Annual Report 2004-2005 Annual Report 2004-05 1 Annual Report 2004-2005 Director’s Report It is indeed a privilege for me to present the Director’s Report for the year 2004-2005 including the major events and performance of the Institute. It is with enormous sense of pride that I share with you the news of Dan David Science Prize for 2005 in Materials Science being conferred on Prof. C. N. R. Rao. He shares the award with George Whitesides of the Harvard University and Robert Langer of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Prof. Rao has been honored in recognition of his stellar achievements in the field of Solid State and Material Chemistry. Prof. C.N.R. Rao is also the recipient of the Indian Science Award for his outstanding contributions to Solid State Chemistry and Materials Science. I have another heart-warming piece of news for you. The most recent survey of Dataquest ranks IIT Kanpur the BEST Technical School of the country. ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES The academic year 2004-2005 has had a successful run. The number of graduating students both at the undergraduate (B Tech-280, M Sc (5 year Integrated)-27, M Sc (2 year)-69, Total = 376) as well as postgraduate (M Tech-355, M Des 10, MBA 28, Ph D 61, Total = 454) level shows a fairly satisfactory trend. The enrolment in the Doctoral programme as well as the publication record of the faculty and students for the academic year 2004-2005 has improved considerably. The Institute is launching a five year integrated M.Sc. Programme in Economics in the coming academic year. Eminent journalist and Member of the Parliament Shri Arun Shourie has pledged Rs 11.00 crore out of his Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds for establishing a separate and well- equipped building for Environmental Sciences and Environmental Engineering. The Institute envisages constructing a 'Green Building' for the Environmental Sciences. IIT Kanpur is one of the eight institutes chosen by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) for creating state-of-the-art Nano-technology center. Under the auspices of the FIST scheme of DST, a new facility for developing Intelligent Sensors and Control will be installed in the Electrical Engineering Department. 2 Annual Report 2004-2005 AWARDS AND HONORS The faculty and students of IITK continue to break new grounds in the forefront of research. This has been duly recognized in the form of various awards and honors to the faculty including Fellowships of professional societies, Editorship of international journals, and best paper awards to the students. IIT Kanpur is proud of Professor Vinod Kumar Singh (Chemistry) who was conferred the prestigious Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for 2004. The Swarnajayanti Fellowship, given by the Government of India, recognizes outstanding young researchers who explore new frontiers in science and technology. Professor Debabrata Goswami from the Department of Chemistry was awarded this Fellowship in 2004. Wellcome Trust International Senior Research Fellowship, instituted by the Wellcome Trust of the United Kingdom, is open to outstanding researchers from several countries including India whose work impacts the fields of biology and medicine. Dr. Debabrata Goswami (Chemistry) and Dr. Balaji Prakash (BSBE) have been conferred the Wellcome Trust grant for 2004. I am happy to share with you the good news that Mr. Cherian Varkey Mathew , a first-year undergraduate student (who will soon move into his second year) of Computer Science and Engineering Department, has been chosen for the prestigious Lucent Scholarship in recognition of his outstanding all-round qualities among all the undergraduate students in the country. He shares the honor with Ms. Poonam of National Institute of Technology, Surathkal. The Bell Labs in New Jersey has invited him along with selected students from across the globe for visiting various laboratories and meeting scientists including some Nobel Laureates. Our hearty congratulations to Mathew! Prof. A.K. Mallik has been honored with the Distinguished Teacher Award of IIT Kanpur for 2004. Professor C.N.R. Rao has been nominated the Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister of India and Professor S.G. Dhande has been chosen member of the Council. A representative list of Awards and Honors is included as an addendum to the Report. 3 Annual Report 2004-2005 RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT The research profile of the Institute is continually growing every year. At any given time, the faculty and research engineers/ scientists are engaged in carrying out about 400 sponsored projects and almost an equal number of consultancy projects. During 2004-2005, the research grants received under the sponsored projects category have been about 415 million rupees, whereas under the consultancy projects category, these have been approximately 54 million rupees. The Institute faculty members have filed more than 20 patents in India and overseas. Five patents have been awarded in the past two years. The Institute has signed several memoranda of understanding with Indian as well as international academic/ research institutions and industries to strengthen its collaborative research efforts. The Institute has taken up a Technology Mission project on various aspects of Railway Safety sponsored by the MHRD, Ministry of Railways and various Industrial groups. Department of Computer Science & Engineering has undertaken a project on development of a multi modal Biometric system for human identification which integrates at least four markers such as the face, the finger-prints, the signature and the iris in ascertaining one’s personal identity. They have also developed a Portable Model of Primary Healthcare Delivery funded by the Media Lab Asia. Department of Civil Engineering has a project on treatment of domestic wastewater in India sponsored by the Swedish International Development Corporation. Department of Electrical Engineering has undertaken a project on development of Independent Component Analysis Based Blind Source Separation Algorithms for Audio/ Image Separations. They aim to develop neuron model based Blind-Source- Separation (BSS) algorithms which will be able to separate the audio and image mixtures. Department of Atomic Energy, Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences (BRNS) has sponsored a project to the Mechanical Engineering Department for development of a general purpose Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code. Sponsored by the DST under the Swarnajayanti fellowship scheme, a project on ultrafast pulse shaping approaches to coherent control of molecular systems to achieve quantum computation has been undertaken by the Chemistry Department. Quantum computing with ultrafast pulse shaping technology project in the Chemistry Department has been sponsored by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. It is an initiative to develop ultrafast tunable shaped pulses as an approach to quantum computations. BSBE Department has received a couple of projects last year: Tumor genomics in Drosophila: An expression profiling of tumors of diverse genetic origins, Nonneuronal cell-mediated neuroprotection in the 4 Annual Report 2004-2005 neurodegenerative disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Nonneuronal cell- mediated neuroprotection in the neurodegenerative disease, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis(ALS), An in vivo assay for high throughput screening of compounds for their effect on the expression of cytochrome P450 genes, Isolation and Characterization of microbial strains for the degradation of hydroxyls and nitro toluene. Department of Materials and Metallurgical Engineering has undertaken a couple of projects as listed below: Computer simulation of charge motion in tumbling mills using the Discrete Element Method (DEM), Reduction of skull in tundish during the Final Stages of a sequence casting of Steels, SPEED (Steel Plant Engineering, Education and Development), Electro remediation of Cr (VI) Contaminated Soil, Development of New Stereological Analysis Software Tools, Stress Induced Martensitic Transformations in Titanium Alloys, Preparation of Metallic Strips by P/M routes, Development of a New Thermomechanical Treatment for Medium- Carbon Microalloyed Steels, Synthesis of Nanocrystalline Alloys using the Mechanical Alloying Approach, Nanostructured Y-TZP Ceramics and TZP-TiB2 and WC-ZrO2 Nanocomposites, Sintering Time Compression using Microwave Sintering, Novel Structure Based Organic Thin Film Transistors (OTFTs), Development of Polysilane based Ultra-violet Light Emitting Diodes, Hydrogen Interaction in Materials. As mentioned earlier, the DST has provided about 2 crore rupees for establishing an Intelligent Sensors and Control Research Facility in the Electrical Engineering Department. Other major projects pursued by the faculty and research engineers of the Electrical Engineering Department include the Development of Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode Display, Development of Organic Solar Cells, and Enhancement of Power Systems Performance using FACTs. Mathematics Department has also undertaken a couple of important projects. Increasing and Convex Along Rays Functions over Cones: A Study in Monotonic Analysis, Issues on Estimation, Prediction and Calibration in Measurement Error Models, Evolution Equations and their Applications. The Department of Mechanical Engineering has been actively working on the following projects: Dynamic Mechanical Thermal Analyzer, Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry System, Horiba Exhaust Emission Analyzer, Smart