Richa is researching the synthesis and characterization of 2D materials. She will be using high temperature vacuum furnaces to grow GaSe thin film. And, then she will characterize the grown materials using Atomic force microscopy, Raman Spectroscopy and Photoluminescence spectroscopy she will characterize these materials and their opto-electronic properties.
Unnati is studiyng survey Report on Designs of Experiments to determine the 3 neutrino mass hierarchy and laboratory work on development and characterisation of Avalanche photo diode detectors.
Richa’s research is “NON UREMIC CALCIPHYLAXIS” highly fatal and extremely rare disease of “ Non Uremic Calciphylaxis ”, which has a reported mortality rate of 81% within 6 months of diagnosis , which is much more than many of the stage IV malignancies. It is an ischaemic vasculopathy characterized by the deposition of calcium within the media of small and intermediate dermal vasculature which can lead to epidermal ischaemia , ulceration and necrosis. It is usually seen in end stage kidney disease patients but i am working on that disease that develops in non kidney disease patients.
I’m a 4th year MD/PhD dual degree student, currently working towards my PhD in Epidemiology. My research interests are in the area of healthcare-associated infections, especially those related to antibiotic resistance and Clostridium difficile globally. Outside of work I enjoy cooking, photography, reading, and travel.
I am a senior undergraduate at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and a 2019 Khorana scholar.
My work at the Nowicki lab at Duke University involved exploring the effects of categorical colour perception on mate choice in zebra finches. Realistic animations of videos of singing males were used in a two-choice experimental set-up to determine the preference of females under highly controlled conditions. Data were also collected to investigate the role of luminance in categorical colour perception in these birds. I also picked up fieldwork techniques such as misnetting and banding/ tagging, essential for an ecologist. In addition, birdcare (handling and rearing of bird populations in the lab) comprised a major part of my learning experience in the lab. I was also exposed to the rich field of bird-song, another primary area of research in the lab. My work would help further current understanding of how animals perceive the world and influence our knowledge of the evolution of colour-based signals in the animal kingdom.
“My project involves using data science in order to obtain models for aerodynamic prediction, which are trained using CFD and physical experiment data. These models can then predict flow fields and forces on bodies at a fraction of the time and cost taken by CFD and physical experiments. The present focus is on achieving this through the use of Convolutional Neural Networks.”
“The project is to synthesize faces of different ages using Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs). The goal is to see if by using these augmented faces, whether age estimation algorithms can be improved and by how much.”
“I am working on developing camera calibration algorithms adapted for diverse multi camera networks. These calibrated camera networks can then be used for various 3D Computer Vision applications.”
Shubham is studying physiological and genetic basis of stress resistance in 288 genetic lines of cultivated sunflowers, in a large greenhouse study at the UGA
Asimanshu is working on the Ground Vibration test of the X-HALE a High Altitude Long endurance aircraft. The GVT data are used to validate analytical vibration and flight control models by measuring flight control transfer functions and structural frequency response functions. He is also validating it with standard FEM codes.This project is used to validate the non linear aeroelastic code UM -NAST developed by University of Michigan.
I worked on designing an “Evaluation Board for a non-magnetic CMOS based Circulator”. Non-reciprocal devices such as circulators have immense application in communication, radar, imaging and sensing. Such devices are mostly made from magneto-optical materials which are bulky, expensive and they cannot be easily integrated on a CMOS based integrated circuit.
Recently, non-magnetic CMOS based circulators have been demonstrated and they have a lot of potential.
The designed evaluation board, which provides an interface to use this new circulator, will be sent to other research groups so that they can easily experiment with the circulator for new applications.
Vishal is researching the detection of morphological differences in tissues in the context of osteoarthritis. His project is based on the registration of two images to analyse effect of bone development in osteoarthritis.
Amir is doing his research on a NASA Project that looks at the transformation of Cyanobacteria with alkane producing gene for the production of biofuel
Natalie is investigating mechanism of Orb2 dependent long term maintenance of memory in Drosophila – Research focuses on studying the proteins involved in the regulation of memory
I did my summer research internship at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign under the guidance of Prof. Chad Rienstra. My project was on the quest of searching lattice structure and dynamics of celebrated antifungal drug Amphotericin-B (AmB) and its interaction with Cholesterol and Ergosterol. The motivation of this project was to understand the working mechanism of the drug inside a cell. Since AmB is also a nephrotoxin and kills good cells (presumably by binding with Cholesterol) besides killing fungal cells (binding with Ergosterol), a modified structure of AmB for targeted functionality is necessary. I used solid-state NMR data of AmB from various experiments and conducted molecular dynamics simulations with restraint inputs from the NMR NOE data. I’m currently continuing to contribute to the project by doing Density Functional theoretic calculations to understand UV-Vis spectrum of the AmB lattice.
Pallav is studying Invariant Theory of General Linear Groups over Finite Fields – They are trying to describe the generators of the invariant ring of general linear groups over finite fields due to their action on a quotient subring of the polynomial ring
Prakhar is an Integrated MSc. in Chemistry (5 years) student at the National Institute of Science Education and Research, Bhubaneshwar. He has previous research experience in photochemistry, metal-organic frameworks, and supramolecular chemistry. He is currently doing his master’s project in porphyrin chemistry with a focus on modulating non-Hückel aromaticity under Prof. A. Srinivasan. He was looking forward to working on synthesizing novel polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) for application in spintronics in summer 2020.
Daniel Howard, a 2015 S.N. Bose scholar, spent his summer in Bengaluru, India at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Centre for Applicable Mathematics (TIFR-CAM) with Prof. Praveen Chandrasekhar. Collaborating with Prof. Dinshaw Balsara from the University of Notre Dame, research work focused on computatonal fluid dynamics and discontinuous Galerkin methods. Daniel received his B.S. in Applied Mathematics, Engineering, and Physics (AMEP) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in May 2015 and is now a Ph.D. graduate student at the University of Notre Dame in the Department of Applied & Computational Mathematics & Statistics (ACMS).
Kanika is studying the production of biofuels using Zymomomas using MEP pathway which is used to make isoprenoid. They are trying to clone 5 enzymes of this pathway and incorporate this plasmid into zymomonas for bioduels biofuels production
Atishay is in a lab researching “Karma” – An information integration tool that enables users to quickly and easily integrate data from a variety of data sources.
My name is Meera Joy, currently a 4th year Integrated BS-MS student at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Tirupati (IISER-T), majoring in Chemistry. I would like to work in the interface of chemistry and biology. I am interested in applying chemical synthesis in the field of Biology/Medicine to synthesize biologically relevant molecules including drug molecules.
Waquar Kaleem was at Penn State during summers of 2019 researching under Professor Sanjay Srinivasan on Lattice Boltzamann simulations for predicting CO2 plume migrations in saline aquifers.
US Bose 2016 Scholar Shilpa is investigating the Relationship Between Usual Diet and Prevalence of Infections with Multi-Drug Resistant Organisms (MDRO) in Gurgaon, Haryana, India
Ananth is studying polymer conformations in ionic liquids. The aim of the project is to find the dependence of polymer size on the molecular weight, when the polymer is dissolved in an ionic liquid. The polymers studied are PEO and NIPAM. The studies will be conducted using rheology and light scattering techniques.
Manaswini is researching the effect of changing extracellular potassium ion concentration in action potential firing frequency of the crab somato-gastric nervous system.
Anuja’s project is studying a norovirus is the most common cause of gastroenteritis in the world. The ORF1 of this virus encodes a polypeptide which is cleaved by a protease to form non structural proteins. The project is to study the effect of various protease inhibitors on the Houston variety of this virus (HOV) and find the most potent inhibitor of HOV protease.
Host: University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center
2016 Khorana Scholars
Siva Sai is researching nucleic acid delivery using nanoparticles- to deliver different mRNA , tRNA , sgRNA using lipid nanoparticles for gene editing purposes.
Vivek’s lab is called “The Effect on the size distribution of the Nano-particles by the application of DC as well as AC Electric field to the Flame System with different geometry”. Along with this they will also focus on doing charge fraction, size distribution measurement, and SEM TEM imaging of Nano-particles.
The topic that Rhaul is studying is Rhodopsin Biosynthesis and Disc Formation in Rod Photoreceptor cell Description: Photoreceptor cells are a specialized type of neuron found in the retina that absorb and convert photons into electrical signals. They are essential for initiating the phototransduction cascade, which ultimately leads to visual perception. There are two types of photoreceptors: rods and cones. Rods are located in the outer regions of the retina and allow us to see in dim light as well as dark conditions. Rhodopsin is the light sensitive visual pigment in rods that allows humans to see in these low light conditions. Cones, on the other hand, reside mostly in the central portion of the retina and allow us to perceive fine visual detail and color. Both rods and cones are comprised of an outer segment full of discrete membranous discs, an inner segment, a nuclear layer, and a synaptic terminal. My project focuses on understanding rhodopsin biosynthesis and disc formation patterns in rod outer segments (ROS). It is widely accepted that disc formation in mammalian rods follows a 10-day cycle and light exposure increases disc phagocytosis at the apical end and increases lipid production at the basal end. Phagocytosis and degradation of ROS ensures functional integrity of the photoreceptor cells and other retinal cells. There are several factors, such as genetic or environmental factors, that can cause photoreceptor degeneration and eventual vision loss. Currently I am exploring how varying light conditions impact ROS renewal and rhodopsin incorporation into discs. Using a transgenic mouse that has a fluorescent marker attached to rhodopsin, I aim to understand the pattern of disc formation, rhodopsin biosynthesis in ROS, and the degenerative effect of light. This project can provide insight on how light exposure affects photoreceptors structure and function, which plays a key role in the visual process.
I’m working on deep reinforcement learning for training machine agents. We are attempting to borrow elements of human decision making and investigating its advantages when applied to reinforcement learning algorithms.
“My area of interest is Solar Photovoltaics and i am working on solar cell electrical modelling and its parameter degradation over time. It can be extended to study the effect of environment and other factors contributing Solar Panel performance degradation.”
Jared Landsman is an MS student in the Building Science program at UC Berkeley. He received his BS in Civil Engineering from Cornell University in 2014. Through the Center for Building Energy Research and Development (CBERD), Jared is currently conducting research on occupant comfort and the performance of passive design strategies in buildings in both the United States and India. This past summer, Jared spent 6 weeks working with the Centre for Advanced Research in Building Science & Energy (CARBSE) at CEPT University in India.
I am working on self-healing polymers and hydrogels. My work involves fabricating hydrogel samples and testing their mechanical properties. The ultimate aim of my project is to come up with hydrogels with high healing efficiency and superior mechanical properties.
Somesh is studying the Development of Computational Model and Experimental Study on Quantification and Therapeutic Efficacy Study of varying density of Phosphlipid based Supramolecular Nanoparticles
“The aim of my work is to compare mixed signal neurons with analog neurons. I am designing a low power ADC in cadence virtuoso 45nm process. The ADC will be used to interface crossbar array with digital neuron to realize neuromorphic circuit.”
“I am trying to understand the cycling of Particulate organic carbon in one of the estuaries (the Hooghly estuary) of the largest river system, the Ganges. I use organic biomarkers as a special tools to address the specific questions related to POM cycling in Hooghly estuary.”
Murlidhar is fabricating scaffolds from blend of natural cell-interacting chitosan and lactide-polyethylene gylcol hydrogel followed by characterization of hydrogels which can further used for encapsulation of MSCs.
” Verifying the accuracy of a structural model of a structure and assessing it’s performance during an earthquake. The performance of the structure during an earthquake will be predicted for future considerations based on past earthquake data. “
“My project will involve understanding of the remarkable phenomenon of quantum entanglement (Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance”) within the context of the collider experiments at BNL’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) and CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Specifically, the project will involve understanding the correlations between so-called Lambda baryons that are moving in opposite directions at close to the speed of light.”
Sibendu is studying the ffective SINR measurement for wifi OFDM PHY layer abstraction. Actually present PHY layer abstraction has a default AWGN channel so we have a constant frequency independent SINR but to avoid interference and multi path fading we go for OFDM where a number of subcarrier frequency bands used to send parallel bit stream. So here SINR will be different in each frequency band so we get a SINR vector that we are trying to map in a single SINR by EESM and MIESM algorithm. The entire implementation will be done in NS3 where the SISO (Single Input Single Output) model exist so from the SINR vector got from MIMO model we will have a single SINR so that it can be equivalently fitted in that SISO.model
Jacob is studying multiple vulnerabilities among People Who Inject Drugs (PWIDs) – This research focuses on the scope for primary prevention among PWIDs in their injecting as well as sexual networks. This work also looks into scope for integrating sexual reproductive health services with maternal and child health services. He finds this topic very interesting looking at India’s HIV control programme (which looks at prevention programmes aimed at high risk groups for HIV) at one hand,and the existing social cultural structure with patriarchy and status of women and how these affect access to health on the other to understand various dimension of vulnerabilities for transmission in the population.
Varad is a final year medical student interested in developing technologies with public health applications. He is also interested in other aspects of public health such as health policy and the use of AI in public health. He wishes to work in the public health sector in India in the future. He was selected to develop low-cost diagnostic devices using immunological tools under Prof Ashutosh Chilkoti at Duke University.
Sushmita is receiving hands-on training in advanced laboratory techniques in characterizing various components of plant-biotic stress interactions; genetic diversity analysis and bioinformatics.
Dhiman worked on computational analysis of nano-bio interface from molecular dynamics simulation. The charge of nanoparticles influences how they interact with biomolecules. He used molecular simulation techniques with classical force fields to study the charge and mobility of nanoparticles in presence of external electric field and make predictions which can be compared with experiments.
Poovizhi Rengasamy is studying the simulation and implementation of voltage quadrupler. For the purpose of electrofishing 240V AC generated in the boat is converted to 1200 V DC using power electronic switches.The simulation is done using PLECS software and has to be implemented in PCB board.Earlier the conversion from AC is done using manual switches and huge capacitors. After using power electronic circuit we are able to achieve the conversion with less capacitance values and also control can be done in the final output voltage which is also cheaper.
Bhargav is trying to understand the working of some secretory and cargo proteins using CRISPR tagging aided live imaging and hopes to apply that to a neurodegenerative model.
“Validation of a new multi-scale method for microheterogeneous structures by 3D printing. As experimental tests on many types of microheterogeneous structures are often not possible, the idea is to use 3D printing to regenerate some generic multi-scale structures artificially and then perform strength tests on it.”
Suriya is studying MR reconstruction using deep learning. Use of compressed sensing techniques allows MRI reconstruction from undersampled sparse K space data.To explore the use of specialised convolutional neural networks and autoencoders to learn optimal regulizers in reducing the motion artifacts and also reducing the computational time in compressed sensing based CEST(chemical energy saturation transfer) MRI reconstruction.
“The Effect of Hepatits B Status on Drug Induced Hepatotoxicity from Anti-Tuberculosis Treatment” — Treatment with antituberculosis medications often induces hepatotoxic effects, deemed drug induced hepatotoxicity. This can cause serious liver damage, increase likelihood of default, and complicate treatment. Chronic Hepatitis B co-infection is hypothesized to exacerbate this side effect. The Tibetan refugee population in India has both a high burden of Hepatitis B and Tuberculosis and thus provides a unique opportunity to study the interaction between these two diseases.
Anish is researching the analysis of Transcription Termination and Alternative Splicing by computational data mining of available 4 SU transcription termination experimental data
Yashovardhan’s proj is called et name is “Dynamic Searchable Encryption via Blind Storage”. He will be working on implementing and improving a solution developed by his professor to the problem of “Symmetric Searchable Encryption. He will be considering various security, efficiency and usability aspects of this construction.
I am a fourth year student pursuing a dual degree in M.Sc. Biological Sciences and B.E. Computer Science at BITS Pilani, Goa. So far, I have worked on projects in the field of Cancer Biology and Molecular Biology of the Cell. I am currently interested in the field of Neuroscience and Bioinformatics, or an interdisciplinary field that incorporates Biology and Computer Science.
I am a CSE Undergraduate at IIT Madras and primarily interested in the fields of Theoretical Machine Learning, Deep Learning Theory, Reinforcement Learning and Explainable AI. I also love to explore the systems perspective of ML/DL applications and their large-scale deployment.
I pursue BS-MS(4th year) degree at IISER Tirupati, specialising in chemical sciences.I am passionate to do research on the therapeutic applications of nanoparticles.
Soundarya’s project area is the Process Engineering and Energy. Brief description: It deals with supply chain management and finding the most optimized way for producing biofuel using regioanl depots and GAMs software.
“I am studying an ancient marine arthropod from ~495 million years ago. This is a trilobite named as Walcottaspis vanhornei and it is specifically found in rocks of the Upper Mississippi Valley region of the USA. I am using computer softwares to morphometrically and descriptively analyze the form and growth of this animal.”
Sudharshan is in a lab titled: An Autonomous Method to Engage/Disengage a Remote Differential Lock using a Monocular Fisheye Camera to Increase the mobility of a Double-Ackermann Steered Rover
Raman is studying the preparation of Samples of Coprolites from two different formations of same age for investigation of correlation between biomarkers present and diet of the source organism
Santhoshini is studying approximating MAXDICUT in a streaming setting – They are working on finding a good approximation algorithm for finding Max DICUT of a directed graph with its edges coming in a streaming setting and they are working on lower bounds for the same
Sridevi is studying homeostatic plasticity in cultured visual cortical neurons: The aim of the project will be to transfect cultured visual cortical neurons with a lentiviral construct expressing a mutant form of GRIP, a post synaptic protein and study the effect on homeostatic plasticity.
I went to India this past summer to complete my field work for my Masters in Public Health program. I did a qualitative research project on antibiotic resistance. I enjoyed learning more about public health along with learning about the Indian culture.
Host: Professor Stephane Coutu, Pennsylvania State University
I was involved in the project HELIX (High Energy Light Isotope eXperiment). It is a balloon-borne experiment designed to measure the chemical and isotopic abundances of light-cosmic ray nuclei from ~200 MeV/nucleon to ~10 MeV/nucleon. It is expected to fly in Antarctica in December, 2020. I tested the Silicon Photomultipliers which are used in fabrication and testing of the time-of-flight detector systems. The IV characteristics were made to know about their operating voltage. Thermistor calibration and vacuum testing were done to know their behavior. SiPM assembly was mounted on scintillator bars for the assembling into the overall HELIX instrument.”
Sai Sinhu is working on Biosensors for small molecules based on Transcription Factors. They have transcription factor gene and a GFP transformed into a bacterial cell. So when the transcription factor goes and binds to promoter of GFP , the GFP is repressed. When the small molecule binds to transcription factor, it leaves the promoter making space for RNA polymerase to bind and GFP is expressed. So this GFP on Off helps us to sense how much small molecule is produced in the cell. I am checking which promoter for transcription factor will give us a good on-off signal. So they selected promoters which have diverse distributed protein production units and planning to transform them into bacterial cells and see how the GFP on off works.
