<p>Shiv Nadar University is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, research-focused, and student-centric University offering a full range of academic programs at the undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral level. With state-of-the-art infrastructure, the University comprises of academic wings, sophisticated labs, international standard sports facilities, amphitheaters, auditorium, conference rooms and smart classrooms. The University&rsquo;s goal is to become internationally recognized for the quality of its research and creative endeavors and their applicability to improving quality of life, generating new insights and expanding the boundaries of human knowledge creativity. Committed to excellence in teaching, research and service, the University aims to serve the higher education needs of India and the world beyond.</p>

Shiv Nadar University

We report the results of density functional theory calculations on the atomic and electronic structure of solids formed by assembling A2B2PN (A = Ge and Sn, B = Cl, Br, and I) inorganic double helices. The calculations have been performed using a generalized gradient approximation for the exchange-correlation functional and including van der Waals interactions. Our results show that the double helices crystallize in a monoclinic lattice with van der Waals type weak interactions between the double helices. In all cases except Ge2Cl2PN, the solids are stable with a binding energy between the double helices ranging from 0.06 eV per atom to 0.09 eV per atom and inter-double helices separation of more than 3.33 Å. All the solids are semiconducting. Further calculations have been done by using meta-GGA with a modified Becke-Johnson functional to obtain better band gaps, which are found to lie in the range of 0.91 eV to 1.49 eV. In the case of Ge2Br2PN the solid is a direct band gap semiconductor although the isolated double helix has an indirect band gap and it is suggested to be interesting for photovoltaic, and other optoelectronic applications. The charge transfer between the atoms has been studied using Bader charge analysis and the DDEC6 method in the CHARGEMOL program, which suggests charge transfer from the outer helix to the inner helix. This journal is © 2020 The Royal Society of Chemistry.

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RSC Advances

Atomic and electronic structure of solids of Ge2Br2PN, Ge2I2PN, Sn2Cl2PN, Sn2Br2PN and Sn2I2PN inorganic double helices: A first principles study

Engineering education, today, has changed with the evolving job requirements that demands for more than only a domain-specific knowledge. Engineers are expected to address more complex challenges of future that require knowledge from different disciplines. Also, in this era of market competition, the enterprises expect them to come up with innovative ideas to have an edge. Thus, conventional engineering education is going through a transition phase with rapidly changing technology and job demands. Acknowledging this evolving need, many technical institutes have taken the initiative to incorporate creative design education in engineering curriculum to give students a liberal, multi-disciplinary, holistic, and creative outlook for addressing complex multi-disciplinary problems. But, imparting design education to undergrads along with their engineering majors has its own practical challenges. Design education has a subjective and intuitive approach, which involves imagination, reflection, and iteration which is sharply in contrast with the objective technical engineering teaching. Hence, holding the attention and interest of students from non-design background is sometimes a tough task for the mentors. The paper aims at highlighting the problems faced by mentors while teaching design to the engineering UG students at Shiv Nadar University. Based on their experiences, the authors have put forward several insights that might help young mentors interacting with the students with non-design background. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd 2019.

Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies

Teaching creative design to undergrade engineering students—Some experiences

Population growth, and excessive exploitation of resources (air, water, and land) for consumerism-driven economy are among the few reasons for environmental degradation. The growing concern over this in recent years have resulted in several remedial steps taken by both government and nongovernment organizations, often manifested through environmental laws, regulations, and policies.The philosophical bases of such remedial steps are generally biased toward anthropocentric (or techno-centric) worldview. However, this paper posits that the traditional Indian philosophy toward environmental protection is based on conservative-nurturing (or eco-centric) world view, often manifested through cultural practices. The paper is an attempt to explore Indian cultural practices from the environmental worldview (EWV) perspective. This paper, at first, presents a review of the most popular EWV available in the literature. Then it discusses two Indian cultural practices and attempts to draw a philosophical relationship with these worldviews. The study of these two cultural practices indicates the manifestation of either conservative-nurturing or eco-centric worldview. The paper advocates that cultural practices are potential tools for environmental stress mitigation. This is supported by a few recent cases of environmental protection through cultural practices. The paper concludes that cultural practices have a great potential for environmental protection and such practices should be recognized, strengthened, and nurtured through research. © 2019, Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

Indian cultural practices as a manifestation of environmental world view—an exploration as a tool for environmental stress mitigation

We report results of the state-of-the-art ab initio calculations on two-dimensional (2D) hybrid halide perovskites capped with surface ligands to understand their effects on the stability with respect to bulk MASnBr3 (MA = CH3NH3). Considering the thinnest (one-unit-cell thick) layers R2SnBr4 with surface ligands of different lengths (R = MA, ethyl ammonium (EA), butyl ammonium (BA), and phenylethyl ammonium (PEA)), it is found that van der Waals (vdW) interactions between the long chain molecules play a crucial role in enhancing the stability of the layers. The vdW contribution in ligand-ligand interactions increases with increasing length of the ligands, and interestingly, the stability of BA2SnBr4 and PEA2SnBr4 layers becomes better than bulk MASnBr3 and comparable to that of inorganic bulk CsSnBr3. Furthermore, our calculations on the 2D-3D BA2SnBr4 system in which the surface ligands connect the neighboring perovskite layers suggest further enhancement in the stability of the layers. The present study shines light on the role of H···Br bonding in deciding the structure of the inorganic part of these thinnest layers and the effect of inclusion of vdW interactions on these H···Br bond lengths. The band gap of the layers increases slightly on increasing the length of the ligands, and there is a slight blue shift of the absorption spectrum. All the studied perovskite layers are direct band gap semiconductors, and our results show that the environmentally friendly BA2SnBr4 (PEA2SnBr4) layers are good candidates for green LEDs with a band gap of 2.28 (2.36) eV as obtained by using the HSE06 hybrid exchange-correlation functional with dispersion correction. Copyright © 2019 American Chemical Society.

Journal of Physical Chemistry C

Role of Ligand-Ligand Interactions in the Stabilization of Thin Layers of Tin Bromide Perovskite: An Ab Initio Study of the Atomic and Electronic Structure, and Optical Properties