Dear students,
Those interested in a 6 credit R and D project in the following areas in the coming semester are requested to send me mail. You may contact seniors Sai Muni Teja, Shilpi and others, who have done this earlier, just to know what is involved. It obviously means a lot of self-learning and it also demands a deliverable to the outside world (i.e. a paper or a serious attempt at a paper, or a report/software/demo to outside people in the chosen topic).
Topic 1:
Platform occupancy charts for suburban rail services
Given - timetables (in electronic form as Excel spreadsheets) of more than 1000 services, allocate platforms at terminals - Churchgate, Bandra, Andheri, Borivali and Virar in Mumbai (Western Railways). One more geographical area to be attempted, either Howrah/Sealdah (Eastern/South Eastern Railways in Kolkata) or Chennai division. You can have a discussion with Shashank Dangayach who sits in my office (shashnk.dangayach@gmail.com) and also have a look at presentations on this topic by Milind Sohoni. There are some interesting theoretical issues, but the first goal is to deliver a working tool to Western Railway. Executable Java code to be written. The student will have to work with Shashank and also commit to go one afternoon a month to the Railways.
Topic 2:
Analysis of organ transplant databases
Design database structures for organ transplant (we have some sample data for kidney donors/recipients) and integrate them with decision support and algorithms. The student will have to work with Shilpi, Utkarsh and B.Tech student Mihir and also commit to visit a team of doctors once in a month and deliver something useful by April. There is plenty of literature available and scope for theoretical or applied work in this area.