IIT-Delhi In Search of Foreign Scientists for EV Research Centre CART

IIT-Delhi is on the lookout for international experts in the field of electric vehicles to boost its Centre for Automotive Research and Tribology (CART).

V Ramgopal Rao, IIT-Delhi director, said they are eyeing to recruit professionals from countries like the US in the newly-formed department along with industry experts. According to him, a team will be sent to the US this month to identify these experts and recruit them to teach here.

CART center at the IIT-Delhi Campus has emerged from ITMMEC, a center established in the 70’s that focused on Industrial Tribology and was nationally and internationally an acclaimed research center in its focus area.

“This center will be looking at the changes required in the future. India will be a major player in the e-vehicle space in the coming years. Not only is it crucial for Delhi, but the entire world. We have one-third core faculty, the next one-third will be adjunct faculty with industry affiliation who can come and share real-world problems and solutions, while the remaining will be from allied departments. We will need 10 new faculty members in the next 10 years,” Rao said.

Prof BK Panigrahi from the department of electrical engineering, who has been appointed as the center’s first head, said sufficient charging infrastructure is one of the top requirements for e-vehicles. “At the center, we will explore if solar charging can be a possibility. We have 3-4 IIT-incubated startups already working on battery tech and charging areas,” he added.

CART’s focused research areas will include:

• Design, development and analysis of Electric Vehicle Motors and Drives.
• Optimal sizing and design of battery packs, power train and chargers for onboard Electric Vehicles.
• Automotive health monitoring and development of Battery Management System (BMS).
• Design, development, analysis and testing of suitable power converter topology (AC-DC, DC-AC and DC-DC) and controller for various applications like V2G, G2V capability, operation of Electronic Loads and others.
• Ancillary services and Demand Side Management (DSM) with electric vehicles.
• Development of smart and secure infrastructure for charging station, battery health monitoring etc.
• Development of Tribo-material, Tribo-dynamics, studies of Bulk Material Handling, NVH and Condition monitoring, Reliability and Maintenance, Design and performance of tribological elements.

Other departments and centers of IIT Delhi, which will be playing a key role in the interdisciplinary research along with CART include Electrical Engineering, Center for Energy Studies, Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Computer Science & Engineering.

Published with the permission from Iamrenew