Melbourne India Postgraduate Conference 2025

12-14 November 2025

The 5th MIPA Conference was held on the 13th–14th November 2025 in Melbourne, with the pre-conference Academic workshop was held on the 12th November 2025.

The two-day conference was an excellent platform for graduate researchers to expand their academic networks and share research with the community from the University of Melbourne and the collaborating Indian Institutes of Technology: Kharagpur (IIT-KGP), Kanpur (IIT-K), Madras (IIT-M), the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore (IISc) and the Indian Institute of Education and Research Tirupati (IISER Tirupati).

The diverse program offers an enriching environment for the exchange of ideas and multi-disciplinary collaborations.

Given the joint nature of MIPA, some candidates were at various Indian partner institutions, so the conference was organised in a hybrid mode, with delegates who attended in-person at the University of Melbourne and some students and academics via online platforms from our Indian partner institutions.

MIPAC-25 was held at the Melbourne Business School, where the world’s brightest minds come to develop the skills and attitude needed to become the leaders of tomorrow.

MIPAC-25 in pictures

See the photos

Key dates

Academic workshop: 12 November

MIPA Conference: 13–14 November

Conference Dinner: 13 November

Last date for registration: 20 July

Late date for abstract submission: 15 September

Conference program details

View conference program sessions and speakers. Note some details are still to be confirmed and will be updated asap.

9:00am – 9:10am	Welcome by Prof (Ashok) Muthupandian Ashokkumar - Director Melbourne Global Centre (Delhi)
9:10am – 9:35am	Introductions
9:35am – 9.55am	Overview of MIPA and MIPA Recruitment Process including Discussion on Call for Proposals
9.55am – 10:55am	Brief Research pitches by UoM and Partner Institutions Senior Academics on Engineering, Medicine and Science
10:55am – 11:20am	Morning Tea
11.20am – 12:20pm	Small group discussion (Theme based)
12:20pm – 1:30pm	Lunch
1:30pm – 3:00pm	Visits to various departments and lab tours
3:00pm – 5:00pm	Free time

9:00am – 11:45am

Departmental Visits

12:00 – 1:00pm

Lunch

1:00 – 2:00pm AEDT

7:30 – 8:30am IST

Plenary Session – Keynote Speakers

1:00 – 1:10pm AEDT

7:30 – 7:40am IST

A/Prof Jagannath Aryal – Director of Melbourne India Postgraduate Academy (MIPA)

1:10 – 1:20pm AEDT

7:40 – 7:50am IST

Prof Bhattacharya Santanu – Director IISER Tirupati

1:20 – 1:30pm AEDT

7:50 – 8:00am IST

Prof Debashish Chakravarty – IIT Kharagpur, Vice President (Online)

1:30 – 1:40pm AEDT

8:00 – 8:10am IST

Prof Margie Danchin – Associate Dean, International (MDHS)

1:40 – 1:50pm AEDT

8:10 – 8:20am IST

Prof Ramray Bhat – IISc Bangalore, Chair Office of International Relations (Online)

1:50 – 2:00pm AEDT

8:20 – 8:30am IST

Short Break

2:00 – 5:30pm AEDT

8:30 – 11:30am IST

Graduate Research Presentations Session 1
Session Chair: Sai Vikas Kona

2:00 – 2:10pm AEDT

8:30 – 8:40am IST

Zain Torres - Directional Spectra of Waves and of Wave-Breaking by Means of Explicit Measurements and Modelling

2:10 – 2:20pm AEDT

8:40 – 8:50am IST

Hema Jha – Enthalpy generation during Hydrothermal Carbonization of Food Waste

2:20 – 2:30pm AEDT

8:50 – 9:00am IST

Vivek Kumar Yadav – Causality in Hydrometeorological Systems: Process Understanding and Predictions

2:30 – 2:40pm AEDT

9:00 – 9:10am IST

Kunwar Abhishek Singh (Online) – Towards Robust Monitoring of Turbidity in the Ungauged Urban Reaches of Downstream Ganges River, India, using Sentinel-2 and Machine Learning Approaches

2:40 – 2:50pm AEDT

9:10 – 9:20am IST

Sumit Shankar Sarvankar - On the efficacy Of Riblets in mitigating losses due to wake induced transition over T106C blade

2:50 – 3:00pm AEDT

9:20 – 9:30am IST

Subham Saha (Online) - Reconfigurable Resistive Switching in Halide Perovskite-based Memristors for Neuromorphic Computing

3:00 – 3:20pm AEDT

9:30 – 9:50am IST

Networking break/afternoon tea

3:20 – 4:20pm AEDT

9:50 – 10:50am IST

Graduate Research Presentations Session 2
Session Chair: Shubham Verma

3:20 – 3:30pm AEDT

9:50 – 10:00am IST

Mehdi Alam - Soft-rigid bonded granular mixes

3:30 – 3:40pm AEDT

10:00 – 10:10am IST

Aditya Aditya (Online) - Vegetation Segmentation from Aerial LiDAR Point Clouds

3:40 – 3:50pm AEDT

10:10 – 10:20am IST

Nimisha Kattumunda - Effect of activators on the performance of one-part alkali activated materials

3:50 – 4:00pm AEDT

10:20 – 10:30am IST

Sri Priyanka Kommula (Online) - Data-Driven Rainwater Harvesting Site Selection: A Machine Learning Approach

4:00 – 4:10pm AEDT

10:30 –10:40am IST

Sai Keertana Kappagantula (Online) - Charged low complexity protein regions regulate fungal pathogenesis in Cryptococcus neoformans

4:10 – 4:20pm AEDT

10:40 –10:50am IST

Day 2: Concluding remark

6:00pm – 9:00pm AEDT

Conference Dinner

Venue: the Upper East Room, University House, 53 Professors’ Walk, The University of Melbourne, Parkville VIC 3010

How to get there: University House

5:30pm – Doors open

5:50pm – Bar ready for early arrivals

6:15pm – Opening welcome: A/Prof Jagannath Aryal, Director, MIPA

6:20pm – Dr Sushil Kumar, Consul General of India (Melbourne)

6:30pm – Entree served

6:50pm – Presentation from AICC: Nikita Chopra, CEO, AICC

7:00pm – Singing Performance

7:10pm – Main served

7:20pm – Vote of Thanks, A/Prof Debnath Ghosal, Faculty Lead, MIPA (once main is served)

8:00pm – Dessert served

8:20pm – Tea and coffee served

9:00pm – Event concludes

9:00am – 11:45am

Departmental Visits

12:00-1:00pm AEDT

Lunch

1:00 -2:00pm AEDT

7:30- 8:30am IST

Plenary Session – Keynote Speakers

1:00 – 1:10pm AEDT

7:30 – 7:40am IST

A/Prof Debnath Ghosal – MDHS Lead, Melbourne India Postgraduate Academy (MIPA)

1:10 – 1:20pm AEDT

7:40 – 7:50am IST

Prof Collette Boskovic – On behalf of Willa Huston, Science Lead, Melbourne India Postgraduate Academy (MIPA)

1:20 – 1:30pm AEDT

7:50 – 8:00am IST

Dr Annapurna Devi Allu – Associate Dean of International Relations. IISER Tirupati

1:30 – 1:40pm AEDT

8:00 – 8:10am IST

Prof (Ashok) Muthupandian Ashokkumar - Director Melbourne Global Centre (Delhi)

1:40 – 1:50pm AEDT

8:10 – 8:20am IST

Dr Sreeparvathy Vijay – Assistant Professor at IIT Madras (Online)

1:50 – 2:00pm AEDT

8:20 – 8:30am IST

Prof Stan Skafidas - Deputy Dean Engagement (Faculty of Engineering & Information Technology)

2:00 – 3:00pm AEDT

8:30 – 9:30am IST

Graduate Research Presentations Session 3
Session Chair: Nimisha Kattumunda

2:00-2:10pm AEDT

8:30-8:40am IST

Sai Vikas Kona - Improving streamflow record reliability through heteroscedastic error modeling and detection of rating curve shifts

2:10-2:20pm AEDT

8:40-8:50am IST

Susithra Sureshkumar - Cellulose Nanofiber-Based Gel Polymer Electrolytes: Influence of Functionalization on Ionic Conductivity for Na⁺ and Li⁺ Batteries

2:20-2:30pm AEDT

8:50-9:00am IST

Poornima Posa (Online) - Evolving Spatiotemporal Dependence of Flood Extremes across Australia: A MaxStable Process Approach

2:30-2:40pm AEDT

9:00-9:10am IST

Baral Joydeep (Online) - Minimal but mighty: structural and functional dissection of NHEJ in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

2:40-2:50pm AEDT

9:10-9:20am IST

Dhiren Swain - Digitalization of Slum lands: Effects of Digitalization on the Community and State Spaces

2:50-3:00pm AEDT

9:20-9:30am IST

Shilpa Koyyan (Online) - Assessing the transferability of L-band UAVSAR soil moisture retrieval parameters across agricultural crops

3:00 - 3:20pm AEDT

9:30 – 9:45am IST

Networking break/Afternoon tea

3:20–4.10pm AEDT

9:50 – 10:20am IST

Graduate Research Presentations Session 4
Session Chair: Dhiren Swain

3:20-3:30pm AEDT

9:50-10:00am IST

Srujan Shetty Kundapura - Ultrastructural Analysis of the Oral Microbiome Using Cryo-Electron Tomography

Ankit Bhadouriya - Role of sea ice formation in the Antarctic Ocean boundary layer

3:30-3:40pm AEDT

10:00-10:10am IST

Ashwani Kumar (Online) - Stride length estimation using UWB sensor aided by inertial sensors

Srujan Shetty Kundapura - Ultrastructural Analysis of the Oral Microbiome Using Cryo-Electron Tomography

3:40– 3:50pm AEDT

10:10-10:20am IST

Subham Verma - Oxygen facilitated visible light mediated Iniferter RAFT Polymerization

3:50-4:00pm AEDT

10:20-10:30am IST

Shruti Agnihotri - Potential of electrospun PCL-PANI-Gelma Scaffold for osteogenic differentiation through electrical stimulation

4:00-4:10pm AEDT

10:30–10:40am IST

Santanu Soe - The Golden Ratio Primal-Dual Algorithm with Adaptive Step-size Rule for Convex Concave Saddle Point Problem

4:10 – 5:10pm AEDT

10:40 –11:40am IST

Panel Discussion on Professional Development

Download conference program PDF

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Melbourne must see sights

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National Gallery of Victoria: Australia's oldest public art gallery showcases an impressive collection of local and international artworks

NGV Australia: a dedicated collection of historical and contemporary Australian art

State Library of Victoria: houses a vast collection of books, manuscripts, and historical artifacts

Melbourne Museum: featuring diverse exhibitions ranging from natural history to cultural heritage

Queen Victoria Market: this historic market offers fresh produce, gourmet delights, unique crafts, and a bustling atmosphere

Melbourne Zoo: a conservation focussed zoological garden featuring diverse species including unique Australian marsupials

Food

Melbourne CBD is known for its diverse culinary scene, offering a wide range of international cuisines. Some notable restaurants where you can enjoy flavours from around the world are:

Attica (innovative Australian cuisine)
Chancery Lane (French cuisine)
BKK (Thai)
Flower Drum (Chinese)
MoVida Aqui (Spanish)
Cumulus Inc. (European)
Grossi Florentino (Italian)
The Secret Recipe
Indian Fusion Restaurant