S. Vishnu Sharma
IIT Madras is collaborating with VIT Chennai and Queen Mary University of London.
The collaboration of VIT Chennai, IIT Madras and Queen Mary University of London is aimed at developing technologies with regards to air sanitization that are India centric.
The other objective behind the collaboration of IIT Madras with other two institutions is to develop guidelines to prevent the spread of coronavirus and tuberculosis.
This system is aimed at deployment in confined indoor places such as offices and hospitals.
This joint research by IIT Madras, VIT Chennai and Queen Mary University of London aims to develop a robust low-cost bio-aerosol protection system to suppress air-transmitted diseases in indoor locations.
In collaboration with Magneto Cleantech, a pioneering industry start-up based in Delhi, the testing and implementation will be done with real-time applications in various Indian environments.
COVID-19 pandemic has claimed more than four lakh lives in India alone.
IIT Madras collaboration with VIT Chennai
TB killed over 4.45 lakh people In India during 2019 and is among the top 10 causes of death worldwide.
The target geographies for this project are India and its adjacent countries, say sources from IIT Madras.
The major factor working with this area is the high population and heavy urban pollution.
It is expected that this project, when successfully implemented, will benefit nearly 10 crore people in the Indian sub-continent, say sources from IIT Madras.
The project will be aimed at developing an experimental proof-of-concept of a revolutionary air filtration system using ‘Ultraviolet-C’ radiation.
It has a strong potential to increase the effectiveness of eliminating viruses and other airborne pathogens and reduce maintenance costs as compared to the available filters, which is important for developing countries such as India.
Elaborating on the current status of the project and expected field deployment, Project Coordinator Professor. Abdus Samad, Department of Ocean Engineering, IIT Madras, said IIT Madras always tries for collaborative research to solve societal problems.
‘When the Covid lockdown started in March 2020, we all got scared. As a researcher, we started thinking how to reduce the pain and distress caused by the airborne viruses.’
IIT Madras collaboration – At the same time, the Royal Academy of Engineering of the UK announced research funding for international collaborative works linking to industry, said Professor Abdus Samad of IIT Madras.
‘We immediately took action and started research on disinfecting air for indoor conditions.’
Professor Abdus Samad of IIT Madras further said various UVC solutions are present in the market but they lack the technical design rigor needed to ensure appropriate airborne disinfection and inactivation.
This has led to consumer confusion and mistrust, he said.
The projects’ goal is to develop a solution that is extensively verified and tested from both theoretical and practical perspectives, and finally, the safety made visible in a consumer-friendly manner ensuring live performance of the system, said Professor Abdus Samad of IIT Madras.
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IIT Madras collaboration with VIT Chennai – Highlighting the technical aspects of the project, Professor Nithya Venkatesan, Professor, School of Electrical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT), Chennai, said the design of this prototype will be based on multidisciplinary optimization, fluid dynamic analysis, and novel innovations in Ultraviolet-C (UVC) arrangements and sensors and controls developed by leading UK and Indian researchers. T
‘The team will also explore mechanisms for monitoring the performance of such systems in real-time environments using new-age bio-sensing and simulations through an IoT device.’
This project has major funding from Royal Academy Engineering (RAENG), UK, under the ‘Transforming System through Partnership’ scheme.
The total budget of the project is about £80,000, and it is for a period of two years (April-2021 to April-2023). Partial funding support is also made by the participating organizations.
IIT Madras collaboration with VIT Chennai – Dr. Eldad Avital of Queen Mary University of London said designing any practical system needs a multidisciplinary team.
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Eventually, we got experts from electronic and electrical system designers, microbiologists and fluid system designers, said Dr. Eldad.
Sars-Cov-2 spreads quickly and new variants are evolving as we have seen delta and other variants. We need to proceed to the right technology to contain, disinfect it, said Dr. Eldad Avital.
IIT Madras collaboration with VIT Chennai
‘Our solution will work, in general, for air disinfection for indoor conditions.’
This research will also involve a strong educational training element giving opportunities to students from both India and the U.K. to collaborate towards solving acute problems affecting societies worldwide.
The Academic partners in India are Prof. Abdus Samad from IIT Madras and Professor Nithya Venkatesan, from VIT, Chennai.
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Professor Abdus Samad will lead the team for the whole system design and overall coordination.
IIT Madras collaboration – Professor Nithya Venkatesan will focus on electrical components and IoT design.
IIT Madras collaboration with VIT Chennai – The UK team is led by Dr. Eldad Avital from Queen Mary University of London, with Professor Clive Beggs of Leeds Beckett University being the project consultant.
Dr. Eldad will coordinate the UK team and will look after the fluid mechanics and mathematical modelling.
Professor Beggs (an Emeritus professor) will look after the microbiology and UVC.
The students and researchers working on the project are:
Ø Mr. Saket Kapse (Research Associate, VIT University -Chennai)
Ø Mr. Rishav Raj (MS, Fluid machines, IIT Madras)
Ø Mr. Mahesh Chaudhari (BTech, IIT Madras)
Ø Dr. Wasim Raza (Postdoc Fellow, IIT Madras)
Ø Miss Dena Rahman (MEng, QMUL)
IIT Madras collaboration with VIT Chennai -This project proposal was born from the need to develop bio-aerosol protection systems that would effectively eliminate airborne pathogens and make the confined spaces safer for the common public to access.
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Additionally, the need to make bio-safety visible to drive awareness and performance-based engineering is critical, so the project will research advanced sensing technologies to make the bio-contaminants and their removal visible to end-users.
About IIT Madras
Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) was established in 1959 by the Government of India as an ‘Institute of National Importance.’
The activities of the Institute in various fields of Science and Technology are carried out in 16 academic departments and several advanced interdisciplinary research academic centres.
The Institute offers undergraduate and postgraduate programmes leading to B.Tech., M.Sc., M.B.A., M.Tech., M.S., and Ph.D., degrees in a variety of specialisations.
IITM is a residential institute with more than 580 faculty and 9,500 students. Students from 18 countries are enrolled here.
IITM fosters an active entrepreneurial culture with strong curricular support and through the IITM Incubation Cell.