Good day, Dr. Rupesh Kumar. I'm Arjun. I've had a look through your background and your professional record. I'm interested in hearing more about your work and how you see yourself fitting in here with our faculty. Ready to start?

Thank you.

A Thank you for giving me an opportunity.

Please

For this role you need an A person which has knowledge of metallic implant, biomaterial and.

Uh, I think, uh.

Let me give my introduction how it is suitable for you.

Umm.

Take your time—no rush. Please begin by introducing your professional journey in academia.

OK, good evening Sir. Uh, my name is Doctor Rupesh Kumar. Currently I am working as an assistant professor at Doctor DY Patil Institute of Technology, Pimpri, Pune. I have done my Btech in mechanical engineering from Swami Vivekananda University, Sagar, Madhya Pradesh and Mtech and PhD both from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT BHU, Varanasi. My research background mainly focused on the development of binary, ternary and high intrappy titanium alloys for biomedical implants.

Applications particularly for orthopedic and dental implant.

During my PhD, I worked on a government sponsored project where I gained extensive experience in metallic biomaterials including microstructural mechanical friction wear, tribo corrosion, biocompatibility evaluation, and I think my research background directly aligns with the goal of Center for Biomaterials Cellular and Molecular. Theranostics that is CBCMT.

In developing the indigenous biomedical metallic implant material and taking it to the higher technology readiness label, and I think my research background directly resonates with the goal of CBCMT. Apart from this, I am involved in the teaching mechanical and materials related subject and handling academic portfolios like.

Research coordinator and Project Coordinator at my current roles.

And uh, I'm keen to join VIT Velor because of, uh, their strong translational uh, research background, industry focused curriculum and uh, interdisciplinary nature of kind work. And I think my uh, background and my uh, previous experience can meaningfully contribute to the goal of CBCMT mechanical engineering department and Vit Vellore. In developing uh indigenous metallic implant material.

Thank you.

Thank you for sharing your professional journey, Dr. Kumar.

Dr. Kumar, let's start by examining your qualifications for this professor role focusing on Mechanical and Material Engineering. I'll verify specific skills from your resume relative to this position. Your resume shows a strong technical foundation. Let’s go step by step: First, could you outline your understanding and experience in Mechanical Engineering as it pertains to research or teaching? Specifically, how would you present foundational mechanical principles to students who lack prior mechanical background? This skill is crucial for effective pedagogy in theoretical courses.

So nowadays technology is emerging and I think mechanical engineering is one of the foundational branch which can which leads to the several kind of innovations and different technologies. And for mechanical background students it can go in, robotics, it can go in.

Medical technology or any kind of healthcare industrial technology, space technology for anywhere mechanical engineering is needed. And for any kind of understanding of mechanical engineering, uh, nowadays students needs the advanced pedagogical techniques like they should have exposure of interdisciplinary kind of research project. They should have a problem based learning, they should have active learning, they should have some game based learning. So there are several kind of advanced pedagogies.

Which can be used, uh, and uh, currently, uh, recently, uh, in my current role, uh, I had given one role, uh, to teach the students materials and machine elements subject, where basically it was the combination of material engineering materials and the strength of material where, uh, I was teaching that subject. So without only exposure of experimental things. They cannot learn the advanced techniques, so I had given one problem to them.

And uh, like, uh, I had given, uh, the problem of implants, so I said, uh, take a case studies why implant fails, uh, what is the issue? What is the current material and what is the innovations and strategy needed to improve the performance of the present biomaterials or implant materials. So I have distributed approximately 40 topics to each individual students and they have done a very good task and through that.

Uh, I have made a database, uh, how this different applications, uh, for material, uh, can uh, be taken, uh, as a case study. So, uh, these are the techniques which can be used to teach the students in the more practical way rather than the more theory based approach.

Noted, Dr. Kumar. It seems you emphasize interdisciplinary projects, practical applications, and advanced pedagogical techniques for effective teaching, such as case-based learning and active student engagement. Considering your teaching methodology, how do you ensure students grasp fundamental concepts, especially when blending practical experiments and theoretical knowledge? Could you give an example of how you balance both in a single course or module?

So, uh, recently when I was teaching that subject, I had also, uh, uh, getting the chance that, uh, to, to, for some laboratory exposure and.

For any industrial exposure, uh, better thing is that collaborate with some industry, uh, do some MO us with industry and meanwhile the teaching, uh, we do every semester for each courses two to three industrial, uh, best, uh, umm, you can say, uh, industry visits so that students can directly understand the things in better manner because at the lab scale, we can show them the prototype formation, but in.

Actual application they need to go in the industry and after all working at the end in the industry. So they need to understand the things in the Broadway and for that industry exposure is needed. One of the major thing we can do, we can give some project and we can say that utilize your skills and learn something. So we were helping in each each steps. Like teaching them how we can.

Determine the microstructure, how we can do the heat treatments, how it is changing the their micro structural, their phase composition. So this type of techniques or this type of approach can be useful to teach their students in better manner and through teaching the the through this this technology.

In advance or or we can say there are different information technology tools also which.

Can be used to teach their students, uh, through, uh, AI generated videos through, uh, uh, PPTS through showing some, uh, giving some real, uh, challenge, uh, for making the prototype. So that's all, uh, we can use this type of technology to teach the students so they can learn the, any technology in visual graphs, not, uh, with the theoretical knowledge.

Understood, Dr. Kumar. Your approach integrates theoretical concepts with practical applications by combining laboratory exposure, industry visits, project-based learning, and advanced information technologies, including AI tools for visualization. Given your experience, let's pivot toward your material engineering expertise, particularly regarding metallic biomaterials. Could you elaborate on your research or contributions to developing materials for orthopedic, dental, or cardiovascular implants? Specifically, what challenges have you addressed in terms of material properties like durability and bio-compatibility?

So uh, actually in the current scenario uh, particularly in case of metallic implant material, commercially pure titanium, titanium 6, aluminum 4, vanadium and cobalt chromium Loas are used for the load bearing implants. But the issue uh is that they're high elastic modulus and they have current for CPTI and TI6L4V. The elastic modulus is about 105 to 110 gigapascal and.

For cobalt chromium it is about 240 gigapascal and if you look at the bone elastic modulus it is about 30 gigapascals. So this mismatching of the elastic modulus leads to the stress shielding phenomena where the total load subjected by the body is.

Taken by the implants, not by the surrounding bones. And if the bone will not get the loading so according to the wolf's law, it it starts resolving their self and their density will be reduced.

And after some time, the implant loosening will occur. So these are the major challenges of the current implant material. So in my PSD, I did research on developing some new materials, that is the biocompatible element material because if you look at the previous and the current implant material like titanium 6, aluminum 4, vanadium.

The aluminum and vanadium is reported, uh, carcinogenic and it leads to the Alzheimer disease. And, uh, if you look at the commercially pure titanium, it has, uh, higher elastic modulus and lower strength, which is not compatible for the, uh, actual load bearing. So, uh, that's why, uh, every researcher doing the research on the biomedical implant is doing their research to develop some new material which can be biocompatible as well as, uh, it can reduce the stress.

Phenomena. So in my case I have developed the titanium L wise with the combination of niobium and zirconium element and with some other element for developing the high entropy multi-component LY and did several kind of characterizations like mechanical testing, microstructural phase composition like XRD analysis, tribo corrosion, tribology testing and.

Biocompatibility, biocompatibility evaluation. So I developed my material through powder metallurgy process. So one of the major challenge in developing the titanium is titanium and niobium. These are the very highly oxidizing nature kind of material. So in powder metallurgy basically it involves first the mixing and reducing their size through ball milling, mixing the the allowing element with major element and then.

Then the next step is compaction in the pilot formation and then sintering. So these the two steps were very challenging. One of the step was milling. So milling in open atmosphere or in organ atmosphere was creating some oxidizing of the elemental powders and in centering the same situation was there when it was centering at the high temperature it was oxidizing so in the argon atmosphere also that was the very.

Because that argon atmosphere has little bit impurity, and that little bit impurity was.

Making our material subsidized. So what I did I, I did, I taken a unique approach to developing that material. So in ball milling I have utilized organ as well as toluene medium milling and that's was very effective. That was my own invention and that was very effective in, in getting the milk powder without any oxidized powder.

And then in sintering process, I utilized vacuum sealing assisted approach. In vacuum sealing assisted approach, I used the green pallets in inserted in the quiet tube, sealed with the high vacuum obtained to the power -6 star, and then placed in a muffled furnace after sintering at 1000°C for 90 minutes. It was taken back, the cost was broken and then materials were pilots were taken out and that pilot is formed perfectly.

For the implants and that is very good mechanical as well as tribo corrosion properties. And I think through that experience I resolved a major challenge in developing the titanium otherwise in very low cost. So this all about the challenges I have faced for developing the implant material.

Dr. Kumar, that's an innovative solution to a significant challenge in implant material development. Your focus on optimizing the titanium alloy with niobium and zirconium, while addressing oxidation issues through ball milling under controlled mediums and vacuum-sealed sintering, demonstrates a deep understanding of both material engineering and practical problem-solving. Now, extending this discussion, could you share how your expertise translates into the ability to develop 3D-printed hip and knee implants, or antibacterial dental implants, particularly with respect to ensuring cost-effectiveness and scalability in production?

As I said, my whole research background is based on the metallic implant material development. So at a particular stage of time, I have already exposure of making our material at the lab scale, which is at technology readiness Level 3.

And, uh, for, uh, making it translates, translates some research, uh, we need to collaborate with some industry. And, uh, my next focus will be, uh, to, uh, do the in vivo study first, uh, uh, collect the robust in vitro testing data and then, uh, check every possible ways for in vitro testing and then go for in vivo study. After in vivo study, we can collaborate with some clinicians and industry experts who is working in.

Midtech device, medtech instrument and I think VIT is one of the great platform for this. They have very good, uh, industry collaborations and through that we can go up to the technology readiness level 5 to 6 and we in the step by step, we can launch our own product for the metallic implant.

Understood, Dr. Kumar. Your emphasis on transitioning from robust in vitro data to in vivo studies and leveraging collaborations with clinicians and industry partners showcases a structured approach to scaling production while achieving higher Technology Readiness Levels (TRLs). Developing cost-effective 3D-printed implants aligns well with this model. Let’s move to your consultancy experience. You mentioned tribocorrosion expertise. Can you provide an example of how you've applied coatings or tribocorrosion insights to a consultancy project, possibly improving the durability or functionality of medical or industrial components?

So for any industrial or medical component if it is working under the corrosive environment, it is it degrades the material in two ways. That is one mechanical degradation and with the corrosive corrosion. So combined degradation of material in the corrosion and as well as mechanical degradation is called Tribo corrosion and in any industrial application where this situation is happening. That quantification is necessary.

In, uh, particularly in uh, body situation, uh, it is subjected to some kind of loading as well as surrounding fluid, uh, environment and it needs to quantification of Tribo corrosion environment. So my plan for the next, uh, approach is, uh, now I would like to develop some uh, inherent porous implant materials, which mimics the bone as well as handling the loading capacity. So my approach will first develop that.

Porous implant and do their Tribo corrosion testing. I am experienced with the Tribo corrosion testing. Recently I have published one paper on Tribo corrosion of titanium, 6 aluminum, 4 vanadium, commercially pure titanium and SS316L for biomedical implants only. So I am expertise with that and I can do the testing as well.

Thank you, Dr. Kumar. Your concept for developing inherently porous implants that replicate bone structure while handling loading capacity is quite forward-thinking. Your expertise in tribocorrosion testing, validated through your publication, clearly supports its implementation, ensuring optimized material properties under biological and mechanical stress. Now let’s consider your ability to create in vitro models to replace animal testing for implant evaluation. How could you design such a model that aligns with ethical and performance standards? Could you share your approach to ensuring its relevance to real-world applications?

So currently what is happening we do in vitro testing in the lab scale. But for in vivo testing we need some animal model. So what we can do we can mimic their.

Actual proteins which is available in the body fluids. By putting that actual fluids in the in vitro testing, we can develop a model where we do not need to go for the clinical or in vivo testing and we can generate the data and validate through the existing available case studies and through that we can do.

And we can make any new model.

Uh, for NBA protesting without involving any uh, uh, human being or any uh, uh, living Organism.

Your approach of mimicking physiological conditions using actual proteins in vitro for implant testing is commendable. It reflects a commitment to ethical advancements and aligns well with reducing dependency on animal models. Validating such models against existing clinical data further ensures their applicability and reliability. Let’s now touch on technology transfer. How would you streamline the process of transferring a developed 3D-printed bone-like implant technology to a medical device company, ensuring compliance with standards and efficient adoption by the industry?

Sorry to interrupt, we're down to the last 5 minutes.

So, uh, my uh.

Steps will be in a stretched manner. First I will try to get some robust in vitro data and then through the collaboration with other CVCMT experts which is working in tissue engineering and cellular engineering, they can help us in checking their biocompatibility and bio application feasibility.

And once we get the robust data, we can invite.

Industry experts, clinicians to show our data through any workshop or through any expert lectures. And once they can, they will believe in us that we have good technology and we have we we are able to make any innovations in biomedical implant. They will definitely collaborate and after collaboration, we can definitely launch our product. Which can be made through 3D process, 3D printing process.

So my next step will be, uh, uh, that one, that one that, uh, because I have already experienced with TRL 3, but I need also to transform myself from TRL 3 to TRL 6 or TRL 7 so that it can make, uh, some sense. Otherwise, at laboratory scale, doing some testing and generating data and publishing only papers will not be sufficient for current era and current technological innov.

Uh, strategy. So from this point of view, I think, uh, we can translate our, uh, research from laboratory scale, uh, with, by collaborating with medtech in, in industries and through making any center of excellence, separate center of excellence for medical implants, particularly printed through 3D printing. And it should be customized because every patient has some customized bone size and, uh.

Their particular requirements.

Understood, Dr. Kumar. Your vision for transitioning from lab-scale research to industry-scale implementation is meticulous, including robust data generation, collaboration with cellular engineering experts, engaging industry stakeholders, and establishing a dedicated center for medical implants. Your focus on customization via 3D printing addresses individual patient needs while advancing technology readiness levels effectively. Finally, let’s verify your ability to guide student projects. How do you mentor research students to balance independent exploration with meeting structured academic goals? Could you provide an example of this balance in action?

So as in my current role, I'm look, I'm teaching the subjects as well as doing research and I'm also handling some academic portfolios. So with the proper planning, we can optimize the each parts like teaching research and Academy also. So through proper planning through giving proper time to for each parts, we can definitely.

Optimize each process and can be meaningfully contribute to the success.

Thank you, Dr. Kumar. Your structured approach to balancing teaching, research, and academic responsibilities highlights strong mentorship capabilities and organizational skills. This concludes the skills verification.

Thank you.

Uh, recently I have taught, uh, one subject that is a combination of, uh, materials engineering and mechanical engineering, that is materials and machine element and, uh, it is combination of a strength of materials, so, and materials engineering materials. So I enjoyed the teaching and, uh, I, I got very good response from my students as well.

Professor, to begin our discussion, could you describe a specific introductory course in mechanical or material engineering that you particularly enjoy teaching, and what makes it rewarding for you?

Thank you, Professor. Could you elaborate on how you approach simplifying complex topics for undergraduate students in that course?

For any undergraduate students, uh, they need, uh, some clarity of thoughts like, uh, if we are explaining anything, they should know what is the application of this concept, What is the application of this process, Why we are teaching? Uh, this points to them. So if, uh, they know what is the applications, what is the use of this?

Uh, I think is very necessary for any, uh, work related to, uh, academia or industry as well. So if we, uh, show them the clarity why we are studying this, if once they know the, their reality, what is this, what is the applicability of this? That is, that is very necessary and they will definitely learn that.

They definitely takes interest in learning that subject and that.

I see your point about connecting concepts to real-world applications to enhance engagement. In your experience, how do you ensure students grasp the theoretical foundations while staying motivated by the practical aspects of the subject?

Sorry, can you please explain again?

Certainly, Professor. How do you balance teaching the theoretical foundations of the subject while keeping students motivated by highlighting the practical, real-world applications?

So, uh, for any practical applications or for uh, uh, teaching any practical things, theory is necessary. Theory is fundamental. Once they, uh, if they are not knowing the theory, uh, they cannot apply the concepts for analyzing and applying any concepts to developing any new kind of approach or new kind of product. So theory is fundamental and.

Uh.

For, uh, making the more practicality, uh, we can make the interactive session in the classroom. We can, uh, give some surprise quizzes also objective like questions and we can interact with them individually. Uh, what is their issue? Why they are not, uh, getting the focus on, on, on the part. So through that approach, we can definitely make the interactive session focusing more on practical.

Plus pips and also teasing the fundamental suspects as well.

Thank you for sharing your approach, Professor. It is clear you focus on both theoretical rigor and student engagement through interactivity. Let's continue.

Professor Kumar, your resume highlights your extensive expertise in tribology, titanium alloys, and bio-materials, along with your accomplishments in both research and engineering applications. I see notable projects such as your PhD work on developing high entropy Ti alloys for biomedical implants and your M.Tech research on nanoparticle-enhanced lubricants. Let's explore how your research aligns with your teaching. Could you elaborate on how you would translate your PhD research on titanium-based alloys for biomedical applications into effective learning modules or instruction for mechanical and material engineering students?

So for any mechanical and materials engineering, one of the major application is healthcare and that is what I have done that is biomedical implants where you need to apply several kind of concepts like mechanical engineering, materials engineering, chemical engineering as well biological engineering as well because innovations nowadays needs multidisciplinary approach and. Through my background, what I have learned from the mechanical concepts and interdisciplinary approach.

This can be beneficial in doing any interdisciplinary, uh, uh, kind of project And, uh, uh, any innovations need some interdisciplinary kind of approaches. And, uh, through, uh, my current experiences with the robotics and automations, I can also guide the students in some projects with smart manufacturing as well.

Understood, Professor Kumar. You emphasized the interdisciplinary nature of modern innovations and how concepts spanning mechanical, materials, chemical, and biological engineering integrate into healthcare applications. To delve deeper, how would you make the complex aspects of your titanium alloy research—for example, powder metallurgy techniques or tribological behaviors—accessible to undergraduate students who may not yet have advanced knowledge in these areas?

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