

Principal investigator

Experience
2024 - present
2018 - 2024
2017 - 2018
Assistant Professor, Applied Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering, IIT madras
DST INSPIRE faculty, Dept of Chemical Engg., IISc Bangalore
Postdoctoral fellow, Dept of Chemical Engg., IIT Madras
Education
2011 - 2017
2007 - 2011
MS-PhD dual degree, IIT Madras.
Thesis: Drops as agents: understanding complex behaviour of droplets in 2D microchannels.
B.Tech, Dept of Chemical Engineering, AC Tech, Anna University.
Project: Enhancing TiO2 based photo-catalysts for pollutant degradation under visible light irradiation (UGC funded).
I am an Assistant Professor at the Dept of Applied Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering at IIT Madras. I work in the area of complex systems engineering where I study systems made up of many interacting entities or agents that exhibit collective phenomena. During my PhD at IITM, I studied how droplets behave in 2D microchannels — from forming complex shaped arrangements to exhibiting avalanches of coalescence events that destabilised the system. And during my INSPIRE tenure at IISc, I diversified from looking at purely material systems and started exploring a range of different biological collectives. I have worked with cells, where the movement depends on both activity and hydrodynamics, social-animals, where motion is primarily behavioural, and humans, where the agents are capable of high levels of cognition. I collaborate with a wide variety of researchers from Biological sciences to Civil engineering. I also collaborate with industry — some of the work I do find applications in healthcare and diagnostics research. In general, I love studying collectives and group phenomena. Whenever I see an army of ants I like to perturb them to see how they respond or sometimes I just like to stare at the flow of vehicular traffic and observe the peculiarities of Indian traffic. I am also very much interested in music. I am a pianist by training, and have completed my grade 8 in Piano from ABRSM (Royal school of music) and some music-theory. Also, I have been a choir conductor in my church for more than a decade. As a complex systems guy, conducting a choir is a fascinating thing to do — since a choir is a collective. There are lot of interesting phenomena that happen as the choristers sing in a choir (check out my blog article "collective nature of choral singing"). Finally, I am someone who enjoyed my time during my PhD. God gave me a good set of friends with whom I could have meaningful and honest conversations on both research and about life and reality in general. I have often had my principles and world-views challenged which helped me become a better version of myself. Hence, I truly wish that every student who enters the IIT system gets a fulfilling experience (through the ups and downs) that shapes them into a fine individual, who is full of life, always aiming high, both in work and in behaviour.
Current members

Elambirai Ravichandran
PhD
Applied mechanics & biomedical engineering

Mano Ranjitham R
PhD
Biomedical devices (JDP)
Co-guide: Dr Mohan S Kamat (CMC Vellore)

Kshitish Saurav
Masters
IDDD CSD final year project
Past students
Name | Position | Project title | Dept | Insti | Period | Collaboration |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kshitish Saurav | Undergrad | Mixing in an asynchronous Vicsek flock | Applied mechanics and biomedical | IIT-M | 2025 | |
Harish Sridhar | Masters | Modelling the early time settling dynamics during an ESR test | Applied mechanics and biomedical | IIT-M | 2025 | Ramakrishnan S |
Balagopal Nair | Masters | Heterogeneous microscopic collectives | Applied mechanics and biomedical | IIT-M | 2025 | |
Rasheed S G M | Intern | Deriving equations from data for an intruder falling through a granular fluid | Applied mechanics and biomedical | IIT-M | 2024 | |
Ramesh Kumar P | Intern | Visualising the dynamics of collective motion | Applied mechanics and biomedical | IIT-M | 2024 | |
Divakar Badal | Project (during PhD) | A dynamic fluid landscape mediates the spread of bacteria | Department of bioengineering | IISc | 2024 | Varsha Singh, Aloke Kumar |
Kiran Naik K | Masters | Entropy based crowd-risk prediction | Civil engineering | IISc | 2023 | Ashish Verma |
Diksha Kumari | Intern | Optical flow algorithms for sperm cell motility assessment | Chemical engineering | IISc | 2023 | |
Rupesh Mahore | Project associate | Intelligent crowd movement & Sperm cell motility project | Chemical engineering | IISc | 2023 | |
Harishankar Muppirala | Project associate | Data-driven discovery of interdroplet interactions in microchannels; Tracking and analyzing sperm-cell motion. | Chemical engineering | IISc | 2022 |