Category: Research Spotlight

Dr Rangachary Kommanduri, Visiting Assistant Professor, Data Science, SIAS, has been awarded a grant under the MeitY Entrepreneur-in-Residence (EiR) Program for his proposal, ‘Transforming Campus Safety with AI-Powered Anomaly Detection Solutions.’ The program, which supports early-stage entrepreneurs in developing innovative technology solutions, is supported by Gyan Circle Ventures (CIEDI) at IIIT Sri City and funded under the TIDE 2.0 initiative by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). The project focuses on developing an AI-powered surveillance system to detect abnormal activities on campus, such as intrusions, unattended objects, and potential security threats like physical altercations. The system will provide real-time alerts, enhancing campus safety through swift intervention.

Dr Jyoti Kumari, Assistant Professor, Finance, Accounting and Quantitative Finance, IFMR GSB has been awarded the ICSSR Project Grant under the Major Research Projects Grant for 2024-25. The recommended title of the research project is, ‘The Role of Alternative Data in Expanding the Credit Access: A Study of Fintech Innovations in India.’

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Dr Rangachary Kommanduri’s paper titled, ‘STAD-AI: Spatio-temporal Anomaly Detection in Videos with Attentive Dual-Stage Integration’ has been published in the Neurocomputing journal (Q1, Impact Factor = 5.5).

This work presents STAD-AI, a novel framework for video anomaly detection that combines spatio-temporal attention-based feature extraction with an attentive U-Net architecture for precise anomaly prediction.

Dr Kommanduri is Visiting Assistant Professor, Data Science at SIAS.

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Dr Srajana Kaikini, Assistant Professor, Philosophy, SIAS has penned a book chapter ‘The Plant Studies of K. Venkatappa : The Artist’s Kinship with Nature, Truth, and Rationality’ is published as part of the book Nation, Region, Modernity: The Art of K. Venkatappa, Routledge India (2025) edited by Deeptha Achar and N Pushpamala. In her chapter, Dr Kaikini situates the philosophical bearings of Venkatappa’s aesthetic and his pre-occupation with truth, nature and scientific precision by tracing his creative kinship with his contemporaries—C V Raman, the scientist, James H. Cousins, the theosophist and B G L Swamy, the botanist. 

Critical Review of the Book:

‘Bringing together a stellar group of scholars, this inter-disciplinary volume reminds us of the aesthetic importance for the study of both Indian modernity and the history of modern Indian art of K. Venkatappa as painter, sculptor, musician, art educationist, and much more.

We are thrilled to share Professor Bishnu Mohapatra’s most recent volume of poetry, Barshavatara, has been published in English translation as Rain Incarnations by Speaking Tiger Books. The Odia volume was published in 2022 by Paschima Publications, Bhubaneswar. Professor Mohapatra is Professor, Politics, SIAS and Director, Moturi Satyanarayana Centre for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences, Krea University.

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Dr Lakshmi Narayanan, Assistant Professor, Environmental Studies, SIAS has received funding for his proposal under the PM Early Career Research Grant scheme, awarded by Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) — a newly established initiative by the Government of India. The project, titled Early Morning Ionosphere-Thermosphere System (EMITS): Knowledge Gaps and Importance in the Low and Mid-Latitudes, aims to enhance our understanding of the outer reaches of the Earth’s atmosphere during the early morning hours.

As part of the project, a multi-frequency GNSS receiver will be installed on the Krea University campus. This instrument will track signals from navigation satellites such as GPS and NaVIC to study the state of the ionosphere. These radio signals, transmitted in the L and S bands from satellites in medium Earth and geosynchronous orbits, must propagate through the intervening ionosphere before reaching us. By analysing the minor refraction and scattering these signals undergo, researchers can gain valuable insights into the ionosphere. Additionally, archived satellite datasets will be utilised to investigate the early morning upper atmosphere and ionosphere.

The duration of the project is three years, with funding of approximately Rs 60 lakh.