The Centre for Railway Research (CRR) is a collaborative venture between IIT Kharagpur and the Indian Railways to develop a long-term framework for research aimed at driving significant advancements in the field of Railway Technology and productive utilisation of the rail infrastructure. The thrust areas of research in the Centre are Advanced Materials and Manufacturing, Heavy Haul Technology, High Speed Rail and Advanced Maintenance and Operations.

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Contact: Prof. Subhransu Roy at suroy@mech.iitkgp.ac.in

The Central Research Facility is an integrated facility for all students at IIT Kharagpur to carry out their research activities centrally under one umbrella. This facility has two broad Divisions: Materials Science Division and Life Science Division. There are around 36 laboratories in the CRF complex and each laboratory is under the supervision of a designated faculty member from the Institute.

The equipments housed in these laboratories are used for various types of characterization including study of structure and chemical composition of surfaces and bulk materials at different length scales (sub-nanometer to millimeter), phase transitions, as well as evaluation of mechanical, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties. The available facilities for such studies on materials include state-of-the art field emission scanning and transmission electron microscopes, dual beam FIB-FEG microscopes, X-ray diffractometers, X-Ray Micro-CT, Scanning Auger Nanoprobe, Atomic Force Microscope, Nano-triboindenter, Raman Spectrometer, Thermal Analyzers, SQUID-VSM, Hall-effect measurement, etc. Various cells and biomolecules (DNA and proteins) are also studied for their structural analysis and interactions using high end equipment like MALDI, X-ray, ITC, FACS etc. Students from the different branches of science and engineering come here for research and experimentation, creating a vibrant cross-disciplinary atmosphere.

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Contact: Chairman chairman@iitkgp.ac.in

The Centre for Theoretical Studies (CTS) was set up in 1998 in a part of the old building of IIT Kharagpur. Its primary goal is to generate and nucleate theoretical research on fundamental aspects of basic and engineering sciences. The role of the CTS in the academic framework of IIT Kharagpur is to bring together faculty and students with similar interests under a common umbrella.

The CTS, apart from acting as a facility for research in theoretical and computational aspects of science and engineering, trains graduate students and offers graduate-level courses. It also providesopportunities to post doctoral workers and researchers from outside IIT Kharagpur through an active visitors programme.

The Centre organizes seminars on very diverse topics by visiting experts workshops and conferences on topics of current interest. The CTS considers the cultivation of inter-disciplinary theoretical research as a major goal largely because of the diversity available in the academic population of IIT Kharagpur.

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Contact: Convenor, CTS convenor@cts.iitkgp.ac.in ; Prof. Sayan Kar sayan@phy.iitkgp.ac.in

The Computer and Informatics Centre at IIT Kharagpur is responsible for planning, deployment, and maintenance of the core computing and network infrastructure of the institute. The Centre supports wired and wireless network services spanning the entire institute campus including all academic areas, halls of residences, faculty and staff residences, and other ancillary units. It is also responsible for providing other infrastructure support such as a central email system, access to common software packages, web hosting, and large computing labs for supporting different institute courses. The Centre is housed in the ground floor of Takshashila building inside the IIT campus.

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Contact: Head head@cc.iitkgp.ac.in

The activities of Space Technology Cell was initiated in 1998 in Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur with an aim to work in the areas of MEMS, Communications and Cryogenics including Engine Modeling. Subsequently the areas of materials, control systems, micro propulsions and VLSI design were included. The communications area extended to the areas of RF design, Electromagnetics, EMI/EMC and ESD. Starting with faculty members of the Departments of Aerospace Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Electronics & Electrical Communication Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science and Engineering, Cryogenic Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgical & Materials Engineering, Rubber Technology Centre, Advanced Technology Centre, G. S Sanyal School of Telecommunication, Mining Engineering and School of Medical Science & Technology.

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Researchers at the membrane separation laboratory IIT Kharagpur, are actively engaged in a variety of challenging problems ranging from drinking water purification to dialysis, hollow fiber spinning to mathematical modelling of transport processes. The research group can be broadly categorized into following five verticals: (i) Drinking water purification technologies, (ii) Low cost Industrial Waste Water Technologies, (iii) Affordable Health Care Device Development Technologies, (iv) Fruit juice processing technologies and (v) Mathematical and Computational Modelling of Transport Processes.

The membrane lab research activities involve casting of flat sheet and spinning of hollow fiber membranes of various grades ranging from nanofiltration, ultrafiltration, to microfiltration including dialysis. The material can be polymeric, blend polymeric systems, mixed matrix membranes.

The laboratory is well equipped with analytical instruments like Continuous centrifuge, Zeta Cad, Goniometer, Rheometer, UV-Vis spectrophotometer, Zetasizer, Probe sonicator, Porometer, Gel permeation Chromatograph, total organic carbon analyzer, rheometer, various membrane modules, unstirred and stirred cell, rectangular cross flow cell, hollow fibre set up for membrane separations.

The facility has created national and international visibility through his high quality international publications (225), patents (15), books (7), book chapters (10) and technology transfers (2).

Contact: Prof. Shirshendu De sde@che.iitkgp.ac.in

The Microfluidics research group is dedicated to investigating the underlying physics of micro/nano-scale transport processes. Microfluidics has been the gateway to exploring new and fascinating interfacial phenomena, stemming from the high surface-to-volume ratio of the involved systems. These new insights, in turn, have contributed to the development of even more sophisticated application based technologies. These technologies encompass the varied fields of biotechnology, biomedical engineering, chemical engineering, material handling and thermal management of electronic devices/systems.

The equipment at the laboratory includes Reflection-Transmission Microscope, CCD Camera and Strobe light, Peristaltic Pump, Syringe Pump, Micro-array Spotter, Plasma Cleaner, Ellipsometer, AC Servo Motor, Potentiostat/Galvanostat, Tensiometer, Spin Coater, Pressure Transducer, Digital Balance, De-ionised Water supply, Table-top CNC and Cutter/Plotter, Goniometer, Table top Mask Alligner and Confocal Microscope.

Contact: Prof. Suman Chakraborty suman@mech.iitkgp.ac.in

The National Facility of Stable Isotope Geochemistry (NAFSIG) at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur was set up in April 2004. The specific goal of this facility was to provide stable isotope data to researchers especially from Universities and to undertake Isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS) based programmes on certain challenging areas of Earth and Environmental sciences. Initially funded by the DST, the facility was later augmented with the help of a Diamond Jubilee grant of IIT Kharagpur.

The IIT facility is equipped with three mass spectrometers, two continuous flow and one dual inlet along with several peripheral equipment like Gas bench, Elemental analyser, TC-EA, GC coupled with IRMS, laser ablation silicate and carbonate analytical lines capable of analyzing different types of geological materials including water, carbonate, sulphide/sulphate, organic matter, graphite, clay, and silicates. This is the first stable isotope national facility in a university earth science department in India.

Over the last 12 years, researchers from various universities and institutions have carried out experiments in the facility and published high quality research publications. A large number of students (M.Sc, M.Tech. and Ph.D) have also been trained on stable isotope experiments and applications in various facets of earth sciences. Some of the major programmes of the facility are isotope hydrology of rain and groundwater, evolution of the Himalayan foreland and Ganges delta, coal basins of western India, and archaeological investigation in Indus Valley Civilization.

Contact: Prof. Anindya Sarkar anindya@gg.iitkgp.ac.in; Prof. M K Bera melinda@gg.iitkgp.ac.in

The Department of Geology and Geophysics has an electron probe micro analyzer (EPMA), successfully running since December, 2008 as a DST-IIT Kharagpur National Facility. The facility developed under the intensification of research on high priority areas (IRHPA) program of DST also consists of an ancillary SEM lab. The primary objective of the national facility is to provide high quality compositional information from micron-sized domains required in materials research with a focus on applications in mineralogy, petrology and ore geology.

The SEM is equipped with a Peltier-cooled EDS detector for obtaining semi-quantitative chemical analysis in addition to high magnification imaging using back scattered electrons (BSE), secondary electrons (SE) and cathodoluminescence (CL). The EPMA is capable of measuring concentrations as low as 1000 ppm of all elements between boron and uranium in the periodic table. Wide varieties of materials including minerals and rocks, alloys, ceramics and polymers have been analyzed by a spectrum of users covering the academia and industry as well as various national laboratories from all over the country. Within the institute, apart from users from the department, students and faculty members from other departments such as metallurgy, mechanical and civil engineering have been frequent users of the facility. In the last 8 years, 12 Ph.D. theses with a strong dependence on EPMA data have been produced in the department, apart from several M.Sc. and M.Tech. dissertations. Over 15 more Ph.D. scholars are presently working on problems with major EPMA-centric research components. In addition to performing high quality micro-beam chemical analyses, the facility has pioneered within the country in the development of specialized protocols for U-Th-Pbtotal dating of geological events using monazite, uraninite, xenotime and produced trained manpower in using EPMA.

Contact: Prof. Biswajit Mishra bmgg@gg.iitkgp.ac.in; Prof. K. L. Pruseth pruseth@gg.iitkgp.ac.in

Coordinated by the office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, Rural Technology Action Groups (RuTAGs) have been set up to act as application oriented Research and Development (R&D) nuclei in order to provide much-needed science and technology (S&T) support for rural entrepreneurs and users and to promote potential technologies for them.

RuTAG-IIT Kharagpur was initiated in the year 2008 under Prof. PBS Bhadoria as coordinator. Since then, it has been actively interacting with NGOs in the adjoining region including the states of West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar to contribute to the needful.

During the last eight years RuTAG - Eastern India has connected with more than 50 NGOs and taken up technological initiatives aiming to improve the livelihood of clusters of rural population. It aims to identify the technological problems and bottlenecks in rural areas through NGOs, SHG and entrepreneurs; to develop or fabricate processes/products/equipment; to solve the identified problems through peoples participation; to disseminate established technologies through training, workshops and demonstrations and finally, to orient and expose the undergraduate students to rural problems in order to develop innovative solutions.

Contact: Prof. PBS Bhadoria pbsb@agfe.iitkgp.ac.in

How would the future world look like? Attempts to answer this question have opened up pathways for several outstanding technologies. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the depiction of the future Internet: comprising of billions of smart things interacting and communicating with other machines, objects and infrastructures. However, without addressing the quite formidable communication and security mechanisms for all these building blocks, the IoT would not be as pervasive as anticipated.

The laboratory on Security of IoT, aims to design, evaluate, and deploy the essential communication and security mechanisms for the IoT paradigm. The Internet Security Protocol currently rests on well-known and a widely trusted set of cryptographic algorithms. But a significant amount of resources such as processor speed and memory are expected for functioning of the application scenario, something which is not always available in the context of IoTs.

Researchers at the laboratory plan to undertake a fresh approach by considering new hardware security primitives and to discover new verification techniques to evaluate security against powerful side channels, and provide much needed trust to the users against powerful adversaries. The laboratory is collaborating with DRDO, CDAC-Bangalore, Wipro, ISEA, Masaryk University (Czech Republic).

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Contact: Prof. Debdeep Mukhopadhyay debdeep@cse.iitkgp.ac.in