santonus/energymodel (2016-2019 )

  • Analyses CUDA programs to predict its execution time and energy consumption

Program verification tool – https://github.com/santonus/codeverification (2016-2017 )

  • Python based program verification tool for data race detection in a CUDA program

Library for measuring power and energy consumptions – https://github.com/santonus/energymeasure (2016 )

  • C++ based library called UPAPPI for measuring power and energy consumption of HPC (CUDA, OpenMP) applications

Design Abstraction Libary – https://github.com/santonus/designabstraction (2016-2019 )

  • Extends Thrust library to use shared memory, extends library for 2D data, and heterogeneous devices

Sponsored Projects

Research Topics

    • Molecular Modeling and Atomistic Simulation from Biomolecules to Nanomaterials

1. Theoretical Study of Nano-Materials for Hydrogen Storage

(a) Adsorption study of Metal decorated B40 fullerene for hydrogen storage

(b) Optimizing Parameters for adsorption of H2 on Graphene Oxide

2. Study of Kinetics of Lithiation-Delithiation in Li ion Battery

(a) Designing new two-dimensional Vander Waals heterostructured materials as electrode materials in Li-Ion battery

(b) Correction of Force-field to understand the lithiation-delithiation in Li-Ion Battery

 

3. Protein Docking and Drug Design

(a) Molecular docking studies to understand the binding affinity of human serum albumin (HSA) with Schiff based Cu(II) complexes

(b) Determination of the protein folding, unfolding and refolding of spike glycoprotein of SARS Corona Virus-2 in Rubik’s Cube based statistical model


 

4. Computational and geotechnical studies on preservation of heritage monuments in the arid and semi-arid regions of Western India

Research Interest
Area of Specialization
 
My current research encompasses the area of molecular simulation techniques. The methodologies are mainly Density Functional Theory (DFT), Molecular Dynamics (MD), Monte Carlo (MC), Kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC), Molecular Docking, and Nudged Elastic Band Method (NEB), in order to investigate fundamental properties of materials such as electronic properties, structural phenomena at nanoscale, kinetic pathways, reaction mechanism at atomistic scale and dynamic properties of various types of materials including ionic materials, composite materials, semiconductors, metals, biomolecules and polymers. Different types of softwares like Quantum Espresso, Gaussian, Gromacs, CP2K, Dmol3 are mostly used. Fortran, MatLab, Python based in-house codes are also used a part of the research.
 
My research work and publication details can be accessed online at my Google Scholar page.
 

Google Scholar Link


  1. "Computational investigations and atomistic modeling on designing new two-dimensional Vander Waals heterostructured materials – A new direction of electrode materials towards next-generation energy storage devices", Sponsored by SERB-EEQ (2022), Rs.29,30,400.
  2. "Determination of the protein folding, unfolding and refolding of spike glycoprotein of SARS Corona Virus-2 in Rubik’s Cube based statistical model",Sponsored by SERB-POWER (2022), Rs.25,23,400.

Other Funding

  1. "Development and modification of second nearest neighbor modified embedded method (MEAM) potential for both amorphous and crystalline lithiated silicon", Additional Competitive Grant (ACG) by BITS Pilani, Rs. 10,00,000.
  2. Research Initiation Grant (RIG) by BITS Pilani, Rs. 2,00,000.

Projects

Research Interest

  • Commutative algebra
  • Algebraic geometry
  • Graph theory
  • Combinatorics
  • Game Theory
  • Linear Algebra

Research Projects

Research Interest

  • Statistical Inference for microdata under strong privacy guarantees like Differential Privacy or its variants. Developing private synthetic data generation tools with better convergence rates are my primary research focus.

Sponsored Projects

Ongoing

  •  Synthetic Data Generation from Insecure Microdata (RIG-Bits Goa)

Research Projects

During PhD
Title: Routing Protocols for Mobile Ad hoc Networks
Funding Agency: Nokia Research Center, Boston
Duration:2001-2005
 
As PI
Title: Wireless Sensor Networks
Funding Agency: UGC
Duration:2010-2012
 
Title: Design and Development of CBM of Pipelines using Pipelines
Funding Agency: GAIL India (Ltd)
Amount: 80.18 Lakhs
Duration: 2012-2014
 
Title: Pilot Implementation of WSN for Process Monitoring in GAILs Pipeline
Funding Agency: GAIL India Ltd
Funding Amount: 98.78 Lakhs
Duration:2015-2019
 
As Co-PI
Title: Intelligent Water Resource Management Systems
Funding Agency: Microsoft Research Center
Duration: 2005-2008
Title: Hardware Implementation of time frequency distribution of Mirnov oscillations in Tokamak using the Hilbert Huang Transform
Funding Agency: BRFST
Amount:22.04 Lakhs

PhD Students

PhD Supervision
 
Completed
 
Nithin Sharma
Thesis Title - Resource allocation in downlink OFDMA an evolutionary approach (2014)
 
Sarang C Dhongdi 
Thesis Title - Development of Energy Efficient Network Architecture and Protocol Stack for  Underwater Wireless Sensor Networks (UWSNs) - (2018)
 
 R.Sreejith
Thesis Title: Development of Energy Efficient Routing Protocol for Mobile Wireless Sensor Networks (2018)
 
Ch.Sankhar Reddy  
Thesis: Development of Network protocol stack and image processing for data gathering using biomimetic robots (2018)
Meetha.V.Shenoy (2018)
 
   
Abhishek Dilip Joshi 
Thesis: Airborne Aerial Ad hoc Networks (2022)
 
Anita Ramachandran
Thesis Title - Design and Development of Intelligent Geriatric Healthcare System (2022)
 

On-going

Purab Nandi
Thesis Title-  Design, Implementation of Model Compression algorithms for ML/DL on SoC based Wearable Devices
 
Manoj.S. Kakade
Thesis Title-  Design, Development and Implementation of Cloudlets using multiple heterogeneous System on Chip (SoCs) for Industrial IoT Systems.
 
As Co-supervisor
 

Completed 

Mahadev Gawas
Thesis Title: "Cross Layer Design methodology to optimize the quality of service in Ad-Hoc Networks". (2018)
 
Rajalekhsmi Kishore
Thesis Title: Spectrum Sensing and Performance Analysis of Cognitive Radio System (2019)
 
N. Balakrishnan

Ph.D. Thesis Title- “Development of Algorithmic Approaches for optimization of Flight and Maintenance Planning (2022)


A New Microscope to Map Cancer

We have recently undertaken an ambitious project to build the first microscope capable of scanning cancer tissue and map unforeseen information hidden in them. This aim is better diagnosis and treatment plans for each individual. This is a collaboration between the Science and Technologies facilitation Council, UK (https://www.ukri.org/councils/stfc/) and the Department of Atomic Energy, India. The team involves photonics, electronics and AI/ML researchers from the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research in Hyderabad and BITS-Pilani Hyderabad, and also cancer pathologists from Tata Memorial Cancer Center in Mumbai. Our collaborators are microscopy researchers from STFC, Harwell, UK.  The Indian team is led by me (biophotonics.co.in). We plan to create three-dimensional ultraviolet images of the human cancer tissue samples, using three-photon excitation with femtosecond lasers. We are looking for a few bright young minds (as undergraduate trainees, or as graduate project fellows) to join the team! If interested please email me. 


Research Projects

New Faculty Seed Grant (NFSG) - Assessing Climate Risk Pathways and Their Impact on Financial Systems


Projects

Projects

  1. Seed grant from BITS Pilani Dubai Campus for the project titled, ' Optimization of Selected High Yield Grass Species for Biomass and Bioenergy Applications using Saline and Recycled Wastewater' in collaboration with International Centre of Biosaline Agriculture, for an amount of AED 245,000/- duration January 2017-2020.
  2. Grant received from EXPO Live under the University Innovation Grant, February-July 2018.
  3. Co-PI for the RedMud remediation project by Hindalco Industry, June 2018-May 2020.

Mechanobiological and Epigenetic Changes in Aging Lungs Exposed to air pollutant: Identifying Therapeutic Strategies for Lung Dysfunction

Aging lungs experience structural and functional declines, including increased inflammation, reduced elasticity, and diminished regenerative capacity, largely due to modifications in the extracellular matrix (ECM). These changes alter the lung’s mechanical microenvironment, impairing key functions and making the lung more susceptible to damage from pollutants like PM2.5. 

Our research aims to understand the mechanobiological changes that occur in aging lungs and their interaction with airborne particulate matter (PM2.5), particularly in the context of age associated lung dysfunctions and lung diseases. 

  • To investigate these effects, we are developing an in vitro aging lung model that mimics the mechanical microenvironment of aged lung epithelium. 
  • This model allows us to study how mechanical microenvironment influences particulate uptake and its impact on cell state transitions. 
  • We aim to explore mechanobiological checkpoints and epigenetic modifications that drive pathological changes in aged lung tissues. 
  • Identifying novel strategies and therapeutics to rejuvenate lung dysfunction in aging individuals exposed to airborne pollutants.

 


  1. Research Inititation Grant from BITS Pilani Dubai Campus
    • Conductive Composites for deicing and lightning strike protection in aerospace applications
    • Co-investigator - Dr. Prabhat K Agnihotri, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar 

Funded Projects

1. ISRO/RES/3/720/2016-17 Development of Software Defined Radio (SDR) Based GNSS (GLONASS + IRNSS) Receiver. Funded By: ISRO under RESPOND.

 

We designed a multi-constellation muti-frequency Software receiver in MATLAB and separately in LabView.

The developed Software Receiver is capable of providing individual and hybrid solutions for the following constellations as of now:

1)     IRNSS L5 / IRNSS S/GPS L1 / GLONASS L1

2)     IRNSS L5 + GPS L1 + GLONASS L1

3)     IRNSS S  +  GPS L1 + GLONASS L1

4)     GPS L1 + GLONASS L1

 

Salient Features:

 

1. LabView-based SDR allows simultaneous and parallel tracking of the acquired satellites from different constellations and/or different frequencies. It also allows using hardware accelerators such as multi-core, multi-threading (SIMD), etc. Therefore, it significantly reduces the overall execution time.

2.     Improved reliability, availability, and accuracy, especially in environments with limited satellite visibility, such as urban or mountainous areas.

3.      Interoperability provides users with a PNT solution using signals from different GNSS systems.

4. Iono-grid corrections and Tropospheric corrections are provided with a selectable option. GUI with options for the end user to select Iono-grid and/or Tropospheric corrections.

5. MENU-driven user configurability for acquisition, tracking thresholds, satellite elevation mask angle, selection of satellite channels, etc.

6.   MENU is a selectable option for the real-time display of observables such as I/Q correlation values, C/N0, GDOP, PVT solutions, XYZ coordinates of selected satellites, etc.

7.   SDR provides session-wise time-stamped logs for various observables such as C/N0, PR, Navigation message of all the channels, SV time, PVT logs, GDOP, etc. for post-processing.

8. Real-time visualization of PSD of received satellite signals.

 

2. Work Order No. 11/401/UWR(G)/110(P) regarding Indigenous Development of Automated Correlation System for Under Water Ranges DRDOGoa.

 
 
 

As Co-PI:

 

Cloud Based Analytical Sensor Test Kit for Advanced Process Control, funded by Melinda & Gates Foundation in collaboration with Prof Srikanth Mutnuri, Head Biological Sciences, BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus, Cranfield University UK and Ohio University USA.

 
 

My Part was to develop a plug-and-play kind of IoT-based Sensor kit capable of transmitting real-time data from different sensors to Azure and Google Cloud. The indigenous devices designed for communication are called “Cube,” a solar-powered (self-sustained) device. It used XBee 3G for communication. The end user can communicate with the cube using a developed web/mobile application. The end user can plug in any sensor and must provide the upper and lower threshold for warnings or control. The application automatically updates the system based on the inputs the end user provides.

 

Research Projects

Title: Modeling Travel Time for Two-lane Highways

Funding Agency: Anusandhan National Research Foundation, DST, Govt. of India

Role: Principal Investigator

Sanctioned Amount: INR 27,21,990/-

Title: Future Medicine: Contactless Health Vitals Measurement -- A Pilot Implementation and Evaluation of a Contactless Health Vital Measurement System along with a Federated Data Infrastructure in the context of Telemedicine

Funding Agency: toHealth GmbH, Berlin, Germany

Role: Co-Principal Investigator

Sanctioned Amount: INR 1,40,96,280/-


DRDO CARS Project

Title: Design and Development of Coupler for 1 GW HPM Source for In-guide Diagnostics
Role: Co-Principal Investigator
Duration: 1.5 Years (2024-2025)
Amount: ₹28,51,135
Sponsoring Agency: MTRDC Bangalore
Status: Ongoing


Projects

  1. Worked as Scientist D for the project entitled “The long-term effect of COVID-19 on the cognitive health of the survivors and its neural underpinnings The project was funded by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). I drafted this project under the guidance of my mentor Prof. Atanu Biswas who was the principal investigator of this project. A research grant of INR 98, 57,240 was approved for the project.
  2. Granted Fulbright –Nehru Postdoctoral fellowship for the project entitled “The role of context in irony and metaphor comprehension: with reference to the patients with focal brain lesions”. Granted for 2 years. 22nd August 2016 to 21st August 2018. Amount: $80740 (Rs. 5523423.4).
  3. Principal investigator of the DST funded project entitled “Study of pragmatic deficits in patients with schizophrenia and right hemisphere damage: Do the patterns converge?” Granted for 2 years. From 6th July 2015 to 5th July 2017 but completed in August 5th 2016. Amount Rs. 1892000
  4. Principal investigator of the DST funded project entitled “Bangla audio-visual test battery for assessment of dyshyponoia”. 2 years 6 months. From 1st April 2012 to Oct 2014. Amount Rs: 1458000
  5. Principal investigator of the project entitled “Comparative Analysis of prosody in Bangla speaking normal and hearing impaired”, funded by National Institute of Hearing Handicapped for 3 years from 6.8.2008. Amount: Rs. 5,18,000
  6. Principal investigator of the project entitled “Application of natural phonology in therapeutic management of hearing-impaired patients”, funded by National Institute of Hearing Handicapped for 3 years from 6.8.2008. Amount : Rs. 443000.

TTDF Project

Title: Transparent MEMS-based Free Space Optical Cross Connect for 6G Cell Router to Antenna
Role: Co-Principal Investigator
Duration: 3 Years (2024-2027)
Amount: ₹56,38,688
Sponsoring Agency: TCoE-TTDF,
Status: Approved

BRNS Project

Title: Design and Development of Microwave Pulse Compressing Passive Devices for HPM Applications
Role: Principal Investigator
Duration: 3 Years (2023-2026)
Amount: ₹44,38,000
Sponsoring Agency: BRNS-DAE
Status: Ongoing  

Industrial Project II

Title: Investigation and Implementation of Advanced Modulation Formats and Signal Processing Algorithms for Satellite Communication Link
Role: Principal Investigator
Duration: 5 Years (2024-2029)
Amount: ₹54,98,800
Sponsoring Agency: Dhruva Space Pvt. Ltd.
Status: Ongoing  

Projects

  • New Faculty Seed Grant - "Temporal Sensitive Learning Algorithms for Interpretable Artificial Intelligence, INR 20 Lakhs

Research Interest:

Our research interests focus on electrochemistry and material science. We try to understand the complex phenomena that occur at the electrode-electrolyte interfaces using electrochemical techniques and different microscopic and/or spectroscopic methods. After understanding interfacial electrochemistry, we aim to mitigate the associated issues of different energy conversion and storage systems (fuel cells, electrolyzes, and batteries) by modifying electrode surfaces, electrolytes, or developing new materials.


AFV Engine Sensor Integration and Health Monitoring using AI/ML tools


Distributed Fiber Optic Sensing Applications


Free Space Optical Communication for Indoor and Outdoor Applications


Sponsored Projects

1. RIG Grant, BITS
Title of Project:"Finite Element simulations of uniaxial tensile tests"
Role: Principal Investigator
Duration: Dec 2014-Dec 2016 
 
2. DRDO ARMREB
Project Title: "Machinability assessment and material characterization of WHAs used in defence applications as KE penetrators"
Duration: 2019-2022
 

Sponsored Projects

Core Research Grant by DST-SERB for the Project titled "Investigating the Equation of State of Neutron Stars via Emitted Gravitational Waves"
Amount sanctioned: INR 2221134.00

Sanctioned Research Projects

Ongoing Research Project: 

1. Project Title : UV-visible LED light responsive semiconductor films devices for drinking water pollutant sensing and purification applications

Project Duration : 2 years - 2023- 2025

Funding Agency : BITS-Pilani Unverisity.

Sanctioned Amount: 20 Lakhs.

Project Status: Ongoing. 

2. Project Title : Atomically-thin photonic devices as hosts of single-photons and entangled-photon pairs emitters and single-spins for quantum sciences and technologies

Project Duration : 5 years - 2021- 2026

Funding Agency : DST Nanomission

Sanctioned Amount : 180 Lakhs.

Project Status: Ongoing.

Completed Research Project: 

1. Project Title: Experimental and theoretical investigation of ultra-thin two dimensional semiconductors and their application to make nanoscale devices.

Project Duration : 3 years - 2021- 2024

Funding Agency : Science and Engineering Research Board.

Sanctioned Amount : 46.14 Lakhs.

Project Status : Completed. 

 

2. Project Title: Room temperature hydrogen sensing and storage using reduced graphene oxide and MoS2 nanocomposite.

Project Duration : 3 years - 2017- 2020

Funding Agency : Science and Engineering Research Board.

Sanctioned Amount : 30 Lakhs.

Project Status : Completed. 

3. Project Title: Improving the energy conversion efficiency of solar cells using spin caloritronics.

Project Duration : 3 years - 2013- 2016

Funding Agency : Science and Engineering Research Board.

Sanctioned Amount : 22 Lakhs.

Project Status : Completed. 


Ongoing Projects:

Completed Projects:


Research Projects

Optimization of Energy Consumption and Thermal Comfort in Buildings in a BIM framework: 2024 - Ongoing

CDRF Project funded by BITS Pilani

Amount: 20  lakhs INR                 Duration: 2 Years

Team: Prof. Meghana Charde, Prof. Majid Hassan Khan, Prof. Shashank Khurana, Prof. Deepthi Mary Dilip

Design and Development of Static Sunshade for Thermal Comfort inside the Buildings: 2008 – 2011

Project funded by UGC, Government of India           PI: Prof Rajiv Gupta

Involvement as Team Member

Design of passive building elements

Implementation of designed elements and construction of rooms

Monitoring of rooms  

Akash Ganga – River from Skies, Rooftop Rainwater Harvesting: 2006 - 2009 

Project funded by Rajasthan Association of North America (RANA)        PI: Prof Rajiv Gupta

Involvement as Team Member

Site survey of existing village

Analysis of data using GIS software 

Calculation of tank capacity based on rainfall and water requirements

Design of rainwater harvesting scheme for the village


Sponsored Projects

Sponsored Projects

 1.    Ongoing/Submitted Projects:

S. No.

Title

Total Cost

Duration

Status

Responsibility

Agency

1

Design of High Power CW Magnetrons and investigations on strategies for their phase control

Rs. 54 lakhs

2 years

Ongoing

Co-Principal Investigator

DST

2

Design of a 200 W Solid State Driver at 3.7 GHz for the LHCD System of SST-1 Tokamak (as CO-PI with VJTI)

 

Rs. 23 lakhs

2 years

Ongoing

Co-Principal Investigator

Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences and Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar

3

Design and Multiphysics analysis of HPM Antenna

Rs. 25 lakhs

2 years

Ongoing

Principal Investigator

RCI-CARS

2.    Completed Projects:

S. No.

Title

Total Cost

Duration

Status

Responsibility

Agency

1

Design of miniature IPD based HPF and Electromagnetic Simulation and Analysis of T/R-Module or Plank for interferences and leakages

Rs. 10 lakhs

1 year

Completed

Co-Principal Investigator

DLRL-DRDO

2

Design and Simulation of mode converters for application in directed energy weapons

Rs. 4.17 lakhs

6 months

Completed

Principal Investigator

Research Centre Imarat (RCI), DRDO

3

Design and Development of WR-284 based 500 kW CW High Power Circulator

Rs. 23.57 lakhs

1 year

Completed

Co-Principal Investigator

Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences and Institute for Plasma Research, Gandhinagar

4

Consultancy on Multiphysics / EM analysis of Dielectric Resonator assembly in a PLDRO

Rs. 10 lakhs

1 year

Completed

Co-Principal Investigator

DLRL-DRDO

 

Research Interests

Microwave and RF Engineering 

Sponsored Projects

Title of the Project:
Design and implementation of a Hardware Efficient Secure Pseudorandom Bit Generator for Physical Layer Security in the Resource Constraint IoT Devices

Principal Investigator

Dr. Amit Kumar Panda

Funding Type

Start-up Research Grant (SRG)

Funding Agency:

DST-SERB

Funding Amount:

26 Lakh Rupees

Project Duration

2 Years (2022-2024)

Project Title:


Sponsored Projects

Sponsored Projects

 

Sl. No.

Sponsoring Agency

Title of the Project

Duration/ Status

Role

1

BITS Pilani — Hyderabad Campus

 An Energy Efficient Regenerative Evaporative Cooling (REC) System for Building Air-Conditioning with Cross and Counter-Flow Configuration

August 2017 to August 2019

PI

2

Additional Competitive Research Grant, BITS Pilani — Hyderabad Campus

An Indigenous Energy Efficient Thermal Management Strategy of Buildings for all Climatic Conditions across India

May 2019 to May 2021

PI

3

SERB, Early Career Research (ECR) Grant

 Experimental Investigation on an Energy Efficient Thermal Management Technique for Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV)

May 2019 to May 2022

PI

4

DST Young Scientist


A solar assisted combined cooling, heating and power plant: an alternate rural energy source

Sept 2019 to Sept 2022

PI

 

 5

 SERB, Core Research Grant (CRG), 2021

 Development of a Cost Effective Solar Energy based Drinking Water cum Cold Storage Facility for Coastal Communities in India

 Dec 2021 to Dec 2024

 Co-PI

6

DSIR

An Indigenous Air-Conditioning Facility for Hospitals during the Covid-19 Pandemic

June 2022 to June 2024

PI

 

Note: A few are in under review stage at different external funding agencies

 

Research Interest

  • Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning

  • Hybrid Vehicle Thermal Management

  • Energy and Environmental Impact on Society

  • Compact Heat Exchangers

  • Evaporative Cooling

  • Experimental Thermo-Fluid Science


Research Projects (Ongoing)

Project Title

Funding agnecy

Duration

Development of a biomolecule detection system with on-chip planar Hall magnetometer for diagnostic purposes

SERB (DST), India

2 yrs

Development of a biosensor with on-chip planar Hall magnetometer

BITS CDRF

2 yrs

Study of exotic superconductivity in the transition metal chalcogenide FeSeTe and related compounds through thermal and thermoelectric transport measurements

BITS NFSG

2 yrs


Research Projects

Co-PI for ICSSR Sponsored project titled "Ship-building in Folklore: Orality and Memory in the Thottam Pattu of Marakkalathamma“ with Prof. Maya Vinai.April 2024-May 2026.

Sanctioned amount: Rs. 24,98,500/-.


Sponsored Projects

Project Applied : A Proposal on "Integrated Multiplexed IoT Enabled Microfluidic Point of Care Sensing platform for various Target Explosives" submitted to DRDO as PI. Cost of the Project 65.13 Lakhs. Co-Investigators : (1) Prof. Sanket Goel and (2) Dr. Satish Kumar Dubey (Status : Two rounds of Video Conference discussions on (i) 21st April, 2022 and (ii) 18th July, 2022 were happened and final modified proposal submitted on 8th August, 2022. Result yet to be announced) 

 

Research Project from DRDO, Kanpur entitled “Device development with optimized circuit to comprehend fast charging from supercapacitors” from 10-06-2021 with a total grant of Rs. 9, 80, 000/- for 18 months (Co-PI)
 

Currently Co-PI of the MRI based non-invasive quantitative biomarker for early diagnosis and prognosis of brain tumor project funded by DBT from 2020 to 2023 with a total grant of Rs.17,48,360/.

 

Consultancy Project from DLRL Hyderabad entitled “Algorithms for Narrow Beam Emitter Location (ANABEL)” from March 2015 to Feb. 2016 with a total grant of Rs. 9, 97, 593/-. (Co-PI)

Sponsored Projects

Ongoing
 
1. DST SERB (CRG)
   Title:  Automated IoT based Microfluidic Electrochemiluminescence (ECL) Biosensing platform for various biomarker detection
   Role: Principal Investigator 
   Duration: March 2020-March 2023
   Amount: Rs 51. 42 Lakhs
 
Completed 
 
1.  BITS OPERA
 
     Title:  Design and Development of Tunable Optical MEMS devices for optical communication
     Role:  Principal Investigator
     Duration: January 2015 to December 2018 
     Amount: 15 Lakhs 
 
2.  Hyderabad Batteries Limited, HBL Hyderabad
 
     Title:  Implementation of Digital Beam Former for RADAR
     Role: Co-Investigator
     Duration:  September 2017-March 2019
     Amount: 3.27 Lakhs

Projects

1. Parallel Algorithm for Dense Subgraph Discovery (RIG).

 

Completed

  1.    Title: Algorithms for Narrow Beam width Emitter Location (ANABEL)

             Funding agency: Defence Electronics and Research Labs (DLRL)

             Amount: Rs 994,947

             Duration: February 2015 to December 2015

 

  1.   Title: Frequency Estimation in Wideband Receivers with Under Sampling (FEWU)

            Funding agency: Defence Electronics and Research Labs (DLRL)

            Amount: Rs. 9.94 Lakhs

            Duration: January 2016 to December 2016

 

  1. Title of project:  Implementation of Digital Beamformer  for Radar  (IDBR)

          Funding agency:  HBL Power system Limited, Hyderabad

          Amount: 3,32,760

          Duration: 8 months 

          Role: PI

 

  1. Title Of project: Strategies For Fault-Tolerant Network-On-Chip Design

          Funding agency: SERB

          Amount: 27,11,020

          Duration: March 2017 –September 2020 

          Role: Co-PI


Sponsored Projects

MRI based non-invasive quantitative biomarker for Early diagnosis and prognosis of Brain Tumor

Feb 2020- June 2023

Funding Agency: DBT

Amount Rs 17 Lakhs

Role: PI

 

Algorithms for narrow beanwidth emitter location (ANABEL)

Jan 2015 - Dec 2015

Funding Agency: DRDO

Amount Rs 10 Lakhs

Role: Co-PI


Sponsored Projects

 

Project Title: A two-track approach to CPS recconnaissance: causal-graphs and axiomatic design
Principal Investigator: Prof. Arlindo Silva, SUTD, Singapore
Co-Investigator: Dr. Christopher Pskitt,  SUTD, Singapore, and Dr. Venkata Palleti, SUTD, Singapore
Collaborator: Dr. Rajib Ranjan Maiti, BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, India
Approved grant amount: S$447,172.00
Funding Agency: NSoE, NRF, Singapore
Project Duration: 2 years
Project Start Date: 02/09/2019
Project End Date: 01/09/2021
 
 

Project Title: Defend Internet of Things-based Cyber Espionage through Analysis of Encrypted or Unencrypted Network Traffic using Machine Learning
PI: Dr. Rajib Ranjan Maiti, CSIS, BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad Campus
Funding Agency: CRG, SERB, DST, India
Approved grant amount: Rs. 33.44Lakhs
Project Duration: 3 years,
Project Start Date: 5th April, 2021,
Project End Date: 4th April, 2024

 

Project Title: "ML-Aided Secure SoC and Analytics (MASTIC)
Co-PI: Dr. Rajib Ranjan Maiti, CSIS, BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad Campus
Funding Agency: AXIADO India Pvt. Ltd.
Approved grant amount: Rs. 67.36 Lakhs
Project Duration: 2 years,
Project Start Date: 16th August 2021,
Project End Date: 15th August, 2023


Sponsored Projects

Completed Projects

CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) sponsored  project 
Title : "Localization of polymer chains on chemically heterogeneous surfaces" November 2013-December 2016.
 
DST (Department of Science and technology) sponsored project  
 
Title : "Adsorption and freezing of heteropolymers on disordered surfaces : a model for biomimetic recognition", November 2011- October 2014.
 

Research Projects

Ongoing research projects

  1. Treatment of textile effluent
  2. Development of nanofiber mats for drug delivery applications

Funded Projects

External Funding

  • “Beyond Responsibility: What and How to Build for Others” - Mozilla Responsible Computing Challenge (2023)
  • “Design, development and project management support for two AI-based dialogue systems (e.g. voice-based chatbot) in Indian languages” - GIZ (2021)
  • “Data driven Multimodal System for Academic Stress Detection Management in Indian Universities (ARU)” - DST SERB Power Project (Co-PI) (2021)
  • “Using mobile phones to improve implementation of government schemes” - Google Pilot Research Grant (2015)
  • “Develop a grivance redressal platform and implement in select districts” - UNDP (2017)

BITS Internal Funding

  • “Technology-led Education Interventions for Visually Impaired Children” - Cross-Disciplinary Research Fund (2023)
  • “Building Actionable and Smart Information Systems for Migrant Workers in Smart Cities” - Asian Smart Cities Research and Innovation Network (ASCRIN) (2021)
  • “Conversational Information Systems for low text-illiteracy contexts” - Research Initiation Grant (2020)
  • “Identifying AI readiness among different user groups across India and Australia” - BITS-RMIT Higher Education Academy (2023)
  • “Designing AI-enabled business models for achieving Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals in India and Australia” - BITS-RMIT Higher Education Academy (2023)

Bridging Literacy Gaps in Social Welfare Access: A Comparative Study of AI-Powered Conversational Interfaces in India and the USA: OpenAI API Award worth $7000


Ministry of tribal Affairs (MOTA), Government of India, Coordinator: Prof. Navneet Goyal, Prof. Poonam Goyal (PI), Prof. Prajna Upadhyay, and Prof. Vinti Agarwal, Consortium: IIIT Hyderabad, IIIT Naya Raipur, IIT Delhi Duration: 2 Year ( INR 3.27C).


Research

Projects completed:

  1. Development of membrane reactor for decomposition of HI (BRNS-DAE)
  2. Development of anodic material for DSSC (DST Inspire)
  3. Conversion of methane to higher hydrocarbons (DST EMEQ)
  4. Photocatalytic degradation using MOF composite materials (BITS, ACG)
  5. Photocatalytic degradation of dye effluents (ABSTC)
 
 

Research Projects

  1. Intramural project on “Sustainability Assessment of WMA-RAP Technology” under the scheme “New Faculty Seed Grant (NFSG)” at BITS Pilani (2023 – Present).

Sponsored Projects

Reducing ruthenium crossover in a Direct Methanol fuel cell-sponsored by the Aditya Birla Group-Rs. 12 lacs(2011-2014)
 
Modeling the capacity loss in lithium ion batteries under conditions of cycling-CSIR-Rs.25.7 lacs.  (2019-2022)
 
Modeling the performance of DET and MET based enzymatic glucose fuel cells -DBT-28.73 lacs  (2022-2024). 
 
Modeling the effect of bio film on the performance of microbial fuel cell-DST-Rs.30.1 lacs.  (2022-2024)- Looking for a JRF. 

Research Interest:

Security:

  • Malware Analysis & Detection
  • Network Security
  • Cybersecurity

Data Science:

  • Machine Learning
  • Data Mining

Projects

Launched and organised annual Entrepreneurship Summit:Coalescence - 2014/2015/2016 · Started Start Up Conferences as an Annual Event In January 2011. IPR Workshops, In Collaboration MSME/BIRAC.

Organised Indian Mobile Initiative Workshop June –July 2011 In Collaboration With MIT , USA & Google. To Promote Start Ups Based On Mobile Apps Using Android Os.

Enabling innovations in health and environment - through incubation with BITS BIRAC BioNEST


Projects

Completed Projects as Principal Investigator from BITS Pilani, K.K. Birla Goa Campus: 

1.     Project Name: Biodegradable scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering    

Funding Agency: BRNS

Amount: 23.6 Lakhs

Scholar: Priyanka Dwivedi

Year: 2011-2014

2.     Project Name: Advanced study to find out the correlation between S.typhi infection and gall bladder cancer

Funding Agency: Aditya Birla Group of Science and Technology (ABGST)

Research Scholar: Yogesh Walwalkar

Sanctioned Amount: 15.00 Lakhs

Year: 2015-2018

3.     Project Name: Study on EMT regulation through TGFβ/SMADs in gall bladder disease

Funding Agency: DST

Sanctioned Amount:37.5Lakhs

Research Scholar: Laxminarayan Rawath

Year: 2018 – 2021

4.     Project Name: Radiosensitised PEGylated gold nanoparticles mediated drug delivery for oral cancer In vitro

Funding Agency: Goa Cancer Society

Research Scholar: Shameer Ahmed

Sanctioned Amount: 6.00Lakhs

Year: 2019-2022

 

Ongoing Project as Principal Investigator:

1.     Project Name: Natural polymeric scaffolds incorporated herbal drugs for therapeutic application (One of the PI)

Funding Agency: DBT Builder

Sanctioned Amount: 10Cr

Year: 2021-ongoing

 

PhD Guided from BITS Pilani K.K. Birla Goa Campus:

1.Research Scholars Name: Archana Sharma

Thesis Title: Three Dimensional Macroporous polymeric cryogel matrices for soft tissue engineering applications.

Co-PI; Prof. Ashok from IIT Kanpur

Funding Support: BITS and ICMR

PhD Awarded Year: 2015

 

2.Research Scholars Name: Priyanka Dwivedi

Thesis Title: Development of Novel Tissue Engineering strategies to treat osteoarthritis

Co-PI; Prof. Ashok from IIT Kanpur

Funding Support: BRNS and CSIR

 PhD Awarded Year: 2016

 

3. Research Scholars Name: Yogesh Walwakar

Thesis Title: A study on correlation of chronic Salmonella typhi infection with gall bladder disease

Funding Support: ABGST and BITS

 PhD Awarded Year: 2016

 

4.Research Scholars Name: Laxminarayan Rawat

Thesis Title: Study on Anticancer Potential of Piperlongumine and Ursolic acid in human cancer cell lines in vitro

Funding Support: DST and BITS

 PhD Awarded Year: 2021

 

5.Research Scholars Name: Shameer Ahmed

Thesis Title: Doxorubicin loaded PEGylated gold nanoparticles synthesis and testing as a chemoradiation potential for drug delivery system and radiosensitizer for Oral Squamous Cancer cell line.

Funding Support: Goa Cancer Society and BITS

 PhD Awarded Year: 2022

 

PhD Guided from Previous Institute as Principal Investigator:

 

Research Scholars Name: Deepti  Singh

Thesis Title: Polymeric scaffolds for wound healing

Co Guide: Prof: Ashok Kumar, IIT Kanpur

PhD Awarded: MGR University, Chennai.

 

PhD Guide at present:

1.    Krishna Prasad

Title for Project work: Natural compounds screening for antineoplastic potential in oral and intestinal cancer therapeutics

2.    Pratik Bhat:

Monitoring health and anemia correlation to diseases in Geriatric patients.  

 

Research Scholars Placement:  

 Archana Sharma: Post doctoral Fellow at Princeton University, USA

2.      Yogesh Walalkar: Research Scientist, Biocon, Bangalore

3.     Lakshminarayan Rawat: Post Doctoral Fellow in Harvard Medical School, USA

4.     Shameer Ahmed: Research Scientist in Novo Nordisk, Bangalore

 
Deepti Singh: Entrepreneur and own’s a lab in USA
 
Guiding Internship for four months Jan-April 2024. 
Candidate: Manimaran from Bharatidasan University, Chennai 
 
Guide For MSc. Thesis, 2024
Candidate: Lakshya Raj Khatri
Thesis: Investigating the impact of expiry and storage conditions on over the counter antibiotics: A comprehensive NMR and Spectroscopic analysis.

My projects

  1. Impact and prospects of computer gaming on academic and socio-cultural progress of undergraduate students at BITS-Pilani K.K. Birla Goa Campus (15 Oct-2020-  31 March 2021)- Principle Investigator Funded by TLC, BITS- Pilani Goa Campus
  2. Generation 2: Reinvent the toilet challenge- role Co-PI/Collaborator (Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
  3. ICSSR major project titled Economic valuation of ecosystem services of selected wetlands in Goa (2022) - role Principle Investigator

Sponsored Research Projects

Sponsored Projects

  1. “Copper cathode quality improvement & reduction in bleed to ETP” funded by HINDALCO Industries Limited, Investigators- Pradeep Kumar Sow, Jay Pandey, Mrinmoyee Basu
  2. Design, Development and Bench-scale Demonstration of Electrochemical Hydroiodic Acid (HI) Decomposition in a Continuous Flow System for I-S Cycle” funded by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Energy Centre, PI: Dr. Pradeep Kumar Sow,
  3. Continuous Flow Oil-Water Separation System Using Smart Separators Capable of Low-Voltage Wettability Switching", funded by Early Career Research Award (ECR) – Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB-DST), PI: Dr. Pradeep Kumar Sow
  4. “Electrochemical Process for Hydroiodic acid (HI) decomposition in Iodine-Sulfur Cycle: A feasibility study” funded by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Energy Centre, PI: Dr. Pradeep Kumar Sow.
  5. Development of transition metal oxide based nanostructured surfaces for low-voltage tuning of wettability”, funded by Additional Competitive Grant – BITS Pilani,  PI: Dr. Pradeep Kumar Sow.
  6. Nano-composite materials for low-voltage alteration of the surface wettability”, funded by Research Initiation Grant – BITS Pilani, PI: Dr. Pradeep Kumar Sow.

Research Projects

  1. Received the CDRF grant of Rs 10 lakhs for the period of (2023-2025) on September 2023 funded by BITS Pilani, K. K. Birla Goa campus.
  2. Received the OPERA Grant of Rs 4.2 lakhs for the period of (2021- 2024) on June 2021 funded by BITS Pilani, K. K. Birla Goa campus.

Sponsored Projects

Planning to submit a proposal on Wireless Sensor Networks Applications.


Research Projects:

Exciting Updates Coming Soon – Please Revisit the Website!


Research Projects

  • SPARC Project (2023-2025):

      • Grant: ₹44,25,965/-

      • Title: Impact of Population Heterogeneity and Complex Socio-Ecological Environments on the Transmission Dynamics of Dengue in the Indian Urban Scenario: Insights from Mathematical Modelling, Data-Model Based Systems Analysis, and Control of Complex Systems
      • Principal Investigator (PI): Prof. Amit Setia
      • National co-PIs:
      • Prof. Prashant Kumar Srivastava, Associate Professor, Department of Mathematics, Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, India.
      • Dr. (Mrs.) Sanghamitra Pati, (MBBS, MD & MPH), Director, ICMR Regional Medical Research Centre Bhubaneswar, Department of Health Research, Govt of India, Bhubaneswar-751023, Odisha, India.
      • International PI:
      • Prof. Edwin Michael, Professor, College of Public Health, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL 33612, USA.
      • International co-PIs:
      • Dr. Anuj Mubayi, Faculty affiliation with Illinois State University, Normal, USA.
      • Dr. Abhishek Kumar Pandey, (Associate Director, Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis (CIDMA), Yale University, USA).
  • SPARKLE Project (2024-2025):

      • Grant: ₹2,00,000/-

      • Title: Path planning and obstacle avoidance
      • Principal Investigator (PI): Prof. Amit Setia

Research Projects

  1. Principal Investigator of  UGC project on Studies of Haloarchaea producing polyhydroxyalkanoates  (2009-2012)
  2. Principal Investigator BITS Seed Grant Project “Screening and Characterization of Hydrolytic enzymes from Halophilic archaea having biotechnological potential” (2013-2015)
  3. Principal Investigator DBT Builder (2022 - 2027 Ongoing). BT/INF/22/SP42543/2021) from DBT-INR 843Lakhs, 2022-2027 (Role: Principal Investigator, Coordinator: Prof. Sunil Bhand, BITS Goa).This is a DBT Builder capacity building program awarded to multiple PIs in BITS Goa.
  4. Principal Investigator DBT (2024) Technology Development and Bioprocess Engineering of Agro-Industrial and Single use Polyethylene waste to biodegradable Polyhydroxyalkanoates by Halophilic Microorganisms

Projects

Ongoing:

Title: An experimental and CFD-DEM study of spouted fluidized bed heat exchanger for non-spherical particles

Funding Agency: ANRF, India

Period: April 2023 to March 2026

Co-PI: Prof. Ranjit S Patil

 

 Completed:

Title: Drag Reduction by suppressing the Bi-Stability character of the wake

Funding Agency: ARDb, DRDO 

Period: July 2020 to July 2022

PI: Prof. Shibu Clement


Sponsored Projects

Sponsored Research Projects (Completed):

  • Computational Study of the Catalytic Mechanism of some Diaryldiselenide-based Glutathione Peroxidase Mimetics, PI: Dr. R. N. Behera, Duration: Jan 2017 - Jun 2020, Funding Agency: SERB-DST, India, Amount Sanctioned: 16.4 Lakh, Role: PI

 

  • Experimental and Computational Study of Boron Doped TiO2and ZnO Nanocrystals, PI: Dr. K. P. Jayadevan, Co-PI: Dr. R. N. Behera, Duration: Feb 2017 - Dec 2020, Funding Agency: SERB-DST, India, Amount: 22 Lakh, Role: Co-PI

  • Study of effective interactions in charged colloidal suspensions, PI: Dr. R. N. Behera, Duration: 3 years (Feb. 2012 - Feb. 2015), Funding Agency: CSIR, India, Amount: 10.4 Lakh. Role: PI

 

  • Chalcogen containing azomethine macrocycles and bicycles: synthesis, characterization, metal complexes and theoretical investigations of nature ofintramolecular interactions between divalent chalcogen and nitrogen atoms. PI: Dr. A. Panda, Duration: Jan 2015 – Jan. 2018, Funding Agency: DST, India (under Women Scientist Scheme A),  Amount: 25 Lakh, Role: Mentor.

 

  • Novel Schiff base macrocycles containing Se-Se bonds and their reduced analogues: synthesis, characterization, comparative coordination chemistry and theoretical study, PI: Dr. A. Panda, Duration: Duration: March 2011 – Sept. 2014, Funding Agency: DST, India (under Women Scientist Scheme A), Amount: 21.96 Lakh, Role: Mentor.

Sponsored Projects

The lab constantly received as well as receiving funds through sponsored projects in the areas of Schizophrenia (Human Genetics as well as stem cell models) and Tuberculosis detection.

 

Completed Projects

6

Mechanistic basis of abnormal neurogenesis due to HSAN1E-associated DNMT1 mutation and pharmacological intervention for phenotypic correction. (2017 – 2020)

Funding Agency: Department of Biotechnology (DBT)

Amount: 68.45 lakhs

5

Transgenic Embryonic stem cell models for studying the role of elevated levels of DNMT1, and DNMT3A in neuropsychiatric disorders. (2014 – 2018)

Funding Agency: Department of Biotechnology (DBT)

Amount: 24.10 lakhs

4

Characterization of a mouse embryonic stem cell model to study the effects of increased levels of DNA methyltransferase 1 (DNMT1) on abnormal neurogenesis. (2014 – 2018)

Funding Agency: Scientific and Engineering Research Board (SERB)

Amount: 40.38 lakhs

3

Automated detection of abnormal copy number variants in human diseases. (2015 – 2017)

Funding Agency: Biotech Ignition Grant (BIG) – CCAMP

Amount: 49.90 lakhs

2

Development of a cost-effective membrane and DNA chip-based detection of mutations with multiple drug-resistance tuberculosis. (2012 – 2015)

Funding Agency: Department of Science and Technology – Technology Development and Transfer (TDT)

Amount: 69.16 lakhs

1

Development of personalized DNA markers in breast cancer patients for early diagnosis and prognosis using a non-invasive method. (2012 – 2014)

Funding Amount: 13.50 lakhs


Sponsored Projects

  1. Naveen K. Shrivastava (PI), R. N. Ponnalagu, Ankur Bhattacharjee. Design and Development of a Semiconductor Based Photocatalytic Fuel Cell for Air Purification and Simultaneous Electricity Generation to Power IoT Enabled Sensor Nodes. Funding Agency: BITS-Pilani Under the Scheme Center for Research Excellence in Semiconductor Technologies (CREST). INR 30,00,000. Ongoing (Aug 2023 - continuing).
  2. Naveen K. Shrivastava (PI). Design and Development of Direct Methanol Fuel Cell with Effective Species Management Technique. Funding Agency: Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) through Research Initiation Grant. AED 20,000. Completed (June 20th 2018 - 20th June 2020)

Research Project

  • Development of interactive classroom demonstration experiments for introductory Physics courses and study of its effectiveness on student learning
    Principal Investigator: Ram Shanker Patel
    Co-investigators: Radhika Vathsan, Arun V Kulkarni, Swastibrata Bhattacharyya, Arnab Roy, Yuriy Petenev, Aabhaas Vineet Mallik
    Funding Agency: Teaching Learning Center (TLC), BITS Pilani- K K Birla Goa Campus.
    Funding amount: Rs 1.9 Lakh
    Project Duration: 2024- 2025.

  • Exploring the role of electrons’ spin in enhanced hydrogen production using chiral/magnetic
    electrocatalysts
    Principal Investigator: Dr. Kiran Vankayala
    Co-investigator: Dr. Ram Shanker Patel
    Funding Agency: Cross-Disciplinary Research Framework (CDRF) scheme of Birla Institute of Technology & Science Pilani
    Funding amount: Rs 20 Lakh
    Project Duration: 2023 - 2025 (24 months)

  • Spin Seebeck Effect in novel heterostructures
    Principal Investigator: Dr. Ram Shanker Patel
    Co-investigators: Dr. Pratap Kumar Sahoo and Dr. Kartik Senapati (NISER Bhubaneshwar)
    Funding Agency: Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, under Science
    and Engineering Research Board programs
    Funding amount: Rs 51 Lakh
    Project Duration: 2017 - 2020 (36 months)

  • Magneto-transport in magnetic tunnel junctions.
    Principal Investigator: Dr. Ram Shanker Patel
    Co-investigator: None
    Funding Agency: Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, under Nanomission program
    Funding amount: Rs 52.65 Lakh
    Project Duration: 2012 - 2016 (48 months)

  • Development of low temperature magnetization measurements set-up.
    Principal Investigator: Dr. Ram Shanker Patel
    Co-investigator: Dr. Teny John, Dr. Halan Prakash
    Funding Agency: Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Govt. of India.
    Funding amount: Rs 13.85 Lakh
    Project Duration: 2012 - 2014 (24 months)

Optimization of Energy Consumption and Thermal Comfort of Buildings in a BIM Framework

Collaborator

Dr. Deepthi Mary Dilip

Project Type

Cross-Disciplinary

Agency

CDRF-II, BITS Pilani

Amount Sanctioned

20.00 Lakh


Structural Health Monitoring of Asphalt Pavements using Digital Twin Information

Principal Investigator

Dr. Deepthi Mary Dilip

Project Type

Cross-Disciplinary

Funding Agency

CDRF-II, BITS Pilani

Amount Sanctioned

20.00 Lakh


Research Projects

  1. Non-destructive prediction of peak load carrying capacity of cylindrical shells using the energy barrier method (SERB), 2018 - 2020, Budget: 35 Lakhs 
  2. Assessment of structural integrity of aerospace shells (BITS) 2022-2024, Budget: 10 Lakhs

Sponsored projects

  1. SwedGuru: A privacy-aware smart wearable patch to analyze sweat and provide real-time health feedback (Co- Investigator)

Funding Agency:  Cross-Disciplinary Research Framework , BITS-Pilani

Grant Sanctioned: ₹ 30 Lakhs (Ongoing) (~A$54,503)

  1. 2. Development of enhanced heat pipes with superhydrophobic and superhydrophilic surfaces and wettability gradient for high density electronics cooling (Principal Investigator)

Funding Agency:   Science and Engineering Research Board

Grant Sanctioned: ₹ 23.32 Lakhs (Ongoing) (~A$41,858)

  1. Study of heat transfer in Loop Heat Pipe with nanofluids using Infrared Thermography (Principal Investigator)

Funding Agency:   Additional Competitive Grant & Research Initiation Grant , BITS-Pilani

Grant Sanctioned: ₹ 9.0 Lakhs (completed) (~A$16,350)


Sponsored Projects

Projects Completed: As PI

2013 - 2016 DAE BRNS (18 Lacs)
Title: Neutron Stars as potential continuous gravitational wave emitter.

 

2012 - 2013 BITS Research Initiation Grant (2 Lacs)
Title: Neutron Stars as potential continuous gravitational wave emitter.

 

Projects Completed: As Co-PI
2012 - 2015 DAE BRNS (20 Lacs)
Title: Aspects of some astrophysical systems like supernovae and neutron stars in the light of new physics.


Sponsored Research

 

  1. Title of the Project: Uniform Stabilization of Numerical Approximations of Wave Equations.
    Funding Agency: DST-SERB under Core Research Grant
    Amount: Rs. 26.26 lakhs, Duration: 3 years (2024 to 2027)
    PI: Prof. Anil Kumar
    Co-PI: Prof. P. Danumajaya & Prof. Amiya K. Pani

  2. Title of the Project: Tracking the import of SARS CoV2 and its variants by surveillance of Airport wastewater
     Funding Agency: DST-SERB
     Duration: 1 year
    Total Amount: Rs. 42,51720-00
    PI: Prof. Srikanth Mutnuri
    Co-PIs: Prof. Anasuya Ganguly,  Prof. Tusar Tirtha Saha,  and Prof. P. Danumjaya
    Status: Ongoing

  3. Title of the Project:  Predictive Mathematical Modeling and Analysis for Effective Diagnosis and Control of Diabetes Mellitus with associated Co-infections and Diseases among Indians
    PI:  Dr. P. Dhanumjaya (BITS-Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus) and
    Co-PI: Prof. V. SREE HARI RAO (International Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and Innovation, Hyderabad.)
    Funding Agency: DST-SERB
    Duration: 3 years (one JRF)
    Total Amount: Rs. 15,68,490-00
    Status: Completed 

  4. Title of the Project: Theoretical and Numerical Study of Elliptic and Parabolic Partial Differential Equations with Interfaces
    PI:  Dr. P. Dhanumjaya (BITS-Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus)
    Funding Agency: NBHM (DAE)
    Duration: 3 years (one JRF)
    Total Amount: Rs. 13,48,100-00
    Status: Completed 

Ongoing projects

Project  title: Right to Safe Sanitation Facilities: A Study of Persons with Disabilities Mohan Kumar Bera. Funded by Cross Disciplinary Research Framework (CDRF), BITS Pilani, Amount 20 Lakh. 2023, (PI)


Research Projects

As PI

          Title: Development of novel initiators for the controlled polymerization of itaconamic acid/ itaconimide monomers  

          Sponsored by: DST, Delhi

          Project Duration: 3 years (March, 2010 to Nov, 2012)

          Grant amount: Rs. 19,86, 600/-

 

As Co-PI

          Title: Pharmaceutical polymer-based bioink for skin tissue constructs

          Sponsored by: BFI-BIOME Program

          Project Duration:18 Months (Aug 2024 to Feb, 2025)

         Grant amount: Rs. 43,27,000/-

 


Completed reearch projects

  • Title of the project : Exploring relationship between students and mentors: A study of a learning activity through group work. Funded by Teaching Learning Centre- BITS Pilani Goa Campus. Amount : 1.30 Lakhs. 2021 (PI)
  • Title of the project: Implication of Ujjwala Scheme on forest conservation. Funded by Government of Jharkhand. Amount Rs. 9.6 lakhs. 2020 (Co-PI)
  • Title of the project: Impact of Negative factors and importance of monitoring natural wetland ecosystem. Funded by Government of Jharkhand. Amount: Rs. 17 Lakhs. 2020 (Co-PI)
  • Title of the Project: Coping with Displacement due to River Erosion in the Indian Sundarban and Lower Assam. Funded by ICSSR. Amount Rs. 4.5 Lakhs. 2019 (PI)
  • Title of the Project: Coping with crisis of livelihood and disasters: A study of migration in Sundarban islands. Funded by the BITS-Pilani. Amount Rs. 2 Lakhs. 2019  (PI)

Projects

Ongoing Projects:

 
 
  • Project Title: Uniform Stabilization of Numerical Approximations of Wave Equations.
    Amount: Rs. 26.26 lakhs, Duration: 3 years (2024 to 2027)
    Funding Agency: DST-SERB under Core Research Grant
    PI: Prof. Anil Kumar     and    Co-PIs: Prof. P. Danumajaya & Prof. Amiya K. Pani, Department of Mathematics, BITS Pilani K.K. Birla Goa Campus, Goa.

 

Sponsored Research Projects (IITB)
1. A Research grant of US$4,000 from the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), ICTP (Trieste,
Italy) for the Project on ‘Numerical Methods for Strongly Damped Wave Equations’.
2. Actively Involved in the Mission mode Project on ‘Development of Tools for Analysis of Switchgear
Mechanism ’ under Technology Development Mission on Integrated Design and Competitive Manufac-
ture (Rs. 153,35,00,000/- ). (with Industry Partners :Crompton & Greaves Ltd and Larson & Toubro
Ltd.).
3. Research grant of Rs.29,611,60/- from DST for the project entitled ‘Doing Industrial Mathematics Via
Genetic Algorithms (GAs), Differential Algebraic Equations (DAEs), Online Optimization, Computer
Aided Geometric Design (CAGD) and Market Forcasting’, from DST 1998 (Co-Principal Investigator).
4. Research grant of Rs. 216,000,000/- (2.16 Crores) for the project entitled ‘Physical and Numerical
Models for Un-conventional Flood patterns’ from Institute of Reservoir Studies, Ahemdabad (ONGC).
5. Research Grant of Rs. 12,24,000/- for the DST-DAAD (PPP-05) project entitled ‘Adaptive Mixed
Finite Element Methods and Applications’ from DST-DAAD (PIs; Amiya Kumar Pani (India) and
Professor Carsten Carstensen (Germany)).
12
6. Research Grant of Rs. 20,00,000/- from DST for the project ‘The Oldroyd Model of Viscoelastic Fluids:
Theoretical and Computational Studies ’ (with Co-PI: Neela Nataraj)
7. Research Grant under Indo-Brazil ( DST-CNPq) project 2009-2011 with PIs ( Indian side) : A. K.
Pani and Neela Nataraj and PI ( Brazil side): Jin Yun Yuan, D. Pedro and H. Carlos.
8. Grant of Rs.4.5 crores for a National Programme in Differential Equations: Theory, Computation and
Applications for a period of five years starting from 2012 (PI) with Neela Nataraj, S. Baskar and Sivaji
Ganesh Sista.
9. Grant of Rs.1944600.00 for the DST project on ‘Finite Element Methods For Parameter Identification
Problems In Elliptic Partial Differential Equations for the period 2014-2017(Co-PI) with Neela Nataraj
and M.T. Nair.


Ongoing Projects

  • Project Director of Bio-CPS/ BioCyTIH (for technology innovations) from DST with total amount of 125 cores (2022-2026). Participated with two major projects for detection of oral cancer and peptide based therapies of Covid 19. . The project is undertaken at the BITS-Pilani, ByCyTiH multi-institutional mega project. My job is to overall investigate and monitor the biological interventions for human diseases (total number of projects are 22). Received 6 government funds total of 5 crores (PI in 2 projects and Co-PI in 3 projects) (Two of the projects will end in 2027).
  • Taken part as the Institution Director (CSIR-IICB, Kolkata) for a Systems Medicine Cluster, Eastern Zone from Department of Biotechnology (DBT). The total sanctioned amount was 145 corers for five other institutes. May 2017- June, 2021. The project was on detection of possible markers and therapies for oral and cervical cancers, which is now continued as a part of BITS-BioCyTIH program.
  • As a continuation, part of this project on the early detection of oral cancer from patient saliva samples is now continued in the Bio-CyTIH. The work is ongoing with Prof. Sanket Goel at the BITS-Pilani, Hyderbad campus.
  • As PI, to initiate and continue the newly sanctioned DBT project on “Transcriptional Regulation of Telomerase (hTERT) by Chromatin remodeling protein SMAR1” BT/PR30192/BRB/10/1915. The total sanctioned amount is Rs 90 lakhs with One RA and one SRF. 2024-2027.

 

 


Faculty Projects

Sponsored Projects

 

Completed:

 

1.

“ICT in Schools of Goa”

Role: Co- Principal Investigator

Funding Agency/Amount: BITS Seed Money Project, Rs. 3.5 Lakhs

2.

“Mining Closure, Economic Disruption & Local Level Sustainability: A Case Study of Goa, India”

Role: Co- Principal Investigator

Funding Agency/Amount: Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, Rs. 9 Lakhs

3-Application of Supervised ML Algorithms to analyze the Drivers of Early-Stage Entrepreneurial Activities in India: The Role of Socio-cognitive Traits and Institutional Environment-Nov2023-Rs14.5 lakhs-2years--Chief Investigator- Prof Aswini K Mishra

Co-Investigators: Dr Rajorshi Sengupta. Dr Debasis Patnaik, Dr Richa Shukla

4-Handicapped and Sanitation-Coastal States of West Bengal and Odisha- Chief Investigator-Dr Mohan Bera-Asst Prof, HSS, BITS Goa; Co Investigator-Dr Debasis Patnaik-Prof. Econ and Finance, BITS Goa-Rs20 lakhs- 2023-2025.

Applied-Sent

 

Theme 2. Human Resource, Holistic Growth and Development

Sub-theme, if
any

2.B Education and Skilling
Strategies for NEP 2020 Implementation

Title of the
Research Proposal

Implementation of group learning pedagogy in higher educational
institutions for developing entrepreneurial knowledge and skill

 

 

 

 


Research Projects

Sponsored Project as Principal Investigator:

  1. Erasmus+ International grant for the proposal titled “Integrated Track in Brain and Cognitive Sciences (iBRAIN)” under the Capacity Building in Higher Education 2019 scheme. The total cost of this collaborative project is € 138350.00.
  2. Literacy and Cognition Project funded by Max Planck Institute of Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. The cost of the project € 5800.
  3. Cognitive Neuroscience Techniques and multimodal scheme to understand consumer behaviour funded by Course5 Intelligence Private Limited,2022 for Rs.1,227,600 INR
  4. Mobile/Web and AR-VR Based Cognition Tracking, Analysis and Rehabilitation for healthy and cognitively impaired people Funded by BITS BioCyTiH Foundation, for Rs. 2,400,000 INR
  5. Carving Individual Learning Trajectories (CILT) by Uncovering the Factors linked to Cognitive Funded by Questt, for Rs. 1, 382, 832.
  6. Estimation of Regional Brain Atrophy using explainable AI and Neuroimaging: Linking Brain Structural Volume to Brain Funded by BITS-RMIT.

Research

Research interests:
  • Green chemistry: Reactions in organized aqueous media; on-water reactions, microwave synthesis, etc.
  • Mechanochemistry: A simple and convenient route for organic transformations. To explore  Ball-Mill, Mixer mill, Automated grinder, Hand-Grinding for synthesis of bioactive compounds. Mechanochemical C-H activation.
  • Heterogeneous catalysis: Syntheses of chiral catalysts by post-synthetic modification of pre-assembled metal-organic frameworks and their application in fundamental asymmetric syntheses.
  • Nanochemistry: Custom-made synthesis of smart nanomaretials and their application in bio-/nano technology such as drug/gene delivery vehicles.
  • Molecular sensors: Development of novel artificial receptors/molecular sensors for the selective recognition/sensing of biogenic substances, toxic ions of clinical interest and environmental pollutants
  • Medicinal Chemistry: Design and synthesis of new drug leads based on multifunctional heterocycles.
  • Method development: Development of new or improved methods for the preparation/purificatio/isolation of various organic molecules in the purview of their industrial applications.

 

Ongoing/completed Projects:

  • Mechanochemical synthesis of magnetic graphene oxide based reusable solid acid catalysts, their use in the synthesis of bioactive quinoxalines and further exploration towards green synthesis of influenza drug, Favipiravir, UGC-DAE, CRS/2021-22/04/631, April 2022, Ongoing.
  • DBT-BUILDER -BITS Pilani, K K Birla Goa campus Interdisciplinary Life Science Programme for Advance Research and Education; Department of Biotechnology, BT/INF/22/SP42543/2021, [as a project co-coordinator] 
  • Design and synthesis of smart supramolecular dyes based on TPE modified PDI–cucurbituril conjugates: their binding and photophysical studies, BRNS, 37(2)/14/20/2017-BRNS/37217, 28 lakhs, 2018-2021.
     
  • Godrej ASTEC sponsored consultancy project, started in March 2021-Dec. 2021.
  • UNICHEM Laboratories Ltd. funded consultancy project 05/17 to 08/17, 5.52.
     
  •  DST-SERB project “A comprehensive study on mechanochemical sp² C-H bond activation in five-membered heteroaromatics in a Ball-Mill” (Project no. EMR/2016/002253), 32 lakhs, 2016-2020, completed June 2020.
  •  DST Fast Track Project for Young Scientists for the project “Redox-sensitive Vesicles of Cucurbit[7]urils as an Efficient Targeted Intracellular Drug Delivery Vehicle” (SR/FT/CS 023/2010) as PI, completed on 30/4/14.
  • Kurade Agro funded industrial project “Isolation of Natural Products from Kokum”, as PI, completed on 31/12/14.
     
  •  CSIR project “Synthesis of Metal-Organic-Porous-Material Based Efficient Chiral Heterogeneous Catalysts by Post-Synthetic Modification and Their Applications in Asymmetric Reactions” (project no. 02(0075)/12/EMR-II), worth 23 lakhs as PI (Co-I Dr. Rahul Banerjee of NCL Pune).
  •  CSIR project “Spectroscopic investigation of the properties of low-lying electronic states of some chemopreventive retinylnitrones and their comparison with retinyliminium ions” (project no. 01(2681)/12/EMR-II) worth 14 lakhs, as co-invertigator  (PI Dr. Anjan Chattopadhyay).
  • CSIR project “Preparation of Magnetically Separable, Mesoporous TiO2 Catalysts and Study of their Catalytic Properties” (project no. 02(147)/13/EMR-II), worth 16 lakhs as co-investigator  (PI: Dr. Narendra Nath Ghosh).
 
 Position available:
  • Applications are invited from the 
    candidates with own-fellowship (e.g. NET-JRF), who want to pursue Ph.D. programme in synthetic organic chemistry / green chemistry / heterogeneous catalysis / mechanochemistry / supramolecular chemistry

Research

Brief Note on Doctoral Studies

Title of the Research Topic:

Experimental Investigations Involving Quality Modeling Concepts for Rotational Moulding of Plastics and Compression Moulding of Composites.

Supervisor:

Prof. BJC Babu, BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus

Summary of Thesis:

This research work was focused on experimental investigations for polymer composite processing methods. The investigations for thermoplastics polymer processing have been carried out for a typical Rotational Moulding process for Linear Low Density Polythylene (LLDPE). For the thermosetting polymers, investigations were done on Unsaturated Polyester (UP) resin/glass fiber (GF) composites on a compression moulding process to produce mechanical fasteners (nut and bolts) made out of above composites. Fiber orientation studies were conducted for the threaded fasteners. The fasteners so obtained showed excellent thermo-mechanical and anti corrosive properties.

Sponsored Research Projects

Role PI:

  1. Experimental Investigations of Rotational Moulding Process Using Nano-Scale Fumed Silica Composites.
  • Funding :  Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India.
  • Period: 2012-2015.
  • Grant Sanctioned: INR 15.85 Lakhs
  1. Rotational Moulding of LLDPE using Nano scale Fumed Silica Composites.
  • Funding :   MHRD / UGC (Start up Grant).
  • Period: 2012-2015.
  • Grant Sanctioned: INR 6 Lakhs.
  1. Research Initiation Grant on Rotational Moulding of Plastics
  • Funding :   BITS PIlani Goa Campus.
  • Period: 2012-2014.
  • Grant Sanctioned: INR 2 Lakhs.
Other Research Projects ( Role Co-PI and Other)
  1. Development and Demonstration of Two centralized wastewater treatment plants

    ( PI: Prof. Srikanth Mutnuri, Dept of Bilogical Sciences, BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus)

    • Funding :Waste Water, and Energy Management under center of excellence, BITS Pilani.
    • Period: 2013-2015
    • Grant: 40 Lakh
  2. FIST Project under the thrust area of Polymer and Composite Material Processing.

    • Funding :   DST/BITS Pilani Goa Campus.
    • Period: 2012-2017.
    • Grant Sanctioned: INR 18 Lakhs
Consultancy Projects with Industry
  1. Comparative Study of Creep of different  Rotomouldable Grade materials' Polymer Link India Pvt. Ltd , Amount 2,36,000, 2022, Duration 6 weeks.
  2. ‘Comparative Study of effect of dry and melt blending on Rotomolding materials' M/s. Roots Multi Clean ltd Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, Amount Rs. 1,19,180, 2021 Duration 3  weeks.
  3. Assessing the Rotomouldability of Materials for Roots Multiclean Pvt. Ltd, to M/s. Roots Multi Clean ltd Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, Amount Rs. 1,48, 491, 2019, Duration 4 weeks.
  4. As CoPI: Fatigue Life Assessment Study of Polymeric materials PI Dr. Vikas Choudhari. John Deere, Pune Amount 5.90 Lakhs, 2021 Duration 1 year
  5. Co-PI: Studies on sustainable eco-friendly solution to replace polyethylene bags/containers used for horticulture applications PI Dr. Vikas Choudhari. Co-PI:Dr. Kiran Mali.  Amount  1 Lakhs, 2021, Duration 1 year
  6. Material Properties Guide For Rotational Moulding, Society of Asian Rotomoulder, Amount 1 Lakhs, 2018, Duration 5 months.

Laboratory Developed

Plastics testing Laboratory


Completed Projects

Projects completed

Targeting the amyloid matrix of staphylococcal biofilms for effective management of its recalcitrant infections
DHR 2020-2023
Development of Novel Biofilm Resistant Coat for Implant Devices from Moringa oleifera Leaf Extracts
ICMR 2019-2022
Restoration of windowpane oyster population following sea ranching practices for their long term conservation
WTI, 2019-2021
Synthesis of mononuclear as well as homo and hetero dinuclear complexes of Cu(II) and Zn(II) with hard-soft donor ligands and evaluation of their anticancer activities (as co-PI)
SERB, 2018-2023
Physicochemical characterization of the Primary Sigma Factor of Vibrio cholerae
DBT, 2012-2016
Studies on putative GGEEF/sensory box domain protein of Vibrio cholerae
DST (SERB), 2012-2015
Structure elucidation of VC0395_300 protein from Vibrio cholerae (leading to an alternate method of checking Cholera”)
BRNS, DAE, 2011-2014
Biochemical and genetic characterization of antimicrobial (candidacidal) peptides produced by the Antarctic Strain Enterococcus faecalis APR 210 (as co-PI)
UGC, 2012-2014
Expression, Purification and Characterization of GGEEF protein of Vibrio cholerae
BITS, 2011-2012

Projects

DBT Builder

CDRF-I

CDRF-II

BFI

 


Research Projects

1.Polyamines and Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS)  (DBT-2020)

2.Role of novel adiporon analogue for PCOS management (DBT Builder-2022)

3.Role of sirtuin analgues for PCOS management (BITS-CDRF-2023)

4.Role of sirtuin in metabolic disorder-TB (ICMR-2024)

5.Role of alternative splicing in hypothalamus (SERB-2024)


Ongoing Projects

  • Screening the Role of Shellfish as Conduits in the Transmission of Antimicrobial Resistance from the Environment into Human

  • Conservation of the Bilaterian Organizer: Novel Studies from the Horseshoe Crab Tachypleus gigas Muller

  • Efficacy of natural extracts of Plants from Western Ghats as antifouling agents on Metallic surfaces with Novel Synergists

  • Silicon-to-Lead: AI-Driven Design, Synthesis and Development of New Drugs to Combat Cardiovascular Diseases (as co-PI)


    Government/Industry funded projects

    Completed

    1. Realization of Biomimetic Dental Implants in Digital Dentistry (Bioactive Biocomposite Development) | PI
      Biotechnology Industrial Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) Seed Funds | Mar-2021 to Mar-2022 [INR 2.00 Lakhs]
    2. Realization of Biomimetic Dental Implants in Digital Dentistry (3D Scanning & Modelling) | PI | Jun-2021 to June-2023 | EIR Category of TIDE 2.0 Scheme of DST, Govt, of India Pilani Incubation & Entrepreneurship Development Society (PIEDS)] [INR 4.00 Lakhs]
    3. Evaluation of Mechanical Performance of the 3-D Printed PEEK Polymer used in Space Applications | Co-PI | Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) BangloreNov-2019 to Nov-2023) | [INR 36.29 Lakhs]
    4. Artificial intelligence assisted surgical procedure for customized patient-specific dental implants using cloud-based automated workflow" under SMART Bio-CPS program of BITS BioCyTiH Foundation. | PI | BioCyTiH | Jun-2023 to Jan-2024 [INR 4.50 L]

    Ongoing

    1. IndigenousDevelopment of Value Implants in Dentistry | Startup India Seed Funds (SIFS), Govt. of India| PI | Jun-2022 to Dec-2024 | [INR 8.00 Lakhs]   
    2. Structural Simulation and Comprehensive Mechanical Characterization of High-Performance Polyethylene (HPPE) Used for Conveyor Roller and Piping Applications| Global Conveyor Systems Private Limited, Goa. | PI |Jun-2024 to Dec-2025 | [INR 10.00 Lakhs]
    3. Deformation studies to reveal deformation heterogeneity phenomenon in oligcorsytals and 3D printed polymers Using Localised Spectrum Analysis and Digital Image Correlation| Université Clermont Auvergne, France (École Universitaire de Physique et d'Ingénierie) | PI |Dec-2023 to Dec-2025 | [6000.00 Euros]
     

    Projects Completed:

     

    Principal Investigator: Shilpa Gondhali.

    Title of the Project: A study of homotopy invariants of a model category.

    Funding Agency/Amount: DST, Govt. of India/Rs. 6.6 lac 

    Duration: 3 years (April-2018 to March-2021)


    Ongoing Projects

    Title: Verification and Validation of Satellite Onboard Software written in ADA language using Model Checking

    Funding Agency: ISRO

    Duration: 24 Months (2024 to 2026)

    Amount: 17 Lakhs


    TCS DataLab

    PI for a project titled "TCS DataLab", which is funded by TCS research.

    Duration: Dec 2022- Dec 2024

    Description: The work focuses on exploring and advancing the capabilities of LLMs. 


    Project/Workshop Funding

    S. No

    Details

    1

    Topic: Design and Development of flexible antennas operating in S and C bands for space application.

    Sponsor: Guerin, Bengaluru, India, 2024

    Sanctioned Amount: = Rs. 2.36 Lakhs

    Role: Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI)

    2

    Topic: Design and Development of broadband antennas operating in 500 MHz to 1000 MHz band.

    Sponsor: Muxtronics, India, 2024

    Sanctioned Amount: = Rs. 5.05 Lakhs

    Role: Principal Investigator (PI)

    3

    Topic: Preparation of Road Map to transform Major Ports to Port 4.0 leveraging advanced technologies

    Sponsor: Indian Ports Association, Government of India, 2024

    Sanctioned Amount: = Rs. 11.8 Lakhs

    Role: Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI)

    4

    Topic: 5G use case Lab.

    Sponsor: TCIL, Government of India, 2023

    Sanctioned Amount: = Rs. 71.25 Lakhs (TCIL) + 14.25 Lakhs (BITS, Pilani) = Rs. 85.5 Lakhs

    Role: Focal team member

    5

    Topic: Development of Broadband Antenna for High Efficiency Applications.

    Sponsor: Research Initiation Grant (RIG), BITS Pilani, 2017

    Sanctioned Amount: = Rs. 2 Lakhs

    Role: Principal Investigator (PI)


    Consultancy Project

    Company: Quantum Solutions Inc.

    Title: Quantum dot short-wave infrared (SWIR) sensors.

    Project Overview:

    Quantum solutions is special chemicals company based in UK that manufactures semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) for displays and image sensors. This project is related to lead sulphide (PbS) and Indium arsenide (InAs) quantum dot materials for short-wave infrared (SWIR) sensors.


    Projects

    Completed 
    As PI
    DST CORE Project: 21.74 Lakhs
    Title: Reactive Transport Modeling  and Simulation of CO2 Sequestration in Decca Volcanic Province.  
    As Co-PI
    CSIR: 23 Lakhs
    Title: Modeling Capacity Loss in Lithium ion Batteries under Conditions of Cycling. 
     
    Ongoing
    DST Core Project: 29 Lakhs
    Development of Lattice Boltzmann Methods for Multiphase Flow and Transport in Porous Media. 

    Research Group

    University of Warsaw, Poland

    RMIT,Austarlia

    La Trobe,Australia

    Glenoble French Alpes

     

    Centre for Cultural Intelligence,NTU,Singapore

    Indian Insttute of remote Sensing,Dehradun

     

    NUJS,Kolkata West Bengal


    PhD and M.E Research Supervision.

    Ph.D. thesis student Supervision – Doctoral (Ph.D.) Degree: Supervised Nine Ph.D. students and 3 ongoing

    Sl.No.

    Name of Student

    Year of Completion

    Title of  Ph.D. Theses

    1.

    Swetha Ramesh

    2024

    “Characterization of Novel Antifungal Lipopeptides Against Candida albicans And Non-albicans Strains and Elucidation of Their Mode Of Action”

    2.

    REHAN A. DESHMUKH

    Degree Awarded 2020

    Development of Rapid and Sensitive Molecular Methods for the Detection and Quantification of Escherichia coli in water

    3.

    GAUTAM K.

    Degree Awarded 2019

    Functional Characterization of Recombinant α-Crystallin of Mycobacterium tuberculosis H37Rv

    4.

    AJAY G. CHALASANI

    Degree Awarded 2018

    Biochemical and Functional Characterization of a Narrow-Spectrum Antibacterial Peptide from the Wild-type Bacillus sp.

    5.

    RAMYA R

    Degree awarded’2018

    She has been declared as one of the winners of the YOUNG INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY for HUMAN & ANIMAL MYCOLOGY’ Grant for the 20th ISHAM Congress going to be held at Amsterdam’ July’ 2018.

    6.

    PURNIMA SINGH

    Deg. Awarded in Nov, 2016

    Studies on Microbial Diversity and Biotechnological Potential of Selected Polar Organisms;

    Awarded prestigious Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) Fellowship in August 2017.

    7.

    RAEESH  SHEKH

    Aug’ 2013 (Degree awarded.

    Study on Biochemical and Genetic Characterization of anti-Candida Substance Produced by Enterococcus faecalis.

    8.

    VEEKY BATHS

    Aug’ 2012 (Degree awarded)

      Systems Biology and Graph Theoretic Approaches to Identify Potential Drug Targets against Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

    9.

    SUBODH K SRIVASTAVA

    2009 (degree awarded)

    Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Granule Bound Starch Synthase-I gene & its association with starch quality in Rice genotypes

    10

    Madhuri Madduri

    Likely to submit thesis 2024-2025

    SERB-sponsored JRF (Thesis work in progress)

    11.

    Pritish R. Shukla

    4.3 yrs

    Birla Carbon-CSR

    11.

    Sreelakshmi K.P.

    2nd year

    DBT-Builder

    M.E. Dissertation/Thesis student Research Supervision.

    Sl.No.

    Name of Student

    Year of Completion

    M.E. (Biotechnology) Dissertation/Thesis

    1.

    ANVIKSHA S

    May 2019 (Degree awarded)

    Exploration on the functional characterization of antifungal lipopeptide fractions isolated from B. subtilis

    2.

    KANIKA  BHATNAGAR

    May 2015 (degree awarded

    Optimization of the production parameters of the antifungal substance by Bacillus species and its partial purification.

    3.

    RIYAZ BASHA

    NOV, 2012 (degree awarded)

    PCR based Species level Identification of Malaria Parasite and genetic analysis of drug resistance markers in P. falciparum isolates.

    4.

    AKHILESH DIXIT

    MAY, 2010 (degree awarded)

    Preliminary Biochemical Characterization and Optimization of Production of the Antimicrobial Substance Produced by a Selected wild-type bacterial isolate.

     

    Research Support: Completed and Ongoing Research Projects details

    Sl. No.

    Title of Project

    Funding Agency

    SANCTIONED Amount (Lacs)

    Date of start and Duration

    1.

    In vitro and in vivo Evaluation of The Functionally-characterized Broad-spectrum Antifungal Cyclic Lipopeptides… against Medically Important Mucorales

    Indian Council of Medical Research

     95.50 Lacs

    30th March 2024 ongoing

    2.

    Recovery of Resources from Worn-out Tires for Enabling Circular Economy (Co-PI)

    Birla Carbon

    50.0 Lacs

    2021-2025 (ongoing)

    3.

    Development of Prototype Biosensor for detection of bacteria (E. coli/ Shigella and Salmonella spp.) in drinking

    BITS BioCyth

    40 Lacs

    2022- ongoing

    4.

    Unlocking the Potential of Green Cosmetic Nanoemulsions for Targeted Acne Vulgaris Therapy: Advanced Modeling and Optimization Strategies”    

    CDRF

    15 Lacs

    2023- Ongoing

    5.

    Evaluation of Antifungal activity of Lipopeptides from a Wild- type Bacillus sp. RLID 12.1 in Mouse Models of Invasive Candidiasis, Cryptococcosis, and Aspergillosis’-Joint project with PGIMER

    SERB

    Total sanctioned amt 65.3 Lakhs approx.

    Start date: 23rd December’ 2018 for 3 yrs.

    6.

    Exploration of Antifungal Lead Molecules from the Wild-type Bacillus subtilis & molecular characterization along with optimizing production (Principal Investigator & Project Coordinator);

    Co-PI: Department of Medical Microbiology, PGIMER, Chandigarh

    Joint project with PGIMER

    DBT

    48.69

     3 yrs. (01/02/2017)

    End Date: 30th June 2020

    7.

    Microbial Diversity & Biotechnological Potentials of some Polar Organisms [MENTOR & Supervisor]

    DST-WOS

    20.79

    2014-2017 (Completed in March 2017)

    8.

    Purification & Characterization of Antimicrobial Compound with special reference to C. albicans and C. neoformans [Principal Investigator];

    Co-PI: Dr. A. Chakrabarti, PGIMER, Chandigarh

    SERB

    10.69

    2015-16 (Completed in March 2016)

    9.

    Screening, Isolation and Identification of Novel Antimicrobial Compounds from Potential Mangroves of Goa (CO-Investigator)

    CSIR

    20.0

    2016-2019, would end on August 2019.

    10.

     Study on EMT regulation through TGFβ/SMADs in gall bladder disease[Co-PI]

    DST

    37.0 lacs

    2014-2017, Completed

    11.

    “Development of a Field-deployable Biosensor for Bacterial sensing in potable water” WWEM-Water Core Project [Co-PI]

    BITS University

    40.65

    May 2014-March 2017, completed

     

    Research Projects Completed

    Sl No.

    Title of Project

    Funding Agency

    Amount

    Date of completion

    1.

    Cloning and expression of goat Interleukin 1 (Co-investigator)

    BITS PILANI

    2.00 Lacs

    2001-2003, Completed

    2.

    DST-FIST  (Coordinator)

    DST

    41.0

    2015,Completed

    3.

    “Isolation & screening of microorganism from extreme & unusual environment for new & novel antimicrobial peptides to combat some clinically important multi-drug resistant fungal pathogens” (PI)

    CSIR, New Delhi

    17.00 lacs

    (approx.)

    Completed, 31st March, 2011,

    4.

    Biochemical & genetic characterization of Candidacidal peptides produced by the strain E. faecalis APR- 210. (PI)

    UGC, N Delhi

    7.34  lacs

    Completed, February, 2014, 3yrs

    5.

    Screening of extremophile isolates  for novel antimicrobial substances against selected multi-drug resistant human pathogens (PI)

    DST, N Delhi

    11.38  Lacs

    Completed, March 2011, 18 months,

    6.

    Studies on extremophilic isolates for novel antimicrobial substances: biochemical and genetic characterization of Antimicrobial substance produced by a selected wild-type extremophile isolate against multi-drug resistant clinical isolates (as Mentor)

    DST-WOS

    14.92 Lacs

    Completed  December 2012

    Govt Agency-sponsored Fellowship/Financial support/Travel grants to Ph.D. students enlisted below

     

    PhD students

    Name of the Govt. fellowship/funding agency

    Year of Award

    PhD awarded/

    submitted/ongoing

    Supervisor

    /Mentor

    1.

    KP Sreelakshmi

    DBT-Builder

    2023

                 Ongoing

    Utpal Roy

    2.

    Pritish R Shukla

    PMRF, BIRLA CARBON

    2023

    Ongoing

    Utpal Roy

    3.

    Swetha R

    ICMR-SRF

    2022

    Ongoing

     

    Utpal Roy

     

    4.

    Madhuri M

    SERB-JRF

    2018

    Ongoing

     

    5.

    Swetha R

    DBT Project-SRF

    2017

     

     

    6.

    Purnima S

    Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF) Fellowship

     

    2017

    Awarded

     

    Utpal Roy

     

    7.

    Rehan Deshmukh

    ICMR-SRF

    2018

    Awarded

     

    Utpal Roy

     

    8.

    Ramya R

    20th ISHAM Grant

    2018

    Awarded

     

     

    9.

    Ramya R

    CSIR-SRF

    2015

     

     

    10.

    Purnima S

    ICMR Travel grant

    2016

    Awarded

     

    Utpal Roy

     

    11.

    Purnima S

    DST-WOS

    2015

     

     

    12.

    Ramya R

    DBT-travel grant

    2012

     

     

    13.

    Ramya R

    DST-Project JRF

    2011

     

     

    14.

    Ajay G. Chalasani

    UGC-JRF

    2011

    Awarded

     

    Utpal Roy

     

    15

    Raeesh Shekh

    CSIR-SRF

    2011

    Awarded

     

     

    16

    Purnima S

    DST-WOS

    2010

     

     

    16

    Md. Raeesh Shekh

    CSIR-project JRF

    2007

     

     

    Utpal Roy

     

    17

    Subodh Srivastava

    CSIR-SRF

    2006

    Awarded

     

    Utpal Roy

     

     


    Projects Completed

    “Synthesis of hydroxyapatite based biocompatible functional magnetic nanoparticles and investigation of its interaction with biomolecules” in collaboration with UGC-DAE-CSR and BARC Mumbai. Funding Agency UGC-DAE-CSR. Duration 2015-2018. PI Prof. Sutapa Roy Ramanan Co-PI Prof. Meenal Kowshik

    "Mesoporous nanocomposites for controlling microbially induced corrosion caused by sulfate reducing bacteria". Funding Agency DST-SERB. Duration 2019-2022. PI Prof. Sutapa Roy Ramanan Co-PI Prof. Meenal Kowshik

    “Lanthanide doped hydroxyapatite based nano-materials for theranostics applications: Sensing, Imaging, and Therapeutics”, Funding Agency DST. Duration 2016-2019, Co-PI Prof. Sutapa Roy Ramanan PI Prof. Meenal Kowshik

    “Biological synthesis of metal sulphides and metallic nanoparticles using halophilic Archaebacteria” . Funding Agency Ministry of earth sciences. 2011-2014. Co-PI Prof. Sutapa Roy Ramanan PI Prof. Meenal Kowshik 

    "Synthesis of improved ferroelectric materials by sol-gel emulsion technique". Funding Agency DRDO. 2007-2010. PI Prof. Sutapa Roy Ramanan

     

     


    Latest Research Project

    Latest Project (Running)

    • Nilak Datta Co-PI. SPARC Project “Museum Effect: A Case Study of Goa State Museum and Goa Chitra Museum” In Collaboration with University of Vienna (Austria) and University of Victoria (Canada). Project Amount: Rs. 67.17 Lakhs (Approx)

    Research Projects

    Projects


    • Land Dispossession for a Golf Course in Tiracol, Goa: (Co-PI with Prof. Alito Siqueira, Prof. Peter R. deSouza) funded by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), Delhi. initiated in October 2015
    • The Politics of India’s SEZs, Jan 2010 – Feb 2011: A research project funded by the Ford Foundation sought to understand the implementation of India's SEZ Policy across various states. I contributed to the study by researching the SEZ experience in the state of Goa.
    • External Expert in an ongoing research project called: The Language of the Becoming City initiated by the Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm. The project reflects on urban transformations across four urban spaces: Södertälje, Sweden; Goa, India; Cape Town, South Africa and Rio, Brazil. As part of this project field visits and workshops have been concluded three of the sites: Södertälje, Sweden from May - June 2014; Goa, India in December 2015; Cape Town, South Africa from May to June 2016 and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from May - June 2017.
    • State of Democracy in South Asia (SDSA), May 2004 – Aug 2005: I worked as a Research Assistant at the Center for the Study of Developing Studies (CSDS) - Lokniti, Delhi where I was involved with the SDSA project which sought to map the experience of democracy in five South Asian countries - Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - by using a Cross-national Survey, Case Studies, Qualitative Assessment of democratic institutions and Dialogues. I worked particularly on the Dialogues component which sought to recover experiences and perspectives of democracy from a range of democracy ‘activists’.
    • National Election Survey 2004, April – May 2004: Assisted in the capacity of State Supervisor (Goa chapter) of this nationwide post-poll survey known as the National Election Study 2004 (NES 2004) conducted by CSDS-Lokniti on the 14th Indian Parliamentary Elections.

     

    Consultancies


    • (With Prof. Rayson Alex) Analysis of Stakeholders in Dr.Salim Ali Bird Sanctuary,Chorao, Goa, for Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Aug 2014-Jan 2015.
    • Constitutional and other Legal Provisions that Enable Political Parties to Revoke the Parliamentary Mandate: A study of Twenty-Nine Countries from the Asia-Pacific Region, 2009: This study commissioned by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), Geneva sought to compile a listing of the various legal provisions, in a set of 29 countries, through which political parties can control parliamentarians. A report of the study was submitted to IPU in June, 2009.
    • Lokniti website: When working at CSDS-Lokniti I also designed and managed the Lokniti website: www.lokniti.org which houses the CSDS Election Datasets a.k.a. the National Election Studies (NES).

    “Sustainable high purity hydrogen production using chemical looping combustion in a packed bed reactor: an energy efficient and environment friendly alternative to conventional industrial steam methane reforming”. Funded by GAIL, India-Rs.3,08,33,466/-. PI Prof. Srinivas Krishnaswamy, Co-PI Prof. Sutapa Roy Ramanan. Aug-24 to Feb-27.


    SPARC : “Advanced high temperature and pressure oxygen storage and release material (OSRM) for unmixed combustion(UMC): A promising CCS and clean energy generation technology: PI Prof. Srinivas Krishnaswamy, Co-PI Prof Sutapa Roy Ramanan,(BITS). Collaboration with UMIST(Manchester): Dr. Vincenzo Spalina and Dr. Carmine D’Agostino. Sanctioned amount Rs. 41,20,430, 28.07.2023 –27.07.2025


    Projects

    Feasibility Assessment of Dual Source-Drain Reconfigurable Field Effect Transistor for Standalone and Embedded Capacitorless Dynamic Memory Applications 

    Principal Investigator

    Manish Gupta

    Scheme: Additional Competitive Grant 

    Agency

    Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, Goa, India 

    Amount Sanctioned

    10.00 Lakh

    Feasibility Assessment of Emerging Ferroelectric Devices for Logic and Memory Applications 

    Principal Investigator

    Manish Gupta

    Scheme: Research Initiation Grant

    Agency

    Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani, K K Birla Goa Campus, Goa, India 

    Amount Sanctioned

    2.00 Lakh


    Research Project

    • Development of turn-on type Chemodosimer for Selective Recognition of Sulfhydryl-Containing Amino Acids and Peptides in aqueous media, FAST Track SERB 19.9 lakhs INR. (completed)

     

    • Development of PCDA-liposome based detection kit for Alzheimer’s disease biomarker; Funding agency SERB DST INDIA 6 lakhs INR (completed)

     

    • “Design and synthesis of Graphene oxide based AIE-sensor for selective detection of Hg(II) and organic mercury in aqueous medium;  funding agency: UGC DAE (CSR); 7.03 lakhs INR (completed)

     

    • Design and synthesis of smart supramolecular dyes based on TPE modified PDI cucurbituril conjugates, BRNS, 3 years, .28 lakhs INR as Co-I. from 2018.

     

    • Development of mesoporous silica (for alumina)-SiC-metal nanoparticles based nanocomposites for radar absorption application at high temperature, DRDO, 3 years, 15.13 lakhs INR as Co-I from 2018.

     

    • Development of Photocatalyst embedded Graphene based membranes for Treatment of Dye containing waste water under sunlight.” ABSTC, 52 lakhs INR as Co-I from 2018.
    • A polydiacetylene-based fluorescent sensor for the detection of arsenic species and uranyl ion in water by conventional and nuclear analytical methods”, Project no. 58/14/28/2019-BRNS/11019 dated 27th November 2019 as PI, BRNS from 1st April 2020- cost: 32 L; as PI. completed
    • Demonstration of a practical solution for removal and monitoring heavy metal ions from drinking water using modified biopolymer"; DSTE-GOA, ongoing
    • DBT-Builder project, November, 2022, ongoing.
    • Development of Fluorescent Probe-based Microfluidic Point-of-Care Testing kits for the early phase detection of urinary tract infection” funded by CDRF; ongoing.
    • Development of GO (or rGO) based smart functional materials for removal of Hg(II)/organic Hg and fluoride ions from aqueous media by magnetic solid phase extraction (MSPE); UGC-DAE (CSR) ongoing.

    My Projects

    BITSAuto- BITS Pilani and APPCAIR autonomous vehicle project, 2024,  60 Lakhs.

     

    BITS Pilani Goa Campus TLC grant for Robotics Lab 2 Lakhs, 2022.

     

    Smart City Data Analytics in a Cloud, ABB GISPL 2021-2024, 17 Lakhs.

     

    Development of Remotely Configurable Arbitrary Ramp Generator for

    FMCW Reflectometry, BRNS, 2 Years, 2017, 28 Lakhs.

     

    Design and Development of Condition based Monitoring of Pipelines using  Wireless Sensor Networks”, GAIL India Ltd, 2 years (Sept 2012), 80 Lakhs

     Extended for pilot implementation (Oct 2014), 3.195 Lakhs

    Implementation of Wireless Sensor Network for Process Monitoring of GAIL’s Pipeline, GAIL India Ltd, 1.5 years (Jan 2015), 95.87 Lakhs

     

    DST-Young Scientist Scheme Project entitled Study of low dimensional magnetic systems, DST, 2 Years (Jan 2000), 5 Lakhs.


    Sponsored Research Projects

    Sponsored Projects

     

    • Design and development of innovative SHM system using embedded piezo based active sensing approach for delamination detection in multi-layer composite structures (SERB-DST funded project - Completed)

    o    Applications are invited for the position of Junior Research Fellow for this project (Link)  - Not accepting new applications  

    ·        Feasibility study of innovative piezo-based system for inhibition of subsea algal growth and SHM  of marine structures (BITS-ACRG - Completed)

     

     

     

    Research

    Research Interest

    • Micro Manufacturing - Micro machining of channels, nozzle holes, gripper arms, thin filters, micro distributors and other micro devices
    • Surface Coating - PVD / CVD / Thermal spray / Sputtering
    • Tribology - Friction, Wear and Lubrication  

    Sponsored Project

    (1) Research Title: Flow investigation through µED-milled metallic micro channel 

          Funding Agency/Scheme: DST/Fast Track (2012-2013)
         Grant Sanctioned: 17 Lakhs
          Status: Completed
     
    (2) Submitted DST-FIST proposal (Level 2) as Co-PI to DST worth Rs. 3 Crores in
           May 2020

    Research Lab Facilities

    Established the following Lab Facilities at BITS:
    • Optical Microscope (Halogen, LED and Fluorescent)
    • Electron Beam - Physical Vapor Deposition (EBPVD)
    • Pin-on-disc Tribometer (Dry and Wet)

    PhD Students

    • Satish A. Mullya (Part time) - Working as Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Annasaheb Dange College of  Engineering and Technology, Ashta - Completed
    • Nikhil Kadam (Full time) - Completed

    Research Interest

    1. Cancer Biology: Involvement of small molecules in cancer research:

      Small-GTPases use GDP/GTP alternation to actuate a variety of functional switches that are pivotal for cell dynamics. The GTPase switch is turned on by GEFs, which stimulate dissociation of the tightly bound GDP, and turned off by GAPs, which accelerate the intrinsically sluggish hydrolysis of GTP. Rho family proteins regulate diverse cellular functions, including proliferation, differentiation, migration, and polarity. Lots of attention has been given on the involvement of intracellular molecules such as Rho-like proteins in carcinogenesis. Quinacrine (QC), a derivative of 9-aminoacridine, an anti-inflammatory drug that has been used against malaria and rheumatoid diseases. It has been shown to possess anticancer effect both in vitro (cancer cell lines namely, HCT8 and PC3) and in vivo (mouse models). In the cancer cells, QC can simultaneously suppress nuclear factor-B (NF-kappaB) and activate p53 signaling, which results in the induction of apoptosis in these cells. However, the experimental results come from a few limited cancer cell lines, and the detailed mechanisms remain unknown. Existing reports suggest that CDC42- related Rho-family proteins can also activate NF-kappaB pathway but no concrete study has been reported so far about the involvement of quinacrine in regulating Rho-like protein by modulating actin cytoskeleton. Thus, this proposed study will focus for the first time on the effect of quinacrine in changing the balance of Rho-like proteins; which may have implementation on oncogenesis of breast and lung cancer epithelial cancer cells. The study will also focus on the mechanisms underlying the molecular pathways involved in the QC mediated apoptosis in these two cell lines. This study will be helpful for further improvement ofchemotherapeutic reagent for better management of human breast and lung cancer.

    2. Toxicology: Effect of Snake venoms on human cancer cells: Envenomation by Russell’s viper is known for its diverse patho-physiological consequences, e.g., myotoxicity, edema, pituitary insufficiency, ‘dramatic hemorrhage’ and renal failure apart from death. The amazing specificity of snake venom toxins to target physiological systems also made them potential molecules of drug development. A number of toxins with anti-cancer potentials have been purified in recent times from different snake venoms, including Russell’s viper venom. The anticancer potential of Russell’s viper venom lies in its cytotoxic effects. Most contemporary research in the development of anticancer therapeutics from venoms has focused on investigating the molecular mechanism by which an agent induces cytotoxicity and apoptosis in cancer cells.
    3. Nanotoxicity and effects of nanotoxicity on cell morphology regulation:

      We have done experiments using two different cell lines namely, A549 and IMR32. We have exposed them to different dosages and time to different nanoparticles (NPs). Though we have not propose to use A549 initially but later on we have used this cell line as we thought that inhaled NPs can deposit along the entire respiratory tract, including airways and alveolar regions or penetrate to deeper tissues. Our results confirmed that: ZnO nanoparticle is more toxic to A549 cells as compared to TiO2 nanoparticles.  ZnO toxicity is more pronounced by formation of stress granules, appearance of nanotubes, stress fibers and loss of cell-cell contacts whereas, TiO2 toxicity is alleviated to some extent with prolonged exposure at 48 hours. RT-PCR and protein profile shows differential regulation pattern for smGTPases upon exposure to various nanoparticles (Cdc42, Rac1 and RhoA) which were not only time dependent but also dependent. Our results indicated not only a dose and time dependent cytotoxicity on exposure to TiO2 and ZnO NPs but also there is a correlation between cell morphology patterns in both the cell lines. Decrease in metabolic activity was also observed; cytotoxic assay by resarzurin method. SDS PAGE profile shows changes in the pattern of many medium / low range proteins on nanoparticle exposure.  Western blot results revealed differential expression pattern of HSP70 stress protein on nanoparticle exposure.  Ensuing cell death at lethal doses of TiO2 and ZnO nanoparticles seem to occur by Necrosis evidenced by absence of DNA laddering. Expression level of total eIF-2 protein as an indicator for protein synthesis inhibition is seen grossly normal though the eIF-2alpha (p) has been showing some changes along with changes in the total protein synthesis pattern by S35 Met labeling experiments. Our work has produced two papers and opened up future work related to ‘NANO-QSAR’ modeling and explores the possible relation between the mechanisms of nanoparticles induced cellular death and protein synthesis.

    Awarded external funded projects from Govt. funding agencies like DBT, UGC, ICMR, DAE. 


    The ViStA Lab

    The ViStA Lab

    The ViStA LAB is a melting pot of ideas and innovation. Though it debuted as a lab devoted to Vibrio lifestyle and structural analysis (read, protein-protein, protein-nucleotide and miRNA), it has grown along multiple correlated dimensions.

    Sponsored Projects

    1. Improvement of laser cladded Inconel surface using laser surface remelting technique (Funded by SERB/ANRF) (2024-2027)
    2. Study of molten pool and development of coaxial nozzle for laser cladding of Inconel (Funded by BITS Pilani) (2021-2023)
    3. An investigation on intergranular corrosion performance of direct energy deposited Ni-based superalloy (Funded by BITS Pilani) (2021-2022)

    Research

    Title of the Ph.D. Thesis 

     

    "Design of Energy Efficient Schedulers for Multicore Hard Real-Time Systems."

     

    Project sponsored by BITS and SRCD under RIG and Faculty Interim scheme     TITLE: Design of a dynamic recommender system to make the resource access control protocols in hard real-time system energy efficient. 

    Ongoing Project sponsored by BITS under SPARKLE scheme TITLE: Design of a smart rollator for save navigation and e-health application.

    Currently working on Edge computing: An energy and response time efficient Orchestrator design.


    Research Project

    1. Design and development of a cost-effective multi-grasp myoelectric upper limb prosthesis, Cross-Disciplinary Research Framework, BITS Pilani (Aug 2023-March 2025)  (Principal Investigator: Dr. Anurag Nishad, Co-Principal Investigator: Dr. Ganesh M. Bapat)
    2. Detection of the drowsy driver of the heavy vehicle using physiological signals under Indian road conditions, Additional Competitive Research Grant, BITS Pilani Goa Campus (Nov 2022-Oct 2024) (Principal Investigator: Dr. Anurag Nishad)
    3. Analysis of big data of physiological signals, Research Initiation Grant, BITS Pilani Goa Campus, (Dec 2022-Nov 2023) (Principal Investigator: Dr. Anurag Nishad)

    RESEARCH PROJECTS

    Ongoing projects :

    As PI

    1. Development of a therapeutic bacteriophage carrying the Phi11 holin to combat Drug Resistant Staphylococci Infection; R.11017/10/2023-GIA/HR. (DHR) (2023-2026) 30 LAKHS

    As Co-PI

    1. Conservation of the Bilaterian Organizer: Novel Studies in the horseshoe crab, Tachypleus gigas ; Müller (BT/PR40435/NDB/39/745/2020;
      10th March 2021; DBT)
    2. Efficacy of natural extracts of Plants from Western Ghats as antifouling agents on Metallic Surfaces with Novel Synergists (DBT Builder)
    3. Development of Fluorescent Probe-based Microfluidic Point-of-Care Testing kits for the early phase detection of urinary tract infection (C1/23/181; CDRF)

    Completed projects: 3 as PI 

    1. "Cloning and characterization of the promoters of Staphylococcys.aureus temperate bacteriophage Phi11" 2013/37B/19/BRNS; 23,99,719 INR
    2. Studies on the gene regulation involved in the lytic-lysogenic switch in Staphylococcus aureus temperate bacteriophage Phi11;Rs. 2046453/-;  EMR/2015/002229  (project closure report has been evaluated as GOOD by SERB)
    3. Development of Therapeutic Phages to Combat Drug Resistant Staphylococci Infection ( DST-CRG, (CRG/2020/004968)) 40 LAKHS (2020-2024)

    Completed projects: 1 as Co-PI

    1. Development of PCDA-liposome based detection kit for Alzheimer's disease biomarker; EMR/2016/001416 ; 2016-2019

    Research Projects

     

    1. Fast Track Volumetric Construction Based on Composite Design Using Lightweight High-Performance Materials

    • Role: Research Fellow (Aug 2017 to Dec 2019) and Collaborator (Jan 2020 to Present)
    • Granting Organization: Sembcorp Industry & National Research Foundation, Singapore
    • Main PI: Prof. J.Y. Richard Liew, Head, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore

     

    2. Design of Concrete Encased Composite Columns with High Strength Materials

    • Role: Research Fellow (Aug 2017 to Dec 2019) and Collaborator (Jan 2020 to March 2022)
    • Granting Organization: Ministry of National Development, Building & Construction Authority (BCA), Singapore
    • Main PI: Prof. J.Y. Richard Liew, Head, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore

     

    3. Studies on the compressive behavior of H-shaped steel reinforced concrete beam-columns

    • Role: Collaborator (May-July 2022)
    • Granting Organization: Open Project of Failure Mechanics and Engineering Disaster Prevention, Key Lab of Sichuan Province
    • Main PI: Dr. Bing-Lin Lai, Key Laboratory of Concrete and Prestressed Concrete Structures of Ministry of Education, School of Civil Engineering, SouthEast University, Nanjing, China

     

    4. Structural Behavior of Steel Fibre-Reinforced Concrete Slabs without Traditional Reinforcement

    • Role: PhD Research Scholar (Aug 2013 to Feb 2018)
    • Main PI: Prof. Tan Kiang Hwee, Dept. of Civil & Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore

     

    Consultancy Projects

     

    1.  Design of Reinforced and Fibre Reinforced Concrete Slab-On-Grade at Lucky Recycling Co. LLC Construction Site, Dubai

    • Role: Principal Investigator (PI) (July 2022)
    • Granting Organization: Lucky Recycling Co. LLC and Civil Matrix Contracting LLC, Dubai

     

    Other Collaborations (non-funded)

     

    1. Design and economic implications of using steel fibers in elevated slabs of multi-story buildings

    • In Collaboration with Prof. Ramesh Nayakka, Department of Civil Engineering, IIT Dharwad - Completed in April 2024

     


    Sponsored Projects

    Completed Projects

    •  FIELD THEORIES WITH CARROLLIAN SYMMETRY (PI)
           Funding Agency: Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)
     
    •  OBSERVATIONAL SIGNALS OF QUANTUM GRAVITY IN CMB (PI)

                Funding Agency: Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB)


    Research Projects and Consultancy

    Title: A study on Usage and Impact of ICT in secondary Schools in India; Sponsor: BITS Pilani (Seed Grant); Duration: April, 2013 - March, 2015; Grant Amount: Rs 750000 

    Title: Impact Evaluation on Empowerment of SC/ST Candidates Using ICT Tools in the State of Goa; Sponsor: Sanket Infosys (Karnataka State Electronics Ltd Master Franchisee); Duration: 2013-14 (six months); Grant Amount: Rs 50000

    Title: Impact Analysis on Training Programme for Empowering Women and SC/ST Candidates Using ICT Tools in the State of Goa; Sponsor: Karnataka State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (KEONICS), Bangalore; Duration: 2010-11(Six months); Grant Amount: Rs 50000


    Sponsored R&D and Consultancy Projects

     

    R&D Projects:

    Co-PI; "Museum Effect: A Case Study of Goa State Museum and Goa Chitra Museum"; Scheme for Promotion of Academic & Research Collaboration (SPARC), Ministry of Education, Government of India; Duration: 2 years; Start Date: 28 July 2023; Sanctioned Amount: INR 67,17,538 [Status: Ongoing]

    Consultancy Projects:

    Co-PI; Technical Writing Training Programme; Funding Agency: CIPLA BIOTEC; Duration: 6 weeks (July-September 2016); Sanctioned Amount: INR 6,65,160 [Status: Completed]

    Conference Grants:

    International Conference; “Region, Nation, Trans-Nation: Literature-Cinema Interface”; Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, BITS Pilani, K.K. Birla Goa Campus, 31 January – 02 February 2019. Funding Agencies: Indian Council of Social Science Research (Amount Received: INR 2,50,000) & Department of Tourism, Government of Goa (Amount Received: INR 10,000)


    CDRF Project

    Title of the Proposal:

    Investigations on Impacts of Variations in Local Site and Climatic Conditions on Field Performance of Grid-connected Solar Photovoltaic and Small Wind Energy Systems at BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus.

    Principal Investigators:

    1. M. K. Deshmukh, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, K K Birla Goa Campus
    2. S. D. Manjare, Chemical Engineering, K K Birla Goa Campus
    3. Chandradew Sharma, Physics, K K Birla Goa Campus
    4. Debasis Patnaik, Economics and Finances, K K Birla Goa Campus
    5. Sudarshan Swain, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, K K Birla Goa Campus.

    Grant Reference: C1/23/188, Dt. 20 September 2023


    Research Projects

    Ongoing:

    1. Biofuels : Development of energy efficient processes for Sustainable biofuel
    2. Industry 4.0 Chemical Engineering : Development of AI and Computer Vision based interventions in Water - Energy Nexus
    3. River Water Quality Analysis : Development of Statistical Models for River Water Quality 
    4. Climate Change : Development of Computer Vision based interventions

    RESEARCH

    Ongoing Projects:

    CDRF: C1/23/188

    Investigators: Prof. M K Deshmukh, Prof. S D Manjare, Prof. Chandradew Sharma

    Investigation on impacts of variations in local site and climatic conditions on field performance of grid  connected solar photovoltaic and small wind energy system at BITS Pilani K K Birla Goa Campus.

    Ph.D. Scholar: 

                       Jitendra Vasudeo Nagrare (2022PHXF0062G)

                       Neeraj Kumar Bhaskar (2023PHXF 0430 G)

                       Harsh Chandrakar ( 2022PHXF0023G)

    Research Current Area: Stochastic complex system, Interdisciplinary 

    Stochastic complex system: Predicting Financial Shocks, Crashes and Bubbles.

    Interdisciplinary : AI/ML model building of solar photovoltaic and small wind energy generation anomaly 

    https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=ciBUtXgAAAAJ&view_op=list_works&gmla=AC6lMd-pUUftgtPCm0KZM_LJ3QwmlT2xJCpOY3V92awRcHhK0L-TwY1UTSe9HnSYck3tNCWBnFnJ0196S5_lCEJa


    Sponsored projects

     Completed Projects  Ongoing  Projects  Under Review
     5 2  2
     
    1. Funded By: BITS Pilani (Research Initiation Grant)
    Title of the Project: Synthesis of ceramic foams for hydrogen storage applications
    Role: Principal Investigator (PI) 
    Grant Amount: Rs. 2,00,000/-
    Duration: October 2015 - October 2017
    Status: Completed 
     
     2. Funded by: DST-SERB (Early Career Research Award)
    Title of Project: Hydrogen Storage in Mesoporous Polymer Derived Ceramics for Automotive Application
     Role: Principal Investigator (PI) Co-PI: Dr. Parameshwaran R
     Grant Amount: Rs. 42, 38, 240/- 
    Duration: September 2016 - January 2020
    Status: Completed 
    Awarded "Very Good" Grade by DST Committee 
     
    3. Funded by: HBL Power Systems Limited, Hyderabad
    Title of Project: Lithium ion batteries
    Role: Principal Investigator (PI)
    Grant Amount: Rs. 14,75,000/-
    Duration: August 2019 - January 2022 
    Status: Completed 
     
    4. Funded by: ARDB
    Title of the Project: Theoretical and Simulation Based Approach to Determine the Forming Limit Diagrams of beta-Ti alloys at Elevated Temperatures
    Role: Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI); PI: Dr. Kurra Suresh & Dr. S K Singh
    Grant Amount: Rs. 26,60,000/-
    Duration: June 2020 - June 2023 
    Status: Completed
     
    5. Funded by: DST SERB (Core Research Grant)
    Title of the Project:  Development of mesoporous materials with enhanced hydrogen uptake for fuel cell vehicles
    Role: Principal Investigator (PI) Co-PI's: Dr. Sudha Rahika & Dr. Asif A
    Grant Amount: Rs. 29,13,900/-
    Duration: Jan 2021 - Jan 2024
    Status: Completed
     
    6. Funded by ARDB
    Title of the Project: Process and hybrid tool design for higher productivity in FSW butt joints of thick Al-alloy 2219 plates 
    Role: Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) PI: Prof. Jeevan Jaidi
    Grant Amount: Rs. 33,11,616/-
    Duration: October 2021 - October 2024
    Status: Ongoing
     
    7. Funded by: DST SERB (Core Research Grant)
    Title of the Project:  Enhancing gas barrier properties of Type IV pressure vessel liner for hydrogen storage applications
    Role: Principal Investigator (Co-PI) PI: Prof. C.P.Kiran
    Grant Amount: Rs. 36,14,402/-
    Duration: Jan 2024 - Jan 2027
    Status: Ongoing

    Sponsored Research Projects

    1. INSA INSPIRE Faculty Award, DST, Govt. of India (2014-2019)

    Project title: Rheological dynamics of layered silicate clay and graphene polymer nanocomposites

    Status: completed

    2. Early Career Research Award, DST-SERB, Govt. of India (2016-2019)

    Project Title: Visco-elastic, visco-plastic and thixotropic behavior of biogreases and its influence on lubrication (tribological) performance

    Status: completed

    3. Core Research Grant, DST-SERB, Govt. of India (2020-24)

    Project Title: Predicting grease lubrication behavior: (a) novel methods to determine grease rheology at extremely large shear rates and (b) the role of nanoscale and mesoscale structure of grease in film formation inside tribocontact 

    Status: completed


    Research Projects

    FAU pilot plant in operation at Goa

    Research

    Current Research at BITS, Pilani, K.K. Birla Goa Campus, INDIA

    PANIWAER project video
     
    Links 
     
     
     

    Projects

     

    Name

    Agency

    Titile and status

    Amount (INR)

    Dr. Halan Prakash, PI

    DBT, Govt of

    India,

     

    Chemical modification

    of peptides with photosensitisers for photoenhanced antimicrobial activity, 2010-2014

    Completed

    2124000

    Dr. Halan Prakash, PI

    Aditya Birla

    Science and

    Technology

    Centre, Mumbai,

    Modification of biomolecules for

    Photoantimicrobial

    applications, 2011-2016. Completed

    1400000

    Dr. Halan Prakash, Co-Principle

    investigator

     

     

    CSIR

     

    Development of low

    temperature

    magnetization

    measurement set-up, 2012-2014, Completed

     

    1400000

    Dr. Halan Prakash, PI

    Horizon H2020 (EU) - DST

    Photo-irradiation and Adsorption based Novel Innovations for Water-treatment" (PANI). Since 31/3/2019, (4 Years), Ongoing

    http://www.paniwater.eu/

     
     

     

    20931000

    Dr. Halan Prakash (PI),

    DST-WTI call

    Water Filtration, advanced oxidation and capacitive-deionisation treatments for removal of emerging contaminants in water, 19- dec-2020, 2 Years, ongoing

    10523036

    Prof. Halan Prakash, PI

    Department of Science and Technology & Waste Management, Goa 

    Quantification of emerging contaminants in Goa water resources by cost efficient separation materials". 3 years, 2022 ongoing

    795000

     
    My Phd and Postdoctoral Research work 
     
    Synthesis of macrocyclic ligands and metal complex: Activators in advanced oxidation process and  antimicrobial agents.
     
    Interestingly, tetrazamacrocyclic ligands were reported to produce stable nickel (III) state. The detailed spectroscopic investigations reveal that the Ni(III) state in a tetradentate macrocyclic ligand is stabilized by coordination of two extra ligands at the axial sites, forming a tetragonal distorted octahedral complex. Importantly, several nickel(II) macrocyclic complexes are reported to act as catalysts involving oxidation processes and formation of trivalent nickel state.
    Currently we are involved in the synthesis of new ligands and metal complexes and investigate their use for activating oxidising agents such as persulphate. 
     
    Recently, we have reported the activation of persulphate by nickel(II) hexazamacrocyclic complex and its ability to degrade the recalcitrant dye Malachite green.

    The project involves extensive use of HPLC, GC, LC-MS and characterization of newly obtained conjugates and ligands. Students will be exposed to the Synthetic strategies and purification methods done in the wet chemistry lab, and DNA damage and antimicrobial studies of these new compounds. 

    Synthesis of photo-active molecules, nanoparticles and  Bio-conjugation.

    We are involved in the synthesis and characterization of  new photo-isomerisable azo-benzene derivatives, and photo-labile functional  groups like ortho-nitrobenzyl derivatives and Investigation on the conjugation  of these photoactive derivatives with important drugs, and peptides. We are also  involved in the synthesis and characterization of nanoparticles and their  conjugation to important biomolecules. DNA damage, and Biological activity of  these new conjugate are explored.

     (I) Research Work done at Nara Institute of Science and Technology and Kyoto Pharmaceutical University. (Supported by Japan Society for the promotion of Science and Takeda Science Foundation, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, Japan).

    I was primarily involved in the synthesis of azobenzene based peptide bioconjugates for designing artificial nucleases. Metal binding peptides were attached to azobenzene based chromophores and indispensable characteristics like facile photo isomerisability and structural difference between the trans and cis isomers were explored. Metal-peptide-Azobenzene conjugates showed DNA cleavage activity and investigation on photo- control of DNA cleavage activities by these conjugates are in progress. I was also involved in the development of water-soluble photocleavable protective groups and its application for design of tumor-targeting paclitaxel prodrugs. Chemical modification of proteins (myoglobin mutants) with photo-active organic groups (nitrobenzyl derivatives, azobenzene derivatives), to photo-control the structure and functions of proteins. Proteins modified with photo-active molecules were characterized by LC-MS techniques and other spectroscopic techniques.

    (II) Research work done at the Department of Chemical Sciences, TATA INSTITUTE OF FUNDAMENTAL RESARCH (TIFR), MUMBAI, INDIA.

    My research was focused on the Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) of proteins. We observed that the maximum positive charge state of the gaseous protein ions is directly related to the number of free surface exposed basic groups (lysine, arginine and histidine) whereas the maximum negative charge state is related to the number of free surface exposed acidic groups (aspartic acid and glutamic acid) of the protein. The free surface exposed basic groups or acidic groups are those which are not involved in any interaction with surrounding amino acids residues and have high propensity to carry formal positive or negative charge. Information on the free surfaced exposed basic groups or acidic groups of proteins were obtained from the x-ray crystal structures. Thus, we have shown a direct correlation of the crystal structure of proteins with the maximum positive and negative charge-states of gaseous protein ions produced by electrospray ionization.

    I was also involved in the studies on ESI-MS of Cytochrome P450cam to probe the tertiary structural changes on heme dissociation, and Chemical modification of lysine residues of cytochrome c by acylation reaction to identify the nucleophilic character of various lysine residues in cytochrome c. Specific acylation of the lysine residues of cytochrome c was identified by Collision Induced Dissociation mass spectrometry of the tryptic digest of cytochrome c.

    (III) Doctoral Research work at School of Chemistry, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, and National Centre for Ultra fast Processes, UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS, CHENNAI, INDIA.

    My doctoral thesis focus on the synthesis and photochemistry of nickel(II) azamacrocyclic complexes. Nitrogen rich azamacrocyclic ligand (nitrogen rich cyclic molecules) and its nickel complexes were synthesized. Photooxidation of nickel(II) azamacrocyclic complexes, resulted in the formation of stable trivalent nickel macrocycles. Time resolved nanosecond laser flash photolysis of the nickel(II) azamacrocylces revealed the transient hydrated electron absorption features, on UV excitation of the of nickel(II) azamacrocyclic complexes. The investigation enlightened that nickel(II) azamacrocyclic complexes posses Charge-transfer to solvent absorption character in the UV region.

     

    Projects Sanctioned

    1. SERB-POWER Research Grant (Funding Agency: SERB-GOI, 2023 - 2026)
    2. New Faculty Seed Grant (NFSG) (Funding Agency: BITS Pilani, 2023 - 2025) 
    3. Research Initiation Grant (RIG) (Funding Agency: BITS Pilani, 2022 - 2024) 

    Sponsored Project

    • Project title – Networked Marine robotic system for ocean exploration
    • Trust Area – Underwater Robotics and Networks
    • Funding Agency – SPARC
    • Duration – 2 years (April 2024 onwards) 
    • Grant amount – INR 84,42,000/-

    Collaborative networks of marine robots are steadily achieving ocean monitoring that is robust, adaptable, and high-performing. Seamless collaboration of marine robotic systems necessitates ongoing advancements in multiple interdisciplinary fields such as cooperative control and navigation, underwater networking, and estimation techniques. An integral enabling technology for the success of these networked marine robotic systems is the Internet of Underwater Things (IoUT). IoUT is defined as the network of smart interconnected underwater objects such as AUVs, ROVs, ASVs, buoys, and ships etc. These objects collect and transmit information through underwater communication channels, offering real-time data on ocean parameters.

    The project team involves BITS Goa (Dr. Sarang Dhongdi, Dr. Narayan Manjarekar), NIT Calicut (Dr. Rakesh Warier), ISR/IST University of Lisbon, Portugal (Prof. Antonio Pascoal), and University of Toulon, France (Prof. Ricard Marxer).

     


    1. Impact of Indigenous S&T innovations developed by Start-ups incubated in Academic Institutes in India

    Funding Agency: PCPM (NSTMIS), DST, New Delhi.
    Principal Investigator: Rajorshi Sen Gupta 
    Co-PI: A.K. Mishra 

    2023-2025 


    2. Assessing the impact of farmers’ participation and challenges in linking Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC) mandi markets by e-national agricultural market (e-NAM): Evidence from the states of Goa, Karnataka and Maharashtra

    Funding Agency: ICSSR, New Delhi, India
    Principal Investigator: A.K. Mishra 

    Co-PI: Rajorshi Sen Gupta, Manogna R.L., Richa Shukla
    2022-2024 


    3. Impact of “Make in India” and new IPR Policy on Innovation of MNCs and Indian MSMEs in Medical Device Sector

    Funding Agency: Impactful Policy Research in Social Sciences (IMPRESS) ICSSR, New Delhi, India

    Principal Investigator: Rajorshi Sen Gupta 
    Co-PI: A.K. Mishra 

    2019-2021 


    4. R&D collaboration between industries and universities under changing IPR regime in the European Union

    Funding Agency: European Union Center of Excellence, Texas A&M University, USA

    Principal Investigator: Rajorshi Sen Gupta 


    5. Trucking industry response in a changing world of tolling and rising fuel prices

    Funding Agency: Southwest Region University Transportation Center (SWUTC), Texas A&M University, USA

    Role: Research Assistant, Texas Transportation Institute  


    6. Dental Health in India

    Funding Agency: Dental Council of India 

    Role: Senior Economist, Indicus Analytics


    7. Forecasting Direct Tax Revenue

    Funding Agency: Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India

    Role: Project Assistant, National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP)


    Research Grants/funds

    1. Co-PI in 'Deciphering the molecular circuits of seed weight regulation for improved plant productivity' Scheme for Promotion of Academic & Research Collaboration (SPARC). Ongoing
    2. PI in "Understanding the impact of climate change on photosynthesis and forest productivity at ecosystem level'' CDRF Approved.
    3. Co PI: "Analysis of cis-regulatory elements in gene expression" under DBT builder, sanctioned to BITS, Pilani Goa campus. 2022; Ongoing
    4. Principal Investigator in, ''Introducing cyanobacterial bicarbonate transporters in C3 plants for enhanced photosynthetic performance'' SERB Major Project; Rs. 37.73 lakhs. Completed
    5. Principal Investigator in, “Analyzing structural and functional evolutionary linkages between RubisCO and Carbon concentration mechanism proteins. DST Fast track project for young scientists". Rs. 24.96 lakhs. Completed
    6. Principal Investigator in UGC major project "Design, synthesis and validation of dehydration stress responsive promoters in plants.'' Rs. 12.88 lakhs. Completed
    7.  Co-Investigator in Aditya Birla Group of companies funded project, "Natural and engineered Lipases for Biodiesel Production." Rs. 10 Lakhs. Completed

    Research

                                                                                                                      

    Areas of Research Interest

    • Dalit Studies
    • Post-colonial Literatures
    • Culture studies
    • Women Studies  

     Research Projects – Ongoing

    1. Principal Investigator - SPARC (Scheme for Academic and Research Collaboration) project " Museum Effect: A Case Study of Goa State Museum and Goa Chitra Museum" – Funded by Ministry of Human Resource Development, Rs.67,17,538. (in collaboration with University of Vienna, Austria & University of Victoria, Canada)
    2. C0-PI - The Value of Multilingualism: a Case Study from Indian States” -Global Seed Grant funded by Dalhousie University, Canada (in Collaboration with Dalhousie University, Canada & Goa Institute of Management, Goa)

    PhD Research Guidance: Completed 

    1. Sushant Kishore. “The Performative Politics of Ethnocultural Nationalism in India: Thespian and Quotidian Performances in Hindu Nationalism” "- June 2019 (supervised singly)
    2. B.Gnanabharathi. “Alterations and Adapatations : An analysis of the Indigenous Spaces of Nilgris Irulas  -July 2019 (supervised singly)
    3. Preetigandha Naik."Dalit Futurism: Caste and Gender in Indian Science Fiction" - February 2023 (supervised singly)

    PhD Research Guidance - Ongoing 

    1. Mahesh Varghese. ‘To Make live and Let Die’: A study of the Life, Death and its Governance in Select Malayalam Fiction” (supervision - singly - proposal defended - June 2021)
    2. Fernandes Ann Rochelle " Unearthing Silenced Histories: Re-reading Portuguese colonialism through the lens of Adopted Children in Goa" (Supervision - singly - April 2022
    3. Basma Mahfoud. “Crushed” in translation? Poetics of oppression and resistance in a comparative study of Dalit works in translation from Southern India "Co-supervision with Prof. Judith Misrahi Barak, University of Paul Valery Montpellier 3, France

    Editorial/Peer Reviewing Assignments

    Invited by University Grants Commission (UGC) to review applications submitted for Research Grants and Post Doctoral fellowships – 2023

    Joint Editor Special Issue on Dalit Women , Journal of International Women Studies, Vol 22:10 (2021)

    Journal of Post Colonial Writing, Taylor and Franscis

    Journal of Intercultural communication, Taylor and Francis

    Journal of Commonwealth Literature, Sage

    Journal of South Asian Studies, ESCI

    PhD Thesis Evaluation

    2016 – University of Madras - PhD Thesis titled “Gendered Passions and Masculinity Construction: Reflections on Tamil Identity during 1930’s”

    2020 – University of Madras – PhD thesis titled “Writing for the Children as a Child – A Study of Ruskin Bond’s Craft of Writing”

    2020 – Manomaniam Sundaranar University – PhD thesis titled “The Narratives of Amitav Ghosh: Palimpsest and Fact-Finding Dichotomy”

    2022 – Mahatma Gandhi University – PhD thesis – “The Dialectics of the Anthropomorphic Subaltern: A Study of Select Texts from Contemporary Popular Culture”

    2022 –Calicut University – PhD Thesis titled “Subversive Survival: Trauma and Post Traumatic Resilience in Select North-East Indian Literary Imagination"


    Research Topics

    • Synthesis of donor-acceptor type organic molecules based on linear heteroacenes and evaluation of their optical properties for applications as fluorescence based molecular imaging agents.
    • Study of the in vitro bioactivity and DNA-binding properties of linear heteroacenes.
    • Synthesis of porphyins with structural modifications in their periphery and their inner-core in order to induce non-planar molecular conformations - study of their UV-vis and fluorescence properties aimed towards designing porphyrins with red-wavelength absorptions and emissions.

    Sponsored Projects

    1. Development of E-HFQ process for precision manufacturing of automotive body components using high-strength aluminum alloy sheets (as PI), Funded by SERB under Startup Research Grant (SRG), 20.82 Lakhs, January 2024 - December 2025 (2 years)
    2. Evaluation of elevated temperature fracture forming limit diagram of heat treatable aluminum alloy sheets (as PI), Funded by BITS Pilani under Additional Competitive Research Grant (ACG), 10.00 Lakhs, November 2022 - October 2024 (2 years)
    3. Investigation of formability of tailor welded aluminum blanks during elevated temperature incremental sheet forming process (as PI), Funded by BITS Pilani - K K Birla Goa Campus, under Research Initiation Grant (RIG), 2.00 Lakhs, July 2022 - October 2024 (2 years)

    Extramural projects

    DST-SERB funded Young Scientist Project titled "Development of beta, beta’-Edge Fused pi-Elongated Donor-Acceptor Porphyrins Possessing Near-IR Optical Spectra" sanctioned from June 2014 for a period of three years; project completed in July 2017.

    Sanctioned amount was 24.87 lacs.


    Sponsored Projects

    Title

    Biological treatment of industrial effluents using novel biofilm-membranes

    Funding agency

    The Leverhulme Trust (United Kingdom)

    Investigators

    Dr. Asma Ahmed, Canterbury Christ Church University, United Kingdom

    Prof. Aravinda N. Raghavan, BITS-Pilani (Hyderabad Campus), India

    Duration

    2020-2023 (36 months)

    Amount

    £ 263,547.00


    Sponsored Projects

    Ongoing

    Nano-technology for enhanced utilization of native- phosphorous by plants and higher moisture retention in arid soils” in collaboration with IIT, Mumbai; PAU, Ludhiana; IISS, Bhopal & CAZRI, Jodhpur, funded by World Bank under National Agricultural Innovation Project (NAIP) of ICAR, New Delhi (3.726 Crores) (2008-2012).

    Senior Research Fellow Position (New)

    Completed

    Conservation of some endangered medicinal plants of Indian Thar Desert by arbuscular mycorrhizae” funded by DST, New Delhi under SERC Scheme (11.28 Lakhs) (2003-2005).

     


    Sponsored Projects

    1.Research Initiation Grant
    Amount: 2 Lakhs.
    Period: 30.09.2019-29.9.2021
     
    2. Start Up Research Grant (SERB)

    File No : SRG/2020/000523

     

    Project Start Date : 31-Dec-2020

    Duration : 24 months

    Total Budget : 12,45,816 INR

    Status : Ongoing
     
    Research Area: My research area is Symmetric Key Cryptography. This involves the analysis the design of various cryptosystems which are based on symmetric key.

    Projects

    Completed Projects

    1.Project Title: Smart Traffic Analytics for Hyderabad city (13/7/2015 - 12/7/2017)
    Amount: 10 Lakhs
    Funding Agency: BITS   
       
    In the proposed work we aim develop software application using Big Data  
    • to identify trends/patterns in traffic  
    • to calculate average speed in different locations and vehicles  
    • to monitor and manage Urban traffic
    • to suggest alternate routes based on the locations
    • to provide updates on traffic based on incidents, traffic jams etc.  
    2. Credit Analytics: (In association with BITS Alumni)
     
    The aim of this work is to evaluate housing loan data and analyze the defaults and find Co-relations between the loan approvals and real estate market fluctuations. The implementation of this work is on Hadoop.
     
    3. Modelling Bayesian Networks for Performance and Capacity Management of Data centers.(In association with TRDDC Pune)
     
    A data center consists of large numbers of computing, communication, and storage systems supporting wide range of applications and services. Consider, for instance, a banking application operated by a US-based investment bank. We observed that this data center hosts hundreds of DB2 applications on several logical partitions of mainframe boxes. The applications fire millions of queries every day and access a complex array of storage devices consisting of thousands of storage volumes and datasets. Such systems need automated solutions for performance and capacity management to better understand and control their operations.
    For each component, an enterprise monitors many different metrics – including workload, latency, CPU, memory, IO and network utilizations, cache hit/miss rates, among others. Furthermore, each of these metrics is monitored at relatively fine time-scales (e.g., every few seconds). We propose to leverage Bayesian networks to analyze this data in order to perform following operations:
    One of the biggest challenges in performing many performance and capacity operations is the construction of causal relationships between various system metrics. Consider an example system of a database tier with Oracle instances hosted on Windows/Linux machines where various metrics are monitoring at database instance, operating system, and system hardware. Deriving causal relationships across various system components/metrics  can prove very useful in gaining a better system understanding. It also opens up the opportunities for performance debugging, capacity planning, prediction, what-if analysis, etc.
    Another very relevant application of Bayesian networks is in root-cause analysis of performance problems. In the event of performance problems at an application the root-causes behind performance problems can be diagnosed at application, compute, storage, network layers using belief propagation techniques.
    Many infrastructure components are programmed to generate alerts based on certain definitions – e.g. an alert is generated when CPU utilization exceeds 90%. In today’s scenarios due lack of intelligent alert generation mechanisms or due to poor alert suppression mechanisms, large volumes of alerts are generated (~ 1million alerts per day). Analysis of these alerts becomes unmanageable. Bayesian networks can be used to identify dependencies across alerts. This information can then be used to suppress spurious alerts, generate signatures of correlated alerts, etc.

    Research Interest

    Areas of Interest

    • Natural Language Processing
    • Information Retrieval
    • Data Mining
    • Big Data
    • Bio Informatics

    Sponsored Projects

    DST – DDP:

    Project Title: Development of Image Processing Based Portable Device to Measure Surface Strains in Sheet Metal Forming. (Feb 2019-Feb 2022)

     

    DRDO - ARDB:

    Project Title: Formability studies on Beta Titanium alloys at elevated temperatures (June 2020-Feb 2023)

     

    DRDO - ASL:

    Project Title: Evaluation of paint performance (Co-PI) (Feb 2021 to Dec 2022)

     

    DST – SERB:

     
    Project Title: Enhanced Strength-to- weight Ratio INCONEL-718 Alloy Structures Made by Additive manufacturing for Aerospace Applications (Co-PI) (2021-2023)
     

    BITS-ACRG: 

    Project Title: Mechanical characterization of 3D printed Carbon Fiber Reinforced Composites (May 2019 to May 2021)

     BITS-RIG: 

    Project Title: Experimental and Numerical Studies on Part Quality in Incremental Forming at Elevated Temperatures. (Jan 2017 to Jan 2019)

     

    Research Interest

    Sheet metal forming

    Bulk metal forming

    Advanced manufacturing processes

    Finite element simulation of manufacturing processes

    Modeling and optimization

    CAD/CAM


    Sponsored Projects

    Title: "Impact of Remittances, Financial Development, and Institutional Structure on Poverty: An Empirical Evidence from Developing Countries"

    Duration: 2 Years (2019-21)

    Amount: Rs. 1.67 Lakhs

    Funding Agency: Research Initiation Grant (RIG), SRCD, BITS Pilani 

    Research Projects

    Current Research Work

    1. MICROFLUIDICS :
      • Numerical Simulation and Experiments on passive micromixers to understand passive scalar transport. 
    2. PHYSICS EDUCATION RESEARCH
      • Develop pedagogical techniques and strategies that will help students learn physics more effectively.
    3. NANOSCALE PATTERNING
      • Patterning at nanoscale using Soft lithography.

     

    Earlier Research Work

    1. Molecular Nanomagnetism
      • Single molecule magnets like Mn12 acetate.
      • Thin film deposition: Strategies for organizing nanomagnet clusters as thin films (Pulsedlaser deposition and its variants, Self assembly), with the goal of increasing the blocking temperature. Pattern Mn12 acetate using a combination of solution technique and photolithography.
      • Magnetic and surface characterization techniques for measuring the properties of molecular magnet films.  
      • Study of Quantum Tunneling and Magnetization Reversal and Exchange bias effects.    
    2. Metal to Insulator transition in disordered systems
      • Deposition and Characterization of amorphous carbon films using electrical and magnetic transport at low temperatures, X-ray, Neutron and Raman scattering.
      • Role of quantum interference, electron-electron interactions and disorder, Scaling in disordered systems and application of models to interpret the magneto-transport in materials.                 

    Research & Consultancy Projects

    Consultancy Projects

    • Co-Principal Investigator: 'Condition Assessment of Coal Mill Foundation: Field (NDT) and laboratory Investigation' at STAR CEMENT CO. L.L.C. Ras Al Khaima, UAE; Amount Sanctioned ~ 23200 AED (Status: Completed)

     

    Research Projects

    • Principal Investigator of a research project ‘Climate Change Impact Assessment on Water Resources Availability’ (INR 7.33 Lakh ) sponsored by National Project Implementation Unit ( A unit of MHRD, GoI and World Bank) under TEQIP- Collarabatice Research Scheme (CRS)- (2018-2019)

    Research Projects

    Completed Projects
    1. DST Fast Track for young scientist- DESIGN OF NEW ANTICONVULSANTS: SYNTHESIS AND PHARMACOLOGICAL EVALUATION OF ARYL SEMICARBAZONES AND ITS ANALOGUES- 2004-2007| Principal Investigator
    2. CSIR project - SYNTHESIS AND NEUROPHARMACOLOGY OF 4-AMINOBUTYRIC ACID ANALOGUES-2006-2009| Principal Investigator
    3. CSIR project- DEVELOPMENT OF NEW GENERATION QUINOLONE MOLECULES AGAINST MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS- 2005-2008|Co-Investigator
    4. UGC Major project-DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF NEWER GABA ANALOGUES FOR TREATING CNS DISORDERS- 2007-2010|Principal Investigator
    5. ICMR project-DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF NOVEL NON-NUCLEOSIDE REVERSE TRANSCRIPTASE INHIBITORS FOR THE TREATMENT OF AIDS AND OPPORTUNISTIC INFECTIONS ASSOCIATED WITH AIDS INCLUDING TUBERCULOSIS TUBERCULOSIS -2005-2008|Co-Investigator
    6. OPEN SOURCE DRUG DISCOVERY (CSIR) Project-DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF NEW INBIBITORS OF MTB GLMU BY MODELING & HIGH THROUGHPUT DOCKING -2010-2011|Co-Investigator.
    7. DBT CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE PROJECT- VIRTUAL CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE FOR TUBERCULOSIS RESEARCH (In collaboration with Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore & The Foundation for Medicial Research, Mumbai)-2007-2012|Co-Investigator
    8. UGC Major project-ISOCITRATE LYASE ENZYME AS TARGET IN PERSISTENT MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS INFECTION: SYNTHESIS OF 2-ARYLTHIAZOLIDINE-4-CARBOXYLIC ACID AND 5-NITRO-2-FUROIC ACID DERIVATIVES AND ITS ANTIMYCOBACTERIAL EVALUATION-2009-2012|Co-Investigator
    9. CSIR project- DEVELOPMENT OF NOVEL DNA GYRASE INHIBITORS AGAINST MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS AND OTHER NON-TUBERCULOSIS MYCOBACTERIAL INFECTIONS -2010-2013|Co-Investigator
    10. DBT Neuroresearch Project- STRUCTURE-GUIDED DESIGN OF NOVEL NON-PEPTIDIC NONCOVALENT SELECTIVE INHIBITORS OF THE SPINAL MICROGLIAL CATHEPSIN S FOR THE TREATMENT OF NEUROPATHIC PAIN-2011-2013| Principal Investigator
    11. DST Project- STRUCTURE-BASED RATIONAL DESIGN AND SYNTHEIS OF MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS PANTOTHENATE SYNTHETASE INHIBITORS-2011-2014| Co-Investigator
    12. DST INDO-BRAZILIAN_SOUTH AFRICAN-DEVELOPMENT, SYNTHESIS, AND TESTING OF NOVEL ANTI-HIV DRUGS-2011-2014| Co-Investigator
    13. DBT Project- DISCOVERY OF NOVEL MODULATORS OF NAD(+) DEPENDENT PROTEIN DEACETYLASE SIRT1 FOR THE TREATMENT OF VARIOUS HUMAN DISORDERS -2011-2014|Principal Investigator
    14. CSIR project- DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF PHARMACOPHORIC HYBRIDS AS POTENTIAL LEADS FOR THE TREATMENT OF NEUROPATHIC PAIN-2012-2015|Principal Investigator
    15. DBT INDO-SWEDEN Project-STRUCTURE-GUIDED DESIGN OF NEW ANTIBACTERIAL AGENTS AGAINST DORMANT MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS-2009-2014 |Co-Investigator
    16. ICMR project- DEVELOPMENT OF DRUGS FOR THE TREATMENT OF LATENT PHASE OF TUBERCULOSIS- 2011-2014| Co-Investigator
    17. DST Major Research Project- DRUG DISCOVERY OF INHIBITORS OF THE PROTEASE OF PERIPHERAL MACROPHAGES AND MICROGLIAL CELLS IN THE SPINAL CORD FOR THE TREATMENT OF NEUROPATHIC PAIN- 2011-2015| Principal Investigator.
    18. DST INDO-UKRAINE JOINT PROJECT-DEVELOPMENT OF ANTIEPILEPTIC LEADS TO SUPPRESS HIPPOCAMPAL EPILEPTIC SEIZURES-2012-2015|Principal Investigator.
    19. DBT RGYI project-NON-INVASIVE DELIVERY OF siRNA TO TREAT MELANOMA-2012-2015|Co-Investigator
    20. OPEN SOURCE DRUG DISCOVERY-CSIR-DEVELOPMENT AND ANALYSIS OF NOVEL INHIBITORS AGAINST MTB GlmU- 2012-2015| Co-Principal Investigator (In Collaboration with NII, New Delhi, and IIT- Kanpur)
    21. ICMR-INSERM (Indo-France) project- STRUCTURE-BASED DESIGN OF ORPHAN NUCLEAR RECEPTOR MODULATOR TO TREAT DIABETES AND ITS COMPLICATIONS BY TARGETING RORALPHA AND REV-ERBALPHA-2014-2016| Principal Investigator
    22. DBT INDO-SWEDEN new project- STRATEGIES AGAINST ANTIBIOTIC RESISTANCE IN MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS AND PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA: NEW DRUG FOR OLD TARGETS AND OLD DRUGS FOR NEW TARGETS- 2014-2017|Co-Investigator
    23. DST INDO-PORTUGAL project- DEVELOPMENT OF NOVEL COMPOUNDS FOR THE TREATMENT OF NEURAL COMPLICATIONS OF DIABETES-2014-2017| Principal Investigator
    24. DBT INDO-BRAZIL project - ENZYMES FROM PURINE AND PYRIMIDINE BIO-SYNTHETIC PATHWAY AS TARGETS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF MYCOBACTERIUM TUBERCULOSIS DRUGS-2014-2017| Principal Investigator
    25. DST INDO-POLISH project- MYCOBACTERIAL TUBERCULOSIS ACETYL COENZYME A CARBOXYLASE INHIBITORS: STRUCTURE-BASED DRUG DESIGN, SYNTHESIS AND BIOLOGICAL EVALUATION- Approved| Co-Investigator

    Ongoing projects
    Co-Investigator, DBT project entitled "MRI based non-invasive quantitative
    biomarker for early diagnosis and prognosis of brain tumor"- In Collaboration with EEE/ECE Department, BITS Pilani, Hyderabad campus
    Industry sponsored projects
    1. ASTRA ZENCA, Bangalore- Development of New Antitubercular agents-2010-2013(COMPLETED)
    2. ADITYA BIRLA GROUP, Mumbai- Structure-based rational design and synthesis of inhibitors of various enzymes Mycobacterium tuberculosis - 2011-2014 (COMPLETED)
    3. Incozen Therapeutics Ltd, Hyderabad - Development of Novel Antiinflammatory Agents-2012-2015 (COMPLETED)

     


    Sponsored Projects

    Title: Characterization of Fibre / Matrix interface in Advanced Composites
     
    Role: Co-PI, PI: Dr. Ramesh Babu Adusumalli
     
    Funding Agency: ASL/DRDO
     
    Amount Sanctioned: 9.96 lakhs
     
    Date of Commencement & Duration: Aug 2015 (15 months)

    Research Interests

    • Designing van der Waals quantum materials using twisted transition metal dichalcogenides
    • Optoelectronics in 2D materials
    • Strain engineering
    • Quantum transport in van der Waals heterostructures

    Sponsored Projects

    Sponsored Projects

    1. Outstanding Potential for Excellence in Research and Academics (OPERA) Grant

    Funding Agency: BITS Pilani, India

    Amount: 22.80 lakhs (3.60 lakhs in first year and 4.80 lakhs each year for remaining four years)

    Duration: 5th July, 2018-5th July, 2023 (Ongoing)

    Role: Principal Investigator (PI)

    2. Research Initiation Grant (RIG)

    Funding Agency: BITS Pilani, Hyderabad campus

    Title: Detection of Sleep related disorders from physiological signals using multiscale analysis and deep neural network

    Amount: 2 lakhs

    Duration: 10th Jan, 2019-10th Jan, 2021 (Completed)

    Role: Principal Investigator (PI)

    3. DRDO CARS Project

    Title: Design and development of an automated flow calibration system for fuel and oxidizer injectors for reaction control system.

    Agency: DRDO, India

    Amount: 10 lakhs

    Duration: 01 Feb, 2019-31 July, 2020 (Completed)

    Role: Co-Principal Investigator (CO-PI) 

     

    Research Interest

    • Machine Learning and Deep Learning for Healthcare

    • Multisensor time-frequency Signal Processing

    • Graph Signal Processing and Vertex-Frequency Analysis

    • Sparse Representation and Dictionary Learning

    • Cardiovascular Signal Processing

    • Neural Signal Processing and Brain Computer Interface

    • Cognitive workload task classification and cognitive neuroscience

    • Cardio-Pulmonary Coupling and Circadian Monitoring

    • Electromyogram Signal Processing and Muscle Computer Interface

    • Multi-modal Affective Computing

    • Smart Health and Internet of Medical Things (IOMT)

    • Medical Image Processing and Automated Diagnostic system


    Sponsored Research

    Project 1:

    Project Title: "Women’s Employment, Interstate Variations, and Time-use: A Comparative Study of Bihar and Andhra Pradesh"

    Total grant:  Rs.11,88,000

    Duration of the project: October 2018 to July 2021

    Joint Principal Investigators:   Bheemeshwar Reddy A (Department of Economics and Finance) &
    Sunny Jose (Council for Social Development (CSD), Hyderabad)

    Funding source: Azim Premji University’s Research Grant Programme

     

    Project 2:

    Project Title: "Regional Variations in Women’s Employment in Rural India"

    Total grant:  Rs.200,000

    Duration of the project: April 2019 to March 2021

    Principal Investigator:   Bheemeshwar Reddy A

    Funding source:  Research Initiation Grant from BITS-Pilani

     

    Project 3:

    Project Title: "Dietary diversity and anaemia among women: A study of four Indian states"

    Duration of the project:  Feburary 2020 - November 2020

    Total grant: Rs. Rs. 6.7 lakhs

    Principal Investigator:  Sunny Jose (project is hosted  at  Council for Social Development, Hyderabad, where  the PI is located) 

    Co-Principal Investigator: Bheemeshwar Reddy A

    Funding source: SPANDAN Grant, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research,Mumbai.

     

    Project 4:

    Project Title: "Assessing multi-dimensional poverty in India for Sustainable Development Goals-adaptation and use of the Consensual Approach in South India"

    Total grant:  £ 35, 700

    Duration of the project: December 2019 to  August 2020

    Investigators:

    Dr. Shailen Nandy (Lead investigator, this project is hosted at Cardiff University, UK)

    Cardiff University, UK

    Dr. Marco Pomati (co-investigator)

    Cardiff University, UK

    Bheemeshwar Reddy A (partner investigator) 

    Prof. Sunny Jose G  (partner investigator)

    Council for Social Development, Hyderabad.

    Funding source: Global Challenges Research Fund, Cardiff University, UK


    Sponsored Projects

    PROMOTION OF UNIVERSITY RESEARCH AND SCIENTIFIC EXCELLENCE (PURSE) SCHEME :Rs 8.2 Cr

    Sponsored by :DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

    Project Title: Development of Theranostic Agents for Photodynamic/ Photothermal Treatment of Oral/Lung Cancer and Related Diseases

    Status: Approved, yet to start.

    Collaborators: Prof Manab Chakravarty, Prof Amit Nag and Prof Venkata Vamsi Krishna Venuganti


    Sponsored Projects

    Project Statistics:

    Completed Projects

    On-going Projects

    Submitted Projects

    3

    1

    1

     

    On-going Projects:

    • DST-SERB Start-up Research Grant (SRG), Title: Tribological behavior of Scalable and Low-cost Multilayered MoS₂ Coatings for Hydrogen Valve Applications. Budget amount: INR 23,91,400 for 2 years (FY 2021 - 2022), Approving Authority: DST-SERB, India. Role : Principal Investigator (PI).

     

    Completed Projects at BITS:

    • BITS Pilani RIG - Research Initiation Grant, Title: Polymer composites for water-lubricated hydropower bearing applications. Budget amount: INR 200,000 for 2 years (FY 2020 - 2021), Approving Authority: BITS-PILANI Hyderabad Campus, India. Role : Principal Investigator (PI).

     

    Completed Projects (Before joining BITS) :

    • Kakenhi Start-up Research Grant, Grant No. UFG5H06471, Title: Study of the Tribological Properties of Graphene and Related Materials Under Extreme Environments. Budget amount: ¥1,560,000 / year for 2 years (FY 2016 - 2017), Approving Authority: JSPS, JAPAN. 
    • Kakenhi Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists (Wakate), Title: Study of the Tribological Behavior of Multilayered MoS2 based Coatings for Hydrogen Applications.  Budget amount: ¥5 Million / 2 years (FY 2019 - 2020), Approving Authority: JSPS, JAPAN. (Partially completed)

    Sponsored Projects

    1.  Sequence based design and characterization of peptide-amyloid nano material: Exploring functionality, Funded by  BRNS India, February 2018- February 2021.

    2.   Investigation of magneto-optical effect in composite magneto-plasmonic nanostructures for sensing applications. Funded by Department of Science and Technology-India. February 2013 - February 2016.

    3.   Developing supramolecular complexes for solar energy conversion and hydrogen generation, Funded by BITS Pilani - Seed Grant. April 2011 - March 2013.
     
    Research Projects
    • Inorganic Chemistry
    • Bioinorganic Chemistry
    • Crystallography 
    • Nano-materials 
    • Catalysis
    Solar Energy Conversion 

    Projects

    Project Ongoing:

    • "Adaptive Protection Coordination for DG dominated power system networks", Research Initiation Grant funded by BITS Pilani. Project Cost: Rs. 200000/-
    Projects Submitted:
    • "Artificial Intelligence for Self-Healing in Smart Distribution Systems", Submitted under Core Research Grant (CRG) to SERB - 2022. Project Cost: Rs. 34,00,000/-. 

    Research Interests : 

    • Power System Analysis, operation and control
    • Heuristic & traditional optimization techniques and their application to Power Engineering
    • Microgrids
    • Smart protection devices
    • Self healing in smartgrids

    Completed Projects

    BITS-RIG (PI) (2L)

    On-going Projects

    BITS-SPARKLE (2L), SRC (Co-PI) ( 30 L)


    Research projects

          On Going Project:

     

       Co-PI, Structured Dialogue for Sustainable Water Governance, funded by the Department of    Science and Technology, Government of India 

     

          Completed Projects:

     

    1. Consultant, Hydro SOS for the GBM Basin, funded by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Geneva 

     

    1. Consultant, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and Climate Change Adaptation (CCA) measures Mainstreaming within Government Departments, (2019-20) funded by AP HRDI (Govt. of AP) and UNDP 

     

    1. Consultant, A Study of Early Warning System at the District/Local Level (2019), funded by the AP HRDI (Govt. of AP) and UNDP. 

     

    1. PI, A Study of Disaster Management Plans in India, (2017-19) funded by BITS Pilani. 

     

    1. PI, Evacuation Policies in India: Cyclone Phailin and Hudhud (2014-15), funded by Jamsetji Tata Trusts, TISS Mumbai. 

     

    1. Co-PI, Impact Assessment of Community Based Disaster Risk Management (2013), funded by the Cord Aid India. 

     

    1. Co-PI: Need Assessment for Uttarakhand Flood affected People, (2013), funded by the Tata Relief Committee (TRC)

     

    1. Consultant, Disaster Warning System for Andaman and Nicobar, (2012) funded by the Govt. of Andaman and Nicobar

     

    1. Faculty in Charge (FIC) National Cyclone Risk Mitigation Project (NCRMP), (2007-2012) Component C involving 13 coastal states/UT, 2007-12 funded by the World Bank and the Government of India.  

     

    1. National Consultant, Vulnerability Assessment and Multi-Hazard Early Warning System, (2006), funded by UNDP and Multi-Donors including European Union 

     

    1. Researcher, Preparedness Index for Disaster Management Organizations (2005), funded by the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC), New Delhi.  

     

    1. PI, Measuring Community Preparedness (2003-04), funded by the Provention Consortium and the World Bank.  

     


    Research Projects

    "Does Financial Awareness Lead to Better Financial Inclusion Outcomes? An Investigation", sponsored by ICSSR, New Delhi under the IMPRESS scheme. It is an action research in nature. The project has been completed and we have started to get publications out of it. The first of it is Financial awareness: a bridge to financial inclusion.

    Some Interesting results:

    I am sharing some interesting results of the training imparted in  our project:

    A. How has the training impacted the awareness about the PMJDY?

    B. How did our training affect awareness about cashless transactions?

    C. How our training affected the mode of cash withdrawals from bank account?

    D. How our training affected the preferred mode of saving surplus cash?


    Research Interest

    Bio-Micro-Fluidic Sciences laboratory 

    The research in the Bio-Micro-Fluidic science laboratory focuses on the microscale fluid flows and related applications in the broad areas of biological and chemical sciences. The lab exploits the potential of miniaturised fluid flow to study biological cells, molecules, and biochemical reactions at unprecedented levels.

     

    The lab is truly multi-disciplinary working at both the fundamental and applied levels on the microscale fluid flows. At the fundamental level, the research is on the development of novel microdevices, integrated micro systems, and on understanding the intrinsic nature of micro flows. Essentially, this unfolds a multitude of possibilities at the applied level, particularly, in the broad fields of biology and chemistry.


    Working Papers

    Conflict and Development (with Prabal Roy Chowdhury) ISID Discussion Papers in Economics, Discussion Paper 15-05 

    Abstract: We examine a dynamic two-stage incumbent-challenger model of internal conflict, where the government, i.e. the incumbent, is in power, while the rebel challenges the government in a bid to capture state power. The central issue is the trade-off between development and security-based measures in countering such rebellion activity. We find that while an exogenous increase in development decreases the level of rebellion activity, it increases the level of security based measures by the government. Further, if the rebel is ‘dominant’ to begin with, then, with the rebel becoming stronger, the level of rebel activity increases, while the security based measures by the government is lowered. Finally, if the rebel becomes stronger (i.e. becomes more cost efficient), then the government might find it optimal to decrease the level of development. Thus our analysis suggests that the trade-off is a nuanced one.
     
     

    Centralisation and Delegation: A Principal-Agent Analysis 

    Abstract: We study two types of organizational structures, namely centralization and delegation. Centralization refers to a contractual relationship where the principal contracts with all the agents directly. Delegation refers to a contractual relationship where the principal contracts with some agents (a proper subset, to be precise) and give them the right to contract with others. We allow for the collusion among agents. Both these contracts are quite common in production networks, supply chain management and procurement . We provide an intuitive model for the collusion among agents. We show that the collusion among agents maybe beneficial for the principal also. Hence the whole issue of justifying delegation as counter-strategy to collusion is somewhat misplaced. We provide a sufficient condition under which delegation outperforms centralization. We provide the first-order conditions which characterize Nash equilibrium outcomes for both, centralization with and without collusion cases.
    • Conflicts: Using Development as Signal (with Prabal Roy Chowdhury)
    • Difference-Form Contest Success Functions: Existence, Uniqueness and Stability of the Pure Strategy Nash Equilibrium

    Sponsored Projects

    • Research Initiation Grant (RIG), BITS Pilani - 2,00,000 INR 
    • New Faculty Seed Grant (NFSG), BITS Pilani - 18,00,000 INR

    Research Interest

    • Algal Biorefineries, Halophilic Biorefineries for Bioplastics (PHA) production, Pulsed Electric Fields (PEFs) for extraction of value added products, Technology development for biofuel production (Biohydrogen, Biodiesel, Biobutanol), Hydrothermal Carbonisation/Liquefaction, Microplastic pollution

    Research

    Sponsored Project(s):

    Funding :   DST Inspire Faculty IFA19-PH231
                      BITS Pilani Opera Research Grant 

    Research Interest : 

    Gravity, Geometry and Fluid-Matter Interactions
     
    For interested students: Please feel free to visit me at C232. Interest in coding in any platform (Mathematica/ Python /Julia)  and familiarity with Latex writing will be very helpful for my projects.
     
    All are welcome !