Student Corner

What I Look For in a Student

My research group is a GUILD with no heirarchy. You learn as much by "hanging around" with the guild, working on projects and interacting with me. The guild typically works on projects like designing and building autonomous marine vehicles, developing programs to simulate the dynamics of these vehicles, developing and implementing different control strategies on these vehicles etc. Building or working with autonomous vehicles operating in marine environment requires an integration of ideas from various disciplines including ocean, mechanical, structural, electrical, electronics and computer science engineering. Therefore my guild welcomes students from all disciplines.

I look for someone who:

  • can demonstrate familiarity towards our work

  • has a history of excellence and is passionate to get involved in our work

  • enjoys connecting the dots between disciplines

  • is ready to get hands dirty on a practical problem

  • is willing to work as a part of a team

  • will be grounded in artificial intelligence, control theory and naval architecture. Students with no prior experience in these but who are motivated to learn are also welcome to join the guild.

Expectations

These expectations apply to all students in the guild.

  • Produce 1 paper in a year (journal/conference) after the first semester. Initially assist as co-author, but after the first year, serve as first author

  • Meet me atleast once every 2 weeks (once every week is recommended) to discuss their research progress and challenges

  • Meet all requirements for the institute and the department

  • Serve as a mentor to newer students in the guild

  • Work together as a team towards the common goal of guild projects

I expect everyone to the support the guild internally and externally, and to maintain the highest standards, scientific rigor, and personal integrity. Plagiarism during paper publication will be treated as a serious offence.

Funding

I fund undergraduate students through pizza positions and summer internships.

MS/PhD students looking to join my group can either

  1. Apply through regular channel at research.iitm.ac.in

  2. Join my group through one of my funded projects and later (at least after 6 months) convert into MS or PhD students (List of funded positions)

Postdocs are also funded through projects depending on fund availability. Funding is conditional on maintaining satisfactory performance in the ocean engineering department and in my group.