We are a new interdisciplinary division at IIT-Indore focusing on a wide range of topics related to Astronomy and Space weather and navigation studies. The DAASE was initiated in December 2015. This interdisciplinary division is a unique department among all IITs that offers a dedicated and focused platform to pursue research in Astronomy.
We have varied research interests in radio astronomical instrumentation, observational cosmology, atmospheric corruptions and ionospheric turbulences, computational astrophysics, MHD simulations, high energy astrophysics and compact object physics.
Since February, 2015 we are also founder members of the Square Kilometer Array – India (SKA-I) consortium. Our faculty members are actively involved in SKA-I related research.
The department is involved in developing a number of high-end research facilities. A L-band observing facility is being constructed under an approved DST SERB grant Ionospheric monitoring facility (ISRO project). Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers capable of receiving IRNSS (L5 and S band), GPS (L1, L2), Glonass and Galileo signals. The department has several ongoing national and international projects.
The discipline has active collaborations with University of Colorado Boulder, University of Turin, MPIA, Curtin University, and many others. MOUs have been signed with several international institutions and organizations like SKA, UW Madison, University of Colorado Boulder etc.
Alongside the various research activities, the department is also extensively involved in teaching. Courses related to astronomy and space navigation are conducted for undergraduate, post-graduate and PhD level students. A dedicated masters program in astronomy is running since 2018. In 2021, two new programs – M.Tech. in Space Engineering and MS (Research) in Space science and engineering have been launched.