&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

With the advent of digitalization and industry 4.0, education in chemical and biochemical engineering has undergone significant revamping over the last two decades. However, undergraduate students sometimes do lack industrial exposure and are unable to visualise the complexity of actual process plants. Thereby, students might graduate without adequate professional hands-on experience. Similarly, in the process industry, operator training-simulators are widely used for the training of new and skilled operators. However, conventional training-simulators often fail to simulate reality and do not provide the user with the opportunity to experience unexpected and hazardous scenarios. In these regards, virtual reality appears to be a promising technology that can cater to the needs of both academia and industry. This paper discusses the opportunities and challenges for the incorporation of virtual reality into chemical and biochemical engineering education with an emphasis on the fundamental areas of technology, pedagogy and socio-economics. The paper emphasises the need for augmenting virtual reality interfaces with mathematical models to develop advanced immersive learning applications. Further, the paper stresses upon the need for novel educational impact assessment methodologies for the evaluation of virtual-reality-based learning. Finally, an ongoing case study application is presented to briefly discuss the social and economic implications and to identify the bottlenecks involved in the adoption of virtual reality tools across chemical and biochemical engineering education. © 2021 The Author(s)

Center of Technology Foresight and Policy (CTFP)

World University root node

Education for Chemical Engineers

Virtual reality in chemical and biochemical engineering education and training

Natural gas, as the cleanest burning of the fossil fuels is expected to play a significant role in India's future energy mix. This paper presents a modelling approach to quantify the economic and environmental impacts of natural gas utilisation by various sectors in India while the production of domestically sourced natural gas is in decline. One of the most important sectors is the use of natural gas for cooking where the benefits are also evaluated. The long-term impacts of a reducing domestic gas supply is assessed by using the resource-substitution methodology along with a dynamic resource-depletion indicator that is based on decision-making viewpoints. The results show that the replacement of domestic gas with black coal resulted in an increase under the climate change category by 162%, 202% and 234% for the individualist, hierarchist and egalitarian viewpoints, respectively. The paper highlights the prospects for natural gas in India and shows that the growing demand for gas can be met through imports, but it has associated economic and environmental impacts. Further, the paper presents suitable recommendations including policy-related changes such as carbon pricing and subsidy provision schemes to ensure that the growth of the Indian gas market is sustainable. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Energy Policy

A consequence analysis study of natural gas consumption in a developing country: Case of India

The depletion of abiotic resources is a critical issue for the present as well as future generations. Resource depletion is governed by several factors including resource costs and elasticity of demand, which are dynamic. In this paper, a dynamic resource depletion methodology is proposed that is based on the assessment of impacts to the wider community. The methodology is demonstrated for a case study of natural gas scarcity in New Zealand. A system dynamics model predicts the gas price and the natural gas consumption rate over an extended period. The potential environmental impacts are assessed using life cycle assessment (LCA), coupled with the resource substitution methodology. The impacts are further aggregated into a resource depletion indicator based on environmental economics and decision-making perspectives for the environment. For some gas-consuming sectors, consumption is reduced, but for other sectors other fuels are substituted for the natural gas such as black coal and imported liquefied natural gas (LNG). For the New Zealand case study, the substitution delays the exhaustion of the domestic natural gas supply, at the cost of higher environmental impacts. The substitution of gas with black coal caused an increase in the environmental impact indicator in the climate change category by 36%, 63% and 104% for the individualist, hierarchist and egalitarian approaches, respectively. Similarly, the substitution of gas by imported LNG resulted in an increase in the same category by 7%, 17% and 33% for the individualist, hierarchist and egalitarian perspectives, respectively. The difference in indicator results under each perspective shows that the impacts associated with resource depletion changes with time, which is ignored by the traditional LCA. The impacts-related information that is obtained from the new indicator would be useful in decision-making during situations in which there maybe resource and energy scarcity. © 2019

Sustainable Production and Consumption

Dynamic impact assessment of resource depletion: A case study of natural gas in New Zealand

The availability of abiotic resources is still critical to the rapidly growing human population, and rising living standards. Standard methodologies are needed to account for the depletion of resources. Some of the methods for resource depletion evaluation consider replacement of a scarce resource with an alternative resource but do not consider a time frame for the same. However, resource substitution is decided by several factors such as resource costs and price elasticity of demand, which are dynamic. Moreover, the existing methods do not consider a driving force for the replacement to occur and do not analyse the long-term consequences of resource scarcity. In this paper, a dynamic resource depletion methodology is proposed, and it has been applied to a case study of natural gas scarcity in New Zealand. A system dynamics model predicts the gas price and the rates of gas consumption over an extended period. The potential impacts are quantified using life cycle assessment (LCA) and are further aggregated into a resource depletion indicator that is based on environmental economics and decision-making perspectives for the environment. The wider economic and environmental impacts that are a result of a new chemical plant during a period of gas shortage are evaluated. With the functioning of the new plant, it was found that the rate of potential gas scarcity accelerated, leading to an increase in wider economic and environmental impacts. The discounted greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions increased by 21 %, 30 % and 36 % for the individualist, hierarchist and egalitarian perspectives. Copyright © 2018, AIDIC Servizi S.r.l.