In-Depth – Page 6 – The KGP Chronicle

Kgp Hacks Corona

IIT Kharagpur’s Undergraduate Students Council has launched KGP Hacks Corona, an initiative for the IIT KGP community to build software and data solutions aimed at tackling various challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The objective as stated by Council representative Santosh T.Y.S.S is not only to engage the students during the isolation period but also create an online space where developers can ideate, experiment and build software solutions. Students can use technologies of their choice in diverse areas to address the thematic areas of the tech challenge.

The thematic areas span over

Health: Address and scale a range of health initiatives, including preventative/hygiene behaviors (especially for at-risk countries and populations), supporting frontline health workers, scaling telemedicine, contact tracing/containment strategies, treatment and diagnosis development.
Vulnerable Populations: The set of problems facing the elderly and the immuno-compromised, such as access to meals and groceries, and supporting those who are losing jobs and income.
Businesses: The set of problems that businesses are facing to stay afloat, collaborate effectively, and move parts of their business online.
Community: Promoting connection to friends, family, and neighbors to combat social isolation and the digitizing of public services for local governments.
Education: Alternative learning environments and tools for students, teachers, and entire school systems.
Entertainment: Alternatives to traditional forms of entertainment that can keep the talent and audiences safe and healthy.
Others as ideated by the students.

On submission of innovative ideas selection would be done on a rolling basis and will be mentored to develop it further.

“Shortlisted solutions would be considered for deployment by scaling it up based on its feasibility. We have made a huge range of COVID references available for online assistance,” said Santosh.

Interested students must join the slack group for KGP hacks Corona: https://bit.ly/3dAmF0V

For more info on rules and regulations, please refer: https://bit.ly/33ZTEYh

Study@COVID-Time with NDLI

IIT Kharagpur develops JEE Preparation Module on NDLI during COVID-19 Lockdown

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In a recent announcement JEE Main and NEET UG have been postponed till last week of May 2020 with Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Minister, Human Resources Development, Govt. of India urging students to prepare further for these examinations during this period. While the decision for the postponement was expected, students now need adequate online resources and e-learning materials to continue with their preparation.

IIT Kharagpur has been quick to address the issue by developing a preparatory module for JEE available to students for free on the National Digital Library of India platform. Students can visit the NDLI website https://www.ndl.gov.in/ or https://ndl.iitkgp.ac.in/ or log on to the NDLI mobile application. A special module named ‘Corona Outbreak: Study from Home’ has been added to the website which contains a wide range of digital content including those preparing for competitive examinations like JEE Advanced. The repository contains NDLI Tutorial for JEE Advanced for 12 years and Practice Questions and Solutions for JEE Preparation. Content for JEE Mains for 5 years is expected to be made available soon.

“The solutions have been prepared from the perspective of undergraduate students who have cleared JEE as well as subject matter experts and doctoral students in related areas. Hence the solutions are diverse and students can opt for their preferred methods. Further we have provided reference materials for related problems, so students can explore further the topics,” explained Prof. Partha Pratim Das, Joint-Principal Investigator, NDLI.

Students can browse the School option under the Corona Outbreak module or search by relevant keywords. The developers recommend registering on the portal for better user experience though the resources are available without any restrictions.

“Please visit and continue your studies. Please let us know how we can continue to support your preparations. NDLI is accessible through the web as well as mobile App. Be safe but let us be digitally active in academics and connected,” says Prof. P P Chakrabarti, Principal Investigator of NDLI, on his social media handle. He further urges to reach out to students who can be immensely benefited from this platform during this lockdown period. “Digital Libraries have become the next generation paradigm for people to empower themselves with knowledge and contribute to the knowledge gathering of this world,” he added.

NDLI was developed by IIT Kharagpur under the aegis of Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India in the year 2016 as a National Mission project. MHRD has been promoting various e-learning platforms since the academic activities have been restricted in educational institutions earlier this month due to CoronaVirus outbreak. NDLI has been at the forefront of such e-learning platforms with over 4.8 crore content in more than 300 languages that can be viewed in 60+ formats apart from e-books (audiobooks, simulations, e-thesis, question papers etc.). The platform has over 55 Lakh users.

“The project, which has been collating content to democratize education for India, has shaped up to be the most promising initiative on the future of libraries from India and symbolizes a strong voice to tell the story from India’s standpoint,” added Prof. Das.

Protecting the Protectors

Making Face Shields for Healthcare Workers During Lockdown

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Professor Santanu Dhara and Professor Sangeeta Das Bhattacharya, researchers at the School of Medical Science and Technology at IIT Kharagpur have made a prototype to make face shields for healthcare workers from home during the lockdown. The face shield is an essential part of the personal protective equipment (PPE) required for healthcare workers taking care of patients with suspected COVID-19.

The basic PPE for healthcare workers include respirator or face masks, eye protection including goggles and face shields, gloves and gowns. The face shield is a transparent plastic protective cover, attached to an elastic head gear. It protects the face from splashes. There is a shortage of all PPE for healthcare workers globally.

Professor Santanu Dhara and Professor Sangeeta Das Bhattacharya have designed a face shield using materials which can be procured even under the nation-wide lockdown. The items include transparency sheet, sponge, folded paper, cardboard or packaging box, elastic, or rubber band, and double-sided tape. A team from the School of Medical Science and Technology produced 14 such face shields in 2 hours and are in the process of making more, while remotely working from their homes.

“At a time when the demand for protective wears has escalated sharply, we have to improvise products using easily sourced materials and simple process to offer some sort of protection for the health workers,” remarked Prof. Santanu Dhara.

Download DIY Video

“It is essential to get personal protective equipment for healthcare workers and the faceshield is just one part. We are contributing in a small way, these have not been rigorously tested,” said Prof. Sangeeta Das Bhattacharya.

Face shields like other medical equipment require testing and certification. These are desperate times. There is a dire shortage of PPE globally and health care workers have taken to crowdsourcing. The hashtag #GetMePPE is trending across social media.

Download DIY Video

Disclaimer: This release is made in the public interest. Items described herein are only prototypes and caution is warranted during the DIY procedure. Every medical product and equipment requires testing and certification by appropriate authorities before use.

A changing world

A joint study by the Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management and the University of Leeds is trying to look into how Covid-19 might change social activities and travel patterns

A national lockdown for 21 days. Work from home. Classes on Zoom. Shopping for essentials only when it is truly essential. The entire family thrown into a togetherness they could scarcely afford earlier.

Covid-19 pandemic has changed our lives drastically in a matter of a few days. Suddenly, nothing can be taken for granted. Not even the morning newspaper or the milk at the doorstep.

How different does the world seem to people? Is the difference being uniformly felt?

In these days of social media heist, when everyone is being bombarded with information about Covid-19, have the right information about the disease percolated down?

The lockdown is bound to end. The pandemic will retreat eventually. But will things go back to normal? Or will there be a new normal where people will be forced to revisit their choices of how they shop, travel, socialize and spend their leisure?

Nothing is known for certain. But as people know more about the disease, the continuing threat from it till the world of medicine comes up with a wonder drug to resist it, they are gradually forming ideas about how they are going to pick up their lives from here.

A joint study conducted by Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management of IIT Kharagpur and the University of Leeds is trying to look into what people are thinking. The team believes that “policies to overcome the crisis, while minimizing the disruptions, need a good understanding of how different people are changing their activity and travel patterns.”

In order to gather more information about how people intend to carry on with their lives, the public perceptions about Covid-19, how responsive and how dependable they find the administration in the public health crisis, the researchers are reaching out to as many people possible through a survey.

Dr. Arkopal K. Goswami, Assistant Professor of RCGSIDM, and research scholars Eeshan Bhaduri and Manoj BS, who are part of this research team, say that such unprecedented times may give us rich data on the travel behaviour of the heterogeneous population of India. Are people walking to the closest grocery store, instead of driving their car or riding their motorcycle to a grocery store far away? Are people making greater use of online platforms for their daily needs? How frequently are they working from home? “Such data will not only give us a glimpse of how COVID-19 has changed the activities and travel patterns, but it also may help researchers in planning for sustainable urban development for the future,” said Prof. Goswami.

Dr. Charisma Choudhury, research collaborator from University of Leeds and Associate Professor at the Institute for Transport Studies and School of Civil Engineering at UoL, adds that the current worldwide situation is so unprecedented, that there was no scope to device data-driven policies to tackle the scenario. “The ongoing collaboration between the University of Leeds and IIT Kharagpur enabled us to quickly delve to address this gap. With insights about travel behaviour in the current, pre-COVID19 and hypothetical future scenarios, the research can be immensely useful when India and other countries around the world formulate plans to transition from the current lockdown to normal scenarios,” said Prof. Choudhury.

In addition to India, the survey has also been released in Bangladesh. The team is also working with partners in other developing countries such as Indonesia, Brazil, South Africa, etc. so as to tailor-make the survey for their situation and release it there as well. This will enable the researchers to make a comparative analysis of the change in travel and activity patterns across nations.

The questionnaire seeks the respondent’s answer for 3 scenarios (a) activity-travel under existing COVID situation; (b) activity-travel under normal NON-COVID situation in the past; and (c) activity-travel under probable future COVID situations.

You too can participate in this study by giving your own comments at any of the links below. Do feel free to share this link and forward the link to your friends (specifically in your respective home towns) and to your extended family members.

Find the link [FOR FB] – https://forms.gle/PPCLrKCwXr2uz9q78

Find the link [FOR TWITTER] – https://forms.gle/tjGzqzHytSfbNih48

Find the link [FOR LinkedIn] – https://forms.gle/E6coumkisSEDAuiF9

Exploring COVID Lockdown

IIT Kharagpur Study Explores the Urgent Need for COVID Lockdown

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IIT Kharagpur researchers have taken an initiative to carry out a study on travel and social distancing perspectives of Indian citizens during the recent outbreak of COVID-19. The study throws light on understanding people’s preparedness in case of a lockdown, their travel behaviour and their perceptions during COVID-19 outbreak and assessing impact of travel restrictions and social distancing on different aspects of life as per people’s perceptions.

The study was conducted by Dr. Saurabh Dandapat, Dr. Kinjal Bhattacharyya, Annam Sai Kiran, Kaustubh Saysardar, researchers at IIT Kharagpur’s Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management, Dept. of Civil Engineering, and mentored by Professor Bhargab Maitra. It covered 400-plus cities in 28 states and 4 UTs of India upto March 22, 2020. The work will eventually help formulate potential strategic interventions and policy measures for combating any future events of similar nature. It also aims to formulate and assess the likely effectiveness of different strategic interventions pertaining to travel and social distancing for minimizing the spread of COVID-19.

Explaining the need for the lockdown, Prof. Bhargab Maitra remarked, “It was alarming to note that nearly 20% respondents expressed their desire to leave the current city of work in case of announcement of city lockdown. Such acts would increase the risk of spread of COVID-19 in other places and therefore, justify the action taken by the Government of India in terms of one day ‘Janata Curfew’ and successive lockdown of several cities and towns by various State Governments.”

However, a positive indication in the report is the steady rise in the number of respondents opting for work from home from less than 40% to over 75% within a week’s time.

“Another positive note is that the study showed a significant share of respondents (i.e., over 30%) was aware about possible city quarantine and were getting prepared for it. The ‘Janata Curfew’ was a positive step for further awareness and preparedness about quarantine, and provided a doorway for implementation of lockdown in several states,” said researcher Dr. Saurabh Dandapat.

Researchers also observed that the awareness among the people about the risk of travel in public transport has increased over the time, possibly due to strong campaigns carried out by the Governments and wide coverage of COVID-19 cases by the media.

“Data reflect that while on 17th of March 2020 only about 60% respondents were considering cancellation/postponing long distance travel for various purposes such as healthcare, work, family/social, and vacation, the share increased to 75% on 22nd March 2020. Although this indicates a positive attitude, however, a significant share of respondents was still planning to travel which might increase the risk of spreading the virus,” said researcher Dr. Kinjal Bhattacharyya.

The researchers Annam Sai Kiran and Kaustubh Saysardar recommended creating more awareness among a section of citizens communicating the need for the lockdown. The study postulates the need for more stringent measures to restrict the movements even within the cities under lockdown to counteract the lack of awareness among a section of the society. It is now also necessary to boost the awareness campaign and the media can play a big role by increasing their self-initiatives with respect to awareness campaigns alongside publicizing the Government driven campaigns.

Based on the recent lockdowns and other efforts being taken by the Central and different State Governments, the questionnaire has now been updated to understand the perceptions and reactions of the citizens under current scenario and provide further inputs which might be of help to the Government to make further informed decisions.

Online survey can be taken on: https://forms.gle/JsYMe99NScpaEQm6A

Additional information

The respondents’ were asked to provide details about their regular travel, travel characteristics during COVID-19 outbreak, their perception regarding safety against spread of COVID-19 during travel by different modes, impact of COVID-19 outbreak and travel restrictions on different aspects of their life, their travel plans in the case of lockdown of cities and during the initial period once the travel restrictions are lifted, and demographic and socio-economic characteristics.

The research team analyzed more than 3,400 responses obtained from 400-plus cities in 28 states and 4 UTs of India. The database covers respondents from different segments of the society in terms of income groups, profession, and age groups. The data are being analyzed over the time and the questionnaire is being updated according to the changing scenarios in order to capture the real time responses. The analysis indicates several interesting observations.

Conserving Energy in Cell Research

IIT Kharagpur Researchers Develop Energy Efficient Technological Process for Biological Cell Research

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IIT Kharagpur researchers have developed a novel energy-efficient method for patterning biological cells by using the heat generated in closed electrical fields. The innovation and the work which could be carried out by using this technology will support a wide range of applications in clinical and biological research.

Cell patterning is crucial for fundamental R&D in cellular biology and also for developing applications related to tissue engineering, neuron network formation, protein patterning, designing of a cell-based biosensor, bio-printing, drug development and many more. The current technologies employed by scientists to pattern a group of biological cells in laboratories remain energy-intensive, even while using miniaturized systems for the same.

The Microfluidics research group of IIT Kharagpur, led by Prof. Suman Chakraborty, has now made a breakthrough in this area. “We have effectively innovated a unique patterning of electrodes on a glass plate. In this way, induced heating due to current flow on the chip, by itself, generates fluid motion. The process, thus, eliminates any external energy source,” remarked Prof. Chakraborty.

Prof. Chakraborty collaborated with fellow researchers Prof. Ananadaroop Bhattacharya, an expert in Thermal Engineering and Prof. Tapas Kumar Maiti, an expert in Biotechnology, along with doctoral students Golak Kunti and Tarun Agarwal.

“We have exploited the inter-connection of the electric field and temperature. The chip design creates a localized variation in electrical properties which in turn, triggers a favourable electrical force. This guides cell patterning and concentration,” said Prof. Anandaroop Bhattacharya.

Explaining the process further Prof. Suman Chakraborty added, “We have achieved this feat in a rather simple way, by attaching a thin insulating layer with a drilled narrow hole on a bottom electrode of the chip. A non-uniform electric field develops when the electric field penetrates through the hole. As a consequence, electrically induced heating generates a sharp temperature variation. This, in turn, induces designed variations in electric properties for setting induced charges to fluid motion.”

This pioneering work, which is now available to scientists working in the field of cell patterning, has recently been published in Analytical Chemistry, a flagship Journal of the American Chemical Society. Download Paper

Talking about the probable uses of the technology first author of the paper Golak Kunti said, “Patterning of biological objects is the fundamental premise of probing cell-to-cell interactions, bio-printing, drug development, image-based cell selection etc. In particular, patterning of cells is widely used to design biosensors for cellular cultivation, and for scaffolds to pattern proteins. On-chip arrangements of cell concentration and patterning have recently gained prominence in portable and miniaturized devices, in lieu of traditionally deployed elaborate and laboratory-intensive arrangements. Our new technology offers suitable environments for cell enrichment, screening of the cells, perfused 3D cell culturing, biosensors, cell washing, and exchange of its suspending medium.”

As a demonstration of their strategy, these researchers further characterized the efficacy of the cell trapping process for two different biological entities, namely, Escherichia coli bacteria and yeast cell.

“These results may turn out to be of profound importance towards developing new medical devices for drug discovery, antibiotic resistance assessment and medical diagnostics,” opined Prof. Tapas Kumar Maiti who is further working on biological cell culture related applications.

Advancing Industrial Workforce

IIT Kharagpur’s Advanced Manufacturing Technology Centre Creating Nexgen Workforce for India’s Manufacturing Industry

The Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology at IIT Kharagpur organized a five-day training programme on Computer Numerical Control (CNC) for industry professionals and technicians. The Centre, which was set up with support from the Department of Heavy Industry (Ministry of HI&PE), Govt. of India and a consortium of six industrial houses and a startup, has a mandate of creating awareness regarding advanced technologies, reskilling and upskilling of the Indian MSMEs and youth. CNC, being the core of any manufacturing equipment, is an essential pack of knowledge, one must have.

The training program targeted a diverse group of participants including students undergoing diploma courses and from ITI colleges, laboratory technicians, graduate degree students, teachers, and industry personnel. The training programme equipped the participants with knowledge of programming and detailed machine operations essential for CNC jobs in the manufacturing industry.

A unique trend was the presence of female participants which is indicative of opportunities of women’s employment on the machining shop floor as programmers and operators.

“In today’s era of Industry 4.0, the manufacturing platform is being transformed and integrated with digitization. But if you look at the connection between our capital goods sector and the MSMEs this transition is not without disruptions. Our Centre of Excellence will help the industries including MSMEs to upskill their work-force through training on the automation concepts like CNC, Robotics, etc.” remarked Prof. Surjya K Pal, Professor in-Charge of the Centre.

The teachers and students participating in the training programme expressed practicality of such training on a shopfloor-like platform with industry scale CNC machines. Witnessing the overwhelming response, the Centre is now geared up to offer a similar training programme in the next 2-3 months.

Various large, medium and small enterprises have shown interest to join the consortium of this CoE. Four Tata companies are associated with this consortium where our faculty colleagues are closely working with them on Industry 4.0, automation and Additive Manufacturing areas. The Centre has created an Innovation Lab where anybody can access the state of the art facility by paying nominal charges.

“We are also planning to float training opportunities on Machine Centre by using the state-of-the-art 5-axis Machining Centre, Industrial Robotics, and Robotic Welding by using the upcoming state-of-the-art robotic welding facility at this Centre of Excellence,” Pal added.

This Centre of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology also offers a unique platform for collaborative research in manufacturing keeping harmony with the ‘Make-in-India’ initiative of the Govt. of India. The Centre initiates innovative and top-quality research focused towards the industries on Specialty materials, Design and automation, Additive manufacturing, and Industry 4.0 (Industrial Internet of Things). The Centre boosts innovative interventions in the advanced manufacturing domain by enabling an ecosystem among Institutes of higher repute, top industries, and also the MSMEs & start-ups. The Centre also energizes the MSMEs through training, short-term courses on the adoption of modern concepts in manufacturing.

New Repurposed Drugs & Methodology Identified by IIT Kharagpur Researchers

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Researchers from the School of Medical Science & Technology at IIT Kharagpur have identified new drug repurposing candidates for induction of fetal hemoglobin to treat beta-thalassemia patients

Blood disorders or hemoglobinopathies such as beta-thalassemia and sickle cell anemia affect millions. Drug-induced increase in fetal hemoglobin has been shown to improve the condition of those affected with these blood disorders. But these drugs have side-effects. Scientists are exploring if ‘repurposed’ or existing drugs can be used to treat these disorders. To find out which drugs could be used for possible repurposing the researchers at the Regenerative Medicine Lab at School of Medical Science and Technology of IIT Kharagpur studied the working of microRNAs which regulate the pathways along which the production of fetal hemoglobin is stimulated.

The researchers observed Curcumin, found in turmeric, and Ginsenoside, found in the roots of Ginseng, both known for their medicinal properties, could go a long way in treating blood disorders like thalassemia and sickle cell anemia. These two plant ingredients, together with approved drugs such as Valproate and Vorinostat were found to be ‘most suitable for future clinical trials’.

The researchers also studied how miRNAs work, how they regulate gene expressions and also which chemical molecules affect their expression pattern. The team at SMST used several bioinformatics tools to match differentially expressed miRNAs with differentially expressed genes (as found in publicly available datasets) and identify their pathways. The team has also devised a database called “miRwayDB” to provide comprehensive information of experimentally validated microRNA-pathway associations in various diseases. As many as 19 miRNAs were found to be differentially expressed in those who had high fetal hemoglobin levels in their blood. The team also identified some unique small molecules that strongly affected the expression of those 19 miRNAs.

Of the five molecules identified by the research, three – 5’-aza 2’-deoxycytidine, Valproate and Vorinostat – are commonly used to treat other diseases. For example, Valproate is used to treat seizure disorders in childhood and Vorinstat is an anticancer agent.

“These identified markers expand our understanding of fetal hemoglobin regulatory mechanism and may have importance in designing new therapeutic strategies to reactivate its production in patients with hemoglobin disorders,” said Prof. Nishant Chakravorty, who heads the Regenerative Medicine Lab and the team at SMST.

The study was conducted by Prof. Chakravorty, his student at SMST, Mr. Sankha Subhra Das, and Dr. Rashmi Sinha of IIT Kharagpur’s in-house medical facility B.C. Roy Technology Hospital and published in the “Gene” journal.

“Medical practitioners nowadays widely use repurposed drugs. An example is Sildenafil, which is used to treat impotence in males as well as neonatal pulmonary hypertension,” said Dr. Anish Chatterjee (MBBS, DCH, MD-Paediatrics), Professor, Dr. B C Roy Post Graduate Institute of Paediatric Sciences. Dr Chatterjee believes that research into repurposing of drugs is important and could even lower the cost of medical treatment as cheaper drugs, instead of costly ones presently used, could be used to treat diseases.

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What’s Heating India?

Green-less Urbanization leading to India’s Heat Islands

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An IIT Kharagpur study confirmed recently that the intensity of urban heat islands is positive in most cities (up to 2°C) in all seasons during day and night. The researchers from the Institute’s Centre for Oceans, Rivers, Atmosphere and Land Sciences (CORAL) and Department of Architecture and Regional Planning have found that most big cities of India with population more than one million, have positive heat island intensity during daytime while simultaneously showing an increasing trend in the nighttime urban heat island intensity. The study ‘Anthropogenic forcing exacerbating the urban heat islands in India‘ has been published in the international Elsevier publication Journal of Environmental Management (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.110006) .

The increase in global surface temperature or global warming is a great concern, especially the Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomena which is among the major consequences of the alteration of the earth’s surface due to human activities. The relatively warmer temperatures in urban areas compared to their suburban areas has potential health hazards, such as mortality due to high temperatures and heatwaves, and pollution in urban areas, opine the researchers Sarath Raj, Prof. Saikat Kumar Paul, Prof. Arun Chakraborty and Prof. Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath.

The key finding in the study is the role of anthropogenic activities in increasing the urban temperature in India. As per a World Bank report, approximately a third of the total population in India (~7% of the total world population) lived in cities in 2018. The trend shows an increase of urbanization by almost 4% in the last decade, meaning people have moved away from rural areas to find work and make a living in the cities. To accommodate the additional needs of this increasing population the cities have witnessed some of the major human activities pertaining to changes in land use and land cover through a decrease in green cover, increase in impervious surface area and infrastructural development. In addition, the UHI situation demands more energy (e.g. fans and air-conditioners) that would trigger greenhouse gas emissions. These have led to modify the temperature of a city, remarks said lead author of the paper Sarath Raj.

“Our study is a detailed and careful analysis of urban heat islands of India which is the difference between urban and surrounding rural land surface temperatures, across all seasons in 44 major cities of India, for the period 2001-2017. For the first time we have found evidence of mean daytime Surface UHI Intensity (SUHII) going up to 2 °C for most cities, as analysed from satellite temperature measurements in monsoon and post-monsoon periods,” said Prof. Arun Chakraborty.

These data are also supported by the analysis of aerosols, night lights, precipitation and vegetation in the study regions. In areas like Kolkata, Pune, Guwahati etc where the urban areas are surrounded by large vegetated areas in suburban regions there is an enhanced cooling effect on surface in suburban areas during day as against cities like Delhi, Jaipur and cities in arid regions.

“Evidence from our study suggests that more green spaces within the city and its boundary could reduce the temperature in the city and its neighbourhood. Conservation and expansion of vegetated areas, and preserving water bodies in and around cities could be an effective strategy to curb the effects of urban heat islands. The construction of green buildings and selection of materials for buildings and other infrastructure such as eco-friendly materials could also prove to be crucial to mitigate the effects of heat islands,” said co-author Prof. Jayanarayanan Kuttippurath.

An earlier study published in Scientific Reports journal in 2017 had pointed out the correlation in UHI and the location of the smart cities proposed to be developed. In a global warming context, because the temperature is increasing across the latitudes, the background warming could add even more heat in the urban areas. Therefore, anthropogenic activities that augment the greenhouse gas emissions and atmospheric pollution should also be controlled to counter the adverse effects of urban heat islands. Keeping in mind India’s strong commitment towards the Climate Action, despite focus towards urbanization, such studies shall aid the planning and management of urban areas by giving insights about the effects of nature and intensity of development, land cover and land use mix and the structure of future smart city projects.

Marching Towards a Smart Campus

The Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management helps IIT Kharagpur develop a SMART campus

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Keeping up with the Government of India’s call to develop Smart cities, the Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management is not only developing the necessary expertise, knowhow and testing facilities, but new facilities set up in the School will help IIT Kharagpur itself develop a Smart campus.

Two new laboratories were recently inaugurated at the School – the Infrastructure Monitoring and Analytics Lab and the Infrastructure Evaluation Lab. Speaking on the occasion, the Director, Prof. Tewari, said, “The newly opened laboratories will help us monitor the health of buildings, bridges and other infrastructure. These laboratories will also help us to make better operational management of cities and infrastructure. There is an enormous potential for collaborative activities with public and private bodies for infrastructural projects and civic management.”

The Infrastructure Monitoring and Analytics lab, developed in association with Webel Technologies, will help in real-time monitoring of building, bridges, roads as well as air quality, temperature, humidity, and traffic. The lab is capable of collecting real-time data using various IoT devices such as video cameras, sensors and UAV. Some of these have already been set up at various points of the IIT Kharagpur campus. The data will be mapped and used for carrying out advanced analytics, modeling, simulation, etc. to formulate management policies. The effectiveness of various proposed solutions can also be evaluated based on the acquired data.

Prof. Bhargab Maitra, Head of the School, said, “Today, given governments’ emphasis on the concept of smart cities, all management and policy decisions are evidence-based. So getting real-time accurate data – both location and time-wise – is very important. The Infrastructure Monitoring and Analytics Lab includes a campus-wide IoT framework, where we will be able to collect data using heterogeneous data sources. With this data, we will be able to find out how energy is being consumed, how the movement of vehicles is happening, the emission level, water quality, the condition of infrastructure and so on. In other words, with this, the whole campus becomes an experimental lab and various disciplines and departments can access the data to develop meaningful solutions in different application domains such as traffic, water, solid waste, energy, building, road, etc. Once we are able to do this successfully in the IIT Kharagpur campus, we might be able to scale up and think of implementing it in a city level.”

The newly opened state-of-the-art Infrastructure Evaluation Lab has equipment that will be used to carry out non-destructive testing in order to evaluate the in-situ condition of any structure or its components. Sophisticated equipment such as Impact-echo set-up, Ultrasonic Pulse Velocity test instrument, Acoustic Emission Test Set-up, MIT-Dowel Scan, portable ground-penetrating radar and other such equipment will help assess the strength of existing buildings, bridges, roads, etc. The country is developing several concrete roads. The MIT-Dowel Scan, being set up for the first time by any lab in India, will be instrumental in evaluating these concrete roads including the dowel bars placed inside the pavement.

Mr. Ranbir (Ron) Gupta, who seed-funded the School in 2008, and was present during the inauguration of the new labs, expressed his happiness about the new developments in the School and the Department’s recent emphasis on industry experience through internships that has been made compulsory from last year for M.Tech students. He added, “We are thinking about bringing in the School’s alumni and have them talk about what they are doing now, how they have gained from their training here and what we can do to further improve the training and curriculum here.”

The School’s two-year multidisciplinary M.Tech program focuses on planning, management and effective delivery of large robust infrastructure projects in the areas of transportation, power, utility infrastructure and facilities.

Over the last seven years, RCGSIDM has produced four outstanding PhDs, over 150 M.Tech students and held several international symposiums, workshops and courses with renowned institutions like Columbia University, MIT, Georgia Tech, Lawrence Tech, University of Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan University, Curtin University and so on. The School is closely interlinked with two major ‘Mega Projects’ namely ‘Future of Cities’ and ‘SanDHI’ which are sponsored by the MHRD, Govt of India.

The School’s work on “Smart and Integrated Pedestrian Network Design” is funded by the MHRD under the UAY (Uchhatar Avishkar Yojana) and being executed in collaboration with Curtin University, Australia, IIT-BHU, Nikken Sekkei Research Institute, Japan and GMR Group.