About DST PURSE

In appreciation of the R&D contributions of the performing universities, PURSE initiative is taken by Department of Science & Technology, Government of India to initiate value added proactive measures through introduction of R&D Incentive Grant. PURSE scheme provides substantive research grant to universities on based on scientific publications in Science Citation Indexed Journals through SCOPUS Database.

India is positioned at 12th rank among the top 20 countries in Science & Technology according to a study conducted by the National Institute of Science, Technology & Development Studies, New Delhi on Publication Output in SCOPUS International Database for a period of ten years. SCOPUS incorporates the H-Index as a means to evaluate research performance. The H-index attempts to measures both the scientific productivity and the apparent scientific impact of a researcher. The index is based on the set of the researcher's most cited papers and the numbers of citation that they have received in other people's publication. The H-Index can also be applied to judge the impact and productivity of a group of researchers at a department or university.

Instruments and Facilities

1. Confocal Microscope

Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy (usually shortened to just Confocal Microscopy) offers several advantages over conventional optical microscopy, including the ability to control depth of field, elimination or reduction of background information away from the focal plane, and the capability to collect serial optical sections from thick specimens. The basic key to the confocal approach is the use of spatial filtering techniques to eliminate out-of-focus light or glare in specimens whose thickness exceeds the immediate plane of focus. There has been a tremendous explosion in the popularity of confocal microscopy in recent years, due in part to the relative ease with which extremely high-quality images can be obtained from specimens prepared for conventional fluorescence microscopy, and the growing number of applications in cell biology that rely on imaging both fixed and living cells and tissues. In fact, confocal technology is proving to be one of the most important advances ever achieved in optical microscopy.

Confocal Microscopy comprise Fluorescent imaging applications of fixed and live cells, Long and Short term Time lapse imaging, Co-localization, Z-stacking & 3D reconstruction, FRET (sensitization and Photobleaching), FRAP, photoactivation, photoconversion, FCS/FCCS experiments. The system should include all hardware/software for above experiments and upgradable to Multiphoton, FLIM application.
Application Form

Features

• Bright field, Fluorescence and DIC observations and imaging
• Six position motorized DIC nose piece, 6 position motorized FL filter wheel, with filter blocks for the imaging of samples with DAPI, CFP,FITC/GFP,YFP, RFP,TRITC/Texas Red, Alexa 633 and photoactivatable GFP (excitation with 405 nm and green emission)
• Following high resolution confocal microscopy grade Apochromatic Objectives all suitable for confocal fluorescence imaging, with DIC capability.
• 10X long working distance with capability of fluorescence work through plastic bottom culture plates. DIC/PlasDIC/Modulation contrast capability.
i. ~20/25X DIC Long Distance oil/water/glycerin for live cell imaging.
ii. ~40X oil DIC at least 1.2 NA.
iii. ~40X/63X water DIC at least 1.2 NA.
iv. 60/63X oil DIC at least1.4NA
v. 100X oil DIC at least 1.4NA

• High speed XY scanner with total scan flexibilities of line, XY, XYZ, XYZT and XYZT? combinations
• Air cooled multi-line Ar laser with 458/488/514nm.
• Appropriate control PC with high resolution graphics card and duel monitor with high resolution ~30" or ~21" x2 LCD TFT monitors

Details of Confocal Microscope

Brand: Carl Zeiss Microscopy GMBH, Germany
Model: Laser Scanning Confocal Microscope Workstation, Model LSM 710
Total cost : 1.2 crore
Sponsoring Agency: DST- PURSE program (Sanction Order No- SR/FT/LS-113/2009)

2.Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR)

It is fast, safe, portable, non-destructive, and has the highest resolution of any subsurface electromagnetic surveying instrument.

The technique consists of sending an electromagnetic signal into the surface being surveyed with one antenna, receiving any signal that returns with another (or the same) antenna, and then processing the received signals into an image. The operator then has the task of interpreting the images.

The instrument has both 2-D and 3-D imaging capability.

Applications of GPR

• Concrete Inspection
• Utility Locating
• Road Inspection
• Geology
• Archaeology
• Bridge Inspection
• Environmental Assessment
• Ice and Snow
• Agriculture and Forestry
• Mining
• Railway Evaluation
• Forensics
• Military and Security

3.High Performance Computing Facility

The High Performance Computing facility at Bharathidasan University has been installed to provide software resources and services to solve computationally-intensive research problems. This central facility has been established under the Department of Science and Technology's DST-PURSE (Promotion of University Research and Scientific Excellence) scheme at a cost of Rs. 1.3 crores for the benefit of faculty and research scholars of the University. The facility is designed to be utilized by the BDU student community for their research needs like Numerical Analysis, Molecular Modeling, Docking and Dynamic Simulations of Biological Macromolecular systems such as protein and DNA using the HPC Software Suite. This facility can be utilized by the faculty and students from their department computers itself by using the campus network.

The facility has One Head Node and 10 Compute Nodes with each compute node consisting of 2 numbers of 10 core processors. This system also has a storage capacity of 18 Tera Bytes. Read More...

4.Upgradation of Campus Network Facilities

Campus Network Facilities have been upgraded with state of the art equipments (Network Monitoring System, New Edge Switches, Wireless Access Points, etc.) for both wired and wireless network with the support from DST-PURSE.

For improving network security, packet filtering and intrusion prevention services, a new Firewall has been configured with a throughput of 20 Gbps with 16 Interfaces to deliver end-to-end security to our Campus Network. Solarwinds Network Monitoring System (NMS) has been deployed to monitor the network switches, bandwidth usage and network traffic. Mcafee Antivirus has been installed to provide maximum defence against malware and to safeguard our campus computer systems and files from viruses, spyware, worms, trojans, and other security risks in the Palkalaiperur Campus. Kaspersky Antivirus has been installed to provide prevention from malware, viruses, spyware, worms, trojans and other security risks in the Khajamalai Campus. Campus wide network facility has been extended all the buildings of the Palkalaiperur Campus including all the hostels and newly constructed buildings. WiFi Facility has been provided to all the buildings of Palkalaiperur Campus including the newly constructed buildings. Ruckus Wireless Controller has been installed to provide complete WiFi coverage to the entire campus. This new device supports anywhere / anytime computing to all the students and research scholars of our University and has so many features like Guest Access, Scalable to any number of users, User Authentication and Rogue Device Detection. 75 access points are installed to provide maximum campus coverage. There are more than 1500 users. Read More...