The IDEAs Lab at iConFIRM 23 (International Conference on Fundamental and Industrial Research in Materials), organized at IIT Ropar.
The IDEAs Lab at iConFIRM 23 (International Conference on Fundamental and Industrial Research in Materials), organized at IIT Ropar.
Interfaces are ubiquitous in nature, and play an important role in materials science. The Interface Dynamics and Energetics of Alloys Laboratory (or IDEAs Lab for short) focuses on understanding, predicting and controlling interfaces during processing and usage in order to improve material properties. We explore a variety of materials systems, fundamental phenomena and material properties through a variety of computational and experimental techniques.
Current Material Systems under investigation includes bond coat materials such as NiAl with PGM or reactive element additions, oxide nanoparticle suspensions, silicides, MAX/MXenes and exchange coupled magnets.
We study a variety of fundamental phenomena such as synthesis of these materials by solidification and sintering, nanopatterning and self-assembly, phase transformations, microstructure evolution and grain boundary engineering, high temperature oxidation, exchange coupling mechanisms.
Innovative research approaches calls for novel research methods and technique development, with a focus on combining computational approaches with physical infrastructure. Specifically, we also work on developing materials informatics, Cellular Automata and in-situ measurements methods in order to investigate the interfacial phenomena in these materials.
Recent publications and grants
(Sep 2025) Our paper on microscopic mechanisms of oxidation is published in Corrosion Science.
(Apr 2025) IIT Ropar led consortium (with Pratik as a co-PI) receives the ANRF-PAIR grant award.
(Sep 2024) Intriguing effects of Zn on phase evolution, Advanced Engineering Materials. Also featured under hot topics in AI/ML.
(Jun 2024) Pushing Ni-based alloys beyond Haynes 282, Acta Materialia
Group Member news -
(Aug 2025) Congratulations! Manjeet, Rudraksha and Maitreya successfully defend their thesis proposal.
(June 2025) Congratulations! Jhalak defends her PhD thesis successfully.
(June 2025) Pratik becomes an Associate Professor at IIT Ropar
(May 2025) Pratik appointed as the Chairman of the Central Research Facilities at IIT Ropar
(Jan 2025) Welcome to our newest group members - Sangeeth Suresh (MTech 1st year), Anirudh Prakash (BTech 2nd year) and Malay Ayachit (BTech 2nd year)
(June 2024) Dishant graduates! He now heads off to the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Lab for a post-doc, to work on in-situ x-ray diffraction microscopy. Congratulations!
Email: pratik [at] iitrpr [dot] ac.in
Snail Mail: BM-17, Har Gobind Khurana Block, IIT Ropar, Rupnagar 140001, Punjab