Joint PhD opportunities
See which joint PhD projects are currently open for enrolment in Melbourne India Postgraduate Academy joint PhD program.
Melbourne India Postgraduate Academy (MIPA)
Join a collaborative research project between Melbourne and an elite Indian research university.
The Melbourne India Postgraduate Academy (MIPA) is a joint initiative consisting of established researchers and joint PhD candidates from the University of Melbourne and a group of India’s elite research universities. Collaborative research teams from Melbourne and India are engaging in projects that address key issues in science and technology.
The MIPA joint PhD candidates working on these projects benefit from being part of a collaborative international research community. They will receive mentorship from global experts, learn how to adapt to new cultural and research environments, and gain access to the best facilities and resources from two universities. The MIPA bi-annual conference provides further opportunities for researchers to network, share knowledge and partake in professional development opportunities.
To find out more about research and opportunities at MIPA, our LinkedIn page can be found here.
MIPA has presented me with a satisfying and wholesome research experience. My supervisors’ encouragement and inputs have helped me excel in my research.
Dibbendu Roy
MIPA joint PhD candidate
Meenakshi Arora wins India Australia Business and Community Alliance Australia India Impact Award
We are delighted to announce that the Director of MIPA, Associate Professor Meenakshi Arora, has been awarded the India Australia Business and Community Alliance (IABCA) Australia India Impact Award (Individual). IABCA is the largest platform that exists to strengthen the India-Australia relationship and contribute to its development through its people-people links. The award acknowledges Associate Professor Arora’s work in developing collaborations between the University and India through her position as MIPA Director.
Project spotlight story: Transport phenomenon of surface modified bimetallic nanoparticles
Nanoparticles are solid particles engineered to be the size of a molecule or an atom. They are useful in the field of nanotechnology, an advanced field of technology with many real-life applications. A bimetallic nanoparticle is a nanoparticle created from two different types of metals. This project examines the movement of bimetallic nanoparticles thorough porous media. Research outcomes will help scientists apply nanotechnology to environmental remediation, generating a tangible impact on our society.
Joint PhD Opportunity: Extracting the semantics of places from natural language descriptions
The ability of artificial intelligence like Siri and Alexa to extract information from human speech has progressed tremendously in the last decades. However, challenges still remain. One such challenge is the difficulty for AI to process spatial language and contextualised language about places. For example, the phrase "at the back of the store" may appear clear to a human listener, but to an AI, such language is ambiguous. This project aims to investigate conversational patterns about places and represent them in a database so that we can ultimately further the development of artificial intelligence. To view this joint PhD opportunity (and others) in detail, click on the button below.
Our partner universities
There are currently five Indian universities partnering with the University of Melbourne to operate the Melbourne India Postgraduate Academy. Learn more about each university by following the links displayed on the right.
Meet our Directors
Associate professor Meenakshi Arora is the current Director of the Melbourne India Postgraduate Academy. Her main research interests relate to urban water cycle modelling, water quality, contaminant transport modelling, and groundwater remediation. Associate professor Arora has made significant contributions in the area of water resource management, including the development of a cost-effective defluoridation plant to provide safe drinking water to communities in rural India. As a faculty member of the Department of Infrastructure Engineering at the University of Melbourne, she teaches a variety of subjects and supervises Masters and PhD candidates.
Professor Muthupandian Ashokkumar (Ashok) is the Deputy Director of MIPA. Ashok is a renowned physical chemist who specialises in sonochemistry, with more than 20 years of experience in this field. He has developed a number of novel techniques to characterize acoustic cavitation bubbles and has made major contributions of applied sonochemistry to the materials, food and dairy industry. Professor Ashokkumar also teaches undergraduate and postgraduate Chemistry as a senior academic staff member of the School of Chemistry at the University of Melbourne. In addition to his responsibilities at MIPA, Ashok currently serves as the Assistant Deputy Vice-Chancellor International at the University of Melbourne.
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