SCHOOL OF COMPUTER ENGINEERING

1. OVERVIEW

   The School of Computer Engineering at MIT, MAHE brings together faculties from the fields of Computer Science, Information and Communication Technology, and Data Science & Computer Applications. It provides a rich academic ecosystem in AI & Machine Learning, High-Performance Computing, Networks & Security, Data Science, and Multimedia Systems, driven by combined strengths in teaching excellence, innovation, research, and active industry collaboration.

   The School of Computer Engineering offers a globally aligned curriculum reinforced with experiential learning, international collaborations, and access to state-of-the-art research facilities. There is a wide range of undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programs, supported by experienced faculty, advanced infrastructure, with focused research groups on innovation and real-world applications.  Faculty and students actively contribute to research through funded grants, published papers in reputed journals, and the filing of patents across emerging areas of technology. Several programs offered are accredited by national and international agencies including NBA and IET (UK).

   Graduates from the School are equipped to pursue careers across diverse sectors including information technology, aerospace, healthcare, defense, finance, telecommunications, and smart infrastructure systems, and have been placed in top-tier companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, Oracle, Cisco, and Samsung.

2. AREAS OF EXPERTISE

   1.AI AND MACHINE LEARNING: The School has the expertise and infrastructural support for deep learning, development of ML-based applications as a part of the AI & ML specialization.

   2.CLOUD COMPUTING: It involves delivering computing services like storage, processing, and databases over the internet, often using providers like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. It enables scalable and flexible resource use, supporting applications such as web hosting, big data processing, and DevOps pipelines. It plays a crucial role in modern software deployment, remote collaboration, and enterprise IT infrastructure.

   3.COMPUTER NETWORKS AND SECURITY: The school is focuses on the core areas of Computer Network & Security which include intrusion detection, cyber security, cryptography, and other related areas.

   4.COMPUTER VISION: The school is focuses on enabling computers to interpret and understand visual information from the world, such as images and videos. It involves tasks like object detection, image segmentation, facial recognition, and motion tracking. Computer Vision is widely used in fields like surveillance, autonomous driving, augmented reality, and healthcare diagnostics. It integrates techniques from deep learning, image processing, and pattern recognition.Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) are immersive technologies that enhance or simulate real-world environments. AR overlays digital content onto the physical world using devices like smartphones or AR glasses, enabling interactive experiences in real time useful in fields like education, retail, and healthcare. VR, on the other hand, creates entirely virtual environments using head-mounted displays, offering full immersion ideal for gaming, training simulations, and virtual tours. Both technologies are converging to shape the future of human-computer interaction, with applications expanding rapidly in entertainment, architecture, remote collaboration, and industrial design.

   5.CYBERSECURITY: This is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and data from digital attacks, unauthorized access, or damage. It includes areas such as cryptography, network security, ethical hacking, malware analysis, and risk management. As digital infrastructure grows, so do threats, making cybersecurity a critical area in defending privacy, financial systems, and national security. Blockchain is a decentralized and distributed ledger technology that enables secure, transparent, and tamper-resistant recording of transactions across multiple nodes in a network. Originally developed for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, blockchain has since found applications in supply chain management, finance, healthcare, digital identity, and voting systems. Each block in the chain contains a set of transactions, a timestamp, and a cryptographic hash of the previous block, ensuring data integrity and immutability. Smart contracts—self-executing programs stored on the blockchain—further enhance its utility by automating processes without intermediaries. Blockchain offers enhanced security, transparency, and trust, especially in environments that lack centralized control.

   6.EMBEDDED SYSTEMS AND INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT): Embedded Systems are specialized computing systems that perform dedicated functions within larger systems, often with real-time constraints. IoT extends this by connecting these systems to the internet, enabling smart environments such as smart homes, wearable health monitors, and industrial automation. This area combines hardware, low-level programming, and communication protocols.

   7.HUMAN-COMPUTER INTERACTION: the school is focuses on studies, how people interact with computers and designs technologies to improve user experience. It includes user interface design, usability testing, accessibility, and user-centered design practices. HCI is vital in creating intuitive, efficient, and satisfying technology experiences across platforms like mobile apps, websites, and virtual reality.

   8.KNOWLEDGE-ENGINEERING:  Focus on problems related to knowledge representation, knowledge retrieval, and other relevant areas. Data Science involves extracting meaningful insights from large and complex datasets using statistical, mathematical, and computational techniques. Big Data Analytics refers to the processing and analysis of vast datasets that exceed traditional storage and processing capacities. Together, these disciplines are essential for informed decision-making in fields like business, finance, healthcare, and social sciences, often leveraging tools such as Hadoop, Spark, and Python-based frameworks.

   9.SOFTWARE ENGINEERING: The school has expertise in prototype development and application development. Also, the group carries out research in software process improvement, information management, engineering medical applications, etc.

   10.THEORETICAL COMPUTER SCIENCE: Theoretical Computer Science delves into the mathematical foundations of computing, including algorithms, computational complexity, automata theory, and formal languages. This area provides the theoretical underpinning for understanding what problems can be solved on a computer and how efficiently. It is essential for cryptography, compiler design, and algorithm optimization.raj K. Shetty, who guide

3. RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

   1. DEVELOPING A DEPENDENCY TREEBANK FOR KANNADA (https://mitcse.manipal.edu): This is a funded project granted from Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in the year 2013. The grant amount for MIT Manipal was Rs. 81.14 Lakhs. The project was executed in consortium mode with Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad as the lead institute and MIT Manipal, IIT Bombay, Jadavpur University Kolkata, Centre for Development of Imaging Technologies Thiruvananthapuram as the collaborating institutes. Treebank is a major linguistic resource for various NLP tasks. The treebanks have proved to be a crucial resource for higher level NLP research and developing solutions for various socially relevant NLP applications. The project developed dependency treebanks for Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi and Malayalam. Apart from the treebank, various language resources like parallel corpora, and POS, Chunk, Morph annotated data were created. The project duration was 3 years. The project investigators were Mr. Ashwath Rao B and Mr. Muralikrishna S N.
   2. AUTOMATION FOR MANAGING COUNTRY LABELS (https://mitcse.manipal.edu): CDS (Core Data Sheets) are the main documents that describe medicines product characteristics like product names, indications, dosage, contraindications etc. However these are product focused, and cannot be used as-is for submitting to country regulatory authorities for approval to market the product in respective countries. For submitting to country regulatory authorities, a customized label needs to be prepared considering language variations, country specific usage of scientific terms and other information. This activity of preparing local country specific labels is mostly a manual and time-consuming process. Currently Global Labeling Managers (GLMs) need to provide all search string possibilities in order to ensure a broad and comprehensive label search. In preparation for CDS updates, the NPI (National Provider Identifier) comparison table (CDS vs. Multiple key regional labels) is often the most time-consuming activity. GLMs would need to pull each label from REDI-GO system and manually place them side-by-side in a document for label comparison. This is a tedious activity because labeling text can be in different sections in each labeling document. The current toolset have some limitations. The goal of this initiative is to automate some parts of the process using NLP, Visualization and Automation tools. The aim is to develop a solution (algorithm / model or NLP pipeline) which can build controlled vocabulary set and automatically apply search synonyms on US/UK English spelling based on the search term input. This project was funded by Novartis Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., Hyderabad, for the duration of 2018–2019, with a total cost of ₹20.2 lakhs. The project was led by Principal Investigator (PI): Mr. Murali Krishna; Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PIs): Mr. Ashwath Rao B., Dr. Ashalatha Nayak; Project Members: Dr. Narendra VG, Dr. Srikanth Prabhu, Mr. Ganesh Babu, Ms. Vidhya Pai, Mr. Prashanth Nayak; Student Interns: Chhayank Jain, Yashraj Sarrof, Aman Saxena, Swati Kanwal, Tanmay Gulati, Saksham Pandey, Ketan Todi, Yogish, Shreya Nayak, Shaleen Kalsi, and Kunal Joshi.
   3. MAHE-ISAC CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE ON CYBERSECURITY: MAHE in collaboration with ISAC (Information Sharing and Analysis Centre - a public-private partner of AICTE, MoD and CERT-IN) has inaugurated a Centre of Excellence on Cybersecurity.Established under the supervision of Dr. Balachandra, this center features a dedicated cybersecurity lab for advanced research in threat intelligence, secure systems, and ethical hacking. The collaboration also offers hands-on learning courses specifically in threat intelligence and ethical hacking, fostering national-level engagement and skill development. A Phygital lab featuring real-world SCADA/IoT systems alongside cloud-based virtual labs, officially part of the KDEM cybersecurity hub cluster. Manipal Academy of Higher Education(MAHE) , an Institution of Eminence, Deemed to be University and Information Sharing and Analysis Centre (ISAC), a leading non profit cybersecurity organization have collaborated to establish a Cyberange cybersecurity Centre of Excellence (MAHE-ISAC CoE) for IOT/ SCADA and IT security. The COE has Cyber Physical System (CPS) at the core while digital simulation platforms are provided in multilevel scenarios.The increasing prevalence of IoT devices and systems, along with the growing complexity of cyber threats, has created a significant need for trained cybersecurity professionals. Multi-layered hands-on training platforms, such as physical-digital simulation labs and virtual labs, can help develop a talent pool that is ready to address these challenges by simulating real-world scenarios and providing participants with the tools and experience needed to secure systems and prevent cyberattacks. These training platforms can make a significant difference in ensuring the safety and security of our increasingly connected world. This MAHE-ISAC CoE for Cybersecurity at Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) is expected to create a pipeline of talent pool to serve the cybersecurity industry for a long time to come. Currently, this is led by Dr. Srikanth Prabhu, who serves as the In-charge of the MAHE-ISAC CoE for Cybersecurity.
   4. MIT-MAHE AND SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC (CENTRE FOR INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH IN INTELLIGENT TECHNOLOGIES): MIT-MAHE (Manipal Institute of Technology-Manipal Academy of Higher Education) and Schneider Electric Bengaluru signed an MoU on June 17–20, 2022 to establish a MIT-MAHE Research Centre within Schneider’s Bengaluru R&D environment. Under the guidance of Dr. Manohara Pai M.M., this collaboration has established three industry-supported research labs focusing on Intelligent Technologies, Industry 4.0, and Sustainability. UG and PG students receive 5-month stipends to support their research involvement.The Centre is equipped with an Industrial IoT Systems & Application Research Lab, inaugurated by Chitra Sukumar (VP Research, Schneider Electric) to support IoT, automation, and smart technology projects. 
   5. NATIONAL LANGUAGE TRANSLATION MISSION (NLTM) “BHASHINI” (https://mitcse.manipal.edu): Indian Language to Indian Language Machine Translation Under National Language Translation Mission (NLTM) "BHASINI" by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), New Delhi. The project is to be executed in consortium mode led by Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad. The BHASINI initiative, launched by the MeitY, New Delhi, aims to bridge the language barrier in India through Indian language to Indian language machine translation. This scheme aligns with the Digital India mission, fostering inclusive communication and accessibility. BHASINI leverages Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to develop efficient translation models for 22 scheduled Indian languages. The objective is to enhance digital communication, enabling seamless translation in areas such as education, governance, healthcare, and e-commerce. It supports real-time translation, voice-enabled assistance, and multilingual search, benefiting citizens, businesses, and government services. The project commenced in February 2022. The duration of the project is 3 Years. The project, with a total cost of ₹80.47 lakhs, is led by Principal Investigator (PI): Dr. Narendra V. G.; Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI): Dr. Ashwath Rao B.
   6. DISCOURSE INTEGRATED DRAVIDIAN LANGUAGE – DRAVIDIAN LANGUAGE MACHINE TRANSLATION KANNADA-TAMIL (https://mitcse.manipal.edu): This is a funded project from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Govt. of India under Bhashini programme. The project is to be executed in consortium mode led by Anna University K B Chandrashekar Research Centre (AUKBC), Chennai. The other partnering institutions are MIT Manipal, International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad, CDAC Noida, ICFOSS Trivandrum. The project seeks to develop machine translation resources such as a parallel corpus between Kannada and Tamil, a domain dictionary of Governance and Healthcare, a monolingual dictionary of Kannada, a bilingual dictionary between Kannada and Tamil, idioms, idiomatic expressions, and neural machine translation models. The total allocation for MIT Manipal is Rs. 187,70,000/- (One crore eighty seven lakhs seventy thousand rupees). The project commenced in February 2022. The duration of the project is 3 Years. The project is investigated by Dr. Ashwath Rao B and Prof. Musica Supriya.
   7. CENTRE OF INDIAN LANGUAGE DATA (COIL-D) LAB(https://mitcse.manipal.edu): It is a funded project from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Govt. of India. The project is to be executed in consortium mode led by Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Patna. The other partnering institutions are IIT Delhi, IIIT Guwahati, IIIT Delhi, IGDTUW, Digital India Bhashini Division DIC and MIT Manipal. The project seeks to develop language resources for Human Language Technology (HLT) and establish applications, standards, guidelines, and best practices for building and benchmarking Machine Translation (MT) systems and other NLP tools. MIT is responsible for developing parallel corpora for Dravidian languages Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, and Telugu. The total allocation for the project is Rs. 27,30,28,000/- (Twenty-seven crore thirty lakh twenty-eight thousand) and MIT is allocated Rs. 3,54,22,000/- (Three crore fifty four lakhs twenty two thousand). The duration of the project is 2 Years. We have received the first instalment of Rs. 24,59,000/- ( Twenty-Four Lakh Fifty-Nine Thousand) in the first installment. The date of sanction is 03-09-2024. The duration of the project is 2 Years. The project is led by Principal Investigator (PI): Dr. Muralikrishna S.N.; Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PIs): Dr. Ashwath Rao B., Dr. Ashalatha Nayak, Mr. Ganesh Babu, Dr. Raghavendra Ganiga, and Dr. Raghurama Holla.
   8. AI- CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE IN HEALTH (AI-COE): Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal has become one of the Research groups in the prestigious Artificial Intelligence Center of Excellence project in Health by the Ministry of Education, Government of India. This is part of the vision of our honorable prime minister to create three major centers of excellence in India in next four years. The team at MAHE has completed phase 1 for 12 months with a grant amount of 81.3 Lakhs and now working for phase 2 for 48 months. In phase 2, MAHE will work with AIIMS Delhi, IIT-D, IISc and IIT-M. The total budged for the group is 320 Cr. in phase 2. The project is led by Coordinator: Dr. Anil Rana; Principal Investigators (PIs): Dr. Manjunath K. N., Dr. Ganesh P. (KMC Manipal); Co-Principal Investigators (Co-PIs): Dr. Muralikrishna S. N., Dr. Neelima B., and Dr. Ajitha Shenoy
   9. CENTRE OF VIRTUAL REALITY LAB: Primarily funded by MAHE , leverages advanced technologies in 3D reconstruction, animation, and simulation to enhance medical education and surgical planning. It fosters collaboration between medical and engineering domains, creating an immersive VR-based digital library to support research, clinical practice, and interdisciplinary learning.

4. ACADEMIC AND INDUSTRY COLLABORATIONS

   Students of  School of Computer Engineering  can benefit from practical collaborations with leading University and Technology Partners. These partnerships, initiated by the school, offer its students opportunities for real-world projects, skill development, and exposure to industry practices, enhancing students' readiness.The school has tie-ups with  Infosys, Microsoft, and TCS.

   1.University Collaborations :

   •  State University of New York, Binghamton, USA: Facilitating a 3.5+1.5 Year program, offering flexibility, a rigorous curriculum, international exposure, and building institutional relations.
   •  Chosun University: Collaborating on practical research in biometrics for healthcare and access control, sharing funding, publications, researchers, and academic materials.

   2.Industry Partnerships:

   • Schneider Electric: Supporting PhD research, joint projects, and creating opportunities for student placements and faculty development in energy and technology.
   • International Business Machines Corporation (IBM): Providing access to IBM's software resources for skill development and emphasizing practical cloud-based learning.
   • Information Sharing and Analysis Center (ISAC), India: Establishing a Cyber Security Center of Excellence, fostering capacity building, joint ventures, and regional cooperation.
   • Nokia Solutions and Networks India: Collaborating on curriculum design, lectures, internships, technical symposiums, and practical projects.
   • DSCI Data Security Council of India: Strengthening expertise in data security through a strategic partnership.
   • Cisco: Offering access to Cisco's educational materials, training, and discounted software, with marketing support for the Networking Academy program.
   • Samsung: Collaborating on research projects and practical solutions.
   • Thermax: Exploring joint research programs, academic/training activities, and opportunities for guest lectures, internships, and placements.
   • EdCreate Social Foundation: Collaborating on skill development programs for IT education and workforce development. Academic partner of CISCO.
   • Infosys Springboard Tie up: MAHE, Manipal has partnered with Infosys through its flagship digital learning platform, Infosys Springboard, to enrich student learning and industry readiness. Infosys Springboard is a key component of Infosys’ ESG strategy, specifically contributing to the “social” aspect by empowering individuals and communities with digital literacy.  This collaboration offers access to a vast repository of high-quality, curated content in emerging technologies, professional skills, and foundational subjects. Students and faculty benefit from self-paced courses, live sessions, and certification programs that align with industry expectations. As a recognized partner institution, the School of Computer Engineering actively integrates Springboard content into its academic offerings and supports student upskilling initiatives, fostering a culture of continuous learning and innovation.

5. . STARTUP

   Dashapatmaja Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (https://dashapatmaja.in/) is an innovation-driven startup based in Udupi, incubated at the IS/CWI/ 002, Manipal GOK Bio-incubator, Advanced Research Centre, Madhav Nagar, Manipal – 576104. The company focuses on developing next-generation medical software solutions, EdTech platforms with edge-computing capabilities, and AI-IoT-powered solutions for healthcare and education.

   Chairman of the company: Dr. Manu Sudhi (KMC); CEO: Mr. Shreepathy Ranga Bhatta; Mentor: Dr. Dasharathraj K. Shetty, who guides the company’s research direction and innovation strategy.