Indian Ocean History; Economic Anthropology; Political Science; English Language Skills Teaching and Assessment, Technology (Digital and Multimodal) in ESL Education, Intercultural Communication, Materials Development in ELT, Teacher Professional Development, Material Development, Teacher Identity/Cognition, Teaching Approaches, Methods and Strategies, Political Economy, Macro Economics, Labour Economics, Development Economics, Economics of Climate Change, Agricultural Economics, Environmental Economics, Energy Economics, Philosophy of logic; Philosophy of Mind; Philosophy of Language; Consciousness studies; Cognitive Science; Professional Ethics; Environmental Ethics; Indian Philosophy, Sociology of Migration, Citizenship, Governance, Political Ecology and Climate Change, School Education, Educational leadership and Governance, Gender and Educational Leadership, Medieval and Early Modern Indian History, Gender History of Islamic Societies in Early Modern India, Law and Colonialism, History of Emotions, Behavioural Economics and Handloom Economics, Indian Knowledge System, Ancient Indian History, Indology & Heritage Studies

Cognitive Science: Attention, Perception and Memory, Speech Perception, Vision and Cognition, Colour Perception, Role of Vision in Driving Behaviours, Alzheimer’s Disease and Cognitive Aging, Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Linguistics.

Linguistics: Applied Linguistics (Phonetics, Phonology, Syntax, Semantics and Pragmatics), Sociolinguistics, Psycholinguistics, Cultural Linguistics, Machine Translation and Computational Linguistics

Structural Engineering: Geopolymer concrete, Structural Engineering of Heritage Structures and Civil Structural Health Monitoring with sensors, Advanced Structural Cementitious Composites, Earthquake proof civil structures, Seismic Risk Assessment, Engineering Seismology, Engineered Bamboo, monitoring corrosion of Infrastructure, Sustainable materials, Engineered nano cementitious composites, Ultra high performance concrete composites, Structural distress and strengthening systems, Precast elements with 3D concrete printing and Performance based design of Precast structural elements. Fiber-reinforced concrete and interfacial mechanics.  Structural response under extreme loads (Blast, Fire, Impact), Computational mechanics, Structural vulnerability modelling, Advanced cementitious materials (UHPFRC).

Transportation Engineering: Travel Behaviour and Choice Modelling, Mobility as a Service (MaaS), Shared Mobility,  Sustainable Urban Transportation Systems, Road Safety Audit. Intelligent Transportation Systems, Driver Behaviour, Road Safety Education,  Road Traffic Noise.  Transportation and Environment- transportation systems modelling, GIS applications and optimization in transportation infrastructure modelling and development, high-speed rail infrastructure planning, and metaheuristics in alignment development and facility location. Driver Behavior, Safety Implications of Electric Vehicles, Road Safety Education, Pedestrian Safety, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Road Traffic Noise. Transport Network Resilience, Disaster Risk Assessment of Road Infrastructure, Evacuation Planning on Road Networks, Network Optimization for Evacuation Planning.

Geotechnical Engineering:  Geosynthetics, Sustainable/recycled/secondary pavement materials,  stabilization of materials, pavement geotechnics, and NDT Testing.

Water resources Engineering: Watershed management, hydrological modelling, and GIS application in   catchment area/drainage basin.

Environmental Engineering: Indoor environmental quality, Water quality monitoring, Micropollutants, Photocatalysis, Nanomaterials synthesis for air and water pollution mitigation, Microalgal biofuels.  Construction Management:  Project management, Stakeholder management, Risk management in mega construction projects, Sustainability in construction projects, Lean Construction, and Circular economy.

Hollow core anti resonant optical fibers, photonic time crystals, high power beam delivery, and applications; TMDC (2D) based metamaterials, Metasurface based Quantum emissions and Inverse Design of metamaterials for entangled quantum sources; Quantum Condensed Matter Physics: Topological Transport in Quantum Materials, Photonic time crystals, Specialty optical fibers, Exceptional point photonics, Topological and quantum photonics, Complex photonics, Atomistic Simulation of Quantum Magnets for Modern Spintronics, Quantum Energy Materials; Chalcogenides, Phase Change Memory, Structure Property correlation Study for Engineered Materials; Nanotechnology and Advance Functional Energy Materials, Spintronic Devices, Wide gap semiconductors for photo and bio sensing, Solar Cell, ‘Network resource optimization algorithms for large scale quantum network’, Magnetic Materials; Neutrino physics, Dark matter phenomenology, Astro-particle Physics, Supernova neutrinos, Beyond the standard model (BSM physics) – decoherence, non-standard interactions, decay

Fluid & Thermal Engineering: Solar Thermal Power, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning, Cell modelling, Experimental study on Battery thermal management, Direct/indirect cooling of Lithium-ion battery pack, ageing, thermal runaway of Lithium-ion cell, Data Center Cooling, Heat transfer, Microfluidics, Biofluid Dynamics, Biomechanics Modelling and Simulation.

Solid mechanics: Computational Mechanics, Theoretical solid mechanics, Computer Aided Design, mechanics of 3D printed cellular materials, functionalized 3D print resins (modelling + development)

Materials and Manufacturing Process: Cyber-Physical Systems, Advanced manufacturing systems, Sheet metal forming of Titanium Alloy Ti6AI4V, Finite Element Analysis and Experimental work on Incremental Sheet Forming using hybrid techniques (heat assisted, electric assisted), Solid State recycling of machining scrap, Rolling of Aerospace materials, Manufacturing process simulation for aerospace materials, Additive manufacturing, Numerical Modelling and Simulation of additive manufacturing, Friction based Additive Manufacturing, advance finishing process, Smart Manufacturing, Industrial Engineering, Automation in Manufacturing, Laser Additive Manufacturing, Post-processing of Additively Manufactured parts, AI and ML in Advanced Manufacturing, Advanced Micro-machining Processes. Nanomaterials Processing and Characterization – Tribology of hard coatings on cemented tungsten carbide – Composite oxide nano additives in lubricants

Robotics: Robotics, Cable-Driven Robotics, Exoskeletons, Exosuits, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, legged robots, autonomous robot navigation, Robot control, Multibody dynamics, DRONES, Aerial robotics, Mechatronic system development, Robot-Assisted Surgery, Augmented and Virtual Reality based Medical Robots etc.Aerospace Engineering: Gas turbine Combustion, Computational Turbomachinery, Scramjet Propulsion with hydrogen and hydrogen fuel, Regenerative Cooling in high speed flow, Turbulence modelling, Combustion modelling, Large Eddy Simulation, Direct Numerical Simulation, Turbulence-chemistry interaction, Laminar to Turbulent Transition, CFD code development in high speed reacting and non-reacting flows, Numerical Modelling of Solid Propellant Combustion, Combustion Instability; Experimental investigation of the burning rate characteristics of solid propellants containing additives and burn-rate modifiers; Experimental Aerodynamics, Fluid-Structure Interaction in Turbomachinery, Experiments in High-Speed Flows; Lighter-Than-Air (LTA) Systems, Buoyant Aerial Platforms, Planetary Exploration using Buoyant Systems, Buoyant Aerial Platforms for Renewable Energy Generation, Design of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), Urban Air Mobility, Guidance Navigation and Control of UAVs, Flapping Wing Aerodynamics, Micro-Aerial Vehicles (MAVs); Vibration of continuous systems, fluid-structure interaction, wind turbine structures, wind turbine blade design, offshore wind turbine dynamics, Computational Wave Mechanics in elastic solids, Nonlocal Elasticity Theories, Causality and Kramer-Kronig Relations.

Sustainable Urban Built-Environments

1. Climate and Sustainability in Net-Zero Buildings and Campuses: Digital Twins and Integrated Performance Modeling: This research area advances net-zero performance in buildings and campus-scale infrastructure through integrated performance modeling, calibrated digital twins, and data-driven design approaches. It aims to reduce the gap between simulated and real-world performance by combining building physics, real-time monitoring, microclimate integration, and multi-system optimization across energy, water, waste, and emissions. The campus is positioned as a living laboratory to develop scalable decision-support frameworks that support sustainable infrastructure planning and long term decarbonization of the building sector.  

2. Urban Heat Mitigation and Adaptation:  Data-Driven Spatial Analytics, Urban Planning, and Computational Modeling for Sustainable Built Environments: This research area investigates urban heat dynamics and develops data-driven mitigation and adaptation strategies for climate-resilient cities. It integrates spatial analytics, remote sensing, urban climate modeling, and machine learning to examine how built form and infrastructure influence thermal exposure. The work connects climate science with urban planning to design and evaluate strategies such as green and blue infrastructure, cool materials, shading systems, and climate-sensitive urban form. The goal is to develop predictive tools and evidence-based frameworks that support resilient and sustainable urban development under rising heat stress.  

Sustainable Energy and Transport Systems 

1. Electricity System Decarbonization: Electricity demand-side modelling, supply-side capacity expansion modelling, integration of renewable energy and storage, smart charging and electrification impacts and resilience of electricity networks.   The research focuses on accelerating power sector decarbonization through integrated modelling of generation expansion, grid operations, and system reliability.  

2. Transport Network Modelling: Transport network modelling and optimization, public transport system design, electric vehicle integration, autonomous vehicle impacts, and agent-based modelling approaches.  The work aims to develop data-driven solutions to reduce emissions from the transport sector.  

Global Governance  

1. Emergent Technologies, International Environmental Law, and Multilateral Governance: Net effectiveness of multilateral institutions through implementation of emergent climate technologies (including but not limited to solar geoengineering), international environmental law implementation across national jurisdictions, compliancecoordination-enforcement mechanisms.  The research focuses on identifying barriers to effective policy enforcement in national contexts, how emergent technologies reshape multilateral cooperation dynamics, and developing strategies to strengthen the alignment between international environmental agreements and domestic legal frameworks. 

2. State Behavior and Global Governance Modelling: Modelling state behavior in environmental negotiations and their choice of climate solutions, national interest formation and strategic interactions, agent-based modelling of multilateral cooperation, game-theoretic approaches to climate diplomacy, predictive analytics for treaty compliance, and comparative analysis of governance effectiveness across jurisdictions.  The work aims to develop data-driven analytical frameworks to understand how competing national interests shape global environmental governance outcomes and to identify institutional designs that promote cooperation and equitable solutions.  

City Climate Planning/Urban Climate Agenda    

1. Climate Resilient Cities and Urban Regions: Cities’ Climate Action Plans; Emission reduction across sectors including energy, buildings, transportation, waste, agriculture; urban adaptation to climate related disasters; climate governance in cities; climate data systems in local urban areas; Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions Mitigation; Net-Zero Pathways.  The research advances India’s urban climate agenda by strengthening national climate governance, data systems, and policy coherence across sectors and levels of government. It supports the effective implementation of climate action to accelerate progress toward national and global climate goals.  

2. Climate Action in Developing Countries and Emerging Economies: Carbon budget; Nationally Determined Contribution (NDCs); global climate goals; UNFCCC; COP Negotiations; historical responsibility; contribution of different countries to climate change; Development vs. Decarbonization Dilemma.  The research focuses on examining how historical emissions, current capacities, and development needs shape the differentiated responsibilities of countries under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change framework. It evaluates pathways for ensuring equitable climate action through fair carbon budgeting, finance commitments, and strengthened Nationally Determined Contributions aligned with global temperature goals.  

Sustainable Water Resources Management 

1. Integrating Blue-Green Infrastructure for Climate-Resilient Water Resource Management and Urban Water Security:  This research will examine how blue-green infrastructure can enhance urban water resilience under climate variability. The study will integrate hydrological analysis and spatial tools to evaluate strategies for improving water security and managing urban water systems sustainably.  

2. Hydrologic and Nature-Based Approaches for Enhancing Water Security under Climate Change: This study will investigate hydrologic processes and nature-based solutions that support sustainable water management in a changing climate. The research will combine hydrological modelling, spatial analysis, and data-driven approaches to identify pathways for improving long-term water security.

1. 2D Materials, Nano-biosensors, Battery and Energy Storage Technologies
2. Organic Fluorophores, Photocatalysis and Metal-Covalent Organic Frameworks
3. Biomedical Materials, Protein Engineering and Bio catalysis
4. High-Entropy Nanomaterials for Water Splitting and Energy Applications
5. Molecular Modelling and Simulations
6. Functional Polymer Nanomaterials

Any area of CS and AI overlapping with current research interests of the faculty of the department.

Prospective candidates are encouraged to explore the research interests of individual faculty members on their respective websites. A meaningful overlap between the candidate’s proposed research and the established research areas within the department is to be ensured by candidates. 

Indicative areas – High-Performance Computing; Social Network Analysis; Artificial Intelligence; Machine Learning; Deep Learning; Cyber-Physical Systems; Computer Vision and Image Processing; Natural Language Processing; Computational Intelligence; Theoretical Computer Science; Big Data Computing; Computer Architecture; Computer Networks; Network Security; Cyber Security; Wireless Sensor Networks; Generative AI, Neuroscience, Brain-Computer interface

Note:

Technical Writing Skills: Candidates will be asked to write a concise paragraph on a technical topic within computer science and engineering.

Comprehension Skills: Candidates will be given an abstract of a research paper and are expected to write a brief summary of it.Entrepreneurship: Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Start-ups and Technology Entrepreneurship, Family Business Management, Start-ups-Scaling up & Growth, Incubation processes and models

VLSI Design & Embedded Systems:  IoT architecture, Fault tolerant and resilient embedded systems, Embedded/Edge AI, VLSI designs beyond CMOS, Machine learning applications in VLSI, Algorithms for physical design automation, Semiconductor Devices, High Electron Mobility Transistor modelling for High Frequency applications, Memristor logic for low power logic implementation, Low power reliable memories for In memory compute (IMC), SRAM for space applications, Design of digital circuits and memories using Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA), Synthesis of high k nanomaterials for semiconductor applications, hardware security, approximate computing.  Embedded systems for smart homes, smart farming, and smart healthcare, deep neural network accelerator VLSI design, approximate circuit synthesis for deep neural network.

Renewable Energy System & Smart Grid:  Hybrid Energy Storage Systems, Cyber Physical Systems, Cyber Security for Power Electronic Systems, Fuel Cell.

Power Electronics and Electric Drives:  Sensorless Electric Drives, Electric Vehicles, EV charging, Cyber Physical Systems, Cyber security for Power Electronic systems, fuel cell, Hybrid Energy Storage systems

Communications and Signal Processing:  Biomedical Signal Processing – [Cognitive Load, Microsleeps, Motor imagery, Emotions], Biometrics and Computer vision, Generative AI for images, Light-weighted efficient deep learning models for vision applications, Wireless communications, 5G and massive IoT, High performance sense amplifier design, Deep learning for wireless communication, Radio Resource Management, MIMO communication, Non-orthogonal Multiple Access Technologies, Optimization in PHY and MAC layers, Dynamic Spectrum Access, Error correction coding for 5G and IoT communication, underwater optical communications, underwater object identification, and ocean optics, RF security and interference management for 5G IoT, AI/ML for RF signal processing for 5G/6G, Ultra-wideband digital predistortion for 5G/6G, 5G Security and RF Fingerprinting, Integrated Sensing and Communications, Energy-efficient next generation broadcasting systems, PAPR reduction techniques for 5G and beyond.

Numerical Analysis; Differential Equations; Analysis of Partial Differential Equations; Image Processing; Stochastic Differential Equations; Optimal Control Theory; Probability and Statistics; Fluid Dynamics; Operations Research; Scheduling and Timetabling in Industry and Education; Finite Group Theory; Numerical Linear Algebra; and Machine Learning, Financial Mathematics, Graph Theory, Graph Algorithms; Computational Methods for PDEs, Mathematical biology, mathematical modeling

Computational Biology: AI in Healthcare, Computational Drug Discovery, Multi-Omic Data Analytics, Biomedical Image Analytics, Computational Genomics, Disease Modelling & Digital Twins, Computer-aided Biotherapeutics Discovery

Biomedical Technology: CRISPR Gene Editing, Precision Medicine, Nucleic Acid Therapeutics, Cancer Genomics, Host-Pathogen Interactions, Microbial Genomics, Molecular Virology, Antibody/ Nanobody Engineering, PoC Devices & Biosensors, Nano-Delivery of Drugs, AMR & Infectious Diseases, Molecular Basis of Diseases, including autoimmune, cancer, ageing, Glioblastoma, etc.

Synthetic Biology & Metabolic Engineering: Systems Biology, Plant Metabolic Engineering, Bioprocessing & Green Products, Food Processing & Nutrition, Crop Editing

• Master’s degree in Engineering/Technology/Science/Humanities/Social Sciences with a minimum CGPA of 6.00 on a 10-point scale or 60% marks in aggregate. Full time students who do not possess M.Tech. or equivalent degree and instead possess B.Tech. or equivalent degree with a minimum CGPA of 7.00 on a 10-point scale or 70% aggregate marks are required to have a valid GATE score or UGC/CSIR/DBT/INSPIRE Fellowship Examination for Sciences/Humanities and Social Sciences disciplines.
• The requirement of GATE/National examination can be waived off for possible admission to Ph.D. programs for all graduates from Centrally Funded Technical Institutes with a B.Tech./B.E./Integrated M.Sc. (or any other program of minimum four years duration, admission to which was on the basis of JEE) with CGPA of 8.00 and above at the time of graduation. 
• The requirement of GATE/National Examination can be also waived off for M.Sc. graduates from IITs with a CGPA of 8.00 and above.
• Note: Applicants to the Ph.D. programmes in Physics, Chemistry, and Mathematics are required to select “Ph.D. in Engineering” as their preferred course during the application process.

• Submit the online application via the Mahindra University admissions portal
• Academic record and research proposal review
• Selection interview/assessment with faculty and research supervisors
• Offers issued to successful candidates