Prof. Sai Gautam from IISc’s prestigious Materials Engineering Department delivered an insightful session on “Technologies, Materials and Machine Learning” for MAHSS students on 30/11/2025. He explained how materials behave at the atomic level and how this knowledge supports engineering innovations. Through examples across metals, polymers, composites, biomaterials and semiconductors, he highlighted applications in batteries, sensors, healthcare, transportation, aerospace, infrastructure and biodegradable materials.
He also outlined what students typically study in Materials Science and the career opportunities available. Prof. Sai emphasised that material scientists identify new materials, improve existing ones, prevent material failure and enhance manufacturing processes for better performance, efficiency and sustainability. The field’s interdisciplinary nature—spanning physics, chemistry, Mathematics, computation and biology—was clearly brought out.
The session introduced students to machine learning as a powerful accelerator of materials research, covering prediction, modelling and generation of new materials. Techniques such as regression, classification, diffusion models and graph neural networks were discussed for their role in improving accuracy and enabling discovery.
Our XI student Joshua Dsa concluded by thanking Prof. Sai Gautam for his valuable time and inspiring insights. I am enclosing a report prepared by him which will be loaded on our site soon.
Prof. Sai Gautam also shared an exciting update: IISc will launch its new 4-year BTech programmes in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering and Materials Engineering from 2026, with admissions strictly through JEE Advanced ranks. As coordinator for the Materials Engineering programme, he expressed confidence that these courses will soon stand among the best in the country and globally. When I asked him whether the IISc hostel experience would match that of IITs, he responded with a smile, noting that while it may take a couple of years for the hostel culture to fully evolve, the overall programme is poised to become exceptional and truly distinctive.
Vyankatesh Prabhudesai