Indian Institute of Technology Palakkad&nbsp;(IIT Palakkad or IIT PKD) is a public autonomous&nbsp;engineering&nbsp;and&nbsp;research&nbsp;institute located in&nbsp;Palakkad,&nbsp;Kerala. It was&nbsp;one of the five new&nbsp;IITs&nbsp;proposed in the&nbsp;2014 Union budget of India. The campus was inaugurated on 3 August 2015. The institute has 94 faculty, 978 students, and 63 non-teaching staffs.

IT Palakkad currently offers four-year Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) and two years MS programmes in 8 different engineering disciplines including&nbsp;Computer Science, Electrical, Mechanical, Civil among others.

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IIT Palakkad

An orientation of an undirected graph G is an assignment of exactly one direction to each edge of G. Converting two-way traffic networks to one-way traffic networks and bidirectional communication networks to unidirectional communication networks are practical instances of graph orientations. In these contexts minimising the diameter of the resulting oriented graph is of prime interest.The n-star network topology was proposed as an alternative to the hypercube network topology for multiprocessor systems by Akers and Krishnamurthy [IEEE Trans. on Computers (1989)]. The n-star graph Sn consists of n! vertices, each labelled with a distinct permutation of [n]. Two vertices are adjacent if their labels differ exactly in the first and one other position. Sn is an (n−1)-regular, vertex-transitive graph with diameter ⌊3(n−1)/2⌋. Orientations of Sn, called unidirectional star graphs and distributed routing protocols over them were studied by Day and Tripathi [Information Processing Letters (1993)] and Fujita [The First International Symposium on Computing and Networking (CANDAR 2013)]. Fujita showed that the (directed) diameter of this unidirectional star graph Sn−→ is at most ⌈5n/2⌉+2.In this paper, we propose a new distributed routing algorithm for the same Sn−→ analysed by Fujita, which routes a packet from any node s to any node t at an undirected distance d from s using at most min{4d+4,2n+4} hops. This shows that the (directed) diameter of Sn−→ is at most 2n+4. We also show that the diameter of Sn−→ is at least 2n when n≥7, thereby showing that our upper bound is tight up to an additive factor.

World University root node

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Algorithms and Discrete Applied Mathematics

Oriented Diameter of Star Graphs

Memory-safety attacks have been one of the most critical threats against computing systems. Although a wide-range of defense techniques have been developed against these attacks, the existing mitigation strategies have several limitations. In particular, most of the existing mitigation approaches are based on aborting or restarting the victim program when a memory-safety attack is detected, thus making the system unavailable. This might not be acceptable in systems with stringent timing constraints, such as cyber-physical systems (CPS), since the system unavailability leaves the control system in an unsafe state. To address this problem, we propose CIMA – a resilient mitigation technique that prevents invalid memory accesses at runtime. CIMA manipulates the compiler-generated control-flow graph to automatically detect and bypass unsafe memory accesses at runtime, thereby mitigating memory-safety attacks along the process. An appealing feature of CIMA is that it significantly improves system availability and resilience of the CPS even under the presence of memory-safety attacks. To this end, we design our experimental setup based on a realistic Secure Water Treatment (SWaT) and Secure Urban Transportation System (SecUTS) testbeds and evaluate the effectiveness and the efficiency of our approach. The experimental results reveal that CIMA handles memory-safety attacks effectively while meeting the real-time constraints and physical-state resiliency of the CPS under test. Using CIMA, we have also discovered a memory-safety vulnerability in the firmware of programmable logic controllers and a CVE ID has already been assigned for it. © 2020 Elsevier Ltd

Computers and Security

CIMA: Compiler-Enforced Resilience Against Memory Safety Attacks in Cyber-Physical Systems

BMS are deployed to manage buildings such as Shopping malls, office, and residential complexes. However, the information needed for their efficient functioning are either incomplete, generated separately, or hard to determine. BIM generates and stores useful integrated information during design and construction phases of the building projects. These Information are well utilized during design and construction stages but their usage in FM stage is limited. The guidelines and standards to facilitate BIM model during design and construction stages, are not considered critically usable. Hence, this paper aims to identify the need for crucial asset information during FM practices while executing the BMS process, to develop a standard framework for information specifications during the early development of BIM model, and utilize the same as a source for BMS in FM processes. Nevertheless, this paper addresses the common FM practices and its building data requirements towards efficient BMS implementation pivotal to the mechanical and electrical systems for a conceptual framework of a BIM model. The research adopts deductive approach through semi-structured qualitative interviews with FM stakeholders of the malls in Saudi Arabia to obtain the standard FM data requirement from client perspective, while managing the FM process through a BMS system. © IEOM Society International.

Department of Civil Engineering

Proceedings of the International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management

A review on current status of facility management practices in building industry and prospective bim intervention to manage the facilities effectively during its service life

The objective of this research was to develop and evaluate asphalt-rubber gap-graded (AR-Gap) mixtures produced with varying gap aggregate gradations and designate a suitable aggregate gap gradation for local conditions, which could further be implemented at global level after necessary laboratory and field evaluations. A total of fifteen gap gradations were investigated, including seven specified by various highway agencies and eight trial gradations. The gradation studies recommended clustering seven gradations into two groups of similar characteristics. Furthermore, investigations on trial gradations presented the significance of each portion of the aggregate gradation in developing a superior performing gap gradation. Based on the refined gradation studies, three gap gradations were chosen: two from agency-specified, and one from the trial gradation for basic performance evaluation. Rutting, fatigue cracking, and moisture susceptibility investigations were accomplished on ten asphalt mixtures encompassing nine AR-Gap mixtures and one conventional dense graded mix. The results depicted superior performance of the proposed gradation indigenously developed in this study in respect of all distresses. The balance of coarse and fine aggregates in the proposed gradation facilitated higher strength at higher temperatures to resist rutting. Furthermore, the customized AR binder aided in providing additional resilience to the mixture, thereby improving the fatigue cracking resistance of the proposed AR-Gap mixture. Overall, it is envisaged that this study will help understand the effect of aggregate gradation characteristics on the performance of the AR-Gap mixture and aid in the development of AR-Gap mixtures as suitable long-lasting pavements. Copyright © 2018 by ASTM International

Journal of Testing and Evaluation

Development and performance analysis of asphalt-rubber gap-graded mixtures: Study on aggregate gradations

The objective of this study was to evaluate the rutting performance of asphalt-rubber gap-graded (AR-Gap) mixtures using wheel tracking tests and further explain the permanent deformation characteristics of those special materials through statistical and reliability approaches. A total of 28 asphalt mixtures covering over 200,000 data points were utilised, including: 27 AR-Gap mixtures and one conventional dense-graded (DG) mixture. Statistical analysis confirmed the significance of binder type, aggregate gradation, and binder content on the superior rutting resistance of AR-Gap mixtures than the DG mix. Selection of the best combination of all the three variables resulted in a significantly rut-resistant AR-Gap mixture. Reliability analysis on mixtures’ rutting performance was accomplished using Weibull distribution function. Weibull model parameters and derived factors aided in a better interpretation of the rutting performance of AR-Gap mixtures. Overall, it is envisaged that this research study would further the state-of-the-art in designing rut-resistant asphalt-rubber gap-graded mixtures. © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Road Materials and Pavement Design

Rutting performance of asphalt-rubber gap-graded mixtures: evaluation through statistical and reliability approaches

Distributed Graph Analytics

Falcon: A Domain Specific Language for Graph Analytics

Graph Algorithms and Applications

Distributed Graph Analytics

We study the spin-1/2 ferromagnetic Heisenberg-Kitaev-Γ model in the anisotropic (Toric code) limit to reveal the nature of the quantum phase transition between the gapped Z2 quantum spin liquid and a spin-ordered phase (driven by Heisenberg interactions) as well as a trivial paramagnet (driven by pseudodipolar interactions Γ). The transitions are obtained by a simultaneous condensation of the Ising electric and magnetic charges - the fractionalized excitations of the Z2 quantum spin liquid. Both these transitions can be continuous and are examples of deconfined quantum critical points. Crucial to our calculations are the symmetry implementations on the soft electric and magnetic modes that become critical. In particular, we find strong constraints on the structure of the critical theory arising from time reversal and lattice translation symmetries with the latter acting as an anyon permutation symmetry that endows the critical theory with a manifestly self-dual structure. We find that the transition between the quantum spin liquid and the spin-ordered phase belongs to a self-dual modified Abelian Higgs field theory while that between the spin liquid and the trivial paramagnet belongs to a self-dual Z2 gauge theory. We also study the effect of an external Zeeman field to show an interesting similarity between the polarized paramagnet obtained due to the Zeeman field and the trivial paramagnet driven pseudodipolar interactions. Interestingly, both the spin liquid and the spin-ordered phases have easily identifiable counterparts in the isotropic limit and the present calculations may shed insights into the corresponding transitions in the material relevant isotropic limit. © 2020 American Physical Society.

Department of Physics

Fulltext

Physical Review B

Phases and quantum phase transitions in an anisotropic ferromagnetic Kitaev-Heisenberg- Γ magnet

We report the anisotropic magnetic properties of the ternary compound ErAl2Ge2. Single crystals of this compound were grown by high temperature solution growth technique,using Al:Ge eutectic composition as flux. From the powder x-ray diffraction we confirmed that ErAl2Ge2 crystallizes in the trigonal CaAl2Si2-type crystal structure. The anisotropic magnetic properties of a single crystal were investigated by measuring the magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, heat capacity and electrical resistivity. A bulk antiferromagnetic ordering occurs around 4 K as inferred from the magnetic susceptibility and the heat capacity. The susceptibility is larger along the ab-plane and flattens out below the magnetic transition temperature and the magnetization in the ordered state increases more rapidly along the ab-plane than along the c-axis suggesting that the moments are inclined more towards the ab-plane. The magnetic susceptibility, magnetization and the 4f -derived part of the heat capacity in the paramagnetic regime analysed based on the point charge model of the crystalline electric field (CEF) indicate a relatively low CEF energy level splitting. © 2020 IOP Publishing Ltd.