Research Areas of the Faculty

Research Areas:  Computer Networks, Distributed Computing Systems, Information Security, Cloud Computing, Cloud Security and Cloud Forensics, Online Social Networks, Data Privacy, Internet of Things, Blockchain Technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Databases, Data Science and Data Analytics, Computer Architecture, Cyber Security and Secure Information Systems, Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) and Human Computer Interaction (HCI), Algorithms and Computational Geometry, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Software Engineering, Theoretical & Computational Neuroscience.

 

Name of the Research Area	Research Group Members
1. Distributed Computing Systems and Information Security	Prof. Chittaranjan Hota
	Prof. G Geethakumari
	Dr. Barsha Mitra
	Dr Subhrakanta Panda
	Dr. Suvadip Batabyal
	Dr. Paresh Saxena
	Dr. Rajib Ranjan Maiti
	Dr. Dipanjan Chakraborty
	Dr  Manik Gupta
	Dr. D V N Sivakumar
	Dr. Nikumani Choudhury
2. Data Sciences	Prof. N.L.Bhanu Murthy
	Prof. Aruna Malapati
	Dr Subhrakanta Panda
	Dr. Lov Kumar
	Dr. Jabez J Christopher
	Dr Venkatakrishnan Ramaswamy
	Dr. Manik Gupta
	Dr. Ayan Das
3. Theoretical Computer Science	Prof. Tathagata Ray
	Dr. B Manjanna
	Dr. Venkatakrishnan Ramaswamy
	Dr. Mrityunjay Singh
	Dr. Apurba Das
	Dr. Raghunath Reddy M
4. Database Management Systems	Prof. R. Gururaj
5. Software Engineering	Dr. Subhrakanta Panda
	Prof. Narasimha Bolloju

• Projects

  Sponsored Projects (Ongoing)

  • "Geometric Obnoxious Facility Location Optimization"; PI: Dr. Manjanna B; Funding Agency: TARE SERB, DST; Total Outlay: INR 18.3 lakhs; Duration: 3 years.
  • "MASTIC: ML-Aided Secure SoC and Analytics"; PI: Dr. Paresh Saxena, Co-PIs : Dr. Rajib Maiti and Dr. Manik Gupta; Duration: 2 years, Total Outay: INR 67.3 lakhs.
  • "Design, development and project management support for fwo Al-based dialogue systems (e.g. voice-based chatbot) in Indian language"; PI: Dr. Dipanjan Chakraborty; Funding Agency: Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); Total Outlay: INR 6,839,988; BITS' share: INR 8,96,000; Duration: 1 year.
  • "Defend Internet of Things-based Cyber Espionage through Analysis of Encrypted or Unencrypted Network Traffic using Machine Learning"; Funding Agency: CRG SERB, DST; Total Project Outlay: Approx. 28 lakhs; Duration of the project: 3 years; (Principal Investigator: Dr. Rajib Maiti).
  • "QoE Optimized Multimedia Content Delivery through Caching in D2D underlay Networks"; Funding Agency: DST-SERB (CRG); Total Project outlay: Approx. Rs 14 lakhs; Duration of the project: 3 years; (Principal Investigator: Dr Suvadip Batabyal).
  • "Data driven Multimodal System for Academic Stress Management in Indian Universities (ARU)"; Funding agency: SERB-POWER, DST, Govt of India; Total project outlay: Approx. Rs 30 lakhs; Duration: 3 years; (Principal Investigator: Dr Manik Gupta).
  • MUT- DROCO: Multipath Networking Test-bed for Drone Communications. Grant Amount: INR 16.6 Lacs. Funding Agency: Start-Up Research Grant by Science and Research Board (SERB), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Govt. of India. Duration: 2020-2022. Type: Research Grant. (Chief Investigator: Dr Paresh Saxena).
  • Network Coding for Multipath Transport. Grant Amount: INR 5.5 Lacs. Funding Agency: AnsuR Tech., Oslo, Norway. Duration: 2019-2020. Type: Industrial Consultancy. (Chief Investigator: Dr Paresh Saxena).
  • Interpretation of Tuberculin Reaction Using Medical Photography and Computer Aided Diagnosis, Grant Amount: Rs. 9.94 lakhs, DST-SERB; Start up Research Grant, (Formerly known as Early Career Research Award), 2019 – 2021, (Chief Investigator: Dr Jabez Christopher).
  • ASCRIN Joint Ph.D. Scholarship (BITS Pilani, India & La-Trobe University, Australia) Approvals 2021:
  * Dr Manjanna
  * Dr Dipanjan Chakraborty
  * Dr Manik Gupta
  

   

  Sponsored Projects (Completed) 

  • "Lightweight Code Self-verification for Internet of Things (IoT) Devices", under Indo-Dutch Joint Research Program for ICT funded by DeitY-NWO-Progress-Irdeto with a project outlay of 380, 000 Euros (INR 2.6 Crores) from July, 2015 to July, 2019. (Investigators: Prof. Chittaranjan Hota and Researchers from Vrije University, Amsterdam).
  • "Design and Development of Digital Forensic Tools for Cloud IaaS", Grant amount: Rs 55 lakhs, funded by Ministry of Communication & Information Technology (MeitY), Govt. of India, New Delhi, 2014 - 2017. (Chief Investigator: Prof G Geethakumari, Co-Investigator: Dr. Digambar Povar).
  • "Automated Detection of Security and Privacy Threats in Peer-to-Peer Networks", 61.95 Lakhs INR, Funded by Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communication & Information Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi in 2012 (PI: C.R. Hota, Co-PI: Abhishek Thakur).
  • “Efficient Peer-to-Peer Overlay Infrastructure for Secure Computing over the Internet", Funded by University Grants Commission (UGC), Govt. of India, New Delhi: (2011-2014), 10.38 Lakhs INR (PI: C.R. Hota).
  • “Network Coding with Deterministic Coefficients”, Grant Amount: INR 5.6 Lacs. Funding Agency: AnsuR Tech., Oslo, Norway. Duration: 2018-2019. Type: Industrial Consultancy. (Chief Investigator: Dr Paresh Saxena).

• Research Scholars

   

  

  B S A S Rajita

  Supervisor Name: Prof. Anand Narasimhamurthy

  Co-Supervisor Name: 

  Email ID: p2015409@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

   

  Research Topic: Analysis of Temporally Evolving Social Network Patterns

  Research Abstract: In this work, we propose to investigate different techniques for identifying temporal patterns and events in social networks that evolve over time. We present a framework for detecting the evolution of dynamic social communities, along with tracking the events and transitions related to communities. These events can be considered as building blocks for pattern detection in networks with evolving communities. These detected events and transitions could then be used for predicting the future patterns of these social networks.

   

  

  Avinash kumar 

  Supervisor Name: Dr. Aruna Malapati 

  Co-Supervisor Name: Dr.N.L.Bhanu Murthy

  Email ID: avinash.akumar@gmail.com  ; p2015507@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in 

   

  Research Topic: Opinion Mining Challenges of Social Media Content & Sentiment Polarity Detection.

  Research Abstract: Experiences and viewpoint expressed by others have always been important part of decision making process. In current era very large pool of public opinion is available on social media about certain event. These web contents are unstructured data set and a rich source for not only commercial exploitation but also for psychological & sociopolitical research. Our proposed research aims to find an efficient method to extract important features/ aspect about a particular event from social media message and then do the features based sentiment analysis about the same. The proposed method can be adapted to work for text from other online media as well.

   

  

  Gourish Goudar

  Supervisor Name:  Dr. Suvadip Batabyal

  Co-Supervisor Name: 

  Email ID: gourish.bits@gmail.com

   

  Research Topic:   Estimators for Efficient Buffer Management in Mobile Opportunistic Networks.

  Abstract of the Research: Most of the congestion control mechanisms that have been proposed, have a common goal of increasing the message delivery ratio and decreasing the message delivery delay. To achieve this goal, several congestion mechanisms employ dropping the message or try to transfer the message to other nodes. Existing research shows that the several congestion control mechanisms are dependent on the underlying routing protocol. As a result, the congestion control mechanisms are not interoperable with variety of routing protocols. Many existing congestion control mechanisms relies completely on the network information to make the congestion control decisions. Several congestion control algorithms depend on the simulation platforms to evaluate protocols and algorithms, which is a necessary step, but cannot replace the real world experiments. In our work, we aim to use controlled message replication policies to increase the congestion control strategy range to various routing protocols. We also intend to use local information available with the node along with global network information to make a congestion control decision. We will also setup a DTN testbed for our research to verify the results produced by the simulator. 

   

  

  Soumya Prakash Otta

  Supervisor: Dr Subhrakanta Panda

  Co-Supervisor: Prof Chittaranjan Hota

  Email ID: p2016300@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

   

  Research Topic: Security as a Service: Secured Authentication in a Hybrid Cloud Environment.

  Abstract of the Research: As the first and last line of defence in almost all cases, authentication is a crucial aspect of any cloud. With the desired authentication mechanisms in place, any unauthorised access to the system can be prevented. Through the research the effort would be to design and implement Security as a service by ensuring and maintaining confidentiality, integrity and   availability as well as strict policy based authentication to access control in a hybrid cloud environment. 

   

  

  Anirudh Kasturi

  Supervisor Name: Prof Chittaranjan Hota

  Co-Supervisor Name: Prof. N.L. Bhanu Murthy

  Email ID : anirudh.kasturi@gmail.com

   

  Research Topic:  Distributed and Resilient Cognitive Framework for Edge-centric IOT Applications

  Abstract of the Research: Major drawback with the current frameworks revolving around IoT architectures is the increase in actuation time as the analysis of data happens on a central server. So there is a strong need to come up with truly scalable architectures and improved intelligent algorithms that can run on the edge devices. The focus of the research will primarily be on the distributed ML and process discovery resource-aware ML algorithms. 

   

  

  Tummalapalli Sahithi

  Supervisor: Dr Lov Kumar

  Co-Supervisor: Prof N L Bhanu Murthy

  Email ID: p20170433@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

   

  Research Topic: Detection of web service anti-patterns using machine learning algorithms

  Abstract of the Research: The objective of our research is to identify different types of anti-patterns by investigating source code, WSDL file and text based metrics. In particular, our motivation is to investigate the application of machine learning based techniques for building predictive models from source code metrics as features for the task of detecting web-services anti-patterns. 

   

  

  Saibharath S

  External Supervisor: Dr Sudeepta Mishra

  On campus Supervisor: Prof. Chittaranjan Hota

  Email ID: p20170100@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

   

  Research Topic: QoS Based Traffic Management through NFV in Next Gen Networks

  Research Abstract: Design traffic categorization and classification framework to label and segregate LTE and 5G traffic based on QoS attributes; Propose a novel traffic scheduling, resource allocation, load balancing, and offloading mechanism at RAN slices to meet necessary QoS; Joint admission control policies and forecasting through feedback in the Network slices. 

   

  

  Priyanka Rushikesh Chaudhary

  Supervisor: Dr. Rajib Ranjan Maiti

  Co-Supervisor : 

  Email ID : p20180421@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

   

  Research Topic: Detection and mitigation of cyber attacks on IoT using machine learning.

  Abstract of the Research: The Internet of Things (IoT) is the next wave of advancement that is revolutionizing our society, cities and homes. People use these smart devices creating smart environments unaware whether each IoT device is functioning properly safe from cyber-attacks. The communication networks are jeopardized by growing of intrusion attempts, various attacks, worms etc. Appropriate countermeasures initiates an important property for network privacy and security in terms of ongoing attack detection. Machine learning is one of the technique which empowers system with the capability of using data to learn from previous experiences and makes decisions. The research topic aims to identify and reduce security threats over iot devices with the help of machine learning technique to improve the performance of system. 

   

  

  Mandan Naresh

  Supervisor: Dr. Paresh Saxena

  Co-Supervisor: Dr Manik Gupta

  Email ID: p20180420@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

   

  Research Topic: NANCY: Neural Adaptive Network Coding methodology for video distribution through wireless networks. 

   

  

  S.Vishwanath Reddy

  Supervisor Name:  Dr. B Manjanna

  Co-Supervisor Name: 

  Email ID: p20190420@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

   

  Research Topic: Computational Geometry and Approximation Algorithms. 

   

  

  Pattiwar Shravan Kumar

  Supervisor Name: Dr. Paresh Saxena

  Co-Supervisor Name:

  Email Id: p20190019@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

   

  Research Topic: Multipath Networking Protocols  

   

  

  Mithun Kumar S R

  Supervisor: Dr Lov Kumar

  Co-Supervisor: 

  Email ID:  p20190503@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in 

   

  Research Topic: Perception algorithms in sparsely labelled datasets  

   

  

  Deepa Kumari

  Supervisor Name: Dr. Subhrakanta Panda

  Co-Supervisor Name: Dr. Jabez J Christopher

  Email id: p20190020@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

   

  Research Topic: A Blockchain- based patient centric MHR system for prediction of future medical complications.

  Research Abstract: The project proposal aims to develop a patient-centric blockchain-based framework to store data and keep a trail of the users’ action to avoid any fabrication and/or misuse of sensitive and private medical information, and to predict the onset of any medical complications due to certain treatment. The application of Social Network Analysis methodologies on the relational medical data (relationship between certain diseases and their corresponding drugs) will enable to discover the hidden patterns and will also help to build an individualized patient profile to predict the likelihood of any medical complications in near future. 

   

  

  Nida Fatima

  Supervisor Name: Dr. Paresh Saxena

  Email ID: p20190504@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

   

  Research Topic: Efficient routing and resource allocation techniques for future integrated hybrid satellite-terrestrial 5G/B5G networks. 

   

  

  Ramisetty Kavya                                                                                        

  Supervisor Name: Dr Jabez Christopher

  Co-Supervisor Name: Dr Subhrakanta Panda

  Email id: p20190057@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

   

  Research Topic: Decision Support Systems for Health Informatics 

   

  

  Chillara Anil Kumar

  Supervisor Name: Dr. Paresh Saxena

  Co-Supervisor Name: Dr. Manik Gupta & Dr. Rajib Maiti

  Email id: p20190422@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

   

  Research topic : performance enhancements in Multi core architecture .

  Research Abstract: Considering the volume of data and the complexities involved in computations, majority of the bottlenecks in the context of performance/processing in multicore architectures is due to the data movement in the NoC. Research topic aims at considering suitable hardware/software architecture to minimize the data movement in NoC to increase the overall performance of the system. 

   

  

  Priyanka Gupta

  Supervisor Name: Dr. Subhrakanta Panda

  Co Supervisor name : 

  Email ID: p20190501@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in  

   

  Research Topic: Application of Machine Learning  

   

  

  Lalitha Chavali

  Supervisor Name: Dr. Paresh Saxena

  Email ID : p20190423@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

    

  Research Domain: Machine Learning techniques for non terrestrial networking and communications.

   

  

  Anand Agrawal

  Supervisor Name: Dr. Rajib Ranjan Maiti

  Co-Supervisor Name:

  E-mail ID: p20200434@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

   

  Research Topic: Cyber Espionage in the Internet of Things

  Research Abstract: The objectives of the research is to explore the vulnerabilities of the MAC layer and PHY layer security protocols, like WPA2 (and newly proposed WAP3), in Wi-Fi network and their impact on IoT devices.   Configuration of different security protocols on commercially available Wi-Fi routers and exploring the impact on the security association of the IoT devices.  The ultimate goal of this research work is to develop a  model  of IoT-aware router that can automatically white/black-list the IoT devices associated with it depending on the security vulnerabilities. 

   

  

  Simran Ketha

  Supervisor Name: Dr. Venkatakrishnan Ramaswamy

  Email ID:  p20200021@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

   

  Research Topic: Understanding Deep Neural Networks 

   

  

  S Rasagna Vakkalanka                                                                                     

  Supervisor Name: Prof. G Geethakumari

  Email ID: p20200019@hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in

   

  Research Topic: Securing the Fog Computing Networks 

• Details of Ph.D. students graduated

  NAME OF THE SUPERVISOR: Prof. Chittaranjan Hota
  Student Name & Graduated year	Ph.D. Thesis Title
  K. Haribabu / 2012	Methods for Efficient, and Secure Service Availability in Peer-to-Peer Overlay Networks
  Murali P / 2014	Quality of Service Aware Routing and Resource Management in Mobile Ad-hoc Networks
  Sunita Singhal / 2015	Design and Development of Scheduling Algorithms for Grid Computing Systems
  Pratik Narang / 2016	Mechanisms for Intrusion Detection in Peer-to-Peer Networks
  V. Balaji / 2016	Cooperative Spectrum Sensing Techniques in Cognitive Radios (as Co-Supervisor)
  Jagan Mohan Reddy / 2017	Peer-to-Peer Network Traffic Classification using Statistical and Behavioral Analysis
  M. K. Kaushik / 2018	CInvestigations on Building Robust Cognitive Radio Based Networks (as Co-Supervisor)
  Abhishek Thakur / 2019	Optimization of Video Delivery Over Opportunistic Networks
  Rajesh Kumar Shrivastava / 2020	Code Tamer-proofing using Return Oriented Programming on IoT Devices
  Gokul Kannan Sadasivam / 2020	Identification of Malicious SSH Network Activities using Honeynet
  Sanket Mishra / 2021	Cognitive and Resilient Framework for IoT Data Streams
  Vijayalakshmi V / 2021	Crowdsourcing and Machine Computation for Social Media Applications

  NAME OF THE SUPERVISOR: Prof. R. Gururaj
  Student Name & Graduated year	Ph.D. Thesis Title
  K Kavitha / 2015	Novel Data Routing, Compression and Query Processing Techniques for Energy Conservation in Wireless Sensor Networks

  NAME OF THE SUPERVISOR: Prof. G. Geethakumari
  Student Name & Graduated year	Ph.D. Thesis Title
  K P Krishna Kumar / 2015	Information Diffusion Modelling to Counter Semantic Attacks in Online Social Networks
  Agrima Srivastava / 2016	Enhancing Privacy in Online Social Networks using Data Analysis
  Digambar Powar / 2016	A Novel Digital Forensic Framework for Cloud Computing Environment
  B K S P Kumar Raju / 2018	Incident Handling in IaaS Cloud Environment using Digital Forensic Practices
  Rashmi Sahay / 2021	Securing the Internet of Things Environment against RPL Attacks (Co-Supervisor: Dr. Barsha Mitra)
  Deevi Radha Rani / 2021	Securing the Cloud Forensic Investigation Process against Anti-Forensic Attacks

  NAME OF THE SUPERVISOR: Prof. N. L. Bhanu Murthy
  Student Name & Graduated year	Ph.D. Thesis Title
  Muthukumaran Kasinathan / 2018	Prediction and Probability Distribution of Defects in Software Systems

  NAME OF THE SUPERVISOR: Prof. Aruna Malapati
  Student Name & Graduated year	Ph.D. Thesis Title
  Surender Singh Samanth / 2020	Predicting Future Events by Identifying Causal Relations Between Events from Social Media
  Muthukumaran Kasinathan / 2018	Prediction and Probability Distribution of Defects in Software Systems (as Co-Supervisor)
  Priyanka purkayastha / 2016	Classification, Structure prediction and Molecular dynamics study of novel protein targets involved in Neurodegenerative diseases (as Co-Supervisor)

  NAME OF THE SUPERVISOR: Prof. Tathagata Ray
  Student Name & Graduated year	Ph.D. Thesis Title
  Neha Singh / 2021	Input size independent quality mesh generation from two-dimensional point cloud data (Co-Supervisor: Dr. Chandu Parimi)