Research Area · Department of Electrical Engineering · IIT Bombay
Electronic Systems
The research areas being pursued by the Electronic Systems Group are Embedded System design, Signal processing, Biomedical Electronics, Electronic Instrumentation, and Audio and Speech Processing.
Associated Research Labs
Embedded Systems Lab (EmSys)
EmSys Lab focuses on electronic and embedded system design, prototyping and evaluation — starting from sensor/transducer interfacing to full system development and networks of sensor nodes. The lab supports post-silicon validation of Analog/Digital/Mixed-Signal/RF test chips (ASICs) designed by doctoral and graduate students as part of their research. Additional focus areas include signal processing implementation for sensing-based applications, AI for ASIC design and sensor networks, deep learning for signal and data analysis, and hardware-accelerated simulation. More than 20 test ASICs designed by graduate students and Ph.D. scholars have been tested and various performance parameters measured in this lab. Several prototypes have been designed and developed using in-house designed ASICs combined with commercial sensors and transducers.
VLSI Design Lab
In VLSI Design Lab, the main research focus is in the areas of analog and digital design. All major VLSI CAD vendor tool licenses — Synopsys, Cadence, Mentor, Agilent, Magma, Xilinx — are hosted here.
Advanced Integrated Circuits and Systems Lab (aiCAS Lab)
aiCAS lab was established in 2018. Research at the aiCAS lab focuses on high-performance Analog, RF, Digital, Mixed-signal ICs, and Embedded Systems design. State-of-the-art hardware and software tools are available to develop integrated circuits using RF-Analog and Digital design flow. The lab has high-end measurement instruments required for the post-silicon validation of ICs.
Digital Audio Processing Lab
The Digital Audio Processing Lab is a signal processing research facility dedicated to speech and audio applications. Research projects involving Ph.D. and M.Tech. students include music content analysis and retrieval, speech prosody for language learning, speech enhancement and recognition. The lab is equipped with computers, GPU servers, and recording and listening equipment. The interdisciplinary flavour of several projects has stimulated interactions with musicians, musicologists and language experts. Audio IP developed in the lab has been incorporated into products and services for the entertainment industry.
Signal Processing and Instrumentation Lab
The Signal Processing and Instrumentation Lab focuses on research in the areas of speech and signal processing, biomedical signal processing and instrumentation, electronic instrumentation, and embedded system design. Research problems include vocal tract shape estimation from speech signal, enhancement of electrolaryngeal speech using spectral subtraction, multi-band frequency compression for hearing-impaired, speech enhancement by modification of stop consonant landmarks, speech transformation using multivariate polynomial modeling, cardiac output monitoring using impedance cardiography, and diagnostic information from impedance cardiography.
Texas Instruments Digital Signal Processing Lab (TI-DSP)
TI-DSP laboratory was set up in the EE Department in June 1996. Texas Instruments agreed to provide DSP-specific hardware and software support, while infrastructure support comes from the institute and sponsored projects. The lab supports DSP hands-on projects at undergraduate level, conducts DSP labs for undergraduate students for better understanding using real DSP processors, supports DSP research and development at postgraduate level, provides feasibility studies on DSP projects, and is equipped with the latest DSP platforms.
Computer Architecture and Dependable System Laboratory (CADSL)
Research in the area of: (a) Advanced and futuristic computer architectures and systems including compiler and operating system support; (b) Advanced dependable systems including formal verification and VLSI testing; and (c) Computer-aided design of VLSI and hardware accelerators.
Wadhwani Electronics Lab
Wadhwani Electronics Lab (WEL) conducts TA duty for Analog and Digital Labs in WEL 1 and WEL 2, and is responsible for maintenance of lab equipment across the department.
MEMS Proto Lab (NMPF)
The NEMS and MEMS Proto Fab (NMPF) situated in the IIT Bombay campus in Powai, Mumbai, is a unique, highly specialized fabrication unit for NEMS/MEMS and microfluidic device research and prototyping needs. The facility offers unparalleled flexibility to entities that require prototyping fabrication services, unlike other large-scale foundries or research (academic) fabs. Established through support by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, this is a one-of-its-kind facility with the idea of catalyzing the MEMS, microfluidic and sensors industry in India, in line with the Make in India initiative. Our mission is to provide a sandbox for labs, startups and SMEs so that they don't have to look overseas for upgrading their proof-of-concept devices to a demonstration prototype. Our vision is to foster ecosystem development for micro- and nano-technology backed sensors and device development in India. NMPF is equipped with state-of-the-art microfabrication equipment and trained personnel. We have access-controlled clean-rooms enabling microfabrication processes in a controlled environment, resulting in excellent reproducibility and higher yields. For start-up companies looking to engage IIT Bombay for consultancy in the areas of MEMS, microfabricated sensors, microfluidics etc., NMPF offers a unique add-on benefit — startups or SMEs can approach IIT Bombay with a problem and walk away with an end-to-end solution and fully functional prototypes at affordable rates.
Electronic Instrumentation Lab
Electronic Instrumentation Lab comprises students from various fields: Communication & Signal Processing, Electronic Systems, and Biomedical Engineering. The major research areas are video surveillance and image processing, impedance glottography and cardiography, audiometer design, motion tracking for assisted living, ECG denoising, and audio and speech signal processing. Most of the work in this lab relates to design and development of hardware and implementation of various signal processing algorithms.
High Performance Computing Lab
At HPC Lab, the aim is to research and address future needs of high-end parallel computing. Rapid advancements in VLSI technology have ushered a new era in system design by integrating many systems in a single framework, making the whole system much more powerful. This has enabled solving problems that previously had little practical significance. The vision is to develop high-performance, practical solutions and contribute to the needs of both the scientific and engineering community.
PC Lab
PC Lab provides general computing facilities to students of Electrical Engineering and Reliability Engineering. Both Windows and Linux machines are present in the lab. A load-balanced server (Rudra) is available for heavier computational use, with software packages like MATLAB, Lyx, Scilab, Spice, Ansys, Sequel, Grace, LaTeX, MySQL, and other standard Linux/Unix packages. PC Lab also provides a central mail service with 500MB storage to all students and faculty of the department. A team of System Administrators provides tech-end support and maintains all network infrastructure in the department.