The Department of Physics, established in 1996, caters to the basic foundation course, Engineering Physics, a baseline for any engineering stream. The department has a well-established undergraduate laboratory that can accommodate sixty students at a time. This lab is supported by virtual lab videos to aid the students coming from different educational streams and social strata.
The department has ten highly qualified and dedicated faculty members with specialization in various disciplines of Physics. As a result, the department enjoys the privilege of being one of the leading research departments in the Institution. It has been duly recognized as a Research Centre by Anna University, Chennai, for conducting Ph.D. programs. Faculty members have served as resource person in conferences, workshops and faculty development programs, as external examiners for PhD defense of institutions within Anna University and also at other Universities and National institutions. Some of them serve as Board of Study Member for other autonomous institutions under Anna University and are reviewers for reputed journals.
Physics department has created, and continues to create, research labs in different areas to accommodate the evolving research requirements of its faculty and PhD students. In this context, the department has established a Center for Crystal Growth in 2005 and an Optical Research and Networks lab, (An Interdisciplinary Research Lab in collaboration with Dept of ECE) in 2006 for conducting active research.
In addition, another interdisciplinary centre, the SSN National MEMS Design Centre (NMDC) has been established in January 2010 under the National Program on Micro and Smart Systems (NPMASS) sponsored by the Govt. of India. Ceramics lab, Radiation Research facility, Luminescence Lab, Sonic bandap and metamaterials Lab, Thin Film Lab, Polymer Lab Water Analysis lab and Centre for Radiation, Environmental Science and Technology are some of the new labs/research center’s initiated by the faculty of Physics department.
The faculty of the department have successfully completed over 12 sponsored research projects totaling 2.67crores of INR and is currently pursuing projects worth 5.68 crores of INR. These projects have been sponsored by government funding agencies like DST, DRDO, NRB, CSIR, AICTE and BRNS.
The faculty have also received internal funding to the tune of INR 31.25 lakhs from SSN Trust.
From 2012 onwards, Physics department has been conducting DST sponsored Outreach Program, the INSPIRE Science Camp for XI and XII standard school students of Kanchipuram/Chennai area. The faculty of the department also supports SSN’s flagship program for promoting and instilling research culture among the incoming undergraduates, the Internally Funded UG Student Projects, by mentoring first year UG students.
The faculty members of the department visit various national and international laboratories frequently to update and enhance their knowledge to serve the social and student community.