Three researchers, including two physicists from Pune, have been shortlisted in the Indo-Italian Executive Program of Scientific and Technical Cooperation announced last year by the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
Professor Dipanjan Mukherjee and Professor Sogat Mujahid from Inter University Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA) have been selected under Physics, Astrophysics and Space Science streams. Mukherjee will work on simulating the outflow from supermassive blackholes while Mujahid will study the role of gaseous halos in galaxy evolution.
Dr Rahi Walambe of Symbiosis Institute of Technology will collaborate to work on a multimodal explanation for object detection and image processing in drone imagery. The India-Italian cooperation, planned for three years, will be jointly funded by DST and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate General of Cultural and Economic Promotion and Innovation.
The trio are among 13 Indian researchers who will collaborate as part of exchange programs for various scientific research planned under information and communication technology, astrophysics and space science and water management.
Two networks of excellence – the Indo-Italian Center of Excellence for the Restoration and Assessment of Environmental Impacts on Cultural Heritage Monuments and the Multi-Scale Brain Function India-Italy Network of Excellence – will be established. Professor Mukesh Sharma of IIT Kanpur and Professor Shyam Diwakar Mukundanuni of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham will work at the two centres.
Other researchers participating in the exchange program include Mukesh Kumar (IIT-Indore), Kaushik Guha (NIT-Silchar), Dr. Jhilik (Thapar Institute of Engineering and Technology), Swades De (IIT-Delhi), Basudeb Dasgupta (TIFR-Mumbai) among others.
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