“In much of society, research means to investigate something you do not know or understand. Research is creating new knowledge,” said Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon. The quest for knowledge creation has consistently pushed researchers and scholars to seek answers to evolving questions. And if there is anything we have learned in the past year, it’s that we are often posed with new challenges that require innovative solutions in today’s world.

The new world has its eyes trained on well-trained researchers, who are problem solvers of tomorrow. Their journey begins at institutions of higher learning, which should not only imbibe research aptitude but also equip them with cutting edge skills to see their projects to logical conclusions. Looking at teaching and research as independent entities can be a considerable loss, and new-age institutions like SRM University-AP are set on avoiding it at any cost.

Research in its DNA

Since its inception, SRM University-AP has been known as a broad-based multidisciplinary research-intensive university. As its Pro-Vice-Chancellor Prof. D. Narayana Rao says, “SRM University-AP provides exciting and challenging research opportunities that are of national and international importance and have social applications.” True to those words, it has developed a lively ecosystem conducive to research, showing the results.

The research focus at the University had drawn around 60 scholars from around the world pursuing their PhDs in their areas of interest. In a short span of time, faculty members and students of the University have published over 200 research papers. In 2019-20 alone, eight patents were published, and 5 were applied for under SRM University-AP. The staggering amount of quality output has caught the eye of aspiring researchers and leading institutions alike.

Top names like DST, DBT, BRNS, Government of India and the British Council have sanctioned 24 research projects with a total outlay of Rs. 12.00 crores to faculty members at SRM University-AP. And this seems only the beginning for scholars at the University, who are encouraged by concerted initiatives and growing infrastructure on campus, which has a thriving ecosystem for research pursuits.

• The University has drawn a dynamic pool of faculty members with international exposure. As they work on impactful research, they mentor students and scholars to think creatively and present solutions through projects.
• It is set to create Centres of Excellence on Cloud Computing, Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, 5G Technologies, Weather Forecast, Satellite Technology, Renewable Energy, Energy Storage Devices, Additive Manufacturing, Gene Editing, and Blue Economy to embrace new technologies.
• Its international collaborations with MIT, the University of California, Berkeley and other renowned foreign universities offer students opportunities to interact with and collaborate with peers and academicians worldwide.
• SRM University-AP has also focused on industry collaborations with powerhouses like TITAN, Amara Raja Batteries Limited (ARBL) for joint research. In fact, it is working with Indian Railways to develop hydrogen-powered fuel cell-based trains.

These and other projects in the pipeline can no doubt have an impact on society. But at the same time, shaping future knowledge creators and problem solvers will be a significant achievement stemming from the research culture on the SRM University-AP campus.

Anecdote:

“Since my school days, I have been fascinated by writing cryptic text, though intelligible. It all started with mirror-writing the teaching-feedback that was requested by our class teacher Tr. Jezuine. Once the feedback was read, the teacher called me and asked: “How did you learn this?” I was on cloud nine and replied, “it just happened only for you”, with a massive smile on my face. Later, I never thought of any secret writing for a while. It was only during the initial days of my teaching profession; I had the opportunity to read my classmate’s notes scribbled in a cryptic text which triggered further enthusiasm in me. So, during my postgraduate course, I started reading and presenting seminars on Cryptography and Security. This further led to deeper digging into the core of security aspects that also led to a trivial postgraduate project on key-establishment in wireless sensor networks. Later during the research period, I chose a new upcoming area – wireless sensor networks (broader domain), and contextual- and content- privacy (narrower domain) – privacy preservation in WSNs as my research topic.”

-Dr Manjula R

The Issue:

The significance: The privacy of individuals is being compromised gradually with the increasing popularity and rapid deployment of pervasive computing technologies. The benefits and conveniences offered by modern devices often lead people to neglect the dire consequences of possible privacy violations. Therefore, privacy risks should be taken into considerations while designing responsible technologies. One such technology that poses serious privacy risks is the Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs). Despite the enormous benefits offered by WSNs to humanity, several issues need meticulous attention. Security and privacy are such issues in WSNs. For instance, the US military aims to adopt Internet of Things (IoT) enabled WSN. The usage of WSNs, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), tiny robots (nanoscale robots) are envisioned to transform the battlefield scenario. In particular, these digital devices and components are embedded in soldiers’ uniforms to collect the health status of the worriers and relay this information to a central controller, named the base station (BS). The BS is located near places where the internet is easily accessible. Nevertheless, WSNs are deployed in areas where it is challenging to have internet. However, this problem is easily solved with the amalgamation of WSNs and IoT. This comes with unwelcoming consequences. The unattended nature of these networks provides an attacker with physical access to the devices. The attacker may compromise the node and conduct illegal activities, say, mimic fake chemical leakages etc. Furthermore, the broadcast nature of the transmission medium gives access to the packets exchanged by the sensor nodes to anyone within the communication range. Consequently, adversaries may exploit these features of WSNs in order to launch attacks against the network and thus render all the potential benefits offered by this technology unusable. Hence, privacy preservation in WSNs is a significant issue that needs to be addressed to safeguard personal and private assets—soldiers or endangered animals etc.

In a quest to provide countermeasures to such attacks, Dr Manjula R and her team are developing privacy preserved solutions with particular emphasis on routing in WSNs. Their recent research article titled “Protecting Source Location Privacy in IoT Enabled Wireless Sensor Networks: The Case of Multiple Assets” has been accepted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal – IEEE Internet of Things Journals. This work is co-authored by Prof. Raja Datta, IIT Kharagpur and Mr Tejodbhav Koduru (studying in 5th semester in dept. of CSE, SRM University AP). The SCI-indexed journal has an impact factor of 9. 396. The team is also focusing on the development of new countermeasures to mitigate eavesdropping attacks in WSNs.