Immerse Final Print

Message from the Dean, Academic Research

Immerse2

Dear Friends, Wish you all a very happy and prosperous 2014.

This is the best time of the year in Chennai, what with the most comfortable weather, themusicalseasonandafestivemoodprevailingatIITMadras.Theresearchcommunitywillusethis to rejuvenate themselves for the tasks ahead. It is also Shaastra time and I am happyto note that this time Shaastra is bringing together research scholars from all the IITstogether.Thiswillhelptocatalyzeanexchangeof ideas,asharingofproblemsandadrawingofinspirationfromeachother.Iamsureallofuswilltakethisopportunitytogetexcitedaboutdiverse approaches to research work taking place across the country.

This is also an occasion to look back and introspect at ourselves, both as individuals and asaninstitution.Ontheinstitutionalside,2013hasbeenayearofchangeintheresearcharenaatIITMadras. InthemonthofFebruary,aspecialSenatemeetingwasheldandfor thefirst timein the history of IIT Madras, the entire meeting was devoted exclusively for discussion of theresearchagenda.Inthismeetingweacceptedtherecommendationsoftheresearchtaskforcewhich suggested sweeping changes with respect to the initiatives and norms for research-related activities. IIT-M is the first institute in the country to introduce rights andresponsibilities for research scholars. We have been very proactive in implementing therecommendations of the Kakodkar Committee, which has seen a dramatic raise in thenumber of Ph.D and M.S scholars in the campus. New features such as Direct Ph.D. andInterdisciplinaryPh.D.aregoingtobecomethelandmarksofourresearchprogrammeinthedaystocome. Inrecenttimes,wehavetakenbigstepstowardsrevampingtheresearchsafetypolicy and enhancing the research infrastructure. Our institute is moving towards acomprehensive policy of research performance evaluation of departments, groups andindividualswithinaveryshort time,andtowardssuggestionsforcorrectivemeasuresbasedon these evaluations.

Research, my dear friends, is a creative activity. Although there are some grammaticallessons to be learnt, no one can teach how innovation can be done. It does, however, requirethe right kind of resources (both physical and human), a dynamic ambience and a propersystem of evaluation, as well as a corrective system. Let us hope that in the days to come wewill be able to meet the above requirements adequately, which will elevate us to the highestlevel internationally. At the same time, we can contribute towards solving the problemsfacing our nation and our society.

If you are at IIT-M, you deserve the best, but you also need to perform at the highest level. Letus hope that we can do that in the days to come. With best wishes,Prof Sarit K. DasDean, Academic Research

Message from the Research Affairs Secretary

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Immerse, the name of this magazine, is a word that aptly describes one of the essentialfeaturesofdoingresearch.Fruitfulresearcharisesoutofcomplete immersioninasubject.Atthesametimeitisimportanttobeabletorelateone'sresearchtoeverydaylifeandtobeabletoexpress its wonder and significance to everyone. The Fifth Estate in association with Shaastra has put together Immerse to help

researchers of IIT Madras communicate their research in a simple, yet lucid, manner. Wehope that these articles will inspire and inform not just fellow researchers, but the widercommunity of teachers and students, including undergraduates and school students. Wealso hope that it encourages more students to join IIT Madras and take up research.

I would like to congratulate The Fifth Estate and the Shaastra team on bringing out thesecond edition of this research magazine. I'm sure all of you will enjoy reading it.

Thank You, Oswald Jason LoboSecretary (Research Affairs)

Nithyanand RaoEditor-in-Chief

From the austere mathematical beauty of the equations that prophesiedthe Higgs boson to the sublime, eternal art and architecture of Hampi,science and art have something in common: what breathes life into themarestories.Storieswetellourselvesandeachotheraboutwhoweare,whatwe think the natural world is like, and why it is worth studying andappreciating. From the knowledge we accrue through these stories, arisesideas of practical value.

In this Issue

6 Cover Story: Walking on Water

Contents

The research projects featured in this magazine showcase but a sample of the research being carried out at IIT Madras. They are notnecessarily representative of the research activities at specific departments, or IIT Madras as a whole.

THE FIFTH ESTATE

E: [email protected]

12 Aakash and Beyond

15 Functional Foods and Problematic Phosphatases

37 Watching as the Soil Breathes

18 Vials on Dial

20 IGCS: A Peek Into HSS Research

23 Nano Sensors for Bacteria

25 From the Ruins

28 The Need for SPEED

https://www.facebook.com/t5e.iitm

@t5e_iitm

Science and technology being the engines of the globalized, moderneconomy, such stories are vital in what they convey, even beyond theirnecessity for material progress: a shared humanity that is perhaps bestexemplified by the international nature of the scientific enterprise.

IITMadrasisoneofthecentresof learningandresearchwhichenjoysan

international reputation for excellence. This edition of the researchmagazine, re-christened as Immerse, which stands for IIT Madras Magazine on Research in Science and Engineering, hopes to present youwith a glimpse of the diverse nature of research at this institution fromabstract theoretical research to innovations which apply basic science insolving everyday problems.

We are grateful to all the faculty members and research scholars who

generously gave us their time in talking to us about their research. Onbehalf of our team, I hope you enjoy reading the stories in the pages aheadas much as we have enjoyed putting it together.

32 Feature: The Elusive Goddamn Particle

4 Academic Research: An Interview with the Dean

39 Cancer, Colloids and Computer Vision

42 Briefly

Interview

Dr. Sarit K Das, who assumed office as the Dean, Academic Research in early 2013, speaks to Shrutiabout the research scene in the institute and the steps hes planning to take to encourage research.

Academic Research:An Interview with the Dean

Could you give us an overview of your plans as theDean, Academic Research, of IIT Madras? IIT Madras is no longer only an undergraduateinstitute. 55 percent of the student populationcomprises postgraduates. 35 percent of thestudents are pure research students. There areabout 1,700 Ph.D. students and about 800 M.S.studentshereatIITMadras.Thisisahugenumber.This changes the entire fabric of the institute. Overthe years, it has happened that the researchcommunity has remained segregated. It perceivesitself as a small community, with the institutemostly being dominated by undergraduates andM.Tech students. This perception has to change.The research community has to realize that it is avery important part of the institute. The government is looking at having IITs as thetop research universities. It aims to enhance thetotal number of Ph.Ds from 1,000 to 10,000, in alltheIITsputtogether,by2020.Forthistohappen,theresearch scholars themselves should come out oftheir shell and we have seen in recent times that ithas started happening. Recently, a ResearchScholarsDaywasorganized.Theresearchscholarsare coming out with their difficulties anddemands, which is a good sign. The importantthing is that non-research scholars should alsosense their perception; the B.Tech students shouldalso think that they can learn a lot from theresearch work which is going on in the institute,the M.Tech students should realize that some ofthem could even change their programme to Ph.D.There should be interaction between the researchcommunity and the course-based students. Butthis is something the students have to do.

The institute, on its part, needs to take someinitiatives, and these are what we have alreadystarted doing. Firstly, by inviting quality researchscholars; for the first time, we have started anoutreach programme in various cities of thecountry. We have met the students of variousreputed institutions and told them about thepossibilities of joining as research scholars at IIT-M.

We have invited the GATE toppers and straightaway offered them Ph.D. admissions. OurM.S.Ph.D. programme has undergone a completeoverhaul. Before taking up the post of Dean, AR, Iheaded the research task force and hence it waseasyformetoimplementtherecommendationsinwhich we have changed the rules of M.S.Ph.D.programmes quite a lot. Now, rather than havingyear-based evaluations, we have event-basedevaluations. We have started interdisciplinaryPh.D. programmes, which will be governedcentrally.

We have also made an institutional mentoringcommittee to mentor the young faculty members.This is very important because the young facultymembers are the ones who are going to take up thebaton of research in the coming days. Thecommittee comprises all the Bhatnagar awardees(therearefiveofthematIITMadras)andacoupleofpeople working in IISc, Bangalore (alumni of IITMadras). So, the institute is trying to get betterpeople in the research wing, to mentor the facultyand the students well, and also trying to create avery good infrastructure for the research scholars. What do you think about the present postgraduateresearch scene? I thinktheresearchsceneinM.Techhasimproved.Today, a large number of M.Tech students publishpapers in journals, while ten years back,publishing a research paper while doing M.Techwas very rare. Also, it was rare to findpostgraduates going for higher studies. This scenehas changed a lot over the years. People havestartedconvertingtheirprogrammesfromM.TechtoPh.D.ThenumberofPh.D.studentsis increasingand the quality of work is also improving. I see avery bright future. There is a general feeling that undergraduatestudents are not very interested in research. Wouldyou agree? In my opinion, looking at the number of studentsopting for non-technical jobs, this perception isright. Earlier, the complaint used to be about IIT

IIT Madras | Immerse

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By Shruti Badole

The IIT Madras Research Park is the firstuniversity-basedresearchparkinIndia. Inwhatwaysdoyouthinkstudentscanuse this resourcemore? The Research Park is a very important step that IITMadras has taken. In fact, the other IITs are nowreplicating this model. We have the second phasecoming up: the second tower is going to be built intheResearchPark. Ithasalreadyincubatedcertaincompanies which are doing a wonderful job oftaking the technology developed inside IIT Madrastothemarket.Manyofthetechnologiesarerelatedtothingslikehealthcare,whicharedirectlyrelatedto the public services. We have developed a mobileeye-surgery unit in collaboration with SankaraNethralaya. It has been extremely successful andthegovernment isnowgoingtousethisasamodeltodocataractsurgeries inruralareas.ThroughtheResearchPark,wearedoingexcellentwork.Infact,when it comes to socially relevant projects, IITMadras probably tops at the moment. Butunfortunately, a very small fraction of thestudents and faculty know about the good workthat is happening.

ArethereanygrantsgivenbyIITMadrasforstudentsto take up research? IITs are given block grants. How to spend thesegrants depends on the IITs. So theres no specialgrant devoted to research activities, but we doinvest in that area. Take the example of the CentreforInnovation(CFI),wheresomanyofourstudentswork.Itsbettertokeepsuchamodelseparatefromthecurriculum,becausetheresasayingthatifyouwant to kill a students interest in anything, put itinthecurriculum! I thinkifyoudoresearchasfun,and not as a part of the curriculum, it will be moreexciting, particularly for the younger people.Funding is not an obstacle for research at IITMadras. The main concern is how to draw morestudents into it. We need to take more initiativeslike the CFI to bring the undergraduates and theMasters degree students to the field of research. What would be your message to the students? My message is only one: Please understand thatyou are in the 21st century. The days of muggingfrom books and vomiting into answer sheets aregone. Today information is available at the click ofa mouse; nobody looks at a graduate from IIT forinformation. Its your understanding which givesyou an edge to innovate. The ways and methodsyou are learning, which will help you to innovatefurther,aregoingtobeveryimportant.So,learninghow to innovate is going to be much moreimportant than learning a subject. Everybody,including the undergraduates, postgraduates andresearch scholars should concentrate on how toinnovate, how to think about new concepts andhowtoputtheminplace.Whetherit isthroughCFI,projects or even informal associations, everyoneat IIT Madras should get some hands-on researchexperience.

students going abroad. I have taught a batchwherein67outofthe85studentswentabroadaftertheir education at IIT. I was really asking myselfthe question: who and what for am I teaching? Ithinktodaythescenariohaschanged,consideringonlyabout 15percentof thestudentsgoabroadandthe others take up jobs, which is good for thecountry. But a question remains: what kind ofjobs? Jobs in the finance and management sectorsdominate,andthistrendisreflectedinthedecreaseintheamountofresearchworkdone.This trendofthe best students not going for research isalarming.Ifthereisbraindrain,itsbad;butifthereis brain in the drain, its worse! In India, thepresent scenario is: where you need intelligentpeople, you dont have them, and where you havethem, you dont really need them!

Weareawareof thisandareplanningtotakestepsso that our students, through the Research Parkcompanies, can do some good work.


Interview

5

Walking on Water

By Nithyanand Rao

Arsenic poisoning causes several illnessesfromskindiseases to cancer. Sixmillionpeopleare chronically exposed to arsenic-contaminated water in one state alone: WestBengal.

Convinced that nanotechnology holds thekey, Prof. T. Pradeep andhis students acceptedthe challenge of developing a sustainable andaffordable solution for purification of thecontaminated water. The team of youngresearchers worked relentlessly for severalyears to develop a suitable nanocompositematerial that effectively filters out arsenic. It isalso an environment-friendly material thatsnot difficult to produce and is cost-effective.

Extensiveexperimentsconfirmedtheefficacyof the technology in converting arsenic-contaminated water to crystal clear drinkingwater. And recent field trials conducted inWestBengal showedextremelyencouraging results.Now, efforts are on to take this technology tothe affected people on a large scale.

THE RESEARCH TEAM ON WATER. FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: SEATED IN THE FRONT ROW - Amrita Chaudhary, Udhaya Sankar, Anshup, SwathiChaudhari; IN THE BACK ROW - Swati J R, Sahaja, Prof. Pradeep, Anil Kumar.

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Professor Thalappil Pradeep sat bolt upright inhis chair and leaned forward, eyes alight andimpassioned. He grabbed an imaginary scientist,shook him vigorously, and exclaimed, his voiceurgent: "An average Indian could come and ask:Have yousolvedanyof myproblems?Take one IITand ask, what problem did it solve?

He leaned back and said more softly, a sense ofquiet satisfaction on his face, It is one of themotivations for me, to do something."

Ofall theproblemsthatcanbesolvedusingbasicscience, he has picked one which is most urgent:water. The Government of India has, in fact,prioritized the addressal of the water qualityproblem, particularly that of arseniccontamination of drinking water. This is the caseinpartsofWestBengal,wherewaterisdrawnfromdeepborewells,chronicallyexposinganestimatedsixmillionpeopletoarsenictoxicity,whichcausesskin lesions, lung, bladder and skin cancer, andeven cognitive deficiencies in children.

Thenanoparticle-basedwaterfilterdevelopedinProf. Pradeeps lab requires no electricity to run, isadaptabletolocalconditionsthevariationsinthequalityofwaterandthenatureofitscontaminantscanbescaled-upfrommeetingtherequirementsof a household to that of an entire community,needs little or no maintenance, and isenvironment-friendly. And affordable. For Prof.Pradeep, that last point is the key: We definedaffordability as 5 paise per litre of clean waterdeliveredathome.Canyougivearsenic-freewaterat 5 paise per litre delivered at home on yourkitchen table? Thats what these materials can do.

The provenance of Prof. Pradeeps work on waterfilters goes back more than ten years. Whileworking on nanomaterials, he asked himselfwhat, if anything, these tiny particles could do tosolve the problems of everyday life. That was in2002.

He and his students then developed ananoparticle-based water filter to removepesticides, which as Prof. Pradeep points outproudly, became the first such technology in theworldtogetcommercialized.Thefilterconsistsofsilver nanoparticles impregnated on alumina,which upon reacting with the halocarbons inpesticides, breaks them down into metal halidesand amorphous carbon. This was licensed toEureka Forbes in 2004, which started producingwaterfiltersincorporatingthistechnologyin2007.Wearegettingaverytinyroyalty, totheinstitute,says Prof. Pradeep.

But that did not satisfy him. After all, there arecontaminants other than pesticides heavymetals like iron and arsenic, and harmfulmicroorganisms in groundwater.

That material is iron oxyhydroxide innanoparticle form. In a composite cage, Prof.Pradeep reminds me. We have a cage which ismade with iron oxyhydroxide, which is nowconnected with polymers biopolymers in thiscase,chitosan.Thiswholethingismadeinwateratroom temperature. And that material is one inwhich you can get arsenic ions to get in. But biggerparticles will not. So as a result of that inherentaffinity of this oxyhydroxide to arsenic, arsenic isscavenged. All this without the use of electricalpower.

For antimicrobial action, aluminiumoxyhydroxide nanoparticles are used instead ofthoseofironoxyhydroxideandtheresultingcageisembedded with silver nanoparticles. Aluminiumoxyhydroxidesheetsofabout20nanometresonenanometre is a billionth of a metre in length andabout 5 nanometres in thickness are formed insolution. That is the inherent nature of thismaterial, explains Prof. Pradeep.


He holds up a small plastic vial containing a darkpowderandcontinues,Itsohappenedthatwehadproduced several materials and one of them wasquite good when it comes to handling arsenic. Sothis is that material.

Chemistry 9

Now, if you take a stack of these, with polymersconnecting them so that there are cages of themgetting formed, what we have devised is thiscomposite.Thechitosanensuresstrongbindingofthe nanoparticle surface to the matrix. It alsoaddresses one of the key challenges, namely,preventing the nanomaterial surface from beingcovered by deposits.

Thewater-filteringunitwhichProf.Pradeepslabhas developed, was recently field tested in thedistricts of Murshidabad and Nadia in WestBengal. The groundwater in some parts of thedistrict contain up to 300 parts per billion (ppb) ofarsenic ions, which can be of two kinds: those thathave lost three, or five, of their outer electrons. TheWorld Health Organization guidelines, however,setasafe limitof 10ppbandthenational limit is50ppb.

We installed two of those units and there was avery enthusiastic district collector. Without usknowing about it, he was actually collectingsamples and monitoring. He told us some monthslater that Hey, this is great. Of course, we weregetting data, but he was excited that arsenic wasnot even detected. So he was quite happy about it,says Prof. Pradeep with a smile. The successfultrialsmeantthatithasnowbecomeaprojectofthestategovernment.Theyareputtingup2,000units,each unit for 300 people so it will cover 6 lakhpeople. That is under the installation process. Itwill take 18 months to finish.

Using inputs from these field trials, the designwas improved. And finally you got the AMRIT Arsenic and Metal Removal through IndianTechnology, says Prof. Pradeep proudly.

The water-filters can be customised to filter outalmost any contaminant lead, iron, or bacteriasuchasE.colijustbyhavinganotherfilteringunitcontaining suitable nanoparticles. The lab hasdeveloped a range of nanomaterials which canselectively remove each impurity. Bacteria, forinstance, can be destroyed using silvernanoparticles in the size range 1020 nm becausetheyreleasetracequantitiesofsilverionsinwater,whose concentration (4050 ppb) althoughsufficienttodestroymicroorganisms,isnottoxictohumans.

Similarly, manganese dioxide nanoparticles canfilter out lead. Thus, an all-inclusive drinkingwater purifier can be built that functions withoutelectricity. All this at Rs. 130 per year per family,assuming a daily water consumption of 10 litres.

The antimicrobial unit can filter up to 1,500 litresof water before needing re-activation of the silvernanoparticle surface, for which there are simplemethods available: one can heat the matrix, or usediluted lemonjuice.Thisre-activationcanbedoneuntil the requisite silver ions cannot be releasedfrom the matrix any further.

However, Prof. Pradeep cautions: There is nosolution which is a complete solution. Theproblem of water is so vast, so big, every solutionhasarole.Moreover,water itself issodiverse.Thatis, your well water is different from yourneighbourswellwater.There isa lotofdiversity inthis, the chemistry is different. So therefore, thereis a need for diverse products.

Prof. Pradeep acknowledges the support he hasreceived from funding agencies. His lab, theDepartment of Science and Technology (DST) Uniton Nanoscience, has been designated as aThematic Unit of Excellence on Water Purificationusing Nanotechnology under the Nano Mission ofthe DST. Visitors to the lab are greeted by a serenefigurehead of the Buddha. Inside, the routine is toremove ones footwear and use one of the labchappals kept on a separate, neatly name-labelled footwear stand. The walls give testimonyto the success and worldwide acclaim that Prof.Pradeeps lab has achieved. His friend and mentorduring his postdoctoral stint at Purdue University,Prof. Graham Cooks, writes of how Prof. Pradeephas established a school of molecular materialswhich is surely without an equal in any othersingle investigator lab.

When I was a student I didnt really know whatthe excitement of science was. Today, sciencepossesses me. You get engulfed into it, you becomeso passionate about it, says Prof. Pradeep. Thatpassion has been duly recognized on manyoccasions.


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Amongthephotoswhichadornthewallsarethoseof Prof. Pradeep receiving the B.M. Birla SciencePrizefromthethenPresidentofIndia,Dr.APJAbdulKalam, and of receiving the Shanti SwarupBhatnagarawardIndiashighestscienceawardfrom the Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh.Butrecognitionsapart,what ismore important isto do meaningful science, observes Prof. Pradeep.

The success comes from hard work by Prof.Pradeep and his students. Ive been fortunate tohave students who are so passionate about it. Thispassion is what drives. But nobody can fullyunderstand the effort involved in making astudent, he points out.

One of those students is Anshup. A 2005 B.TechChemical Engineering graduate from IIT Madras,he has a disarming smile and a firm handshakethat puts you at ease immediately. Behind all thecharm lies a strong will, and an ability andwillingness to work extremely hard at somethinghe is passionate about. A busy man Anshup is, andwe meet up on his way home from a long day atwork.

The last six years or so have been veryfascinating. The materials we have developed arenew, the properties which we have found are verynew, and the way these materials have beenappliedarealsonew,saysAnshup. Wespenta lotof time in developing these materials. We haveabout 20 Indian and international patents, hesays, counting them off, and beaming with thepride of a man who is reaping the fruits of his toil.And we are continuing to work on more, he addsmatter-of-factly.

Anshup is one of the co-founders along withUdhaya Sankar, who holds a Masters degree inNanoscience from Madras University, and AmritaChaudhary, a B.Tech in Chemical Engineeringfrom IIT Madras, the three big movers, as Prof.Pradeep describes them of InnoNano Research, acompany incubated at IIT Madras and establishedtomanufacture thenanomaterialsspecifically forcommunity projects such as the one in WestBengal.Prof.SatishKailasof the IndianInstituteofScience, Bangalore, has been providing advisorysupport for this venture.

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The final prototype of the AMRIT water-filtering unit.

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The state government of West Bengal hascommitted to setting up 2,000 of the arsenic-filteringunits.Weredoingitineightphases.Now,phase one is complete and were going to phasetwo. We have prepared ourselves to manufactureclose to 40 kilograms of the nanomaterialeveryday, saysAnshupexcitedly.Theyhavesetupa plant for this purpose at Ambattur, just outsideChennai city. "This plant is spread over an area ofclose to 10,000 square feet. It is pretty huge, saysAnshup. The plant is functional. Once its fullyready, we can manufacture as much as 200kilograms per day of these nanoparticles.

The team has bigger plans still. They are in theprocess of creating another company, which will

Prof. Pradeep gives me a quick tour of his lab andthestate-of-the-artinstruments,someofwhichhehas built himself, and then the new DST-fundedpremises under construction, whose second floorwill be the Thematic Unit of Excellence on Water.

Back inside the lab, the forty or so students goabout their work, a beehive of activity. Outside thelab, the Buddha smiles contentedly, knowing,perhaps, that the land of his birth is finallyawakening from its deep slumber.

Further, they are perfecting the filtering unit forfluoride-contaminated water, which affects partsof Tamil Nadu. If all these different units are usedtogether, it would, as Anshup points out, be astandalone, completely Indian product.

He enthusiastically explains the floor plan, noless than 10,000 square feet, with new labs meantfor both basic science, and industry-oriented,research. And a conference room. He theneffortlessly climbs rusty ladders at theconstruction site, which look suspiciouslyunsteady, taking us to the terrace.


And then his voice trails off. It has taken nearlysix years to get to this stage, Anshup reminds meagain. Weve gone through all the pains that onecanimagine.Butitgivesyouimmensesatisfactionto be a part of this long journey through which wecan serve the people of our country.

His fellow travellers on this journey, UdhayaSankar and Amrita, have been with InnoNano asco-founders from the beginning. Talking aboutUdhaya Sankar, Anshup says, Whenever wewanted to create new things, it was his eyes whichvisualizedthemandhiscraftwhichshapedthem.Udhaya Sankar is passionate about what he does.I have learnt that it is the best way to conquer myfear of failure, he says. About Amrita, Anshup says, Without herunwavering perseverance and commitment towork, InnoNano couldnt have come this far. Inthose trying moments, it was her yearning to see aproduct which kept the work moving. Amritafinds every day an exciting one, as she learnssomethingnewwhichisnotwrittenanywhere. Itgives me immense pleasure when I see ourproducts work in the field, and not just on paper orin the lab, says Amrita.

develop the same technology for the householdconsumer market as well as for sale to othercountries. This is in partnership with a venturecapital firm which has constantly supported thewater research programme for the past two years.

Theyalsoplantoperfecttheirantimicrobialunit,which, as they verified through laboratory tests,kills the microbes responsible for a range ofillnessessuchashepatitis,encephalitis,diarrhoeaand gastroenteritis. All were cleaned, saysAnshup with obvious delight. All you need is thiscartridge. Before you drink the water, just pour itthroughthatcartridge,andleaveit foranhour. Itllbe free of all microbes.

Kapil Sibals pet project and projected as theUPAs technological reach-out to college students,the Aakash tablet was much anticipated when itwas first launched in 2011. It was initiallyconceptualised as the first Made in India tablet-computer, and an answer to the One Laptop PerChild initiative, but unlike the latter, it is aimed atcollegestudentsinthecities.Butwhatgoteveryonetalking about it was its USP costing a jaw-dropping $35 in a market dominated by tabletspriced at well above $400. It was also to be ashowcase of Indias capability in terms oftechnological know-how, with IIT Bombay and IITMadras actively involved in the development.

Developed by Datawind and sold as Ubislate 7 inthe market, the first version received a lukewarmreception from critics, with most of them beingunhappywiththetabletsperformance.Aresistivedisplay (the type that requires pointed pressure toget working), coupled with an ARM processorrunning at 366 MHz, the tablet did not make a bigdent in the Android market. Aakash 2 on the otherhand,marketedasUbislate7Ci,surprisedeveryonewith a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 processor and acapacitive display, and provided an icing on thecake with the then-latest version of Android OS the 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich.

AlthoughAakash2wasbetterreceivedbythetechworld, there were still some who were critical intheir reviews. Possibly arising out of a differentexpectation than what it was supposed to meet,these reviews seemed slightly too hard-hitting. Sowe decided to get our hands on one and see forourselves what the Aakash 2 tablet has to offer.

The back, though, is unmistakable, with threelogos printed on it: (developed by) Datawind,Aakash and (powered by) Ubisurfer. It feels sturdyandfirm,providinganexcellentbuild qualityatitsprice.

The screen, at an 800 x 480 display resolution, isnot top-notch, but it does the job fairly well.Reading PDF files and e-books indoors is a charm,although the screen gets unpleasant in the sun,which is not too great a concern. There have beencomplaints galore about games not looking toogood on this screen, but it is important toremember it was built for educational, and notentertainment, purposes.

At first glance, the tablet looks like any other7-inch Android tablet if not for the Ubislate nameprinted along the top of the frontside, it couldactually be mistaken for a Nexus 7.

What surprises us most is how infrequently thedevice lags or hangs. Performance issues areexpected at such a low price point, but the tabletbelies expectations. It works smoothly undermoderate application, browsing and readingrequirements, and gets sluggish only whenrunning processor-intensive applications. Thesoftware is an optimised version of Android 4.0,and works very well for the tablet.

Almostallotherkeyspecsareonaparwithothertablets being sold at more than double Ubislate7Cis Rs. 4000 price-tag. The camera disappoints,butagain,thatdoesntmatterforAakash.ThereisaUSB slot and a micro SD slot as well. The speakershold up their own when used for personallistening.

Intheend,thebottom-lineisthisAakashiswellworththemoneyevenatitsmarketprice.Ifyouarea student and have the opportunity to snatch it upat the subsidised price of Rs. 1500, there isabsolutelynoreasonwhyyoushouldnt.Thetabletisundoubtedlyasuccessinwhatitwasdesignedtobe an ultra-affordable educational tablet.

Aakash and BeyondAakash tabletBy Aroon Narayanan and Ranjani Srinivasan

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On a quiet Saturday afternoon, Prof. AshokJhunjhunwala takes time off to talk to us about thelow-cost Aakash 3 tablet project he is at the helm of.Prof. Jhunjhunwala, of the Electrical Engineeringdepartment at IIT-M, is well known for hisextraordinary work both as a professor and anentrepreneur. He leads the Telecommunicationsand Networks Group (TeNeT) at IIT-M, which hasbeen working for years to bridge the gap betweenrural and urban India and has incubated severalproductsthatseektopropelthedevelopmentofruralareas. The Aakash project aims to revolutionize therole of technology in education in India.

Thenewversionof theAakashtablet isspecifiedasa 7-inch, extremely low-cost device priced at aboutRs. 2500. We intend to, in the initial stages, make itavailable to every college student in the country sothat handling technology does not remain only adream. We shall provide a lot of accompanyingfeatures, but the major goal of the project is toemphasise its ability to improve educationalstandards.

It is not a stand-alone device in the sense that itrequiresbroadbandWi-Fi.So,wearealsoworkingon accessibility and network coverage inlocations like schools, colleges and hostels. It isalso essential to provide multiple public accesspoints likesay,aplayground,sothatonanyday,astudent has internet access within his or herreach.

Can you tell us more about the project?

But we realize that providing these in itself willnot remarkably impact education. We need togradually make the process of driving educationhome appealing instilling a sense of comfort tothe user, what you would term user-friendliness.

It is a fact that a lot of these resources (academiccontent) are already available but our aim is todevelop content that is different in that it makesthe user comfortable. We would like to introducethe concept of an interactive e-book. That is,insteadofusersconformingtotherigidstructureofthe material, we intend to provide plenty of choiceso that they choose their mode of learning. Forexample, instead of having lectures that last anhour or so, we would like to plug in shorter-duration video lectures (15 minutes or so)pertaining to a section right next to it.

Aakash tablet 13


It is a fact that a lot of these re

Aakash tablet

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IPT (instructional and performance technology)has been conceptualized to serve as an aid in casesof incompetent or inadequate faculty. In manycases, it also helps the teachers improve.I believe in 510 years we should be able to matchthe levels of quantity, and also equity in quality;and that is what I want.

What kind of services does our institute provide forthe project? Conceptualization is by far the most important ofour services. Coming up with the design, that is,defining the architecture and functionality, andthen determining the specifications, is our majorarea of work. For example, energy efficiency in thetablet is a key feature we are working towards.Apart from that, of course, we are working oncontentgenerationandthereisalotofeffortinthisdirection.

What has been your biggest challenge during thecourse of the project? Since we are trying to create a unique device, toomany people are interested in it and there is toomuch talk about it. The intention to build andlaunch such a product has been interpreted as aguaranteetobeabletodeliverit.Asaresult, thereistoo much denunciation even when there areminor flaws. I feel the efforts being put in arecloudedbythehypecreatedandhandlingthiskindof unnecessary curiosity has been a majorchallenge. Also, one must acknowledge thathavingalltheelements,andputtingthemtogetherasawhole,aredifferentthingsandthelatterisalotmore difficult in implementation. That was on a rather general note. What else do youthink was a technical challenge pertaining to thisdevice? Well, I think it would be the task of balancingperformance with cost. It is relatively much easierto develop a device if we are willing for a trade-offon one of the two, but placing both of them at thesame level of priority makes the problem non-trivial.

Accompanying it would be animation videos orapplications and related facts or even apowerpoint presentation to help in quick review.These visual and audio aids would majorly impactunderstanding and are more inviting than a rigidone-dimensional approach. Tools for evaluationare also included in the form of quizzes. We aretrying to incorporate descriptive questions too,wherein submitted answers go through peerreview. Additional accessories like a dictionaryand a language-translator are also beingconsidered. I would say, the bottomline is that wearelookingtoprovidepedagogytostudentswhodonot have access to it.

Coming to the monetary part of it, the costs areshared. Content cost is largely one-time and canevenbeoverlookedwhenseenfromtheperspectiveof one student. Connectivity cost is also shared bythe community and is not a major factor. Whatmattersmostisthedevicecostandweareworkingto reduce this as much as possible.

On a personal note, what does it mean to you to behelming this project?

When I joined IIT Madras, there were about 25,000engineeringadmitsinthewholeofourcountry,peryear. A large portion of them, in fact, most of them,fell in the middle-class or upper-middle classcategory and also were largely from urban areas.Those in the lower-economic strata or in ruralareas were deprived of these opportunities. Butnow, the scenario is quite different with hugenumbersofengineering(orevencollege)graduatesevery year. So, I think we have almost achieved ourgoalpertainingtoquantity.Then,equity isanotherarea in which we have taken huge strides forward.You will agree that it is not uncommon to see onesmaidsendingherwardtoanengineeringinstitute.The fact that more and more people are gettingopportunities is certainly laudable. But we alsohavetorecognizethatanareawherewehavefailedmajorly is quality. You see, the graphs of quantityand equity peaked so quickly that there wasntenough time to revolutionize teaching and equipteachers better.


Biotechnology

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As the burgeoning middle class in Indiaadopts an increasingly Westernizedlifestyle, with its attendant consumption offood of questionable nutritional value,lifestyle diseases pose an ever-increasingthreat to health. Diabetes is perhaps themost recognisable of these diseases. One ofthe most common complications of type-2diabetes is the thickening of the walls of thearteries due to fat deposition, a conditionknown as atherosclerosis. At the VascularBiology lab on the fourth floor in the Bhupatand Jyoti Mehta School of Biosciences, workis underway to determine the mechanismslinking diabetes and atherosclerosis, and toidentify potential cures. The lab is headed byDr. Madhulika Dixit, who entered the fieldwhen she started working on her PhD inmolecular biology from IIT Bombay. She iscurrently an Assistant Professor at IITMadras, and was recently given the YoungFaculty Recognition Award this year onTeachers Day.

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Abhiram is one of the research scholars inthe lab. Having taught the microscopyportion of the Cell Biology course to third-year undergraduates in the department andhaving worked as a TA in their labs, he isprobably the best-known research scholaramong the undergraduates. He begins byexplaining to me the structure of an artery.Therearethreetypesofcellswhichmakeupblood vessels: endothelial cells, smoothmuscle cells, and endothelial progenitorcells, he says.

Asinglelayerofendothelialcells,whichbelongtothesametissuetypethatformstheinnerliningsofthevariousorgansandalsoourskin,makesuptheinnermost layer of an artery. This layer issurrounded by smooth muscle cells, which help inregulatingbloodflowbycontractingordilatingthearterywhenrequired.Endothelialprogenitorcells,as the name implies, give rise to new endothelialcells when the blood vessel has to grow.

Atherosclerosis begins when the endothelialcells start synthesising proteins called CellularAdhesion Molecules (CAMs) in larger-than-usualamounts. CAMs provide binding spots for whiteblood cells, which then migrate through thearterialwalls intothesmoothmuscle layer,wheretheysecretegrowthfactorswhichaffectthemusclecells.

Autopsy specimen of aorta opened lengthwise to reveal luminalsurface studded with lesions of atherosclerosis.

By Aravindabharathi R


The muscle cells then change into a syntheticform, named so due to their propensity forsynthesising compounds like collagen whichreduce the elasticity, and subsequently theintegrity, of the endothelial cell layer. They alsobegin producing new cells, a phenomenon termedas proliferation, which culminates in theformation of an atherosclerotic plaque, or a fatdeposit in the artery.

Work on atherosclerosis in the lab is primarilyfocused on two areas determining the pathwaysby which smooth muscles and progenitor cells areactivatedtocauseatherosclerosis indiabetics,andidentifying compounds which can potentiallyinhibit these pathways.

One of the enzymes the team investigated was aprotein called SHP2, which is a part of the insulin-response pathway. It belongs to a class of enzymesknown as phosphatases. Organisms can turntheir proteins on or off by adding phosphategroups to, or removing phosphate groups from,certain amino acids on the protein. Enzymeswhich phosphorylate other proteins are termedkinases, while those which de-phosphorylate arenamed phosphatases. In general, kinases andphosphatases tend to have very specific proteintargets.

Biotechnology

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The illustration shows a normal artery with normal blood flow (figure A) and an artery containingplaque buildup (figure B).

In endothelial cells, a protein called eNOSsynthesises nitric oxide which, apart from beingan important signalling molecule, also inhibitsthe adhesion of white blood cells onto the arterialwalls.


SHP2 regulates eNOS activity and thus plays adirectrole incontrollingtheamountofnitricoxidethat is produced. To mimic the conditions of highinsulincontentinthebloodofdiabetics,Hemant,aresearch scholar at the lab, grew humanendothelial cells (obtained from umbilical cordsand called HUVECs) in an insulin-rich medium fortwo days. He then performed a test known as anadhesion assay to measure the number of whiteblood cells which adhere to the HUVECs. In anadhesion assay, HUVECs are first grown on amembrane and then treated with insulin. Whiteblood cells labelled with fluorescent dyes are thenadded to the membrane. Due to the presence of theCAMs, the white blood cells bind to the HUVECs.After washing off the unbound white blood cells,the bound ones can be counted under amicroscope. Hemant found that cells which werechronically exposed to high levels of insulinexpressed roughly two-and-a-half times as manyCAM molecules as cells grown in normalconditions.

Biotechnology

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Using a technique called Western Blot, the teamthen measured the amount of SHP2 produced ininsulin-exposed cells, and compared them withnormal cells to find that cells exposed to insulinbeginproducinglargeramountsofSHP2onchronicexposure to insulin. This, in turn, reduces theamount of nitric oxide produced, diminishing theendothelial cells natural protection againstatherosclerosis. TheVascularBiologygroupatIIT-MisoneofthreeIndian research centres which are a part of theIndoEuropean Funcfood (short for functionalfoods) project, which aims to identify compoundswith potential medicinal value in treating age-related illnesses, from plants which have beenused in traditional herbal medicine.

The lab's work as part of the Funcfood project hasbeen quite fruitful, with the identification of twocompounds which inhibit the proliferation ofsmoothmuscles,whichresultsintheformationofatherosclerotic plaques. The first is a compoundcalled isovitexin, extracted from the roots of theGentiana lutea plant, also called the bitterwort.Duetotheirbittertaste,theextractsoftheroothavebeen historically used in Serbian and Peruvianmedicine to make tonics to treat indigestion andgastric infections.

Previous research on these roots had suggestedthat they have beneficial cardiovascular effects,which was why it was selected as a candidate.

To determine whether the root extracts affectedthe proliferation of muscle cells, Rushendhiran, aresearch scholar in the lab, cultured smoothmuscle cells in a medium rich in the compoundPGDF-BB (short for Platelet-Derived Growth FactorBB, one of the growth factors secreted by whiteblood cells), and found that a large proportion ofthemhadchangedfromtheirnormal(quiescent)phase to thesynthetic phase. Cells whichhadbeentreated with the root extracts, however, did notenter the synthetic phase, showing that theextracts contained compounds which couldinhibit the onset of atherosclerosis. He also foundthat the production of nitric oxide, a compoundinvolved in many intra-cellular signallingpathways, was reduced in cells treated with theextract, hinting at the biochemistry behind theprocess.

The other compound the lab has identified isellagicacid,achemicalfoundinlargequantitiesinraspberries. Using a technique very similar to thatused by Rushendhiran, Uma Rani, anotherresearcher in the lab, determined that ellagic acidinhibits the effects of PGDF-BB on smooth musclecells. Taking it one step further, the team studiedtheeffectsofellagicacidonatheroscleroticrats.Todo this, they first injected rats with the compoundstreptozotocin, which kills off the beta-cells of thepancreas which are responsible for producinginsulin, making the rats diabetic. Among theseanimals, the team found that those which hadbeenfedellagicacidregularlyhadthinnerlayersoffat deposited on their arteries, compared to theiruntreated counterparts. Analyses of their smoothmuscle cells also showed that ellagic acid reducedthe expression of compounds called cylins, whichcause muscle cell proliferation, and are expressedin large amounts in the cells of diabetics. As bothellagic acid and isovitexin are found in naturalsources, they can be easily adapted to therapeuticuses by advising diabetics to include more fruitssuch as raspberries in their diet, giving us apleasant way of managing a disease whichotherwisewouldhavebeentheblightonaperson'sgolden years.


Bloodline app

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A few months ago, a group of students andrecentgraduatesofIITMadrasreleasedanAndroidapplication and a website called Bloodline thataims to harness the power of technology andmobile networks to save lives, by creating anetwork of blood donors that could help people inneed.

SiddharthSwaminathan,nowanalumnusfromthe mechanical engineering department of theinstitute,istheco-creatorandwebsitedeveloperofBloodline. When asked about the inspirationbehind Bloodline, Siddharth says, We were facedwith the desperate need to find blood donors at thecritical hour. Many of us had faced it at differentpoints of time. One of our team members, Sheeba,had to find blood for a relative for an operation.Ashwin, another of my team members, had to gothrough the same process for his grandmotherscancer treatment. We got together and wondered,why is it that in this world of fast internet andsocial connectivity, we cant reach out to people? Ifwe can share photos and videos that can be viewedbythousandsofpeople inafewminutes,whycantwe do the same for a critical need?

But many websites give you a huge list of peoplewho have donated blood. Siddharth says, This isoften outdated; the problem with that sort ofexhaustive list is that you need to manuallycontact each and every one of the people on it. Youdont want to be doing that when your loved one isin an emergency room or in the operation theatre.

Siddharth explains how Bloodline solves theseproblems: Bloodline is not just a website or amobile application, but a network of people likeyou and me, who are ready to donate blood in thehour of need. Instead of getting a list, you directlyget people who are ready to donate. Bloodline doesthe work of contacting people for you, and only iftheyrereadytohelpdoyougettheircontactdetails.We solved two problems in one go privacy andeffective communication.

Putting the idea into practice definitely wasnt

a smooth ride. The team ran into many issueswhile developing Bloodline and it took themaroundsevenmonths to launchit. Siddharthtalksabout some of these: The first issue wasmanpower. It took a while and a lot of lookingaround to find developers. I built the site mostly bymyself. For the app, luckily, we got in touch withJunaid.HedidtheentireAndroidapp.WedeployedthesiteonaLinuxserverintheUSAoverthePython-based web-framework Django. We had our designteam, headed by Priyanka, churn out some cooldesigns.

Siddharth tells us that a critical issue was to gettheappandthewebsitetocommunicatewitheachother. This involvedsignificantabstractionintheway the code was handled, including modeldesign, embedding REST frameworks I startedbuilding the site around February 2013, and wasclose to done by May. The app was developedsimultaneously,andthenwehadtospendacoupleof months of all-nighters at Department ofManagement Studies (we werent supposed to bethere, but blasted LAN cuts!) integrating the two.

What other caveats came up? Then, we ran intoquestions of user-interface and workflow. As auser, what would you expect out of the site? Whatdo you want to see when you first get to the page?Should we let you place requests without signingup? Well, we still havent answered a lot of them,but well keep growing and adapting as we do so.

The teams vision for Bloodline is for it to becomethe single-point solution for blood requirementacross the country. The idea is to establish it as atrustworthy network that you go to and get helpfromimmediatelybyreachingout to thousandsofwilling people, says Siddharth.

Vials on DialBy Isha Bhallamudi

Other team members include Vasant Sridhar,who manages the business development side ofthe enterprise; Ashwin Krishnamoorthy, whohandles the marketing and everyday operations;Sheeba Rajagopalan, who takes care of thefinancial side and legal expenses, as well as ArunVinayak, who also manages businessdevelopment and marketing.


Bloodline app

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Siddharth tells us that they are concentratingtheir efforts on Chennai for the time being.However, the idea itself is not centric to anylocation. We will soon be establishing ties in othercities like Bangalore and Mumbai. According tohim, the best thing about this solution is its lateralscalability users can sign up from any part of thenation, yet only the donors in that region will betargeted.

SiddharthisveryhappywiththekindofresponseBloodline has received in such a short amount oftime. Weve had more than 870 users signing up,600appdownloads,andover700likesonFacebookso far. Weve also been receiving positive feedbackfrom various sources the Google Play Store, forexample. We were cited on Wired UK within justtwo days of launch. YourStory, a catalog ofIndian startups, ran an article on us.NextBigWhat featured us on their feed. TheTimes of India recently published an article on us.Well, you get the drift.

AsIseeit, I thinkwereconstantlyontheupwardincline when it comes to publicity and response.Whathitusistheamazingnumberofsign-ups.Bysigningup,youdontjustgettoplacerequestsatthehour of need. Its much more. As Siddharthenumerates,Youalsogettodonate,helpsomeone,save a life. Its such a response that reminds us ofthe humanity in every one of us.

Bloodline is completely free. It always will be,saysSiddharth,Wedonotliketheideaofchargingyou in your time of critical need. What we want toensureisthatyoudonotfacethecostofalife.Weveinvested a lot in this, and, as of now, are primarilylooking for support in terms of donations.

The team would appreciate contributions fromanyone.Theydalso like toreachout toalumniandother patrons of the IIT Madras community for thesame.

Their focus is on getting regular blood donors tostart using the network. Were working reallyhard to get blood banks and other hospitals onboard. Often, blood requests are placed viahospitalsandnotbyindividuals.Thehospitalscanalso place requests on Bloodline, conduct blooddonation drives, just about anything. Our strengthis our infrastructure and the power ofcommunication over the Internet.


Humanities andSocial Sciences

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In an institute renowned for technological andscientific prowess, the Humanities and SocialSciences (HSS) department stands out in havingestablished an integrated course offering a liberalarts education within a patently tech-orientedcampus. Over the years, it has been eyed with bothcynicism and curiosity by non-Humanitiesstudents. However, interest in Humanities workhas been increasing in recent years, and activitiesthat had previously been relegated to the artspeople, such as theatre, are now seeing a lot moreparticipation from the institute as a whole.

Founded in 1959, the HSS department at IITMadrasisasoldastheinstituteitself.Backthen,itsscope was limited to the research work carried outbytheprofessorsandtheelectivesofferedtoB.Techstudents. However, it has expanded in a variety ofways between then and now, going on to offer oneof the most versatile liberal arts degrees in thecountry and establishing multiple centres ofresearch that promote interdisciplinarydevelopmental work, these being theIndoGermanCentreforSustainability, theCentrefor Comparative EU Studies and the China StudiesCentre.

The integrated M.A. program was founded in2006, and at the time of its inception, offeredmajors in English, Developmental Studies andEconomics. The aim was to offer an extensiveliberal arts education within a technology- andresearch-based environment in order to developmultidisciplinaryperspectives.Assuch,thecourseprogram was a first in the country. However, thecurriculum was revised in 2011 and the choice ofmajors was restricted to English andDevelopmental Studies, while making the lattermore economics-intensive. Graduates of thiscourse found themselves in a variety of places from working in NGOs and the civil service, topenningtheirowncareersinliteratureorpoetry,topursuinghigherstudiesandsettlingintoresearch-oriented careers and taking up teaching.

In order to facilitate interdisciplinary researchonsustainability,particularlywithrespect to localdevelopmentalissues,theIndoGermanCentreforSustainability (IGCS) was established in 2010 incollaboration with RWTH Aachen University.

The funding for the research was provided by theIndian and the German governments, the formerthrough IIT Madras and the latter through DAAD,under their A New Passage to India initiative.DAAD is an organization perhaps best recognizedby campus students for facilitating annualsummer internships in Germany.

Although the IGCS was actually set up in 2010, thefoundation was established in 2008 when theGerman Federal Minister visited the institute tosign an MoU commemorating the 50thanniversary of a strong IndoGerman bilateralrelationship. Essentially, the Centre seeks toinitiate cooperative work, both theoretical andapplied, between Indian and German researchers,to provide courses in areas pertaining tosustainable development and to raise the level ofawareness about sustainable approaches todevelopmental issues.

Whileourdirector,Prof.BhaskarRamamurthi, isthe Indian co-Chair, Prof. Chella Rajan, HoD for theHSS department, is the Indian Centre Coordinator.Their German counterparts are both from RWTHAachen University. In addition, there are four AreaCoordinators from each country managing thefour broad research areas.

This research work is most certainly notrestricted to the HSS department. In fact, theresearch threads are divided into four areas water resources, waste management, land useandruraldevelopment,andenergy; thefocus isonanalysing and developing solutions to localdevelopmental issues. The work isinterdisciplinary,andassuch, involvesover thirtyprofessors from several departments across theinstitute, as well as research students. Each of thefour research tracks has an Indian faculty and aGerman counterpart directing the projects beingcarried out within it.

The primary objective of the IGCS, is, of course, topromote sustainable development. This is carriedout through research, teaching, fellowships,summer and winter schools, conferences andexchange opportunities. Pragmatic research workis of course a primary constituent of all theseendeavours.

IGCS: A Peek into HSS ResearchBy Isha Bhallamudi


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Within the institute itself, courses with a heavyemphasis on sustainable development are offeredbothascorecourses toHSSstudents,aswellas freeelectives for B. Tech students, such as the coursetitled Environment and Society. This is a core HSScourse that involves intensive reading andanalysiscentredoncontemporaryenvironmentalissues.

Let us look at the exchange opportunitiesprovidedtofaculty.Bothlong-termandshort-termvisiting professorships are open to faculty fromcertain German universities. Meanwhile,fellowships funded by DAAD are provided to aselectednumberofIndianandGermangraduateaswell as postgraduate students. Interestingly, thefellowships can also be availed by non-IIT Madrasstudents who wish to work on sustainabledevelopment initiatives either here or in Germanuniversities.

The annual summer and winter schoolsorganized by the IGCS, held alternately at Chennaiand Berlin, offer a chance for German and Indianstudents to work together on local developmentalissues, facilitating intercultural as well asinterdisciplinary research. The participation islimited to ten Indian and German students each,either graduate or postgraduate, who are selectedvery carefully by an expert panel on the basis oftheir research potential. The schools train thescholars on different kinds of environmentalissues and involve projects carried out in localareas based on sustainable solutions to theseissues, which fall under the ambit of waterresources, land and rural development, wastemanagement, or energy.

During the course of these schools, over a timeperiod of around two weeks, research students areexposed to seminars and lectures, and taken onfield trips to collect data. They are then expected toprepare project reports and present their findings.For instance, one of the projects carried out in thewinter school involved calculating the carbonfootprint of the IIT Madras campus and suggestingwaystoreduceit,althoughtheyconcludedthatthisfootprint was much lower than the nationalaverage, probably due to the emphasis given tosustainable living by campus residents.

The faculty at IIT Madras, across departments,including visiting faculty, are actively involvedwithresearchwithintheIGCS.Partofthisresearchis funded by the Department of Science andTechnology (DST) under the Government of India.One of the research requirements is thattechnical, scientific and engineering expertiseshouldbeinextricablylinkedwithexpertisewithinthe fields of the humanities and social sciences.Principal research areas which have beendesignated include organic farming, plantationeconomyandruralelectrification.Further,specificresearch topics are suggested within the ambits ofwater, land, energy, and waste management,these being crucial areas of research wheredevelopment and new methodologies would be ofdirect benefit to many local communities, not justin Chennai, but across the country as well.

Under the program Strategic KnowledgeMission on Climate Change, the DST has funded aseriesofprojectsaimedtoencouragecollaborativeresearch. All these projects fit within what aretermed as the eight key sustainability challenges,some of which are ensuring air quality, improvingpublic sanitation and sustaining urban waterbodies. The Adyar River Project, falling under thelast category, is one of the more significantresearch projects that have been undertaken inthis regard. It seeks to analyse the environmentaland social issues affecting the river, such as heavyindustrial pollution, silt and lack of adequatesanitation facilities in the communitiessurrounding the river. By proposing sustainablesolutionsandpolicyreforms,itaimstohavealong-termimpactontheecologicalandsocialaspectsofthe region.

Since its inception, the IGCS has been active infostering research centred on sustainablesolutions to developmental issues, especially byencouraging local projects. However, the visibilityof this work within the campus itself is quite low,even among the HSS students. One contributingfactor might be that the level of undergraduateinvolvementinIGCSinitiativesismostlylimitedtothe courses taken by students within the institute.It would perhaps be fruitful for undergraduatestudentsfromboththeHSSandotherdepartmentsto be actively involved with the local projects,where possible.



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While conferences organized by the IGCS, such asthe National Climate Change Conference, heldquite recently, in October, invite studentvolunteers, theoutreachisquite restrictedandnottoo many students get to hear of theseopportunities, which is a pity because theseconferences, seminars and workshops, not tomention the projects, have a lot to offer.

Among the several conferences organized in theinstitute this past semester was the 4th NationalClimate Change Conference, on October 26th and27th. It was held under the banner of the IndianClimate Research Network (IRCN), whichcomprises four institutes the Indo-GermanCentre for Sustainability (IGCS), the IndianInstitute of Science, IIT Delhi and the Centre forScience and Environment (CSE) Delhi.

The objective was to develop the capacity andinfluence of climate change research in India,which is not as focused and intensive as climatechangeresearchabroad.Thiswasachievedmainlyby bringing together a network of diligentresearchers and conducting presentations,seminarsandpaneldiscussions.Thefocusof theirwork was to be on the science and impact ofclimate change, climate change mitigation,adaptation, disaster risk reduction and renewableenergy. There was an emphasis on independentresearch and among the participants werestudents, faculty and civil organizations.

All the events held during the conference were inspirit with the basic aim of creating an arenawhere Indian researchers on climate could cometogether and deepen their sense of community.

The aim was to foster an integrated network ofpeople across the country working on immediateclimate change issues relevant to India,particularly in the matters of adaptation,mitigation and risk reduction, while emphasizingthe importance of alternate energy resources.Because the dangers of climate change are veryreal, such research is of the highest relevance.

and the China Studies Centre. The former is one offour such centres set up in India through researchgrantsprovidedbytheEU. ResearchdomainsintheCCEUS are delineated into Globalization andInternational Relations, and Democracy andDevelopmental Studies, with a set of researchtracks specified within these.

The idea is, evidently, to look at politicaldevelopment in democracies and its influence onglobal power structures with respect to South Asiaand the EU. Since its inception, multipleconferences, seminars and workshops have beenorganized to promote such research work.

However, it must be said that of the three, theChina Studies Centre is certainly the most well-recognized by students in the institute, the othertwo centres having low visibility amongundergraduate students in the campus. It wasestablishedin2011toaddresstheincreasingneedtostudy the role of China in contemporary globalpolitics. How does it accomplish this? For one, itseeks to familiarize students to the language andoffer them a chance to learn more about the globalpolitical scenario in this context, by offeringintroductory courses as electives. There is anemphasis on bilateral research and exchangeopportunities,withvisitingfacultypositionsbeingofferedtoChinesescholars,anddoctoralandpost-doctoral fellowships being open to students forwork in this research field.

Prof. Sudhir Chella Rajan at the National Climate ChangeConference


There are two other centres within the HSSdepartment the Centre for Comparative EUStudies (CCEUS), in partnership with SussexUniversity, England and established in 2010,

ElectricalEngineering

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Nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS), asthe name implies, are electrical and mechanicaldevices whose sizes are of the order of onenanometre (a billionth of a metre). They are thesuccessorsofthemicro-scaledevicescalledMEMS,which various groups at IIT-M have worked on.NEMS find applications in the detection ofadulterants in food, of bacterial antigens and thusthe bacteria themselves, of hazardous gases, andin communication using frequencies in thegigahertz-range. One of the most promisingapplicationstocomeoutofIIT-Misadivingboardsensor for detecting bacteria.

Before a diver jumps off a diving board, he or sheusually makes a few small jumps, causing thespringboard to move up and down. As soon as thediver jumps off it, it begins vibrating at a muchhigher frequency. To an engineer, a diving board isa type of structure called a cantilever. Cantileversarebeamsthatareattachedtoasupportonlyatoneend.Theyhavebeenaroundforalongtime,andarequite ubiquitous today. They are very common inconstruction, and can be seen in towers, bridges,androofs.Thewingsofanaircraft,beinganchoredto the body of the plane at just one end, are alsocantilevers.

When shrunk to the nano-scale, cantilevers canperform functions which are, initially, quitebaffling. For over a decade now, nano-scale siliconcantilevers have been used as sensors. Thesesensorsaresosmall, thattenofthemstackedside-by-side would appear about as big as a grain ofdust.

To understand how cantilevers can be used assensors, we must go back to the example of thediving board. A diving board, or any cantilever forthat matter, vibrates with a particular frequencycalled its resonant frequency. This depends on themassonthecantilever.Whenthediver isstandingon the board, there is a constant downward forceonthecantilever (thediversweight) damping itsvibrations. When the diver jumps off it, thedamping force is removed, and the cantileverbegins vibrating at a higher frequency.

To exploit this property of cantilevers for use insensors, the following apparatus is used: A lasersource is set up over the cantilever and the lightreflected by the free end of the cantilever is sensedby a detector. A piezoelectric vibrator, similar toquartz crystals used in wristwatches, sits on theother end of the cantilever. The cantilever isvibrated at different frequencies and the reflectedbeam gives the highest intensity when thecantilever vibrates at its resonant frequency. By a process called functionalization, severallayersofchemicalsaredepositedonthecantilevertomakeitsensitivetoaspecificchemical,antigen,compound, or even a whole virus. Now, only thatspecific particle can bind to it. The resonantfrequencyofacantilever is first foundwithoutanyweight on it. Then, the cantilever array a singlecantilever is never used is placed in a buffersolution with the sample (blood serum or urine)dissolvedinit.Iftheparticletowhichthecantileveris functionalized ispresent inthesolution, itbindsto the cantilever. Measuring the difference infrequencies of the mass-free versus the mass-loaded vibrations allows researchers to tellwhether the specific particle is present in thesolution or not.

This method helps in detecting the presence of abacteria or a virus in a sample in much lesser timethan conventional methods.

A polysilicon cantilever.

Nano Sensors for BacteriaBy Sachin Nayak and Aroon Narayanan


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The MEMS Centre of IIT Madras has beensuccessful in obtaining urine profiles using thismethod. Now, their focus of research in the area ofbiomolecular detection is to detect antigenspresent in the blood serum or urine samples todetect disease-causing agents.

Todetectbacteria,thecantileversarecoatedwithantibodies which target specific proteins on thesurfaces of the bacterial cells, called antigens.Since each bacterium produces many antigens,this method is more sensitive than looking for thebacteriathemselves,andcanshowthepresenceofamounts of antigens or chemicals that cannot bedetected by conventional methods.

Gaurav Kathel, an MS student there, says, Byconventional methods, testing the blood of aperson suspected to be infected with malaria takes45 hours. However, by this method, the processtakes only 20 minutes and the presence of even asingle malaria-causing protozoan can bedetected.

Eventhoughcantileversensortechnologyisahottopic of research in the field of NEMS, there is stillhuge scope for further research. Arrays of thesesensors could be used to analyse blood for thepresence of viruses, or water for the presence ofpollutants. The extremely high resolution of thedeviceswouldallowformoreaccurate,andearlier,warnings than were ever possible before.


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25From the Ruins

What happens when technology meetsheritage?Goodthings, itwouldseem,asevidencedby the Indian Digital Heritage project of theDepartment of Science and Technology (DST). Theproject aims to create virtual 3D interactivewalkthroughs of ancient Indian monumentsstarting with the ruins at Hampi, a UNESCO WorldHeritage Site. Various aspects of the projects arebeing dealt with by academic and industrialresearchgroupsaroundthecountry,includingonehere at IIT Madras.

The group at IIT-M is headed by Professor A.N.Rajagopalan of the Department of ElectricalEngineering and they are working on creatingvirtual reconstructions of damaged objects, suchas statues, in the ruins. Using techniques fromcomputer vision, they are attempting to makethese damaged statues whole again to ensure apleasant walkthrough for the user, allowing himorhertoappreciatethesemagnificentbuildingsasthey were in their heyday, unblemished by theravages of time. The challenge lies in accuratelyreconstructingpartsofthemonumentsothattheylook authentic and fit in perfectly with theremaining, undamaged parts.

PratyushSahay,aformergraduatestudentatIIT-Mandapartofthisgroupexplains,Therearethreemainstepsintheprocessofvirtualreconstruction.First, a 3D model of the damaged object has to becreated.Then,themissingordamagedportionhasto be accurately marked on the model. Finally, themissing portion has to be filled in correctly, withsay,anoseappearingwhereanoseoughttobe,andnot a head!

a point on the object in space. Rays are projectedbackfrompixels intheimagecorrespondingtothesurfaceoftheobjectandthemeetingpointsoftheseraysgiveusthe locationofapointonthesurface in3D.

One might ask, since there may be millions ofpixels in an image, how do we know which onescorrespondtothecontoursof theobjectandhence,whose location should be determined? One couldmanuallymarkthepointsbutthesheernumberofpixels in a high-definition image makes this anextremely tedious task.Toovercomethisproblem,a method known as corner point detection is used.This approach allows one to determine pixelscorresponding to the same point on the objectacross the set of images by finding the maxima inthe gradient domain map of the image. In thesimplest version of this method, the intensitygradientatapixel is foundbytakingthedifferenceintheintensityvaluesoftheadjoiningpixelsalongboth the x- and y-axes. Recent methods use a morecomplex methodology to get a better feature vectorfor a cluster of pixels, as opposed to just one pixel,which aids corner point detection.

Typically, an image with a million pixels willhave a few thousand corner points which aretriangulated to create what is known as the pointcloud of the object. This is just a collection of pointsfloating in space giving you a rough idea of theshapeof theobject.Takingastepfurther towardsamore concrete visualization, a mesh is createdfromthepointcloudbymethodssuchasDelaunaytriangulation, where points are connected bytriangles satisfying certain properties, giving atessellation of sorts of the object's surface (seeimage below).

A triangular mesh representing a dolphin.

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Now, however, it can be done using an off-the-shelf camera. Images of a 3D object are taken fromvarious points of view and the technique oftriangulation is used to determine the location of

The main contribution of the group at IIT-M is inthefinalstepoftheprocess.However,eventhefirststep was prohibitively expensive till a few yearsbackwhenalotofprogresswasmadeinthefieldof3D reconstruction. Earlier, one had to useexpensive laser range scanners in order to createdigital models of objects. These scanners wouldbounce laser beams off an object and use thepattern of the reflected rays to determine its shape.



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Once the mesh has been created, the questionnaturally arises, how do we know where thedamaged portions let's call them holes fromnow on, for simplicity are? Marking the holes onthe reconstructed 3D object may require the use ofpricey, complicated software so the marking isdone on the images themselves. Then, using theback-projection method explained before, thedamagedregiononthe3Dmodelcanbeobtainedbythese markings.

Hole-filling in digital representations of objectshas been done before, most notably in a similarcontext by Marc Levoys group at Stanford, wherethey corrected small imperfections in the 3D scanof Michelangelos David. The key difference,however, is that they filled in small areas whichwere missing only on the 3D model created due

To overcome this, a database of structurallysimilar models is used and points from these

markings.

to issues with the laser scanning process, butwhich were actually present on the statue itself.The methodology used by Levoys group works forsmallmissingregionsandnotforaholeaslargeasa nose or a face, as it is based on simple surfacegeometry extension, that is, interpolation. Now,filling in a large hole which contained a featurewith a distinctive shape, without any priorinformationonwhatthefeaturewas,isinfeasible.For example, imagine a missing nose.

Trying to reconstruct it by simply interpolatingfrom the boundaries of the hole is likely to give youan indistinct mess which looks nothing like anose.

A stone carving of Narasimha from Hampi (top left) and its reconstruction (top right). A lion face fromMahabalipuram (bottom left) and its reconstruction (bottom right).

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existingmodelsareputinasestimatesintheholeof the incomplete model.

Large databases exist for features such as facesand bodies, which contain information about theorientation and the size of the models in them, sothey can be appropriately rotated and scaled tomatch the one to be reconstructed. Without thisinformation, these models cannot be used sincetheymaynotbesimilartothedesiredmodel.Thispresents a problem while trying to reconstructobjects at heritage sites, since large databaseswith the necessary information do not exist.

So, models are taken from statues at the samesite or elsewhere, the point cloud of which istransformed with respect to the damaged modelinordertoobtaininformationabouttheirrelativeorientationandsizes,and,finally, theestimationis performed as before. The transformation isdone using robust point cloud registrationtechniques.

Once the point cloud with the estimates for thehole is ready, a technique known as tensor votingisusedtofill inthehole.Thelocalgeometryateachestimatedpointisdeterminedbycollectingvotesfrom known, undamaged regions of the object,wherein a vote is a communication of structuralpreference. The estimate point which receives thehighest number of votes is now included as part ofthe undamaged region and the process is repeatedagain.Thiscontinuesuntiltheentireholehasbeenfilled up.

Dr. Rajagopalans group used the methodologydescribedabove toreconstructdamagedstatues atHampi and Mahabalipuram, with stunningresults.

The group is currently working on using similartechniques to estimate the intensity pattern of thedamaged regions as well. A beautiful example ofhow beneficial technology can be even for art andhistory, one hopes to see more work like this fromresearch centres throughout the country.


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A figure of a horse from Hampi (left) and its reconstruction (right). IMA

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IITMSAT

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In the midst of an experiment in early 1908, theGerman physicist Hans Geiger was perplexed: hisnew device that was supposed to count chargedparticles from a radioactive source, was doing so,even in the absence of a source. Where were theseparticles coming from? When scientists launcheda balloon with Hans device into space a few yearslater, they observed the particle count steadilyincreasingwithaltitude, leadingthemtoconcludethat these particles, mysteriously enough, camefrom outer space. In the early 1950s, the flurry ofexcitement surrounding this discovery was stillalive,andinspiredtheyoungphysicistVanAllentolaunch Geiger counters on whatever means ofascending from the ground he could find.

What, you might ask, is keeping the chargedparticles trapped within the doughnut? Theanswer, it turns out, has to do with Earthsmagnetic field lines, which too, are doughnutshaped.

Weve all learnt in high school that a moving

charged particle, when injected at an angle along aset of parallel magnetic field lines, executes acircular motion around the field lines, while at thesame time moving along it. The charged particlesin the Van Allen belts undergo a similar motion,save for two important differences: the field linesare curved and their density is not the same itsmuch higher at the Earths magnetic poles.

When the United States launched their firstsatellite in 1958, the Explorer I, it carried a Geigercounter built by Dr. Van Allen as its payload, whichis the main functional unit of a satellite. AsExplorer I looped the earth, live countmeasurements showed an unexpected pattern:The counts suddenly went high in certain regionsof space, leading to the first major discovery of theinfant space era, the aptly named Van Allenradiationbelts.Encirclingtheearthintheformofagiant doughnut replete with protons andelectrons, the Van Allen belts are the subject ofstudy of several space missions today.

When a charged particle in the belt movestowardsthepoles,itfeelsastrongermagneticfield,which makes it reverse it direction and movetowards the other pole, where it repeats thisbehavior. This endless loop of particles bouncingback and forth is what keeps these chargedparticles trapped.

The behaviour, as you might have guessed, isntthis simple. There are particles which freethemselves from this trap and also new particlesgetting trapped all the time, due to variousphenomena.

This visualization, created using actual data from the Relativistic Electron-Proton Telescopes (REPT) onNASAs Van Allen Probes, shows the doughnut shaped inner and outer Van Allen belts, filled with chargedparticles.

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The Need for SPEEDBy Ananth Yalamarthy


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A good example of particles escaping the VanAllenbelts isthemajesticauroraoccasionallyseenin the night sky near the polar regions. As theprincipal mission of the IIT Madras StudentSatelliteProject (IITMSAT),weare interestedinoneparticular cause of the escape: the interaction ofcharged particles with electromagnetic (EM)waves produced on the earth.

EM waves are produced due to a variety ofphenomena. Of particular interest to us is aparticular type of low-frequency wave thought tobeproducedinthedaysleadingtoanearthquakeatits epicenter. It turns out that these waves matchthe frequency of gyration (rotation of the chargedparticle around the field line) of the chargedparticles in the Van Allen belts, providing afavourable condition for the energy of the wave tobetransferredtotheparticle.Whenthisoccurs,theparticle now has enough energy to push againsttherepulsivemagnetic fieldat thepoles,anddropsout of the Van Allen belts into low Earth orbits orbitsatanaltitudeof500800kmfromtheEarthssurfacewhere itcanbedetected.Allof thisoccursin a very small instant of time after an EM wave isproduced, and thus, what we really see is a suddenburst of particles in space. IITMSATs payload isbuilt to detect precisely this burst, allowing us topredict expected seismic activity at a particularlocation on the ground.

This sequence of images illustrates how anelectromagnetic wave can cause a particle in the VanAllen belts to escape, so that it can be detected in thelow Earth orbits.

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To better understand this phenomenon, we builta computer model last year to simulate theinteractionofanEMwavewiththeVanAllenbelts,andtostudythenatureofthechargedparticlesthatare precipitated. Thus, we know how muchprecipitation to expect in the low Earth orbits andthe energy of the charged particles that IITMSATspayload will see when in orbit. The Space BasedProtonElectronEnergyDetector(SPEED),IITMSATspayload, which has been in development fornearly three years now, is steadily reachingcompletion.

In order to detect charged particles, SPEED usesmaterials known as scintillators, which fluorescewhen a charged particle strikes them. A chargedparticle that travels through a scintillator knocksoff electrons from its atoms, leaving a void. Whenelectrons from a higher energy state drop down toreplace the knocked off electrons, they lose energyin the form of blue light.

In SPEED, this blue light enters wavelengthshifting (WLS) fibers, which cover the scintillatorsurface. The WLS fibers convert this blue light intogreen light, which is then transported along thelength of the fiber to devices known asPhotomultiplier Tubes (PMTs). The PMTs thenconvert the light into an electrical signal which isamplified and fed into an electronics system thatprocesses the signal and returns information onthe energy and the type of the incident particle. SPEEDsdevelopmentoverthelastthreeyearshasbeen an interesting journey, with the designundergoing several critical modifications as ourunderstanding of the phenomenon evolved overtime. After several iterations, we now have acomplete structural prototype of SPEED that isdesigned to meet the strict Polar Satellite LaunchVehicle (PSLV) conditions. This allows us to puttogetherourscintillatormodulesintoonecompactpackage and finally test them all at once.


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The IIT Madras Space Center is currently beingbuilt at the Electrical Engineering Department,which will house several test equipment, inaddition to a clean room that will help accelerateour experiments in the next few months. Withparallel developments on developing theinstruments and understanding thephenomenon, we are making headway inbuilding a satellite whose scientific mission, ifsuccessful, is bound to have a definitive impact onthe way we understand the Van Allen beltsmysterious phenomena.

These images show the bottom view (left) and the top view (right) of the SPEED payload. Only the top scintillator isvisible in the top view image. CREDIT: The IIT Madras Student Satellite Project.

A BRIEF HISTORY

The IITMSAT Project was created by a group ofenthusiastic first-year undergraduate students in2009, with the aim of launching a satellite with asocially relevant scientific mission. The initialfunding for IITMSAT was in the form of aninnovative students project grant, provided bythe Industrial Consultancy and SponsoredResearch(ICSR)unitof IITMadras.Foraboutayear,the team experimented with the feasibility ofseveral possible payloads that could be flown onIITMSAT, and developed an organizationalstructure for the satellite by dividing it into sevensubsystems: the communication subsystem, theelectrical power subsystem, the payload, theattitude determination and control subsystem, toname a few.

Theideaofflyingahigh-energy-particle-detectorwas finalized after a discussion with scientists atISROs satellite center in 2010, and this eventuallyled to the SPEED payload that stands today. As ofnow, we have a group of about 25 dedicatedundergraduates working on various aspects ofSPEED and the rest of the satellite, while certainspecific units have been converted into Mastersprojects with the aid of faculty members.

Over the years, the IITMSAT has greatly benefitedfrom collaboration with several institutes in Indiaand abroad. SPEEDs initial development wascarried out in the form of internships at ISROssatellite center, Tata Institute of FundamentalResearch (TIFR), Mumbai and Indian Institute ofSpace Science and Technology (IIST),Thiruvananthapuram. In order to develop certainunits of the satellites subsystems, our teammembers worked at York University, Canada andEPFL, Switzerland, which have prior experience innano-satellite development. In this regard, wehavealsoreceivedrecognitionandusefulfeedbackat several conferences, the most recent of whichwas the 5th Japanese Nano-satellite Symposiumat Tokyo, in November 2013.

The funding for IITMSAT comes from differentsources, of which our Institute and alumni havebeen the major ones. A significant portion of thesefunds is being used to construct the IIT MadrasSpace Center. We aim to complete the project in2015.


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FURTHER INFORMATION: IITMSATs official website: www.iitmsat.iitm.ac.in A non-technical overview of the IITMSAT project, Unveiling the Aurora: IITMSAT, isavailable at http://t5e.iitm.ac.in/2013/08/unveiling-the-aurora-iitmsat/. For further information, please contact Nithin Sivadas at [email protected].

CREDIT: The IIT Madras Student Satellite Project



A hundred meters under the FrancoSwissborder, two beams of a hundred trillion protonseach, travelling in opposite directions in circles of27-kilometre circumference at a pace that seesthem complete over 11,000 circuits in a singlesecond, and controlled by superconductingmagnets maintained at two degrees aboveabsolute zero, smash into each other. Over half-a-billioncollisions persecond. Fromthepetabytes ofdata, of over 1,000 trillion such collisions spreadover two years, emerged signatures of a long-sought elusive particle. This particle, the avatar ofan all-pervading field, reveals its presence onlythrough its progeny. It is the manifestation of amechanism that gives elementary particles theirmass, and was the one missing brick in theStandardModel, theorganizingframeworkfortheknown elementary particles.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, likeother particle accelerators is, in essence, apowerful microscope. By Einsteins massenergyequivalence relation, new particles arise from theenergy liberated by the particle collisions. Thehighertheenergyofthebeams,theheavierthenewparticles created. These ephemeral particles thendecaytomorestableones,andananalysisof thesedecay products enables particle physicists toreconstructthesequenceofeventsanddecipheritsgov

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