ANNUAL REPORT IISc 2017-18 INDIAN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE VISITOR The President of India PRESIDENT OF THE COURT N Chandrasekaran CHAIRMAN OF THE COUNCIL P Rama Rao DIRECTOR Anurag Kumar DEANS SCIENCE: Biman Bagchi ENGINEERING: K Kesava Rao UG PROGRAMME: Anjali A Karande REGISTRAR V Rajarajan Pg 3 IISc RANKED INDIA’S TOP UNIVERSITY In 2016, IISc was ranked Number 1 among universities by the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) under the auspices of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. It was the first time the NIRF came out with rankings for Indian universities and institutions of higher education. In both 2017 and 2018, the Institute was again ranked first among universities, as well as first in the overall category. CONTENTS Foreword IISc at a Glance 8 1. The Institute 18 Court 5 Council 20 Finance Committee 21 Senate 21 Faculties 21 2. Staff (administration) 22 3. Divisions 25 3.1 Biological Sciences 26 3.2 Chemical Sciences 58 3.3 Electrical, Electronics, and Computer Sciences 86 3.4 Interdisciplinary Research 110 3.5 Mechanical Sciences 140 3.6 Physical and Mathematical Science 180 3.7 Centres under the Director 206 4. Undergraduate Programme 252 5. Awards/Distinctions 254 6. Students 266 6.1 Admissions & On Roll 267 6.2 SC/ST Students 267 6.3 Scholarships/Fellowships 267 6.4 Assistance Programme 267 6.5 Students Council 267 6.6 Hostels 267 6.7 Institute Medals 268 6.8 Awards & Distinctions 269 6.9 Placement 279 6.10 External Registration Program 279 6.11 Research Conferments 280 7. Events 300 7.1 Institute Lectures 310 7.2 Conferences/Seminars/Symposia/Workshops 302 8. Other Institute Units 308 9. Campus Facilities 311 10. Finance 414 11. Endowed Chairs 316 Pg 5 FOREWORD The Indian Institute of Science (IISc, or just “The During 2017-18, the Institute initiated the practice Institute”) was established in 1909 by a visionary of undergoing international peer academic reviews partnership between the industrialist Jamsetji over a 5-year cycle. Each year a set of departments Nusserwanji Tata, the Maharaja of Mysore, and the will be reviewed by a small team of international Government of India. Over the 109 years since its experts who will be invited to spend 3-4 days in the establishment, IISc has become the premier institute Institute. During this period, they interact closely for advanced scientific and technological research and with the faculty and students of these departments, education in India. Since its inception, the Institute and tour the facilities, aiming to assess the academic has laid a balanced emphasis on the pursuit of basic work against international benchmarks. This initiative knowledge in science and engineering, as well as on was kicked off by a review of the EECS Division the application of its research findings for industrial (the erstwhile Electrical Sciences Division), and the and social benefit. In the words of its founder, J.N. Department of Aerospace Engineering (which was Tata, the objectives of the Institute are “to provide celebrating its 75th anniversary). As part of their for advanced instruction and to conduct original evaluations, the invited experts provided valuable investigations in all branches of knowledge and, in feedback. We will study and act upon their input to particular, in such branches of knowledge as are likely ensure that IISc follows the best practices to achieve to promote the material and industrial welfare of international performance levels. India.” Again, in 2017-18, IISc has topped the MHRD NIRF rankings not only in the universities category, but also overall among all ranked institutions. The Times Higher Education has placed IISc at the 8th position in its Small University Rankings (that is, among universities with fewer than 5000 students), at the 13th position in its ranking of universities in the Emerging Economies, and in the range 91-100 in its World Reputation Rankings. IISc is placed at 170 in the QS World University Rankings, where IISc is at the Number 2 position on the metric of Citations per Faculty. Pg 6 IISc AnnuAl RepoRt 2017-18 The Society for Innovation and Development ensure world-class safety practices everywhere on (SID) was established in the mid-90s to promote the campus. interaction with the industry, by way of attracting industry funded research projects, hosting industry In order to further expand the sources of support for research laboratories, and, since 2001, promoting the Institute’s activities, in 2015, the Institute set up the formation of companies around innovations an Office of Development and Alumni Affairs (ODAA). emerging from IISc. During the past year, the efforts This office has been aiming to raise funds from of SID have been given an extra impetus by inducting organizations under Corporate Social Responsibility, industry professionals into the management team. as well as from philanthropists and alumni. During the An experienced senior technologist from a major past year, ODAA has raised funds for the construction national company has joined IISc to help increase the of two of the blocks of a 475-occupancy women’s industry- research interactions. This has resulted in a hostel (from Jindal Aluminium Group and Bharat renewed influx of industry funded research projects, Petroleum), in addition to CSR support for renewable which we plan to sustain. Two other professionals energy and sustainable technologies projects. have also been inducted, one to strengthen the interactions with medium, small, and micro I am honoured to present the IISc Annual Report enterprises (MSMEs), and the other to encourage which reports the academic output and related start-up activities. It may be noted that since IISc set achievements during the period 2017-18. The volume up mechanisms for incubating companies, 25 start- of high quality work reported goes to the credit of ups have been launched, of which 16 have started in the intellectual activities of the faculty members the past 3 years. It is interesting to note that some and the students, to the support of the technical and of these start-ups are coming out of very basic administrative personnel, and to financial support laboratory research, for example, one start-up aims from various funding agencies. to develop more effective influenza vaccines based on new fundamental understanding of the structure As I complete my fourth year as Director of this of the virus. Influenza is a major viral pathogen unique institution, I place on record my personal that causes about 300,000 deaths annually, and is gratitude to the Chairman and the Members of the deadly if there is a pandemic. The influenza virus, Council of the Institute for their valuable support and which causes the common flu, has many variants. guidance. This makes the process of generation of a universal vaccine for flu difficult. Conventional vaccines try to elicit antibodies against the variable head domain of an unstable protein called hemagglutinin which resides on the surface of the virus. Prof. Raghavan Varadarajan’s group and collaborators instead Anurag Kumar focused on the conserved stem domain, and designed Director modified fragments of this domain. These fragments September 2018 protect mice from infection with diverse strains of influenza virus. A startup (Mynvax) has been formed to develop and commercialize this work. The new Office of Career Counselling and Placement (OCCaP) has recruited a Placement Officer (on contract), and has had a successful first full year of operation. 80% of the registered Master’s Degree students have been successfully placed. OCCaP has also been seeking internship opportunities for students, which in turn strengthens their chance of getting a job offer in the following year. This year also saw initiation of special efforts towards laboratory and food safety. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) was engaged for auditing all the eateries on the campus (those in the hostels, and also the various food outlets). Through a process of auditing and training, the aim is to ensure safe food handling practices in all these entities. An Office of Laboratory Safety and Environmental Health was launched this year, along with the recruitment of a Safety Officer (on contract). Safety auditing of all the laboratories has been initiated, the aim being to Pg 7 ACADEMIC STRUCTURE Division of BC Biochemistry Biological CAF Central Animal Facility Sciences CES Centre for Ecological Sciences CIDR Centre for Infectious Disease Research CNS Centre for Neuroscience MCB Microbiology and Cell Biology MBU Molecular Biophysics Unit MRDG Molecular Reproduction, Development and Genetics Division of IPC Inorganic and Physical Chemistry Chemical MRC Materials Research Centre Sciences NRC NMR Research Centre OC Organic Chemistry SSCU Solid State and Structural Chemistry Unit Division of CSA Computer Science and Automation Electrical, ECE Electrical Communication Engineering Electronics, EE Electrical Engineering and Computer ESE Electronic Systems Engineering Science Division of BSSE Centre for BioSystems Science and Engineering Interdisciplinary CCS Centre for Contemporary Studies Research CiSTUP Centre for Infrastructure, Sustainable Transportation and Urban Planning CeNSE Centre for Nano Science and Engineering CDS Computational and Data Sciences MS Management Studies ICER Interdisciplinary Centre for Energy Research ICWaR Interdisciplinary Centre for Water Research RBCCPS Robert Bosch Centre for Cyber Physical Systems SERC Supercomputer Education and Research Centre IISc at A glANCE 2017-18