PATNA: Even as the soil of Bihar has not so far been quite conducive for scientific pursuits, students from different parts of the state working within or outside the state have achieved rare success in the field of science and technology in recent times.
At least two US journals, the New Scientist and the Boston Globe, in their latest issues, have highlighted the breakthrough made by a team of researchers led by Patna boy Saikat Guha in the field of optics. Saikat, son of Aryabhat Knowledge University vice-chancellor S N Guha, along with his team members, has envisaged a theory which could lead to incredibly powerful radar systems as well as advancements in telescopes and other technologies that use light.
Highlighting Guha’s work the New Scientist says, “Stealthy radar systems and the ability to transmit large amount of data over long distances are a step closer, thanks to a technique that could improve the efficiency of modern optics by a factor of 1000. Traditional methods of transmitting data, such as fibre optics or laser-based radar, require roughly 100 photons to transmit a single bit of data.”
“Now a team led by Saikat Guha at Raytheon BBN Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, say they can transmit 10 bits on a single photon – a 1000-fold improvement. To do this, the researchers exploit a phenomenon known as entanglement, in which the quantum state of one photon is linked to that of another, regardless of how far apart they are. Once created, each entangled pair of photons is separated by passing a laser beam made up of them through a filter made from a non-linear crystal,” the journal adds.
Earlier, Guha was selected for the NASA Tech Brief Award in recognition of his contribution to the National Space Programme and to the mission of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA. His work on “Phase-conjugate receiver for Gaussian-state quantum illumination” was highly acclaimed by NASA.
Quite recently, a group of students from BIT Mesra, Patna campus, led by Peetak Mitra, was selected to take part in the NASA Lunabotics Mining Competition, one of the world’s most challenging robotics competition. This event is to take place at the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, this year. They have made a lunar excavator that can go on the moon and excavate lunar soil.
Yet another Patna boy, Sunny Mahajan, achieved a commendable feat in the medical world by making valuable contributions to the human brain mapping. He presented his research finding at the 16th annual meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (OHBM), held in Barcelona, Spain, in June last year.
Sunny’s work deals with brain mapping of patients in a state of coma. In technical language, this work will help neuroscientists in the understanding of consciousness states based on MRI data. Sunny, a student of IIT Mumbai, is the son of Patna-based income-tax lawyer D B Gupta.