&ldquo;IIT Jodhpur is committed to impart quality education to facilitate the creation of qualified, competent and responsible human resources to meet the emerging technological challenges of the world. It is working towards creating an equitable learning platform that is positive, accessible and effective in the face of the modern societal and scientific advancements.

Flexibility in curriculum, in all its academic programs, encompassing elements of teaching, research, creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship is the most unique feature of IIT Jodhpur. The Department of Science and Technology (DST), under the National Mission on Cyber Physical Systems, has identified IIT Jodhpur as a Technology &amp; Innovation Hub in the area of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. The institute has also been nominated as the coordinator for the Jodhpur City and Knowledge Cluster by the Office of Principal Scientific Adviser, Government of India.

The sprawling 852-acre IIT Jodhpur campus is a majestic tribute to the deep-rooted diverse cultural heritage of the region. The campus is an architectural masterpiece, which is slated to become an international exemplar of sustainability with net-zero energy, and advanced water and waste management strategies.&rdquo;

IIT Jodhpur

Soft lithography in 2-dimensional (2-D) was developed for polymer MEMS applications about two decades back. The technique was highly useful for replication of microstructure molds using a soft polymeric material called PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane). From its inception the process has been widely applied to microfluidics, biochips, hybrid biomedical microdevices etc. However, it was limited to only surface microstructures and 3-Dimensional (3-D) soft lithography although performed by some research groups involved some very precise and expensive techniques like stereolithography etc. The exploration of soft lithography in three dimensions by using a replication technique with copper wires with micron size diameters was performed by our group relatively recently (Singh et al. in International conference on MEMS, IIT Madras, Chennai, 2009). In this work we have used the 3-D replication and molding technique to develop concentric solenoid patterns around micro-channels in the bulk of PDMS. The solenoidal paths of various pitches ranging from 0.4 to 1.2 mm have been replicated in PDMS using an innovatively designed fixture. The solenoids have been structurally characterized using an inverted fluorescence microscope (Nikon 80i) for dimensional parameters like pitch, length etc. Further, the solenoidal path designs have been simulated, optimized and fabricated around a central channel of 80 μ diameter and we have observed the repeatability of this fabrication process multiple times. The purpose of this architecture is to initiate valving action wherein fluid movement in the central channel can be restricted by filling the surrounding solenoidal track with compressed air at high pressure so that it can squeeze the centrally located micro-channel carrying the liquid. This valving structure may find a lot of applications in lab on chip devices, PCR biochips, biomedical micro-devices etc. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

World University root node

Department of Mechanical Engineering

Microsystem Technologies

Design and fabrication of 3-dimensional helical structures in polydimethylsiloxane for flow control applications

We report a novel pH-sensitive hydrogel based micro-valve for metered flow that has applications in a laboratory made "Intelligent valving system". The hydrogel solution was prepared through Chitosan and poly vinyl alcohol in acetic acid and crystallized using gluteraldehyde as the crosslinking agent in the form of thin wafers and it was found to be very sensitive to pH changes. The pore structure of hydrogel was investigated through Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy and thin wafers of the gel were physically placed inside PDMS microchannels. Flow metering in these channels was observed by controlled expansion of the hydrogel plug till complete valving was realized. This valving device was further precisely characterized with micro Particle Image Velocimetry using a solution containing fluorescent polymeric micro beads. The principle advantage of this hydrogel device is the smaller range of pH (varying between pH 3 and 7) over which the valving response is observed. © 2014 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.

A novel microfluidic switch for pH control using Chitosan based hydrogels

Trace levels of hydrogen detection using high surface area nanostructured films is a wide area of research and materials like Zinc Oxide, Tin Oxide etc. have been explored widely for high performance sensor design. In this work we report a highly nano porous palladium film which has been fabricated with a very robust methodology i.e., amenable to microfabrication by using metal co-sputtering and selective etching strategies for sensitive hydrogen detection. The morphology of the highly porous films has been extensively evaluated by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and their chemical composition has been evaluated by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDAX). The average pore diameter of the films was recorded as 40 nm with the pore density of 425 pores/μm2. To evaluate the sensitivity of the fabricated device towards hydrogen, the electrical resistance of the film in the presence of trace concentrations of hydrogen was evaluated in the temperature range 140∼240 °C. The fabricated film shows high sensitivity, good response, excellent stability and good reconditionability. The sensor performance shows highest sensitivity (∼80%) at 180 °C at 600 ppm H2 and a cycle time of 28 sec. Copyright © 2014 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.

Sensor Letters

Nano porous palladium sensor for sensitive and rapid detection of hydrogen

Exploring the symbiotic nature of biological systems can result in valuable knowledge for computer networks. Biologically inspired approaches to security in networks are interesting to evaluate because of the analogies between network security and survival of human body under pathogenic attacks. Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) is a network based on multiple low-cost communication and computing devices connected to sensor nodes which sense physical parameters. While the spread of viruses in wired systems has been studied in-depth, applying trust in WSN is an emerging research area. Security threats can be introduced in WSN through various means, such as a benevolent sensor node turning fraudulent after a certain period of time. The proposed research work uses biological inspirations and machine learning techniques for adding security against such threats. While it uses machine learning techniques to identify the fraudulent nodes, consecutively by deriving inspiration from human immune system it effectively nullify the impact of the fraudulent ones on the network. Proposed work has been implemented in LabVIEW platform and obtained results that demonstrate the accuracy, robustness of the proposed model. © 2014 IEEE.

Department of Bioscience & Bioengineering

2014 6th International Conference on Communication Systems and Networks, COMSNETS 2014

Novel approach for security in Wireless Sensor Network using bio-inspirations

The extremely low limit of detection (LOD) posed by global food and water safety standards necessitates the need to perform a rapid process of integrated detection with high specificity, sensitivity and repeatability. The work reported in this article shows a microchip platform which carries out an ensemble of protocols which are otherwise carried in a molecular biology laboratory to achieve the global safety standards. The various steps in the microchip include pre-concentration of specific microorganisms from samples and a highly specific real time molecular identification utilizing a q-PCR process. The microchip process utilizes a high sensitivity antibody based recognition and an electric field mediated capture enabling an overall low LOD. The whole process of counting, sorting and molecular identification is performed in less than 4 hours for highly dilute samples.

Fulltext

Scientific Reports

Integrated sorting, concentration and real time PCR based detection system for sensitive detection of microorganisms

Conventional photolithography normally utilizes a photomask for patterning light onto a chemical resist film. Therefore, the accuracy of microfabrication is highly dependent on the accuracy of the photomasks. Fabrication of hard masks involves the use of expensive laser pattern generators and other sophisticated machines using very highprecision stages and the necessary control instrumentation; therefore, an inexpensive strategy is highly necessary for laboratory-level fabrication. As this technology is primarily based on raster scanning of a laser beam, the mask making as such becomes a low-throughput process. A strategy of high-throughput manufacturing of hard masks with laser micromachining using a one-step exposure process of a chromated glass slide through a micromachined aluminum shadow mask is proposed. The features that are finally embedded in the mask are highly demagnified and well focused. Optimization of the laser machining process is carried out by considering all processing parameters. The features are characterized using an optical microscope, a scanning electron microscope, and a self-developed image analysis code. Geometrical methods are used to estimate the average edge roughness and feature size. We have also validated the usage of these masks by performing microfabrication on films made of photoresist. © 2013 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Journal of Micro/Nanolithography, MEMS, and MOEMS

Optimization of laser machining process for the preparation of photomasks, and its application to microsystems fabrication

ZnO nano structure arrays on silicon substrate using chemical treatment have been developed. The morphology of nanostructures formulated thereafter was characterized using Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), Energy-Dispersive X ray Spectroscopy (EDAX). These structures are envisioned for Hydrogen sensing. High reconditionability with moderate sensitivity has been achieved with the developed nanostructures. © 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.

AIP Conference Proceedings

High aspect ZnO nanostructures based hydrogen sensing

In this paper, we propose a new transaction model, named as Team Transaction for distributed, cooperative computing on mobile ad hoc networks. The proposed model captures the mobility and distributive properties inherently found in a vigorous team activity as in a game of soccer and also has an efficient recovery mechanism to cope up with the failures of mobile nodes. © Springer-Verlag 2004.

Lecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)

Team transaction: A new transaction model for mobile ad hoc networks

Journal of Immunology and Immunopathology

Effect of cow's urine on immune status of experimental rats

In this paper an effort has been made to model and damp a rotating flexible beam with a rotary joint. In this work bending of flexible beam is considered using Euler-Bernoulli beam theory. To model a flexible beam, which is essentially a continuous system, it is discretized by using finite element method. After finding the expression for displacement at any point using finite element method, the dynamic equations of motion are derived using Lagrangian formulation. Time response results are obtained for undamped and viscous damped systems. Finally flexible beam is modelled as -a typical laminated composite beam made up of number of layers of passive damping coating and a magnetostrictive material. A combined passive and active damping strategy in hybrid mode using combination of layers of ferromagnetic (passive) and smart (active) magnetostrictive (Terfenol-D) materials is proposed.