Prof. Varun Dutt, M.S, Ph.D. Professor and Principal Investigator
Dr. Dutt works as a Full Professor in the School of Computing and Electrical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Mandi. He is also the Dean, Resource Generation and Alumni Relations, IIT Mandi. In the past, he served as the Chair of the Indian Knowledge System and Mental Health Applications (IKSMHA) Centre at IIT Mandi. Dr. Dutt has applied his knowledge and skills in the fields of psychology, public policy, and computer science to explore how humans make decisions on social, managerial, and environmental issues. Dr. Dutt's Ph.D. thesis focused on answering the question: why do we want to defer actions on climate change and he has investigated the question by applying literature on people’s risk-preferences, time-preferences, social-cultural dilemmas, and linear thinking. Dr. Dutt has used lab-based methods involving experiments with human participants and cognitive models to investigate his research questions.
Dr. Dutt serves as a senior member of IEEE and as the Principal Investigator at Applied Cognitive Science (ACS) Lab. He is currently serving as an Academic Editor of PloS Computational Biology journal, Associate Editor of Frontiers in Cognitive Science journal, a Review Editor of Frontiers in Decision Neuroscience journal, and a member of the editorial boards of the International Journal on Cyber Situational Awareness and the Journal of Dynamic Decision Making. Also, Dr. Dutt serves on the Board of Directors of Intiot Services Pvt. Ltd., India. In the recent past, Dr. Dutt served as a special topics editor in Frontiers in Psychology (Cognitive Science) journal for special issues on “Application of Cognitive Approaches to Cyber Security,” “Human Decision-Making in Combat Situations Involving Traditional and Immersive Visual Technologies,” and “Highlights in Psychology for Clinical Settings: Military Personnel and Veteran Mental Health.” He was also a lead author on IPCC WG III's 5th Assessment Report. For more information on research, please visit ACS Lab and IKSMHA Centre You may also visit the following pages: Varun Dutt's IRINS page, Varun Dutt's Research Gate page, and Varun Dutt's Google Scholar page For technology commercialization, please visit the following page: Intiot Services Pvt. Ltd.
Office: 304, 3rd Floor, A4 Building, IIT Mandi, Kamand Web: http://faculty.iitmandi.ac.in/~varun/ E-mail: varun[at]iitmandi[dot]ac[dot]in Phone: +91-1905-267150 Fax: +91-1905-267009
Praveen Kumar, M.S. (by Research) Ph.D. Student (2019-present)
Praveen is doing a Ph.D. in the School of Computing & Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi (IIT Mandi). He has done his M.S. (by Research) from the IIT Mandi in "Slope Movement Prediction and Early Warnings via Machine Learning Algorithms and IoT Technologies." Since 2017, Praveen has been working to provide a solution for the landslide hazard in the Himalayan region. He has developed a low-cost landslide monitoring system (LMS) that monitors landslides and records data continuously. Currently, he is developing various deep learning models that can predict the landslide movement ahead of time. His area of interest comprises Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and IoT technologies. Please visit his page for more information about his research work or if you are interested in working with this group.
Dr. Ritu Kapur Khosla is a Senior Project Scientist in the Non-Invasive Glucometer Project of the Indian Knowledge System and Mental Health Applications Centre (IKSMHA) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mandi. She received her PhD in Computer Science and Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Ropar, Punjab, India. She has worked as a postdoc and research fellow at the University of Sannio, Italy, and the University of Stuttgart, Germany, respectively. Her current research is focused on Digital Nose for Non-Invasive Healthcare, DevOps for Cyber-Physical Systems, software maintenance and evolution, empirical software engineering, and mining software repositories. She has received the DST Accelerate Vigyan Vritika grant, the Microsoft research travel grant, and the ACM CAPS Sigsoft grant for her research. She has served as a program committee member of international conferences in the software engineering field. She serves as a reviewer for Software Engineering journals such as the Transactions of Software Engineering and Methodology (TOSEM), Transactions of Cloud Computing (TCC), Empirical Software Engineering (EMSE), Information and Software Technology (IST), and Journal of Systems and Software (JSS).
Sahil Sankhyan is a Ph.D. scholar at the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi (IIT Mandi) and holds an M.Tech in "Electronic Product Design Technology" from C-DAC Mohali. Since 2021, he has been focused on developing solutions for landslide hazards in the Himalayan region. His research integrates deep learning models to predict landslide movements in advance, combining modern IoT technologies with both geotechnical and traditional methods for landslide detection and mitigation. His areas of interest include Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and IoT technologies. For more information or collaboration inquiries, please visit his research page.
Malika is currently pursuing her PhD at IIT Mandi. She holds a master’s degree in Linguistics from Delhi University. Her research explores innovative approaches to enhancing English comprehension through advanced educational technologies. She focuses on training social robots with large language models (LLMs) to deliver interactive, human-like engagement in language learning. Additionally, she leverages virtual reality (VR) to create immersive environments, making complex content more accessible and engaging for students.
Sakshi Chauhan is a PhD scholar at the Indian Knowledge System and Mental Health Applications Centre (IKSMHA) at IIT Mandi. She completed her M.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from Himachal Pradesh Technical University, securing the second position across the state. Her skills include Virtual and Augmented Reality, Animation, Neuroscience (specializing in HRV and EEG signals), Web Development, and Computer Networks. She is proficient in programming languages such as Python, C#, C++, and tools like Unity and Python.
Ms. Shruti Kaushik is currently pursuing Ph.D. in Computer Science from the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi, India. In her current research, Shruti is using healthcare data-sets to develop dimensionality reduction techniques, frequent pattern mining algorithms, and time-series forecasting algorithms to predict patient-related features. Her research interests include machine learning, data mining & visualization, and deep learning. Office: ACS Lab IIT Mandi E-mail: shruti_kaushik[at] students[dot]iitmandi[dot]ac[dot]in Phone: +91-1905-267184 Fax: +91-1905-267009
Abhinav Choudhury, M.S. Ph.D. Student
Abhinav is currently working on a project for Purdue Pharma. He primarily works in the field of Data Mining. In his project, he is mining prescription histories, referral patterns of doctors/physicians to create a social network. Then using Social Network Analysis techniques he is trying to find Key Opinion Leaders in the Pharmaceutical Sector. His areas of interest include Machine Learning and Data Mining.
Gitanshu is a Ph.D. Scholar in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi. His areas of interest are cognitive psychology, human behaviour, human-computer interaction and cognitive modelling and presently he is working in the domain of Climate Change, to understand the various factors that affect people’s perception of climate and is currently developing an experimental study to understand the mitigative pattern followed by people to deal with climate change and its adverse effects.
Ankush is an Electrical Engineer graduated from Himachal Pradesh University, Himachal Pradesh India. Presently, he is working in the project named “Landslide Monitoring and Early Warning System.” Here, he is involved in the development and deployment of the landslide monitoring and early warning system. Furthermore, he is included in the site selection for the system deployment and risk communication. He is interested in the field of renewable energy, power system, and artificial intelligence.
Tushar is an M.S. student in the School of Computing & Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Mandi. He has done his B.Tech from HMR Institute of Technology & Management, (IP University) Delhi. As part of Applied Cognitive Science Laboratory, he is doing his research work in the field of IoT and ML (Time series forecasting). He has been involved in developing a MEMS-based IoT system which monitors air pollution levels. He is working on a project funded by DEST, Government of Himachal Pradesh. His area of interest comprises Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Artificial Intelligence.
Akanksha Singh is an agriculture graduate from Banaras Hindu University. She is currently pursuing her PhD at IIT Mandi, where her research focuses on developing simulation tools for farmers better to understand climate change patterns and their impacts on agriculture. Akanksha aims to contribute to sustainable agricultural practices by integrating climate adaptation and mitigation strategies, with a particular focus on assisting farming communities in navigating the challenges posed by climate variability. E-mail: sakanksha660@gmail.com
Arti Devi M.Tech (R), Project Associate (2023 - Present)
Arti is currently pursuing an M.Tech (by Research) at the Indian Institute of Technology Mandi (IIT Mandi). She holds a degree in Computer Science and Engineering from Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Longowal. Her skills include Python, machine learning, deep learning, basics of computer vision, and generative AI (GenAI). She also has hands-on experience working with Unity. Her current research focuses on the prediction of clinical trial outcomes and large language models (LLMs). Additionally, Arti is working as a project associate on a project funded by Syneos Health.
Ankit is currently pursuing a PhD at the ACS Lab (IKSMHA Centre), IIT Mandi. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Medical Sciences and an MTech in Biological Engineering and Cognitive Science. His research focuses on the neural mechanisms underlying Curiosity, Reward-Based Learning, Memory, and Decision Making, with a particular emphasis on EEG/ERP studies, Neurodegenerative Diseases, and interventions like Neuromodulation and Neuroimaging. Ankit's current PhD research explores how tDCS at the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) influences decision-making, risk-taking, reward valuation, and curiosity under varying cognitive loads. This study will utilize EEG to examine the neural mechanisms underlying these cognitive functions in the context of neuromodulation.
Premchand is currently pursuing an M.Tech (by Research) at the School of Computing and Electrical Engineering, IIT Mandi. He holds a degree in Electronic Instrumentation and Control Engineering from Govt. Engineering College Bikaner and has a strong foundation in DevOps, IoT, and cloud technologies. His skills include automation, machine learning, circuit and PCB design, firmware development, and mobile app development with Flutter. He is proficient in tools such as Docker, AWS, and Terraform.
Sarthak Srivastava is currently pursuing an M.Tech (by Research) at the Centre for Human-Computer Interaction, IIT Mandi. He holds a degree in computer science and engineering from IMS Engineering College, Ghaziabad. He has a strong foundation in large language models (LLMs) and machine learning. His skills include text generation, fine-tuning models, model evaluation, and the use of embeddings and tokenizers. He is proficient in tools such as Hugging Face's datasets, RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), Langchain, and other machine learning frameworks..
Ritik Sharma is currently pursuing an M.Tech (by Research) at the Indian Knowledge System and Mental Health Applications Centre, IIT Mandi. He holds a degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Jawaharlal Nehru Govt. Engg. College Sundernagar. He is working as Project Associate-I on the project titled "Non Invasive Glucometer for diabetes detection using Breath". He is proficient in signal processing, data science, machine learning and deep learning.
Harsh is an MS student in School of computing and electrical engineering at Indian Institute of Technology, Mandi. He did his B.E. from OP Jindal Institute of technology, Raigarh. His areas of interest are Machine learning, Cyber-security and cognitive science. Currently, he is working on a project from DST, Government of India, in which he is building a game theoretic approach involving experimentation and computational modelling of hacker’s decisions using deception in Cyber Security.
Shashank is an MS student in School of Computing and Electrical Engineering at Indian Institute of Technology Mandi. He completed his Bachelors of Engineering from Birla Institute of Technology Mesra in Computer Science. His areas of interest are Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science and Cybersecurity. As a part of his research, he is working on a project from DST, Government of India, on Deception Techniques in cybersecurity using honeypots.
Shashank is a project technician currently working on the project evaluation of quantitative system pharmacology and machine learning models for blood Glucose prediction his work is to perform the R&D in the area of machine learning and deep learning.
