COVID-19 Research at NITs & IIEST, Shibpur

Initiatives taken by NITs & IIEST, Shibpur under the Institute: S V National Institute of Technology Surat
1 Project Title : Searching inhibitors for the potent COVID-19 RdRp/ ACE2/ SGp through molecular docking and other computational approaches
Expected Outcome : To identify the therapeutically potent of available drugs along with novel molecules present in plants/fruits against the COVID-19.
Expected Timeline :
Remarks : Please see under Additional Info.
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Additional Info
PI Details : Seshu Vardhan and Suban K Sahoo, Department of Applied Chemistry
PI Email id : suban_sahoo@rediffmail.com, sks@chem.svnit.ac.in
Data Analytics, AI to model epidemic patterns and disease dynamics
2 Project Title : Impact of News on Social Media during Pandemic of COVID-19
Expected Outcome : Pandemic News Support System
Expected Timeline : 5 months
Remarks : The project is to reduce the negative impact of COVID-19 news by collecting information from the social media network and natural language processing techniques to classify the news content with sentiment categories like chaos, panic, doubt, neutral, etc. and to regenerate the controlled news content with positive insights and public awareness.
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Additional Info
PI Details : Dr. R. G. Mehta (Asso. Prof., COED), Dr. D. P. Rana (Asst. Prof., COED), Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat
PI Email id : 1. rgm@coed.svnit.ac.in, 2. dpr@coed.svnit.ac.in
Data Analytics, AI to model epidemic patterns and disease dynamics
3 Project Title : SVNIT manufactured simple and cheap "Face Shield" and "Face Mask" using 3D printing
Expected Outcome : About 500 face shield provided to security staff, hostel kitchen workers and sanitation staff.
Expected Timeline : Already manufactured and distributed by 15th April, 2020
Remarks : Please see additional info.
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Additional Info
PI Details : Dr. Harshit Dave and Dr. Shailendra Kumar, Mechanical Engineering Department
PI Email id : skbudhwar@med.svnit.ac.in, hkd@med.svnit.ac.in
Personal Protective Care Equipment
4 Project Title : Low cost self-cleaning coating for PPEs
Expected Outcome : A low cost self cleaning antibacterial coating is proposed on the exterior surface of the mask and gloves etc. This coating can serve as the preventive measure in controlling the transmission of COVID 19 and will increase the reusability of mask etc. The coated masks and gloves will be able to fully eradicate pathogenic bacterial and viral strains. In addition, will protect the environment.
Expected Timeline : 3-6 months
Remarks : Proposed coating material will have antibacterial and self cleaning properties at low cost. It will reduce the wastage of masks and gloves and will increase its reusability.
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Additional Info
PI Details : Alka A. Mungray, Arvind Kumar Mungray Chemical Engineering Department, S. V. National Institute of Technology, Surat
PI Email id : bag@ched.svnit.ac.in, akm@ched.svnit.ac.in
Personal Protective Care Equipment
5 Project Title : SMART Wristband for maintaining social distance.
Expected Outcome : Wristband embedded with active RFID transceiver tag will give vibration alert immediately to the person who has worn it when the person comes in to vicinity of about 1.5 Meter who has also were the same band. The public places such as grocery shops, vegetable markets, ration shops, pharmacies and food relief centers runs by NGOs and Government etc. where persons standing in queues will be issued this wristband. The smart wrist band will vibrate when any person standing in queue violets the social distancing criteria from surrounding anywhere.
Expected Timeline : 4-6 months
Remarks : Off-the-shelf RFID tag will be used.
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PI Details : Dr. Anand Darji, Electronics Engineering Department
PI Email id : add@eced.svnit.ac.in
Personal Protective Care Equipment
6 Project Title : PREPARATION OF SANITIZER AT BULK LEVEL
Expected Outcome : Mitigate the shortage of the sanitizer
Expected Timeline : One week
Remarks : Apart from essential chemicals required, we have added essential oil isolated from the leaves of Lemongrass in our lab. The oil has antimicrobial and anti-oxidant activities which further add value to the sanitizer.
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Additional Info
PI Details : Dr. Jigisha K. Parikh, Professor, Chemical Engineering Department Dr. Meghal A. Desai, Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering Department Dr. Sanjay R. Patel, Associate Professor, Chemical Engineeri
PI Email id : jkp@ched.svnit.ac.in, mad@ched.svnit.ac.in, srp@ched.svnit.ac.in
Sanitization
7 Project Title : Preparation of large-scale green chemicals-assisted sanitizer
Expected Outcome : This proposal deals with the preparation of green chemicals-assisted sanitizer to disinfect pathogens including novel coronavirus. Large scale sanitizer will be prepared by using green chemicals (biopolymers, green solvents, and medicinal important phytochemicals), improving disinfecting activity for long time. Biocompatible nanomaterials generated from medicinal plants are going to mix with sanitizer liquids which could enhance the degree of disinfection activity without any side effect to host cells.
Expected Timeline : 3-6 months
Remarks : Biopolymers and biocompatible nanocomposites will be mixed with sanitizer to enhance the antiviral activity of sanitizer, which could be effective to disinfect novel coronavirus.
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PI Details : Bharat Z. Dholakiya, Naved I. Malek, Suresh Kumar Kailasa Applied Chemistry Department,
PI Email id : bzdholakiya@chem.svnit.ac.in, navedmalek@chem.svnit.ac.in, skk@chem.svnit.ac.in
Sanitization
8 Project Title : Development and fabrication of low-cost sterilizer box using UV-Hot Air combination (yoUVen)
Expected Outcome : A prototype low-cost equipment for sterilization of electronic gadgets, vegetables, fruits, stationaries etc. for domestic use with rapid up-scaling feasibility
Expected Timeline : One month
Remarks : Although several new designs of sterilizer box have been emerging recently for decontamination of these surfaces in view of current outbreak of COVID - 19, most of them rely on irradiation of UV-C on the surfaces to deactivate virus. However, the complete sterilization of entire surface may not be guaranteed by mere UV irradiance, particularly due to shadowing in case of objects with irregular shape or when the objects are in bunch, such as currency notes. We, at Optoelectronic Materials and Devices lab at Department of Applied Physics, SVNIT, Surat, have developed and fabricated a novel sterilizer box to overcome this problem. The design involves optimized combination of UV-C radiation along with hot-air to ensure thorough sterilization of various objects, even when the surface is irregular in shape. The sterilizer box allows the user to select between only UV-C irradiation or the combination of it with hot-air for a desired amount of time and the user can also chose the temperature of the air, which is kept constant for the entire cycle. The equipment is low-cost and can serve the purpose of sterilization of various items used for domestic purpose in day-to-day life during the Corona outbreak and beyond that.
URL : https://sites.google.com/view/omd-svnit-vipulkheraj/home
Additional Info
PI Details : Dr. Vipul Kheraj, Department of Applied Physics, Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology (SVNIT) – Surat
PI Email id : vk@phy.svnit.ac.in
Sanitization
9 Project Title : : Designing of nanomaterials for the extraction and identification of novel coronavirus
Expected Outcome : The proposed project may provide facile sample procedures for the extraction of viral RNA. Development of visual readers for the rapid and accurate identification of target proteins (N, S, M and E) in the novel coronavirus, which may facilitative to establish a rapid tool for the diagnosis of COVID-19. The designed nanomaterials may show high affinity to bind with the target proteins in the novel coronavirus, which may offer to detect novel coronavirus with simple spectrophotometric methods and
Expected Timeline : 6-12 months
Remarks : The proposed project may provide facile sample procedures for the extraction of viral RNA. Development of visual readers for the rapid and accurate identification of target proteins (N, S, M and E) in the novel coronavirus, which may facilitative to establish a rapid tool for the diagnosis of COVID-19.
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Additional Info
PI Details : Suresh Kumar Kailasaa, Arvind Kumar Mungrayb, Parini Vrajesh Surtia Applied Chemistry Department, S. V. National Institute of Technology, Surat
PI Email id : sureshkumarchem@gmail.com, skk@chem.svnit.ac.in
Testing Kit
10 Project Title : Synthesis of Drugs for The Prevention of COVID-19
Expected Outcome : The proposed work is aiming to address some outstanding issues in the synthesis of drug candidates for the treatment of corona virus using a much improved catalytic system.
Expected Timeline : 24 months
Remarks : It is crucial to develop safe and effective vaccines to control the COVID-19 pandemic, eliminate its spread, and ultimately prevent its future recurrence. In order to rapidly discover lead compounds for clinical use, we planned for the synthesis of different drug candidates as well as screening to identify new drug leads that target the COVID-19 virus.
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Additional Info
PI Details : Dr. Togati Naveen, Assistant Professor Applied Chemistry Department, SVNIT Surat
PI Email id : t.naveen@chem.svnit.ac.in
Treatment: Pharmacological, Non-Pharmacological
Initiatives taken by NITs & IIEST, Shibpur under the Institute: S V National Institute of Technology Surat