National Symposium

on

Chemical Engineering—The Journey Ahead

Department of Chemical EngineeringIndian Institute of Science

Bangalore 560 012

http://chemeng.iisc.ernet.in

June 20-21, 2005

Sponsored by

Department of Science & TechnologyNew Delhi

1

Contents

1 Objective 3

2 Organisation 3

3 Miscellaneous 3

4 Funding 3

5 List of External Participants 4

6 Status of Accommodation 5

7 How to Reach IISc 6

8 Technical Talks Day one, June 20th, 2005 7

9 Directions for The Journey Ahead Day Two, June 21st, 2005 8

10 Abstracts of Technical Talks (Day one) 9

11 Suggestions for The Journey Ahead (Day two) 1511.1 Rochish Thaokar, IIT Bombay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1511.2 Narendra Dixit, IISc Bangalore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1611.3 Pramod Wangikar, IIT Bombay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1611.4 Sunando Das Gupta, IIT Kharagpur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1711.5 Rajdip Bandyopadhyaya, IIT Kanpur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1811.6 S. Venugopal, IISc, Bangalore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1811.7 Ashutosh Sharma, IIT Kanpur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1911.8 D. P. Rao, IIT Kanpur . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1911.9 Shankar Narasimhan, IIT Madras . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2011.10Ashok Bhaskarwar, IIT Delhi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2011.11Shrihari, D J Sanghvi College of Engineering, Vile Parle (W) Mumbai . . . . . . . 2011.12Kartic Khilar, IIT Bombay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2111.13K. S. Gandhi, IISc, Bangalore . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2211.14S. Basu, IIT Delhi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

1 Objective

Future course of an engineering discipline is reflected in current research areas within its folds.The Journey Ahead for Chemical Engineering, based on the research profile of Chemical Engi-neering Departments world wide suggests that our discipline is embracing biology, chemistry, andmaterial science in a big way. Readily available computing power is changing the nature of re-search activity forever. The advent of new measurement techniques is reducing the length scaleof investigation to nano and molecular scales irreversibly in many cases. Chemical Engineeringthus appears poised for a major expansion. We are getting directly involved in development ofnew products and new technologies which improve the quality of life which requires highly inter-disciplinary work, new ways of treating diseases—a domain of medical practitioners only till veryrecently, and development of application specific materials and fluids with complex structure atvarious length scales.

The rapidly changing face of research in chemical engineering offers new opportunities forintegrating new research areas within its fold. The objective of the proposed symposium is toacquaint the Chemical Engineering community in the country with the emerging face of our disci-pline, and the how to meet the new challenges that it poses for us to contribute at the leading edge.The symposium also aims at initiating a dialogue on how the new face of Chemical Engineeringcan be used to address problems, specific to us as a growing nation.

2 Organisation

First day: technical talks which highlight new trends and areas in our discipline. Second day:talks by the experts on where the journey ahead is taking us. Each talk on the second day will befollowed by an interactive session so as to bring out as many view points as possible. Separate timeslot is reserved for this activity after every talk. One round of open discussion will be held at theend of all the talks to consolidate recommendations for the journey ahead and the effort that ourcommunity, industry, and the funding agencies can put to tackle the problems faced by a growingnation. A report of the deliberations will be submitted to the DST.

All these activities will take place in the Seminar Hall of the Chemical Engineering Departmentat IISc, Bangalore.

3 Miscellaneous

The speakers are eligible for air fare. The selected participants are eligible for 2nd AC fare. Ac-commodation is arranged by the organisers.

4 Funding

The symposium is entirely funded by DST, New Delhi.

5 List of External Participants

S.No Name Institute Place Accommodation1. Debasis R Jadavpur Univ. Calcutta JNC2. Parimal P Parikh SV NIT Surat JNC3. Kiran D Pail Maharastra Inst. Tech. Pune PD block4. Aravind DJSCE Bombay Hoysala5. Naveen K Kaushely SLIET Hoysala6. Renganathan T Anna Univ. Chennai Hoysala7. Venu vinod A NIT Warangal Hoysala8. Abhijit V J JDIET Bombay Hoysala9. Gopal Mugeraya NITK Surathkal Mangalore10. Ajitha Anil BVPC, panvel BOmbay Hoysala11. Madhusudhan Rao Guntur AP Hoysala12. Satyanaranyan JNTU Ananthapur Hoysala13. Subbarao JNTU Ananthapur Hoysala14. Sarat Chandra Babu NIT Trichy Main Guest H.15. Lima Rose Anna Univ. Chennai JNC16. Ravi Prasas Andra Univ. AP Main Guest H.17. Ranjan Anil S M.S Univ. Baroda Main Guest H.18. Chandra Sekhar G Pondicheery Eng. Col. Pondicherry Hoysala19 Muruganadam L VIT Vellore Hoysala20 Venkateswara Rao M RVR JC Guntur Hoysala21 Chitti Babu Nallur RVR JC Guntur Hoysala22 Suhasini DRDO Hyderabad JNC23 Sonolikar LIT Nagpur Hoysala24 Srinath NIT Warangal Hoysala1. Samita Mitra BMS COl. Bangalore2. Veena Dayananda Sagar Bangalore3. Kirthana Dayananda Sagar Bangalore4. Antony Raj RV Col. Bangalore5. Archna RV Col. Bangalore

6 Status of Accommodation

Main Guest HouseSl.No Name Institute Place1 Suddhasatwa Basu IIT Delhi New Delhi

Shrihari Sanghvi College Mumbai2 AshutoshSharma IIT Kanpur Kanpur

Rajdip Bandyopadhyaya IIT Kanpur Kanpur3 PramodWangikar IIT Bombay Mumbai

A. K. Suresh IIT Bombay Mumbai4 AshokBhaskarwar IIT Delhi New Delhi

Sunando Das Gupta IIT Kharagpur Kharagpur5 Ravi Prasad Andra University Vishak...

Ranjan Anil Sengupta M S Univ. Baroda6 B D Kulkarni NCL Pune7 M. S. Ananth IIT Madras Madras8 Kartic Khilar IIT Bombay Bombay9 Partha Roy Calcutta Univ. Calcutta10 Sarat Chandra Babu NIT Tiruchy11 Tayal R K DST New Delhi12 ShankarNarasimhan IIT Madras Chennai13 K. Nandakumar Univ. Alberta Canada

Hoysala House

Sl.No Name Institute Place1 Aravind P DJSCE (Sanghvi) Bombay2 Naveen K Kaushley SLIET (Longowal)3 Venu Vinod A NIT, Warangal Warangal4 Ajitha Anil BVPC, Panvel Bombay5 Madhusudan Rao Guntur6 SV Satyanaranyan JNTU Ananthapur7 Subbrao J JNTU Ananthapur8 Renganathan T ACCT (Anna Univ.) Chennai9 Abhijit V Jamode JDIET Bombay10 Sonolikar LIT Nagpur11 Chandra Sekhar G Pondicherry engg. Coll. Pondicherry12 Muruganandam L VIT Vellore13 Venkateswara Rao M RVR JC Guntur14 Chitti Babu Nallur RVR JC Guntur15 Srinath NIT Warangal

PD Block—Students Hostel on Gymkhana Side

Sl.No Name Institute Place1 Kiran D Patil MIT Pune

JNC Guest House on Gymkhana Side

Sl.No Name Institute Place1 Rochish IITB Bombay2 Suhasini DRDO Nagpur

Lima Rose M Anna Univ. Chennai3 Debasis Roy Jadavpur Univ. Calcutta

Parimal P Parikh SV NIT Surat

7 How to Reach IISc

If you are comuting by auto, ask for Tata Institue (that’s what IISc is commonly known as to cityfolks), located between Malleshwaram and Yeshwantpur, opposite to BHEL circle. This will getyou to one of the two main gates. If you have to reach Main Guest House or Hoysala House, pleaseask the security presonnel at the gate about how to reach your destination. If you to reach JNCGuest House or PD Block, which are located on the Gymkhana side of the campus, please do notget inside either of these gates. Take the divided highway connecting BHEL circle to Yeshwantpur,and take a left lefttturn under an overbridge, about 300 meters from BHEL circle. Ask security atthe gate for JNC guest house and PD block.From Airport: You can take auto and pay by meter (below Rs 100). Take city taxi with yellowboards on top of them (about Rs. 250). You can also take a prepaid taxi from the airport premisesitself.From City Bus Station/Railway Station: Auto fare Rs. 32 Distance - 4 1/2 kms. Bus Route nos.252,E.. 258C.. 271E..273,C.. 275.. 99,A,B alight at TATA INSTITUTE Bus Stop.From Contonment Railway Station/Bus Station: Auto fare Rs. 36 Distance- 5 kms. Route Nos.94,A,E.. 252A.. 270,A..272..276A..Phone numbers:Sanjeev 2293 3110Office 2293 2318

8 Technical Talks Day one, June 20th, 2005

9:30–9:45: Welcome and Opening remarks—The Journey Ahead

9:45–10:05 Rochish ThaokarIIT Bombay

Engineering Polymer molecules: Twirling DNArings and loop polymers

10:05–10:25 Narendra DixitIISc Bangalore

Modelling viral dynamics

10:25–10:45 Pramod WangikarIIT Bombay

A geometric invariant theory-based framework forthe analysis of structures of protein and smallmolecule.

11:15–11:35 D. P. RaoIIT Kanpur

A Run-Up to Process Intensification in SeparationProcesses

11:35–11:55 Ashok BhaskarwarIIT Delhi

Art and Science of New Pollution-preventing Inks

11:55–12:15 S. BasuIIT Delhi

Power of, by and for micro to nano!

12:15–12:35 Shankar NarasimhanIIT Madras

Data mining in Chemical Engineering

2:30–2:50 Sunando Das GuptaIIT Kharagpur

Modeling the Transient and Steady State Character-istics of a Wicked Heat Pipe

2:50–3:10 A. K. SureshIIT Bombay

Polymer films by interfacial polycondensation—Modelling of film structure

3:10–3:30 K. NandakumarUniv. Alberta

Recent developments in CFD as a tool to understandchemical processes

4:00–4:20 S. VenugopalIISc, Bangalore

Metal nanoparticles and their self-assembly intofunctional architectures

4:20–4:40 Rajdip B.IIT Kanpur

Aerosol and Colloidal Route to Materials atNanoscale

4:40–5:00 Ashutosh SharmaIIT Kanpur

Of Small Things and Other Stories

9 Directions for The Journey Ahead Day Two, June 21st, 2005

Each talk is followed by a five minute long discussion session. We request the audienceto raise as many issues as possible (unless the Chair stops) so that the discussion session,scheduled at the end, will consider as many aspects as possible.

9:30–9:45 M. S. AnanthIIT Madras

Opening remarks

9:50–10:05 R. A. MashelkarCSIR, New Delhi

New areas to be pursued with a vision for the future.Broadening the research base in chemical engineer-ing to include more institutions.

10:10–10:25 R. KumarIISc, Bangalore

Future directions in chemical engineering

10:30–10:45 B. D. KulkarniNCL Pune

Emerging trends in chemical reaction engineering

11:15–11:30 Vijay NaikHLRC, Bangalore

Industry-University Interactions

11:35–11:50 Kartic KhilarIIT Bombay

University - Industry Interactions

11:55–12:10 K. S. GandhiIISc Bangalore

Chemical engineering education

2:30–2:45 ShrihariSanghvi College ofEngg, Mumbai

Managing Chemical Engineering Curricula in multiinstitution university – a case study

2:50–3:05 R. K. TayalDST, New Delhi

Challenges for Funding Agencies

3:45–4:45 M. S. AnanthPartha Ray

Open Discussion and Brain Storming Session onThe Journey Ahead.

4:45–5:00 Partha RayCalcutta Univ

Concluding remarks

10 Abstracts of Technical Talks (Day one)

1. Speaker: Rochish Thaokar, IIT Bombay, Mumbai

Title: Engineering Polymer molecules: Twirling DNA rings and loop polymers

Abstract: We propose a rotary DNA nanomachine that shows a continuous rotation with afrequency of 10

2−10

4 Hz. This motor consist of a DNA ring whose elastic features aretuned such that it can be externally driven via a periodic temperature/potential change.As a result the ring propels itself through the fluid with a speed of few microns/s. Inthe second part, we derive force-extension for DNA molecules bearing sliding loopsand deflection defects. Analytical results are obtained in the large force limits. Theresults reveal a remarkable feature of sliding loops-an apparent strong reduction of thepersistence length. The results are quantitatively confirmed by MD simulations.

2. Speaker: Narendra Dixit, IISc, Bangalore

Title: Modelling viral dynamics

Abstract: Viral infections cause several millions of deaths worldwide each year. Whycurrent therapies fail against viral infections - HIV infections, for instance - remainspoorly understood. We develop mathematical models to quantitatively describe diseaseprogression in infected individuals, the host-immune response, and the impact of ther-apy. Model predictions capture key experimental observations and provide insights thatpave the way for the identification of optimal treatment protocols. In this talk, I willpresent our recent efforts in modeling HIV and hepatitis C virus dynamics as a forayof chemical engineering into combating infectious diseases.

3. Speaker: Pramod Wangikar, IIT Bombay, Mumbai

Title: A geometric invariant theory-based framework for the analysis of protein and smallmolecule three-dimensional structures.

Abstract: Local conformations in protein structure have typically been subjected to three-way classification; helix, strand and loop. Helices and strands are characterized byregularity in their backbone torsion angles while loops can potentially occupy a vastconformational continuum. The Ramchandran plot was the first step in demarcatingthe feasible and infeasible regions of the conformational space even for loops. Subse-quently, it was shown that loop regions are comprised of repeating canonical structures.In this presentation, we provide the visualization of the restricted nature of the proteinlocal conformational space using geometric invariant theory. Geometric invariant the-ory is a well-established field in its own right with many applications in diverse areas.We first map the local conformations in a fixed dimensional space by using a carefullyselected suite of geometric invariants (GIs) and then reduce the number of dimensionsvia principal component analysis (PCA). Of the four significant principal components(PC’s), PC1 separates the extended structures from compact ones while PC2 separatesthe regular structures from the irregular ones. Distribution of the conformations in thespace spanned by the first four PC’s is visualized as a set of conditional bi-variate prob-ability distribution plots, where the peaks correspond to the preferred conformations.The peak corresponding to the α-helix structure is sharper and taller than that for theβ-strand. This agrees well with the known fact that the β-strands have a greater tol-erance for deviation from regularity than helices. Separate peaks are identifiable forthe kinked-helix and several canonical loop structures. The locations of the differentcanonical structures in the PC-space have been interpreted in the context of the weights

of the GI’s to the first four PCCs. We find that the number of preferred local confor-mations is several orders of magnitude smaller than that suggested previously. Theseresults will substantially reduce the search space in protein structure modeling. Wehave applied this technique in identifying functional sites in proteins as recurring con-stellations of amino acids. The technique has also been applied for finding patterns insmall molecule structures, which has applications in drug design. Thus, this work pro-vides a systematic framework for the analysis of protein and small molecular structuresstructures using geometric invariant theory.

4. Speaker: D. P. Rao, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur

Title: A Run-Up to Process Intensification in Separation Processes

Abstract: Process intensification aims at volume reduction of process equipment by 100 to1000 times and represents a paradigm shift in of chemical process design. I will presentour work, done over the past three decades, which led to process intensification in sep-aration processes. I will trace the development of rotating packed bed (HIGEE) whichbrings down the size of the distillation and absorption units by 100 times. Pressureswing adsorption is being used as an alternative to cryogenic distillation. It employs 2to 5 fixed beds, in which only small fraction of the beds is active in actual separation.Moving-bed processes, in which the entire bed is active, have been abandoned in favorof fixed beds as solids handling poses formidable practical problems. I will outline thework we are pursuing on simulated moving-bed processes using fixed beds which leadsclean separation and a volume reduction of adsorbers by 10-100 times and sketch howthis could alter the way absorption, extraction and reactions would be carried out infuture.

5. Speaker: Ashok Bhaskarwar, IIT Delhi, New Delhi

Title: Art and Science of New Pollution-preventing Inks

Abstract: Recent developments in the field of pollution-preventing inks indicate a possi-bility of designing a range of new products comparable to the existing products, but themanufacture and use of which would be far less polluting or even pollution free. Thecase study of ink focuses on our work over the past decade, and summarizes the mostimportant findings.

The talk would address the chronological development of ink products in the labo-ratory. These include alkali-sensitive, acid-sensitive inks which can be cleaned withaqueous wash using pH as a switch for rendering the ink water-washable. Possible useof temperature as a switch is also briefly addressed. Finally, microemulsion inks capa-ble of being washed with normal water from printing presses or other equipments, butotherwise capable of becoming permanent on paper in presence of air and light will bedescribed. The theory underlying the different mechanisms of washing and providingdeeper insights into the complexities of washing of different inks will also be outlined.

6. Speaker: Suddhasatwa Basu, IIT Delhi, New Delhi

Title: Power of, by and for micro to nano!

Abstract:With the advent of microelectromechanical systems, micromachines, microsys-tems and micro fluidics, low power electronics for various types of functionalitiesaimed at miniaturization of portable electronic appliances capable of operating for ex-tended periods of time has resulted in a surge of research in the development of ultrahigh energy density and power density sources. Miniature form of polymer electrolyte

membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), direct alcohol fuel cell (DAFC) and direct Alcohol alka-line fuel cell (DAAFC) is capable providing higher power density than that from samesize Ni-Cd battery. In this context preliminary studies on DAAFC using three differentfuels, e g., methanol, ethanol and sodium borohydride, will be discussed. Pt/C/Ni wasused as anode whereas MnO2/C/Ni was used as cathode for all the fuels. The maxi-mum power density of 16.5 mW/cm2 is obtained at 28 mA/cm2 of current density forsodium borohydride at 25oC. Whereas, methanol produces 31.5 mW/cm2 of maximumpower density at 44 mA/cm2 of current density at 60oC.

Flow through micro porous structure, permeable bodies and heat transfer is a topic thatmanifests itself in several practical situations, such as sedimentation of sludge flocs,motion of clusters in gas-solid fluidized bed reactors, diffusion of fuel through carbonpaper in fuel cell electrodes. Heat transfer from a porous permeable sphere has beenstudied using standard CFD method for wide range of Reynolds numbers. Brinkman’ssextension of Darcy’s law in the inner region, Navier-Stokes equations in the outer re-gion of the porous permeable sphere and energy equations were employed to solve thefluid flow phenomena. The results are presented in terms of four dimensionless pa-rameters - particle Reynolds number (Re), permeability ratio, Pradtl number (Pr) andNusselt number (Nu). The results show that the heat transfer rate from porous per-meable sphere increases with the increase in permeability. The correlation obtainedfrom the CFD simulation data for heat transfer from porous permeable sphere is usefulin predicting Nu for a wide range of Re from 0.02 to 2000 and Pr from 0.7 to 7 atdifferent permeability ratios.

7. Speaker: Shankar Narasimhan, IIT Madras, Chennai

Title: Data mining techniques in chemical engineering and beyond

Abstract: With significant improvements being made in sensing technology as well as incomputer based data acquisition systems, it is possible to obtain data on a large numberof variables at more frequent intervals than ever before. This data represents a valuableresource for judging the health of a process and to make continuous process improve-ments. Multivariate statistical data analysis techniques are increasingly being used tomine the data in process industries for extracting valuable information. The focus ofthis talk will specifically be on two closely related techniques - Principal ComponentAnalysis (PCA) and Independent Component Analysis (ICA) - and their applicationsin chemistry, chemical engineering and beyond. While PCA (Jackson, 1991), firstdescribed in a paper by Karl Pearson in 1903, is already being deployed in processindustries for monitoring and diagnosis, ICA is a relatively new technique developedin mid 1980s (Hyvarinen et al., 2001).

PCA can be viewed a tool for data reduction. However, this interpretation does notoffer significant insight to chemical engineers who place a premium on modeling. Thealternative interpretation of PCA is as a method for identifying the underlying linearstatic or dynamic relationships (constraints) among process variables from data. Asan example, we consider the development of multivariate calibration models relatingconcentration of mixtures to their absorbance spectra (Wentzell et al., 1999). For di-lute solutions, the absorbance spectrum of a mixture is a linear combination of the purecomponent spectra. The model once developed can be used to predict the concentrationof a new sample from its absorbance spectra. This has led to the use of online spectralmeasurements to infer concentrations of mixtures. A similar approach is used in de-velopment of soft sensors for online prediction of product quality from online spectralmeasurements in petroleum and pulp and paper industries (Liljenberg and Grinneby,

2000).

PCA can be used to infer the pure component spectral subspace from mixture spectra.However, it cannot be used to obtain the pure component spectra from mixture spec-tra. The problem of deconvolution of mixtures appears in other fields such as speechand image processing and is also known as the blind source separation problem. In-dependent Component Analysis is a relatively new technique that has been developedto solve this problem. This technique can be used to extract pure component spectraas well as their concentrations from mixture spectra without the need for developing acalibration model. This technique can therefore be employed in extracting the spectraof unknown pure components and to identify the unknown components by comparingwith pure component spectral databases. A potential use of this technique is in thekinetic parameter estimation and in development of reaction mechanism models (Bi-jlsma et al., 1998). A more important use of this method is in the development ofnon-invasive techniques for early detection of diseases such as cancer using spectralanalysis of urine samples (Antti et al., 2001).

In both PCA and ICA, the effect of measurement noise is usually not treated in a rig-orous manner. Our efforts during the past few years have been in noise modeling andusing these to enhance PCA and ICA techniques. We have developed methods for si-multaneously estimating the noise variances along with the model and demonstratedthat these lead to improved model quality (Narasimhan and Shah, 2004). This becomesespecially important for data containing a low signal to noise ratio (such as biologicalor environmental data).

References

Antti,H., E. Holmes, and J. Nicholson, “Multivariate Solutions to Metabonomic Profil-ing and Functional Genomics, Part 1 - Introduction, data acquisition and processing,”www.acc.umu.se/ tnkjtg/Chemometrics/Editorial, Sep 2002.

Bijlsma, S., D.J. Louwerse and A.K. Smilde, “Rapid Estimation of Rate Constants ofBatch Processes Using On-line SW-NIR,” AIChE J., 44 (12) 2713-2723 (1998).

Hyvarinen, A., J. Karhunen, and E. Oja, Independent Component Analysis, John Wiley& Sons, New York, 2001.

Jackson, J.E., A Users Guide to Principal Components, John Wiley, 1991.

Liljenberg, T., and A. Grinneby, “Monitoring and Controlling Pulp Quality,” PaperAge, Nov. 2002.

Narasimhan, S., and S.L. Shah, “Simultaneous Estimation of Model and Error Covari-ance Matrix Estimation using PCA,” in Proceedings of IFAC Symposium on ADCHEM03, Hong Kong, 2004.

Wentzell, P.D., D.T Andrews, and B.R. Kowalski, “Maximum Likelihood MultivariateCalibration,” Anal. Chem., 69 (13), 2299-2311 (1999).

8. Speaker: Sunando Das Gupta, IIT Kharagpur, Kharagpur

Title: Modeling the Transient and Steady State Characteristics of a Wicked Heat Pipe

Abstract: The transient behavior of a wicked heat pipe during start up is studied theoreti-cally as well as experimentally. Utilizing the concept of a growing thermal layer in thewall and the wick region, a two dimensional model is developed herein. The conduc-tion process through the wall and the wick is divided into various time zones accordingto the level of penetration of the thermal layer. The model is numerically solved toobtain the transient temperature profiles for the outer wall of the heat pipe as a function

of axial position. Steady-state temperature profiles are also obtained as a limiting caseof the transient analysis.The low temperature heat pipe used in this study, is a copper-water heat pipe withwicks formed by six wraps of 80 mesh SS-304 screen. Controlled heat is suppliedto the evaporator and the condenser section is water-cooled. The axial temperaturedistribution and heat recovery at the condenser are measured as a function of time.The experimental transient temperature profile for the outer wall of the adiabatic sectionis compared with that predicted from a one dimensional model, already available in theliterature, as well as with the two dimensional model developed herein. The agreementbetween the theory and experiments is unsatisfactory, especially in the adiabatic region,for the one-dimensional model, as axial conduction is neglected. However, excellentagreements are obtained using the two-dimensional model for all the three sections ofheat pipe, for transient and steady state operations. The experimental and theoreticallypredicted time required to attain steady state are in close agreement as well.

9. Speaker: A. K. Suresh, IIT Bombay, Mumbai

Title: Polymer films by interfacial polycondensation—Modelling of film structure

Abstract: Interfacial polycondensation has been used in niche polymerization applicationssuch as the formation of thin-film composite membranes and microencapsulation ofactive intermediates. The technique offers the advantage of high rate, is less fussyabout monomer purity than the melt methods, and directly offers a polymer film asthe product. On the other hand, the monomers used are highly reactive and difficult tohandle, and the technique is not well understood in all its aspects, so that the propertiesof the film that results are difficult to predict from a knowledge of process conditions.In the applications mentioned, the strength of the polymer film and the permeabilityof solutes through it are the functional properties of importance, and it is importantto be able to anticipate these characteristics based on the conditions employed in thepolymerization, for a given polymerization chemistry. In this talk, we shall explore themodelling of this interesting process, which involves an interplay between diffusion,multi-step reaction kinetics, solution thermodynamics, and phase separation. Experi-mental data are available on the influence of factors such as the solvent type, reactantmole ratio, etc. on the molecular weight of the polymer formed. There has also beenobserved a loose negative correlation between the rate of polymerization reaction andthe crystallinity of the polymer film produced in certain systems. These results pointto opportunities for engineering film permeabilities through an understanding of themechanisms involved in the development of crystallinity, since the latter has a stronginfluence on permeability. Taking a clue from the observed correlation between rate andcrystallinity, we have developed a model that assumes that the rate of progress of thepolymer composition point on a temperature-volume fraction diagram determines themechanism of phase separation as being by nucleation or spinodal decomposition, andthis mechanism in turn determines what fraction of the precipitated polymer is crys-talline and what fraction amorphous. We use simple models such as Flory-Huggins todescribe the solution thermodynamics, and makes several assumptions, the idea beingto test the central hypothesis described above. It is shown that the model is successfulin mimicking several characteristics of the process experimentally observed. While thecentral tenets of the model are thus validated, further developments that put greater de-tail into the description of the crystallization processes are needed before a predictivecapability that encompasses all possible variations in monomer types can be achieved.

10. Speaker: K. Nandakumar, University of Alberta, Canada

Title: Recent developments in CFD as a tool to understand chemical processes

Abstract: In this seminar I present some recent results of both fundamental and appliednature in using computational fluid dynamics to explore multiphase flows. On thefundamental side, we have developed algorithms for direct numerical simulation ofmultiphase flows. For dispersed rigid particles as in suspension flows, sedimentationetc, we couple the Navier-Stokes equations with the rigid body dynamics in a rigorousfashion to track the particle motion in a fluid. For deformable bubbles/droplets dis-persed in another fluid, we also track their motion in an Eulerian grid. Discontinuousbasis functions are used to enrich the function space near the fluid/fluid interface. Thetwo classes of algorithms show great promise in attempting direct simulation of mul-tiphase flows with many particles or droplets, from which we can extract statisticallymeaningful average behaviour of suspensions or bubbly flows.

On the other hand, there is an immediate need to study flow of complex fluids of indus-trial importance. Such cases include polymer blending processes involving melting,deformation and break-up, corrosion-erosion in pipelines and process vessels, masstransfer in packed beds with random and structured packings or in Sieve trays. In suchstudies we use volume averaged equations as the basis of CFD models coupled withexperimental validation of such predictions in an effort to develop scale invariant CFDmodels. We will discuss a few of these examples.

11. Speaker: Venugopal S., IISc, Bangalore

Title: Metal nanoparticles and their self-assembly into functional architectures

Abstract: The ability to manufacture nanostructured materials by design is one of themajor challenges facing the development of a nanotechnology driven economy. Self-assembly has captured the imagination of scientists as a promising avenue for bottom-up fabrication utilizing nanoscale building-blocks. Metal nanoparticles have been pro-posed as building blocks for sensor and nanoelectronic applications due to their uniqueproperties that fall between those of atomic species and bulk matter. In this talk, Iwill describe a guided self-assembly process for fabricating functional architecturesincorporating metal nanoparticles.

12. Speaker: Rajdip Bandyopadhyaya, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur

Title: Aerosol and Colloidal Route to Materials at Nanoscale

Abstract: Major impetus in trying to understand physicochemical phenomena over diversetime and at small length scales (1-100 nm) has led to investigation of synthesis, struc-ture and functionality of both existing and new materials and relevant processes. Thishas emerged as a new research paradigm penetrating different scientific and engineer-ing disciplines.

At the same time there is a demand for new functional materials, which are typicallymulticomponent and assembled or synthesized by taking advantage of interactions atsubmicron to nanometer dimensions. Among several key discoveries in this regard wasthat of carbon nanotube, a material with exceptional mechanical strength, electronicand other properties. These are synthesized by gas phase aerosol routes in presenceof catalytic nanoparticles made in-situ. Another system of interest to us is aerosolmediated manufacture of metal oxide nanoparticles or carbon black used as reinforc-ing fillers in polymers. On the other hand, colloidal routes in the liquid phase gavea new class of soft, deformable, supramolecular structures, for example spherical orcylindrical moieties called micelles. These are formed by spontaneous self-assembly

of amphiphilic molecules like surfactant or block co-polymer in solution. The mi-celles are used as a template for generating either solid particles or cylindrical poresin an inorganic matrix and the latter can be further modified, if required, for use asnanoparticles, nanocomposites etc. Such nanoporous inorganic solids find applicationin catalysis, microelectronics, separation, either in the powder or thin film form.

In this talk we will highlight our work in trying to delineate the role of different micro-scopic interaction parameters and operating variables in a process that determine themechanism of formation and some features of these nanosystems.

13. Speaker: Ashutosh Sharma, IIT Kanpur, Kanpur

Title: Of Small Things and Other Stories

Abstract: Manufacturing, manipulation and utilization of small (¡ 100 nm) things requiresour ability to directly measure the intermolecular/intersurface forces at pN resolutionand quantification of their influence on the stability/deformation/stick of these highsurface area/energy structures. This talk will focus on some recent studies of my groupon force measurements in soft materials and surprises/lessons from there. In particular,I will touch upon how these lessons are useful in meso-patterning of soft materials byself-organization. Other stories? Twenty minutes are not enough for that!

14. Speaker: Shrihari, Sanghvi College of Engg, Mumbai

Title: Managing Chemical Engineering Curricula in multi institution university – a casestudy

Abstract: There are basically two extreme models of learning, one where rememberingtakes precedence over understanding and the other where understanding is of utmostimportance. All learning systems are a combination of these two. In the multi institu-tional system where students get to be the unenlightend consumers the formal model isdemanded and supported leading to many quality issues in education. Designer notesand designer examinations can together give excellent quality or lead to subversion ofeducation. At the same time motivated bunch of youngsters can go through a training tobe able to teach a new subject against a lot of odds, persevere to monitor progress, mo-tivate students and drive the ideal model for training which involves a feed back loop.Research is generally abandoned on account of large number of excuses, but there areflashes in the pan which give us hope for both education and research in these institu-tions. In view of the fact that these institutions would supply majority of engineers anyplan for A JOURNEY AHEAD should include them.

11 Suggestions for The Journey Ahead (Day two)

11.1 Rochish Thaokar, IIT Bombay

Although there are several issues which can be addressed, I would focus on Collaborations betweenvarious institutions:

The scientific and more specifically the chemical engineering community in India, doing re-search, is relatively small. That puts us in a big disadvantage vis a vis the US or Europe. Oneway to address it is by effective collaborations between different Institutions. There are few broadareas which can be easily identified, like Fluid Mechanics, Colloids and Interfacial science, bio-engineering, Process Control and Process Engg. Currently collaborations are happening withinindividual institutions to different extents. However, not many are forged across institutes. One of

the reasons can be geography itself and since these institutions are in distant corners of India it isdifficult to communicate. I suggest the following:

(A) The easiest way would be to amalgamize these groups working in different institutes intoa single community, in a more concrete way. This can happen by having a National level annualor biannual workshop/seminar in that area (An example would be the areas mentioned above) asa calender event. Complex Fluids (Compflu) is one such example which addresses the area ofComplex Fluids. These workshops in addition to a get together of similar minds should be usedconsciously to forge collaborations. The nature of workshop/conference can be decided by themembers involved in that group, and hosted on rotation by various institutes. This will help thepeople involved in a particular area of research know about the expertise available in that areawithin the country, as well as knowledge about available experimental and simulation facilitiesand infrastructure. The event can be a workshop/conference event and involve both researchersand students of various institutions.

(B) There can be Summer/Winter exchange programs of researchers between different Insti-tutes. This can be more regular event than what it is currently. The period can vary from a fortnightto a month or two. There should be a provision of taking students along, during such visits andstays with the arrangements made by the host institution.

(C) Seminars delivered by experts from one institute in another should be made more commonand funds made easily available for them.

The role of the funding agency would be of financing these activities in a more generous way.I strongly feel that interdisciplinary collaborations would be a natural fallout of the disciplinary

collaborations.

11.2 Narendra Dixit, IISc Bangalore

Forays into biologyBiology today occupies the center stage on the research agendas of an increasing number of

institutions, national and international, public and private. The reasons are several: Many chal-lenges in biology are critical—developing a cure for HIV infection, for instance—and call for anall out, multi-pronged effort. Consequently, or otherwise, an explosion of biological informationis unraveling novel phenomena that are amenable to interdisciplinary investigation. The startingof bioengineering/biotechnology departments in several IITs bears testimony to the growing inter-disciplinary nature of current biology. In chemical engineering as well, one direction that we maychoose to advance in could cross paths with the biological ‘highway’. As a consequence, bothchemical engineering and biology may be enriched. Indeed, perhaps as an extreme along theselines, several chemical engineering departments in the US have changed their names to ‘Chemicaland biological engineering’, ‘chemical and biomolecular engineering’, etc. In India, we may en-courage forays into biology through an increase in research funding for biological problems, hiringnew faculty members with interests in biology, recruitment of graduate students with a biologicalbackground, and teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in biology.

11.3 Pramod Wangikar, IIT Bombay

I have deliberately attempted to provide equal attention to the following two areas. One area isbased on fully computational work while the other area is a combination of experimental andcomputational work. The areas are briefly described below:Computational structural biology Biologists have been analyzing structures by resorting to pair-wise superposition of structures. This method does not allow application of the conventional data-mining techniques on the 3-D structures. We have been developing a framework, based on geo-metric invariant theory and data-mining tools, to systematically analyze protein structures. This

has been successfully applied in (i) identification of structural motifs in proteins; (ii) identificationof functional sites in proteins; and (iii) rational drug design. We collaborate with Profs. MilindSohoni (Computer Sci & Eng, IIT Bombay), Sunita Sarawagi (Kanwal Rekhi School of Informa-tion Technology, IIT Bombay), Babatunde Ogunnaike (University of Delaware). We receive inputson geometric invariants, data-mining tools and statistical tools from these collaborators. Severalmasters and Ph.D. students have been and are being jointly supervised on these topics. The stu-dents were drawn both from chemical engineering and computer science streams at IIT Bombay.Unfortunately, we have not been able to bring in a biologist in our collaborative work. A majorityof the work was performed using personal computers or IITs central servers. The journey ahead isgoing to require much more active collaboration; try to get a biologist to provide inputs and set upa dedicated compute facility; web servers to host our results and programs.Fermentation modeling, optimization and control We have chosen two model systems: ri-famycin B fermentation using A. meditteraniae fermentation and D-ribose production using B.subtilis fermentation. Antibiotics such as rifamycin B are typically produced through fed-batchfermentation process using a complex medium. Our group has been involved in development ofa first-principles dynamic model for production of rifamycin B. The increased competition in thefermentation industry will force the manufacturer to use advanced model-based strategies for fer-mentation optimization, monitoring and control. We have been implementing the following onRifamycin B fermentation: (i) synthesis of optimal feeding strategies; (ii) model based inferentialmeasurements; (iii) model based predictive control of fermentor; (iv) model based fault detectionand diagnosis. Our work includes experimental validation of the above elements on a laboratoryscale fermentor. We collaborate with Prof. Sharad Bharatiya (IIT Bombay) on aspects related tooptimization and control. We also collaborate with Honeywell, USA on control strategies. Despiteour preliminary success in the development of a model and model based optimization of fed-batchfermentation, we have not been able to interest an end-user industry in our work.

The journey ahead is going to require a significant infusion of funds to create infrastructure forinstruments, compute servers, and software. Moreover, the work will speed up with more activecollaborations with other academicians and end-user industry. We will need to diversify into newareas, the so-called non-conventional areas. I also feel that we need to create opportunities so thatthe peers can meet within India. We need to arrange focused symposia, conferences, etc. that willenable researchers to come together and exchange ideas. These symposia should include peersfrom industry. The symposium scheduled at IISc Bangalore is a definitely a positive step in thisdirection and I am looking forward to meeting my peers in India.

11.4 Sunando Das Gupta, IIT Kharagpur

Barriers on the wayTrained Manpower: A shortage of trained manpower for research and training is a major prob-

lem faced by all of us. What we see even in many of the so-called premier institutions is a dearth offaculty and research personnel in almost all the engineering departments including Chemical En-gineering. It seems our better students are not interested in higher studies and even more reluctantto consider research and academics as their career. This needs to be addressed quickly to maintainand improve the quality of teaching and research in India.

Can anything be done to motivate quality students? One way could be to introduce them toresearch quite early. The programs at some places for second year undergraduate students to beinvolved in research during summer needs to be strengthened. The funding agencies can providesupport to the specific researcher/laboratory the same way they support seminar/short term courses.High value fellowships for deserving PhD candidates would be helpful as well.

Slow Response of the Funding Agencies: It generally takes inordinately long time from thepoint a project is submitted and a decision is conveyed. This creates endless problems for the

investigator to plan for the future. Is it really that difficult to keep the investigator informed aboutthe status of the submitted proposal?

Lack of Involvement of Industry: We lack the culture in India where the industry and academicinstitutions can trust the capabilities of the other. Without this real progress is difficult to achieve.

11.5 Rajdip Bandyopadhyaya, IIT Kanpur

Chemical engineering is uniquely positioned at the interface between molecular sciences and sys-tems/process engineering with many opportunities in various fields including: life sciences, scienceand engineering of nanomaterials etc. In chemical engineering research, the science base has dra-matically increased. To address this, we have to integrate new courses in biology and advancedmaterials in the undergraduate curriculum. At the same time, one has to emphasize translation ofmolecular information into discovery of new processes and products and learning the fundamentalsin the process. For our postgraduate curriculum, in addition to our core strength in transport, ther-modynamics and kinetics, we have to emphasize molecular level design as a new core organizingprinciple throughout. This has to be supplemented with courses on multiscale modeling which willlink techniques of molecular simulation (molecular dynamics, monte carlo) to mesoscale (discreteelement, coarse grain approach etc.) and finally to continuum models at macroscale.

On the research front, we have to identify thrust areas of high impact and set goals for the nextdecade with long term planned funding of five years at a time. Advanced materials, nanosciencesand nanoengineering, biotechnology, energy and environment are key areas that should be prior-itized for such additional research funding. In each of these areas, depending on the need andexpertise available, 4-6 multidisciplinary research teams should be supported across the country,based on the strength of their proposals and available local facilities for such research. Each teamshould have at least one investigator affiliated to the chemical engineering department and shouldcomprise of 3-5 people from the same institute or university campus, spread over at least threedifferent departments. This will balance the diverse research interests of chemical engineers onthe one hand and will simultaneously encourage intense cross-fertilization and rapid execution ofideas. This will create excellent research teams working in close proximity in high impact areas.

At the next higher level, a selected set (2-3) of these successful research teams in one particularbroad area can be networked across different campuses in India for collaboration and exchange ofresults. This will not only bring healthy competition for excellence but can also potentially resultin a visible product or technology. The latter often helps in maintaining our professions identityand to keep a useful perception of our discipline in the public and society at large. This aspectis important. Traditionally developed as a supporting discipline to petrochemicals and fertilizerindustries among others, we have now branched out into several new industries in chemical, ma-terials and biological products. Thus we need to put our stamp in this ever expanding milieu ofchemical engineering activities.

11.6 S. Venugopal, IISc, Bangalore

Chemical engineers concern themselves with the chemical processes that turn raw materials intovaluable products. Our current education curriculum is centered on developing skills such as de-sign, scale-up, optimization and upon understanding scientific principles such as mass, heat andmomentum transport, chemical kinetics and thermodynamics involved in traditional chemical in-dustries such as petrochemicals and commodity chemicals. The ongoing microelectronics revolu-tion depends on chemical processes to modulate the electronic properties of solid-state materialsat pre-defined arbitrary locations. Unfortunately this important industry is largely ignored, apartfrom a basic course on materials science, in current undergraduate curriculum that predominantly

emphasizes fluid based operations. This oversight can be redressed by updating existing unit oper-ations course content to include batch operations such as plasma processing, ion-implantation, andlithography along with electives on semiconductor manufacturing processes. Looking ahead to theoncoming nanotechnology onslaught it is critical that along with knowledge of biological sciences,chemical engineering students must be familiarized with the science behind electron transport incondensed matter at the macro and nano scale. This will require a restructuring of current cur-riculum to include basic solid-state physics along with biochemistry as core courses and offeringadvanced level electives for the interested students.

11.7 Ashutosh Sharma, IIT Kanpur

Journey ahead: some random reflectionsWhat is chemical engineering, Papa? Today, more than ever, that depends entirely on who you

are (undergraduate, graduate student, faculty, R & D personnel, industrial engineer). For example,a glance at CMU ChE department web page reveals precisely only three areas of interest complexfluids, environment and solid materials. Story is much the same across other prominent depart-ments of ChE, all of which have niches in bio, nano, advanced materials. So, we will have fewerand fewer faculty members trained and interested in classical ChE concerns/undergrad themes.On the other hand, the core chemical processing industries still need people with backgrounds intraditional areas much as they did 20 years ago, 30 years ago.

What are the implications of this professional schizophrenia? Especially in the Indian context?Human Resources: Any idea where our PhDs find jobs other than being shipped out for post-

doc studies?Any idea where our undergraduates find jobes other than in the software?Any idea where our MTechs find jobs different from the above two? What is special about M

Techs?A Random Thought (which is in fact strongly correlated to MANY themes we may discuss!):Are expectations/perceptions/aspirations/goals/inspirations of the faculty members joining the

profession today different, in some fundamental way, than those who joined say 20 years ago(Bees Saal Baad is always a nice yardstick!). In which way? Impact on funding patterns, teaching,research, inter-personal interactions, solidarity with the ChE profession, etc., etc., blah, blah, blah...

11.8 D. P. Rao, IIT Kanpur

Anything that does not fit into Sustainable Development would be wiped out. The sustainabledevelopment demands use of material and energy close to the theoretical minimum and minimalor no waste generation. The chemical industry would be no exception.

There would be shift in the use of feedstock to chemical industry. Already we are witnessinga shift from petroleum to natural gas based feedstock in petrochemical industry. The next phasewould be coal and biomass. We have to devise new chemical pathways using the latest develop-ments in chemistry.

The current chemical technology in the utilization of materials and energy is primitive as isthe IBM 1620 computer compared to the present calculator (far more powerful). A parallel inchemical industry is the methyl acetate process developed by Eastman Chemical Co in which 9distillation columns and one reactor (equivalent to IBM 1620) combined into a single reactivedistillation column (calculator). Such Process Intensification is awaiting to be discovered in manyprocesses and would change most of the existing processes. We need to abandon the concepts ofunit operations and unit processes and integrate them to realize the multifunctional separators andreactors.

Modern computer hardware and software has already changed the way chemical engineering ispracticed. The commercial chemical engineering packages are the active Perry’s Handbook, unlikepassive hard copy, ready to give answers with a few pushes of buttons for very complex processdesign problems. However, the Chemical Engineering Education remained as it was about 25 yearsago. The courses have to be structured with emphasis on Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Numericalmathematics, Software Engineering and on the use of commercial mathematical software.

11.9 Shankar Narasimhan, IIT Madras

I would like to raise the issue of what efforts we can initiate to creat a respectable chemical engg.journal of India within the next 3-5 years. The possible directions are

(a) Improve IIChE Journal - an initial target can be to get its impact factor to 0.5 ovet the next3-5 years.

(b) Start a new journal with a good editorial board.(c) Can we create an open web based journal (no printed copies) with sufficient safeguards

which includes referees reports/replies to reviewers etc.

11.10 Ashok Bhaskarwar, IIT Delhi

India with its two groups of population, namely, scientific/technological and the rest must opti-mize the path towards overall well-being of the whole country and its people, environment, andresources.

The path of growth must consider the long-term impact of technology, rather than immediategains or ease of achieving the short-term targets.

Technologies currently in use must be reviewed not only from the point of view of their ef-ficiencies, but also from their impact on environment. “Pollution prevention” philosophy ratherthan “pollution control” strategies has to determine the attitude towards products and processes incurrent use and those being developed with a view to replace the unacceptable ones. Recycle ofmaterial has to tend to 100 in the next generation of technologies.

Alternative sources of energy, especially solar energy, have to be effectively harnessed. Thefossil fuels have to be eventually replaced by clean fuels like hydrogen; and in the interim phasenewer ways towards more efficient and preferably complete combustion have to be invented andimplemented. Again in the intervening period, bio-fuels have to be critically assessed before sup-plementing the natural fossil fuels, especially from the environmental and toxicological perspec-tives with reference to the exhaust gases.

Economical transport of water across the whole country has to be seriously pursued, if ouragriculture is to become really dependable and if water is to provide the eventual clean fuel offuture. Besides providing the safety of transport over that of hydrogen, this would point out theneed to have a distributed network of hydrogen-generation systems. Fuel generation and foodproduction will have to be necessarily interlinked at a higher level in the future, thus combiningthe technological advances with human needs.

11.11 Shrihari, D J Sanghvi College of Engineering, Vile Parle (W) Mumbai

The Journey Ahead—an extremely selfish note on fostering research!One always thinks of resources required to do research and if they are made available in abun-

dance, research is likely to prosper.In India money is the foremost important resource. To a motivated self less researcher, it is most

required for his experimentation/literature review/data-processing/etc. Do we have such quality insufficient quantity? Good institutions apart there is surely a need for more number of such persons.

As proliferation of private institutions led to teachers becoming teachers for a salary, attempts tofoster research may bring in researchers for salary. But what about the talented lot, who optedout of research for the very reason—money. Can Money be used to motivate the talented youngresearcher. Some of the corporate universities offer a bonus on every publication as part of thepay package. Can doing research be remunerative? Compete with other remunerative activitieswhich are attractive. Further, the QIP schemes are trying to create more researchers, perhaps inwrong ways. Seniors are given the first preference, for obvious reasons, but at an age when youare worried about your childs SSC/or mortgage on your house/some times even pension plans, youmay not be in an ideal frame of mind to be trained for research, even less so to make most of thetraining. You go through the training get your promotion and that is the end of it. Perhaps training ayoung researcher and putting a promotion criteria as application of that training is a better method.Money can overcome some of these stumbling blocks for research.

Second resource one can talk about is time. With respect to teachers, who are likely to begood researchers time is a very important resource. In the university system if a teacher has tospend 16-18 hours/week lecturing and in a city like Mumbai, another 15-20 hours/week traveling,with family also demanding a part of the time, time becomes too precious. Shortage of Timecan be compensated by additional work force and it needs more money! Identification of thepromising talent is also a very important process. It could be through SERC schools, summerscientist fellowships, etc.

Third important resource is information. To begin with we have persons fantasizing aboutresearch but are unaware of which area they should do research. Well defined problems to bepicked up by prospective researcher may be one way of doing things. Making published literatureavailable is the second challenge and requires some one to pay for it. These persons perhaps requireguidance and continuous monitoring.

The last and foremost topic to be pointed out is to keep the tempo going once an initiation isdone. This is most important place where the fire in the belly dies and some other factors take over.With fire in the belly you can overcome most of the above shortages but there is no way it can berekindled. Some peer pressure, research culture development activity in ones place of work has totake place over the years.

11.12 Kartic Khilar, IIT Bombay

University-Industry Interactions in India—A Look ForwardAcademic institutions in India like in any other country are some of the oldest social institu-

tions. They have primarily focused on degree educations and research work as a part of degreerequirement such as in Masters and Doctoral theses. Very little work of commercial utilities hasbeen pursued in academic institutes until some years back. Their survival was not dependent onindustry assistance. Industries in our country by and large have utilized imported and foreigntechnologies in a very good business mode in an environment that almost guaranteed their sur-vival independent of R&D or other knowledge resources. Therefore, industries in general haveperformed, as I believe, very well without depending on the R&D inputs that exist in academicinstitutes or that can be generated inhouse.

The recent globalization phenomenon has brought in new realizations in industry that is; to beglobally competitive and to be at the cutting edge they need to resource R&D, innovations, dis-covery and advanced knowledge. Some of these can certainly be availed by utilizing the expertise,knowledge and intellectual capital available in academic institutes. Looking from academic insti-tutions point of view, R&D has become expensive and there is a demand from industry to developmore and better manpower for research. Academic institutes do not have financial resources toembark on this important journey. Therefore they need to build R&D partnership with industry to

sustain good R&D. We believe that there now exist some critical needs for interdependence andhence we are in the midst of a great time to foster university-industry interactions.

Some suggestions for strengthening the academia industry interactions and building R&D part-nership are as follows.

• Academic institutes should put in place processes and mechanisms for smooth interfacingwith industry. There should be intellectual property policy, technology and other IP licensingand transfer policy, Non-disclosure agreement policy and so on.

• There should be multilevel exchange and networking between academic institutes and indus-try. Exchange of personnel, frequent meetings, collaborative research, participating in eachothers research boards, major committees and so on are some of the modes of bringing inthe required integration.

• Academic institutions should build innovative schemes for collaborative and effective indus-try interactions: advanced multidisciplinary research teams working on emerging and futuretechnology for different industry sectors, area specific industry affiliate programs, industrysponsored focused laboratories and so on.

• Academia should focus on developing umbrella and platform technology with better en-abling. Industry should put in the critical inputs to develop new and better solutions andservices.

• Academic institutions can also partner industry to incubate promising technologies devel-oped by their faculty and students.

• Government agencies armed with policy and resources can facilitate academia industry in-teractions. With government providing the bonding and some driving potential, academiaand industry can work in a sound technological and business mode for solving some sig-nificant problems and meeting some major needs of our country. One of primary enablingmechanisms for the impressive accomplishment of establishing strong S&T base in someAsian countries is believed to the above tripartite partnership and can serve as examples forour endeavor on this important task.

11.13 K. S. Gandhi, IISc, Bangalore

Curricular EducationThe commercialization of undergraduate education has lead to several probl ems. Prominent

amongst them are (i) parent directed, badly motivated, & poorly trained students, whose supply farexceeds the demand, and (ii) reluctant teachers. These problems cry our for reinforcing fundamen-tals of chemical engineering, or retraining the undergraduates, in postgraduate programs, especiallyif one keeps in mind the fact that the large scale employers of the undergraduates are producers ofbulk chemicals. At the same time, chemical engineering as a profession is entering newer areas ofresearch with strong overlap with other disciplines. This trend is leading to balkanization of thediscipline and makes a strong demand for a seamless, interdisciplinary, and broader curriculumin postgraduate e ducation, since it is the entry window for staying competitive in cutting edger esearch. Resolution of the conflicting demands is difficult and only a compromise is possible.While it is difficult to predict what will happen, one compromise is that some departments will fo-cus on fitting students to demands of bulk chemical industries while others might attempt to focuson research. In my opinion this compromise is undesirable since it makes the former departmentsmore attractive in the eyes of the student while at the same time making them dated, while it forces

the latter category of departments to be a second choice and simultaneously to stay competitive ininternational arena. A better compromise is possible if undergraduate syllabus is made more attrac-tive but left by and large unaltered, and if a general curriculum is agreed upon for masters degreecourses. The uniformity of the latter should be just as the curriculum for undergraduate programsis by and large uniform across the board. One such curriculum is as follows. The first year of themasters degree is fully used for course work where the fundamentals of chemical engineering arepresented in a modern garb: Unit Operations in the mold of transport phenomena, thermodynam-ics in the paradigm of statistical mechanics, other subjects (reaction engineering, process controletc) in the cov er of modeling, and computational mathematics by placing emphasis on obtainingquantitative results in all subjects. Two courses of the first year course work should be related tochemistry, physics, biology, and materials science. The second year should be entirely devotedto R&D project and it should consist of a focused four week reading course that culminates in aseminar on the special background for the project. With this training, a student can carry out anR&D projects with either conventional or seamless orientation. The curriculum could be debat edand a model set. If such a curriculum is adopted for masters degrees, the doctoral programs canhave a very specialized course work and focus directly on research project.

11.14 S. Basu, IIT Delhi

To attract top bracket students in chemical engineering education and to bring prosperity to ourprofession, we should implement following ideas.

1. Open house by departments for school students especially during summer and winter holi-days. Working models, research work in the form of posters, pilot plant should be visitedby these students with lucid demonstration by B.Tech, M. Tech and Ph.D. students. This isvery important as an engineering discipline is not chosen by the students voluntarily but bythe JEE rank.

2. Continuous curriculum review (every 5 years): We should not only cater to internationalscene but also local needs and local industry. Feedback should be taken from the alumni.Right now we need to introduce courses like life sciences, cell biology and bio-chemistry inbasic science courses (core), nano-engineering in engineering science course.

3. Design course in the form of hands-on training. This would be different from formal de-sign course where standard books are followed. In this course, students will freely takeany equipment—assemble, dismantle, observe flow field etc.—do whatever you like createinterest not only through reading or formal teaching but feeling, seeing things.

4. Reduction of course (numbers) load except for pure science and engineering science courses.Introduce more project based courses. Conversion of lab and some elective courses to projectbased course. This way student may have inclination for higher studies in future.

5. Introduction of co-op program in engineering where student would work for full one yearin industry after finishing three years (6 sem.) in B.Tech program. For M.Tech students, itis 6 months of industrial experience after one year of course work. In view of this, B.Tech.project may be removed from the curriculum. M.Tech students will still do project afterworking in industry. (please note that current format of industrial tour, industrial training insummer after sixth semester is a total failure for the most of the schools in India.)

6. Bring confidence to Indian Industry through R&D contribution by Institute/Univ academi-cians, PG/Ph.D. students. Fcaulty orientation. This constant contact of industry and academia.

The visit of students to industry may facilitate industry-academia interaction. Faculty alsoshould visit local industry to know about the R&D needs.