JAN 15 - JULY 15, 2024VOL 02 - ISSUE 02

NEWSLET TER

REFLECTIONS: FROM THE VICE CHANCELLOR’S DESK

Christened ‘1729', after Ramanujan - Hardy number, the Plaksha newsletter is a window into our

thriving, interconnected, and learner centered environment where Plakshans look beyond the

obvious, just like Srinivas Ramanujan did with the seemingly dull number ‘1729'.

Through this newsletter we share the contribution of each member of our vibrant community of

learners, researchers, leaders, innovators and problem solvers to reimagine technology education.

Prof. Rudra Pratap

Founding Vice Chancellor

Plaksha University

C O - C R E A T E : T E C H F O R S O C I E T Y

We are delighted to present to you the current

issue of 1729 focused on Co-Create: Tech for

Society. Right from the inception of the univer-

sity, we have created a sharp focus on engaging

with society, both locally and globally, as a

deliberate design principle of all our academic

endeavors at the university.

Global problems, by their very deﬁnition,

impact everyone including our campus, our

immediate neighborhood – Mohali and the Tri-

City area, the state of Punjab, India, and the

world. While many problems scale linearly with

population and the geographical areas, solu-

tions rarely do. Solution scaling is something

that we need to teach our students to think

about rationally, and attempt pilot solutions

that can be implemented at a local community

level. This, by no means, excludes problems

that may not be global but vexes the local

community. We strongly believe in what one of

the most celebrated poets of India, Kabir Das,

encapsulated in the following couplet:

We are committed

to our promise of

engaging with

society

(There is no point growing tall like a date tree

that doesn’t provide shadow or fruit to a trav-

eler.) This metaphor applies to our pursuit of

technological solutions for the society at large.

We are committed to our promise of engaging

with society and I hope you see its glimpses in

the articles in this issue.

Happy reading!

    ,   

   ,     

centralizing storage oﬀers signiﬁcant advan-

tages, including enhanced diversity of energy

sources, more eﬃcient use of space, and high

eﬃciency of equipment. Aggregating cooling

requirements with a central cooling system

instead of providing individual air conditioners

at every apartment can play a pivotal role in

decarbonizing the residential energy sector. A

well-designed air conditioning system integrat-

ing energy-eﬃcient equipment, thermal

storage, controls, and renewable energy

sources surpasses the eﬃcacy of individual

building cooling systems.

To comprehensively evaluate the potential of

centralized cooling and heating systems in

Indian residential settings, Indorama Ventures

Center for Clean Energy at Plaksha University is

establishing a ﬁrst-of-its-kind living laboratory

in South Asia. This cutting-edge research facility

will feature a 1600 TRh thermal storage capac-

ity, equipped with smart microgrid controls and

a renewable energy system. It is designed to

cater to the air conditioning load of a 220-room

hostel at Plaksha, utilising chilled water from

the TES to conduct various experiments.

This living laboratory is being developed with

partial support from the International Finance

Corporation – a member of the World Bank

Group under the TechEmerge Sustainable

Cooling Innovation Program. Plaksha's faculty,

researchers, and students will undertake

interdisciplinary research in collaboration with

industry experts to optimize the design and

operation of thermal storage-based cooling

and heating systems. This would include exper-

iments, modelling and simulations to identify

opportunities for improving energy eﬃciency,

load management, and overall system perfor-

mance. The testbed will support research

involving behavioural studies, development of

technologies, and application of AI-ML for

improving design and operations of the sys-

tem. We intend to oﬀer the testbed to startups,

manufacturers, and solution providers to

evaluate and demonstrate their technologies in

a ﬁeld environment.

CAMPUS AS A LIVING LAB FOR THERMAL STORAGE SOLUTIONS

Air conditioning related energy consumption

constitutes a substantial portion of building

energy usage. The demand for air conditioning

in India is on the rise, and it is expected to rise

8x by 2037, as compared to 2017 levels. To align

with climate objectives, reducing energy con-

sumption within the air conditioning sector is

imperative. Shifting from fossil fuel-based

energy to renewable energy is one of the ways

to reduce CO emissions and decarbonize this

sector. Photovoltaic (PV) systems play a central

role in this transition, as energy is readily avail-

able during the daytime, making it easier to

decarbonize daytime loads. However, a chal-

lenge arises in employing renewable energy for

the air conditioning energy requirements of

residential buildings, which predominantly occur

during the night. Energy storage, which can

charge during the daytime when clean energy is

available and discharge during nighttime, can

address this issue.

Generally, a PV system with battery storage is

popular for storing excess electricity available in

the daytime. Given the environmental concerns

and high cost of electrical energy storage,

thermal energy storage (TES) emerges as a

promising alternative. TES involves storing both

heat or coolth in the form of sensible or latent

energy. Water is an eﬀective medium for storing

thermal energy due to its high thermal capaci-

tance, latent heat of fusion, heat transfer eﬃ-

ciency, and availability. The advantage of ther-

mal storage lies in its negligible environmental

impact, making it an intriguing possibility for our

energy storage needs.

Implementing TES solutions at individual apart-

ments is challenging due to space availability

and the limited beneﬁts of diversity. Instead,

Prof. Vishal Garg

Dean Research, Plaksha University

Director, Indorama Ventures Center for

Clean Energy

Dr. Aviruch Bhatia

Senior Research Scientist, Plaksha University

C O - C R E A T E : T E C H F O R S O C I E T Y

Plaksha Think Tank

Battery

energy storage

Chiller

Ice thermal

storage

Plant room

Electricity

Day time charging

Night time discharging

Many a times, when it is mentioned that

Plaksha University has a Center for Water

Security (CWS), people ask what water security

means. As our cities go through severe water

shortage, the term 'water scarcity' has become

more prominent. In the same context, water

security would be the opposite scenario – one

that ensures we have suﬃcient water for all

social, economic and environmental activities.

CWS recognizes that this vision needs a

multipronged approach, where technological

research is complemented by partnerships

with diﬀerent stakeholders, including commu-

nity engagement, starting with the community

in and around the university campus.

The current focus of CWS is on water quality

monitoring, advanced wastewater treatment

and resource recovery from wastewater. Re-

search work along these lines has begun on

the campus in the Water Technology Research

(WaTeR) lab. The campus has initiated real-

time monitoring systems where water balance

and water quality in drinking water treatment

plant (WTP) and sewage treatment plant (STP)

are monitored.

CWS also actively seeks to engage the student

community in research. For instance, an ILGC

team is working on optimizing the perfor-

mance of the campus STP by using AI-ML

models. In addition, a competition was annou-

nced by CWS to encourage student ideas on

improving water eﬃciency on the campus. UG

students and Bharti Foundation scholars,

Anshika Singh and Sanskar Sengar, won the

competition for suggesting a smart toilet surv-

eillance system that would prevent water

wastage due to malfunctioning toilet ﬂushes.

Research scholars associated with CWS also

monitor water quality on campus.

Just beyond the campus is N-Choe, an open

urban drain. It originates from Chandigarh,

ﬂows through Mohali, and ultimately dis-

charges into river Ghaggar. It passes through

multiple settlements along its route, including

the village Manuali. Residents of this settle-

ment call this stream the ganda nala (or, a dirty

water stream), due to the pollution caused by

untreated sewage that is discharged into it

along the way. CWS has started monitoring

water quality of N-Choe to suggest appropriate

measures to treat the stream and augment

water supply to Manauli. This translation will

involve active engagement with the commu-

nity, real-time monitoring solutions, advanced

treatment technologies. CWS is committed to

tackle this water challenge.

Dr. Prashanth Suresh Kumar

Associate Director, PhD Program

Assistant Professor, Plaksha University

ADDRESSING WATER CHALLENGES IN VILLAGE MANAULI

C O - C R E A T E : T E C H F O R S O C I E T Y

Reimagine Research

The N-Choe stream passing besides the

Plaksha campus.

Plaksha faculty Dr. Sandeep Manjanna and

research fellow Rahul Kumar using water

quality sensors for monitoring a section of the

N-Choe stream.

In a fast-paced world with short attention

spans, what's out of sight is out of mind. In this

interconnected world, it is hard to be con-

scious of our interactions as a species with our

planet. When we buy vegetables from the

market, we are blissfully unaware of where it

grew, number of days it had to be stored, kilo-

meters it traveled, and how much of it got

wasted before some of it was brought home

by us. We are unaware of the amount of pollu-

tion that is caused elsewhere to provide over-

night cooling in our homes.

In this scenario, the Geospatial Computer

Vision lab at Plaksha utilizes satellite imagery

to understand and aﬀect various aspects of

cities, water bodies and rural areas. There are

now satellites that capture images of the entire

earth - our homes, ﬁelds, rivers, and forests

every day. These images capture various acti-

vities at a high frequency through multiple

spectrums of electromagnetic waves. Recent

advances in Computer Science & Artiﬁcial

Intelligence have enhanced the capability of

machines to comprehend large scale data and

provide insights about various processes and

their impact on earth.

One of the primary areas of research at

Plaksha is sustainable urban development.

An ongoing project focuses on the detection

of walkable elements in a city through satellite

images augmented with street view images. A

system aware of footpaths, zebra crossings,

tree cover (shade for walking), encroachments

on the footpaths, etc. would be able to provide

users the most comfortable paths to walk/

cycle on. By analyzing land use and socio-

economic state of a city, the system would

estimate walking requirements of individual

routes as well. Such a system would inform

municipal authorities where a maximum cost

to beneﬁt ratio exists with respect to infra-

structure deployment and generate low car-

bon footprint designs for cities. Such planning

can also incorporate requirements of a city

over a long period by forecasting demands

and usages.

However, these systems are only as powerful

as the incentives we incorporate in them. By

ensuring that our processes are aligned with

intelligence from these sentient beings, we

might be able to accelerate sustainable devel-

opment in the world. While AI will bring forth

equity and sustainability, it will also enable

equal opportunity for all communities. It will

help us to become mindful of how we use the

earth's resources.

Dr. Anupam Sobti

Lead, Geospatial Computer Vision Group

SUSTAINABLE URBAN DEVELOPMENT USING SATELLITE IMAGERY

C O - C R E A T E : T E C H F O R S O C I E T Y

Reimagine Research

A dynamic visual representation of Earth's landscapes inﬂuenced by artiﬁcial intelligence, showcasing

rural and urban areas from a bird's eye view.

Credit: DALL·E

Assistant Professor, Plaksha University