STORY CREDITS

Writer/Editor: Shivangi Vasudev Bhatt

Photo: Media and Communication, IIT Gandhinagar

With an aim to celebrate the diversity of research by Postdoctoral Fellows and enable them to engage with fellow researchers actively and discuss potential collaborations, the Research and Development Division (R&D) of the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) organised ‘Portals to Research, a first of its kind poster presentation session for senior researchers and postdocs of the Institute on September 02, 2022.

The session garnered an overwhelming response, as a total of 57 Postdoctoral Fellows (PDFs), senior researchers, and Early Career Fellows (ECFs) from diverse research backgrounds presented their work to an enthusiastic audience of students, staff, and faculty members. The eclectic research on display included self-cleaning surfaces; enhanced techniques to find out water leakages in pipelines; systems to detect COVID-19 at ultralow concentrations; innovative therapeutics and diagnostics for Cancer, Alzheimer’s, and Parkinson’s disease; mathematical algorithms that solve everyday problems; dark matter; investigations into ancient Indian civilisations; understanding the culture and heritage of India’s North-Eastern states; climate studies and renewable technology; fire safety and Geotech engineering, and many more!

As an institution with a vibrant and flourishing research spirit, IITGN strives to facilitate a thriving environment for its research community to meet and exchange ideas. With this in mind, the R&D team ideated ‘Portals to Research’ to celebrate and recognise the diversity, efforts, and skills of our senior researchers and postdoctoral fellows. The R&D team strongly believes that every research adds a new dimension to the diverse research portfolio of IITGN.

Prof Ravi Sastri Ayyagari

Assistant Professor, Mechanical Engineering and Coordinator of R&D’s Postdoc and Project Staff Welfare section, IITGN

Postdoctoral Fellows are the cornerstone of any academic institute’s research. They play a crucial role in the growth and advancement of our research and technology. ‘Portals to Research’ is a poster presentation session and an opportunity for PDFs at IITGN to showcase their work, interact with faculty and students from various disciplines, and explore possibilities for potential collaborations.

Prof Sharad Gupta

Associate Dean, External Projects, IITGN

The number of senior researchers at the Institute has increased significantly in the last few years, and this event was an attempt to uplift the sense of community among the current postdocs as well as promote and enhance the spirit of research dialogue after a prolonged pandemic, which had kept the research discussions among researchers to a minimum. The event also served as an opportunity for active learning for graduate students to experience and embrace the research being carried out in different areas.

To keep encouraging these dynamic researchers and the interdisciplinary research dialogue, the team plans to turn this unique event into a regular feature on campus.