Akshat Jiwan Sharma

Hydrogen remains one of the most exciting applications of clean , renewable energy. Its production has been demonstrated  on an industrial scale. Today the price of hydrogen is at an all time low of about $5/kg. That's a kilogram of fuel for about the price of a cold brew coffee. Yet green hydrogen has not been as successful as other fuels or alternative clean energy technologies like batteries.  This was among the main points of discussion at the conferences I attended in New Delhi and those organised online by Society for Automotive Engineers (SAE) in the USA. One of the most important reasons for slow adoption of green hydrogen is simply the fierce competition it faces from Non Renewable fuels that are so cheap that it makes even a small price of $5/Kg look expensive.  One solution was proposed during the presentation of GenH2 where they suggested using decommissioned oil wells to produce H2 in situ using gasification (a combination of water gas reforming a...

The world tourism day was celebrated in El Salvador last week on September 27. AI took the centerstage as this year's theme was how AI could help transform the tourism industry.  On several occasions officers and leaders at the UN have emphasized the importance of technology serving humanity. AI has already demonstrated it's capability to outperform humans in several tasks. The debate at the event therefore revolved around how AI could best serve the travel industry and enable growth—focussing more on the positive aspects of technology.  A few suggestions stood out. First was how destinations can take advantage of increasing AI usage and help people recommend less crowded locations that can manage the flow and prevent over tourism. The other was how AI could become fairer and offer suggestions to tourists in a way that allows small businesses to remain competitive .  The underlying question,the subtext of the discussion was very simple but decisive. Who will s...

Lignocellulose has emerged as one of the most important material systems of recent times. It is a promising green platform that can be used in structural and functional applications. Wood has millennia of engineering history behind it—lignocellulose based materials are a natural evolution of wood engineered after extracting the raw material from wood/woody biomass itself.  Researchers have been able to tune the properties at the cellular level and learnt how to fibrillate wood into its constituents or apply steam and pressure to mold it like plastics. The paper and pulp industry has played a prominent role in helping us understand lignocellulose chemically and develop chemical tools to manipulate it.  Lignin, largely  a byproduct of paper and pulp , has been receiving a lot of attention by chemists not only because it constitutes 30% of mass of the plant materials but also because of its unique chemical properties —ring like structures and hydroxyl groups that can be func...

I finally got an opportunity to meet Prof Rajesh Prasad in person this summer at IIT Delhi ,8 years after I first watched his lectures on materials science. It was by chance I stumbled across his video on composites when I was researching substrates for antennas. Fiber reinforced plastic came up repeatedly so I thought it wouldn't hurt to learn a bit more on this subject.  That was my first encounter with materials science. At that time I wasn't looking to go too deep, just learn enough to understand the systems that I was planning to work with. The idea was to build base stations with in house assembly and some quick engineering to attach components and protect them in a casing so that they could last a while. How hard could it be? Right? Only during the lockdown did I have enough time to take his full course.  My interest was in part because of my own desire to learn about materials — for engineering projects I had in mind but also because I wanted to break out o...

Advanced manufacturing, especially of functional materials, requires careful mapping of properties to the underlying microstructure. In technologies such as microfluidics,composites and electronics the features are either too small or too complex to be imaged using optical microscopes. Alternative imaging techniques are necessary so that the relation between material structure and materials properties can be understood.  X rays are an indispensable tool to look at micro and nano structure of materials both functional like electronics and structural like composites. Historically Xrays, since their discovery in 1895, have provided many breakthroughs in imaging that have enabled scientists to advance both material and medical fields. Bone imaging is the most well known application of X rays but the application of X ray diffraction also led to the confirmation of atomic structure in materials and the invention of x ray crystallography. This new technique was later used to i...

Durán is on to something when he talks about the big tech authoritarian movement. The argument that big tech is replacing the government at local,national and international levels is compelling and definitely backed by evidence. However I don't agree with the conclusion he draws.  He seems to suggest that there is a government elected by people and a class of private corporations that are usurping them. That's not what's happening. The history of America has always been private. From its foundation to the present day.  But what's happening right now is something more sinister where state entities work with private corporations to create systems of control where they can't legislate. Private corps and government institutions are not two separate things.  They are part of the same ugly,twisted nightmare of the deep state. Unelected officials at the FBI,CIA and the Pentagon control the technological and political agenda. During America's founding there...

For something as common as water filtration ,the modern technology that enables it, is built upon some serious materials engineering.  Polymer fibers,the active components of any filtration process, are spun using special coaxial extrusion techniques into what are known as hollow fiber membranes.  These membranes are then submerged inside the semi-treated water tank or wound around a plastic core for a more compact arrangement as water is drawn through these hollow sections the tiny pores on the surface trap impurities —suspended solids,bacteria,viruses,protein molecules depending upon the pore size.  Achieving this pore size tuning is in itself a quite complex process that relies on phase inversion where polymer solvent is replaced by non solvent on the solution, dissolved polymer coagulates but is diluted by a non solvent that evaporates leaving behind pores in the main structure.  Ceramic membranes offer a different class of materials that are more rob...

Power transmission plays a defining role in the energy security of a region but because the industry is more operationally intensive it rarely makes headlines, often working silently in the background to ensure critical services are kept running at all times.  Fluctuations in demand directly affects the rotation of generators leading to more or less watts on the line as required. Power systems engineering controls that.  Behind the scenes there is a complex system of tools from transformers and switchgears to HVDC converters and actual power lines to make this transmission happen.  These tools require highly standardized conductors and insulators to operate and their manufacturing is specialised.   At events in New Delhi I was fortunate enough to connect with engineers who specialise at component level engineering whether its automated systems that close the power line on towers ,the so called isolators, to manufacturing of electrical grade insulators whe...

Recently I had a chance to engage with representatives from IIT Kanpur and University of Waterloo during events organised by Society for Information Display and IHFC, IIT Delhi.  In the decade and half that has passed since I graduated, an unmistakable change can be noticed in the way educational institutions view post graduation employment opportunities for their students. While campus placements remain a key focus point entrepreneurship is now increasingly being viewed as a viable , though risky,career opportunity.  This shift is, of course, a welcome change as it rightly views entrepreneurship as a path to wealth and job creation that has the potential to transform the prevailing economic realities and create new opportunities where none existed before.  The inclusion of many of these entrepreneurial programs is also because of pioneering VC and incubator firms like Ycombinator[1] and the immense success of silicon valley startups who have proven beyond an...

Last month,July 22, I attended Dr André Anders' conference on the physics of vacuum arcs[1] organised by the American institute of physics. VA are fascinating because of the complex phenomenon that leads to the ignition of plasma in vacuum.  Starting as an initial field emission the current through metallic imperfections increases with voltage leading to rapid resistive heating which causes evaporation of tiny sections of metal in the vicinity. The high energy electrons ionise these vapors leading to formation of plasma between electrodes and establishment of a vacuum arc.  The number density for these evaporated sections is extremely high causing a massive pressure spike in regions close to the negative electrode and it's this pressure spike that drives the ions towards the positive electrode overpowering the electric force between them.  This high pressure phenomenon itself is quite fascinating as the temp in these tiny vapor spots can reach 20000K. This leads to rapid ...

Last September at the Display Conference I had the good fortune to learn about polariser films used in LCD TVs from Mr Vasu Kulkarni. These films provide the critical function of blocking or allowing light from a pixel leading to the formation of images on the display screen.  His talk gave me the opportunity to understand the complexities involved in the manufacturing of an LCD display unit. From functional polymers doped with iodine to thin film transistors on the backplate that control the liquid crystals polarizing the light moving through the output film — every single pixel on the screen goes through this complex filtration mechanism 60-120 times a second.  Mr Vasu’s talk went beyond technical details. He underscored a critical distinction that separated incumbent technology from upstarts : performance. New polariser films and lcd formulations are being explored. Graphene oxide is a critical platform that can meet the strenuous demands of both liquid crystal...

I was glad to participate in this month's ASM advanced materials manufacturing committee meeting for a talk on Nickel Titanium alloys and its additive manufacturing process development via artificial intelligence and machine learning.  Dermot Brabazon Prof. at the Dublin City University and deputy director at I-Form ,the publicly funded institution leading Ireland's manufacturing innovation, presented the findings of his research group. NiTi alloys ,most famously Nitinol,are known for exhibiting super elasticity and shape memory effect ,which causes material to return to its original shape after being heated.  This has found several applications in the fields of medicine and actuation. The general processes of manufacturing NiTi alloys are now well developed however additive manufacturing introduces new challenges that are not present in traditional melt cast and heat treated products, that is process uniformity.  So while AM is successful in producing complex shapes wit...

  7 Jul 2026  I thank the Renewable Thermal  Collaborative (RTC) for organising a webinar highlighting some of the recent achievements of thermal energy storage technologies. Conceptually thermal-energy storage is quite simple. You heat up a material and it stores energy either in the form of sensible heat, latent heat (phase change) or thermochemically.  At medium grade, with temperatures  of up to 400C, these systems are hard to beat as they can provide industrially useful heat. This stored heat is highly valuable in food processing and bio refining industries because process temperatures rarely exceed 200C. Besides food processing there are several other industries that can use medium grade heat for drying and preheating.  Since heat is used in all industries, it is the single unifying theme of the entire manufacturing sector and residential too because many electrical appliances are performing temp control work. Thermal energy storage technology is ther...

 2 Jul 2026  Great honor to be a part of discussion led by Prof Vasi,Electrical Engg,IIT Bombay on industry academia collaboration. Research has always had to and will always have to balance funding from government and industry while pursuing something that is truly novel ,yet can have practical applications in the future.  Directed research has its merit. But nothing beats original ,curiosity driven enquiry. Majority of science and all of its transformative ideas that we take for granted today were discovered by people who were merely following their curiosity and not thinking about immediate applications. Those came decades later. All pioneers were explorers — they built new fields where no expertise existed.  Fundamental research carries with it the potential to create new industries, it's difficult to put a dollar value on it and it can't exactly be funded in the same way as a typical R&D lab with a fixed outcome or a deliverable. Scientific inquires can be a...

I thank the American institute of physics for organising their monthly Physics of plasma webinar series and for giving me. a chance to interact with  some of the leading researchers in plasma science.  On several occasions I have remarked that plasma science is possibly one of the most important areas of research that has the potential to impact almost every engineering and scientific domain. Medicine ,power,communication,chemical,materials,electronics ,packaging,food and more.  Therefore I was extremely excited to attend this month's webinar presented by Igor Kaganovich [1],highlighting this multidisciplinary aspect of plasma science and his work at the Princeton plasma physics laboratory. While his presentation dived deep into plasma modelling using Particle in cell approach as well as other models like , Vlasov and Poisson Boltzmann the most significant aspect of his presentation was the one slide in which he demonstrated the overlap between plasma models used in fusio...

I thank the American Center for inviting me to a panel discussion on USA’s engineering excellence that has made the USA the leader in deep space exploration. While NASA had its origin in Aeronautics, its pivot towards space exploration during the cold war era birthed the space industry.  Since then it has launched several lunar,mars,outerplanetary and deep space missions collecting invaluable data that has advanced humankind's understanding of the universe and essentially created astrophysics as a career option for some of the brightest minds in physics.  Missions like voyager which were originally intended for a tour of outer planets — jupiter,saturn,uranus,neptune have far gone beyond their intended expedition, travelled billions of kms and have sent data on heliosphere that has directly led to projects like the SHIELD being developed in Boston University [1]  Rockets often take the limelight in space projects but nearly every aspect of the program relies up...

I thank ASM for organising a technical discussion on lithium ion battery interconnects. A typical battery pack could contain anywhere from a couple to thousands of cells depending upon whether it's being used for consumer electronics or high power EVs.  Battery chemistry requires different electrode materials and the same battery chemistry requires different current collectors at Cathode(Al) and Anode (Cu). This works for individual cells. During assembly however when the cells have to be connected in series or in parallel things break down.  Because Al & Cu don't weld well and they suffer from galvanic corrosion, new material processing techniques are necessary to enable fast wiring of batteries. Cold cladding is an industry standard that has now proven itself. Copper and aluminum are cold welded at high pressures and they form an airtight atomic bond without any intermediate oxide/intermetallic layer on the Al side.  This discussion highlighted Materions particular ...

11 June 2026  Earlier this June I had the pleasure of participating in two highly relevant discussions for accelerating the renewable energy adoption in the EU. The meeting on Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) implementation was focussed on policy changes required to achieve the goal. Whereas the meeting on grid resilience focussed more on the technical aspects that could actually make renewable energy work on a continental scale. [1-3] The Renewable Energy Directive proposed by the EU is now a law that the member states are required to enforce. But while the intent has been positive the actual implementation of the law has been lagging. The reasons could be many: slow bureaucracy, political opposition, conflicting goals, technological gaps and prioritisation of other pressing concerns.  Member states have their own complex politics & their own issues to take care of before they can look at union directives. Now to overcome this challenge the union has adopted a carrot ...

I thank the engineering export promotion council of India for organising a roadshow for the upcoming Pharma Tech expo in Sep 2026. I would also like to thank the I-hub foundation for cobotics at IIT Delhi for organising an online discussion on the evolution of healthcare with development of  tooling and technology across successive industrial revolutions.  The two events presented a unique opportunity for me to attempt to apply myself in the field of medicine which needless to say is extremely challenging considering that this sector is highly regulated and requires specialisation. But after listening to the experts in the field I was convinced that the industry is moving towards automation and some of the biggest challenges being faced by India and other developing states in Africa are access to machines and instruments that can help provide healthcare to people.  A concern that many of the leaders in the field shared is that while India has done reasonably ...