IIT Palakkad inks MoU with KSCSTE -KFRI
The Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) operating under the aegis of the Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment (KSCSTE) today formalised an exciting and broad-ranging partnership agreement with IIT Palakkad that will facilitate collaborative research, practice and engagement between the two Institutes in areas of mutual interest. The areas identified for collaboration include:
Developing the Green Campus at IIT Palakkad's upcoming permanent site,
Addressing human-animal conflict,
Addressing and modeling the carbon sequestration potential of different bamboos species,
Sea-shore restoration,
Landslide prediction and hydrological modeling
Large-scale application of bamboo and rattan in the construction sector
Molecular modeling
Developing instruments for sustainable harvest of Non-timber Forest Produce (NTFPs)
Climate change prediction and modeling using plant functional traits
Identifying and quantifying invasive species of plants through image processing
Understand the behaviour pattern of invasive tortoises which are caged on the KFRI campus by recording and
mapping the movement of each individual
Machine learning Algorithms for gene sequencing
Identifying suitable varieties of bamboo to develop a support frame for floating solar panels
Student, faculty, scientist, and staff exchange programmes and cooperation between them in appropriate
academic and scientific programmes
Exchange of scientific and technical materials
Joint conferences and workshops
KFRI was represented by the Director, Dr. Syam Viswanath , Dr. Anitha (Research Coordinator) and Dr. Sreejith Kalpuzha Ashtamoorthy (Principal Scientist and Head of the Ecology Department). The hosts, IIT Palakkad were represented by the Director Prof. A. Seshadri Sekhar, Dr. Santhakumar Mohan (Dean ICSR), Dr. Deepak Jaiswal (HoC, ESSENCE and Assistant Professor ESSENCE & Civil Engg.), Dr. Sunitha K Nayar (Assistant Professor, ESSENCE & Civil Engg.), Dr. Veena Venudharan (Assistant Professor, Civil Engg., & ESSENCE), Dr. Athira P (Assistant Professor, Civil Engg., & ESSENCE), Dr. Gokulnath C (Assistant Professor, Civil Engg.) and Dr. Merlin Lopuz (DST Scientist, IIT Palakkad).
