Lockdown puts brakes on research projects in city’s educational institutes

This year at least 13 short term research projects were granted to Panjab University, Punjab Engineering College and Goswami Ganesh Dutta SD College, Sector 32, Chandigarh

The lockdown induced to thwart the spread of coronavirus has stalled many research projects granted to city’s educational institutes by the department of science and technology and renewable energy, Chandigarh.

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Every year the department assigns numerous research projects to educational institutes of the city. This year at least 13 short term research projects were granted to Panjab University, Punjab Engineering College (PEC) and Goswami Ganesh Dutta SD College, Sector 32, Chandigarh. However, the work on many of these research projects has been affected this year.

Panjab University was given 10 projects including, the development of a machine to convert kitchen waste into animal feed and designing a one-step detection kit for the pesticides. A teacher at PU who was assigned a research project on condition of anonymity said, “I have not been able to start my research work due to the lockdown. My study is experimental and our labs are closed. I had to speak to a few students but that’s next to impossible now.”

Naveen Gupta of the department of microbiology at PU has been working on DST’s research projects for the last six years. This year’s project on Sukhna Lake is his seventh project for DST Chandigarh. This year he has been assigned with ecological assessment of Sukhna Lake. He said, “The purpose of my project is to assess the microbiological changes in Sukhna Lake throughout the year. From April, I have not been able to continue with my research work.”

A project on energy conservation for street lighting through adaptive brightness was given to Dr Tejinder Singh Saggu, assistant professor at the department of electrical engineering of Punjab Engineering College (PEC), Chandigarh. He said, “We have been told verbally that our project has been selected, however, we have not made any progress so far but we are looking forward to starting the work.”

Dr Deepak Rahi’s project on the biomanagement of composite leaf waste biomass of Chandigarh region has also been hobbled by the lockdown. He said, “I had proposed to cultivate mushrooms on the leaf waste management if we can collect the leaf waste at a specific site. I have carried out many experiments earlier and the results were overwhelming. Due to the lockdown, the work has been adversely affected, but I am trying to carry out my project.”