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IIT Kharagpur has been selected for the SATHI Centre initiative of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India. This facility named as Sophisticated Analytical and Technical Help Institute (SATHI) Centre will be developed as a state of the art shared, professionally managed Science and Technology infrastructure facility. The primary objective of the centre is to extend help to the neighbouring academic Institutes, research establishments and the industries, particularly the start-ups and manufacturing units for using the state of the art sophisticated instruments, which do not exist anywhere else, in a few selected areas.
The SATHI Centre at IIT Kharagpur will comprise 5 strongly interconnected verticals: (1) Nano-Scale Imaging and Spectroscopy Facility; (2) Ultra-High Temperature Structural Material Characterization Facility; (3) Biological and Soft Materials Analysis Facility; (4) Quantum Opto-Electronics Measurement Facility and (5) High-Frequency Electronic Measurement Facility. The equipment and facilities proposed to be acquired for this Centre will cater to the ever-increasing and diverse need of scientists and technologists of the country.
An amount of ₹ 125 crore is earmarked for the centre for coming three financial years starting from 2019-20.
“The Institute is geared up to take this activity forward. We have already identified the requisite physical infrastructure for setting up this facility and we expect to start the activities for this Centre soon,” confirmed Officiating Director Prof. Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya.
As per DST mandate, the SATHI Centre will run 24×7 round the year. At least 70% of instrument time will be reserved for external users from other academic institutes, national laboratories, start-ups, entrepreneurs and the industry. Along with IIT Kharagpur, IIT Delhi and IIT BHU have also been considered for similar centres by DST.
“IIT Kharagpur will treat the SATHI Centre as its Social Scientific Responsibility (SSR) programme to promote the culture of science-based Entrepreneurship and Startups in the country, by helping the users analyzing the results obtained from the instruments to achieve meaningful and scientific understanding,” opined Prof. Rabibrata Mukherjee.
The Centre would involve the highest level of expertise of IIT Kharagpur in several key convergence domains of Science & Technology such as Medical Sciences, Soft Materials, Structural & Safety Engineering, Quantum Photonics, Advanced Communication and Nano Technology. This will be added with excellent on-campus infrastructure, outreach centres in several metro cities, availability of trained faculty, student, postdoctoral and technical staff, ERP based research management system, Central Research Facility for internal and external users.
“With several of our existing industrial-scale infrastructure and the further up-gradation to the new infrastructure we are aiming for the SATHI Centre at IIT Kharagpur towards becoming a national centre of excellence, catering to the scientific need of the country,” added Prof. Mukherjee.
State of the art equipment to highlight a few will be installed as part of the SATHI unit:
- Aberration Corrected High-Resolution Transmission Electron Microscope,
- Kelvin Probe Force Microscope, Cryo-FESEM with Micro Raman and environmental imaging,
- High-Temperature Furnace Mounted Universal testing Machine,
- Stimulated Emission Depletion Microscopy (STED)
- Super-Resolution Microscope, Color X-Ray,
- Time-resolved fluorescence,
- Raman and transient absorption spectroscopy,
- Integrated Cryo-Electronic Testbed and more
How shall I contact SATHI IITKGP ?
Please write to director@iitkgp.ac.in