The Indian Institute of Technology Madras was established as an institute of national importance in 1959. At the initial stages, it had the benefit of financial support from Germany. Its exposure with the latest trends in global technology provided by German experts set a tradition for excellence in both teaching and research.
The IIT, Madras, has fine infrastructure for high-end research both in terms of physical facilities such as laboratories, reference literature and computing capabilities, and competent and dedicated faculty for quality teaching and guidance. Linkages with industry provide the studies with a flavour of practical problem solving. The research in various departments touches frontier areas. The institute has been able to produce several highly acclaimed publications in national and international journals of repute. The scholars have made presentations in international conferences. Research is often with the collaboration of foreign universities and industries in the country or abroad.
The following agencies sponsor some of the research projects, with a focus on issues of national interest.
Defence Research & Development Organisation (units such as Aeronautical Research & Development Board and Naval Research Board)
Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India
Department of Science & Technology, Government of India
Indian Space Research Organisation
Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research
Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources, Government of India
Main areas of researchThe flagship programmes in research are Ph.D. and MS. Some of the important areas of research at the institute are the following. (The list is indicative)
Aerospace Engineering Department
Aerodynamics, aircraft structures, aerospace propulsion, dynamics and control
Applied Mechanics
Plates and shells, finite and boundary element techniques, experimental stress analysis including holography, image processing techniques, fatigue of materials, fracture mechanics, smart materials and structures, rehabilitation engineering, evoked response and functional electrical stimulation.
Biotechnology
Cellular, molecular and structural biology relating to signal transduction, lipid trafficking, stem cell proliferation, green chemistry, biochemical engineering, industrial microbial processes
Chemical Engineering
Chemical reaction engineering and thermodynamics, transport processes, fundamental studies: mathematical modelling of physico-chemical phenomena, modelling of processes and equipment, development, characterisation and processing of materials, process design and control, systems engineering, environmental engineering and waste reduction
Chemistry
Analytical Chemistry, Bioinorganic Chemistry, Chemistry of main group elements, inorganic heterocycles, materials science, synthetic and structural solid state chemistry, nano-materials, cage and cluster chemistry, synthetic organo-metallic chemistry, metalloboranes and metallocarboranes, supramolecular chemistry
Civil Engineering
Building technology & construction management, geotechnical engineering, environmental and water resources engineering, structural engineering, transportation engineering
Computer Science and Engineering Department
Automata theory and formal languages, analysis of algorithms, graph theory, unconventional methods of computing, cryptography, software engineering, software for VLSI design, artificial intelligence, machine learning, Indian language systems, speech and vision systems, artificial neural networks
Electrical Engineering
Communication systems, control systems, electrical drives and power electronics, instrumentation, microelectronics, power systems and high voltage engineering, VLSI Design
Engineering Design
Automotive engineering (vehicle dynamics, tyre mechanics, automotive systems and control & fault diagnosis), Robotics, CAD/CAM, ergonomics, design theory, reliability, fatigue and fracture
Humanities & Social Sciences
British, American, Common Wealth Literatures, German and European Studies, Comparative Studies, Political Philosophy; Modern Indian History, Economics, Environment and Natural Resources Policy; Development Studies.
Management
Production and operations management, supply chain management, logistics management, financial management, financial engineering, business policy/strategic management, marketing management, organisational behaviour, personnel management and industrial relations, public systems management, information systems and interdisciplinary research
Mathematics
Functional analysis, operator equations, inverse problems, fixed point theory, differential equations, special functions, complex analysis, non-linear analysis, harmonic analysis and wavelets, fractals, fuzzy sets theory and applications, summability theory, algebra, communication and coding theory, numerical analysis, numerical linear algebra, fluid mechanics, computational fluid dynamics
Mechanical Engineering
Design engineering, manufacturing engineering, thermal engineering
Metallurgical & Materials Engineering
Metal casting, metal forming, metal joining, materials technology, nano-structured materials, magnetic materials, amorphous alloys, non-equilibrium processing, superplasticity and superplastic forming
Ocean Engineering
Petroleum engineering, ocean hydrodynamics, ship hydrodynamics, dynamics of floating systems, ocean structures, coastal processes, marine geotechnical engineering, materials for marine environment, ocean energy.
Physics
Applied optics, quantum optics, photonics and nonlinear optics, atomic and molecular physics, complex fluids, nonlinear dynamics, quantum chaos, quantum information, metal-oxide thin films
Interdisciplinary Research Areas
Biotechnology, chemical physics and molecular biology, communication technology, complex systems, computational engineering, development studies, energy technology, environmental technology, infrastructure technology, instrumentation and control, materials technology, measurement, testing and diagnostics
There are opportunities for joint Ph.D. in Engineering & Sciences offered by IIT, Madras, and National University of Singapore. A Joint Ph.D. programme is also offered by IIT, Madras, in collaboration with Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram and Christian Medical College, Vellore, in the area of Biomedical Devices and Technology.
The Dean, Academic Research, administers the academic research activities. The Industrial Consultancy & Sponsored Research (IC & SR) wing coordinates the sponsored research and consultancy activities.
