Projects

The general aim of this project is to develop a new generation of non-viral vectors for the delivery of gene and biomolecules. Silica-based composite nanoparticles will be prepared with purpose-designed nanoparticle asymmetry, nanoscale surface roughness and compositions. Their cellular interactions and cellular delivery performance will be comprehensively studied to deliver new understanding of the relationship between unconventional nanostructural parameters and gene/biomolecular delivery efficacy. The potential applications of these particles will be tested in mRNA, DNA and protein delivery applications both in vitro and in vivo.

Abnormal function within brain networks is a key determinants of seizure generation, spread and termination. Brain networks are also likely to play an important part in determining therapeutic response and in cognitive impairment associated with epilepsy. The combination of high spatial resolution of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and high temporal resolution of electroencephalogram (EEG) holds the potential to detect the abnormality in brain network. However, due to the complexity in modelling both kinds of data, limited understanding is available on the altered information flow in the brain of epileptic patient. The Garg lab at IITD have developed a method utilizing sparse (i.e. constrained) regression to model the fMRI signal as a multivariate auto-regressive process at the voxel level allowing the underlying brain dynamics to be modelled accurately and parsimoniously. The method provides insight into the information flow in the fMRI data, which is postulated to reflect the flow of information in the underlying neural networks. Using simultaneous EEG-fMRI data in control subjects and patients with focal epilepsy acquired at UQ, this project will further develop the autoregressive modelling to identify patterns of abnormal connectivity in focal epilepsy, to determine if abnormalities in connectivity allow the identification of the epileptogenic focus and to understand the role of interictal epileptic transients in detected network abnormalities.

Gasification of coal is now widely recognized as the core of clean coal technologies, particularly in the context of coal-to-liquids (CtL) technologies. There is significant interest on the Indian side, as part of a major government-backed initiative, to develop technology for conversion of high-ash (up to 45%) Indian coal to methanol (coal to methanol: CtM). With CO2 management being a strong driver for future gasification technologies, there is also interest in gasification of biomass, as well as blends of coal and biomass, in order to develop low-carbon (or ideally carbon-neutral) conversion of solid fuels to liquid fuels. For CtM technologies of the future, there is need to develop gasifiers which work with a suitable mixture of steam and neat oxygen (99%+ purity), so that downstream separation of waste gases (including N2) is less demanding. However, direct oxy-conversion puts several operational challenges on the gasifier, which motivates the present project. During actual operation of the gasifier, an examination of particle-scale phenomena on the solid fuel (coal, biomass, petcoke) reveals three complex phenomena: (a) fragmentation because of product gases (synthesis gas) expanding from the core of the solid particle and cracking up the ash layer, and because of percolation phenomena in the vicinity of the particle surface, which lead to fragmentation when the local porosity is sufficiently high; (b) attrition between colliding particles of the solid fuel, and between colliding particles of solid fuel and refractory (ash particles), leading to production of fines through mechanical action; (c) agglomeration possibly owing to the inorganic (ash) component of the coal particles approaching their liquidus temperature, and such colliding particles fusing to create larger agglomerates. Both processes (a) and (b) lead to production of fines, while process (c) leads to production of large agglomerates. Either of these lead to poor gasifier operation; (c) actually leads to catastrophic shutdown of the gasifier. These problems are significantly enhanced in direct oxygen firing (which is a must for future operations), and not at all understood in the context of high ash coals, or during gasification of coal and biomass or petcoke blends. The aim of the proposed project is to examine these phenomena through modelling the transport (multicomponent mass transfer and heat transfer) effects at the particle scale, while incorporating the structure evolution and particle fragmentation as the gasification proceeds. This part of the project will be executed both at IITD and UQ. At a later stage, the goal would be to embed these models into a reactor-scale (gasifier-scale) CFD code, and examine for the first time how such phenomena affect the global gasifier behaviour. This will be predominantly done at IITD, in collaboration with the UQ supervisor. Experiments may be conducted, as required, for validation of the multi-scale models, using equipment already in-place at IITD.

In this project, we intend to develop the innovative data-driven techniques for application context aware smart computing and communication strategies at the edge nodes for 5th generation Internet of Things (5G IoT) and beyond communications. The use cases are important from both indoor as well as outdoor perspective, though the operating conditions, available resources, and objectives could be significantly different. Usually the smart devices/robots/sensors used in such use cases are of heterogeneous types and in large scale. Mobile communication and energy agents (e.g., unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)) are also deployed to undertake certain important tasks such as sensing, controlling, recharging, managing, remote diagnosing, etc. To perform the desired tasks by the appropriate smart device and/or mobile agents and at the right time requires coordination among the devices/ mobile agents and the central control system. For this, data collected by sensors and mobile agents are to be communicated either to a central system or to set of distributed agents or nodes depending upon the use case and the architecture. Primary objective of this project is to study context-aware, sustainable communication and networking issues in deployment of smart sensors and mobile agents and to provide optimal solutions in terms of algorithms, protocols, and deployable proof-of-concepts on application aware network platform.

With continuous increase in the world energy demand and ever-increasing dependency on petroleum, over 86.7 million barrels of petroleum are processed every day in refinery around the world to meet the demand. The declining crude reserves have shifted focus on the natural gas as an alternative supply for fuel. Methane is a major constituent of natural gas and world reserve of natural gas are constantly being upgraded as more and more natural gas reserves are discovered than conventional oil reserves. Presently, most of the natural gas produced as associated gas, particularly at remote locations, there of it is not cost effective to transport huge volume of gas for large distance and methane produced in petroleum refining, and petroleum processes are flared and hence wasted. Both CO2 and CH4 being greenhouse gases, responsible for global warming and hence, emission of methane into atmosphere is to be curtailed as per present EPA norms. Therefore, it is essential to convert natural gas and refinery off gases to value added liquid fuels, which are easily transportable, and reduces the environment footprint. Converting methane to gasoline economically is a very important as it can go a long way in meeting growing energy demand. Fuels obtained from methane does not have any impurities like sulphur etc. and hence is a clean fuel. The Indian chemical industry is an $80 billion enterprise that touches 96% of all manufactured goods. Because of its reliance on petroleum fractions and natural gas liquids as feedstock, the chemical industry is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the world: the industrial sector accounts for 21% of total world's greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, use of low-cost, environmentally friendly CH4 as a feedstock for the manufacture of high-value hydrocarbons would revolutionize the chemicals industry. However, controlled reaction of CH4 is difficult. CH4s CH bonds are very stable and usually require high processing temperatures to break, or activate, them. In addition, once the bonds are broken, thermodynamics favour formation of low-value products, like CO2 and carbon (coke). Current industrial practice is to break down the CH4 molecule in a partial oxidation step to form a synthesis gas mixture of CO and H2, and then to build the desired hydrocarbon products fuels or chemicals from the synthesis gas components in a second step. However, use of multiple, high temperature processing steps results in low overall energy and carbon efficiencies and high capital costs. Due to inherent disadvantages of the above-mentioned routes for methane conversion, Single step, or direct, conversion processes, in which CH4 molecules are coupled to form ethylene (C2H4), ethane (C2H6), or aromatics without going through a syngas intermediate have been the subject of industrial and academic interest for decade. Non-oxidative conversion over metal doped zeolite (MFI and MWW) can be most commonly used catalyst for production of aromatics along with hydrogen. The physiochemical properties (acidity, topology surface area etc.) of the zeolite have a tremendous effect on the catalytic activity and product selectivity in methane dehydroaromatization. Common to all direct processes is formation of undesired, but thermodynamically favoured side product- CO2 and H2O in oxidative approach and C (coke) in non-oxidative approaches which results in low stability and reactivity of the catalyst. The present aim of the proposal is to study effect off process variables on limiting the formation of by-products during methane dehydroaromatization reaction over the metal doped hierarchical zeolite. Thus, in this regard an integrated approach for synthesis and characterization of hierarchial zeolite (HZSM-5 and HMCM-22) will be developed under supervision of Prof. George Zhao, School of Chemical Engineering, QU, Australia. Subsequently, development of bifunctional catalyst (metal loading over the support synthesized by Prof. Zhao) and its performance over different process parameters will be done under the supervision of Prof. K. K. Pant. Since both India and Australia are among top 20 oil consuming country, thus development of sustainable technologies for non-oxidative methane valorisation will lead to decrease in crude import dependency for 1.5 billion lives around the world.

This project proposes to explore the relation between force, violence, non-violence, and resistance at two levels. From an ontological perspective, the task is to consider 'the being of force' to ask how and whether violence (and non-violence) and resistance are located in the categories through which we determine politics and our world. This requires investigating the concepts of force and resistance in the history of thought and discovering the historical limits of their use vis-a-vis the political and institutional conditions. At the political and legal levels, and the domains where ethical judgements are made, the task is to examine the relations and effects of the different concepts of violence, non-violence and resistance proposed by key thinkers of politics and ethics. The clarification of ontological issues will deepen understanding of the politics of the acts and concepts named by violence, non-violence and resistance, terms that name different configurations of forces in history. Potential PHD candidates can consider the research question through philosophers including but not restricted to Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, FWJ Schelling, Friedrich Nietzsche, M. K. Gandhi, Martin Heidegger, Hannah Arendt, Walter Benjamin, Frantz Fanon, Simone Weil, Emanuel Levinas, Jacques Derrida, Aileen Moreton-Robinson, and Jean-Luc Nancy. To ground the project, the theories and practices of resistance and of violence and non-violence in India and in Australia will be examined and compared with a view to the contexts of gender, race, caste, and class. The project also engages with literature and film to study how resistance is imagined in these two contexts. Aims: To understand the relation between ontological and political violence. To compare theories and practices of violence and non-violent resistance in the historical contexts of India and Australia. To examine and develop normative as well as critical accounts of these practices. Methodology: The project will include narrative and philosophical investigations of post-Kantian continental and post-colonial thought to understand ontological, political and legal violence and non-violence in relation to literature and/or film. This methodology will involve conceptual explorations as well as study of different historical contexts.

Health Information Technology (IT) Startups have become a booming industry. The phenomenon is global having health IT Startups emerging almost in all countries around the world. India's health IT Startup sector has made a significant impact on the economy. India's goal of reaching a $1 trillion digital economic by 2022 has been fuelled by the growth health Startups in the country. The number of Internet users in India has grown to over 500million today. The growth of health Startups in India makes the country the world's third biggest startup ecosystem behind the US and the UK. With healthcare records moving online, and more people including doctors expecting mobile solutions it seem only natural that start-ups are emerging to help users visit the doctor remotely, track their medication regimes or get a diagnosis from a doctor at long distance. Trailblazing into the healthcare market place, health Startups are bridging the gap between healthcare and technology to build safer and more inclusive healthcare experience. This calls for studies to systematically investigate the trends and prospects of factors that determine the effectiveness and the success of these startups. This study aims to propose to develop a critical success factors (CSF) framework for the Health IT Startups creation, growth, and sustainability in India. This framework can then be used by entrepreneurs to assess the outcome quality and the growth and sustain a startup in this area.

This research project aims at deepening our understanding of the adoption of automation technologies in the economy, both from a positive and from a normative perspective.

Traditionally, the distribution systems are designed for uni-directional power flow with power source elsewhere and are always connected to transmission system. Also, the changes in system configuration were not too frequent. Introduction of renewable energy based distributed generations (DGs), battery energy storages, and electric vehicles (EVs) is changing the overall structure and conventions of the traditional distribution systems. Various market mechanism and more pronounced role of distribution system operator (DSO) is emerging due to multiple ownership and need for demand response (DR) till individual house hold level. The biggest challenge in distribution systems is the availability of data and network information for accurate state estimation and modelling. An indirect approach using measurement/historical data to determine the network configuration/other states needs to be explored. Further for more data availability low cost measurement, accumulation and storage should be explored. Uncertainties in PV/EV can be complementary and should be seen as opportunity for balancing each other's effect along with already existing natural storage in distribution system. The IoT based platform can provide data in the cloud base which can be further used to develop predictive models for distribution network under various uncertainties. Emphasis in this project will be to develop 1) low cost measuring infrastructure for LV distribution system with EV penetration 2) Data driven approach for determining the distribution system models 3) Optimal scheduling and voltage management in weak distribution systems with large EV penetration utilizing V2G and G2V operations.

Various features of the Indian labor market spanning regulation, financial constraints, and social norms naturally translate into a suboptimal allocation of workers' talent across productive units. In turn, such misallocation can lead to significant losses in aggregate productivity, as highlighted by a recent body of research (see Restuccia and Rogerson (2013), or Hopenhayn (2014) for surveys). This project proposes a novel macroeconomic framework to systematically analyze the sources of talent misallocation in the Indian economy. Through those lenses, we aim at improving upon existing methodologies for measuring the misallocation of talent in India, and to evaluate the role of fiscal policy in mitigating such distortions. The project will yield both positive and normative insights, and it is organized around four main components. Component 1 builds a structural model pinning down the possible sources of talent misallocation within the Indian context. Component 2 quantifies the inputs of the model using firm-level data, as well as household level data on wages and occupations. Component 3 computes the relative significance of each of the sources of talent misallocation in India across occupations and sectors. Finally, Component 4 looks at the optimal design of a rich tax-transfers system balancing redistribution and efficiency. For this last component we focus on two main themes: (i) the extent to which productive inefficiencies can be rationalized by redistributive goals, and (ii) the magnitude of the welfare gains from implementing the optimal tax-transfers system.