SRM-AP All News
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- Dr Tousif Khan N elected as a Joint Secretary of ACDOS November 17, 2020
Dr Tousif Khan N, Head of the Department, Electrical and Electronics Engineering at SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh has been elected as a Joint Secretary (2020-2023) of the prestigious Automatic Control and Dynamic Optimization Society (ACDOS), Indian national member organization of International Federation of Automatic Control (IFAC). The objective of ACDOS is to promote automatic control and dynamic optimization fields in academia and industry across India. The society aims to host international conferences and technical workshops regularly in order to promote close interaction between industry professionals and academia. The society also participates in curriculum development for graduate and under-graduate studies in addition to facilitating productive research in this area. The society volunteers to honour eminent persons who excelled in this field in industry and academic circles.
Dr Tousif Khan N is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering at SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh. He has obtained his PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati. Apart from performing his duties as a teacher, he is pursuing his research career in Control systems, Power Electronics and Optimization Techniques. The very young and talented professor has been honoured with several awards and recognitions for his pursuits in the domains of Teaching and Research. As a Joint Secretary of ACDOS, Dr Khan wishes to contribute further to the versatile worlds of Research and Academia.
The other members of ACDOS are eminent researchers and scientists such as Prof. Sukumar Mishra (IIT Delhi) as President, Dr Jayesh Barve (GE, Bangalore) as Vice-President and President-Elect, Dr Shaik Faruque Ali (IIT Madras) Vice-President, Prof Bidyadhar Subudhi (IIT Goa) as Vice-President, Dr Arnab Maity (IIT Bombay) as General Secretary, Dr S. N Omkar (IISc-Bangalore) as Treasurer and Prof Radhakant Padhi (IISc Bangalore) as Director of Operations.
To know more about ACDOS, please click the link: https://www.acdos.org/
Continue reading → - Students excel in Technological Business Hackathon organized by AIESEC in Amaravati November 16, 2020
Students of SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh bagged the runners up award in the Technological Business Hackathon organized by AIESEC in Amaravati from October 30, 2020, till November 1, 2020. AIESEC is the world’s largest, global youth-run organization which acts as a platform for young minds to explore and develop their leadership potential. AIESEC works in accordance with the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) devised by the United Nations and is recognized by UNESCO. Technological Business Hackathon was the first-ever virtual Hackathon hosted by AIESEC in Amaravati that aimed at developing innovative technological solutions for Sustainable Development Goals. It provided an opportunity for students to learn, ideate, solve, and present ideas on how to address some of the global challenges that the world is currently confronting.
30 teams hailing from reputed colleges such as VIT AP, Christ University Bangalore, SRM AP, VVIT, KLU, Bennet, NID AP, NIT AP, JNTU Hyderabad, participated in the hackathon. The competition was split into a technical round and a business round, where 7 teams from SRM AP showcased their expertise in innovative technology. While two teams from SRM AP became the finalist, the second prize for the hackathon was awarded to one of them. The group developed a project inclined towards SDG 2: Zero Hunger, which involved the use of Hydroponics to grow fresh and sustainable food.
Continue reading → - Dr Nimai Mishra analyzes approaches to stabilize photoluminescent nanocrystals November 12, 2020
Dr Nimai Mishra, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh, along with his research group comprising of students pursuing PhD under him, Ms. V.G.Vasavi Dutt and Mr. Syed Akhil, have published a comprehensive mini review titled “Surface Passivation Strategies for Improving Photoluminescence and Stability of Cesium Lead Halide Perovskite Nanocrystals” in the Journal “ChemNanoMat” (Wiley-VCH) with an Impact Factor of 3.4.
Cesium lead halide (CsPbX 3) perovskite nanocrystals (NCs) is emerging as an intriguing subject for the optoelectronics for its excellent optical properties and exceptional colour tunability. However, applicability of the materials become a major challenge due to their degenerative property. Consequently, researchers focus on developing various approaches to enhance the photoluminescence properties and stability of CsPbX 3 perovskite NCs. In the paper, Dr Mishras’s group reviews some of the promising approaches such as post‐synthetic modification, ligand exchange, and insitu addition.
Further, the strategies summarized in this paper will enable the production of high-quality nanocrystals having the potential to be used as active material in LED devices. In the future, Dr Mishra and his group plans on utilizing some of these surface passivation techniques to develop prototype LED devices using high quality nanocrystals.
Read the full paper: Please Click Here
Continue reading → - Dr V Masilamani and Prof Dipti Prasad Mukherjee navigated the audience through engaging technical sessions November 7, 2020
Initiation of Faculty Development Programme (FDP) on “Recent Advancements in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence” at SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh
Faculty Development Programme (FDP) orchestrated by the Department of Computer Science Engineering, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh was inaugurated by Prof VS Rao, Vice-Chancellor. The ten-day special programme is designed to provide insights on the latest developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technology. Prof VS Rao said, “AI is the emerging branch of science which has its application in the fields of healthcare, entertainment, banking and finance, and marketing. The country’s progress would be accelerated due to the advent of AI that is so closely linked to human life.”
Similarly, Prof D Narayana Rao, Pro-Vice Chancellor spoke of the immense opportunities provided by the emerging AI technology. He said, “AI will be impacting human life in more ways than comprehendible. Considering its growth, demand for AI skills will continue to rise exponentially. As AI will continue to act as a technological innovator in the foreseeable future, there will be immense opportunities and prospects for the young professionals in this domain.”
The guest lecturer of the inaugural programme, Prof V Masilamani, Associate Professor, Computer Engineering, Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing (IIITDM) Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu, India, discussed the importance of Machine Learning for digital image quality assessment. The other technical session was conducted by Prof Dipti Prasad Mukherjee, Professor, Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, who demonstrated how computer vision problems can be solved using machine learning techniques.
Further, the event was graced by the presence of Prof T Raghunathan, Professor, and Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, along with other faculty members, and students as the audience. In addition, the technical sessions were coordinated by Dr Manikandan V M and Dr Sobin C C, Assistant Professors, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh.
Continue reading → - Prof N Balakrishnan at the University Distinguished Lecture Series 02 organized by SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh November 5, 2020
Enthralling talk on “Data to Discovery in Information Security”
Prof N Balakrishnan, Honorary Professor, Super Computer Education and Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bengaluru, delivered an enthralling talk on “Data to Discovery in Information Security” under the auspices of University Distinguished Lecture Series organized by SRM University – AP, Andhra Pradesh. Prof V S Rao, Vice-Chancellor, along with Prof D Narayana Rao, Pro Vice-Chancellor, and the conveners welcomed him. Extending his warmest welcome, Prof V S Rao emphasized on the significance of Data and Information Security and the great interest and concerns it imposes in the recent times as well as the future. He says, “In the last two decades, data security concerns have increased exponentially along with emerging data reserves. Abundance of data without proper security with pose more threats than solutions.” On that note, he requested Prof N Balakrishnan to enlighten the audience on various issues pertaining to raw data security.
Prof T Ragunathan, Head of the Department of Computer Science introduced Prof N Balakrishnan to the participants. Prof N Balakrishnan lecture encompassed the explosion in data and the “Revenge of Silicon”, which made the emergence of Artificial Intelligence inevitable. He emphasized on the storage revolution which is reflected in the smaller systems comprising of more complex networks, as compared to the earlier version of computers which were used primarily for computing and processing. He enlightens, “Characterized by explosion in velocity, volume, and variety, the data generated by humans and machines coexist in the big data scenario. Earlier, we spoke of the convergence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and now we have moved ahead with Nano, Bio, Info, and Cogno (NBIC) convergence.”
Prof N Balakrishnan dedicated the second half of his lecture by explaining the “Revenge of Silicon”. He used the periodic table to explain that although Carbon and Silicon belong to the same 4th group in the periodic table, mankind preferred Silicon over Carbon. Further, the paradigm shifted with the advent of computers which were programmed to mimic humans. In addition, the communication revolution resulted in its enhanced capability along with numbers. Presently, 1.72 billion websites are operative, there are billions of mobile phone users, the Internet of Things (IoT) have been established, wireless networks, and other complex systems. Dr N says, “Technology has become an integral part of the society with emerging Cyber-physical systems, and social networks. In the near future, computers would begin behaving more and more like humans, which is referred to as the Revenge of Silicon. Further, NBIC will enable biological complex systems (human body parts) to be replaced by silicon engineered parts, heralding towards a new doctrine.”
Drawing examples from his research sprawled across four decades, Prof N Balakrishnan expressed concerns about the tremendous data being stored and used across networking platforms. He explains, “Data storage speed doubles every 9 months. All the information known to mankind since the beginning of civilization can be stored in a single computer. The social network of computers has its negatives in the form of terrorism which has recently entered the computer world. Security of such a world is an important issue.” Prof N Balakrishnan concluded his lecture by stating that mathematical predictive models can be used for a better understanding of the data attack detection. He established that Community Detection based BOTSPOT will provide a faster detection algorithm to estimate attacks thereby aiding concerns of data attacks.
Continue reading → - PayPal recruits Sai Rishvanth Katragadda November 4, 2020
Sai Rishvanth Katragadda, Final year, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh shone in the recruitment drive conducted for the first outgoing batch of the university. Sai Rishvanth got selected by the recruiters of PayPal who offered the brilliant student a package of 24 LPA for the position of Software Engineer. PayPal is a reputed company that provides a worldwide online payment system, online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods.
Sai Rishvanth has consistently exhibited his mettle in academics and has been scoring excellently in all the examinations conducted by SRM AP. He was also selected by the university to visit the University of California, Berkeley for the Semester Abroad Programme. In addition, he grabbed the opportunities presented by SRM AP and worked on projects where he developed applications to provide solutions in the domain of travel, predictive data analysis, crowdfunding, crypto-token, and environment.
Guided by the faculty, and founders of the student-run Next Tech Lab at SRM AP, Sai Rishvanth participated in innumerable national and international hackathons to win several accolades and awards. Further, the student at an immensely young age received the opportunity to present papers in international conferences and publish his paper in the esteemed journal Springer Journal for Engineering and Sciences.
For detailed campus placement information, visit: Please Click Here
Continue reading → - DST, Government of India grants a total outlay of Rs.27 lakhs to Dr Imran Y Pancha October 28, 2020
Utilizing photosynthetic microalgae to produce renewable biofuel
Dr Imran Y Pancha, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh has received an outstanding total outlay of Rs.27 lakhs from the DST, Government of India, to work on “Chemical modulator based microalgal biorefinery for the production of biofuels and bioproducts”. Dr Imran was fascinated by the potential of microalgae to reduce greenhouse gases (GHGs) as well as its ability to accumulate a high amount of energy reserved molecules such as lipids/starch in the cells. Through his research, Dr Imran will be understanding the mechanism behind this and also, exploit microalgae for biofuel production.
Due to the development of industrialization and modernization, global energy demand is continuously increasing. Given that the fossil fuel energy reserve is limited, and its utilization causes various serious environmental issues such as global warming and the accumulation of GHGs in the atmosphere, renewable energy obtained from various biomass is a potential alternative to reduce atmospheric GHGs and the dependency on fossil-based fuel. Microalgae is one of the promising resources among various biomass since it has a high growth rate and photosynthetic ability in comparison to other terrestrial crop plants. Microalgae also accumulate a high amount of lipids and carbohydrates in the cell. Moreover, these microalgae can be cultivated in wastewater or seawater, which avoids the food versus fuel debate.
Dr Imran explains, “Microalgae usually accumulate lipid under stress conditions such as nitrogen starvation, which results in lower biomass production, limiting the commercialization of algal biofuel. The present research’s primary objective is to uncouple growth and lipid production pathway in the microalgae using chemical modulators. Utilization of such chemicals is also effortless in large scale production compared to the standard starvation approach. The next aim is to develop a process to extract multiple products such as pigments, lipids, and carbohydrates from single microalgal biomass. The development of such a biorefinery approach will lower the overall cost of the process and make it more economical on a large scale. To conclude, the focus of the project will be on utilizing photosynthetic microalgae to produce renewable biofuel and other commercially important products in a biorefinery manner. Utilization of microalgae will not only help to produce green fuel but also help in reducing atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) which creates several environmental issues.”
Using the SERB-SRG grant, microalgal cultivation facility will be established at SRM university-AP. The long-term goal of Dr Imran’s research group is to understand the molecular mechanism behind the accumulation of energy reserved molecules in the microalgae. Understanding such mechanisms will help to develop sustainable technology for the production of renewable biofuels from microalgae.
Continue reading → - Prof Ajay K Sood, FRS delivered the University Distinguished Lecture 01 October 19, 2020
Prof A K Sood on “Doing Science Without Borders”: Collaboration and curiosity among researchers will lead to impactful multidisciplinary solutions of the 21st century
The first University Distinguished Lecture on “Doing Science Without Borders” commenced with an inaugural welcome speech by Prof V S Rao, Vice-Chancellor, and Prof D Narayana Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh. Prof V S Rao expressed their gratitude to Prof Ajay K Sood for his gracious presence. Prof Narayana Rao emphasized that under the University Distinguished Lecture series, the talks will be delivered by eminent scientists from India and abroad that would be of immense benefit for students and the faculty and researchers. He further mentioned, “Doctors, researchers, engineers and scientists from several fields of knowledge around the world worked together to confront corona outbreak with an unprecedented spirit of collaboration. Also, NEP advocates and emphasizes that the societal need of the 21st century require broad-based multidisciplinary research and education”.
Prof Ajay K Sood, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS and Honorary Professor, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, narrated three stories of his recent experiments and advanced research work, namely “Emergent flocking behaviour seen in nature: Laboratory experiments”, “Crystallization of Glass: Machine Learning in condensed matter Physics”, and “Bacterial Nano Heat Engine: Getting bacteria to work”. He begins by stating that back in 1944, a profound physicist Schrodinger introduced the concept of “aperiodic crystal” which led to the understanding of genetic molecules, enunciating the importance of inter-disciplinary applications of scientific works. In his first narrative, he speaks of the flocking movement among birds, bacteria, locusts, and human beings as well. He brought the same experiment in his laboratory where he used 2 particles, energized them, and identified their flocking pattern. He observed that the velocity of movement between the two particles differ, which can be applied to particle sorting. This experiment has applications in biology, where bacteria and/or cells can be sorted and separated and also in autonomous cars.
While explaining his second experiment, Prof A K Sood mentioned that he studied the devitrification or the tendency of glass particles to crystallize over time to reach a state of stability from its metastable state. He used supervised Machine Learning to predict where crystallization will occur in glass. His team trained the system to identify the hard and soft particles of the glass. His experiments concluded that Machine Learning (ML) helps in identifying the soft particles, which possess the tendency to move and crystallize over a long period of time. Further, Prof A K Sood and his team of collaborators developed bacterial nano heat engines by mimicking the biological motors in our body which produces energy for living beings to function. Using bacterial activity, they made heat engines and are advancing their research work to recognize the practical applications of the nano heat engines in cars, batteries. The bacteria heat engines is a highly promising technology of the future.
Prof A K Sood narrated his laboratory stories to explicate the splendor of multidisciplinary research which can be used to solve basic problems. He said, “The key to successful scientific research is to collaborate with experts beyond their own domain. Communication and appreciation of views of an open mind enable the scientists to understand the various phenomena. Students and researchers should be curious which will lead to research having various interdisciplinary applications that will make an impact across various domains.”
About thousand participants from IISc,IITs, NITs,IIITs, IISERs, several Indian Universities including University of Hyderabad, Delhi University, NEHU, Pondicherry University, Punjab University; a few foreign Universities including KAUST, Saudi Arabia, Nagoya University, Japan, Zhejiang Ocean University, China, Teesside University, UK, several Engineering Colleges; National Laboratories of DST, DBT, CSIR, ISRO, DRDO, ICMR, BARC, JNCASR, ARIES, ARCI; industries including ARBL, Tata Steel have attended the distinguished lecture given by Prof Ajay Sood.
Continue reading → - DST, Government of India sanctions an outlay of Rs.14.63 lakhs to Dr Tapan Kumar Hota October 13, 2020
Connecting the dots between Mathematics and Physics of the hydrodynamic instability known as Viscous Fingering (VF)
DST, Government of India, sanctioned a total outlay of Rs.14.63 lakhs to Dr Tapan Kumar Hota, Assistant Professor, Department of Mathematics, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh, for pursuing research on “Mathematical analysis and Adjoint Based Stability for a Coupled Convection-Diffusion equation in Miscible Displacement”. Hydrodynamic Stability (Instability) is a study of an equilibrium point subject to small and/or medium disturbances. This assists in understanding several complicated natural phenomena such as fluid transition from laminar to turbulent, chemical mixing, formation of cloud, and others. The available stability analysis is unable to address the early-time evolution of the VF process. The early-time behaviour of the system helps us to choose the parameters that are responsible for the long-time behaviour of the coupled PDEs. To achieve the target, we need to address the linear stability of the system from the study of the singular-value-decomposition instead of traditional eigenvalue analysis. As the system is non-autonomous, the eigenvectors/eigenvalues may not be physically relevant. Further, it is required to confirm our linear stability analysis by mathematical analysis of the coupled non-linear PDEs.
‘The nonmonotonic viscosity profile when a high mobile fluid is displacing a less mobile fluid. There is a potentially unstable region, where the viscosity increases in the flow direction, followed in the downstream direction by a potentially stable region, where the viscosity decreases in the flow direction. The disturbance structure is computed using the singular-value decomposition of the propagator matrix. Reference: Hota & Mishra, Journal of Fluid Mech, Vol. 856, pp:552-579, 2018.’
Dr Tapan is keen on studying other branches of science to provide the correct mathematical approach to address the issues. His project will address one of the hydrodynamic instabilities known as viscous fingering (VF). It forms when a high mobile fluid displaces a low mobile fluid. It has enormous implications in the field of Chemical Engineering Science, Petroleum Engineering, Chromatography, and Oil Extraction process. He explains, “I will study this instability from a mathematician’s point of view, more precisely, to address the mathematical analysis of coupled partial differential equations (PDEs). The system that governs the VF is non-autonomous and there is no readily available stability analysis that can represent Physics, based on robust mathematical analysis. My aim is to connect the dots between mathematics and physics of the VF.”
Infrastructure and laboratory facilities are crucial to conduct research. Upon receiving approval from a prestigious organization like SERB (Science and Engineering Research Board), Govt. of India, Dr. Tapan is entitled to this unique opportunity to serve the scientific community. He divulges, “The award is not only a recognition to me but also to the SRM University, AP. The University will be more visible in the world of research and can attract more eminent scientists and researchers to make the University their second home.” Quoting Master Oogway, ‘Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery… Today is a gift, that’s why it is called present.’, Dr Tapan is eager to commence working on his project at the earliest, and looks forward to enjoying the process of accomplishing the task.
Continue reading → - Dr Writoban Basu Ball receives an outlay of Rs. 26.34 lakhs from DST, Government of India October 13, 2020
Pursuit of discovering new drug molecules to combat diseases
Dr Writoban Basu Ball, Assistant Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, received an outlay of Rs.26.34 lakhs from DBT, Government of India to pursue research on “Targeting Kennedy pathway of cellular phosphatidylethanolamine biosynthesis as a common therapeutic strategy against protozoan parasites like Leishmania donovani, Trypanosoma brucei and Entamoeba histolytica.” Disease-causing intracellular parasites present serious health challenges, which could be fatal if left untreated. For example, Leishmania donovani and Trypanosoma brucei are the causative agents of visceral leishmaniasis and sleeping sickness, respectively. Entamoeba histolytica causes amoebiasis and 100,000 people die each year world-wide from amoebiasis-related complications. The current treatment regimen against these diseases consists of drugs that possess severe toxicity and drug resistance. Toxicity is detrimental to health and drug-resistance causes unresponsiveness of the drug to the parasite, rendering the drug ineffective. Therefore, it has become imperative to discover new drug molecules to combat these diseases.
In his study, Dr Writoban proposes to repurpose an FDA-approved drug meclizine, which can be used as a potential drug against dreadful parasitic infections. He explains. “One rational way to discover new and effective drugs entails identifying pharmacological targets against unique yet essential parasite metabolic pathways which are either absent or redundant in hosts (in the present case humans). One such central metabolic pathway in L. donovani, T. brucei, and E. histolytica is the Kennedy pathway for the biosynthesis of phosphatidylethanolamine (PE), a major lipid molecule of the cell. Without the presence of this lipid molecule, the cellular membranes (plasma membrane, organellar membranes) cannot form. Therefore, the Kennedy pathway is indispensable to parasite survival. On the contrary, in humans, although the Kennedy pathway is present, other pathway of PE biosynthesis is predominant. Hence, the Kennedy pathway offers a potential target to disrupt PE biosynthesis in these parasites without causing any side effects in the human host. In this context, meclizine, an over the counter anti-nausea drug, has been shown to disrupt the Kennedy pathway.”
Dr Writoban’s research is oriented to find safe cures for dreadful parasitic diseases that mostly plagues the underprivileged section of the developing countries like India, and countries of the sub-Saharan Africa. He believes, “The successful implementation of the proposed research scheme would benefit a lot of underprivileged people belonging to the underdeveloped and developing countries, as well as reduce the disease burden of those countries.” Further, Dr Writoban emphasizes, “Getting the grant is only the job half done. I would like to guide this proposal to a fruitful completion so that it can benefit people who need it most. I really want to take this project beyond the bounds of a mere academic exercise.
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