2021 class of RIYA scholars excel online in the adversity of ongoing pandemic
With travel restrictions and health precautions still in place in 2021 due to COV-19’s Delta variant, Ohio State’s Research Internship for Young Academics (RIYA) Program has found a way to keep the connection with future engineers and leaders from India.
Through innovative online methods and great communication, eight different students from top institutions in India completed internships in the RIYA Program online: Abhyudit Singh Manhas, Aniruddha Gandhewar, Abhiram Shenoi, Karthik Srinivasan, Bashu Aman, Anirudh Gupta, Hemanth Dontamsetti and Sibibalan Jeevanandam.
Mentors included Prof. Ardeshir Contractor, Dr. Navni Verma, Prof. Manoj Srinivasan, Prof. David Talbot, Mr. Lokaditya Ryali, senior PhD student, Prof. O. Taha Sen, ITU, Turkey, Dr. Rajendra Gunda, ANSOL, Prof. Luke Fredette, OSU and Cedarville University, and Prof. Raj Singh.
“The RIYA program was a breath of fresh air in the pandemic as it gave me a chance to work on a new project and interact with my mentors, Dr. Talbot and Lokaditya Ryali, and learn a lot from them. The exposure to research and graduate school that I got from the program was invaluable in deciding my plans for the future,” Abhiram Shenoi, a mechanical engineering student at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and RIYA Scholar 2021, said. “These were some things that would have been nearly impossible without this program.”
The RIYA program is designed to facilitate cutting-edge research experiences for undergraduate mechanical engineering students from top institutes in India. Participants work closely with renowned faculty in Ohio State’s Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, along with a world-class research team.
Abhyudit Singh Manhas, undergraduate student of mechanical engineering at IIT Madras, worked in the Acoustics and Dynamics Laboratory under the mentorship of Dr. Rajendra Singh and Dr. Luke Fredette. His research focused on developing a stopper that can have a smooth engagement with a quasi-zero stiffness isolator.
“My work involved coming up with innovative stopper mechanisms which can smoothen the transition from the quasi-zero stiffness regime to the stopper regime of the isolator,” Manhas said. “Then performing finite element simulations in software such as ABAQUS to get results, on the basis of which the design was further improved.”
For Manhas, the largest challenge was an understandable one for anyone doing international work – time zones.
“Whenever I faced a problem or had a doubt, I had to wait until it was morning in the US to get in touch with my mentor through mail to look for a way forward,” Manhas said, “which sometimes made my progress in the work slower.”
Manhas is thankful for his time in RIYA and, in the future, plans to pursue a masters, and from there possibly a PhD thereafter from a top US university, after finishing his undergraduate from IIT Madras.
“I would like to thank Dr. Rajendra Singh and Dr. Luke Fredette for their constant support and assistance during the course of this internship,” Manhas said. “I learned a lot under their guidance and I’m really grateful to them for this opportunity.”
Another undergraduate student of mechanical engineering at IIT Madras, Aniruddha Gandhewar, worked on developing new design features aimed at increasing the vibration isolation efficiency of a mount used in the research at the Acoustics and Dynamics Laboratory.
The mount consisted of a shear leg and a fixture. According to Gandhewar, increasing the vibration isolation efficiency for vibrations of larger amplitudes meant increasing the range of the quasi-zero stiffness (QZS) region of the mount.
“To begin, I extended the isolator’s design analysis and explore its topology crucial to the QZS region’s position and range. I was now able to develop new design features based on the analytical insights I had gained,” Gandhewar said. “After a month of ideation and refining, I came up with two design modifications that could significantly increase the QZS range. One of the design enhancements was the introduction of a low-stiffness element with its very own QZS region. Coupling the mount and the element gave rise to a much larger QZS region.”
Software for simulations became the largest hurdle for Gandhewar as he went through RIYA.
“I did not have access to licensed version of ABAQUS, a simulation software. I had to use the student version where I was restricted by the number of nodes in the mesh,” Gandhewar said. “I had to spend a lot of time in the process of meshing when the geometry was complex. Although this experience taught me a lot about different meshing techniques which will be very helpful in the future.”
Gandhewar considered pursuing a PhD before the RIYA program, but now has plans to take some time to decide his field of interest, and then pursue a PhD.
Our third RIYA recipient is Abhiram Shenoi who spent his time in the program researching numerical methods for nonlinear contact problems, with focus on gear impact pairs. Shenoi was mentored by Dr. Talbot and Lokaditya Ryali.
“I studied the effect of different methods on the solution time & accuracy,” Shenoi said. “I used a novel approach to solving for the steady state response using an existing frequency domain method. Also, I explored the use of Physics Informed Neural Networks (PINNs) to obtain the steady state solution of the system.”
Working remote was a large problem for Shenoi, but with the help and support of his mentors he made it through.
“Working remotely was one challenge but given the nature of my project it was easier to work around,” Shenoi said. “I received great support from my mentors throughout the internship, but it would have been nicer to meet them in person and also learn more about the research happening within the department of MAE by seeing and discussing it in person.”
Shenoi plans to pursue research in controls or robotics while pursuing a Master’s or PhD, and was very thankful for all he learned in RIYA.
“Thanks to Dr. Raj Singh and MAE OSU for this wonderful experience!” Shenoi said. “Every week we (RIYA scholars) met (virtually) and had very insightful discussions led by Dr. Raj Singh on various topics ranging from ethics to grad school to life after an ME degree, which I enjoyed a lot and found very helpful.”
Our next 2021 RIYA scholar, Karthik Srinivasan, from IIT Madras, worked on research focused on dynamic manipulation.
“It was a fun project where we tried to model the art of dice-stacking,” Karthik said. “Very little research has been done before on this topic so we could explore on this and create a basic simulation of the same.”
For Karthik, going without meeting new people and doing his experiment in person were his biggest challenges.
“I would have obtained a much more experiment-oriented project if it had not been remote,” Karthik said. “Also, staring at the screen continuously does not help my eyes. I would have loved to physically meet new people which I wasn't able to do.”
Karthik has yet to decide on his future plans but is between pursuing a PhD and going into the workforce. He commends the great work that Dr. Raj Singh and his team has done with the RIYA program amidst a pandemic.
“Kudos to Dr. Raj Singh and his team of professors for organizing such a program even during these times,” Karthik said. “It was different, but it was still effective enough. The choice of projects and the scheduling were affected very much due to the pandemic.”
During his time in RIYA, Bashu Aman, and undergraduate at IIT Kharagpur, worked on the research project entitled “Analysis of Coupled Structure-Acoustics Problem” under Prof Singh and Dr. Gunda at the Acoustics and Dynamics Lab (ADL).
“I was performing analytical, semi-analytical, and boundary element methods to calculate the pressure spectra under given excitations and damping systems, influenced by the absorbing liners,” Aman said. “Through MATLAB codes, results from selected literatures, and Coustyx BEM codes, I was able to comment on the functionality of Dowell’s approximation method and the features of associated coupled modes.”
Aman’s greatest issues arose were reoccurring with computing pressure responses, working with complex numbers, plotting these responses, and many more.
“Research without challenges is never possible, “Aman said. “In end, I was able to overcome these challenges with the help and support of my mentors at ADL. These challenges have given me great experience as to where my approach is not valid which will certainly help me in my future research.”
Aman is planning to pursue graduate studies at a university abroad where he can find lab work that aligns with his research interests. In addition to that, he looks forward to mentoring prospective RIYA scholars and other students who are willing to pursue research as a career.
To Aman, RIYA should be an opportunity that one should not push aside.
“I would like to add that one should definitely consider applying to RIYA program and working as a RIYA scholar due to the added benefits given to students as they are part of a small sample space,” Aman said. “The one-to-one interactions will assist one in realizing their passion and pursuit for research.”
Anirudh Gupta is in his last year of undergraduate in the department of mechanical engineering at IIT Kharagpur. For RIYA, Gupta worked in the Computational Lab for Energy Applied Research (CLEAR) under the guidance of mentors, Professor Ardeshir Contractor and Dr. Navni Verma.
Gupta’s project revolved around Multiphysics Modelling of Single Fiber Structural Battery Composites using COMSOL Multiphysics.
“It was commendable how valuable and informative the RIYA program turned out to be despite being in a virtual format, that too in a global pandemic,” Gupta said. “Although we could not physically access the labs at OSU, the remote computational facility provided to us proved to be really beneficial, especially for my project.”
Gupta plans to pursue graduate school after completing his undergraduate degree from IIT Kharagpur.
“The research experience gained through the RIYA program, valuable discussions with my mentors, and the weekly group discussions with Professor Singh helped me greatly to finally come up with this decision,” he said. “I would like to thank my mentors for their invaluable support and guidance, and Professor Singh for organizing the RIYA 2021 program in such an eloquent manner.”
Also working closely with CLEAR, Hemanth Dontamsetti, an undergraduate at IIT Bombay, was a 2021 RIYA scholar mentored by Professor Ardeshir Contractor and Dr. Navni Verma. His research consisted of helping an ongoing project of CLEAR Lab with MES Inc. to investigate heat dissipation from aluminum die-cast components used in inverter castings of electric vehicles.
“My task was to develop a simulation model and perform thermal analysis of the EV inverter under different working conditions,” Dontamsetti said. “It helps in the analysis of different designs heat dissipation effectiveness and thermal reliability.”
He plans to pursue further studies and research on interdisciplinary topics like robotics, precisely locomotion control of legged robots. But he has not ruled out other fields of science and engineering like space and planetary exploration.
“The program was way more fruitful than I expected during this pandemic. Being in the RIYA program, I developed many non-technical things like how to proceed and what to consider while doing research, documenting the findings, presenting my work in an effective way and ethics,” Dontamsetti said. “Weekly discussions conducted by Prof. Singh on professional, career and personal topics were constructive and interactive. I hope it would be there for upcoming RIYA scholars as well. I want to thank Dr. Navni Verma and Prof. Ardeshir for being kind and helpful many times.”
The last RIYA Scholar in the 2021 class is Sibibalan Jeevanandam (from IIT Tirupati) . Jeevanandam worked in the Acoustics and Dynamics Lab under the mentorship of Prof. Taha and Prof. Singh.
Jeevanandam’s research focused on a vibration absorber system, which is typically used to limit vibrations and prevent damage to structural components.
“I started with getting acclimated to the harmonic balance technique and then applied it to the two degree-of-freedom nonlinear system,” Jeevanandam said. “The primary focus was exploring and investigating the effect of multiple nonlinear paths.”
One of the biggest challenges for Jeevanandam was burnout and always being able to work, he said. Although a major upside of the remote RIYA program was he was able to see his family during his time off of research.
Jeevanandam believes that even with the pandemic RIYA made the most out of it.
“Most of us are aware of the drawbacks of working remotely during a pandemic,” Jeevanandam said. “However, regular communication and interaction with my mentors enabled me to learn as much as I would have learned during the pre-pandemic era. Though visiting OSU and interacting in person with my mentors would have been a captivating experience altogether, this 10-week internship was the best learning experience I could have had during a pandemic.”
Jeevanandam plans to complete undergrad and then pursue a PhD along the lines of nonlinear dynamics.
With his and the rest of the group’s internships coming to a close, Jeevanandam is thankful for the time he had in the program and is excited for the 2022 class to share in the experience he had.
“The RIYA program is much more than completing a research project, spanning almost all the key components one would come across in research,” Jeevanandam said. “Nothing is taken for granted here, and learning never ceases (even on the last day of the internship!). Prof. Singh’s commitment to the program is inspiring, and I hope RIYA continues to shape the careers of many students in the years to come.”
Written by Jake Rahe, MAE Communications Program Assistant (.21)
