Dr. Avilash Raul is the Principal Scientist at Indo German Centre for Sustainability (IGCS) and a guest faculty at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras. Chennai 36 correspondent Rasika Joshi sits down with Dr. Raul to talk about the projects and research internship opportunities for students from all fields at IGCS. Could you talk about why IGCS was established and briefly outline your association with it? The Indo German Centre for Sustainability was

In their new study, Dr. Pallab Sinha Mahapatra and Mr. Siddhant Mohapatra from IIT-Madras have discerned the dynamics of the prey-predator relationship in a confined space. Through a modeling approach, the scientists have co-related the survival of prey to the strength of the disturbance caused by the imminent predator attack. Living in communities is not exclusive to humans. Many insects, animals, and birds prefer to stay in groups; for example, fish swim in shoals, birds fl

C ryptography is a beautiful branch of mathematics which guarantees the art of secret-keeping. In today’s world of big data, there is a serious conflict between utility and privacy. The prime example of this conflict comes from the field of medicine — the abundance of genetic data today makes it possible to imagine a future where medicines can be personalized, but developing this capability requires running algorithms on large scale genetic data which is highly sensitive, and

The elevator probably counts itself amongst the world’s most pitiful objects, for it flies up and down for miles without ever having gotten anywhere. Today, it flew with a lady. “Hmm”, jabbing a button that read four, Claire mumbled into her phone. “…and how’s Albert doing?” “Great!”, a male voice replied on the other side of the phone. “The little devil seems to have calmed down.” “And the dentist said…” “No sweets for a long time. Otherwise, it’s going to be cavities all ov

She stood proudly at the centre of the gallery, admiring the throng of visitors streaming through the doors. She warmly greeted her patrons with a polite smile. “My dear, you’ve outdone yourself this time- how realistic this one! Is! I almost cowered under its gaze,” exclaimed Nita, an aristocratic octogenarian who stubbornly refused to acknowledge her age. She smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “Yes, this took a while to perfect,” she said, running her fingers