Art and Creativity in Science and Engineering

Professor Santanu Chaudhury

Director's Column

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Artistic practices and artistic creativity reflect imagination and transformative processes which makes a painting, a literary work, a theatre production or a movie unique. Science is rather associated with discovery of what is already there than actual creation. But looking at things in completely different way and analyzing observations with imaginations are keys for scientific discovery. Exploiting scientific theories for creating artifacts to meet human need is the focus of a technologist. An engineer creates or invents something new. However, the same can be replicated for wider use which gives value to an invention, while an artistic creation has value in its uniqueness. Nevertheless, creativity as an act of imagination and transformation are central to artistic and scientific pursuit.

Exposure to arts and exercises which promotes artistic creations can inspire scientific and technological breakthroughs. Goethe considered his scientific theory of colors his greatest achievement, not his poetry. Leonardo Da Vinci’s sketch book is a treasure house of emerging concepts about human anatomy which he explored as a painter, and possibilities of creating a flying machine which were also part of his creative ventures. We know about musical pursuits of Einstein and Feynman. In India, Prof. J. C. Bose was known for his literary pieces. These examples illustrate how close artistic and scientific pursuits may align. Examining scientific creativity through the lens of artistic practice may allow establishing a path in an IIT which explicitly promotes transformative creativity in engineering and science.

With creativity as an act of transformation and central to scientific pursuit, exploitation of chance and failure in scientific experimentation, are critical steps for scientific and engineering knowledge generation. Iterative and open-ended processes based upon insights from a range of practices in the visual, performing and media arts can model processes of training for creative pursuits by scientists and engineers. Building common and individual spaces that promote chance encounters across engineering, science and arts inject diversity in the thought processes and generates new perspectives. This may be become the key for disruptive scientific and engineering thinking.

Engineers engaged in the histories of visual, cultural, conceptual and social questions of the past and present, and exposed to the fundamental laws and skills governing the conception, production and reception of visual art, and artists exposed to, for example, statistical methods, chemical reactions or ecological theory can synthesize their aptitude beyond just art or science, beyond following rules and relying on novel out-of-the box thinking and become creative. IITs may look at these possibilities and consider changes by bringing in a perspective of looking at science and engineering through the lens of creative arts.

 

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Editorial

Shankar Manoharan

Editorial

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IIT Jodhpur has grown with giant strides since its inception. New, multidisciplinary academic programs have been launched; our faculty and student strength has risen substantially and highly interdisciplinary research areas have been nurtured by the Institute. As we commemorate the fourteenth foundation day of the Institute on the 2nd of August 2021, we not only look back at the ground that IIT Jodhpur has covered, but also look forward to a future full of opportunities. To ensure meaningful growth, an organization needs an ambitious vision accompanied by a strong strategy to fulfill it. IIT Jodhpur has meticulously formulated a vision and strategy document by active reimagination and innovation at various academic and administrative levels. Dr. Deepak Fulwani, Associate Dean (Planning & Resources Generation), in his article offers glimpses into the Vision that the Institute is embarking on. The lofty vision that IIT Jodhpur has set for itself has been formulated with sufficient foresight for our academics, research and innovation to be at the forefront of the future.

The Institute has already started moving towards it’s goals for the future. IIT Jodhpur has very recently established a Centre of Excellence for Brain Science and Applications within the School of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science. Professor Neeraj Jain, in his article outlines how this Centre will host multidisciplinary teams to understand the brain, build brain-inspired devices and develop assistive technologies with immense applications. IIT Jodhpur has been responding meaningfully to the COVID-19 crisis. One such innovation decorating this issue’s innovation gallery is a rapid and cost effective screening method for COVID-19. Professor Ajay Agarwal in his article proposes and discusses the application of Raman fingerprinting using surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy on saliva samples as an alternative to the more expensive RT-PCR tests for COVID-19. On the education front, most of our lectures and some labs have been forced to move online with the help of educational technology products. The utility of such technology products is still variable across the digital divide in our country. Dr. Rajlaxmi Chouhan shares her working strategy to bridge the digital divide through interactive video lectures and hands-on virtual experiments in her article. TechScape strives to bring forth articles from various disciplines in each issue. This issue is no exception. We have articles on an ambitious plan for transportation in Jodhpur, proposed by Dr. Ranju Mohan and on the analysis of secrecy in free-space optical communication systems by Dr. Aashish Mathur. Also in this issue, Dr. Prashant Kumar Gupta and Dr. Praveen Kumar Sappidi together discuss the current state of electrochemical energy storage and future avenues, while Dr. Krishna Kumar Balaraman takes us through the microfoundations of foresight.

As the academic, economist and Nobel laureate Robert J. Shiller said, “In the longer run and for wide-reaching issues, more creative solutions tend to come from imaginative interdisciplinary collaboration”. We are sure that TechScape will continue to bring together readers from various disciplines to propel collaborative research and innovations.

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Bridging the Digital Divide in Online Education through Self-paced Learning

Rajlaxmi Chouhan

News and Views

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Damien Barr tweeted last year (30 May 2020):

“We are not all in the same boat. We are all in the same storm.
Some of us are on super-yachts. Some have just the one oar.”

While this quote has connotation at all levels of the society in the midst of this seemingly never-ending pandemic, it holds a lot of weight in the context of online education.

According to Capgemini’s 2020 Report on the Great Digital Divide [1], “...in a world in which socio-economic inequalities are a pervasive problem, the absence of the internet in people’s lives only serves to compound the problem.” While students situated in economically sound backgrounds and urban/suburban areas have coped well with access to high-speed internet and laptops, students in rural areas or remote locations continue to struggle with limited internet connectivity or bandwidth. Even those in urban areas with excellent coverage may not always be able to attend all classes due to power outages, data-on-a-budget, or some unforeseen local circumstances. For students who are now shouldering economic/household responsibilities in the wake of the pandemic, coping with a difficult home, a financial crunch or a single parent struggling to make ends meet, attending online classes would be the least of priority, and understandably so. Many students also feel disconnected and miss the in-class personalized experience of listening to the instructor and studying from the hand-written boardwork. How can an instructor then make the learning process easy and convenient for students in the midst of unprecedented stress and psychological firestorms?

The past year of remote learning has opened a vista of opportunities in digital learning and has allowed instructors to explore a wide range of teaching pedagogies as opposed to traditional classroom lecture delivery. Self-paced learning [2] is one such approach and has been proven to be very useful, especially during this pandemic.

Self-paced learning through interactive video lectures

Self-paced learning is not self study; it is a learner-centric teaching methodology where the students get the opportunity to design their own learning experience at their own pace. This self-paced learning and flipped classroom experience can primarily be enabled by interactive video lectures followed by live discussions. In this scenario, an instructor creates video lectures for every topic he/she wants to cover in the course. This lecture can be conveniently created at home or office using some easy-to-use tools and software such as digital pentablet/pendisplay, screen recorders, digital whiteboard, and basic video editing software. Once the video is ready, the instructor interleaves questions in various locations of the video as he/she would do in an in-person classroom session to gauge the audience’s understanding and concentration. This is possible through software such as Camtasia or Adobe Captivate (where the created videos need to be hosted on a local server), or directly via online platforms such as Edpuzzle where the video is assigned to a student as a ‘video assignment’. Edpuzzle allows this integration directly with Learning Management Systems (eg. Google Classroom) and allows the Instructor to monitor whether the student has watched the video, how many times a particular section of the video was watched, time spent on the video, and the score obtained by the student [3]. The student cannot fast-forward the video or skip the questions and therefore at some point has to start listening intently. The video should ideally be divided into short videos of less than 30 minutes, keeping in mind both the attention span and bandwidth budget of the students [4]. (IIT Jodhpur is designated as a Pro School by Edpuzzle till July 2021 for unlimited use and has abundant opportunity to make the most of this methodology.)

This personalized experience in asynchronous mode is one that possibly comes the closest to a live classroom experience, where the student listens to and watches his/her own instructor write and teach just like in the classroom, and pause and shoot a quick question to the class—just like in a real classroom. Students can be encouraged to post questions as private or class comments on Google Classroom. The advanced features of Google Meet such as Q&A allow ‘upvoting’ of questions that can steer the live class interactions into a more organized and focussed discussion. While the same student might not raise his/her hand in class to ask a question, he/she feels more comfortable upvoting a question gaining confidence in knowing that there are others with the same doubt.

The solution is also greatly popular and liked among the students during its implementation in the first-year course of EEL1010 Introduction Electrical Engineering, especially in view of distance learning. From a survey of students enrolled in the course during the pandemic (Mar – July 2020), video lectures were rated as the most useful tool for students during remote learning (Fig. 1), followed by lecture notes and assignments. The following Academic Year 2020-21, when the entire course started in online mode and the Class of 2024 joined the academic program virtually, a survey from the enrolled students (in Trimester 2) showed that the interactive video lectures were widely considered successful and very useful by the students with an average scores of 4.6/5 in terms of usefulness (Fig. 2). Many students prefer a good balance between the asynchronous and synchronous aspects of learning topics at their convenience, and the similar feedback on self-paced learning has continued in the current trimester too.

Self-paced hands-on experiments Another remarkable tool for personalized and interactive online learning is through hands-on virtual experiments. Platforms like the Falstad Circuit Simulator [5] and Tinkercad Classrooms [6] allow instructors to directly review circuits made by the students on virtual breadboards and help troubleshoot, give feedback and allow both online and offline tinkering of projects. To know more about the EEL1010 and the Online Trimester [7], visit the course website [8].

With the concept of attendance losing its meaning in online classes, the use of interactive video assignments and virtual tinkering platforms serve as a remarkable indicator of virtual presence or engagement of the student with the study material. While the proposed solutions do come at a great cost of time and painstaking efforts on the part of the instructors, many of whom may themselves be coping with the stress and digital fatigue, the opportunity of self-paced learning can prove to be a one-time massive investment of efforts resulting in a long-lasting dividend. This can help reuse the created content and build upon and focus on creation of newer more advanced concepts for upcoming batches. This can also help take the course completely on ‘the cloud’ with organized asynchronous (even revenue-generating) online learning modules. In general, all these tools and practices aim to enhance the learning experience and bridge the digital divide for all stakeholders of the education ecosystem. IIT Jodhpur has completed one year of online classes and it has been an eventful year of learning and coping for both students and faculty members. With institutional framework and support in place, IIT Jodhpur was able to swiftly and deftly move into the digital learning space within just a few days of the lockdown. While the online classes have their own success stories and challenges, this is a great time to foster growth and take this conversation forward. It is important to note that the digital divide affects not just the students but many faculty members too simply due to relatively less exposure to digital tools and education technology. It has been a learning curve for teachers and students alike and the lessons learnt in the process hold a great promise in the days to come.

References

1.	Capgemini Research Institute, The Great Digital Divide: Why bringing the digitally excluded online should be a global priority, Report, May 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.capgemini.com/research/the-great-digital-divide/. Accessed on 10 January 2020.
2.	W. Dick and L. Carey, The Systematic Design of Instruction, Allyn & Bacon, 6th Ed., 2004.
3.	Edpuzzle (edpuzzle.com)
4.	R. Chouhan, “The Digital Classroom Experience,” Video Resource, Aug. 2020. [Online]. Available: https://youtu.be/PsxbXztsFKE.
5.	Falstad Circuit Simulator (https://www.falstad.com/circuit/)
6.	Autodesk Tinkercad (https://www.tinkercad.com/).
7.	EEL1010 & The Online Trimester (https://youtu.be/j0lkrRptUfk.
8.	EEL1010 Course Website (https://sites.google.com/iitj.ac.in/eel1010.

On Transportation Planning for the City of Jodhpur

Ranju Mohan

News and Views

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Background

Jodhpur, popularly known as the Sun City, is the second largest city in Rajasthan and one of the popular tourist destinations in India (Figure 1). Spreading over 1005 sq. km, this city is a hub for commercial, industrial, real-estate, and educational activities. As these activities boost the regional economy of the State and create a bundle of employment opportunities, it is necessary to ensure adequate transportation infrastructure and proper planning and management of traffic in the area, for which it is essential to understand and analyse existing traffic conditions and future development plans of the city.

Figure 1. Jodhpur City (Credit: Jodhpur Development Authority, January 2021)

As per the comprehensive mobility plan (CMP) for Jodhpur (Jodhpur Development Authority, 2021), the average annual growth rate of vehicles in Jodhpur district is 7.5%. The road network in the city is radial without any complementing circumferential network. Inter-city trips are centralized through the Central Business District (CBD), leading to traffic snarls. It is reported that vehicle volume to road capacity ratio during peak hours exceeds one (Figure 2). Roadside parking, increased private vehicle ownership, inadequate public transport and terminals, undisciplined driving, and the lack of parking and non-motorized transport infrastructure aggravates traffic woes in the city. Also, there exists a significant number of traffic accidents (14 per lakh of the population) due to improper traffic engineering measures and this echoes the need for effective measures and policies for road safety.

Figure 2: Jodhpur Traffic (Sources: https://www.patrika.com/jodhpur-news/increasing-traffic-on-jodhpur-roads-5343138/; https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikepresser/7628150210)

Solving transportation issues

Provision of additional infrastructure w.r.t. the increasing traffic volume on road alone cannot help to resolve traffic congestion or safety issues. Other strategies including access and travel demand management, for example, measures to encourage modal shift to public transit, staggered work hours, and congestion pricing, could also be considered. National Urban Transportation Policy (NUTP) (Ministry of Urban Development, Govt. of India, 2014) highlights transportation as movement of people rather than vehicles. Objectives of NUTP include integrated land use and transport planning, improved and integrated public transit system, improved facilities for no-motorized transport, parking and freight management, capacity building, road safety, and pollution reduction. Recently, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs has come up with an initiative, namely, Transport4All Challenge (Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, 2021), to develop solutions for public transit improvement, bringing together cities, citizens, and startups to meet both intercity and intracity travel needs.

Transportation strategies for Jodhpur

The CMP report proposes various strategies that can be adopted for sustainable transportation in the city and includes land use and transport strategy, development of mobility corridors, public transit improvement, non-motorized transport, parking management, and freight management. In terms of land use management, the Old City and its outer parts need to be planned separately as there is little scope for physical expansion in the former one. The ideal way to manage traffic in this scenario is the decentralization of commercial activities and relocation of regional and industrial activities. This will also reduce the number of freight trips in and around the CBD. During peak hours, freight trips can be further reduced with restricted delivery time and designated routes. Along with the existing radial road network in the city, the possibility for circumferential roads needs to be identified. A few roads could be designated as mobility corridors with increased speed of vehicles, where selected modes of transport could be prioritized. Peak hour fluctuations in travel demand can be handled by rescheduling and increasing frequency and fleet size of public transit system. This will also lead to an increase in PT modal share. However, considering increasing travel demand, an alternative mass transit system may be necessary to cater to the public transit load. These public transit systems should not be modeled as a standalone facility; instead, an integrated transport network should be developed with inter-modal transfer stations, park-and-ride facility, uninterrupted Intermediate Public Transit System (IPT) services, etc. Provision of footpaths and cycle tracks along mobility corridors with uninterrupted accessibility to public transport would cause an increase in NMT share. To increase the effective right-of-way of vehicles, on-street parking should be reduced with proper enforcement methods and off-street parking facility could be developed making it more attractive with integrated PT services. For safe and efficient transportation on existing networks, immediate management measures such as signs and markings and street lighting could be deployed. At intersections, geometric redesign using channelizing islands, traffic signal improvement etc. will save travel time as well as increase traffic safety. For smart transportation, Intelligent Transport System (ITS) measures could be deployed such as Advanced Traffic Management System (ATMS) and Advanced Traveller Information System (ATIS). Thus, a synergy of strategies can help manage traffic demand and bring down traffic-related externalities.

Figure 3. Policies for safe, efficient and convenient transportation in Jodhpur

The above strategies could be viewed from two perspectives, namely, traffic management and travel demand management (Figure 3). From a traffic control perspective, fluctuation of traffic demand needs to be analyzed by locations over time. From the analysis results, it is possible to devise alternative traffic management measures but impractical to test those on the field, particularly during peak hours. A traffic flow model can simulate the traffic flow of vehicles by type, replicating traffic and travel patterns in the city. Link performance measures such as speed, travel time, delay, density, etc., from such a representative model of the network, could be a better input to control traffic efficiently. The impacts of alternate measures of traffic management on the field could be simulated, and effective ones could be identified. Such models also enable integration with real-time data feed to control field traffic on-time. From a demand control perspective, policies and strategies need to be set, which will influence people's travel behavior, leading to the redistribution of travel demand over space and time to reduce congestion levels. The travel demand in a study region is typically described in the form of origin-to-destination (OD) matrices of the number of trips occurring between each (and every) OD pair in the region. Estimating an OD matrix of travel demand through a travel survey and a travel demand model is the apt option for deriving a sample of the OD travel patterns in the city. The travel demand model could be integrated with traffic flow model, enabling testing and evaluation of several travel demand management scenarios and dynamic routing of vehicles in the network.

In short, to ensure safe, convenient, and affordable travel of citizens, it is necessary to (a) collect data on traffic, travel demand, land use, and employment, (b) integrate land use with transport network to understand and analyse existing traffic conditions and future development plans of the city, (c) identify appropriate transport strategies, (d) develop mobility plan, and (e) timely schedule implementation programs.

Implementation approach

Transportation solutions from the above-mentioned perspectives could be implemented as short-, medium-, and long-term projects. To contribute towards a sustainable and efficient transport system in the city, urban local bodies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) including educational institutes and research organizations, and startups could have collaborations on these projects. Urban local bodies can interact with NGOs to identify transportation issues from a citizen perspective. They can also help in publicizing and campaigning strategies and policies for transport management. Startups can develop innovative solutions that meet the needs of citizens in consultation with the city government and NGOs. NGOs can guide city governments to contextualize transport solutions, mobilize volunteers to test solutions developed by startups, conduct traffic modeling studies, and analyze and document their impact.

References

1.	Jodhpur Development Authority (2021). Comprehensive mobility plan for Jodhpur (Draft). http://117.239.216.7/jda-news/pdf/CMP%20Draft%20-16.01.2021.pdf
2.	Ministry of Urban Development, Govt. Of India (2014). National Urban Transportation Policy. https://www.changing-transport.org/wp-content/uploads/E_K_NUMP_India_2014_EN.pdf
3.	Ministry of Housing and Urban affairs (2021), Transport4All Challenge. https://smartnet.niua.org/transport4all/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/210502_T4All_Challenge-brief.pdf

Centre of Excellence for Brain Science and Applications

Neeraj Jain

News and Views

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Brain, which has been called the final frontier, remains an enigma. Despite a focussed international effort given a fillip by the USA declaring 1990’s as the decade of the brain, and the parallel brain projects that it inspired in many countries, we are nowhere near understanding how the brain works. However, we are at an exciting phase in our understanding of the brain due to the rapid progress in neuroscience research.

Earliest explorations into the brain function were from a philosophical point of view for understanding the sense of self, soul and consciousness. Later psychology emerged as a separate branch of knowledge to understand human behaviour and its variations, although in the centres of higher learning it was not considered a part of the science faculty. Brain research was conducted separately from a biological perspective. Structure, connectivity and computations in the brain have been painstakingly unravelled since the beginning of last century, often using various animal models because of easy experimental accessibility. Many parts of Psychology were later merged with neurobiology as the biological basis of brain function and behaviour became impossible to ignore. Many neurobiology laboratories were established in the Departments of Psychology. Molecular biology, which was making a steady progress since 1950’s, saw an explosion of our understanding of cellular and molecular mechanisms in the last decades of the previous century. Neuroscientists studying the brain at the systems level began to accept molecular processes in neurons as the fundamental basis of brain function and this by extension of human perception and behaviour. Understanding the brain became a combined focus of separate branches of learning.

A separate revolution was taking place in parallel since the middle of the last century whereby computer scientists were trying to develop artificial intelligence – machines that were capable of mimicking human brain capability such as self-learning, intelligence and cognition. Progress in computing technology led to neural architecture being incorporated in the algorithms, although their resemblance to human brain function was more implied than real.

Recent technical advances in biology has provided powerful tools to peer into a functioning human brain using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Magnetoencephalography (MEG) and Electroencephalography (EEG). The tools to observe networks of functioning neurons in real time in behaving animals, and the genetic and epigenetic analysis have become more sophisticated. Data are being collected in ever larger volumes beyond the human capability to analyse or comprehend. At the same time there were ever accelerating advances in the computing power and data storage, and the development of tools such as machine learning resulting in advances in AI. Machines with capabilities such as recognition and reproduction of human speech, and ability to learn and play complicated games became possible. Artificial intelligence was coming closer to the real intelligence. It became imperative that engineering and neurobiology disciplines come together to further mutual progress.

At IITJodhpur an autonomous Centre for Brain Science and Applications (CBSA) has been created under the School of Artificial Intelligence and Data Science with the aim to bring together practitioners of diverse disciplines whose interests converge on understanding the brain, developing technologies to study the brain, developing brain inspired machines, and to apply this knowledge for betterment of humans. This interdisciplinary centre will bring together biologists, physicists, engineers, mathematicians and all those interested in the brain. The neurobiologists will interrogate the brain at the micro- (determining connectivity and functioning if individual neurons), meso- (studying network of groups of neurons such as a single sensory system) and mega-scale (studying the entire brain and interactions of brain in the social context of inter-individual interactions). Other groups will develop tools for data analysis and visualization, and AI and hardware inspired from the knowledge of the brain function. We envisage that working together and generation of knowledge on sensation, perception, intelligence, cognition and consciousness would lead to development of brain inspired machines, intelligent technology for prediction and diagnosis of diseases, brain-computer interface devices, intelligent prosthetics to name a few. Any patient related work will be done in collaboration with AIIMS Jodhpur and other hospitals around the country. Acutely aware that technology often races ahead our comprehension as a society of its moral, ethical and social implications, CBSA will have resident practitioners of philosophy and ethics. An important component of the Centre’s activities will be interdisciplinary teaching at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Institute Vision and Strategy 2021-25

Deepak Fulwani

News and Views

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Institute Vision and Strategy 2021-25

The institute has completed more than a decade in its journey in nurturing talent and achieving excellence. The institute has experienced a significant growth in recent times and by 2025 the student strength will reach to close to 5000 from the current strength of 2564. It is important for a technology institute to assess the changing landscape of the technology and other relevant factors to shape and tune its strategy to contribute significantly and meaningfully. There were several factors including but not limited to New Education Policy, exponential change in technology, changing nature of work and job, financial constraints, expectations from the society, and, the need for virtual mode of education with the traditional brick and mortar model necessitate the need to expand the current Vision and Mission of the institute. Furthermore, high-quality education acquires unprecedented importance in improving the lives and future of the people/planet. The arena and scope of technological education also have to expand far beyond the 20th-century concepts. Technology institutes have to increasingly become more and more multi-disciplinary, and also contribute more directly to the application of emerging technologies for responding effectively to ever-changing challenges/opportunities. They have to become significant contributors to the national development, including in the areas of sustainability, economic growth, and societal problem-solving. The shift in nature of work/ jobs move towards the use of immersive media for blended teaching and the new virtual educational institutions, and growing societal expectations are all calling for a total rethink.

With this backdrop, an institute level committee deliberated on various aspects of the institute and proposed a draft version of the vision document. The committee reimagined the core constituents of the institute i.e., all academic units, administrative offices, and other activities following four steps namely “Reimagine, Redefine Disrupt, Innovate,”. Furthermore, drafting vision document was also inspired by principles of Foresight− a field which predicts most probable futures. This document was debated in series of meetings with different stakeholders and subsequently feedback received through various discussion sessions was incorporated.

Vision statement reflects the proposed nature of the institute; it is envisaged as a future driven knowledge institute, with emphasis on the use of Transformational Technologies/ Interventions with a multidisciplinary approach. The Vision has been translated into a Mission with a five-point Mandate, and a Strategic Architecture to create a holistic institute for knowledge creation and dissemination of all traditional and emerging technologies and their fusion, and its application for national/societal purposes.

The Mission will be achieved through ten Goals. These Goals relate to Curriculum, Pedagogy, Research, Outreach, Institutional Collaboration, Industry Connect, Infrastructure, Student Life Cycle, Financial Plan, and Agile Organisation. The main objectives relate to offering a flexible curriculum, enhancing translational research ecosystem, inculcating professional internal culture, efficient collaboration with industries and institutions, fostering humanitarian values and passion for learning, and to develop socially responsible faculty, students, and future leaders, committed to creating a sustainable society. Every goal is also divided into several sub-goals and the institute Vision and Strategy Document documents strategy for each of the sub-goals and respective Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). In what follows, the institute vision statement, Mission and Goals are presented.

Vision

"A future-driven institute for nurturing excellence of thought; creating, preserving, and imparting knowledge; and using transformational technologies/interventions with a multidisciplinary approach for responding to societal challenges and aspirations. "

Mission

1. Foster humanitarian values, passion for learning, and creativity in faculty and students
2. Move towards high quality, futuristic educational, and research ecosystem
3. Develop socially responsible faculty, students, and future leaders, committed to creating a self-reliant India
4. Catalyze a professional internal culture along with enabling infrastructure and ancillary services
5. Forge effective national as well as international collaboration and partnership with industry and academia for diverse purposes and activities.

Goals

Curriculum

To assimilate balanced, broad-based as well as specialized education in all curricula with opportunities for different kinds of students and their interests.

Pedagogy

To establish systems for dynamic development, implementation, and evaluation of futuristic pedagogy including blended-hybrid teaching and experiential learning.

Research

Have a globally engaged research ecosystem with state-of-the-art facilities in place, for attaining leadership in research on academic, social, national, and industrial fronts while capitalizing on emerging and in-demand opportunities.

Outreach

To be the Institute of Choice for a lifelong learning journey of working professionals, alumni, and the community.

Institutional Collaboration

Have an efficient platform in place for forging impactful partnerships with academia, research institutes, business organizations, civil society, governments, and other agencies across the world for contributing to larger goals for humanity.

Campus Sustainability Project (CSP)

Anand Krishnan Plappally

News and Views

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IIT Jodhpur is situated at eastern edges of great Thar Desert in India. IIT Jodhpur was born in 2008 and moved to present main campus in 2017. Campus plan was conceived supposing the campus as a living laboratory. The institute is in its teens with its second phase of physical infrastructure development in its last mile. The ecosystem of the campus pertaining to land-use and land cover has transitioned to completely different one during last decade. Campus needs to be sustainable in all fronts and as per the vision of our Director. The Campus Sustainability Project (CSP) is being developed as part of IIT Jodhpur’s commitment to embed sustainable practices across education, administration, finances, student well-being, landscape, ecosystems, natural resources, global social responsibility of the institute and extremely feeble environment prevailing in the region. IIT Jodhpur’ s ability to achieve desired outcomes in the said areas and maintain the ability to continue programs, processes and activities over next decade will provide definition to sustainability

Energy: In order to enable the campus in such a manner, practices to reduce our dependency on fossil fuels needs to be introduced in a phased manner. New renewable energy sources, rechargeable batteries, energy storages can be opted for use in area of transport and energy production. Our new vendors and collaborators should be following UN (sustainability development goals) SDG norms and should have awareness to upkeep their processes and working within environmental conservation edicts. Student projects related to carbon capture data, carbon sequestration and footprint are proposed for the next two years with the long term plan to make IITJ campus carbon neutral.

Waste: Practice of circular causation is to be enabled through strategies to stop waste by concepts of refusing to create waste, reduce its evolution, reuse it, refurbishing products, redesign to fit, rethink about a process, recycle it, recover valuables from it as well produce energy through processes to rot waste. The construction, biomedical, kitchen, paper, sewage and gardening waste need to segregate at source and properly processed to ensure cleanliness around the campus through small projects envisaging a waste free campus in the long run. Setting SDG targets for individual units or buildings which are achievable with effective use of science and technology products and processes are the main aim

Out-Reach: Water and energy are bound to be audited through competitions between occupants of a different physical infrastructure. Students, staff and faculty will test the sustainability indices of processes, devices, and frameworks which they design, create and implement within the campus during the next two years of this project. These projects will be showcased live to the outside world to disseminate concepts which are aligned to UN SDGs and also to churn the public opinion how to practice sustainability in their surroundings. This culture will build a competitive thought to conserve campus amenities and its limited natural resources.

Education: Education for sustainability at IITJ will motivate pupil to produce technology and services that uses renewable resources and does not damage their ecological habitats. This focuses on process, design and product appropriateness, natural resource conservation and creating ecologically and socially aware engineers and professionals who understand interdependence of environmental, social, cultural, data and economic systems. In this regard, talks on sustainability has already started with thought process on initiating management development programs (MDPs), certificate programs and doctoral programs at IIT Jodhpur. Dissemination of knowledge on SDGs and for attainment of SDGs will be also demonstrated periodically to the nearby districts, communities, schools and neighbors through physical as well as online mode.

External Linkage: During the CSP, global linkages with sustainability accreditation organizations, memberships with higher education organization related to UN, regional institutional collaborations and on-campus initiatives is also necessitated. Projects will be also aiming to position IITJ towards promulgating emission mitigation pathways, initiating newer technologies, studies, standards and policies for achieving net zero (emissions need to fall to zero) in alignment to guidelines proposed in the Paris Agreement on 12 December 2015 (by the 196 Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)).

Support: The institute, through its Office of infrastructure and CETSD will support and enable the project initiation in terms of small financial as well as administrative supports. All stakeholders irrespective of student, faculty, staff, family members and other stakeholder are requested to join hands to take forward this movement towards a vibrant future for the region as well as the campus by proposing projects towards SDGs.

Scope: Projects can be from diverse areas, but not limited to, conservation and carbon capture and fixation, data sensing and collection, water management, digitization, AI based interventions, education -based projects, SDG awareness-survey, framework, management, behavioral, awareness, social outreach, neighborhood village partnerships, environmental aspects, student projects, student SDG awareness projects, waste management, transport, renewable energy use, and flora-fauna sustenance.

Secrecy Analysis for Free-Space Optical Communication Systems

Aashish Mathur

Research Snippets

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There has been a rapid increase in the demand for high speed access to voice, video, and data over the past few years. Due to this exponential growth in the wireless data traffic, it is becoming challenging to satisfy the data-rate demands of mobile users because the available radio frequency (RF) communication spectrum is very limited. Since the RF spectrum is so congested and the data transmission rate of RF communications cannot satisfy the huge demand for large data transmission, free-space optical (FSO) communication systems have emerged as a possible new technology for the next generation of communication systems. FSO communication systems offer higher bandwidth and capacity in comparison to traditional RF communication systems. In addition, FSO links are license-free and cost-effective compared to the expensive and scarce RF spectrum [1]. High data rate requirement in 5G and beyond communications requires backhaul links with much higher capacity and reliability relative to previous systems, especially in the context of network densification that makes wired backhaul an expensive solution. FSO systems can be explored for backhauling in 5G and beyond communications owing to their numerous benefits. Owing to the directional nature of the laser beam used in FSO transmitters, FSO systems are inherently secure. However, due to the divergence of the transmitted optical beam as a result of the turbulent nature of the FSO channel, if the eavesdropper is able to locate itself close to the legitimate receiver, it will be able to intercept the information [2]-[4]. Hence, it is important to analyse the security of the FSO systems, particularly at the physical layer (called physical layer security (PLS)). PLS techniques are specifically advantageous for 5G scenarios compared to cryptographic techniques due to their independence of computational complexity and decentralized nature of 5G networks. Some key contributions by Dr. Aashish Mathur in the area of secrecy of FSO systems are as follows:

References

1.	F. Yang, J. Cheng, and T. A. Tsiftsis, "Free space optical communication with nonzero boresight pointing errors", IEEE Transactions on Communications, vol. 62, no. 2, pp. 713-725, Feb. 2014.
2.	G. D. Verma, A. Mathur, Y. Ai, M. Cheffena, "Secrecy performance of FSO communication systems with nonzero boresight pointing errors", IET Communications, vol. 15, no. 1, Jan. 2021, pp. 155-162.
3.	A. Sikri, A. Mathur, M. R. Bhatnagar, G. Kaddoum, P. Saxena, and J. Nebhen "Artificial noise injection--based secrecy improvement for FSO systems", IEEE Photonics Journal, vol. 13, no. 2, Apr. 2021, pp. 1-12, Art no. 7900412.
4.	Y. Ai, A. Mathur, L. Kong, and M. Cheffena, "Secure outage analysis of FSO communications over arbitrarily correlated Malaga turbulence channels," IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, vol. 70, no. 4, pp. 3961-3965, Apr. 2021.

Electrochemical Energy Storage Devices: State of the Art and Future Directions

Prashant Kumar Gupta, Praveen Kumar Sappidi

Research Snippets

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To address the future energy demands, it is essential to develop scalable energy storage systems from abundant materials that can be integrated with renewable energy. For centuries, batteries have been known for their excellent chemical energy conversion and storage. Most portable energy storage technology is currently dominated by lithium-ion while stationary energy storage with lead acid-based technology. The intercalation-based lithium-ion technology has high energy density but is still expensive to scale up. Less abundance of lithium and the safety due to the use of liquid organic electrolytes are primary concerns. While on the other hand, conversion reaction-based lead acid batteries cause significant environmental problems with low energy density and limited cycle life require exploring an alternate energy storage technology.

The current state of the art for lithium-based technology has a positive electrode of LiCoO2 or its derivatives or spinel compound like LiMn2O4 or polyanionic compound like LiFePO4. The present research can be divided into two categories: the first one focuses on the cost and safety with the expense of energy density, while the other is to improve the energy density, whereas the demand for optimum performance lies in both. Recently, partial replacement of transition metal sites with the lithium known as lithium-rich compound showed very high capacity ~300 mAh/g but suffered from a poor cycle life [1]. Apart from lithium, other cations like K+, Na+, Zn+2, Mg+2, Al+3, etc. have been explored for energy storage. However, none were found suitable. Similar mono-valent Na and K-based ions show poor cycle life due to the bigger size of the intercalating ions. The multivalent ions, though they have an ion size close to the Li+ but high electric density due to greater charge, will result in strong electrostatic interaction with the host material, resulting in a polarization effect that sluggish the diffusion process.

The search for better technology for the future based on earth-abundant materials like Na+ and Zn+2 requires much scientific exploration to make these technologies feasible on the device level. As seawater is an infinite source of sodium elements and is an abundant material. The concentration of Na+ ions in seawater is approximately 0.47 M. It can possibly act as a Na+ ion source during the direct use of sea water in batteries. But the suitable electrode material requires more scientific examination for the commercialization of these technologies. Similarly, India lies in 7th place in terms of zinc reservoirs and 3rd place in the production of the world’s 5.3% zinc, which attracts researchers for zinc-based technology. Zinc metal has a theoretical specific capacity of 820 mAh/g. A capacity density of more than two times that of lithium, equal to 5855 mAh/cm3 makes it a potential material for energy storage application and needs to be explored [2].

With the advancement of computer’s power will help design and analyze experiments via computations to better understand the underlying physicochemical factors, which will result in the development of next-generation energy storage devices, electrode materials and solid and liquid electrolytes. The rate of charging and discharging, stability, and overall efficiency of any battery is highly dependent on the structural and transport properties of the electrolytes. The atomistic and molecular level simulations would help understand the Ion hopping (Li+, Na+, Mg2+, Zn2+, and Al3+, etc.), ion dynamics, ionic conductivity, transference number, and solvation thermodynamic properties in different electrolytes and electrode materials. On the other hand, it is known that solvated ions in the liquid electrolytes influence the overall reaction rate and selectivity. Thus, fundamental gaps such as accurate understanding of the reaction kinetics in different electrolyte materials and their effects due to different perturbations are challenging, which need to be understood in more detail. A combination of atomic-level simulations such as Density Functional Theory (DFT), Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, and Coarse-grained (CG) simulations along with the experimental benchmarks, will help in developing the next-generation batteries. Figure 1 presents research directions towards the combined computational and experimental approach toward this multi-dimensional battery material development problem.

Figure 1. Combined computational and experimental approach towards the development of battery materials.

Further, to enhance the battery performance, different electrolytes are being considered such as water-in-salt electrolytes [3], polymer electrolytes [4], etc. However, there are challenges such as developing enhanced sampling techniques for the electrochemical reactions in the solid-liquid interfaces, implementing Machine Learning (ML) approaches to understand the physicochemical properties of liquid electrolytes [5], and estimating the lifetime of both electrolyte and electrode materials. Considering modern computing resources such as GPUs and web-based cloud technologies, this combination of approaches would enable the researchers to solve this complex problem.

References:-

1.	P. Roziera, and J. M. Tarascon. Li-Rich Layered Oxide Cathodes for Next-Generation Li-Ion Batteries: Chances and Challenges. Journal of The Electrochemical Society, 162 (14) A2490-A2499, 2015
2.	A. Konarov, N. Voronina, J. H. Jo, Z. Bakenov, Y. K. Sun, and S. T. Myung. Present and Future Perspective on Electrode Materials for Rechargeable Zinc-Ion Batteries. ACS Energy Letter, 3, 2620−2640, 2018
3.	T. Liang, R. Hou, Q. Dou, H. Zhang, X. Yan. The Applications of Water‐in‐Salt Electrolytes in Electrochemical Energy Storage Devices. Advanced Functional Materials, 31(3), pp. 2006749, 2021.
4.	K. D. Fong, J. Self, B. D. McCloskey, and K. A. Persson. Ion Correlations and Their Impact on Transport in Polymer-Based Electrolytes. Macromolecules, 54(6), pp. 2575-2591, 2021
5.	Y. Shao, L. Knijff, F. M. Dietrich, K. Hermansson, C. Zhang. Modelling Bulk Electrolytes and Electrolyte Interfaces with Atomistic Machine Learning. Batteries & Supercaps, 4(4), pp. 585-595, 2021.

Design of Mechanically Tunable Wide Phononic Band Gaps in Soft Laminates by Means of Topology Optimization

Atul Kumar Sharma

Research Snippets

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The propagation of elastodynamic waves in periodic composite materials, also known as phononic crystals (PnCs), has gained increasing attention in the recent past [1,2]. PnCs possess the promising characteristic of exhibiting band gaps within which the propagation of acoustic/elastic waves in certain frequency ranges is prohibited. Due to this characteristic, PnCs have been implemented in a wide range of engineering applications such as frequency filters, vibration isolators, acoustic diodes, noise suppressors, and among many others [3,4].

Soft active materials, such as tissues, dielectric elastomers, and magnetorheological elastomers, etc. have been of particular interest due to their characteristic of undergoing large deformation when actuated by mechanical, electrical, magnetic, thermal fields [5]. The constitutive behavior of such materials is nonlinear and material properties are a function of mechanical, electrical, or magnetic loading. These features made them attractive for tunable band gap structures. In this regard, a significant effort has been made to investigate the wave propagation and band gaps in the periodic composite structures or PnCs made up of soft active materials [3,6,7]. However, in several of these applications, the position and width of the band gaps of PnCs play a crucial role. Thus, it is necessary to design a periodic structure that possesses the desired position and width of the band gap. The design of PnCs with tunable band gaps has been the topic of continued interest and investigation [1]. A large volume of literature expounds on designing the topologies of PnCs made up of hard materials such as Aluminium/Epoxy, for widening the band gap width [1,2]. In contrast, not much work has been done on topology optimization of PnCs made up of soft materials [8]. To this end, this paper reports a gradient-based topology optimization framework for designing wide and mechanically tunable soft band gap structures.

Consider an infinite periodic laminated composite composed of perfectly boded two different soft compressible phases denoted by a and b as shown in Fig. 1. In the undeformed configuration, the thickness of the unit cell is . For tuning the band gaps, laminate is subjected to fixed equi-biaxial prestretch in the lateral directions and the pre-stress in the longitudinal direction. In the deformed configuration, the thickness of the unit cell becomes and is related to undeformed thickness as with p=(a,b) and being the stretch ratio in the longitudinal direction for pth phase. Considering that the phases are made up of compressible neo-Hookean materials, the nonlinear constitutive relation relating the applied prestress and longitudinal prestretch is given as

Figure 1: Schematic of an infinite two-phase soft phononic crystal subjected to prestress in the longitudinal direction and the corresponding undeformed unit cell.

This paper is restricted to investigate the longitudinal waves propagating in the x3 direction of the deformed phononic crystal. The finite deformation field theory presented in Ref. [9] is used for studying the incremental elastic longitudinal wave propagation superimposed on the static deformation induced by the applied prestress . The incremental equation governing the longitudinal waves propagating in the x3 is obtained as

Next, the standard finite element method with Bloch periodic boundary conditions [10] is adopted to find the band diagrams of the infinite periodic soft laminate. Considering time-harmonic excitation, the resulting finite element equations for modeling the infinite periodic soft laminate is given as

where denotes the spatially dependent nodal incremental displacement vector, K and M are the stiffness and mass matrices, respectively, and k is the wave vector. The eigenvalue problem (Eq. 2) along with the Bloch periodic boundary condition is solved for extracting the longitudinal band diagram.

This paper aims to find the optimal distribution of soft compressible phases a and b in the unit cell that maximizes the band gap width in the pre-stressed configuration. The mathematical formulation of the topology optimization problem for maximizing the band gap width in the pre-stressed configuration is defined as

The finite element eigenvalue problem and the topology optimization problem presented in this paper are implemented by developing an in-house MATLAB code. The unit cell is assumed to be made up of two compressible neo-Hookean hyperelastic phases a and b whose material properties are listed in Table 1. In the undeformed configuration, the size of the unit cell is taken to be 1mm and discretized into 200 linear bar elements. The longitudinal band structures are obtained by sweeping the wave vector in the irreducible first Brillouin zone . For convenience, the frequency is normalized as and the wave vector is normalized as kh.

In conclusion, a gradient-based topology optimization framework is presented for maximizing the longitudinal band gap width in soft compressible laminated phononic crystals. The topology optimization and finite element framework presented for extracting band gap diagrams is implemented using an in-house MATLAB code. The higher compression prestress is found to have a favourable impact on the optimized band gap characteristics. The present gradient-based framework can be extended for designing wide tunable band gaps for anti-plane and in-plane waves of general propagation direction in two-dimensional and three-dimensional soft composites.

References:-

1.	G. Yi, Y. C. Shin, H. Yoon, S.-H. Jo, B. D. Youn, Topology optimization for phononic band gap maximization considering a target driving frequency, JMST Advances 1 (1) (2019) 153-159.
2.	W. Li, F. Meng, Y. Chen, Y. f. Li, X. Huang, Topology optimization of photonic and phononic crystals and metamaterials: a review, Advanced Theory and Simulations 2 (7) (2019) 1900017.
3.	Y. Chen, B. Wu, Y. Su, W. Chen, Tunable two-way unidirectional acoustic diodes: Design and simulation, Journal of Applied Mechanics 86 (3) (2019)
4.	Z.-G. Chen, J. Zhao, J. Mei, Y. Wu, Acoustic frequency filter based on anisotropic topological phononic crystals, Scientific reports 7 (1) (2017) 1-6.
5.	J. Kim, J. W. Kim, H. C. Kim, L. Zhai, H.-U. Ko, R. M. Muthoka, Review of soft actuator materials, International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing 20 (12) (2019) 2221-2241.
6.	R. Getz, D. M. Kochmann, G. Shmuel, Voltage-controlled complete stopbands in two-dimensional soft dielectrics, International Journal of Solids and Structures 113 (2017) 24-36.
7.	A. Bayat, F. Gordaninejad, Band-gap of a soft magnetorheological phononic crystal, Journal of vibration and acoustics 137 (1) (2015).
8.	E. Bortot, O. Amir, G. Shmuel, Topology optimization of dielectric elastomers for wide tunable band gaps, International Journal of Solids and Structures 143 (2018) 262-273.
9.	A. Dorfmann, R. W. Ogden, Electroelastic waves in a finitely deformed electroactive material, IMA Journal of Applied Mathematics 75 (4) (2010) 603-636.
10.	C. Kittel, Introduction to solid state physics, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York (2005).
11.	K. Svanberg, The method of moving asymptotes—a new method for structural optimization, International journal for numerical methods in engineering 24 (2) (1987) 359-373.

A Rapid and Cost-Effective Screening Technique for COVID-19

Ajay Agarwal

Innovation Gallery

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An innovative way of Raman finger-printing, using Surface-enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) techniques is being proposed to detect SARS-CoV-2 at early stage of infection. Here, a Raman signature of the virus, in traces, is captured through SERS active substrates. These substrates enhance the Raman signal by a million to billion times, that too label-free.

The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a highly infectious disease which is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [1]. This disease was first recognized in December 2019 in Wuhan, China. By 15th April 2020, it had spread in 210 countries and territories around the world affecting about 2 million people while the tests done were about 16 million [2]. 18 months after the initiation of COVID-19, it has spread in 222 countries and territories around the world and has affected more than 190million people, while over 3 billion tests for the deadly infection are already done worldwide. Due to limited testing, in early 2020 no country could issue reliable data on the prevalence of the virus in their population [3].

Two main approaches are mostly used for laboratory testing of the respiratory coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19); the methods are used to detect the virus and for the detection of antibodies produced in response to the infection. The existence of virus in the samples is confirmed by RT-PCR, which detects RNA of the coronavirus. This test is specific and is designed to only detect the RNA of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. This is a confirmation test of very recent or active infection. Another method to detect the virus is by Rapid Antigen Test (RAT), using the principle of immune-chromatographic assay to detect viral antigens. Antibodies (serology) detection is used for both diagnosis and population surveillance. Antibody tests confirm how many people have suffered from the disease. It includes those cases who had very minor symptoms or those who were asymptomatic. The tests are useful to predict accurate mortality rate of the disease and also the level of herd immunity in the cohort.

Though RT-PCR is very specific technique to detect COVID-19 diagnosis, it is a costly method and takes time for sample preparation and further analysis. It involves sample collection from nasal swab, RNA extraction, reverse transcription, PCR and analysis. RAT testing is faster, but it has poor sensitivity and higher false negative results, especially in patients with low viral load and early stage of disease. On other hand, serological tests are comparatively fast but they cannot be used to detect early stage of infection. Therefore, RT-PCR is the only confirmatory method used for COVID-19 screening or diagnosis. Being costly and time consuming, most of the countries are only testing people with symptoms suggestive of COVID-19 such as fever, tiredness, dry cough, aches and pains, nasal congestion, etc. On an average, symptoms show up after 5–6 days of viral infection; however, it may take up to 14 days. People with mild symptoms who are often not tested become the source of further spread of infection. It is also believed that 5% to 80% of people testing positive for SARS-CoV-2, in various cohorts, may be asymptomatic [4]. It is also reported by ICMR that one infected person can infect 406 persons if he/she is not quarantined after infection detection [5].

As per the case study of a family in Zhejiang province, China suggests that the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can spread before the emergence of the symptoms of the disease, and the disease symptoms can also vary widely in a close family group [6].

This suggests a need of diagnostic technique which can detect COVID-19 in the subjects, at very early stage, when no symptoms appear. For mass screening, the technique needs to very fast, cost-effective, easy to use and preferably with portable instrumentation so that it can be easily carried to the user site.

We investigated and developed the SARS-CoV-2 detection technique using Raman finger-printing, via saliva of the subject. Persons at early stage of infection or asymptomatic cases may have very low viral load, and hence are very difficult to be identified if they are infected. A novel Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) technique is used which is capable of trace level detection. The Raman specific signatures for COVID-19 were analyzed in a single scan, on a SERS active chip, in a label-free manner. Such Raman spectra were then analyzed using Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms. This analysis technique can avoid the requirements of sample processing time and result is obtained instantaneously. Using dedicated handheld Raman spectrometer with AI algorithms, the device can be used as point-of-care device for mass screening. The system comprises of a low-cost SERS active chip, as the only consumable. No costly chemicals are required for such analysis, as in case of other methods like RT-PCR or antibodies-antigen based analysis.

The schematic of the SERS based rapid screening technique which includes sample collection, Raman scan and data analytics is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Schematic of SERS chip based rapid screening technology for COVID-19

We established the proof-of-concept for the screening of COVID-19 viral infection through saliva samples using Raman spectral analysis followed by Artificial Intelligence. The SERS-based screening platform enabled differentiation between normal saliva vs saliva containing model protein (BSA) and COVID-19 specific Spike protein (S1 domain) using chemometric analysis of SERS spectra viz., principal component analysis (PCA) and support vector machine (SVM). Further, the SERS based screening platform enabled distinction among three different class of spike proteins viz. SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV and MARS-CoV (all spiked in saliva samples) by chemometric analysis viz. PCA, Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and SVM

Our team could distinguish the saliva samples of COVID-19 infected patients and healthy volunteers’ saliva samples through SERS fingerprint analysis (Figure 2) and chemometric classification using PCA and SVM

Figure 2: Raman spectra, taken using SERS active substrates, of COVID-19 patients’ and normal subjects’ saliva

The author acknowledges all the team members, mainly Dr Sanjay Singh and Dr Rishi Sharma of CSIR-Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute, Pilani, and Dr Kaustabh K. Maiti and Dr Yoosaf Karuvath of CSIR National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (CSIR–NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram, for their invaluable contributions towards this study.

References:-

1.	"Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) - Symptoms and causes". Mayo Clinic. Retrieved 14 April 2020.
2.	https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/?
3.	Ioannidis, John P.A. (17 March 2020). "A fiasco in the making? As the coronavirus pandemic takes hold, we are making decisions without reliable data". STAT. Retrieved 22 March2020.
4.	https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/covid-19-what-proportion-are-asymptomatic/
5.	Covid-19: 1 patient can infect 406 people in 30 days, finds ICMR study, https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/science/covid-19-1-patient-can-infect-406-people-in-30-days-finds-icmr-study/article31282789.ece
6.	https://www.contagionlive.com/news/case-study-shows-asymptomatic-transmission-of-covid19-in-china