Annual Report 2013–2014 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 Prof. M.M. Sharma Prof. Bhaskar Ramamurthi 3, Jaswant Baug (Runwal Park) Indian Institute of Technology Madras Behind Akbarallys Chennai 60036 Chembur Naka Chembur 40071 Members Nominees of the IIT Council Prof. Dipankar Banerjee Dr. P Anandan Department of Materials Engineering Managing Director Indian Institute of Science Microsoft Research Lab India Pvt. Ltd. Bangalore 560012 1026, 1st Floor, “Vigyan”, 9, Lavelle Road Bangalore 560025 Mr. Kris S. Gopalakrishnan Dr. B.N. Suresh CEO & MD, Infosys Technology Ltd. Vikram Sarabhai Distinguished Professor Corporate Headquarters, Indian Space Research Organisation Electronic City Department of Space, GoI Hosur Road, Anteriksh Bhavan, New BEL Road Bangalore 560100 Bangalore 580231 Nominees of the Senate Prof. M.S. Shunmugam Prof. G. Muthuveerappan Department of Mechanical Engineering Department of Mechanical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology Madras Indian Institute of Technology Madras Chennai 60036 Chennai 60036 Nominees of State Governments Dr. J. Letha Prof. P.M. Kavimani Director Commissioner i/c Directorate of Technical Education Directorate of Technical Education Government of Kerala, Padmavilasom, Fort Government of Tamil Nadu Thiruvananthapuram 695023 Chennai 60025 Mr. J. Ashok Kumar, IAS Dr. S. Sundaravadivelu Collector & Development Commissioner Special Secretary to Government (DP&AR) Administration of the UT of Lakshadweep Chief Secretariat, Goubert Avenue Kavaratti 682555 Puducherry 605001 Mr. Mohamed Hashim Jadwet Jadwet Trading Company Tower House, Aberdeen Bazar Port Blair 744101 Secretary Invitee Ms. V.G. Bhooma, IRPS Prof. P. Sriram Registrar Dean (Administration) Indian Institute of Technology Madras Indian Institute of Technology Madras Chennai 60036 Chennai 60036 CONTENTS 1. Director’s Report 1 2. Administration 28 3. Academic Programmes and Award of Degrees 42 Departments: 4.1. Department of Aerospace Engineering 59 4.2. Department of Applied Mechanics 73 4.3. Department of Biotechnology 86 4.4. Department of Chemical Engineering 109 4.5. Department of Chemistry 130 4.6. Department of Civil Engineering 162 4.7. Department of Computer Science and Engineering 195 4.8. Department of Electrical Engineering 212 4.9. Department of Engineering Design 237 4.10. Department of Humanities and Social Sciences 250 4.11. Department of Management Studies 264 4.12. Department of Mathematics 279 4.13. Department of Mechanical Engineering 296 4.14. Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering 322 4.15. Department of Ocean Engineering 345 4.16. Department of Physics 367 Centre: 5.1 Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility 380 Centres of Special Facilities: 6.1. Centre for Continuing Education 383 6.2. Centre for Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research 396 6.3. Central Electronics Centre 425 6.4. P.G. Senapathy Centre for Computing Resources 428 7. Central Facilities 432 7.1 Central Workshop Facilities 432 7.2 Central Gas Supplies Unit 433 7.3 Central Glass Blowing Section 433 8. Central Library 434 9. Students Amenities and Activities 438 9.1. Hostels 438 9.2. Medical Facilities 439 9.3. Gymkhana 439 9.4. Advisor, Weaker Section 440 9.5. International & Alumni Relations 441 10. Students Placement 446 11. Financial Assistance to Students 447 11.1 Assistance to B.Tech/Dual Degree Students 447 11.2 Other Scholarships 447 11.3 M.Tech. 448 11.4 M.Sc. 448 11.5 M.A 449 11.6 M.S. 449 11.7 Ph.D. 450 11.8 Financial Assistance to Research Scholars/Students for Presentation of Papers Abroad 450 11.9 Financial Assistance to Research Scholars/Students for Presentation of Papers in India 450 12. Weaker Section & Foreign National Students 451 12.1 B.Tech Programme 451 12.2 Preparatory Course for Admission to B.Tech. Arogramme 451 12.3 M.Tech. Programme 451 12.4 M.Sc. Programme 452 12.5 Admission of Foreign National Students and Indian National Residing Abroad 452 13. Campus Amenities 453 13.1 Engineering Unit 453 13.2 Housing Facilities 455 13.3 Horticulture 455 13.4 Telephone Facilities 455 13.5 Central Supplies Unit 455 13.6 Guest House 455 13.7 Hospital 455 13.8 Bank 458 13.9 Post Office and Telecom Centre 458 13.10 Schools 458 13.11 Open Air Theatre 458 13.12 Student Activities Centre 458 13.13 Cafeteria 458 13.14 Crèche 458 13.15 Transport Services 458 13.16 Campus News 458 14. Finance and Accounts 459 Appendices: 1. The Senate 461 2. Board of Academic Course 464 3. Board of Academic Research 465 4. Board of Students 466 5. Board of Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research 467 6. Library Advisory Committee 468 7. The Finance Committee 469 8. Buildings and Works Committee 470 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, the historic 50th convocation of the Institute will see a total of 1536 graduands—156 Ph.D., 119 M.S., 448 M.Tech., 51 M.B.A., 24 M.A., 125 M.Sc., 249 Dual Degree (B.Tech. and M.Tech.) and 318 B.Tech. degrees and 46 PG Diplomas. These degrees cover a wide range of disciplines and specializations, offered by the 11 engineering departments, three science departments, the Department of Management Studies and the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences. The Institute currently has 8234 students on its rolls, with more than 50% of them being post-graduate students. Our faculty members are our backbone, and we continue to recruit each year world-class faculty members working in frontier areas of research. In 2013–2014, the Institute added 30 new faculty members, of whom four are women. We bade farewell to 10 faculty members and 47 staff members, who retired after a lifetime of dedicated service to the Institute. I will now give you some snapshots of the achievements during the academic year 2013–2014. 1.1. Degree Programmes The first batch of Honours students, numbering 58, graduates this year in our B.Tech. programme. The Honours programme is akin to a decathlon—students have to maintain consistently high performance right through their four years here to remain in the programme and take additional advanced courses as well. We are proud of the students who have challenged themselves and emerged as champions. Today, we also award B.S. and M.S. degrees to the first Dual Degree batch of physics students. A similar Dual Degree in Biological Sciences has been launched recently. The specialized programmes of our Institute—the Clinical Engineering programme (offered jointly with the Christian Medical College, Vellore and Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Science and Technology, Tiruvananthapuram), the Visionary Leaders in Manufacturing PG Diploma programme (offered jointly with IIT Kanpur and IIM Kolkata), the PG Diploma programme in Metro Rail Technology and Management and the inter-disciplinary PG programmes in Catalysis Technology, Petroleum Engineering and Nuclear Engineering—continue to address critical needs of the nation. An M.Tech. programme in surface and undersea vehicle systems is being introduced from 2014 jointly with the Defence Institute of Advanced Technology to plug a gap in yet another critical area. A key change in our UG curriculum has been the introduction of a 2-credit ‘Life Skills’ course. Apart from classroom sessions, it also includes Outbound Training to enable our students to deal with situations that they might encounter not only as students but also later in life. We propose to expand these efforts to give our students a more holistic educa- tional experience in the coming years. There is surging demand from engineers and executives in industry for courses in emerging areas that will enable them to remain at the cutting edge of technology. IIT Madras will soon launch live online classroom-based courses in the evenings to cater to this important constituency - the first such initiative from the IITs. The Department of Engineering Design has launched an integrated M.Tech. and Ph.D. Dual Degree programme. Attracted by the charms of a career in research, a total of 63 M.S.and M.Tech. students upgraded to the Ph.D. programme in 2013–2014. The China Studies Centre, in collaboration with the National Tsing-Hua University, Taiwan, now offers courses in Mandarin. Our intense transnational collaborations have resulted in the signing of three new joint doctoral programme (JDP) agreements, with the Universities of Swinburne (Australia), National Tsing-Hua University (Taiwan) and University of Passau (Germany), bringing the total number of JDPs to four. Two new joint Ph.D. supervision agreements were signed, with the University of Melbourne and Deakin University, both in Australia. A programme on sustainable power engineering that includes a strong research component has been launched under the aegis of the Indo-German Centre for Sustainability (IGCS), with Maschinenfabrik Reinhausen GmbH, Germany, as an industrial partner. This programme will give impetus to projects in the field of electrical engineering to develop solutions especially addressing sustainability and environmental concerns with respect to power transmission and distribution, in cooperation with leading research institutions and universities in Germany and India. 1.2. Academic Research Research at IIT Madras continued to flourish and attain new heights during the year under review. A total of 491 new Ph.D. students were admitted in 2013–2014, in keeping with the national goal of increasing the availability of high- quality researchers and teachers for industry and academia. About 20% of these are top-ranking students who were admitted directly after their B.E./B.Tech degree or upgraded from our Master’s programme.