While there are many perks of studying at IITs, one of them is conducting research/ field projects as a part of coursework. Here, I will touch upon some of the projects that I/we did during my time there.
Project 1: In my 2nd year, we had a course where the specific emphasis was laid on the marvelous nature’s design and so our instructor a development biologist himself asked us to either pick a field or a theory project from an amazing book where studies on Gecko’s foot, Lotus Leaf, Spider Webs etc were discussed. Along with a friend of mine, we both decided to work on Gecko’s foot project. Our objective was simple had I been a reptile hunter? Basically, I had to catch a Gecko and etherize it for scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analysis of its foot.
During all of the semester, this project was on my mind. And anywhere I would go in our hostel, would start searching for geckos. Once my roommate killed a fat gecko outside my room window for my project, but since it was already dead I couldn’t use it. However, I got ether from one of the labs and started checking bathrooms in the evening. Luckily, one evening I found a small gecko in one of the bathroom walls which I tried to woo in my container. Suddenly, a friend of mine came in and I explained my situation to him. He brutally banged the gecko with a mop and it fell. I quickly etherized it and moved into the container. The next morning, I took the gecko to the lab and asked a graduate student to fix it for SEM analysis. He poured a lot of ether onto it to kill and amputate its foot for fixing. Later, I performed SEM analysis and was astonished to find the same results as published in the science book.
Findings: Gecko’s foot contains nanosized hairs which helps it crawl vertically due to highly sophisticated wanderwaal’s interaction between the wall and its foot surfaces.
Project 2: In the 3rd year, I took a social psychology course by a prominent professor. She was very famous amongst students for her clarity of thought and engaging nature. Here also we were asked to either write a report or pick a paper on field work and conduct experiments. So, along with my other friend, we decided to perform a field study. Here, I wanted to statistically quantify helping behavior and so we studied an experimental approach. In this approach, two different objects with an associated “high-value: Wallet” or a “low-value: Handkerchief“ will be dropped in an unstimulated fashion and observed if the passerby picks it up and keeps it for self or returns to us. For this, we picked up crowded places like Kanpur Railway Station and a secluded place (Can’t recall the location).
We would go to Kanpur city every weekend and conduct the experiment. I would carefully drop my wallet and walk seemingly carefree. My project partner would walk a distance behind me, to check the passerby’s response.
Findings: We were studying “Bystander’s Intervention”. And as you may have guessed, a high-value associated item was taken for self by passersby in a secluded area whereas, in a crowded place, passersby preferred giving it back to us.
Project 3: At the end of 3rd year, I went to Italy for a summer internship which helped me work on an independent project right at the beginning of my 4th year. Here, I worked on Chitosan-Eudragit S100 microspheres which I was able to successfully synthesize. As I recall from my thesis, I embedded these microspheres into a chitosan-gelatin cryogel and showed its immobilization using SEM. Also, performed some drug-release kinetics and tried its application on cell culture. I was very happy with what I had achieved in a span of one year but decided to not continue working on it after the completion of my degree.
Findings: Synthesis of compact or porous microspheres (depending upon polymer composition) which can be used for various drug delivery and cell culture applications. The file is attached herewith!