R&D Newsletter-UPDATE Spring 2002

Major Funding Agencies 2001-02
Agency	Number of projects
Department of Science and Technology	37
Ministry of Human Resource Development	11
Indian Space Research Organisation	10
International Organisations	7
Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources	3

Honours

Dr. Ashok Misra, Director and Professor of Chemical Engineering, has been elected Fel- low of National Academy of Sciences, India.

Dr. S. C. Lakkad, Deputy Director and Pro- fessor of Aerospace Engineering, has been elected Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineering.

Major New Consultancy Projects
Investigator	Department	Project Title
P. Banerji	Civil	Condition monitoring and fatigue life estimation of steel bridges
P. Venkatachalam	CSRE	Generation of spatial database for village and block map
D. M. Dhamdhere	CSE	Effective extension trajectories for programme testing and debugging
G. Mohan	Earth Sciences	Seismic monitoring and analysis of data from Bervi seismic network
A. G. Rao	IDC	Design, technology and training assistance for 3 micro CRCs
D. B. Phatak	KReSIT	Advice on IT
U. N. Gaitonde	Mechanical	Dynamic model for simulation of the PHT system for nuclear reactor
K. N. Iyer	Mechanical	Transient analysis of atomic power station

Major New Sponsored Projects
Investigator	Department	Project Title
A. V. Mahajan	Physics	Structure-Property relationship in some magnetic semiconducting materials
K. G. Narayankhedkar	Mechanical	Development of 2 stage Cryo-cooler for IRS Programme
K. Sudhakar	Aerospace	Setting up a facility for modeling and simulation activities in Aerospace System and Design Engineering
K. P. K. Poopathi	Mechanical	Development of Layered Manufacturing process for Metallic Tools
T. S. Raghunathan	Chemical	Design / Conducting a Degree level Chemical Engineering Programme for Reliance Industries Limited
D. Panda	Biotechnology	Characterization of Candida Albicans Microtubules
C. Chattopadhyay	Chemistry	Advanced NMR facility for Conformation, Structural & stereochemical studies of Complex molecular and biomolecular systems

Select MOUs
Organization	Date Signed	Scope
Gujarat Positra Port Infrastructure Ltd.	October 2001	To establish a knowledge park in the special economic zone and an extended campus of IITB
Godrej Industries Ltd.	December 2001	Academic / research collaboration in chemical technology, chemistry, information technology and design packaging
Tata Institute of Fundamental Research	November 2001	General academic & technical collaboration
Vidya Integrated Development of Youth and Adults (VIDYA)	January 2002	Collaboration for enhancement of human values through IITB NSS programme

Award for Modular Toilet Units for Railways

IIT Bombay (Industrial Design Centre and Department of Aero- space Engineering) has received a Certificate of Merit from Consultancy Development Centre (DSIR), for excellence in consultancy services for their project, Design of Modular Toilet Unit for the Railway Coaches, for the year 2001. The project was undertaken by the Advanced Composite Mission, TIFAC (Department of Science and Technology, Government of India) in partnership with Hindustan Fibre Glass Works, Vadodara, with design and technology support from IIT Bombay. The design was carried out by Prof. K. Munshi, Prof. N. Sadhu and Mr. M. S. Govindarajan, of IDC, and the technology was provided by Prof. S.C.Lakkad, Department of Aerospace En- gineering. The Modular toilet unit was inaugurated by Dr. R. Chidambaram, Ex-Chairman Atomic Energy Commission & Chairman, TIFAC, on Oct. 20, 2001 at the Lower Parel Workshop, Mumbai. The units have been installed in a two tier AC coach of Rajdhani Express for trial run.

TiE, IIT Bombay offer free incubation

In a bid to provide an impetus to entrepreneurship and innovation, the Mumbai chapter of TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) is working with IIT-Bombay to expand the scope of its annual business plan competition, (Eureka!), by offering free incuba- tion for a year or more for winning teams both in Silicon Valley and in Pune. TiE has roped in fellow sponsors Indiaco in Pune and The Enterprise Network from Silicon Valley to host the winners. The total value of prizes offered is over $250,000.

Technology Transfer

Novel Matrix Heat Recovery Units (MHRU) have been de- veloped by Prof. Milind V. Rane, Department of Mechanical Engineering and licensed to M/s Unidyne Energy Environment systems Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai. A patent has been filed for this invention. These MHRUs are designed to recover heat from diesel exhaust gases. Being finless, these are less prone to fouling. They can be optimized for handling both clean and dust laden exhaust gases. These state-of-the-art compact units are about one third the size of conventional systems for steam generation, water heaters and thermic fluid heaters. Even though MHRUs are finless, they are designed to provide high heat transfer coefficients. Also, these units can be supplied with online cleaning option to increase uptime. As these have low response time, they can be ramped up to full load from cold start in 10 to 15 minutes. Finally, MHRUs can provide the twin benefit of low initial investment (20 to 25% less than conventional systems) as well as low operational costs. As a result, these have a short payback time, typically in the range of 30 to 270 days.