Interaction meeting with Dr Sateesh Reddy, Chairman, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)

Amaravati, July 26

A discussion meeting was held with Dr. G. Sateesh Reddy, Chairman, DRDO on Sunday, 25th July 2021.

Prof. D. Narayana Rao, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, SRM University – AP has highlighted the outstanding achievements of Dr. Satheesh Reddy, Chairman, DRDO during the last year. Prof. V.S. Rao, Vice-Chancellor, and Prof. D. Narayana Rao, Pro Vice-Chancellor felicitated Dr. Satheesh Reddy, Chairman, DRDO for his glorious technological contributions to India.

Then, Prof Ranjit Thapa made a presentation on Computational Materials Genome project to Dr. Satheesh Reddy. He emphasized the importance and significance of the Computational Materials Genome project and how it is useful to accelerate the design, development, discovery of new functional materials many times as fast and at a fraction of cost compared to the existing traditional methods. During his presentation, he explained the development of catalysts using QM/ML approaches, the development of explosophores, computational fluid dynamics on external aerodynamics on Earth and Mars. Dr. Satheesh Reddy, Chairman, DRDO, was impressed with the presentation and he suggested they contact DRDO-Young Scientist Laboratory related to Smart Materials in Hyderabad for experimental collaborations. He advised Dr. Sathya Pramod to discuss computational models with the Scientists who are working on hypersonic wind tunnels deployed in DRDL, Hyderabad.

Prof Vinod Kumar has presented the proposal on foams based on Aluminium and Magnesium. He has explained the processing, structure, morphology, and applications of these metal forms. Dr. Satheesh Reddy advised him to look into titanium-based metal forms also. Later, Dr. Jasvider Singh presented his work on cardiovascular stents fabricated by solvent cast 3D printing. Dr. Satheesh Reddy has shown keen interest and he asked me to send him a copy of the presentation and other details for further study.

Dr. Satheesh Reddy explained the following initiatives of DRDO.

• DRDO will fund the incubation centers which work on defense-related problems by freshly graduated BTech students with the financial assistance of up to Rs 1 crore. Further, if the fresh graduates could rope in an industry, as a partner, then DRDO could provide financial assistance of up to 10 Crores of rupees.
• DRDO has also started joint Ph.D. programs with universities/institutions in India. DRDO scientists will be acts as co-guides and registered Ph.D. students will get an opportunity to work in DRDO labs during their tenure.
• DRDO has also started MTech programs in Defence Technologies jointly with the universities. In this program, students will complete the course work in the university, and in the second year, students can do their project work in the DRDO labs.
• DRDO is also interested to support Long-term projects with the Universities under the Directed Research program which could be supported by DRDO for a long-term of two or three decades.

Prof. D. Narayana Rao, Pro Vice-Chancellor, SRM University – AP said that Dr. Sateesh Reddy, Chairman, DRDO assured collaboration with SRM University – AP on a few projects that are relevant to the needs of DRDO.