The focus areas of the Centres will be to provide strong and meaningful contributions to various aspects of diagnosis and treatment of diseases, interdisciplinary research in the area of evaporation of complex fluids, develop components for image based material property evaluation, a new understanding of materials and phenomena by the synthesis and study of molecular materials; research methods needed to address complex problems of materials science and condensed matter physics from developing curated materials database to the rational design of new materials; and research in oxide electronics and correlated quantum states.
Responsive Soft Matter
We plan on developing an improved arterial pressure mediated growth and remodelling constitutive relation for aneurysmal arterial tissue within an appropriate thermodynamical framework and apply it to study the growth of AAA pre-surgery and to study sac expansion post-EVAR. Further, an efficient and modular computational framework based on Smooth Finite Element Method (SFEM) capable of solving three dimensional problems related to the above objective will be set up. The project objective also encompasses the deployment of a software based on a suitable deep learning methodology that has the capability to predict the growth and rupture of AAA pre- and post-EVAR, and finally to undertake clinical validation.
Principal Investigator: Krishna Kannan
Soft and Biological Matter
The activities of this center are focused on fundamental and applied research in the area of soft and biological matter. The materials of interest include polymer solutions, colloidal dispersion, surfactant solutions and other multi-component fluids which may consist of mixture of particle, polymer, surfactant, proteins, polyelectrolytes, etc. In the next 5 years, the work in this center will focus on structure and rheology, active fluids, biopolymers and surfactants and complex fluid drops with particular emphasis on evaporation driven out of equilibrium phenomena.
Principal Investigator: Madivala G. Basavaraj
Millimeter and Microwave Metamaterials
Additive manufacturing techniques and computational electrodynamics tools would be combined to bring out high performance components such as beam shapers, absorbers and highly directive antennas across designated windows of the electromagnetic spectrum. Imaging and energy harvesting systems based on these components and sensors are planned.
Principal Investigator: Krishnamurthy C. V.
Molecular Materials and Functions
The project aims to create a globally recognized centre focusing on the study of molecular materials, where constituent building blocks are atomically precise clusters. They hold considerable academic and technological promise as they offer tunable properties that are relevant for applications.
Principal Investigator: T. Pradeep
Atomistic Modelling and Materials Designing
CENTER FOR ATOMISTIC MODELLING AND MATERIALS DESIGN (CAMMD): The interdisciplinary nature of the aforementioned computer aided materials design has led to the establishment of centers and large research groups in leading universities and institutes across the globe. While such internationally centers are being established at a large scale, they are missing in the national scene. IIT Madras as an institute of national importance should take a lead in this direction and, therefore, four of us with complementary expertise, propose to establish a center named “Center of Atomistic Modelling and Materials Design”. Our complementary expertise encompasses the research methods needed to address complex problems of materials science and condensed matter physics from developing curated materials database to the rational design of new materials. Therefore, the center will focus on a broad range of materials. Two overarching goals of the center are the following.
- Materials Design. As schematically shown in Figure1, we aim to combine first principle methods – DFT and empirical approaches with advanced data science techniques – AI and deep learnings to outline design principles of new materials.
- Materials Data Repository. Developing a data repository for a wide range of materials is crucial for data driven materials science and engineering. This center would be dedicated to create, curate, and dispense data of the atomic structure of the materials and their properties. We plan to engage with other researchers nationally and globally to expand this materials repository, as shown in Figure 1. The center will actively engage with experimentalists to collect data and dispense through our repository. This materials repository will be freely accessible through our website and will serve as an important resource for materials science education, research and development.Structure and properties of materials would be primarily obtained from first principle methods such as electronic structure modeling of materials using state-of-the art techniques like density functional theory, and model Hamiltonians; and atomic and molecular modeling using techniques like Monte Carlo and Molecular dynamics simulations. Machine learning approaches and high throughput studies would be used to establish the unknown correlations between structure and properties and accelerate the design cycle. This would be particularly useful to propose new material systems that are not part of the existing databases. By disbursing new algorithms, simulation tools and structure-property relationship databases and thereby predicting new materials and emerging phases of matter, the proposed center envisions to be a leader in India’s data driven materials science.
Principal Investigator: Birabar Ranjit Kumar Nanda
Functional Oxides
The group studies the complex interplay among the various competing interactions involving spin, charge, lattice degrees freedom in the broad family of oxides to (i) discover novel and emerging quantum phases and (ii) explore their applicability for next generation of electronic devices and energy materials.
Principal Investigator: P. Murugavel