The Department of Physics has grown by leaps and bounds both in the strength of faculty, postdocs, research scholars, and students, as well as in the diversity of research areas being represented. A common theme spanning across these vastly diverse research domains being actively pursued by members of the department is the ever-increasing and extensive use of state-of-the-art numerical methods to tackle cutting-edge research problems at the frontiers of physics and interdisciplinary domains. Hence, the adequate training in computational methods, of students at all levels, beginning with the Batchelor, Master, and all the way to specialized focus at the Ph.D. level, constitutes one of the most important endeavors of the department. This is also reflected in the wide variety of numerically intensive courses that are taught, and whose curriculum is continuously evolved and adapted to aptly and sufficiently prepare the students by equipping them with the tools not just needed to tackle modern-day research problems but are of wide utility in a range of careers outside core academia that many pursue.
To realize these important goals, the pressing need of the hour for the department is resources towards the development of a state-of-the-art computing infrastructure and a modern teaching lab with the required essential equipment and audio/visual support, and one which is holistically designed to adequately address the current needs. To some of the alumni who would have seen the department computing facility in the late 1990s and early 2000s, a walk past it now would invoke a sense of déjà vu of the pre-Y2K era.
Setting up a state of art computer facility requires considerable investment. New DCF will have a projector screen with a high-resolution projector and will contain around 20 desktops which will cater computational needs of both undergraduate and postgraduate students. To create this state-of-the-art infrastructure, we ask for 50 lakhs of funds.
