Dr. Souvik Mahapatra, a professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Bombay, recently came to Pilani to deliver a Guest Lecture on ‘CMOS Technology – Past, Present and Future’.

The English Press Club caught up with him and asked him about his life as a researcher, and his take on the field. Here’s what he had to say!

Q: You’ve travelled across the world and the country as a researcher attending conferences and giving talks. How would you compare research taking place in India with that taking place around the world? 

A: This is a broad question and I can only speak about my field — that is electrical engineering, devices, and technology — and not about other disciplines of research. In devices and technology, there are few institutions doing good work like the IITs, IISc and BITS Pilani. But as a country, I would say we are lagging behind by about twenty years in terms of state-of-the-art facilities. However, this doesn’t mean that we can’t collaborate with the industry globally. And we do that too. This involves travelling and interacting with the industry abroad. If you want to work on technology in the microelectronics industry, then you have to work closely with the industry.

Q: What are the problems that researchers and professors face in India? 

A: In our country, there is no dearth of talent. We have exceptionally talented people in academia. In our area and probably other fast-moving areas like computer science, communication, VLSI, and microelectronics, what people lack is access to information. These industries change rapidly. Every year, you see Apple and Samsung coming up with new versions of phones. Every year there’s newer technology. So if you want to be focused on state-of-the-art technology, access to information is a must. Unless you are able to interact with the industry and attend conferences to interact with your technical peers globally, you will fall behind very quickly. And in this area, one year is good enough to become outdated. So coming back to your question, what we lack is not talent but exposure and whatever it takes to create the exposure, like funding.

Q: How would you say research facilities and research interests among students at IIT Bombay has changed since you joined? 

A: Like all IITs, IIT Bombay, when it started, was primarily for undergraduate studies. Over the last 15 years, the focus has changed with more emphasis on research. Right now more than 50% of the students are pursuing post-graduate degrees or PhDs. There is a lot of push and focus on getting into and doing research. Facilities have definitely come up and this leads to a positive feedback cycle – when there are good facilities we can attract talented people. Then they do good research and can get in more facilities. And this continues. You also become visible. Then you get to attend conferences and interact with students who are willing to come back. From IIT Bombay, and specifically in electrical engineering and microelectronics area, we have been successful in attracting good people from all over the world. We hope to continue. This is also more or less the story in other departments in the IIT too. Things are moving in a positive direction with focus on research.

Q: Can you tell us briefly about your stint in the US as a part of Bell Laboratories? 

A: I was lucky enough to get in to Bell Labs after finishing my PhD. I was there for 2 years, after which there was a spin-off and people moved. So I had an option and I decided to come back. The reason I’m saying this is that after that, I’ve interacted with many industries like IBM, Intel, and Applied Materials. I have never seen a place which has got this density of excellent people as Bell Labs. Of course I spent my time in Bell Labs towards its end and not in its golden days, as I was too young for that. But I would say that the main reason for Bell Labs to excel — and maybe to fall apart — was that it was not linked to the corporate world. People were doing research to push the ultimate boundary of knowledge. In Murray Hill, where the transistor and lasers were invented, people were asked to do research and they were not too worried about the corporate part of it. So there was unrestricted flow of knowledge. I have learnt a lot because of that and it got me exposed to some excellent researchers, some of whom I still keep in touch with. It broadens your mind and perspective. It’s one of the best places I have ever been. It’s sad that Bell Labs is no more.

Q: One can find several articles on the internet about Moore’s Law nearing an end? What’s your take on this? How have researches tried tackling this problem?

A: Now that you brought it up, Moore’s Law was never about technology, it was about economics. Moore said that if you shrink the chip feature size by 0.7x every year and double the transistor density every 2 years, you will make money. Of course to do that, the industry had to do a lot of things. To realize Moore’s Law, there were tremendous innovations that took place that still supports this 400 billion dollar industry.

Q: Is VLSI design only about making chips faster, smaller, and cheaper? What else is it about? 

A: Things are becoming cheaper. In 1975, the cost of a transistor was a dollar, but now it’s less than a nanocent. I will show you some graphs in the talk. In 1970s, microprocessor chips had some few thousand transistors. Today the chip that goes into your phones has a few billion transistors. So it’s all about economics. So with this phone you can do things which were not thinkable a few years ago. In 1975 nobody could have afforded a billion transistor chip. Technology has made cost per transistor cheaper and affordable, and that’s why we can achieve all that we can today. This involves lots of people across lots of industries and this is the biggest human team work. This industry, in my opinion, is the most fantastic example of pushing human limits of what can be achieved. I can’t think of any parallel industry taking similar leaps – other than maybe aerospace industry – but then planes are no longer flying faster. Even in a country like India, there is significant digital penetration. Feature phones are affordable so that people can access its power. Of course smart phones aren’t becoming cheaper because you add a lot of components, but if you wait for a year, the price does drop.

Q: What advice would you give to the young researcher out there? 

A: Well, number one – be honest. Believe in your passion and do well. Go for the clouds. Sky is the limit. If you have a dream and of course if you have the capability, work honestly for it and it will pay off. Number two – do go out and get the global perspective and exposure but come back and serve the country.