Research News

  • CSE student wins Best Paper award and cash prize in International conference December 14, 2021

    International ConferencePadmaja Buggaveeti, an outstanding student from 3rd-year Computer Science Engineering at SRM University-AP, has won Best Paper (Third Prize) and a cash prize of Rs 10000 /- (Ten thousand rupees only) at the 4th ISEA Virtual International Conference on Security and Privacy 2021. Ms Padmaja, under the mentorship of her guide Dr V M Manikandan, presented a paper titled “A Novel Prediction Error Histogram Shifting-based Reversible Data Hiding Scheme for Medical Image Transmission” at the International Conference on Security and Privacy, sponsored by Information Security and Education Awareness Project Phase-II (ISEA-II) and organised by IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, India from October 27-30, 2021.

    Abstract: In this paper, Ms Padmaja proposed a new prediction error histogram shifting-based reversible data hiding scheme that ensures a high embedding rate and lossless image recovery. The pixels in the images are categorised into two different classes: white pixels and black pixels based on a checkerboard pattern. To predict the black pixel value for finding the prediction, they used the average of three pixels out of 4-neighbourhood pixels, which are very close to the central pixel value. The prediction error histogram is considered for further data hiding through the histogram shifting approach. An efficient overflow handling technique is used for this. The proposed algorithms were implemented using Matlab-2020, and the experimental study of the proposed scheme is carried out on the standard medical images and natural images.

    International Conference on Security and Privacy is a premier conference focused on information security and privacy. This year’s conference was sponsored by Information security and Education Awareness Project Phase-II (ISEA-II) and organised by IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, India, from October 27-30, 2021.

    Prize Details: Best Paper (Third Prize) and a cash prize of Rs. 10000 /- (Ten thousand rupees only).

    Let’s hear what Ms Padmaja says about her achievement!

    I thank Dr V M Manikandan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, for his valuable guidance in this research work. Winning the best paper award and cash prize in a reputed conference, ISEA-ISAP, has strikingly boosted my confidence to do research. I am grateful to all the faculty members of the CSE Department for their kind support and encouragement throughout my study at SRM University-AP.

    Continue reading →
  • Dr Nimai Mishra on Impact of shell thickness on photostability studies of green-emitting “Giant” quantum dots December 8, 2021

    SRM University-AP is pleased to announce that 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, Mr Rahul Singh, Mr Syed Akhil, and Ms V.G.Vasavi Dutt, has published a research article titled “Shell thickness-dependent photostability studies of green-emitting “Giant” quantum dots” in the journal Nanoscale Advances (The Royal Society of Chemistry) with an impact factor of ~4.533.

    About the research:

    Highly efficient green-emitting core/shell giant quantum dots have been synthesized through a facile “one-pot” gradient alloy approach. Furthermore, an additional ZnS shell was grown using the “Successive Ionic Layer Adsorption and Reaction” (SILAR) method. Due to the faster reactivity of Cd and Se compared to an analogue of Zn and S precursors it is presumed that CdSe nuclei are initially formed as core and gradient alloy shells simultaneously encapsulate the core in an energy-gradient manner and eventually thick ZnS shells were formed. Using this gradient alloy approach, we have synthesized four different sized green-emitting giant core-shell quantum dots to study their shell thickness-dependent photostability under continuous UV irradiation, and temperature-dependent PL properties of nanocrystals. There was a minimum effect of the UV light exposure on the photostability after a certain thickness of the shell. The QDs diameter of ≥ 8.5 nm shows substantial improvement in photostability compared to QDs with a diameter ≤ 7.12 nm when continuously irradiated under the strong UV light (8 W/cm2, 365 nm) for 48 h. The effect of temperature on the photoluminescence intensities was studied with respect to shell thickness. There were no apparent changes in PL intensities observed for the QDs ≥ 8.5 nm, on the contrary, for example, QDs with < 8.5 nm in diameter (for ~7.12 nm) show a decrease in PL intensity at higher temperatures ̴90°C.

    More importantly, these results highlight the synthesized green-emitting gradient alloy QDs with superior optical properties can be used for highly efficient green emitters and are potentially applicable for the fabrication of green LEDs.

    Read the full paper: https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2021/NA/D1NA00663K

    Continue reading →
  • Rs. 44 lacs fund from SERB-DST for functionalized alkene preparation strategy November 25, 2021

    Prof S Mannathan has added SRM University-AP to the list of those research-oriented Universities which try to direct their research to make the world a better place. With this new SERB-DST project of Rs. 44 lacs fund, Dr Mannathan and his team will be able to investigate into developing a strategy to prepare functionalized alkenes in a manner that is pro-environment and industrially economic.

    Why functionalized alkenes? Alkene is a hydrocarbon with a C=C bond. It is readily available and a fan favourite among chemists. It reacts favourably with a variety of reactants and is a preference in the synthesis of bioactive compounds. This procedure aids in the preparation of several valuable compounds with a variety of uses from the manufacturing of antidepressants to the treatment of cancer.

    What Prof Mannathan says about the project:

    “We intend to develop a highly efficient, low-cost, environmentally-friendly strategy to prepare functionalized alkenes in a highly regio- and stereoselective manner. A step- and atom economic reductive coupling strategy will be employed by using a photoredox and a low valent metal dual catalyst to prepare such molecules. This novel approach avoids the use of any external reducing agent and generates the low valent metal species in situ using a photocatalyst.”

    Dr Mannathan was granted a total of Rs. 44,11,264 for a period of 3 years. Dr Mannathan believes that with a SERB sanctioned fund of Rs. 44 lacs, he and his team will be able to design a new and revolutionary protocol. The newly designed protocol could be useful in the synthesis of various biologically active molecules and natural products such as aigialomycin D which is a helpful compound in inhibiting protein kinases that are related to cancer pathways.

    Continue reading →
  • Top 5% most cited author: Royal Society of Chemistry November 23, 2021

    SRM University-AP could not be more proud to announce that Dr S Mannathan, Head of Department of Chemistry has made it to the top 5% in the list of the Most Cited Authors by the Royal Society of Chemistry. It is inspiring to have a faculty member in our midst whose work has helped and facilitated the research of so many others.

    Dr Mannathan obtained his doctorate from National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan. His research interests primarily lie in Metal-catalyzed organic transformation reactions, Multicomponent reactions, and Asymmetric synthesis. His research followed by scientists all over the world leading him to become one of the top 5% authors in terms of citations

    In the field of Transition Metal Complexes as Catalysts in Organic Reactions, he particularly leans towards ‘Nickel-and cobalt-catalyzed three-component coupling and reductive coupling reactions’, and ‘Palladium-catalyzed reductive arylation’. Similarly, in Asymmetric Synthesis, he favours research into ‘Asymmetric reductive Heck reaction for the synthesis of chiral indanones’, and ‘Synthesis of bicyclic tertiary alcohols and its related asymmetric version via reductive [3+2] cycloaddition reaction by using chiral cobalt complexes.’

    About the top 5% most cited paper:

    In this work, he reported the synthesis and application of a Zn-Bp-BTC MOF (Bp – 4,4′-bipyridine; BTC – 1,3,5-benzene tricarboxylic acid; MOF – metal organic framework) as a heterogeneous catalyst for mediating organic reactions. Initial reaction conditions were optimized for the Knoevenagel condensation reaction using Zn-Bp-BTC as a heterogeneous catalyst. Various factors such as the effect of solvent, temperature and catalyst loading were evaluated. Although the reaction proceeded at room temperature using methanol as the solvent, 60 °C offered the best yield in a shorter duration. Under optimized reaction conditions, a wide range of α,β-unsaturated dicyano compounds were prepared from the corresponding carbonyl precursor and malononitrile, the active methylene counterpart. A systematic investigation was also carried out to assess the role of the ligand and metal salt in the Knoevenagel condensation reaction. It was found that the Zn-Bp-BTC MOF catalyzed the reaction efficiently in comparison to its analogue Zn-BTC MOF and precursor Zn(NO 3 ) 2 ·6H 2 O. Finally, catalytic recycling and stability studies showed that the catalyst is able to mediate the reaction for up to five consecutive cycles without undergoing any significant chemical or morphological changes. Further, the catalyst was tested for its efficacy in a multicomponent reaction (MCR). An MCR with the Zn-Bp-BTC MOF as the catalyst afforded good yields and there was no reaction in the absence of the catalyst. Similarly, the catalyst was tested for its efficiency in benzimidazole synthesis.

    Dr Mannathan did this research in collaboration with Dr. Kathiresan Murugavel, Scientist, Electro Organic Division, CSIR-Central Electrochemical Research Institute (Govt of India), Karaikudi.

    Continue reading →
  • Detection of diabetic retinopathy (DR) severity from fundus photographs November 19, 2021

    Detection of diabetic retinopathyA research paper titled “Detection of Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) severity from fundus photographs: An Ensemble Approach using weighted average”, has been published by Dr Mahesh Kumar Morampudi, Assistant Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, in the Arabian Journal for Science and Engineering.

    Diabetic Retinopathy is a common diabetic disease that affects the retina and can result in blindness if not treated initially. Deep learning (DL) based models are proposed to detect the blood abnormalities in the retinal tissue due to diabetes mellitus obtained from fundus camera. The drawback of these models is the lack of performance. To address this, we propose to automate the process of detection of the severity of Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) using ensembles of pre-trained models, thus exploring the power of transfer learning in the field of automated diagnosis. Deep learning models perform well when the model is trained on a large amount of data. In this regard, we also put forth data augmentation and preprocessing techniques to generate synthetic images and to improve image quality. Extensive experimental results on publicly available databases illustrate that the proposed ensemble model achieves fair accuracy when compared to existing models. Thus, the proposed model shows good scope for deployment in real-time diagnosis.

    Every year multiple people are diagnosed with diabetes. Diabetes is a chronic disease that affects several organs of the human body namely the eyes, kidneys, heart etc. Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is a situation induced by diabetes in which severe loss happens to the retinal blood vessels that can ultimately lead to blindness. Regular diabetic retinopathy screening is hence needed for detecting it in advance. In the present situation, a trained clinician or an ophthalmologist is required to identify diabetic retinopathy (DR) by the existence of lesions related to the vascular abnormalities induced by the disease. The ophthalmologist needs to evaluate and examine digital colour fundus images of the retina. So, it is a very tedious and sluggish process. He/She needs more time to diagnose DR. The diagnosis of the disease by any manual means seems to be tiresome and usually results in errors. To overcome this limitation, we propose a model to automate the process of detection of the severity of DR using ensembles of pre-trained models, thus exploring the power of transfer learning in the field of automated diagnosis.

    The research group believes that the study helps ophthalmologists to identify diabetic retinopathy at its early stage accurately, as a result, the chance of losing the vision due to diabetic retinopathy can be reduced. The work is done in collaboration with Dr Mulagala Sandhya, Assistant professor, NIT-Warangal. In the future, Dr Mahesh Kumar plans to work on a project related to Privacy-preserving Biometric Authentication.

    Continue reading →
  • Obtaining encrypted images with new Reversible Data Hiding scheme November 16, 2021

    SRM University-AP is pleased to announce that Dr V M Manikandan, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, along with his research scholar Shaiju Panchikkil, published a paper titled, “A convolutional neural network model based reversible data hiding scheme in encrypted images with block-wise Arnold transform” in Optik Journal, Elsevier Publications.

    The proposed scheme can be used for embedding electronic patient reports (EPR) in the medical image itself while transmitting, and at the receiver side the reports can be extracted along with the lossless recovery of the medical images.

    About the Research:

    Data hiding or information hiding is a well-explored way to secure some secret data by concealing it in a digital cover medium. The reversible data hiding (RDH) is a recent advancement in the field of data hiding in which the cover medium can be restored during the extraction of hidden messages at the receiver side. The RDH schemes are widely used in medical image transmission and cloud computing. Recently, research in the field of RDH in encrypted images got much attention to improve the efficiency parameters such as embedding rate and bit error rate without compromising the lossless recovery of the images. In this research paper, we propose a new RDH scheme in encrypted images which utilizes the Arnold scrambling technique for data hiding. A convolutional neural network (CNN) model is trained and used to extract the hidden message along with the recovery of the original image. The experimental study and result analysis of the proposed scheme are carried out on the USC-SIPI image dataset managed by the University of Southern California.

    Dr Manikandan collaborated with Prof. Yu-Dong Zhang, Professor in School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences, University of Leicester, UK collaborated for this research work. In the future, Dr Manikandan’s research will be more focussed on coming up with new reversible data hiding schemes in encrypted images with better embedding rate and bit error.

    Continue reading →
  • Stabilizing Li-S batteries: energy storage solution for the future November 10, 2021

    As technology gets revolutionized, we face the need to have more- more efficient energy storage solutions with decreased strain on the environment to meet our need. SRM University-AP happy to let everyone know that our Dr Ranjit Thapa, Professor of Physics along with his PhD scholar, Mr Deepak S Gavali has published a paper titled, “Understanding the role of lithium bonds in doped graphene nanoribbons as cathode hosts for Li-S batteries: A first-principles study” in ‘International Journal of Energy Research’, having an Impact Factor of 5.164.

    About the Research:

    Lithium sulphur (Li-S) batteries hold immense potential as energy storage devices of the future because of their high energy density (2600 Wh kg −1), lower cost and non-toxic nature as compared to the currently available lithium-ion batteries. However, the commercialization of Li-S batteries is hindered due to a number of challenges that include the polysulfide shuttle effect, viz, the dissolution of lithium polysulfide species (LiPS) in the cathode into the electrolyte and its diffusion to the anode and back. The shuttle effect results in poor Coulombic efficiency, low utilization of active materials, and degradation of electrode. Moreover, the insulating nature of the sulphur cathode is a key contributor to its low specific capacity. One way to circumvent these problems is by employing conducting cathode hosts as additives that would act as trapping agents for the LiPS, preventing their migration to the anode.

    “Using first-principles calculations, we investigate a family of doped graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) for their suitability as cathode hosts in Lithium sulphur batteries. We probe the role played by the lone pairs of the dopants in confining the Lithium polysulfides (LiPS) in order to understand the mechanism of binding. Our results show that the Li-bond between the polysulfides and the doped GNRs is analogous to a hydrogen bond and also dipole-dipole interactions play a key role in anchoring the polysulfides. The charge lost by the sulphur atom of the polysulfide upon adsorption and shape of the lone pair basins and the value of ELF at the dopant position can provide a quick estimate of the strength of the bond. Significant contractions in the ELF profiles are also observed upon Li 2 S adsorption, further providing evidence for the H bond like nature of the Li-bond. Our results corroborate the fact that all acceptors suitable for hydrogen bond can be employed as suitable dopants for carbon-based cathode hosts in Li-S batteries.”

    Dr Thapa and his PhD scholar conducted this research in collaboration with a Department of Physics and Research Centre, Lady Doak College, Madurai, 625002, Tamil Nadu, India. For their future research they are also working in the field of Li-ion battery. They are searching for new carbon allotrope structure which should have the ability to enhance the specific capacity and reduce the volume expansions as compared to the commercialized anode material.

    Continue reading →
  • Assessment of corporate bodies in the light of corporate governance rating November 10, 2021

    corporate governance ratingAssessing the grading and rating system in any corporation is important for the management and the stakeholders, and the more efficient they are the easier it becomes to plan future trajectories. SRM University-AP is happy to announce that Dr Lakshman Rao Ayyagari, Assistant Professor of Commerce has researched extensively on this issue and published a paper titled, “The ignored tool “corporate governance rating”: An overview of the corporate world in the emerging market” in “Journal of Governance and Regulation.

    According to Dr Ayyagari, this research work is like a grading pattern, we adopt to rate and rank various organizations on various parameters, accordingly “Corporate Governance Rating” is a tool to assess firms’ performance, but not widely used in assessment, recommended for its use, keeping in mind the interests of various stakeholders.

    About the research:

    The interest of the Stakeholders is to see the growth of their entities, also they benchmark their entities through business performance metrics or tools like Return on Equity, Return on Assets, Earnings Per Share, Gross Profit Margin, Employee Productivity, Sales Turnover, ratings given by prominent credit rating agencies such as ICRA, CRISIL, Standard and Poor etc. In addition to this, internal governance mechanisms, board of directors’ characteristics, their independence, transparency, concentration, and presence of employees in the ownership structure also influence financial and stock market performance. However, assessing the performance of entities through some of these limited angles is not always possible. One more criterion for assessing the performance of entities is “Corporate Governance Rating”. However, it is not widely used as a tool to assess a firm’s performance in the emerging markets. The present research paper is intended to address the scenario of Corporate Governance Rating in the Corporate World to assess a firm’s performance. With the help of majorly secondary sources of data conducted a study from 2003 to 2021 based on the CRISIL’s rating pattern. The findings showed the significance of Corporate Governance Rating for its adoption and future research in the development of rating mechanisms in India as well as in emerging markets.

    This research can be recommended to regulatory bodies especially in India like SEBI for conducting thorough research in this area for a policy study and implementation.

    Continue reading →
  • Design and implementation of frequency controller for wind energy-based hybrid power system November 10, 2021

    Dr Tarkeshwar Mahato ResearchDr Tarkeshwar Mahto, Assistant Professor, in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering has published a paper titled “Design and Implementation of Frequency Controller for Wind Energy-Based Hybrid Power System Using Quasi-Oppositional Harmonic Search Algorithm” in the reputed research journal, Energies.

    An innovative union of fuzzy controller and proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller under the environment of fractional order (FO) calculus is described in the present study for an isolated hybrid power system (IHPS) in the context of load frequency control. The proposed controller is designated as FO-fuzzy PID (FO-F-PID) controller. The undertaken model of IHPS presented here involves different independent power-producing units, a wind energy-based generator, a diesel engine-based generator and a device for energy storage (such as a superconducting magnetic energy storage system). The selection of the system and controller gains was achieved through a unique quasi-oppositional harmony search (QOHS) algorithm. The QOHS algorithm is based on the basic harmony search (HS) algorithm, in which the combined concept of quasi-opposition initialization and HS algorithm fastens the profile of convergence for the algorithm. The competency and potency of the intended FO-F-PID controller were verified by comparing its performance with three different controllers (integer-order (IO)-fuzzy-PID (IO-F-PID) controller, FO-PID and IO-PID controller) in terms of deviation in frequency and power under distinct perturbations in load demand conditions. The obtained simulation results validate the cutting-edge functioning of the projected FO-F-PID controller over the IO-F-PID, FO-PID and IO-PID controllers under non-linear and linear functioning conditions. In addition, the intended FO-F-PID controller, considered a hybrid model, proved to be more robust against the mismatches in loading and the non-linearity in the form of rate constraint under the deviation in frequency and power front.

    The research group believes that the study will boost the use of renewable energy utilization for fulfilling energy requirements in a more reliable and stable manner. In future, they plan to use the knowledge gained from the isolated systems to develop a Multi-Migrigrid system.

    Collaborations:

    1. Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, M S Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bengaluru 560054, India
    2. The Berkeley Education Alliance for Research in Singapore, The National University of Singapore, Singapore 138602, Singapore
    3. Clean and Resilient Energy Systems (CARES) Lab, Texas A&M University, Galveston, TX 77553, USA;
    4. Department of Electrical Engineering, College of Engineering, Taif University, Taif 21944, Saudi Arabia
    Continue reading →
  • Dr VK Saraswat inaugurated Centres of Excellence to promote translational research November 9, 2021

    SRM University-AP organised its University Research Advisory Council Meeting on Monday, November 08, 2021. Dr V K Saraswat, Hon’ble Member, NITI AAYOG, chaired the meeting as the Chairman of the Council. Dr P Sathyanarayanan, President, SRM University-AP, Prof VS Rao, Vice-Chancellor, SRM University-AP, Prof D Narayana Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, SRM University-AP, Dr Vinayak Kalluri, Registrar-in-Charge were among other dignitaries.

    In his keynote speech, Dr V K Saraswat congratulated SRM University-AP for their remarkable progress as a university in the past two years. As a nascent university, SRMAP has already made its reputation as a progressive research university of the new era with numerous laurels to its credit. “India is going through a pedagogical shift in terms of policy and implementation. National Education Policy-2020 has sagaciously replaced the age-old redundant policy of 1968. It feels wonderful to note that SRM University-AP is already following NEP-2020 and its recommendations. NEP-2020 has provided extraordinary possibilities and opportunities to make the best use of human and natural resources in terms of education and research. NEP-2020 focuses on making India self-reliant as a nation. Hence NEP-2020 is to create job providers, no more job seekers”, said Dr Saraswat.

    The suggestions and recommendations of NEP-2020 are curated to facilitate innovation and brilliance. The universities and educational institutions that are the cores of knowledge creation and dissemination are trusted with this responsibility of creating the leaders of tomorrow. In the twenty-first century, the focus should be on translational research of multidisciplinary nature. Industry-Academic relationships are needs of the hour. Dr Saraswat further proposed to develop Value Addition Centre in SRM University-AP to promote translational research. The centre will be strengthening the relationship between Industry and Academia to work on product engineering to deliver market relevant products. “Upscaling and upskilling are substantial in product engineering. We should further be focused on linking our curriculum to India’s glorious heritage. Our ancestors made tremendous progress in science, medicine, astrology, astronomy and other branches that the outside world knows very little about. It is now time to remember them and learn from them,” opined Dr Saraswat.

    For any country that aspires to be among the best globally, knowledge generation should be given importance. For a country like India, with a population of 130 crores, unemployability is a curse. Following the recommendations of NEP-2020, focus should be put on Vocational Courses. It is vital that the students of this generation are aware of the science of engineering rather than science and engineering. Science of Engineering leads to the generation of knowledge, research with meaningful publications and recognition. Dr Saraswat further pointed out that liberal arts are an essential factor for holistic personality development in students.

    India has an ambitious plan to make the country carbon neutral by the year 2070. Thus, encouragement is given on environment-friendly research. Thrust is given on the green environment, energy efficiency, alternate and unconventional sources of energy, use of renewable resources and recycle of industrial waste among others. Research should be cost-effective and environment friendly. The focus should be on reducing the carbon footprint in nature with proper planning on the use-storage and distribution of hydrogen in nature. India produces many academicians, scientists and engineers every year, but today India is more about theoretical research. It is now time not only to write papers but also to produce designs that are market relevant. SRMAP should take the initiative in this regard to deliver India able designer-engineers.

    Dr V K Saraswat inaugurated two Centres of Excellence that SRM University-AP has recently established to promote translational research. SRM Amara Raja Centre for Energy Storage Devices is set up, in collaboration with Amara Raja Batteries Limited- Tirupati, with a commitment to application-oriented research in the renewable energy and e-mobility. Centre for pioneering studies in Gold & Silver will be working on flagship project with Titan Company Ltd (TANISHQ) to develop novel gold alloy for contemporary jewellery design. The centre also aims to work on projects in collaboration with Waman Hari Pethe & Sons, Mumbai and other jewellery manufacturers across India to produce high strength 22 Karat gold and develop tarnish free silver alloys.

    Dr P Sathyanarayanan, President, SRM University-AP, shared his vision to make SRM University-AP as a new-age world-class research university. He agreed with Dr Saraswat and asserted that the management of SRMAP is ready to provide every help needed. “SRMAP encourages deep industry engagements, entrepreneurship along with technological education and advancement. To provide holistic education to students, SRMAP provides a strong emphasis on liberal arts,” said Dr Sathyanarayanan. Prof VS Rao, Vice-Chancellor, SRM University-AP, further elaborated on the extensive plan that SRMAP has to build a world-class university in the heart of Andhra Pradesh. The university has collaborative lineage with reputed names in education to provide best education to the students.

    Prof D Narayana Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, presented an overall roadmap of SRMAP’s progress in research so far and the way forward. The nascent university proudly houses 4500 students and 180 faculty with a few foreign nationals among them. Several DST- Inspire, DBT-Wellcome, Ramalingaswami and Ramanujan faculty are crowning the university with their exceptional research and teaching abilities. Stanford Research recognises the faculty of SRM University-AP among the world’s top 2% researchers. The university has published 678 papers in Scopus Indexed journals. The faculty are working on 38 projects with an outlay of 19.17 crores funded by the Government of India and Industry Giants.

    The committee agreed that fundamental areas cannot be compromised while working on the challenges in the education sector. Good students and faculty are to be attracted in order to pursue qualitative research. High end teaching and research facilities are essential for higher studies organisations. In initial years, collaborations can be beneficial for networking and promoting qualitative deliverables. The committee advocated for design schools to promote brainstorming for qualitative research. Every institution should have 4 fundamental pillars of education-teaching, research, industry-academia relation, societal benefits. Teaching and research should go hand-in-hand. The weakness of the institutions todays is undergrads are not given enough exposure to the practical knowledge of equipment. Critical thinking among students along with project-based teaching are to be encouraged from the initial years of the undergraduate studies.

    Prof B S Murthy, Director, IIT-Hyderabad, Dr K Satyanarayana, Director, IIT-Tirupati, Dr S Chandra Sekhar, Director, CSIR-IICT, Hyderabad, Dr Mahendra Dev, Director & Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, Prof M R Rao, Former Dean, Indian School of Business Hyderabad, Dr Tata Narasinga Rao, Director, International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI), Hyderabad, Prof P Appa Rao, Former Vice Chancellor, University of Hyderabad, Dr K Varaprasada Reddy, Chairman Emeritus, Shantha Biotech Ltd Hyderabad, Dr S R Rao, Vice President, Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth Puducherry, Prof B P Sinha, ISI-Kolkata, Prof G P Das, Senior Professor, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata, Prof R Balasubramanian, The Institute of Mathematical Sciences Taramani, Chennai, Prof U B Desai, Chancellor, Anurag University, Hyderabad, Prof B V R Chowdari, Nanyang Technological University Singapore, Prof Kamanio Chattopadhyay, IISc, Bangalore also participated in the meeting.

    Continue reading →