Education – Page 4 – Global Records India

A teacher’s green mission in Odisha

Bijay Kumar Bhatt has singlehandedly planted 10,000 palm trees

As a teacher Bijay Kumar Bhatt has inspired scores of students to learn and succeed in life through his classroom teachings in Odisha’s Puri district over past two decades. But, he is eulogised as a role model for what he has achieved outside the classroom.

Mr. Bhatt has singlehandedly planted 30,000 trees in Astaranga area, a coastal pocket in Puri which has borne the brunt of cyclones, floods and tidal surge for years. The trees he has chosen to plant are palm, date palm and neem.

“It was the 1999 Super Cyclone that stirred me up. Lakhs of trees were uprooted while tidal surge had inundated vast stretches of cropland making it worthless for taking up crop in future. I could not imagine the green cover regaining its pervious shape in quick time,” he recollected.

Quantum diamond microscope to image magnetic fields

Researchers tap fluorescence changes in special, diamond sensors to image time-varying fields

Researchers from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) at Mumbai and Kharagpur have built a microscope that can image magnetic fields within microscopic two-dimensional samples that change over milliseconds. This has a huge potential for scientific applications, such as in measuring biological activity of neurons and dynamics of vortices in superconductors. The work, led by IIT Bombay professor Kasturi Saha, from the Department of Electrical Engineering, has been published in Scientific Reports. This is the first time that such a tool has been built to image magnetic fields that change within milliseconds.

he team had started a collaboration with IIT Kharagpur in 2017 with the ambitious target of building a novel system to image the brain. They collaborated with Sharba Bandopadhyay, who brought in an expertise in neurobiology and bioengineering to complement the knowledge of quantum optics, quantum computing and quantum sensing that was Prof. Saha’s forte.

“We have, along with PhD student Madhur Parashar, developed an algorithm to image neurons in 3D using NV quantum sensors,” says Prof. Saha.

This work was published in Communications Physics in 2020. We have jointly filed a patent for the present work, she adds.

Researchers from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) at Mumbai and Kharagpur have built a microscope that can image magnetic fields within microscopic two-dimensional samples that change over milliseconds.
Prof. Saha explains that the ideal frame rate to capture a changing magnetic field is one that captures data at twice the frequency of the changing field.
The key aspect of this sensor is a “nitrogen vacancy (NV) defect centre” in a diamond crystal. Such NV centres act as pseudo atoms with electronic states that are sensitive to the fields and gradients around them (magnetic fields, temperature, electric field and strain).

Guwahati: IIT prosthetic leg that allows deep squatting

Research for developing artificial limb is funded by Union ministry of education and the department of biotechnology.

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati (IITG) have developed an affordable prosthetic leg with advanced features, specifically designed for Indian conditions.

The IIT Guwahati said on Monday that the artificial limb allows its user to sit cross-legged and squat deep and is suitable for uneven terrain.

“Affordable prosthetics that are available in the market have many functional limitations. In addition, the Indian lifestyle and uneven terrain require prosthetics with specifications unique to India, which are not widely available in the market. The leg developed by us is state-of-the-art technology, affordable, light weight, stable and capable of mimicking most of the human joint’s motion, the IIT-G said, adding cost of around Rs 25,000 is ensured using the technology.

IIT Guwahati researchers collaborated with 151 Army Base Hospital, Guwahati, Tolaram Bafna Kamrup District Civil Hospital, Guwahati Neurological Research Centre (GNRC), North Guwahati, and North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGHRIMS), Shillong, to develop the leg.

A team led by professor S. Kanagaraj, department of mechanical Engineering, IITG, set out to tackle these issues. Prototypes of their models developed by this research team are currently undergoing trials.

Professor Bhaskar Borgohain, head of department (Orthopaedic) at NEIGHRIMS told The Telegraph that work on the project started in 2013 with the objective of developing a “user-friendly and light weight” limb.

He has been associated with the project from the beginning.

“The legs developed by us will not only help cut down on imports of prosthetic legs, especially from Germany and UK, but will also be a huge relief to those in need of such legs. An imported artificial limb will cost anywhere between Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 3.5 lakh. Our legs would cost much less. It will be launched soon,” Borgohain said.

IIT Madras professor T Pradeep chosen PSIPW laureate

Thalappil Pradeep, institute professor, Department of Chemistry at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM), has been selected as the laureate of the 10th edition of the ‘Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water’ (PSIPW). He was selected for the award under ‘Creativity Prize’ category given for ‘breakthrough discovery’ in any water-related field.

Pradeep developed environmentally-friendly ‘water positive’ nano scale materials for the affordable, sustainable, and rapid removal of arsenic from drinking water.

He was recognized earlier with the Padma Shri, and Nikkei Asia Prize, among many others and his technologies are delivering clean water to over 1.2 crore people.

India’s newest recorded snail named after Western Ghats

The Haploptychius sahyadriensis is endemic to the Vishalgad Conservation Reserve in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district

The Western Ghats of Maharashtra have yielded a carnivorous land snail new to the world of science.

The Haploptychius sahyadriensis, recorded from the northern Western Ghats of Maharashtra, is the third member of the genus Haploptychius. The other two – H. andamanicus and H. pfeifferi – were recorded in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the 1860s.

Kodagu Origin Doctor To Head American Academy Of Audiology

Having studied at AIISH Mysuru, Dr. Bopanna Ballachanda becomes the first Indian-American to occupy the top post.

Dr. Bopanna Ballachanda is a Professor (Adjunct) at Texas Tech Health Sciences and Chief Audiology Officer at National Hearing and Balance centres in Albuquerque, New Mexico. With more than 30 years of experience, he is now the President-Elect of the American Academy of Audiology (AAA) and he will have a three-year term from October 1, 2022.

Hailing from Kodagu and coming from a humble background, he did his B.Sc. in Speech and Hearing from the All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH – 1970 batch), then under the University of Mysore. By becoming the first person of colour to head AAA, Dr. Bopanna has become a role model for many.

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Kerala’s Suchetha Satish Sets World Record By Singing In 120 Languages

Suchetha Satish is a 16-year-old girl from Kerala who is making headlines today for her ability to sing in 120 languages, earning her a place in the Guinness Book of World Records. At an event hosted at the Indian Consulate in Dubai, she set the world record for singing in the most number of languages.

Satish achieved this feat at the ‘Music Beyond Borders’ performance held on August 19 in Dubai. Kesiraju Srinivas, another Indian national, held the record before her in the category in 2008, having sung in 76 different languages.

Satish is said to have achieved this feat by singing in 29 Indian languages and 91 global languages. She started at noon with Janaki Jane, a Sanskrit song from the Malayali film Dhwani. Her final song was written by her mother and produced by Bollywood musician Monty Sharma, and was in Hindi.

The ‘Music Beyond Borders’ concert, held in Dubai, commemorated India’s 75th anniversary of independence and the United Arab Emirates’ 50th anniversary of freedom. The ceremony was also attended by Ajay Puri, the Consul General of India in Dubai. While Satish’s parents, dermatologist T.C. Satish and Ayilliath Sumitha, recognised her potential when she was only three years old, her love of languages developed organically after she heard a Japanese song performed by a guest at her house. She promptly looked up the words on the internet and, within a few hours, she had performed the entire song, recorded it, and sent it to the guest

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IISC scientists develop miniproteins that may prevent COVID infection

The miniproteins can not only block entry of viruses like SARS-CoV-2 into our cells but also clump virus particles together, reducing their ability to infect

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore have designed a new class of artificial peptides or miniproteins that they say can render viruses like SARS-CoV-2 inactive.

According to the study, published in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, the miniproteins can not only block virus entry into our cells but also clump virus particles together, reducing their ability to infect.

The researchers noted that a protein-protein interaction is often like that of a lock and a key.

Preventing entry

The team used this approach to design miniproteins that can bind to, and block the spike protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which helps it to enter and infect the human cells.

This binding was further characterised extensively by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and other biophysical methods.

These miniproteins are helical, hairpin-shaped peptides, each capable of pairing up with another of its kind, forming what is known as a dimer. Each dimeric ‘bundle’ presents two ‘faces’ to interact with two target molecules.

The researchers hypothesised that the two faces would bind to two separate target proteins locking all four in a complex and blocking the targets’ action.

“But we needed proof of principle,” said Jayanta Chatterjee, Associate Professor in the Molecular Biophysics Unit (MBU), IISc, and the lead author of the study.

QS Ranking | IISc Bengaluru fastest rising South Asian university, two IITs in top 200

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, is the fastest rising South Asian university among the coveted QS World University Rankings top 200 varsities, having gained 31 places while four IITs have also figured in the category attaining a higher rank compared to the previous edition.

Quacquarelli Symonds (QS), London based global higher education analyst, on Thursday released the 19th edition of the world’s most consulted international university ranking.

The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, which has bagged the 172nd position, is India’s second best institution, rising five places while IIT Delhi has risen eleven places to bag 174th rank.

Bannari Amman College students team selected for final event of RoboBoat 2022

Organised by RoboNation, RoboBoat invites participants to tackle simplified versions of challenges facing the modern maritime industry

A 35-member team of students from Bannari Amman Institute of Technology in Sathyamangalam, who developed an Unmanned Underwater Vehicle (UUV), has been shortlisted for the final event of RoboBoat 2022, an international student competition, which will be held in Florida, U. S., on June 20, 2022.

Organised by RoboNation, the competition invites participants to tackle simplified versions of challenges facing the modern maritime industry like coastal surveillance, port security and oceanographic exploration. The boats are designed to take on tasks that are similar to those faced by the maritime industry in the real world.

The students team “Vyuha ASV” from the institute is the only team representing India in the 15 ^th RoboBoat 2022 Worldwide Autonomous Surface Vehicle Development competition.

Team leaders for their respective teams were Thiruvarulselvan Karunanithi (Team Management), Saravanan Elangovan (Hull design), Krishnan Murugan (Failsafe system), Srisanthosh (Propulsion system), Puviyarasu Sakthivel (Control system) and Tharakeshvar Padmanaphan (Computer vision). The faculty mentors were D. Selvamuthu Kumaran, Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering and V. Baranidharan, Assistant Professor, ECE. Both the faculties were UUV lab in charge and facilitated the team.