UG Program | 4 years

B.Tech in Robotics & Cyber-Physical Systems

Solutions to grand challenges increasingly require reaching across the boundaries of the cyber, physical & human worlds. The Robotics & Cyber-Physical Systems program is different from traditional electrical & mechanical engineering programs & is designed to target the growing & unmet need at the intersection of computing, mechatronics, & human behavior. Students will be able to design engineering systems that interact with humans & environment & create solutions to tackle some of India’s & the world’s most pressing grand challenges.

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8 Semester Curriculum The curriculum at Plaksha is dynamic and continuously evolving, based on inputs from faculty, latest research and industry insights. B.Tech in Robotics & Cyber-Physical Systems syllabus outline is given below.
  • Semester 1
  • Semester 2
  • Semester 3
  • Semester 4
  • Semester 5
  • Semester 6
  • Semester 7
  • Semester 8
Introduction to AI

Instructor: Dr. Kanchi Gopinath


Fundamentals of Computational Thinking

This course is aimed to provide students with an understanding of the role that computational thinking plays in problem solving. They will be exposed to programming concepts and how to use them to design solutions using C language, starting from simple problems to interesting ones using ideas such as recursion and backtracking. In addition to learning key computing concepts and skills, the course will focus on laying necessary foundations in computational thinking going forward. For example, paradigms such as 'divide and conquer' and dynamic programming will be introduced through examples.


Instructors: Dr. Deepan M., Dr. Manoj Kannan


Design & Innovation

Instructor: Prof. Amit Sheth



Engineering Math in Action

Nature's Machines

Entangled Worlds: Technology and the Anthropocene (Part - 1)

What do we mean when we say Entangled Worlds? Entanglement as such implies a state of intertwining, of interpenetration, deep connectivity, interlocking and irreducible, fundamental interdependency and interrelationship. Although it would seem obvious that we live in a profoundly interconnected world in which both processes initiated by humans and non-human biological and non-biological entities continuously impact one another, our actions as organic, conscious and sentient beings do not reflect the obvious fact of interconnectedness.

Human beings by and large continue to operate as though their actions are isolated events that do not impact the rest of the world including other human beings, plant and animal species. Environmental degradation, climate change, species extinction, economic inequality, various forms of injustice, war and so on perhaps point towards a fundamental flaw in the way we think and act. In fact, we could claim the way we think and act is no longer commensurate with the kinds of immense global challenges we are facing. This seems to be the critical question of the Anthropocene.

How does one begin to return to a fundamental understanding of the embeddedness of all forms of life as well as so-called inorganic material in a web of interdependence, of inexorable entanglement? Is it even possible for us to engender a radical shift in the way we think about ourselves and planet Earth? Or have we already gone too far in our quest for creating a solely human-centric world?

In this course we will explore and reflect on the question of entanglements from a variety of transdisciplinary perspectives including those of art, music, imagination, biological systems, quantum mechanics, language, mathematics, design, thought, time, space, history, philosophy and technology. In particular, we will be experimenting with the idea of contrapuntal music as a model from which to think about ways of interconnecting different, independent melodies (read: concepts) in a dynamic, lattice-like structure through which a new emergent harmony is created. 


Instructors: Dr. Aditya Malik, Dr. Brainerd Prince, Dr. Saikat Chakraborty


Innovation Lab & Grand Challenge Studio - 1

Programming & Data Structures

Mathematics of Uncertainty

Instructor: Dr. Amrik Sen


Foundations of Physical World

Nature's Machines Lab

Fundamentals of Microeconomics



Communication Lab

Instructor: Dr. Brainerd Prince


The Art of Thinking & Reasoning



Innovation Lab and Grand Challenge Studio - 2

Universal Human Values



Electronics Systems Engineering

The objective of the course is to train the students in the field of basic and applied electronics, which forms the backbone of the modern semiconductor and telecommunication industry. The course covers the fundamental and applied aspects of the subject aligned toward the design and development of novel electronic devices and systems. The course starts with an introduction to the broader field of electronics engineering and its relevance for other industry verticals against the framework of significant inventions and innovations. It will cover the essential aspects of circuit theory and evolves towards encompassing the operation of semiconductor devices which form the backbone of computational and communication systems.

A special focus of the course is on how simple devices and circuits get interconnected to form complex units which play a defining role in the operation of sophisticated gadgets. Towards the completion of the course, the students would be able to conceive and prototype new artifacts, systems, and gadgets, while using the foundation of analog and digital electronics. 


Instructors: Dr. Sanjay Kumar Bose, Dr. Dhiraj Sinha


The Philosophy and Foundations of Computing and AI

This course explores philosophical and foundational issues concerning computers, computing, and artificial intelligence. It addresses a range of fundamental questions, including: What is a computer? Could a computer be conscious? How could you test whether a computer is thinking? Are thinking and consciousness the same or different? Is the human brain a computer? Are there limits to what is computable?

The course also describes the work of Alan Turing, and his revolutionary ideas and legacy. While a graduate student, Turing invented the fundamental logical principles of the modern computer. He is responsible for the model of computability that underlies modern computer science—the universal Turing machine. The course investigates this important model and the scope and limits of the universal machine. It also includes an introduction to the early years of the computer revolution, covering the secret origins of electronic computers during World War II and the earliest work on artificial intelligence.


Instructor: Dr. Jack Copeland


Universal Human Values - II

Instructor: Dr. Shalini Sharma


Intelligent Machines

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to robotics and cyber-physical systems. Through hands-on lab activities, assignments, projects, as well as through guest lectures spanning research and practice the students learn about topics such as- sensors & actuators, system modeling, kinematics, dynamics, and controls, perception, planning, and navigation, cyber-physical systems, communication, and hardware. These are all the ingredients for designing intelligent machines. At the end of this course the students will be able to gain the skills to design, build and evaluate simple robotic and cyber-physical systems that will give them the confidence to pursue more complex projects in their future endeavors. 

Instructors: Dr. Sandeep Manjanna, Dr. Shashank Tamaskar


Innovation Lab & Grand Challenge Studio - 03

Instructor: Dr. Rucha Joshi


Communication Lab - 3

Instructors: Dr. Brainerd Prince, Dr. Sumita Ambasta


Intro to Data Science



Computational Methods & Optimization



Entangled Worlds: Technology & the Anthropocene (Part - 2)

What do we mean when we say Entangled Worlds? Entanglement as such implies a state of intertwining, of interpenetration, deep connectivity, interlocking and irreducible, fundamental interdependency and interrelationship. Although it would seem obvious that we live in a profoundly interconnected world in which both processes initiated by humans and non-human biological and non-biological entities continuously impact one another, our actions as organic, conscious and sentient beings do not reflect the obvious fact of interconnectedness.

Human beings by and large continue to operate as though their actions are isolated events that do not impact the rest of the world including other human beings, plant and animal species. Environmental degradation, climate change, species extinction, economic inequality, various forms of injustice, war and so on perhaps point towards a fundamental flaw in the way we think and act. In fact, we could claim the way we think and act is no longer commensurate with the kinds of immense global challenges we are facing. This seems to be the critical question of the Anthropocene.

How does one begin to return to a fundamental understanding of the embeddedness of all forms of life as well as so-called inorganic material in a web of interdependence, of inexorable entanglement? Is it even possible for us to engender a radical shift in the way we think about ourselves and planet Earth? Or have we already gone too far in our quest for creating a solely human-centric world?

In this course we will explore and reflect on the question of entanglements from a variety of transdisciplinary perspectives including those of art, music, imagination, biological systems, quantum mechanics, language, mathematics, design, thought, time, space, history, philosophy and technology. In particular, we will be experimenting with the idea of contrapuntal music as a model from which to think about ways of interconnecting different, independent melodies (read: concepts) in a dynamic, lattice-like structure through which a new emergent harmony is created. 


Instructors: Dr. Aditya Malik, Dr. Brainerd Prince, Dr. Saikat Chakraborty


Optimization

Instructor(s) - Dr. Nitin Upadhyaya


Connected systems & IoT

System Dynamics & Control

Fluids in Action

Instructor(s) - Dr. Shashikant Pawar


Foundations of Computer Systems

Communication Lab -2

Instructor(s) - Dr. Brainerd Prince


Innovation Lab & Grand Challenge Studio - 04

Instructor(s) - Dr. Srikant Srinivasan, Dr. Rucha Joshi


Embedded Systems

Instructor(s) - Dr. Anupam Sobti


Machine Learning and Pattern Recognition

Instructor(s) - Dr. Siddharth S


Sensing & Actuation

Engineering Mechanics

Instructor(s) - Dr. Shashikant Pawar


Search Methods in AI/Stochastic modeling in Biology/Advanced statistics

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Innovation Lab & Grand Challenge Studio - 05

Instructor(s) - Dr. Srikant Srinivasan


Innovation Lab & Grand Challenge Studio VI

Continuing their project progress from semester 4, the goal for Semester 5 and 6 will be to implement solutions via projects at the State level, with an eye for expansion at the National level. To achieve this, students will seek validation of concept from various stakeholders, complete the engineering design cycle of their project, while also developing an entrepreneurial spirit from their experiences. Mentored Leadership and Professional Development opportunities will be a constant feature across the 4 year ILGC experience, and will be integrated with project work. These serve to develop the student’s professional skills and also help in creating a more integrated socio-integrated understanding of engineering/design.


Networks & Protocols

Considering the layered network structure of modern networks, this course takes a top-down approach starting from the Application Layer and then continuing on to the underlying Transport, Network, Data Link and Media Access Control (MAC) Layers. Network Applications are illustrated as software running on the end-hosts which use the underlying end-to-end Transport Layer to transact transport layer segments as required by the applications. The Transport Layers of the end-hosts similarly use the underlying Network Layer to transport datagrams to each other where these may be routed appropriately through intermediate nodes of the network. These in turn use the underlying Data Link and MAC layers to transport data packets from one host to the next with appropriate network routing to allow the network layer datagrams to find their own way across the network, from the source to one (unicast) or more (multicast) destination(s). Though the IEEE802.3 ETHERNET is described briefly, the course places special emphasis on the 802.11 WiFI network which is ubiquitous today. The structure and approach of these networks are discussed in detail. The basic aspects of network security is also discussed. The lecture material will be supplemented with analytical assignments to be done at home and programming assignments to be done in the Computer Lab.


Robotic Systems II - Manipulation

The students will be introduced to the fundamentals of grasping and manipulation. The course will cover topics such as forward and inverse kinematics, dynamic modeling of robotic manipulators using simulations, trajectory and path generation. Configuration space trajectory and operational space trajectory generation. Control of robotic manipulators in joint space and task space. The students will apply these concepts in a lab in a simulation environment and will also learn to program the motion of a 6-axis robot.


Technical Elective II

Sample Electives include: Manufacturing and Automation, Fluids in Action, Autonomous Systems, Systems Engineering, Distributed Computing and Connected Systems, Swarm Robotics


Free Elective II

Students may take courses from other majors as part of the free elective. Additionally, faculty may also offer some introductory electives as part of this sequence.


Application Domain Track III

The Application Domain Tracks are a series of 1 credit modules that help students inculcate skills and mindsets related to research and entrepreneurship. Through these tracks, students will contribute to ongoing research projects in Plaksha's flagship grand challenge research centers, and may work with faculty on their research or on approved external projects in industry/government or startups. Across semesters, students will have the option to work across different disciplinary areas or focus on one area but the purpose is for them to appreciate the relevance of their coursework to a variety of challenges and areas.


Advanced Network Architectures

The Internet of Things (IoT) is envisaged as a network of diverse objects embedded with sensors, and appropriate hardware and software to connect to and exchange data with other similar devices or with the broader Internet for supporting shared applications. Though one tends to think of IoT mostly for home and industrial automation, it is expected to become prevalent in Smart Cities, Smart Grids and Smart Farming applications. Building on traditional networking approaches using TCP/IP, the IPv6 protocol is presented as the network layer of choice for IoT. Moving on from classical IEEE 802.11 WiFi, the data link layer based on the IEEE 802.15 standards will be discussed. Specifically, the course will describe Bluetooth, High-rate and Low-rate WPANs (Zigbee) and Mesh Networking with special focus on infrastructure-less networking as in Adhoc Networks and Mobile Adhoc Networks (MANETs). The course will close with some discussion of Cloud Networking and Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) The lecture material will be supplemented with analytical assignments to be done at home and programming assignments to be done in the Computer Lab.


Systems Dynamics & Control II

This course introduces the students to the concepts of state space methods for feedback control design and state estimation. The examples will be drawn from a variety of problems related to robotics and cyber-physical systems. The course will be divided into two modules. In the first module, the students will learn the fundamentals of state space methods, equivalence between transfer functions and state space representations, concept of controllability and observability, pole placement method for controller design. The second module will introduce basic ideas of state estimation and will include concepts such as Observability, Luenberger observer and Kalman filters. The students will implement the concepts in simulation and real life applications during lab sessions.


Technical Elective III

Sample Electives include: Manufacturing and Automation, Fluids in Action, Autonomous Systems, Systems Engineering, Distributed Computing and Connected Systems, Swarm Robotics


Humanities & Social Science Elective I

Sample electives include: AI for Social Good, Technology, Policy and Law, Decision Making Under Uncertainty, Fairness, Transparency, Accountability, and Ethics in Data Science


Innovation Lab & Grand Challenge Studio Capstone

ILGC transforms and culminates as a two semester capstone design project. By the end of the seventh semester a detailed design of the final product (this could be a device, system, process, software, etc. that results from this design experience) needs to be completed. This includes but not limited to the following: Description of the overall project, including a description of the customer and their requirements, the purpose, specifications, and a summary of the approach. Description of the different design approaches considered and evaluation of each design approach. Detailed description of the final proposed design.


Smart Networks

In this course, students will learn how the advent of IoT, sensors and automation has led to the development of smart networks. The course will cover several examples of complex cyber-physical networks in different domains such as smart grids, transportation/logistics networks and the internet and will explore how the advent of IoT technologies has transformed each domain. The students will learn to analyze the properties of these sensor networks and will explore opportunities for optimization of resources. As project work, students will be encouraged to apply the skills learnt to analyze real life problems in their community. Through this project they will also think about the challenges related to ethics, security and privacy related to smart networks.


Autonomy - Planning & Decision

This course will cover the fundamentals of perception, planning and decision making in robotics. The students will learn about robot localization and mapping concepts and will learn about various motion planning controls. Ideas of decision making under uncertainty will be introduced. Finally, ideas of multi-robot path planning will be introduced. Extensive use of the Robot Operating System (ROS) for demonstrations and hands-on activities. We will also examine case studies in ground and aerial robots, manipulators and multi-robot systems.


Technical Elective IV

Sample Electives include: Manufacturing and Automation, Fluids in Action, Autonomous Systems, Systems Engineering, Distributed Computing and Connected Systems, Swarm Robotics


Humanities & Social Science Elective II

Sample electives include: AI for Social Good, Technology, Policy and Law, Decision Making Under Uncertainty, Fairness, Transparency, Accountability, and Ethics in Data Science


Innovation Lab & Grand Challenge Studio Capstone

ILGC transforms and culminates as a two semester capstone design project. By the end of the eighth semester, students will have a working product (this could be a device, system, process, software, etc. that results from this design experience). Therefore, the focus of this semester is to implement, test and evaluate the design approach chosen in your first semester. The following are the expected requirements and deliverables for this semester: Working final product Testing and evaluation of product design Demo of the final product Completed Project Description, Final Reflection and Completed Outcomes Matrix


Learning Experiences

Experiential Learning

Integrated learning experience across 4 years. Students work on authentic, real world projects through industry and community.
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By having access to state-of-the-art makerspaces and coding cafes and incorporating them in the curriculum, students will become more context-aware, develop critical thinking abilities, and learn by creating. This will help foster a tinkering and problem solving mindset, immersing students in experiential learning from day one. These areas will be open to students to explore, create, prototype and design, while also housing equipment and technologies like 3D printers, sensors, etc.
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The core curriculum will not just be limited to engineering and sciences, but bring in exposure to entrepreneurship and design which will enable humane and empathetic outcomes through technology. Each student will undertake multiple different experiences to develop skills like finding opportunities, creating value, and embracing risks. Students will be mentored and supported by Plaksha founders and professionals from industry.
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At Plaksha, learning and skill development do not stop in the classroom. Students will have the opportunity to create and immerse themselves in pursuing their academic and creative interests. Student led clubs will be autonomous bodies that operate under the purview of the Office of Student Life. Being the founding batch, students will be encouraged to help establish a vibrant culture through clubs and societies on campus.

Hear about the course from the experts

Watch Dr. Hanumant Singh of Northeastern University and Dr. Richard Voyles of Purdue University explain the relevance and scope of this B.Tech degree.
Find the answers to your questions in some of our frequently asked questions by students
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Dates to Remember

Dec 5, 2023

Round 1 Deadline

Jan 17, 2024

Round 2 Deadline

March 20, 2024

Round 3 Deadline

April 30, 2024

Round 4 Deadline

June 17, 2024

Round 5 Deadline

*Round deadlines are subject to change.

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