Towards an Energy Efficient Future - Solar Decathlon India - Indo-U.S. Science & Technology Forum - IUSSTF
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
Indo-U.S. Science & Technology Forum
Newsletter of IUSSTF Volume 12 (3) | January 2021
Solar Decathlon India
Towards an Energy Efficient Future
Indo-US Science and Technology Forum
CONTENTS From the
Editor-in-Chief
05 06
Collaborate, Compete, and
Indo-U.S. MoU for Combat Climate Change
Solar Decathlon India Solar Decathlon India
Looking back at 2020
2020 will go down in history as the year the world critical role in catalyzing partnerships between
10 13 14
faced a public health challenge not seen since Indian and U.S. researchers and entrepreneurs
the influenza pandemic of 1918. The economic through calls for proposals for COVID-19 Virtual
Distributed Deep Learning Framework and social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Networks and COVID-19 Ignition Grants.
GaN based High Power Center for Nanomagnetics for
LNA for 5G Applications for Classification the toll on the healthcare systems, and the What will the post-COVID landscape resemble
Energy Efficient Computing,
Speeding Up Communications and Data Storage Handling Big Data disruption of lives and livelihoods have been and what can we learn from the pandemic about
the Internet Magnetic Influence devastating. While the future is fraught with the planet we call home? Many experts agree
uncertainty and countries facing the daunting that renewable energy could be a key driver of
task of rebuilding their economies, there are a post-COVID economy. In March, IUSSTF and
17 18 many reasons to be hopeful as we usher in the
New Year.
the U.S. Department of Energy signed an MOU to
bring the Solar Decathlon competition to India in
Virtual Interactive B-ACER Virtual Conclave As we have seen over these past few months, partnership with the Indian Institute for Human
WISTEMM Workshop Bioenergy Awards Science and Technology have played a Settlements (IIHS) and the Alliance for an Energy
critical role in finding solutions to COVID-19 Efficient Economy (AEEE). This issue of CONNECT
challenges. From sequencing the genome of provides an overview of Solar Decathlon India,
the COVID-19 virus, developing diagnostic tests a competition for student teams from Indian
21
for rapid detection of the virus, identifying new institutions to address Climate Change by
therapeutics for treating COVID-19, designing developing solutions for net-zero-energy, net-
Student Speak low-cost ventilators, to the development of new zero-water, net-zero-waste and climate resilient
Giving Wings vaccines in record time, the global scientific buildings. Solar Decathlon India will help train
to Talent community has been working tirelessly. There and develop the next generation of engineers
are several vaccines that have already received and architects, preparing them for careers in
authorization and several more in the pipeline. clean energy.
The speed of vaccine development, while truly
Editor-in-Chief Editorial Consultant Opinions remarkable, was facilitated by decades of research
Nandini Kannan Manoj Dabas Opinions expressed in Connect do not necessarily reflect 2021 - The road ahead
Executive Director, IUSSTF the opinion of IUSSTF or other organizations associated
with publication of Connect.
in immunology and genetics, innovations in From leveraging the power of Artificial
Layout Design / DTP
Editor Pramod Jha Comments and Suggestions
technology, billions of dollars in funding, and Intelligence and machine learning to gain insights
Nishritha Bopana
Principal Science Officer, IUSSTF
Please email the Connect Team at
connect@indousstf.org
last but not the least, global collaborations and from massive, heterogeneous data, using Natural
Design, Production and Circulation
Associate Editor Creative Edge Media and Services Pvt. Ltd.
Published and Printed by
partnerships. IUSSTF has played a small albeit Language Processing to extract information from
Aravali House, 431/D-22, Chhatarpur Hills
Pushpa Iyer New Delhi-110074, India Indo-U.S. S&T Forum, Fulbright House, 12 Hailey Road
Program Officer, IUSSTF New Delhi - 110 001
Cover Image : Solar Decathlon India (indicative collage) ; Image credit: Sreejith Jayaram, Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) Connect - January 2021 | 3
Editorial
Indo-U.S. MoU for
scientific reports, to exploiting deep learning barriers to adoption of AI, identify opportunities
to facilitate the development of new vaccines, for R&D collaboration, and recommend modes
therapeutics, and drug repurposing, technology and mechanisms for catalyzing partnerships to
Solar Decathlon India
has played a critical role in developing solutions realize the true potential of these transformative
for COVID-19 challenges. and crosscutting technologies. IUSSTF will
The promise and potential of Artificial Intelligence organize a series of activities to engage key
(AI) to disrupt and transform society will continue stakeholders including government agencies,
D
to drive the post-COVID economy. AI has academic institutions, industries that are creating/ r. Nandini Kannan
enabled the development of intelligent systems adopting AI tools and technologies, think tanks, (Executive Director,
that can mimic human behavior, performing professional societies, and foundations. Activities IUSSTF) and Mr. Daniel
an array of tasks including reasoning, problem include Roundtables to gather input from different R. Simmons (Assistant
stakeholder communities, Workshops, and an AI
solving, perception, and decision-making. From Secretary for Energy
automated diagnoses using images, robot- Workforce Summit. We are looking forward to
Efficiency and Renewable
assisted surgery, precision agriculture and launching this new initiative in early 2021!
Energy, U.S. Department
personalized learning, virtual assistants like Siri John Dewey, the American philosopher and of Energy) signed
and Alexa, and autonomous vehicles, AI tools and educator, noted “Every great advance in science a Memorandum of
technologies impact every aspect of our daily has issued from a new audacity of imagination.” Understanding (MoU) for
lives and are poised to transform the economies IUSSTF is developing a new strategic plan that “Solar Decathlon India”
of the world. lays out a vision for the next twenty years. We on March 5, 2020.
The United States and India are making important will continue to advance science by proactively
engaging the Science and Technology The Alliance for an
strides in advancing artificial intelligence,
prioritizing public and private research and communities, identifying “leading edge areas” Energy Efficient Economy
development (R&D) investments, addressing that are high-priority for both nations, and (AEEE) and the Indian
the critical challenge of developing a diverse catalyzing collaborations. Institute for Human
AI workforce, and highlighting the importance On behalf of the Indo-U.S. Science and Technology Settlements (IIHS) would
of partnerships. IUSSTF’s U.S. – India Artificial Forum, I would like to thank all of you for your be the lead implementing
Intelligence Partnership (USI-AI) will provide a continued support of this organization over these organizations for this
unique opportunity for the world’s two largest years. While this past year has been challenging, activity. The MoU allows
democracies to strengthen their strategic we hope the new year is filled with optimism and DOE to collaborate with
partnership by focusing on AI cooperation hope. IUSSTF and its partners
in critical areas at the interface of Science, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all on the framework for the technologies for fostering innovation
Technology, and Society. our readers a very happy, healthy, and prosperous 2021 competition. “India is joining an towards sustainable economic
USI-AI will serve as a platform for experts from 2021. international family of Solar Decathlons development, while encouraging the use
both countries to discuss key challenges and that is preparing students all over the world of renewable energy sources, and towards
to design and build homes integrated promoting the design of buildings that are
with advanced energy technologies while energy efficient and self-reliant in energy
Dr. Nandini Kannan ensuring affordability and comfort”, said usage. The intention is to integrate unique
Executive Director, IUSSTF Mr. Daniel R. Simmons in his remarks on the local and regional characteristics while
occasion. keeping in mind the generic philosophy
Solar Decathlon India aims to provide a and principles used in Solar Decathlon
platform to collaborate on science and competitions.l
4 | Connect - January 2021 Connect - January 2021 | 5
Cover Story
Solar Decathlon India
Collaborate, Compete, and Combat Climate Change
Solar Decathlon India
In the Solar Decathlon India 2020-21 challenge, 75 teams have registered from
102 academic institutions and will be working towards innovative designs for
net-zero energy, net-zero water, and climate-resilient buildings. These multi-
disciplinary teams, each with 5-15 students, will develop affordable and
industry-ready solutions for real projects with the help of the education and
mentoring provided to them during this year-long challenge.
Close to 1,000 students are participating in this year’s
challenge, demonstrating that amidst a pandemic,
students and their faculty advisors are working towards
Alliance for an Energy Efficient
innovations that help address climate change. Economy (AEEE), is one of
This year the teams have partnered with private sector India’s leading organisations
developers, NGOs, corporate building owners, and that works on creating
government agencies for building projects. They are also
collaborating with industry partners to apply promising
awareness about energy
technologies and learn from their expertise. efficiency as a resource. AEEE is
With 75 teams, Solar Decathlon India 2021 is a strong a not-for-profit policy advocacy
platform for collaboration among academic institutions, and energy efficiency market
real estate, design construction, and manufacturing
industries. This initiative creates a unique opportunity enabler that advocates for
for students to learn, innovate, and become stewards of a data-driven and evidence-
sustainable future.
based energy efficiency
Over five years, this initiative aims to: policies and research.
1. Create a network of 4500+ new professionals:
They will have the ability to innovate for net-zero
resilient and resource-efficient buildings and
300 faculty members across India are supporting
fully implement India’s energy code. With their
I
this initiative. They can incorporate open-source
n March 2020, Indo-US Science and Technology Forum development, while encouraging the use of renewable know-how of performance, constructability, and
knowledge from Solar Decathlon India in their
(IUSSTF) signed an MoU with the US Department of energy sources, promoting the design of buildings that are affordability, these young professionals will help
curriculum, resulting in a sustained capacity to
Energy (DoE) to organize Solar Decathlon India, a energy efficient and self-reliant in energy usage. The MoU catalyze the change needed in India’s residential,
educate and train professionals that the industry is
competition for students to design net-zero-energy-water names the Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy (AEEE) commercial, and institutional building stock.
thirsty for.
buildings that could help create sustainable communities. and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) as the 2. Create a network of faculty members to mentor
This platform provides an opportunity for collaboration on implementation partners for Solar Decathlon India. 3. Create 300+ net-zero-energy-water performance
students on high-performance buildings: Over
science and technology, to innovate towards sustainable building projects: Over 300 real building projects
6 | Connect - January 2021 Connect - January 2021 | 7
Cover Story
Solar Decathlon India
TESTIMONIALS FROM PAST PARTICIPANTS AND PARTNERS
IIHS is a national educational institution committed
to the equitable, sustainable and efficient
transformation of Indian settlements. IIHS works on
cutting edge interdisciplinary issues in its teaching,
research and practice for a new generation of
Ashok. B. Lall
Industry Partner, CEPT 2019
Sunita Purushottam applied practitioners and thought leaders.
Head of Sustainability, Mahindra Lifespaces
“ When I saw the final presentations, I was just
“Can I get Solar Decathlon teams
floored. It was a transformational experience for
me as well as the team.” to work on our projects?” owners-developers, academia, and equipment start their own businesses in the clean energy field.
manufacturers: These partnerships will be related
In the past, close to 100 students from India have
to efficient appliances, renewables, energy storage,
participated in Solar Decathlons in the USA, Europe,
smart meters, energy management, IoT, home
and China. Now, Solar Decathlon India will enable
automation, building materials, lighting, HVAC, etc.,
larger nationwide participation and address the needs
and will help promote innovation.
in the Indian context to create a larger, stronger real-
6. Increase public awareness and demand for low- world impact. The competition addresses 10 out of 17
carbon resilient buildings and zero-carbon centric Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), and paves the way
Namrata Dhamankar P Pradeep business models. for a low-carbon future.
Faculty Advisor, BNCA Teams 2018-2019 IIT-B 2017
As a hands-on, practical, innovation-based innovation
“We see a change in the students. I see that they “My team members learnt before graduating Why a Solar Decathlon India? activity, Solar Decathlon India touches on multiple issues
are more confident because they have worked on what I learnt over my 6 years of industry Climate change is increasing the frequency of extreme that are of concern to businesses, governments, and civil
a real-life situation and real projects.” experience. ” weather events in India, rendering vulnerability to its societies in India, uniquely creating multiple sweet spots.
ever-growing population. Climate-responsive buildings Solar Decathlon India supports 5 of the 8 National
are the need of the hour. Delaying their development can Missions set up under India’s National Action Plan on
result in huge repercussions for the country on not one Climate Change. The 2020-21 edition of the program is
but various fronts. To contribute to the 1.5°C pathway and supported by the Department of Science and Technology
India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), a (DST, Government of India) and the Ministry of New and
50% reduction in building energy demand is essential by Renewable Energy.
2050. Net-zero-energy buildings are super-efficient, and
generate clean renewable energy. India’s population is This building design competition will provide much-
Vardan Soi needed innovation for affordable and energy-efficient
vulnerable to climate change impacts and there is a need
Aishwarya Musale CEPT University 2019 construction for the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana, moving
to develop climate resilient buildings.
BNCA 2019
“ This is the only competition which pushed me forward the goal of Affordable Thermal Comfort for
“Competing at an international level gives you to extend my architectural concept design until The Solar Decathlon, first started in the USA in 2002, has All. Resilient building designs will further demonstrate
a wide exposure and we get to know ourselves, life cycle cost assessment and basing design now made its way to Europe, China and the UAE (Middle solutions for the State and National Disaster Management
in a much more professional way.” decisions on metrics like return on investment East) because of the immense value it adds to the skills Authorities.
and payback period.” and knowledge of students pursuing courses in the built
environment. The Solar Decathlons are international Over the coming years, this competition will enable
collegiate competitions that challenge student teams to government agencies, civil society, and the private
design super-efficient, zero energy buildings powered by sector to make better decisions and devise policies
get affordable design solutions for mitigation country supported by various government agencies renewable energy. The competition has been named so that ensure a clean and energy-efficient future. It will
and adaptation, including net-zero-energy- and NGOs. because of the 10 crucial areas of evaluation that it covers. also help in exploring the approaches identified in the
water performance from this initiative. These Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
4. Reduce over 15 million tons of CO2 over the life of Solar Decathlons held in other countries have produced
projects range from residential to institutional Report that are compatible with the 1.5ºC pathway. The
these buildings. remarkable results. Over 75% of the Decathletes work in
to commercial buildings. The 2020-21 challenge competition aims for market-ready solutions and will test
has 13 Community Resilience Shelters across the 5. Build partnerships between the real estate clean energy after their studies, which is about 5 times that the feasibility of accelerating these pathways.l
of non-Decathletes. And, close to 16 per cent decathletes
8 | Connect - January 2021 Connect - January 2021 | 9
Features
US-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund
GaN based High Power LNA for 5G Applications
SPEEDING UP
THE INTERNET
Amitava Das Manish Shah 5G will bring improvement in quality of life for people from (LNA) and RF switches. To enable massive MIMO, IC’s will
Yogesh S. Chauhan
IIT Kanpur Tagore Technology, Illinois Tagore Technology, Illinois cities to villages by providing access to information and have space constraint leading to a compact and integrated
services, such as telemedicine. While 5G hardware rollout RF front end consisting of PA, LNA and RF switch. Figure 1
has already began, the full extent of 5G implementation shows a traditional RF frontend and an all GaN frontend.
Mobile phones and wireless communication devices have become lifeline of will require multiple years and significant advancement in Tagore has developed RF switches using GaN and is
hardware as well as software will be needed. This project developing GaN PA. LNA’s are typically done using GaAs
billions of people across the world especially in the time of a global pandemic. focuses on the hardware aspect of 5G system. (Gallium Arsenide). The goal of this project is to develop
Current mobile systems are based on 4G system. 5G technology will not only One feature of 5G is called massive MIMO (Multiple
GaN LNA which will then make all the three components
increase the data rate significantly but will also make mobile communication Input and Multiple Output), which in simple term means
of RF front end in GaN and will lead an integrated compact
RF front end needed for efficient implementation of
ubiquitous from factory floor to roadside traffic signal. there will be multiple antennas, and multiple tunnels
massive MIMO.
for data communication between a base station and a
mobile receiver. In 4G,
G
allium Nitride (GaN) is a new material, which is Technology Endowment Fund (USISTEF)-funded project the communication
revolutionizing the semiconductor industry and is is a collaboration between Indian Institute of Technology tunnels were typically
displacing traditional Silicon (Si), which has been Kanpur, India and Tagore Technology, IL, USA to develop 4R4T, i.e. there are 4
the backbone of electronics industry for decades. GaN low noise amplifier (LNA) using GaN technology. LNA is a receive and 4 transmit
is being used for radio frequency communication, such building block of radio frequency communication system, tunnels. In 5G there
as 5G as well as for power electronics conversion, such such as 5G. could be as high as
as in electric vehicles (EV). This U.S.-India Science and 256R256T system. The
extensive use of MIMO
in 5G translates to
Project Team many folds increase in
the number of transmit
Neha Bajpai, Ahtisham Pampori, Mohammad Zaid, Yogesh S. Chauhan
INDIA Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, U.P.
and receive integrated
circuits (IC), such as
Paramita Maity, Tracy Ei, Ashish Shinde, Artur Kawalec, Manish Shah, Amitava Das power amplifiers (PA),
Tagore Technology, Arlington Heights, IL
USA Existing front end is based on GaAs. The ultimate goal is to develop a complete GaN based
low noise amplifiers Figure 1
front end as shown above. The current project aims to develop GaN LNA.
10 | Connect - January 2021 Connect - January 2021 | 11
Features
Indo-U.S. Virtual Networked Center
design aspect of IC, which can Center for Nanomagnetics for Energy Efficient Computing,
be done in the computer. In
the current project, participants Communications and Data Storage
MAGNETIC INFLUENCE
from IIT-Kanpur worked hand
in hand with experienced
engineers from Tagore and
worked on all aspects of an LNA
development. This will create
a work force who can work in
the indigenous semiconductor
There is a worldwide effort to implement
company in India. computing machinery with nanomagnets
This project was divided into two because of the advantages they offer. Less
development phases. First, GaAs appreciated is the fact that nanomagnets
LNA is developed followed by can be harnessed for other applications
development of GaN LNA. The
project started a little over a year
as well, where their performance can
Anjan Barman Supriyo Bandyopadhyay
ago and now despite the Covid-19 S. N. Bose National Center for Virginia Commonwealth University, easily eclipse that of traditional electronic
Basic Sciences, Kolkata Richmond
Received signals are typically very weak because of
situation, we are happy to report counterparts.
that we have successfully developed best in class GaAs
the distance between a transmitter (for example, a
N
LNA with 0.5dB noise figure and can compete with LNA’s
cellphone tower) and the receiver (for example, a mobile ovel nanomagnetic devices have the
developed by large companies, such as Qorvo or Skyworks.
phone). LNA amplifies the weak incoming signal to a potential to replace traditional electronic
Figure 2 shows various project team members working from
high value (Gain of 15-20dB is typical) without adding devices in many applications by virtue
home or lab depending on their work responsibilities. Figure of the fact that they are non-volatile and
noise or distortion. GaAs (Gallium Arsenide) technology 3 shows measured and simulated results of GaAs LNA’s often energy-frugal. These attributes lend
is extensively used in LNA since GaAs provides very low developed in this project. We are now beginning our work themselves to superior computing and signal
noise figure. However, GaAs has a low breakdown voltage, on GaN LNA which is to be completed in the remaining 18 processing architectures. One such application
hence GaAs LNA requires a limiter to protect it from high months of the project.l is in extreme sub-wavelength electromagnetic
interfering signal which antennas which emit electromagnetic
can destroy the GaAs LNA waves under acoustic excitation instead of
or subsequent systems electromagnetic excitation. The Indo-U.S.
after GaAs LNA. GaN LNA, partnership aims to study ultrafast magneto-
on the other hand, can dynamics in patterned nanoscale magnets with
withstand high interfering applications to computing, data storage and
signal and a limiter is not access, extremely miniaturized antennas for
necessary when GaN LNA embedded applications and unconventional
is used as shown in Fig 1. circuit topologies. the square of the electromagnetic wavelength. Such
miniscule antennas would theoretically have negligible
Several of the participants This non-traditional excitation mechanism can overcome radiation efficiencies on the order of 10-9. However, the
of this project consist many limitations suffered by traditional antennas. use of acoustic excitation allowed the team to exceed the
of students of IIT- The Indo-U.S. team has already demonstrated such an theoretical limit on the radiation efficiency by more than
Kanpur. One important antenna, comprising an array of nanomagnets delineated five orders of magnitude. Currently, this is a world record.
goal of the project was on a piezoelectric substrate and excited by a surface The team is also engaged in studying resonant spin wave
to provide first hand acoustic wave of very high frequency (VHF). The antenna modes in both single and ensembles of nanomagnets
training of the students area was roughly nine orders of magnitude smaller than fabricated with electron beam lithography. l
in the development of an
integrated circuit from Project Team
start to finish. While there
are several semiconductor Anjan Barman*, Atindra Nath Pal*, Venimadhav Addyam#
INDIA *S. N. Bose National Center for Basic Sciences, Kolkata #Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
companies operating
in Bangalore, but most Supriyo Bandyopadhyay*, Jayasimha Atulasimha*, Sanjay Banerjee#
of them are focused on Figure 3
Shows the developed chip in little over a year of the project and the measured results despite the Covid-19
*Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, #University of Texas, Austin
USA
situation. The developed GaAs chip is state of the art. The team is now transitioning to GaN LNA development.
12 | Connect - January 2021 Connect - January 2021 | 13
Feature
Indo-U.S. Virtual Networked Center
Distributed Deep Learning Framework for Classification
HANDLING BIG DATA
Technological advancements in the
fields of communication, automation
and assistive learning, fields such as IOT
and other methods have increased the
volume of raw data readily available
for analysis several fold in the past
decade. This surplus of data requires
Ashish Ghosh Lance Fiondella
huge models and high-performance Indian Statistical Institute University of Massachusetts
algorithms for their processing and
analysis.
D
ata has always been a huge part of human life. We have attempted to devise one method that involves
Reports suggest that just in the past decade implementing parameters (weights and biases) averaging
humans have produced more data than the amount to improve the performance and reduce the execution
produced in the past 100 years. This staggering thought time requirements in pattern classification applications.
is considered as the baseline of many studies in parallel We have empirically analysed the speed up achieved by
and distributed computing as well as distributed learning training an autoencoder using conventional single network
methodologies. Distributed computing is the need of the architecture and compared this approach with a scenario
without incurring the cost of learning on its own. We update parameters. Nonetheless, simple averaging is not
era and combining this with smart learning methods such where the data is distributed across multiple processing
are implementing a knowledge sharing method into the the best with respect to performance. We have therefore
as deep learning (neural nets) is the pinnacle of this field of nodes and each node has one trainable deep network on
proposed distributed multi-agent system, where each expanded our search to other methods that will preserve
research. This joint project focuses on one such method to it. We are still experimenting with practical solutions to
of the agents learns on its own locally and exchanges the capabilities of simple averaging, while simultaneously
train neural nets using distributed methods and to explore improve training times.
information in order to enhance their global knowledge providing a performance boost. In our approach, an
ways to parallelize/ distribute deep neural networks.
as well as improve the overall performance of learning. autoencoder was chosen as the model of parallelization
Conventional approaches are highly demanding in terms Social learning systems Once the agents have collectively learned the underlying as it requires heavy processing to efficiently preserve the
of resources (both hardware and software) and time- Keeping the cost and complexity of deep neural networks structure of the data, they will need to map this learned necessary features of an image.
consuming which force us to migrate to a more distributed in mind, a social learning mechanism seems most suitable structure to the class information of the data residing
We have focused on data parallelization architecture.
approach that can perform the same task with a smarter for this scenario. Social learning is a mechanism that locally.
As the name suggests, in data parallelisation, instead of
resource trade-off. allows an individual to acquire knowledge from others We have studied and analysed synchronous weight update having parts of the single network in a distributed fashion,
algorithms and developed a method to train the final we partition the whole dataset and train different models
network by training the other networks in a distributed on different portions of the dataset. In this technique
manner. So far, serial processing has demonstrated near the same model architecture is replicated over several
Project Team perfect results. However, the main aim of this project working nodes or computational machines.
Ashish Ghosh1, Susmita Ghosh2, Badri N Subudhi3 is to show that distributed computing can reduce the
INDIA In this case, there is a parameter server, which contains all
1
Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, 2Jadavpur University, Kolkata, 3Indian Institute of Technology, Jammu workload and the resource demand on the system while
of the constraints (or weights) to compute the final model.
exhibiting results similar to the serial computation.
Lance Fiondella1, Yu Shrike Zhang2, Emmett J Ientilucci3 Once a training epoch completes at each of the auxiliary
1
University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, 2Harvard Medical School, 3Rochester Institute of Technology
USA Averaging the weights is a simple and faster method to
or the worker nodes, the parameter server receives the
14 | Connect - January 2021 Connect - January 2021 | 15
Feature
In other News
Virtual Interactive WISTEMM Workshop
Second Batch | Monday, 9th November 2020
T he Indo U.S. Science & Technology Forum (IUSSTF)
organized a Virtual Interactive Workshop on November
9, 2020 to highlight the accomplishments of the 2nd
A distinguished Panel of Experts shared their insights with
the WISTEMM awardees highlighting the values of critical
thinking, increasing innovation through multi-disciplinary
Cohort of Awardees under the Indo-U.S. Fellowship for research, the role of international collaborations, and
weights from worker nodes and updates the weights of multiple models for distributed processing. The entire Women in STEMM (WISTEMM) program supported by the the need to develop networks at the institutional/
the final model with the aggregate values. The weights of dataset was randomly distributed to each node to ensure Department of Science & Technology (DST). organisational level to encourage and empower women
the final model are then sent back to the worker nodes, the experiments were representative of some real- researchers.
so that each of the worker nodes is identical after each world scenario. So far, we have achieved the following The Workshop provided an opportunity for nineteen
epoch. accuracies with the various methods using the MNIST data Awardees to present a brief overview of their overall IUSSTF congratulates all the WISTEMM awardees for their
on a standard model architecture of 784:256:128:100:10. experience during their WISTEMM fellowships including outstanding achievements and wishes them the very best
We have trained the models using stochastic gradient research highlights and tangible outcomes of the in their research careers. Read more at: https://www.iusstf.
Non-linear aggregations descent. In this scenario, increasing the entire data was collaborative work, challenges faced during the COVID-19 org/program/indo-us-fellowship-for-women-in-stemm
As we have already discussed, simple averaging does not pandemic, best practices learnt and how they plan to
partitioned into each of the models unequally. Our results
achieve better performance. Therefore, we have tried to leverage these skills in their career, and future plans.
suggest that the distributed weighted average was robust,
devise alternative aggregation techniques to sustain but performance degraded gradually as the number of
superior performance. Our argument is that each neural nodes increased. On the other hand, the double average
network is a non-linear entity where the loss oscillates consistently demonstrated good performance and was
with respect to the weights. In this case, we are dealing also robust to failures.
with multiple neural networks, forming a dynamic non-
linear system. For such a system, we cannot approach the We are currently experimenting with situations where the
aggregation through simple averaging techniques. We have data distribution between any two nodes can have 10%-
explored some non-linear aggregation methods and have 50% duplications. We aspire to ensure robustness in such
obtained enhanced results over simple averaging. We are distributed scenarios.
now extending our technique to address class imbalance Through this joint platform, we were able to combine our
issues which may arise in a distributed setting. We are, academic strengths. The proposed design consists of a
however, striving to realise a fault tolerant distributed number of components and hence must be fault tolerant
system, where nodes can continue to operate, even if one and scalable to fulfil the requirements of a classification
node fails. In this scenario, too little data in one node will and reasoning system. The next phase of the project will
result in an overfit model and a disconnected node or a concentrate on evaluating the system for robustness
gradient vanishing/ exploding model will prove to be fatal to node and link failures. System validation will employ
for all the other nodes as well. This undesirable behaviour classification as well as parallelism performance measures.
has been observed in experiments conducted so far, System throughput, inter-process communication, and
motivating strategies that are robust to these scenarios. component failure analysis will also be assessed to ensure
For experimental purposes, we have implemented reliability and robustness. l
16 | Connect - January 2021 Connect - January 2021 | 17
In other news
First Virtual B-ACER Conclave
research highlight(s) and
tangible outcomes of the
collaborative work. The event
saw the participation of Dr.
Indo-US Science and Technology Forum
Sangita Kasture from the
Department of Biotechnology,
Govt. of India and U.S. mentors
Dr. Rajesh Sani from South
Dakota School of Mines and
Technology and Dr. Aindrila
Mukhopadhyay from The Joint
BioEnergy Institute-Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory
who shared their thoughts on
the growing collaborations
between the U.S. and India, in
R
ecognizing that clean and efficient energy, The objective of the B-ACER program is to broaden the field of Bioenergy.
environmental protection and energy security are intellectual horizons by introducing top Indian students December 21, 2020 to highlight the accomplishments of
Distinguished Expert members Professor Purnananda
among the biggest challenges facing India and and young faculty to scientific and innovation ecosystems the batches of Awardees under the Bioenergy Awards
Guptasarma (Indian Institutes of Science Education and
the United States; the Department of Biotechnology, of leading U.S. institutions. It was envisaged that such for Cutting Edge Research (B-ACER) program supported
Research IISER – Mohali), Professor Vineet Sharma, (IISER-
Government of India and the Indo-U.S. Science and an interaction would enable the creation of sustainable by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT), Government
Bhopal) and Dr. Vibha Dhawan (The Energy & Resources
Technology Forum are committed to tackling these and vibrant linkages between the two nations, as well as of India. The Conclave also provided an opportunity to
Institute TERI, New Delhi) shared their insights with
issues by building capacity in these frontier areas. To build long-term Indo-American science and technology assess the impact of the B-ACER fellowship and to gain
the B-ACER awardees highlighting the values of critical
nurture future innovators and thought leaders in the relationships. insights through constructive feedback and suggestions
thinking, the role of international collaborations, ways to
priority areas of Biofuel and Bioenergy, the Bioenergy- from its stakeholders to improve, expand and strengthen
The B-ACER Program has successfully completed four years ignite research in other areas and the need to develop
Awards for Cutting Edge Research (B-ACER) - a dynamic the program.
of implementation. Thus far, under the program, a total of networks at the institutional/organisational level to
and transformative program was developed in 2015-16
37 awardees from the 4 batches from 2016-2019 have The two main aims of the Conclave were: encourage and empower young researchers. The experts
to foster contacts between students and scientists from
been supported. IUSSTF organized a Virtual Conclave on also briefed on knowledge-sharing, the importance of IP
India and the United States. 1) To encourage students/young faculty from all the
and scope for commercialization from the joint work.
four batches to interact with one another, and to, “not
only discuss exciting advances and opportunities IUSSTF congratulates the 37 awardees for their outstanding
in their own research fields, but also to learn and achievements and wishes them the very best in their
discuss about research at the cutting edge of other research careers.l
disciplines.”
2) To allow domain experts
and representative from
federal agencies who
support and sustain the
program to learn more about
the research undertaken
by these awardees during
their respective internships/
fellowships in the United
States.
The Conclave provided an
opportunity for the Awardees
to present an overview of their
overall experience (through
oral presentation) during their
B-ACER tenure including major
Pic 1: Subject Experts, US Host Mentors, DBT and B-ACER Team at IUSSTF
18 | Connect - January 2021 Connect - January 2021 | 19Student Speak
Giving
WINGS TO
TALENT
T
o address the need for human resource development and capacity building
in science and technology, IUSSTF is committed to nurture contacts between
scientists and students from India and the United States. It has been
unambiguously demonstrated that providing students and young scientists
with an exposure to cutting-edge scientific research experiences at a formative
stage not only broadens their intellectual horizons but also leads to increased
engagements in scientific and technological research careers. In this section of
Connect, we share with you the experiences of some of our bright, young Interns
and Fellows in their own words!
Connect - January 2021 | 21Student Speak Student Speak
Building Energy Efficiency Higher & Advanced Network
Research Internships in Science and Engineering (RISE)
(BHAVAN) Fellowships
week of my arrival in India, the 21-day national integration to smart building facilities. Overall,
lockdown was announced. IUSSTF approved my this internship opened new opportunities for
stay in Hyderabad with my family while permitting idea generation and international collaborations
remote work with Dr. Mahadevappa’s research in the context of intelligent buildings research.
group in IIT Kharagpur. Although I did not get the
opportunity to visit the IIT Kharagpur campus, Apart from the research work, I also delivered
Dr. Mahadevappa graciously accommodated my guest lectures in International Sustainable
project remotely. Development course and Building Energy
Modelling course at M.E. Rinker School of
Under his guidance, I worked on the analysis, Construction Management, University of Florida.
preprocessing, feature extraction, and The internship has helped me to develop research
classification of EEG (electroencephalograph) networks and shared research vision between
signals using machine learning methods. We SuDesi Lab, IISc and UrbSys Lab, University
used randomly generated signals in MATLAB as of Florida. Many Joint projects on energy
our data instead of human data due to time and assessment, Sustainable development, Cyber-
compliance-related constraints. Working on this physical systems and IoT sensors-controllers
Ridhi Deo project broadened my experience in healthcare Tarun Kumar have been envisioned. The collaborations and
Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN analytics and introduced me to new processing Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore networks built during the internship would
techniques and tools. Furthermore, this being my provide an opportunity for us to improve and
first international project, I learned networking, create novel and innovative technological
collaboration, and management skills in addition systems (Solutions) in the energy neutrality
A
s a Ph.D. student at Purdue University, I work with Dr. to gaining technical knowhow. I am thankful to domain. This experience gained would be useful
Suranjan Panigrahi in the research areas of healthcare IUSSTF, Dr. Mahadevappa, and Dr. Panigrahi for The BHAVAN Internship at the UrbSys Lab, in the University for capacity building in IoT sensors integration in
analytics and biomedical instrumentation. During the their support. I hope to build on our collaboration of Florida under Dr Ravi Srinivasan provided me with the smart buildings.l
second year of my Ph.D., I applied to IUSSTF’s RISE program and and work together on future projects. l opportunity to interact with various
was selected to participate in industry and academic experts in
a short-term research project the field of smart sensors, intelligent
in India. I am thankful to buildings, and energy performance. I
IUSSTF for giving me a unique got hands-on experience of working
opportunity to collaborate with different electronic sensors in
with a prestigious university the state-of-the-art labs in the US. This
in India. My project was internship inculcated a pragmatic and
set to begin in March’20 experimental outlook to the research
in IIT Kharagpur, with Dr. undertaken in a multidisciplinary and
Manjunatha Mahadevappa cross-functional setup. It provided an
and his research group. I am opportunity for the development of
grateful to IUSSTF for being hardware systems and operational
responsive and supportive research capability to serve Indian
amid the challenges due to the building and construction landscape.
COVID-19 pandemic. In the I got the know-how of state-of-the-art
sensor technologies and its real-time
Samples of EEG signal processing work conducted (synthetic data)
Research Internships in Science and Engineering (RISE) BHAVAN Program
Webpage: https://iusstf.org/program/internships-in-science--engineering Webpage: https://www.iusstf.org/program/building-energy-efficiency-higher--advanced-network-fellowship
E-mail: internship@indousstf.org E-mail: energy.fellowship@indousstf.org
22 | Connect - January 2021 Connect - January 2021 | 23Indo-US Indo-US
Science Science & Technology
& Technology
IUSSTF
rum Indo-US S&T Forum Forum Forum
The Indo-US Science andTheTechnology
Indo-US Science
Forum and Technology
(IUSSTF), Forumunder
established (IUSSTF),
an established under an
agreement between the Governments
agreement between the Governments of India and the United States of of India and the United States of
America, is an autonomous, not for profit society
America, is an autonomous, not for profit society in India, co-funded and in India, co-funded and
re Who we are co-governed by both the governments.
co-governed by both the governments. IUSSTF promotes and catalyzes
Indo-US collaborations Indo-US collaborations
in science,
IUSSTF
in science, technology,
technology, engineering,
promotes
biomedicalengineering,
research
and catalyzes
biomedical research
and innovation throughand innovation
substantive through substantive
interaction interaction
among government, among government, academia
academia
and industry. and industry.
Foster excellence
Foster excellence by capitalizing by capitalizing
on the scientific on the scientific
and technological and technological synergy
synergy
Disseminate informationDisseminate
and create information and create
awareness through awareness
scientific through scientific exchanges
exchanges
Build linkages throughBuild linkages
networking through
between networking
academia andbetween
industry academia and industry
do What we do Explore
Pave way
new
to
frontiers
sustainable
by nurturing contact
Explore new frontiers by nurturing contact between young and mid-career
interactions and
betweenscientists
establish
Pave way to sustainable interactions and establish long term relationships
young and mid-career scientists
long term relationships
Encourage
Encourage public-private public-private
partnership to inculcatepartnership
elements oftoinnovation
inculcate elements
and of innovation and
entrepreneurship entrepreneurship
Excitingcollaborative
Exciting and innovative and innovative collaborative
programs cuttingprograms
across cutting across
disciplines and institutions
disciplines and institutions
ort We support
Academia-Industry Connect
Advance Schools & Training
Programs
Academia-Industry
Programs
Advance
Programs
Connect on InnovationPrograms
Programs
Public-Private
Schools & Training ProgramsNetworked
and Entrepreneurship
on Innovation and Entrepreneurship
R&D Joint Centres
Public-Private Networked R&D Joint Centres
Bilateral Workshops & Symposia
Bilateral Workshops &Research
Symposia Fellowships for Faculty Fellowships for Faculty
Research
Flagship Events Flagship Events Special Initiatives for Strategic
Special Partnerships
Initiatives for Strategic Partnerships
Knowledge R&D Networked Joint Centers
Knowledge StudentJoint
R&D Networked Internships
Centers& Visiting
StudentProfessorships
Internships & Visiting Professorships
Proposals which Proposals
are peer reviewed both
which are inreviewed
peer India andboth
USA for awards
in India and USA for awards
Bilateral Indo-US Workshop/Symposia & Indo-US
Bilateral Indo-US Training/Advanced
Workshop/Symposia Schools
& Indo-US Training/Advanced Schools
e We invite
15 February
15 August
1 March
15 February
Deadlines Award Announcements Award Announcements
Submission Deadlines Submission Deadlines
30 June
31 December
31 July
30 June
15
31 August
August 31 December
31 January
Indo-US Public-Private Networked Centres & Indo-US Knowledge R&D Networked CentresR&D Networked Centres
Indo-US Public-Private Networked Centres & Indo-US Knowledge
Submission Deadline Submission Deadline
Deadline Award Announcement Award Announcement
15 August 15 August
31 August 31 December 31 December
January
Indo-US Science and Technology Forum
Fulbright House
How to
For program details visit: For program details visit:
http://www.indousstf.org
12 Hailey Road,
s? contact us? http://www.indousstf.org
New Delhi - 110 001
For program details visit:
www.iusstf.org
Indo-US Science and Technology Forum:and Technology Forum:
Indo-US Science
IUSSTF:
Catalysing Indo-US Catalysing
Science & Indo-US
Technology Science, Technology
Cooperation andCooperation
Innovation Collaborations
over a decade.
Catalysing Indo-US Science & Technology over a decade.
for 20 Years!You can also read
