PANAJI: Electrical & Electronics Engineering graduate from National Institute of Technology (NIT) Goa and son of a Navy personnel based in the state, Ashwin K secured the prestigious Prime Minister’s Research Fellowship (PMRF) scheme for doing PhD at Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bengaluru, where he is working towards making solar power supply more efficient.

“Photovoltaic cells used to generate solar power are still not fully efficient. When you connect solar panels with the grid, there are a lot of issues. My focus is on solving the associated problems,” Ashwin told GT.

The PMRF has been designed for candidates, who are willing to do Doctoral Studies (PhD) in IITs and IISc, it aims at attracting the best talent in the country.  

“Under this programme, BTech students passing out from prominent government institutes like the IITs, NITs and IISERs can directly apply for PhD programme. A regular PhD student gets a stipend of Rs 25,000. Under the PMRF, one gets Rs 70,000 in the first year, which increases to Rs 80,000 in the fourth and fifth year. Across the country, only 150 students were selected this year,” Ashwin said.

Out of the 150, only 30 got selected for the top universities like the IITs and IISc Bengaluru. Ashwin, who also topped his department, was amongst the top 30.

He urged his fellow students aspiring for PMRF not to take their BTech course casually and concentrate in the classroom.

“I maintained contact with all the three departments in the Institute - Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Electronics & Communication Engineering and Computer Science & Engineering. NIT Goa has a quality faculty,” he said.

His ultimate dream, however, is to do post-doctorate research from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and do R&D on electric vehicles in the future.