Tag: Indian Institute of Science (IISc)

News

IISc Signs MoU with Wipro GE Healthcare to Advance MedTech Innovation

Jan 27, 2024 by Sujata Muguda 0 Comments #Chaitanya Sarawate, #Govindan Rangarajan, #Indian Institute of Science (IISc), #Wipro GE Healthcare, #World Health Organisation

Bengaluru 27th Jan, 2024: Wipro GE Healthcare, a leading global medical technology, diagnostics, and digital solutions innovator today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), India’s premier research institution, for a pioneering alliance to advance healthcare innovation, research, and technology development in India. This collaboration aims to take a comprehensive approach in solving the care gap by addressing the full lifecycle that includes co-developing solutions, validating the technologies, and manufacturing them locally to bring them to the market. With the impending commencement of the Bagchi-Parthasarathy Hospital & IISc Medical School, this strategic collaboration will enable translation of technologies from bench to bedside.

According to World Health Organisation Report 2018, “Globally, Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) accounted for 71% of total deaths. In India, NCDs were estimated to account for 63% of all deaths, and cancer was one of the leading causes (9%).”[1] This industry-academia collaboration aims to advance indigenous innovation and manufacturing of MedTech products that meets the needs of both global and local patients suffering from NCDs including cancer, cardiology, and neurology in line with the agenda of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.

The collaboration will entail co-development initiatives in the areas of basic and applied science, systems engineering, product & software development, consultancy, publications, academic studies, internships, fellowships, and training. IISc and GE HealthCare will constitute a joint working committee, comprising representatives from both sides, for research around product and solution development.

IISc Signs MoU with Wipro GE Healthcare to Advance MedTech Innovation from India - for India and the World (1)

Govindan Rangarajan, Director, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), said, “We see a tremendous need for innovative R&D that can improve outcomes in patients with NCD. The collaboration will emphasise combining science and engineering with translational & clinical research to epitomize “bench-to-bedside” innovation. GE HealthCare is the right partner for us in this initiative, given their leadership and strong footprint in India for R&D and manufacturing. We are confident that together, we can accelerate India’s position as a global force for healthcare for the world.”

Chaitanya Sarawate, Managing Director, Wipro GE Healthcare and President & CEO, GE HealthCare South Asia, said, “India today is at an inflection point, with a potential to become the hub for the world. IISc is a premier educational institute engaged in technical education, basic and applied research, innovation, entrepreneurship, and industrial consultancy and GE HealthCare is a world leader in MedTech with strategic R&D and manufacturing footprint in India. This is a strategic collaboration that combines the strengths, capabilities, and local infrastructure of both entities. Our aim together is to invest in technologies of the future that can revolutionize the care paradigm – with more precise, connected, and compassionate care to patients in India and worldwide.”

The collaboration aligns with the Indian Government’s emphasis on fostering local Research and Development (R&D) and Manufacturing in the MedTech sector, necessitating Public-Private Partnership (PPP) models to further drive technology development. Collaborative efforts by both the entities will be deployed for product development and clinical research, improving indigenization of manufacturing and academic activities to strengthen the healthcare ecosystem.

Education

Prof N Balakrishnan at the University Distinguished Lecture Series 02 organized by SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh

Nov 2, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #BOTSPOT, #Indian Institute of Science (IISc), #Prof D Narayana Rao, #Prof N Balakrishnan, #Prof T Ragunathan, #Supercomputer Education and Research Centre

Prof N Balakrishnan, Honorary Professor, Supercomputer Education and Research Centre, Indian Institute of Science (IISc.), Bengaluru, delivered an enthralling talk on “Data to Discovery in Information Security” under the auspices of University Distinguished Lecture Series organized by SRM University – AP, Andhra Pradesh. Prof V S Rao, Vice-Chancellor, along with Prof D Narayana Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, and the conveners welcomed him. Extending his warmest welcome, Prof V S Rao emphasized on the significance of Data and Information Security and the great interest and concerns it imposes in recent times as well as the future.

He says, “In the last two decades, data security concerns have increased exponentially along with emerging data reserves. The abundance of data without proper security poses more threats than solutions.” On that note, he requested Prof N Balakrishnan to enlighten the audience on various issues pertaining to raw data security.

Prof T Ragunathan, Head of the Department of Computer Science introduced Prof N Balakrishnan to the participants.

Prof N Balakrishnan’s lecture encompassed the explosion in data and the “Revenge of Silicon”, which made the emergence of Artificial Intelligence inevitable. He emphasized on the storage revolution which is reflected in the smaller systems comprising more complex networks, as compared to the earlier version of computers which were used primarily for computing and processing.

He enlightens, “Characterized by an explosion in velocity, volume, and variety, the data generated by humans and machines coexist in the big data scenario. Earlier, we spoke of the convergence of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and now we have moved ahead with Nano, Bio, Info, and Cogno (NBIC) convergence.”

Prof N Balakrishnan dedicated the second half of his lecture by explaining the “Revenge of Silicon”. He used the periodic table to explain that although Carbon and Silicon belong to the same 4th group in the periodic table, mankind preferred Silicon over Carbon. Further, the paradigm shifted with the advent of computers which were programmed to mimic humans. In addition, the communication revolution resulted in its enhanced capability along with numbers.

Presently, 1.72 billion websites are operative, there are billions of mobile phone users, the Internet of Things (IoT) have been established, wireless networks, and other complex systems. Dr N says, “Technology has become an integral part of the society with emerging Cyber-physical systems and social networks. In the near future, computers would begin behaving more and more like humans, which is referred to as the Revenge of Silicon. Further, NBIC will enable biological complex systems (human body parts) to be replaced by silicon engineered parts, heralding towards a new doctrine.”

Drawing examples from his research sprawled across four decades, Prof N Balakrishnan expressed concerns about the tremendous data being stored and used across networking platforms. He explains, “Data storage speed doubles every 9 months. All the information known to mankind since the beginning of civilization can be stored in a single computer.

The social network of computers has its negatives in the form of terrorism which has recently entered the computer world. Security of such a world is an important issue.” Prof N Balakrishnan concluded his lecture by stating that mathematical predictive models can be used for a better understanding of the data attack detection. He established that Community Detection based BOTSPOT will provide a faster detection algorithm to estimate attacks thereby aiding concerns of data attacks.

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Education

SRM University – AP : Prof Ajay K Sood, FRS delivered the University Distinguished Lecture Series 01

Oct 19, 2020 by Gouri Achary 0 Comments #BENGALURU, #Doing Science Without Borders, #Indian Institute of Science (IISc), #Prof Ajay K Sood, #Royal Society, #SRM University

The first University Distinguished Lecture Series on “Doing Science Without Borders” commenced with an inaugural welcome speech by Prof V S Rao, Vice-Chancellor, and Prof D Narayana Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, SRM University-AP, Andhra Pradesh. Prof V S Rao expressed their gratitude to Prof Ajay K Sood for his gracious presence. In addition, Prof Narayana Rao emphasized that under the University Distinguished Lecture series the talks will be delivered by eminent scientists from India and abroad that would be of immense benefit for students and the faculty and researchers.

He further mentioned, “Doctors, researchers, engineers and scientists from several fields of knowledge around the world worked together to confront corona outbreak with an unprecedented spirit of collaboration. Also, NEP advocates and emphasizes that the societal need of the 21st century require broad-based multidisciplinary research and education”.

Prof Ajay K Sood, Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS and Honorary Professor, Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, narrated three stories of his recent experiments and advanced research work, namely “Emergent flocking behaviour seen in nature: Laboratory experiments”, “Crystallization of Glass: Machine Learning in condensed matter Physics”, and “Bacterial Nano Heat Engine: Getting bacteria to work”. He begins by stating that back in 1944, a profound physicist Schrodinger introduced the concept of “aperiodic crystal” which led to the understanding of genetic molecules, enunciating the importance of inter-disciplinary applications of scientific works. In his first narrative, he speaks of the flocking movement among birds, bacteria, locusts, and human beings as well.

He brought the same experiment in his laboratory where he used 2 particles, energized them, and identified their flocking pattern. He observed that the velocity of movement between the two particles differ, which can be applied to particle sorting. This experiment has applications in biology, where bacteria and/or cells can be sorted and separated and also in autonomous cars.

While explaining his second experiment, Prof A K Sood mentioned that he studied the devitrification or the tendency of glass particles to crystallize over time to reach a state of stability from its metastable state. He used supervised Machine Learning to predict where crystallization will occur in glass. His team trained the system to identify the hard and soft particles of the glass. His experiments concluded that Machine Learning (ML) helps in identifying the soft particles, which possess the tendency to move and crystallize over a long period of time.

Further, Prof A K Sood and his team of collaborators developed bacterial nano heat engines by mimicking the biological motors in our body which produces energy for living beings to function. Using bacterial activity, they made heat engines and are advancing their research work to recognize the practical applications of the nano heat engines in cars, batteries. The bacteria heat engines is a highly promising technology of the future

Prof A K Sood narrated his laboratory stories to explicate the splendour of multidisciplinary research which can be used to solve basic problems. He said, “The key to successful scientific research is to collaborate with experts beyond their own domain. Communication and appreciation of views of an open mind enable scientists to understand the various phenomena. Students and researchers should be curious which will lead to research having various interdisciplinary applications that will make an impact across various domains.”

About thousand participants from IISc,IITs, NITs,IIITs, IISERs, several Indian Universities including University of Hyderabad, Delhi University, NEHU, Pondicherry University, Punjab University; a few foreign Universities including KAUST, Saudi Arabia, Nagoya University, Japan, Zhejiang Ocean University, China, Teesside University, UK, several Engineering Colleges; National Laboratories of DST, DBT, CSIR, ISRO, DRDO, ICMR, BARC, JNCASR, ARIES, ARCI; industries including ARBL, Tata Steel have attended the distinguished lecture given by Prof Ajay Sood.