Annual Report 2014–2015
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Annual Report 2014–2015 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY MADRAS CHENNAI – 600 036 THE VISITOR Shri Pranab Mukherjee President of India THE BOARD OF GOVERNORS Chairman Director of the Institute Dr. Pawan Goenka Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi Executive Director Indian Institute of Technology Madras Mahindra & Mahindra Chennai 600036 Mahindra Towers, Mumbai Members Nominees of IIT Council Prof. Dipankar Banerjee Dr. P. Anandan Department of Materials Engineering Managing Director Indian Institute of Science Microsoft Research Lab India Private Limited Bangalore 560012 1026, 1st Floor, Vigyan 9, Lavelle Road, Bangalore 560025 Shri Kris S. Gopalakrishnan Dr. B.N. Suresh Retired, CEO & MD Vikram Sarabhai Distinguished Professor Infosys Technology Limited Corporate Head Quarters, Electronic City Indian Space Research Organisation Hosur Road, Bangalore 560100 Department of Space, GoI Karnataka Anteriksh Bhavan, New BEL Road, Bangalore 580231 Nominees of the Senate Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala Prof. S.K. Bhattacharya Department of Electrical Engineering Department of Ocean Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Madras Indian Institute of Technology Madras Nominees of State Governments Dr. J. Letha Shri Kumar Jayant, IAS (till 28 October 2014) Director Commissioner Directorate of Technical Education Directorate of Technical Education Government of Kerala, Padmavilasom, Fort Government of Tamil Nadu Thiruvananthapuram 695023 Chennai 600025 Mr. J. Ashok Kumar, IAS Shri Praveen Kumar, IAS (from 29 October 2014) Collector & Development Commissioner Principal Secretary/Commissioner of Technical Education Administration of the UT of Lakshadweep Directorate of Technical Education Kavaratti 682555 Government of Tamil Nadu, Chennai 600025 Mr. Mohamed Hashim Jadwet (till 6 January 2015 Dr. S. Sundaravadivelu M/s Jadwet Trading Company Special Secretary to Government (DP&AR) Tower House, Aberdeen Bazar Chief Secretariat, Goubert Avenue Port Blair 744101 Puducherry 605001 Dr. Uptal Sharma (from 7 January 2015) Principal (BRAIT) cum Special Secretary (IT) Dr. B.R. Ambedkar Institute of Technology campus Pahar Gaon, Port Blair 744104 Secretary Invitee Ms V.G. Bhooma, IRPS Prof. P. Sriram Registrar Dean (Administration) Indian Institute of Technology Madras Indian Institute of Technology Madras CONTENTS 1. Director’s Report 1 2. Administration 17 3. Academic Programmes and Award of Degrees 30 Departments: 4.1. Department of Aerospace Engineering 45 4.2. Department of Applied Mechanics 58 4.3. Department of Biotechnology 74 4.4. Department of Chemical Engineering 102 4.5. Department of Chemistry 123 4.6. Department of Civil Engineering 153 4.7. Department of Computer Science and Engineering 186 4.8. Department of Electrical Engineering 205 4.9. Department of Engineering Design 230 4.10. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences 244 4.11. Department of Management Studies 260 4.12. Department of Mathematics 276 4.13. Department of Mechanical Engineering 294 4.14. Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering 329 4.15. Department of Ocean Engineering 352 4.16. Department of Physics 374 Centre: 5. Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility 406 Centres of Special Facilities: 6.1. Centre for Continuing Education 409 6.2. Centre for Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research 424 6.3. Central Electronics Centre 454 6.4. P.G. Senapathy Centre for Computing Resources 457 7. Central Facilities 465 7.1. Central Workshop Facilities 465 7.2. Central Gas Supplies Unit 466 7.3. Central Glass Blowing Section 466 8. Central Library 467 9. Students Amenities and Activiteis 471 9.1. Hostels 471 9.2. Medical Facilities 472 9.3. Gymkhana 472 9.4. Advisor, Weaker Section 474 9.5. International and Alumni Relations 474 9.6. Guidance and Counselling Unit—Renamed as Mentoring for Individual Transformation (Mitr) 492 9.7. National Cadet Corps 492 10. Students Placement 493 11. Financial Assistance to Students 494 11.1. Assistance to B.Tech./Dual Degree Students 494 11.2. Other Scholarships 494 11.3. M.Tech. 494 11.4. M.Sc. 495 11.5. M.A. 496 11.6. M.S. 496 11.7. Ph.D. 497 11.8. Financial Assistance to Research Scholars/Students for Presentation of Papers Abroad 497 11.9. National/International Conferences In India 497 12. Weaker Section and Foreign National Students 498 12.1. B.Tech. Programme 498 12.2. Preparatory Course for Admission to B.Tech Programme 498 12.3. M.Tech Programme 498 12.4. M.Sc Programme 499 12.5. Admission of Foreign Nationals and Indian Nationals Residing Abroad 499 13. Campus Amenities 500 13.1. Engineering Unit 500 13.2. Housing Facilities 501 13.3. Horticulture 501 13.4. Telephone Facilities 501 13.5. Central Supplies Unit 501 13.6. Guest Houses 502 13.7. Hospital 502 13.8. Bank 503 13.9. Post Office and Telecom Centre 503 13.10. Schools 503 13.11. Open Air Theatre 503 13.12. Student Activities Centre 503 13.13. Cafeteria 503 13.14. Crèche 503 13.15. Transport Services 503 13.16. Campus News 503 14. Finance and Accounts 504 Appendices: 1. The Senate 506 2. Board of Academic Courses 509 3. Board of Academic Research 510 4. Board of Students 511 5. Board of Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research 512 6. Library Advisory Committee 513 7. The Finance Committee 514 8. Building and Works Committee 515 1. DIRECTOR’S REPORT The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) was established in 1959 and declared an institute of national importance by an Act of Parliament in 1961. From modest but firm beginnings in 1964, when 91 B.Tech. and 15 M.Sc. degrees were awarded. On the day of the 52nd convocation, I am proud to report, we are crossing another milestone—we awarded more than 2000 degrees in a single year for the first time. The number of Ph.D. degrees awarded has increased by 18% to 212 this year, crossing 200 for the first time. Our full complement of 790 undergraduate and Dual Degree students, after the capacity increase effected between 2008 and 2010, are gradu- ating at the 52nd convocation. The institute published last year its Strategic Plan for 2014–2020, wherein our targets were spelt out for all the activities that inform life and work at the Institute. I now share with you some snapshots of our achievements during the academic year 2014–2015 with reference to our Plan. 1.1. Degree Programmes A key Plan objective is the revision of our undergraduate curricula to permit the students more choice in the courses they take. This has become imperative in a fast-changing world where aspirations are themselves moving targets. In the new curriculum that comes into effect from the oncoming academic year, the student will be given the latitude to choose on average 40% of the courses. Students can thus pursue newly discovered passions or upgrade to a Dual Degree programme, stay on for an M.S. in Entrepreneurship or simply sample interesting courses in various disciplines. An ever-increasing number of masters’ students are discovering the excitement of research at IIT Madras. In 2014–2015, a total of 59 students upgraded to the Ph.D. programme, while 73 high achievers were admitted to it directly after their bachelor’s degrees. A further 33 industry professionals also enrolled for their Ph.D. degrees, indicating a healthy growth in our interaction with industry. Overall, the Ph.D. intake per year has crossed our Plan target of 80% of the faculty strength, putting us on course to achieving the Ph.D. graduation target by 2020. Our intense transnational collaborations have resulted in the formalisation of several joint-doctorate super- vision agreements, including one that was signed with the President of Purdue University during his visit in November 2014. Four more joint doctoral programme agreements were signed in 2014–2015 to add to the existing four: the new ones are with the University of Melbourne, University of Technology Sydney and Curtin University, in Australia, and with the University of Duisburg, Essen, in Germany. The fledgeling Centre for Technology and Policy Studies (CTaP) has launched an elective course, ‘Technology and Public Policy’, that is jointly taught by faculty members from across departments. 1.2. Academic Research In 2014–2015, our faculty members and research scholars published 1089 papers in reputed international journals and 105 in national journals, representing a sharp growth of 30% over last year. They also presented 533 research papers at international conferences and 153 papers at national conferences, demonstrating a staggering growth of more than 50%. These are but harbingers, with a scorching pace being set by our growing band of research scholars and faculty, leading to a sharp rise in our international research profile. 1.2.1. Snapshots of research At the risk of sounding arcane, I would like to place before you a few examples of the high-quality research carried out by our 212 Ph.D. and 157 M.S. scholars who graduated at the 52nd convocation. H.V. Raghav, of the Department of Aerospace Engineering, addressed the strategic use of flare countermea- sures and defense missiles for protecting AEW&C systems and non-manoeuverable aircraft. R. Jayendiran, of the Department of Applied Mechanics, made novel contributions towards understanding and modelling the non-linear behaviour of some 1–3 piezocomposites. Soumi Bairagi, of the Department of Biotechnology, studied impaired circulating vascular progenitor cells and altered angiopoietin systems and correlated these and vascular abnormalities observed in polycystic amenorrheic females. S. Balakrishnan, of the Department of Chemical Engineering, developed a successful method to simulate fouling deposits of three Indian coal types by using chemical equilibrium calculations and binary eutectoid formations. Through an ambitious objective of addressing various problems in metal optics, Maturi Renuka, of the Department of Chemistry, presented a complete set of frequency and wave-vector-dependent linear response tensors and outlined a formalism of macroscopic electrodynamics that uses scalar and vector potentials as fundamental building blocks.