VLSI — where small is beautiful

IIT-Madras scouts for tie-ups to enhance reach of projects

To enhance the reach of various VLSI (Very Large Scale Integration) projects developed by its students and faculty, the IIT-Madras is in talks with many hospitals, educational institutes, research organisations and governments for tie-ups.

An interesting project in the pipeline is the ongoing research with Sankara Nethralaya. Under it, professors and students of the IIT-Madras are applying machine-learning techniques to interpret disorders including glaucoma and diabetic retinopathy. “With proper image processing techniques, we are looking at interpreting data from pictures and help in providing timely intervention through proper diagnosis,” says Kamakoti Veezhinathan, professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT-Madras.

Other interesting projects include monitoring of the structural health of bridges, intelligent sensory devices, weather forecasting and radar processing applications. Prof. Kamakoti says that since VLSI research is largely consumer-driven, there is a lot of dependence on feedback from industry. “We want to add a dimension to research by rendering solutions to real-world problems. To improvise on our design ideas, it is necessary that we don't stick to academics alone, and start giving shape to our applications.”

Seventy students and over 50 faculty members from different backgrounds of engineering are part of this centre of excellence at the IIT-Madras that will showcase and facilitate research on innovative projects in embedded systems and VLSI design.

Since many VLSI problems have non-deterministic solutions, it depends on heuristics for sub-optimal solutions.

A concern, says Prof. Kamakoti, is that while a lot of electronic devices are made in India, the chips are built in foreign countries, with specifications set by international foundries. “There is no guarantee that these systems perform the required functions. It is extremely important that we start looking at strengthening our indigenous manufacturing capabilities and develop our own state-of-the-art hardware designs.”