Chief guest Shri Vikram Kasbekar, invitees, graduands, fellow faculty & staff members, students, Ladies and Gentlemen, a hearty welcome to you all to the Degree Distribution Program of the Department of Applied Mechanics & Biomedical Engineering.
The department is one of the founding departments of this institute, having been in existence since 1959. Despite our deep historical roots, we continue to break norms and evolve. Originally known as the Department of Applied Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, we transitioned to just Applied Mechanics after Aerospace took flight as its own department. In 2024, we rechristened ourselves as the Department of Applied Mechanics & Biomedical Engineering to bring sharper focus and visibility to our colleagues working in biomedical engineering.
Administratively, we remain organized around three key research groups: Solid Mechanics, Fluid Mechanics, and Biomedical Engineering. These administrative lines are however blurred as our true strength lies in our radical interdisciplinary nature. With our faculty drawing from vast expertise in both Mechanical and Electrical Sciences, our research transgresses traditional silos. Our colleagues are actively pushing boundaries on cutting-edge problems—ranging from nonlinear dynamics and complex systems to haptics, biophotonics, cell and tissue mechanics, microfluidics, energy sustainability, and astrophysical fluid dynamics to name a few.
This intellectual ecosystem is powered by a robust academic team. We currently stand strong with our 35 regular faculty, complemented by a world-class network of adjunct and visiting professors from premier institutions globally. I must highlight the incredible contributions of our international and local adjunct faculty, our distinguished Visiting Faculty, and our specialized research fellows—including our Vaibhav Fellow and ANRF Ramanujan Fellow—who continue to co-supervise scholars and inject fresh global perspectives into our laboratories. Furthermore, we are deeply honored to have the eminent fluid dynamicist Prof. K. R. Sreenivasan continuing to guide us as the occupant of the Roddam Narasimha Chair Professor.
The collective momentum of this faculty has translated into exceptional national and international honors this past academic year. The list of awards is long. Here I mention only a few. Prof. Mahesh Panchagnula was recognized with the prestigious 2025 Outstanding Mechanical Engineer Award by Purdue University and appointed to the board of the Ratan Tata Innovation Hub. Prof. Sivakumar was honored with the Srimathi Marti Annapurna Gurunath Award for Excellence in Teaching. Prof. Swati Sudhakar had an extraordinary year, receiving the Saraswathy Srinivasan Prize, the Smt. Kusum Sharma Young Women Scientist Award from the Indian Academy of Biomedical Sciences, a Humboldt Fellowship, and the Merck Young Scientist Award. Prof. Anubhab Roy won the Walters Prize from Journal of Non-Newtonian Fluid Mechanics, while Prof. Vengadesan won the Donald J Groen Group Prize from Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
In addition, our faculty continue to bear heavy national and international responsibilities; Prof. Ramakrishnan chairs the Electromedical Sectional Committee for the Bureau of Indian Standards and represents India in the International Electrotechnical Commission for Medical Devices, while Prof. Manivannan serves as a crucial technical advisor to both the Academic Council of Infosys and the DRDO Lab Advisory Council.
Our research engine is running faster than ever. The department boasts a vibrant research community, with 207 PhD scholars and 110 MS Research scholars currently on roll. Our faculty and scholars are driving a massive footprint of sponsored research, managing a heavy portfolio of 168 ongoing and new projects, worth ₹85 Crores. This year alone, we secured 67 new research grants worth about ₹35 Crores, with the funding agencies being Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the Ministry of Education, and the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). These include vital new missions such as Prof. Danny Raj’s project on inferring sperm cell motility, Prof. Ganga Prasath’s integrated platform for soft robots, Prof. Shuvrangsu Das’s project on multiscale material homogenization, Prof. Anubhab Roy’s project on Multiscale Modelling of Warm Rain Formation, and a massive 403-lakh ICMR-funded Translational Centre for Molecular Oncology led by Prof. Raghavendra Sai. Our faculty’s expertise is also central to critical national mission-mode projects driving India’s technological self-reliance. Notably, our colleagues are actively contributing to the conceptualization and development of IITM’s Micro Modular Reactor (MMR)—a highly innovative and transportable, nuclear energy system designed to provide safe, and clean power in a decentralized manner. Our department remains deeply engaged with the IITM Energy Consortium led by Prof. Satya Seshadri. This collaborative global platform unites over 50 faculty members with industry giants and government bodies to accelerate India’s transition toward a low-carbon future, steering grand challenge initiatives in industrial decarbonization, green hydrogen, energy storage, and carbon capture.
This high-caliber research has catalyzed a remarkable wave of innovation and intellectual property. Our faculty filed 29 innovative patents this year, spanning everything from water desalination systems and multi-sensor landslide detection to advanced AI-driven bedding management and multi-lead handheld ECG diagnostics, from targeted formulations for bone regeneration, wound healing, to cancer therapeutics. We are also highly successful in translating ideas into reality, with 18 patents officially awarded this past year, including Prof. Arockiarajan’s energy harvesting composites, Prof. Babji Srinivasan’s sports analytics system, and international patents like Prof. Raghavendra Sai’s fiber optic sensor probe fabrication apparatus.
Ultimately, our students are the true heart of this department. As of our latest intake, we have a total student strength of 462 across all programs. The impact of their work is visible on the global stage, with dozens of our scholars traveling across the world and within India to present their research at premier forums like the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics in Houston, the European Solid Mechanics Conference in Lyon, and the IEEE EMBS Conference in Copenhagen. They have also brought home a glittering array of accolades, including Best Paper and Poster awards won by Vaibhav Shivhar Gujar, Nurul Hassan Shah, Janani N., Geo Varkey, and Pasunuru Sai Vineeth, to name a few. I also congratulate Monika Kushwaha, Banamali Sahu, and Peddi Harishteja for winning the Institute Research Awards, alongside our Convocation prize winners, including Marpally Lavanya, who claimed both the Prof. B.V.A. Rao Endowment Prize and the Sushruta Award.
While research remains our core anchor, our educational architecture has undergone a historic transformation. After 66 years as a purely postgraduate department, we officially crossed the rubicon this past year. We proudly welcomed our very first cohort of 80 undergraduate students into our two brand-new, cutting-edge B.Tech programs: Computational Engineering & Mechanics (CEM) and Instrumentation & Biomedical Engineering (iBME). These boundary-pushing programs discard traditional engineering silos, blending core mathematical modeling and physics with modern data science, AI, and system-level problem-solving. To support this massive academic expansion, we have introduced 19 contemporary courses this year, including Mechanistic and Data-Driven Modelling of Complex Systems, Digital Twins, Deep Learning for Mechanics, and Physics of Machine Learning. We have also augmented our infrastructure by establishing three critical new experimental setups: Prof. Shuvrangsu Das’s Heterogeneity & Mechanics Lab, Prof. Aditi Kathpalia’s C Cube Learning Lab, and a brand-new, dedicated UG Laboratory—The Computation and Instrumentation Lab acronymed as the psi-lab.
Our faculty have also been intensely active in sharing this knowledge, organizing a multitude of major conferences and high-impact workshops. These featured Prof. Kiran Raj’s International Conference on Flow Visualisation, and Prof. Manivannan’s International XR Symposium for the Global South. From Prof. Ganga Prasath’s winter school on the physics of growth at ICTS-TIFR Bengaluru to Prof. Aditi Kathpalia’s workshops on Causal Machine Learning at Shaastra and Apollo Hospitals, our outreach continues to shape the wider academic landscape. A special mention must be made of the unique “Teach to Learn” initiative, led by Prof. Pijush Ghosh, which continues to redefine our educational outreach by focusing its impact on young minds. Designed to bridge the gap between advanced research and foundational education, this initiative sees our enthusiastic research scholars stepping out of their specialized labs to design and deliver engaging, accessible scientific modules specifically geared towards school students, creating a beautiful, bi-directional ecosystem where cultivating curiosity in young school students becomes the ultimate tool for our own scholars’ deep conceptual growth.
All of this grand machinery would completely grind to a halt without the tireless, dedicated efforts of our technical and administrative staff. Whether it is managing our sophisticated new equipment procurements—such as our high-speed motion capture system, CNC vertical machining centers, and airflow benches—or running the day-to-day administrative maze of the department, they are the quiet, sturdy pillars upon whom we stand. A heartfelt gratitude to all 16 of them in the department. A special thanks to our housekeeping staff, security and the institute staff for ensuring that everything works seamlessly.
Finally, let us look at the beautiful crowd sitting in front of us. This graduation marks a spectacular milestone for us. We are handing out degrees to a record number of high-achieving graduates—a total of 105 graduands—spanning our M.Tech programs, our MS Research scholars, and our newly minted PhD doctorates.
To our graduands: the degree you hold today is not just a testament to the rigorous hours you spent in our labs or the code you debugged past midnight. It is a license to go out into the world and disrupt the ordinary. You are graduating from a department that refuses to stay static, and we expect nothing less from you. As you embark on your unique professional and personal journeys, remember that the AMBE family will always be here, watching your progress with immense pride and fondness. Stay connected, remember your alma mater, and go build a future that makes us all proud.
Thank you, and my very best wishes to all of you.