- Home
- Taxonomy
- Term
- November
Landscaping IISc Logo
IISc Research Insignia
This page features the IISc logo or the abbreviation “IISc” used to exemplify an algorithm, a concept, a discovery, a design, an invention, a process, or any other scientific, engineering, or technological research done in IISc.
Landscaping IISc Logo
IISc logo landscape with iso-contours
The IISc logo landscape was created by computing a topology-based segmentation of a signed distance field. The figures below illustrates the different steps in creating the landscape. The IISc logo was first converted to a binary image by applying a thresholding filter. Next, a collection of boundary curves was extracted from the binary image. A clean signed distance field from the set of curves was computed over a unit square. The sign of the distance field essentially segments the image into the blue and golden regions. The distance field is mapped to elevation resulting in a terrain, the IISc logo landscape. Isocontours of the distance field are computed and displayed over the terrain to highlight the valleys. Further details, including a video illustrating the mapping from the signed distance field to the terrain, are available @ http://vgl.csa.iisc.ac.in/iiscLogo/
References:
Parallel computation of 2D Morse-Smale complexes.
Nithin Shivashankar, Senthilnathan M and Vijay Natarajan.
IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Graphics, 18(10), 2012, 1757-1770. (pdf)
Parallel computation of 3D Morse-Smale complexes.
Nithin Shivashankar and Vijay Natarajan.
Computer Graphics Forum (EuroVis 2012), 31(3), 2012, 965-974 (pdf)
Efficient software for programmable visual analysis using Morse-Smale complexes.
Nithin Shivashankar and Vijay Natarajan.
Topological Methods in Data Analysis and Visualization IV.
Hamish Carr, Christoph Garth, and Tino Weinkauf (Eds.)
Springer-Verlag, Mathematics and Visualization Series, 2016, to appear.
http://vgl.csa.iisc.ac.in/pub/paper.php?pid=052
IISc’s FSID Launches Centre of Data for Public Good with a first-of-a-kind Symposium
In an initiative aimed at leveraging data for social good, the Foundation for Science Innovation and Development (FSID) within the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) announces the launch of the Centre of Data for Public Good (CDPG). The Centre is dedicated to advancing research, innovation, collaboration, and best practices in the realm of data science, analytics, and policy to address critical societal challenges.
CDPG will serve as a hub for multidisciplinary research, bringing together experts from academia, industry, and government to harness the power of data to benefit the public. With a focus on ethical data use, privacy, and responsible AI, the centre aims to develop solutions that positively impact areas such as smart cities, agriculture, logistics, geospatial, environmental sustainability, and so on.
Emphasising collaboration and innovation, the centre is set to bring under its umbrella learnings from pioneering projects such as the India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX) and the Agricultural Data Exchange (ADeX). These projects, with their focus on urban and agricultural sectors, align seamlessly with the centre’s mission. By incorporating these initiatives, the CDPG will leverage the expertise and resources of IUDX and ADeX, creating a collaborative environment that will accelerate the development and implementation of data-centric solutions. This amalgamation of efforts reflects the Centre’s commitment to harnessing the power of data in addressing real-world issues and advancing the field of data science for societal benefit.
Speaking about the launch, Prof Govindan Rangarajan, Director, IISc said, “The Centre of Data for Public Good within FSID represents a commitment to harnessing the transformative power of data for the betterment of society. At IISc, we are pleased to nurture such programmes that combine research and practice in service of the nation.”
To mark the launch of the centre, IISc hosted the Symposium on Data for Public Good, a flagship event that brought together thought leaders, researchers, and practitioners in the field. The symposium served as a platform for exchanging ideas, showcasing innovative projects, and fostering collaborations.
Distinguished speakers at the event included Mr Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chairman, Axilor Ventures; Co-founder, Infosys, and President, Infosys Science Foundation; Mr J Satyanarayana, Chief Advisor, C4IR India, World Economic Forum; Mr Rajendra Kumar, Chief Postmaster General, Karnataka; Mr Kunal Kumar, Joint Secretary and Mission Director, Smart Cities Mission, and Mr Pramod Varma, CTO of Ekstep Foundation. Their talks shed light on the significance of leveraging data for public good and Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI).
This was followed by panel discussions on urban data, data governance, and agricultural and geospatial data. Many eminent speakers shared their views and several data-driven projects were showcased. Several start-ups displayed innovative solutions. A poster competition was also organised as part of the symposium.
The event culminated with the announcement of a Hackathon focused on a transportation demand prediction problem for specific bus routes in Surat and an air quality prediction problem for certain road segments of Bangalore.
About the CDPG
At CDPG, we are committed to democratising data and our mission is to help harness its power by creating data exchange platforms and integrating them seamlessly into the broader context of Data for Public Good. By ensuring that data exchange is conducted effectively, with a focus on privacy and security, we strive to make the benefits of data accessible to all, promoting inclusivity in decision-making processes.
For more information visit – https://dataforpublicgood.org.in/
For media inquiries, please contact:
Namrata Agrawal
namrata.agrawal@iudx.org.in
Ph: 7829121121
IISc and OPSA organise summit on expanding science and technology horizons
19 November 2023
The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India (OPSA) organised a day-long summit titled “Dialogue 2023: Expanding Science and Technology Horizons” on 18 November 2023 in Bengaluru.
Recognising the importance of science, technology and innovation in addressing socioeconomic challenges and existential threats like climate change, the summit focused on ethical challenges related to disruptive technologies, the role of international collaborations, and the need to recognise diverse knowledge systems.
The opening session on “Shaping Technological Futures” began with a welcome address by IISc’s Director, Prof G Rangarajan. He highlighted the importance of such summits in bringing together stakeholders from the larger S&T ecosystem to deliberate on contemporary policy matters. “As India’s pre-eminent science institute, IISc has played a notable role in knowledge support to the government, in national S&T missions, and in instituting policies and programmes,” he said. These programmes include the Indian Science Technology and Engineering facilities Map (I-STEM), the Bengaluru S&T (BeST) cluster, the India Urban Data Exchange (IUDX) platform, AI and Robotics Technology Park (ARTPARK), Policy Analytics & Insights Unit of the OPSA, and efforts to develop high-quality health datasets in collaboration with ICMR.
In the same session, the keynote address was delivered by Prof Ajay Kumar Sood, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and National Science Chair Professor at the Department of Physics, IISc. He highlighted the immense potential of emerging technologies like quantum computing and communication. “India has advanced significantly on its developmental goals,” he said. “Shaping technology futures involves not only technology development but also their adoption in various sectors.” He also stressed on the need to take into consideration ethical values and sustainability while adopting these technologies. The session was chaired by Prof TA Abinandanan, Professor at the Department of Materials Engineering, and Coordinator of the DST-Centre for Policy Research at IISc.
The second session was a dialogue on the ethical challenges and principles related to disruptive technologies like AI. The conversation focused on the intersection of technology, ethics and society, and drew attention to the need for the regulation of emerging technologies. The third session started with a special address by Mr Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), who highlighted India’s digital growth and the impact of digital services like UPI. This was followed by a panel discussion on approaches to enhancing global technology competitiveness, and balancing international cooperation with national priorities when it comes to technology development.
The afternoon session centred on “Science, Technology and Society”. The first segment focused on “Diversity of Knowledge: Practices”. Spotlighting the handloom industry, speakers highlighted the need to move away from the classical view of hierarchy of science above other types of knowledge, and recognise the importance of indigenous knowledge systems. In the second segment, “Diversity of Knowledge: People”, speakers discussed policy gaps and potential pathways to make traditional knowledge more accessible. The historical lack of recognition of women as knowledge holders and creators was also highlighted.
The final session was a talk on “Public Perception of Science” by Prof Shubha Tole, Senior Professor & Dean, Graduate Studies, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. The session was chaired by Prof Navakanta Bhat, Dean, Division of Interdisciplinary Sciences, IISc. “It is critical that the public perceives science as an important and valuable enterprise,” Prof Tole said. She suggested ways to improve science outreach at institutions, and the stressed on the need for scientists to think “beyond outreach” and engage meaningfully with people about the journey and process of science.
CONTACT
Office of Communications | news@iisc.ac.in
Param Hansa Centre for Computational Oncology launched at IISc
3 November 2023
Param Hansa Philanthropies (PHP) has made a generous commitment to support the setting up of a Centre for Computational Oncology at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). The Centre was officially launched at a ceremony held on 2 November 2023. It marks a major leap forward in the quest to integrate cutting-edge computational methodologies with ground breaking cancer research.
The Param Hansa Centre for Computational Oncology (PHCCO) will foster research in predictive and quantitative mathematical models of cancer progression, metastasis, and tumor relapse, to identify the underlying fundamental dynamics of these multi-scale processes and to eventually improve patient outcomes in the clinic. The Centre aims to nurture an active community of future leaders in computational oncology in India, through inter-institutional, cross-disciplinary collaborations among researchers in academia, medicine, and industry. The Center will be led by Mohit Kumar Jolly, Associate Professor at the Department of Bioengineering, who heads the Cancer Systems Biology research group at IISc.
The partnership was facilitated through the IISc Foundation, a non-profit entity set up in the USA, to support research and infrastructure development at IISc. Param Hansa Philanthropies will support the Centre with USD 1 million over the next seven years.
Speaking at the launch ceremony, Mr Dheeraj Pandey, Founding Director of PHP, said, “We, at Param Hansa Philanthropies, are delighted and proud today at the launch of this new initiative aimed at significant, long-term impact in the area of computational oncology, supporting IISc in its mission. We believe in utilising the power of science and data sciences to create deep, meaningful outcomes for cancer research in India and elsewhere. With this long-term collaboration with IISc, we look forward to contributing to the fight against cancer in India and elsewhere, and simultaneously building a cadre of young scientists who, over time, will make a significant contribution to research and training future researchers in this field.”
Prof Govindan Rangarajan, Director of IISc, said, “We are very grateful to Param Hansa Philanthropies for their generous contribution to support research in the emerging area of computational oncology. At IISc, we are constantly seeking to push frontiers in cutting-edge research and encourage cross-disciplinary partnerships that solve pressing clinical challenges. We look forward to the exciting projects and solutions that will emerge from this new Centre.”
About Param Hansa Philanthropies:
Param Hansa Philanthropies (PHP) is Dheeraj and Swapna Pandey’s private foundation in the USA. PHP aims to partner closely with universities and research organizations to foster efforts in the computing + life sciences space, support active development of scientific ideas that revolutionize new frontiers, and harness the power of tech to solve healthcare related problems and help create a better future for human society. PHP’s existing collaborations include partnerships with the University of Texas, Austin and Stanford University. PHP-India began operations recently with the launch of its office in Bengaluru, India, and the establishment of the Param Hansa Centre for Computational Oncology at IISc is its first India partnership. PHCCO, in partnership with IISc, is an outcome of PHP’s deep, long-term commitment to translational research at the intersection of healthcare and technology.
About IISc Foundation:
IISc Foundation is a platform to support IISc’s drive towards global excellence in engineering education and research. It is an IRS-approved tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit entity established and managed by volunteer IISc alumni to raise endowment funds for IISc from alumni, corporations, and foundations in the USA.
CONTACT:
IISc Office of Communications | news@iisc.ac.in
Cracking an age-old thermodynamic puzzle
1 November 2023
– Ananthapathmanabhan MS
Designing a heat engine that can produce maximum power at maximum efficiency is a major challenge. Practical heat engines are limited to a theoretical efficiency called the Carnot limit, which sets a cap on how much heat can be converted to useful work. In a breakthrough, researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) and Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR) have devised a novel “micro heat engine” that has overcome this limitation at the lab scale. The study was published in Nature Communications.
“What was considered impossible until today, we have demonstrated that it is possible: achieving both high efficiency and high power simultaneously,” says corresponding author Ajay K Sood, National Science Chair Professor at the Department of Physics, IISc, and Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.
Heat engines convert heat into work – for example, moving a piston in a certain direction. For an engine to be 100% efficient, when the process is reversed – the piston returns to its original state – there should be no heat wasted, which is what was proposed by French physicist Sadi Carnot in 1824. This is only theoretically possible if the process happens extremely slowly, but that also means that the power output will be zero, making the engine practically useless. This is known as the power-efficiency tradeoff.
“Since the 1970s, people have been attempting to address the power-efficiency trade-off. In the early 2000s, researchers explored microscopic systems to overcome this challenge. Interestingly, in 2017, a paper claimed that it was impossible to solve this thermodynamic puzzle,” says Sudeesh Krishnamurthy, former PhD student at the Department of Physics, IISc, and first author of the study.
Optical tweezer apparatus in Ajay Sood’s lab at IISc. Inset (L-R): Sudeesh Krishnamurthy, Rajesh Ganapathy, and Ajay Sood (Photos: Sudeesh Krishnamurthy)
In the current study, the team mimicked the functioning of a conventional heat engine at the micron scale. Instead of using a mix of gas and fuel, they took a tiny gel-like colloidal bead and used a laser beam to direct its motion, similar to how the piston works in a macroscopic engine.
“Our unique micro-scale engine operates with just one particle,” says Rajesh Ganapathy, Professor at JNCASR and another author. The size of the engine is very small, about 1/100th the width of a single human hair, he adds.
The team also used a rapidly changing electric field to cycle the engine between two states. Under these conditions, they found that the waste heat dissipated drastically reduced, bringing the efficiency close to 95% of the limit specified by Carnot.
“What we have achieved is a reduction in heat distribution time through the introduction of the electric field. This reduction in heat distribution time allows the engine to operate at high efficiency and simultaneously yield a large power output even while operating at high speeds,” says Krishnamurthy.
Previously, the team designed a high-power engine that used a live bacterium to push the particle and power the system. This time, the researchers replaced the bacterium with an electric field to move the particle more efficiently in the colloidal medium and to increase the system’s durability.
The results from the experiments show that, under certain conditions, high power can be achieved with high efficiency. Such an advancement could pave the way for more energy efficient devices in the future.
“If one can draw a message from here and try to see how to make a practical interpretation of this micro engine, that is the next part of the story,” emphasises Sood. “We have opened doors that scientists almost gave up opening due to the thermodynamic constraints set by Carnot in previous studies.”
REFERENCE:
Krishnamurthy S, Ganapathy R, Sood AK, Overcoming power-efficiency tradeoff in a micro heat engine by engineered system-bath interactions, Nature Communications, 14, 6842 (2023).
CONTACT:
Ajay K Sood
National Science Chair Professor, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India
Email: asood@iisc.ac.in
Rajesh Ganapathy
Professor, International Centre for Materials Science & School of Advanced Materials
Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR)
mail: rajeshg@jncasr.ac.in
Sudeesh Krishnamurthy
Former PhD student, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
Postdoctoral scholar, University of California, Berkeley
Email: forsudee@gmail.com
NOTE TO JOURNALISTS:
a) If any of the text in this release is reproduced verbatim, please credit the IISc press release.
b) For any queries about IISc press releases, please write to news@iisc.ac.in or pro@iisc.ac.in.
Bengaluru Science and Technology (BeST) cluster launched at Bengaluru Tech Summit 2022
17th November 2022
The conceptualisation of the Bengaluru Science and Technology (BeST) cluster is a collaborative effort of more than 50+ organisations, including major academic institutions, industry partners, start-ups, civil society organisations, and government bodies.
A proposal for funding for the BeST cluster was submitted with Principal Investigator (PI) Prof Govindan Rangarajan (Director, IISc), and co-PIs Prof Ambarish Ghosh (Professor, IISc) and Dr Taslimarif Saiyed (CEO, CCAMP). The funding was recently sanctioned by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser (PSA) to the Government of India. The BeST cluster was formally launched at the plenary session of the Bengaluru Tech Summit 2022, by the Honourable PSA, Prof Ajay Sood, in the presence of Prof G Padmanaban, former Director of IISc, and Shri S Gopalakrishnan (Kris), Co-founder, Infosys, on 16 November 2022.
During the launch, Prof Sood emphasised that Bengaluru has enormous technological potential and that the Karnataka state is among the leaders in science and technology advancements. He anticipates that the BeST cluster will pave the path for the future success of such initiatives.
A science and technology cluster is a collaborative ecosystem in a city or a region, in which scientists, engineers, social scientists, and entrepreneurs working in academia, government labs, and industry identify and collaborate to solve some socially relevant problems. Science & Technology (S&T) Clusters are being established as formal umbrella structures for S&T organisations in various cities to work together more effectively while retaining their autonomy. On the recommendation of the Prime Minister’s Science, Technology, and Innovation Advisory Council (PM-STIAC) to build an Atmanirbhar Bharat through S&T, the Office of the PSA supports these initiatives.
At the launch, co-Lead Dr Taslimarif Saiyed said, “Bangalore is a city of science, innovation and opportunity. The BeST Cluster launch could be a landmark moment for Science and Technology in India and possibly the world. We aim to bring together stakeholders with shared ecosystems, identify and address problems first with locally relevant solutions, but then scale up nationally and internationally by building globally competitiveness. BeST activities will be based on this ground-up pyramid model.”
Co-Lead Prof Ambarish Ghosh said, “Bengaluru Tech Summit is the ideal launchpad for the BeST Cluster. The impact of the BeST cluster can be defined in many ways. In addition to immediate social and economic impact at a city scale, we must also consider the impact on sustainability and being globally competitive.”
The Bengaluru Science and Technology (BeST) Cluster has identified Health & Wellness, Urban Life, and Futuristic Technologies as the sectors, and has set up teams to work in areas of OneHealth, Digital Health, Precision Agriculture, Urban Transportation, Monsoon & Climate Change, Quantum Technologies, Active Matter & Robotics, and Jet Engine. A Section 8 company is being set up to catalyse this collaboration as an independent body, provide organisational support, and raise and manage resources.
CONTACT:
IISc Office of Communications | news@iisc.ac.in
BeST Office | office.best@iisc.ac.in