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Research Projects

Project Name: Understanding behavioral and physiological adaptations in a vertebrate species, the green chromides
Project Description: Darwin's theory of natural selection states that the species most adaptable to changes survive and are better fitted to their immediate environment. This adaptability depends on individual variations, including anatomical, morphological, physiological, and genetic characteristics. The threat of losing biodiversity due to urbanisation and climate change led researchers to understand adaptation strategies for a species to demonstrate an ecosystem's resilience. Further, such adaptation strategies can be best studied in a species that naturally lives under diverse environments, possibly indicating the presence of trait variations among individuals across populations. However, it is logistically challenging and may not give robust conclusions, paving the way for laboratory model systems using manipulative experimental approaches.
The project aims to understand mechanisms of physiological and behavioural adaptations in a freshwater vertebrate, the green chromide (Etroplus suratensis) fish species, living naturally in diverse habitats. It will study their adaptation strategies under laboratory conditions by manipulating a single abiotic factor (wavelength of light) within their environment and measuring their behavioural and physiological responses.
The proposed project maintains the chromides under two different wavelengths of light: a long wavelength (600-700 nanometers), red light mimicking turbid conditions, and a short wavelength (450-500 nanometers), blue light representing clear waters. The project will measure the fish's social preferences and visual pigment (opsin) expression over 60 days. Comparing these responses across red, blue, and white light conditions will reveal the timeline and mechanisms of adaptation. This research will illuminate adaptive plasticity in the species and how environmental changes impact its survival and global biodiversity.
Work Expected of the Student: Research work
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters
Project Start-date: May 10, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Ratna Ghosal, Associate Professor, School of Arts and Sciences
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Study the density and temperature measurement techniques of radio-frequency expanding plasma
Project Description: Understanding the energetic ions in the aurora borealis or the northern lights and controlling their energies are difficult, as astrophysical measurements are rare. Laboratory double layers in expanding plasma can help to understand some of these astrophysical problems. This experimental plasma research aims to study the formation of double layers and explore the possibilities of making the double layers stronger than predicted by the conventional plasma sheath theory.
The electronic instrumentation and communication ​between the probe sensors and the data acquisition system are essential. Students in this summer project will ​build electronic circuits and write code in LabVIEW to make the interface with various equipment and measuring tools and store the data. Apart from ​that, students will get a chance to learn about ​expanding radio-frequency plasma experiments and the challenges of measuring various plasma parameters, including supersonic ion beam energy measurements.
Work Expected of the Student: Write code in LabVIEW to make the interface with various equipment and measuring tools and store the data
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Bachelors
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Soumen Ghosh, Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Sciences

Project Name: CIrcadian patteRn, Food hAbit and CardiomEtabolic diseases (CIRFACE)
Project Description: Our sleep-wakefulness cycle controls most of our physiological processes. This sleep-wake cycle varies from person to person, and when disrupted, it can cause many physical problems, cardiovascular problems being one of them. Various internal factors, such as diet, physical activity, mental stress, etc., control this sleep-wake cycle, making it complex. The study is an attempt to understand that complex pattern better, and we named this study Circadian Pattern, Food Habit, and Cardiometabolic Diseases (CIRFACE).
Hypothesis: Breakfast timing and breakfast type are misaligned with the circadian rhythm/pattern, influencing the prevalence of cardiometabolic diseases.
Methodology: To examine that, we will use data from ~1200 adult individuals collected from a digital, anonymous survey and contain information. We will apply multivariable methods linking breakfast timing and breakfast types with cardiometabolic diseases, considering their circadian typology, demographic characteristics, and other comorbidities. We will also perform secondary analyses such as stratification analysis, effect modification analysis, and exploratory mediation/moderation analysis to see the influence of other variables in these associations.
Requirements: Interested candidates must be familiar with the statistical software STATA, have sound experience in regression analysis, preferably logistic and Poisson regression analysis, and be able to prepare tables and figures. The candidate will be provided with a STATA license and trained in STATA coding for high-dimensional analysis, as required. If satisfactory, the student will also have the opportunity to share co-authorship in the publication.
Work Expected of the Student: Analyse the data and prepare tables/figures as per the requirement of the study under the supervision of the mentor(s)
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Subhabrata Moitra , Assistant Professor, Bagchi School of Public Health

Project Name: Hydrodynamics in lab scale aerated geometries using air diffusers: Experiments and simulations
Project Description: The present project deals with oxygen uptake of water when air is bubbled through a diffuser. These conditions prevail during wastewater treatment using an advanced oxidation process. The amount of air bubbled retained in water depends on factors like air flow rate, time for which air is bubbled, and other factors. The objective of the present project would be to understand the amount of air uptake in water using a specific air diffuser without any reactions taking place in the system. Experiments would be carried out to understand the maximum amount of air that can be retained in water. Numerical simulations for the same experimental conditions would be carried out using Ansys Fluent 24 for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) for the geometry similar to the experimental setup. Hydrodynamics of water due to airflow would be understood using CFD. This approach presents a unique opportunity to understand the dynamics during an advanced oxidation process using both simulation and experimentation.
Work Expected of the Student: Experimental and simulation
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Bachelors
Project Start-date: May 31, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Arijit Ganguli, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Clean and sustainable water/wastewater treatment
Project Description: As part of this project, an electrochemical advanced oxidation process will be used to treat contaminants such as textile dyes and other complex organic pollutants. These are emerging in nature, and the conventional treatment processes are unable to remove them effectively from water. The project will deal with novel and cutting-edge technology to remove contaminants sustainably. It will also deal with understanding the experimental setup, oxidant production, and radical enhancement for contaminant removal. The project may include pollutant quantification and will attempt to understand radical generation mechanisms.
Work Expected of the Student: Experimental laboratory work related to sustainable wastewater treatment
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Ramya Srinivasan, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Comparative study of novel and interesting materials for wastewater treatment
Project Description: This project uses different novel or interesting materials as electrodes for water treatment. Here, the attempt is to understand and compare how various materials help in varying degrees of oxidant generation for contaminant oxidation. The project examines how varying science and engineering aspects can change the contaminant degradation abilities of the cutting-edge technology under study. Using this information, it becomes easier to design a sustainable treatment of complex contaminants present in water.
Work Expected of the Student: Experimental laboratory work
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Ramya Srinivasan, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Study of Flow Patterns in Microchannels Using CFD Simulations
Project Description: The current project deals with the modelling and simulation of liquid-liquid flows using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and the software Ansys Fluent. This project would give the student hands-on exposure to the software and the multiphase flow phenomena. Further, the project includes revising the basics of fluid flow and understanding the challenges in three-dimensional simulations.
Work Expected of the Student: Create geometry, mesh the geometry and set the problem and do a sensitivity analysis of different flow rates. Finally validation of the model would be done based on the data from the literature.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Arijit Ganguli, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Experimental Measurements in Biofilm Reactors for Wastewater Treatment
Project Description: Three-phase reactors consist of gas, liquid, and solid phases together and are characterised by complex flow phenomena. Typical geometries consist of rectangular tanks having water as a liquid having a substrate/media on which the biofilms are harboured. The formation of biofilms on the solids is important for biochemical transformations due to their resilience towards toxic contaminants. In other words, the biofilms formed on the substrate are favorable for efficient wastewater treatment due to their resilient nature. An important challenge in industrial biotransformation is the development of bioprocesses that optimise the bioconversion rate with a reduction in costs and environmental liabilities. One of the primary objectives of this project is to use biofilms attached to its system for wastewater treatment. The project would involve experimentation at different flow air flow rates and wastewater concentrations in an experimental setup. The objective would be to see the amount of mass transfer and subsequent reduction of contaminants in wastewater due to biochemical reactions.
Work Expected of the Student: To carry out measurements of contaminant reduction for different operating conditions.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Bachelors
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Arijit Ganguli and Ramya Srinivasan, Assistant Professors, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Convolution Neural Network (CNN) for Reduction of Synthetic Data Obtained from Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
Project Description: The project considers an enclosure containing water as a fluid heated by a constant heat source. It obtains temporal velocity and temperature contour data for a specific heat source using commercial CFD software or a full-order model solution. The spatial domain of the full-order model data needs to be reduced by a factor of 10 using a CNN.
Work Expected of the Student: Students will learn temporal dynamics using supervised deep learning model and come up with a reduced order model to provide an input for the Long-Short Term Memory model. For this purpose, the selection of a few dominant spatial basis provides us with a reduced-order model of the system. The flow is then reconstructed and compared with a full order CFD simulation results
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Arijit Ganguli, Assistant Professor and Mehul Raval, Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Firms and CSR reporting
Project Description: The project looks into CSR declaration data amount, area of funding, and firm industry of all the listed firms in India from 2017-2024. It will explore whether CSR funding helps achieve a firm’s social objectives and business reputation.
Work Expected of the Student: Extract data from the PRIME info database and run descriptive statistics.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters
Project Start-date: June 1, 2025
Project End-date: June 16, 2025
Faculty: Deepti Sharma, Assistant Professor, Amrut Mody School of Management
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Sustainable Supply Chains: Unveiling Social and Environmental Dynamics through REFINITIV Data
Project Description: This project explores the intricate social and environmental aspects of global supply chains using the REFINITIV database. By analysing corporate disclosures, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) scores, and supply chain networks, the research aims to identify patterns, assess impacts, and recommend strategies for fostering sustainable practices across industries. It tries to find answers to questions, including social and environmental aspects, such as how effective certifications are (e.g., Fair Trade, ISO) in improving social standards within supply chains and, how carbon emissions vary across different tiers of global supply chains, and what factors influence these variations?
Work Expected of the Student: Knowledge of computer vision, bounding boxes and labelling, data visualisation and analysis.
Expected Qualification of the Student:

• Data Extraction and Management: Access and retrieve relevant data from the REFINITIV database portal Identify and extract ESG-related indicators, corporate disclosures, and supply chain network data Organise and prepare datasets for analysis, ensuring accuracy and consistency
• Literature Review: Conduct a comprehensive review of academic literature on the social and environmental aspects of global supply chains. Summarise key findings, identify gaps in existing research, and highlight trends relevant to the project’s objectives
• Collaboration and Communication: Communicate progress and challenges. Present findings from the literature review in an organised and concise manner

Project Name: Design & Development of Antenna/ RF/ Microwave Components – 1
Project Description: The candidate will be supervised to work towards the design and development of any of the following components/topics: tunable filters, resonators, mixers, attenuators, isolators, couplers, phase shifters, metamaterial-based components, reconfigurable antennas, planar low-profile antennas, antenna arrays, space-deployable antennas, frequency-selective surfaces, microwave absorbers, and microwave material characterisation.
Available Research Facilities: A 2-port VNA by Keysight (frequency range: 100 kHz to 14 GHz), spectrum analysers, signal generators, high-sampling-rate digital oscilloscopes, data acquisition systems, a full-fledged fabrication facility, rapid prototyping tools, and more. Furthermore, Ahmedabad University has an MoU with SAC and ISRO, which facilitates impactful research in the fields of RF, microwave, and antennas.
Work Expected of the Student: Any candidate with a sincere attitude, with or without domain knowledge, can apply. Undergraduates and Graduates can apply. Better if you: > have worked/working in the RF/Microwave/Antenna domain. > know about Electromagnetic simulators such as Ansys HFSS/ CST Studio Suite/ Keysight ADS or similar. Preference may be given to the candidate having appropriate knowledge of experimentation, and scientific writing. You should definitely apply if you are willing to pursue a funded PhD/ explore research topics for a PhD.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters (3) and Pursiung Bachelors (2)
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Sanket Patel, Associate Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: History of Modern Gujarat, Unravelling the Deshi Rajya
Project Description: This project is designed to read the Gujarati monthly magazine 'Deshi Rajya' published from 1927 to 1940 from Nadiad, Gujarat, and outline the large political debates that prevailed among the princely states in the 1930s. The objective is to extract data from Gujarati magazine to understand the political views that contributed to the ongoing debates around nation and nation-building in pre-independent India.
Work Expected of the Student: Reading the Deshi Rajya Gujarati magazine published from 1930 to 1934 and making notes that can be converted into a working paper.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters
Project Start-date: May 12, 2025
Project End-date: June 12, 2025
Faculty: Tana Trivedi, Lecturer, Amrut Mody School of Management
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: In-planta optimization of Agrobacterium mediated transformation in groundnut
Project Description: Agrobacterium-mediated transformation in Arachis hypogea (groundnut) is a widely used method for introducing foreign genes into this important leguminous crop. Once the bacterial cells have successfully transferred the foreign gene into the groundnut’s genome, the transformed cells are selected and regenerated into whole plants through tissue culture techniques. The success of transformation is confirmed by molecular techniques, such as PCR or Southern blotting, to verify the integration of the target gene.
This method has several advantages, including high efficiency, stable gene integration, and the ability to transform a wide range of plant species, including groundnut. The genetic modification of groundnut has the potential to improve desirable traits such as disease resistance, drought tolerance, and enhanced nutritional content, ultimately contributing to the improvement of groundnut cultivation. Additionally, Agrobacterium-mediated transformation can aid in functional genomics studies and the development of genetically modified groundnut varieties for agricultural use. This transformation technique serves as a critical tool in advancing crop biotechnology and ensuring sustainable agricultural production. Given that groundnut is one of the recalcitrant crops in tissue culture and transformation, the Agrobacterium transformation has a lot of bottlenecks. Thus, the current study aims to optimise the in-planta agrobacterium-mediated transformation of various peanut genotypes.
Work Expected of the Student: To understand the principles of plant biotechnology, including genetic modification techniques like agrobacterium-mediated transformation or CRISPR. They should learn how to isolate and introduce foreign genes into plant cells, select transformed plants, and assess gene expression. Practical work may involve using tissue culture, preparing media, and cultivating transformed plants under controlled conditions. Additionally, understanding the ethical, environmental, and regulatory considerations of plant transformation is crucial for responsible scientific practice.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Bachelors
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Bhuvan Pathak, Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Sciences
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Understanding Decision Making and Mechanisms of Coordination in Animal Groups Using Experiments and Simulations
Project Description: Most animals that live in groups show interesting collective behaviours. Swarms of honey bees searching for food or nesting sites or herds of ungulates that live in groups to evade predators -- are all examples of collective behaviours. The project will explore some basic and important tools used to probe collectives. These include computational simulations, mathematical modelling, collective behaviours experiments, computer vision, statistical modelling, and data analysis. The incoming students will work on a small problem and learn the basics of one or a few of the above skills. There may also be a scope for continuing the project for a Master's thesis.
Work Expected of the Student: Reading and presenting literature, write programs to simulate collective behaviour and synchronization models, learn and develop computer vision techniques to detect and track lab model systems such as ants, spiders as well as animals such as birds and ungulates in their natural environment.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Bachelors
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Jitesh Jhawar, Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Sciences
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Setting up Pyramidal Horn Anetanna-II (Radio Telescope) at Ahmedabad University
Project Description: The student will work on building up the mechanical mount for the in-house Pyramidal Horn Antenna-II (Radio Telescope for 21 cm Astronomy). The job will also include testing the electronics and the hardware of the telescope, and learning about the fundamentals of Radio Astronomy and Radio Astrophysics. The student will work in collaboration with the Astronomy and Astrophysics Group, collaborators in the engineering division of Ahmedabad University, and experts at IUCAA (Pune) to carry out this project.
Work Expected of the Student: Students will build the mount, test electronics and hardware, take observations, learn about radio Astronomy and Astrophysics
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Bachelors
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Samyaday Choudhury, Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Sciences
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Purification and Characterisation of Actin from Skeletal Muscle Tissue
Project Description: Actin is one of the key elements of the cellular cytoskeleton that is involved in key cellular processes. The monomeric form of actin, known as G-actin, has the ability to polymerise into the filamentous form of actin, known as F-actin. The dynamic remodelling of actin inside the cell is crucial for many cellular functions ranging from muscle contraction and endocytosis to cell migration. For biochemical studies of actin and its polymerisation, it is necessary to isolate actin from animal tissue sources. This project would involve the isolation of actin from chicken muscle tissue, which has an abundance of the actin protein. This will be followed by the characterisation of the isolated protein in terms of its concentration and its ability to polymerise into actin filaments. By doing this project, students will be able to learn several biochemical techniques, including ultracentrifugation, protein estimation, microscopy, and spectroscopic characterisation of proteins.
Work Expected of the Student: Students will be expected to learn the different methods used for isolation and characterisation of actin through hands-on training on these instruments. They will optimise the protocol for the isolation of actin from muscle tissue and its subsequent characterisation.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Bachelors
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Ashim Rai, Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Sciences
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Automated Biometric System for Individual Identification of Mugger crocodile (Crocodylus Palustris): A Deep Learning Approach
Project Description: Marsh/Mugger crocodile is India's widely distributed freshwater crocodilian species, facing severe threats from humans. These include the destruction and conversion of their habitats into agricultural lands or residential plots and the stealing of eggs and hatchlings for sale in the pet industry, leading to its listing as 'Vulnerable' as per the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) assessment in 2020. All muggers have scutes on the dorsal side of the body, which differ across individuals. The research attempts to create biometrics of scute patterns to identify individual muggers in the wild. It would involve processing a database of crocodile images to detect and extract focal features. So far, the research has a database of 88.5k images collected using drones from three different geographical habitats of muggers in the Anand, Vadodara, and Kutch districts of Gujarat. CNN-based inception tool has been applied, and an algorithm has been developed that re-identifies known (already in the library) crocodiles with very high accuracy values. However, the algorithm performance for unknown images of the crocodiles is low, giving a higher false positive rate. This led to the application of bounding boxes on the crocodile images and exploring methods (YOLO tools) to develop an algorithm that more efficiently re-identifies known individuals and accurately determines unknowns as unknowns. The interdisciplinary project offers engineering students an opportunity to apply their computational skills in the rapidly emerging area of conservation biology.
Work Expected of the Student: Students will develop an algorithm that re-identifies known individuals more efficiently.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Bachelors
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Mehul Raval, Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Emotional Distractor Suppression in Emotion-induced Blindness
Project Description: Emotion-induced blindness (EIB) occurs when emotionally salient stimuli—known as distractors—capture attention and impair the processing of subsequent relevant visual stimuli, referred to as targets. This project aims to investigate strategies for suppressing emotional distractors within the context of EIB. Hence, the study plans to employ the Posner Cueing paradigm, which directs attention toward or away from target locations. The study anticipates that reorienting attention will help mitigate EIB, enhance the saliency of the targets, and improve accuracy.
Work Expected of the Student: Conduct a thorough literature review to understand current knowledge about emotional distractor suppression, design behavioural experiments using Matlab/Psychopy, and conduct data collection.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters
Project Start-date: May 8, 2025
Project End-date: June 14, 2025
Faculty: Divita Singh, Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Sciences
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Chemical Characterisation of Heritage Materials
Project Description: The project focuses on the use of traditional materials for the conservation of artifacts, emphasising sustainable and environmentally friendly practices. The aim is to explore natural materials used in daily life, study their chemistry, properties, and applications, and evaluate their effectiveness on heritage surfaces. By working with traditional recipes, the project seeks to assess their efficacy and potential as alternatives to modern synthetic materials, which often pose environmental and human health risks. Traditional natural materials are less likely to have adverse effects on both treated artifacts and conservators, making them a safer choice. The project strives to develop sustainable conservation methods for historic and artistic surfaces. The study also involves working with heritage samples or mock-ups, employing techniques such as microscopy and spectroscopy for material identification. The research aims to provide empirical evidence through scientific instrumentation and methodologies, demonstrating the effectiveness and sustainability of traditional preservation practices for heritage surfaces. Students pursuing or having completed master’s degrees in chemistry, physics, archaeology, or heritage studies are preferred for participation in this research.
Work Expected of the Student: The student is expected to do the literature search, conduct lab-based experiments, do the instrumentation, and write the observations in the form of the technical reports.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Aditya Prakash Kanth, Assistant Professor, Centre for Heritage Management
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Particulate Air Pollution Source Identification
Project Description: Air quality, connected with public health and life expectancy, is also intertwined with climate change due to common emission sources. Accurate measurement of the quality of air is challenging due to significantly diverse emission sources and their strength and dynamics of air in the region. Hence, point measurement of air quality in a vast and dense urban agglomerate often doesn’t represent the true extent of the problem at hand. Further, identification of air pollution sources and quantification of emissions is possible only through multi-point measurements. The project aims to quantify particulate air quality in specific areas, such as highways, artillery roads, public parks, shopping areas, etc. By using specific statistical techniques, the project will quantify the source-specific contribution of particulate pollution.
Work Expected of the Student: The selected student will collect field data from different regions of the city and understand and apply statistical techniques to analyse the data.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Aditya Vaishya, Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Sciences
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Characterising Particulate Emissions from Various Cooking Practices
Project Description: A staggering 70 to 80 percent of our time is spent indoors - be it at the workplace or at home, yet the study of indoor air quality has received far less attention than ambient air quality. Further, there are significant emission sources in indoor spaces, such as stoves, which, though significant and have profound negative health impacts, received little attention. The project aims to measure particulate emissions from various cooking practices and understand how the emission strengths change with the type of fuel, stove, cooking methodology, etc.
Work Expected of the Student: The selected student will carry out measurements of particulate emissions from cooking and analyse the data.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Bachelors
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Aditya Vaishya, Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Sciences
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Study on Electrochemical Properties of Si-based Ternary Composite Material for Energy Storage Applications
Project Description: Increased consumption of non-renewable fossil fuels necessitated the development of sustainable and reliable energy storage options. Owing to the advantages such as high-power density, good cycling stability, and fast charging-discharging process, supercapacitors have been considered a promising key to address the above-mentioned issue. Despite the advantages, the energy density exhibited by supercapacitors is much lower in comparison with the batteries. However, the electrode material plays a vital role in the electrochemical performance of supercapacitors. Thus, researchers devote effort to developing advanced electrode materials. This work is based on a silicon-based ternary system. Metal oxide composites with carbonaceous material have been widely investigated due to the improved charge-discharge and cycle stability of carbon materials and the large capacitance of metal oxides. The present work investigates the effect of incorporating Si nanomaterial in the composite of metal oxide and carbon. Furthermore, the composite material synthesised would be structurally and morphologically characterised by X-ray Diffractometry (XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). The electrochemical performance of the ternary composite material will be conducted on the CH instrument electrochemical workstation using a standard three-electrode evaluated by performing cyclic voltammetry (CV) and constant charge-discharge (GCD).
Work Expected of the Student: The student will read literature related to the topic and synthesise the carbon-based composite material for battery application. Also, they will study the electrochemical studies on prepared electrodes.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Sridhar Dalai, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Porous Carbon Nanofibers Derived from Cotton Textile Waste for Hydrogen Storage: Effect of Parameters
Project Description: Hydrogen is a clean and safe energy source that attracts the attention of researchers across the globe. In recent decades, significant efforts have been made to find new hydrogen storage materials, such as metal alloys, complex hydrides, metal-organic frameworks, carbon materials, etc. Interestingly, carbon-based materials, with their low cost and weight, have long been considered suitable adsorptive materials for the reversible storage of hydrogen. Of various adsorbents, activated carbons are proven to be good candidates for the adsorption of gases and volatile organic compounds. Activated carbons with micropores are suitable for hydrogen adsorption. Compared to powdered activated carbons, fibrous activated carbon networks provide good porosity for interfacial interactions by maintaining integral network structures with surface areas mostly accessible for adsorption. Compared to powdered activated carbons, fibrous activated carbon networks provide good porosity for interfacial interactions by maintaining integral network structures with surface areas mostly accessible for adsorption. When compared to polyacrylonitrile-based ACFs, cellulose-based ACFs have the potential to show superior properties like large micropore volume, mechanical flexibility, high thermal conductivity, and good affinity to gases and VOCs. In this work, hydrogen storage studies will be done on porous carbon nanofibers prepared using textile cotton waste as a precursor. In this work, we will also investigate the effect of parameters such as temperature and pressure for maximum hydrogen uptake using a custom-made Sievert apparatus.
Work Expected of the Student: The students will read literature related to the topic and perform experiments using several types of apparatus. They will also study various parameters affecting hydrogen storage experiments of synthesised materials.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Sridhar Dalai, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Design and Energy Analysis: A Case Study of a Chemical Process Flow Sheet using Aspen Plus and Aspen Energy Analyser
Project Description: In this work, the design and energy analysis of a Chemical Flow sheet will be investigated. Initially, a process flow diagram for the case study will be designed using the Aspen Plus V10.0 simulating tool. In this study, the simulation of the process flowsheet and optimisation of parameters to achieve a high percentage of pure components will also investigated. In comparison to the traditional energy approach, pinch analysis as an energy integration technique saves more energy and reduces utility costs. Therefore, in the second part of this work, pinch analysis is applied using Aspen Energy Analyser for the developed process plant, and a base case heat exchanger network (HEN) will be developed. Energy analysis using Aspen Energy Analyser suggested the energy and cost-saving potential of the designed process. Greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced. The base case design will be subjected to retrofit analysis to find an alternate HEN that saves energy in the process by minimising operating costs.
Work Expected of the Student: The student will work on a case study where design and simulation are involved. Also, s/he will work on the development of HEN using Aspen Plus and Aspen Energy Analyser software tools
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Bachelors
Project Start-date: May 9, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Sridhar Dalai, Assistant Professor, School of Engineering and Applied Science
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Development and Validation of Quantum Dots-based Tools for Bioimaging
Project Description: Nanoscience and DNA nanotechnology have emerged as one of the most enabling and converging fields of science and technology in the last 10 to 15 years, as it provide an innovative solution by amalgamating various disciplines of science and technology. DNA nanodevices (DNs) enable multimodal imaging potential and can work as smart nanorobots, allowing accurate disease diagnosis. The primary use of DNs in biomedical applications is bioimaging with various nanoparticles such as Quantum dots (QDs) and Gold nanoparticles (GNPs), as DNA bio-conjugates have low nonspecific binding and can assemble with other DNA functionalised nanomaterials through base-pairing. DNA offers excellent control of matter at the nanoscale and biological activities imparted by complimentary biomolecules. More importantly, their use in bioimaging and nanotheranostics, fields that combine diagnostics with therapy via drug or gene delivery in an all-in-one platform, has been applied extensively in recent years to provide personalised treatments.
Work Expected of the Student: Students are expected to conduct synthesis of the nanoparticles and its interaction with the cells and zebrafish.
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters
Project Start-date: May 12, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Ashutosh Kumar, Associate Professor, School of Arts and Sciences
Link to article or webpage relevant to the topic of the project

Project Name: Comparative Analysis of Potential siRNAs Candidates along with Methotrexate as a Targeted Liposomal Therapy against Synovial Macrophages in Rheumatoid Arthritis
Project Description: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterised by inflammation and joint destruction. Synovial macrophages are among the key players in the pathogenesis of RA. RNA interference is a promising strategy for selectively inhibiting gene expression in synovial macrophages using siRNAs. In this study, we propose to conduct a comparative analysis of potential siRNA candidates targeting three different receptors on the synovial macrophages in RA. The work also aims to evaluate the efficacy of combining this siRNA with methotrexate in a liposomal formulation and test their effects on synovial macrophages in-vitro.
Work Expected of the Student: Students will conduct nanoparticles synthesis, characterisation and cell culture related work
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Masters
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Ashutosh Kumar, Associate Professor, School of Arts and Sciences
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Project Name: DEIWatch: Accountability Framework for Fair AI Systems
Project Description: This project, titled "DEIWatch: Accountability Framework for Fair AI Systems," focuses on developing metrics to evaluate AI systems' impact on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). As AI increasingly influences decisions in hiring, promotions, and resource allocation, ensuring its accountability to DEI standards is critical. The project will explore both process-based metrics, ensuring fairness during AI design and deployment, and outcome-based metrics, evaluating equity and inclusivity in results.
Key DEI-specific metrics include fairness measures like demographic parity, equalized odds, and disparate impact. Diversity metrics will examine whether AI outputs reflect diverse perspectives, while inclusion metrics will assess the empowerment or exclusion of marginalized groups. Transparency and explainability metrics are also integral to auditing AI systems for fairness and ensuring stakeholders understand AI-driven outcomes.
Through methods such as algorithmic audits, simulations, and scenario testing, this research will provide organizations with a practical toolkit to assess and enhance AI accountability. This framework will guide organizations in aligning their AI systems with DEI goals, contributing to ethical and fair decision-making processes. The ultimate aim is to define measurable accountability standards for AI, fostering greater inclusivity across industries.
Work Expected of the Student: The student will be working Developing an AI Matrix . Needs to have some exposure to How to do literature review, basic work in ML and if possible Python as well. Self driven candidates who can do hands on learning will be preferred
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Bachelors/ Masters
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Siddhartha Saxena, Assistant Professor, Amrut Mody School of Management
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Project Name: Primordial Naked Singularity I & II
Project Description: A new paradigm has emerged in Cosmology, a novel theoretical study demonstrating that, under certain conditions, primordial density fluctuations in the early universe could lead to the formation of primordial naked singularity (PNaS)s —cosmic structures distinct from primordial black holes (PBHs) in their lack of an apparent horizon. This challenges conventional paradigms of gravitational collapse and has significant implications for dark matter, early-universe physics, cosmic censorship, and quantum gravity.
Work Expected of the Student: Study original papers and work on new emerging projects
Expected Qualification of the Student: Pursuing Bachelors/ Masters
Project Start-date: May 6, 2025
Project End-date: June 30, 2025
Faculty: Pankaj Joshi, Distinguished Professor of Physics, School of Arts and Sciences