R&D profile

at a

glance

Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

IIT Kanpur strives to continue to hold top ranking for undergraduate education and at the same time achieve the status of a tier 1 research university on the world stage.

Number of externally funded ongoing projects: 522

Sanctioned amount of externally funded ongoing projects: Rs. 344 crore

Expenditure of externally funded ongoing projects in 2011-12: Rs. 84 crore

Number of project staff working for externally funded projects: 348

Number of externally funded research fellowships: 230

Number of new projects sanctioned in 2011-12: 175

Sanctioned amount of new projects for 2011-12: Rs. 62 crore

Number of national patents filed in 2011-12: 11

Number of design patents filed in 2011-12: 2

Number of technologies licensed in 2011-12: 3

Number of Ph.D students graduated in 2010-11: 103

Number of research papers published in journals in 2010-11: 683

Some of our Current Industrial Partners

Indian Partners International Partners

Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. Boeing, USA

Thermax Ltd. Tata Steel Nederland Technology BV

Samsung India Software Operations Pvt. Ltd. Procter & Gamble Company, USA

Syndicate Bank Eaton Corporation, USA

GE India Technology Centre Pvt. Ltd. Honda R&D Co. Ltd., Japan

Intel Technology Ltd. IHI Corporation, Japan

Larson & Toubro Ltd Chevron USA

Tata Consultancy Services EADS France

Unilever Industries Private Ltd. Cromoz Inc., USA

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. Pratt & Whitney Canada Corporation, Canada

Some of our Current Academic Partners

Politecnico Di Torino, Italia University of Waterloo, Canada

Yale University, USA UT At San Antonio, Texas, USA

California Institute of Technology, USA National University of Singapore, Singapore

Rice University, USA Ecole Polytechnique, France

University of Melbourne, Australia Ecole Centrale de Paris, France

University of Kansas, USA Waseda University, Japan

University of Tokyo, Japan Nanyang Technological Technology, Singapore

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National Wind Tunnel Facility was established to meet the national needs in aeronautical

and non-aeronautical activities. It houses the most versatile and efficient wind tunnel in India and is capable of testing at wind speed up to 80 m/sec.

A 6-rack Real Time Digital Simulation (RTDS) Facility carries out advanced research on practical power systems. The facility is the biggest amongst Asian universities and can simulate the transient behavior of practical systems using a time step of upto two microseconds. It will be used for Synchrophasor Applications in Power Systems and Grid Integration of Wind Farm/Solar Photovoltaics using DC microgrids.

The upcoming Pseudo-Dynamic (PsD) Testing Facility will provide a means for simulation of earthquake loading for prototypical structures as large as a full-scale three-storey building or a 15m long bridge. This state-of-art facility is unique in the country with an integrated strong floor and wall which provide a rigid three-axis reaction system for application of vertical and lateral loads. Anchorages on walls at 0.6 m grid are capable of 2 MN for axial load and 1.5 MN for shear loads from computer controlled servo-hydraulic actuators.

Engine Research Lab has a flexible internal combustion system with provision to vary fuel injection strategies and timing, supercharging boost pressure, control and measurement of fuel injection pressure and injection pattern. It is equipped with AC dynamometer, state of art intake air measurement system and gravimetric fuel flow meter. The engine also has provision for installation of endoscope for combustion visualization at higher engine operating load.

Focused Ion Beam (FIB) System allows milling, imaging and deposition at nanometer scales. The FIB is a product of FEI Company (Nova 600 Nano Lab) and has a dual beam facility. The two beams are (i) An electron beam which has a beam spot size of 2-10 nm, beam current of 1 -35 nA and energy varying from 500 eV to 30 keV. The electron beam is primarily utilized for scan-ning electron microscopy (SEM), i.e., for imaging of samples. (ii) A Gallium ion beam which has a beam spot of 10-15 nm, with beam current of 1-35 nA and energy varying from 5 – 30 keV. The Ga ion is utilized for machining of samples and fabrication of nano-structures. The nano-structures can be made of Pt, C and W, utilizing the Ga-ion beam in combination with three organo-metallic gaseous compounds of Pt, C and W. The FIB system is also equipped with a Residual gas Analyzer (RGA 300) for analyzing the gases being released during the fabrication process.

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Single Cylinder Optical Research Engine Facility

Pseudo-Dynamic Testing Facility

FIB

The Institute established SIDBI Innovation and Incubation Center (SIIC) to foster innovation, research, and entrepreneurial activities in technology-based areas. SIIC provides a platform for start-ups by prospective entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs to convert their innovative ideas into commercially viable products. SIIC also provides services related to patenting and commercialization activities.

For more details visit http://www.iitk.ac.in/siic/index.html

During the year 2011-12, 13 national patents (2 design patents) were filed and 3 technologies were licensed for commercialization. Over the years, 140 Indian, 18 international and 5 design patents have been filed. Further, 21 technologies have been licensed, and 16 patents were granted.

Number of companies currently being incubated at the Center are 15 while number of companies already graduated are 17. Some of the currently incubated companies are:

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Cenogen Materials Pvt. Ltd. Develops special materials such as Nanopowders of various oxides, carbides, and biomaterials.

Simplifix Automation & Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Develops products such as Nano-Positioner, Automatic Currency Validator, Nano-Indenter.

Identronics Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Operating system for smart cards.

Orane Infosystems Pvt. Ltd. Embedded products for industry.

Geokno Geospatial Knowledge Practi-tioners

Works in Geospatial technologies, especially laser scanning and 3D modeling.

Innovative Witech Systems Pvt. Ltd. Embedded intelligent systems such as: - Automated energy metering solutions - Robotic systems and Machine automation.

Innosium Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Develop products based on computer vision and gesture based computing.

Thinking Threads Design Pvt. Ltd.

Visual communication design, product design, interaction and user experience design.

Curadev Pharma Pvt. Ltd. Creates and out- license Investigational New drugs (INDs) for clinical research.

P V Urja Pvt. Ltd. P V Solar Energy

Heavy Electro Works Pvt. Ltd. Medical innovation in Prosthetics & Orthopedics.

INGEN Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Helps to prevent and manage agricultural risks in India.

Irene Nano Core Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Nano polymer coating which would avoid the poststenting crisis.

APCEGEN Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Therapeutic proteins.

Brahmm Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Animation games and computer simulation software.

Technologies Licensed

Hydroxyapatite Poly (etheretherketone) Nanocomposities and method of manufacturing.

Flexible temperature sensor and sensor array.

Image based structural characterization of Fibrous materials.

Four dimensional reconstruction and charaterization system.

Incandescent Lamp.

Carbon Nanofiber/Carbon Nanocoil coated substrate and Nano composites.

Systems and methods for imaging characteristics of a sample and for identifying regions of damage in the sample.

Zinc Chalcogenides, Doped Zinc Chalcogenides and methods of making.

Aluminum based n-type semiconductors as Organic Photonic Presursors for Inorganic Photonic materials in bulk, film and Nanowire form.

Convergent Matrix Factorization based entire frame.

Examples of Technologies Deployed in the Field

Electronic Fuel Injection for Diesel Locomotives (Indian Railways).

Digital Mandi for Indian Kisan (BSNL).

Examples of Technologies Transferred or Developed for Specific Enterprises

Grid connected Power Electronic interface for Solar PV (CDAC, Trivandrum).

SCOSTA operating system for Smart Cards (Indian Navy).

Smart Card solutions, operating system and associated applications (Embsol Technologies Pvt. Ltd.).

Development of Anupravaha, a general purpose CFD solver (Department of Atomic Energy).

Track Side Bogie Monitoring system (Indian Railways).

Wheels and Axles of Improved Metallurgy (Indian Railways).

Corrosion prevention of Rails (Indian Railways).

Environmental Friendly Coach Toilet Discharge system (Indian Railways).

Satellite Imaging for Rail Navigation (Indian Railways).

International Patents Granted / Filed

Method of preparing Magnetic Polymer material composites with magnetic and electrically conducting features.

Magneto-resistive CrO2 polymer composite blend.

Dielectric Resonator.

Pathogen Resistant Transgenic plants, Associated Nucleic Acid Molecules and Techniques involving the same.

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The final Phase-I bot with the tracked drive system

JUGNU

Abhyast (with Boeing): A team of 8 undergraduates designed an Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) that could successfully perform simple path planning and obstacle avoidance. Body engineering aspects of the vehicle were also factored in to make it suitable for unstructured landscape. After successfully navigating in an arena filled with randomly moving obstacles, complexities were introduced into the objectives for Phase II of the project. Phase II mainly aimed at developing gas sensors for detection and monitoring of gases in a chemically hostile environment. For this a swarm intelligence was to be introduced in which the master robot Abhyast now coordinates with few slave robots to monitor the hostile environment. The slave bots are mounted with gas sensors and relay their measurement to the master bot, which in turn assimilates the data received and decides the most probable location of gas source. The master bot itself now has directional navigation capabilities with the help of a digital compass.

Jugnu: Jugnu, India’s first nanosatellite, developed by a team of students under the guidance of faculty members and scientists from ISRO was launched successfully by ISRO’s PSLV C-18 on 12th October 2011. Weighing less than 3 Kg (10 cm x 10 cm x 32 cm in size) with most functionalities of a normal satellite on a small platform, the payloads of the satellite includes an indigenously designed camera for near IR remote sensing, a GPS receiver and an Inertial Measurement Unit. It transmits a Beacon – blinking signal, at all times – all over the earth. After its launch, Jugnu is continuously monitored and controlled by the Ground Station located at IIT Kanpur. The telemetry data (for Health Monitoring) collected for all the subsystems at Ground Station validates the performance of the sensors and the miniaturized technology in the satellite subsystems.

NERD (http://www.iitk.ac.in/nerd): a campus magazine meant for providing students a platform to share the excitement of science and technology. The magazine is created by students - be it their research work, hobby projects, interviews with scientists, or book reviews. Twelve issues have been published since 2008 with an exclusive readership of 5000 students.

Promotion of Work Experience and Research (http://www.iitk.ac.in/dord/power/): a student body aiming at promoting student ideas and a culture of student led technical projects by providing work-experience opportunities. It also helps students in developing their ideas into a research or business proposal. Recently it has won a lot of accolades by addressing some problems of local industries.

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Some Major Research Projects The ongoing projects sponsored by Boeing, USA are Predictive models for sheet

thinning and spring back incremental sheet forming; Investigation into the thermo-oxidative and mechanical response of commercial polyimide resins and polyimide nano-composites for aerospace application; High lift aerodynamics, Condition based monitoring of air compressors and motors; and passive and active RFID technology research.

DISANET - Information Network for Natural Disaster Mitigation and Recovery has been funded by JICA, Japan. Based on the available information on active tectonics in the Himalayan region, the project will undertake detailed mapping, paleo-seismic investigation and GPS measurements in three transacts across the fault zone between NW and Central Himalayas. It is also proposed to develop an Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating facility at IIT Kanpur to define the timings of earthquakes, and rates of crustal deformation for seismic and tectonic history of the Himalayan front.

Discovery of Novel Modulators of Neurotoxicity as Potential Therapeutic Interventions -Neurons are more vulnerable to physiological stress and damage as compared to other tissues as they cease to divide post-birth and therefore damaged ones can not be replaced in one’s life time. More often than not, the causative change for the neurogeneration is the neuron’s inability to cope up with the increased load of damaged/abnormal proteins that are neurotoxic. Towards this goal, the project aims at discovering novel pathways and players in neuronal stress response.

Agropedia - funded by the Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome is a comprehensive, seamlessly integrated model of digital content organization in the agricultural domain. It aims to bring together a community of practice through an ICT-mediated knowledge creating and organizing platform with an effort to leverage the existing agricultural extension system.

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has sanctioned a grant of Rs. 6.6 crore for the Design and Development of Organic Solar Cells Sub-modules. The project proposes to build sub-modules with polymer based organic solar cells that will be useful for practical applications.

The project titled development of test facility for fire propagation and associated thermal hydraulic aspects in multiple compartments sponsored by Department of Atomic Energy aims at the establishment of a unique facility to study propagation of fire plume and the resulting toxic emissions in multiple compartments similar to residential quarters. This is an endeavor towards the development of a national code for fire safety of buildings.

Development of an integrated microfuel processor for producing hydrogen from ethanol and development of silicon based microfluidic/metal-oxide-semiconductor biosensors. This involves utilizing microfabrication techniques from the semiconductor industry and the machining industry. To support the activities, a facility has been set up with a Rs 5 crore project grant from the DST IRHPA scheme.

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Contact: Dean of R&D, Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, India, Ph. No. 91-512-7578, E-mail: dord@iitk.ac.in

www.iitk.ac.in/dord

The Institute has 11 research centers/units in interdisciplinary areas endowed with state-of-the-art facilities.

Center for Environmental Science and Engineering

Prabhu Goel Research Center for Computer and Internet Security

National Information Center of Earthquake Engineering

DST Unit on Nanosciences

SAMTEL Center for Display Technology

Syndicate Bank Entrepreneurship Research and Training Centre

BSNL-IITK Telecom Center of Excellence

Center for Laser Technology

Center for Mechatronics

Advanced Center for Materials Science

Advanced Center for Electronic Systems

Major achievements at a few Centers are:

DST Unit on Nanosciences (http://www.iitk.ac.in/nanoscience/index.html)

Nanolens and nanolens array fabrication by self-assembly

Non-fouling and reusable pressure-sensitive adhesive

Micro/nano functional carbon fiber webs for environmental remediation

Technology for large area, ultra-fast micro-patterning of coatings

SAMTEL Center for Display Technology (http://www.iitk.ac.in/scdt/)

1.0 and 1.5 inch full colour OLED display

Organic Solar cell module

A method for printing micron size width of nano gold ink.

BSNL IITK Telecom Center of Excellence (http://www.iitk.ac.in/dord/bitcoe/)

Digital Mandi for the Indian Kisan.

Power Supply for telecom applications.

Strategies for telecom operators to switch to IPv6 from IPv4.

Photo Courtesy: Dr. Anupam Pal, Mr. Ravi Shukla

Mask less Photolithography

Doosan Cluster Tool

Kalisindh Power plant being tested