Parul University’s Research Excellence Awards – 545 Patents filed in 4 years, 50 Crore in external research funding from ICMR, ISRO & CSIR, the very first woman additional Director General of ICMR department as a Chief Guest, and a student-driven and developed Portable ECG Machine now got deployed across healthcare centres

Imagine, a stage studded, showcasing the best research, and rewarding the peak researchers. Well, that’s what happened at Parul University’s Research Excellence Awards 2025. On 8th of May 2026, PU’s Central Auditorium proudly hosted the Research Excellence Awards 2025, a ceremony recognizing faculties, scholars, students who have relentlessly produced research with impact.

Meet the Chief Guest – Dr Sanghamitra Pati, the Additional Director General at the ICMR as known as the Indian Council of Medical Research, Government of India. She’s the very first woman to proudly hold and lead this position. Since it was her very first visit to the ever-evolving campus of Parul University, she was very happy with the placement possibilities and how student founders are making mark at all the levels (very rare Indian Universities do such). The dignitaries included Dr Geetika Madan Patel who’s Vice President, Policy Research & Health Sciences at Parul University, Dr K.N. Madhusoodanan (Provost), Dr Anand Joshi (Director Research & Development Cell), Dr Kunjal Sinha and Dr Purvi Shah.

Dr Anand Joshi opened by placing the university’s research output in concrete terms. Between 2021 and 2025, Parul University filed 545 inventions, submitted 505, and acquired complete rights to 30 of them. External partners including ISRO, CSIR, and other agencies invested over Rs 50 crore in funding 70 major projects. The university invested another Rs 70 crore of its own funds across 250 additional projects. More than 10,000 research papers & projects were validated and published in reputed journals, globally. PU proudly functions with over 70,500 students, 6000+ international students from 75 different countries, amidst the greenish 200-acre campus and more than 30 specialized testing laboratories.

 PG thesis winners included research on recognising words from images, Mr Bhargav Rameshchandra Gor who did a stunning work and was proudly recognized and awarded by dignitaries. His research addressed a major challenge in detecting Gujarati text from natural scene images, where varying lighting conditions, text orientations, shapes, and font sizes often make accurate detection and extraction difficult. Through his work, he developed a solution that enables seamless and precise text detection and extraction across diverse scenarios. He also expressed gratitude to Dr. Chintan Thacker for his relentless support and valuable contribution throughout his research journey.

Bhargav Gor’s LinkedIn Post

His proud guides were Dr Chintan Thacker & Dr Nitin Mishra), smart machines that prevent forest fires (Ms Parmar Kavita, guides: Ms Tejal Patel, Dr Pragyan Nanda), diagnosing mouth infections using biological codes (Ms Neha Kumari, supervisor: Dr Reeshu Gupta), and creating blue clothing with minimal fabric wastage (Ms Swati Prasad, advisors: Dr Dhara Parmar, Dr Anand Bhargav). The diversity of topics, from solar energy to athlete knee pain to African financial regulation to forest fire prevention, reflects the breadth of a research ecosystem that does not confine itself to a single faculty or discipline.

Chief Guest Quoted – “It’s a matter of pride to welcome you all to this Research Excellence Awards 2025 at Parul
University, which is indeed a celebration of intellectual curiosity, ideas, innovation and value-driven impact”

His core message to researchers who did not receive awards was super-direct and worth – Every experiment you do, every failure that meets you and every revision you do is a step closer to perfection, repeat that cycle and do it!

Imagine, a stage studded, showcasing the best research, and rewarding the peak researchers. Well, that’s what happened at Parul University’s Research Excellence Awards 2025. On 8th of May 2026, PU’s Central Auditorium proudly hosted the Research Excellence Awards 2025, a ceremony recognizing faculties, scholars, students who have relentlessly produced research with impact.

Meet the Chief Guest – Dr Sanghamitra Pati, the Additional Director General at the ICMR as known as the Indian Council of Medical Research, Government of India. She’s the very first woman to proudly hold and lead this position. Since it was her very first visit to the ever-evolving campus of Parul University, she was very happy with the placement possibilities and how student founders are making mark at all the levels (very rare Indian Universities do such). The dignitaries included Dr Geetika Madan Patel who’s Vice President, Policy Research & Health Sciences at Parul University, Dr K.N. Madhusoodanan (Provost), Dr Anand Joshi (Director Research & Development Cell), Dr Kunjal Sinha and Dr Purvi Shah.

Dr Anand Joshi opened by placing the university’s research output in concrete terms. Between 2021 and 2025, Parul University filed 545 inventions, submitted 505, and acquired complete rights to 30 of them. External partners including ISRO, CSIR, and other agencies invested over Rs 50 crore in funding 70 major projects. The university invested another Rs 70 crore of its own funds across 250 additional projects. More than 10,000 research papers & projects were validated and published in reputed journals, globally. PU proudly functions with over 70,500 students, 6000+ international students from 75 different countries, amidst the greenish 200-acre campus and more than 30 specialized testing laboratories.

 PG thesis winners included research on recognising words from images, Mr Bhargav Rameshchandra Gor who did a stunning work and was proudly recognized and awarded by dignitaries. His research addressed a major challenge in detecting Gujarati text from natural scene images, where varying lighting conditions, text orientations, shapes, and font sizes often make accurate detection and extraction difficult. Through his work, he developed a solution that enables seamless and precise text detection and extraction across diverse scenarios. He also expressed gratitude to Dr. Chintan Thacker for his relentless support and valuable contribution throughout his research journey.

Bhargav Gor’s LinkedIn Post

His proud guides were Dr Chintan Thacker & Dr Nitin Mishra), smart machines that prevent forest fires (Ms Parmar Kavita, guides: Ms Tejal Patel, Dr Pragyan Nanda), diagnosing mouth infections using biological codes (Ms Neha Kumari, supervisor: Dr Reeshu Gupta), and creating blue clothing with minimal fabric wastage (Ms Swati Prasad, advisors: Dr Dhara Parmar, Dr Anand Bhargav). The diversity of topics, from solar energy to athlete knee pain to African financial regulation to forest fire prevention, reflects the breadth of a research ecosystem that does not confine itself to a single faculty or discipline.

Chief Guest Quoted – “It’s a matter of pride to welcome you all to this Research Excellence Awards 2025 at Parul
University, which is indeed a celebration of intellectual curiosity, ideas, innovation and value-driven impact”

His core message to researchers who did not receive awards was super-direct and worth – Every experiment you do, every failure that meets you and every revision you do is a step closer to perfection, repeat that cycle and do it!

Dr K.N. Madhusoodanan (Provost, Parul University) stressed the importance of discoveries and innovations in the rapid progress of a country, noting that globally an enormous sum is spent annually on scientific research. India’s performance in both science and business was highlighted: over 1.5 lakh startup firms and over 110 unicorn companies. Universities worldwide are transforming from textbook-teaching institutions into incubators for startups and novel ideas. Parul University financially assists young scholars who produce high-quality work.

“We at Parul University have kept up with this global change. We have aimed to develop a culture of research wherein innovation thrives and young researchers can take risks and follow their dreams with confidence.”

His concluding message was specific: research should solve practical problems in hospitals, nature, and society. Not research for the sake of publication metrics, but research that changes something in the real world. If you too wish to ideate, validate and get your research approved globally, begin your research journey with R&D Cell of Parul University!

Dr Geetika Madan Patel shared a personal story that illustrated everything the ceremony was trying to recognise. As a first-year medical student, she wanted to help new mothers teach proper infant feeding to prevent poor nutrition. Her chief professor told her to wait until next year. She refused. She conducted the research entirely on her own for six months. When she printed the paper, her head doctor said the work was done. But she was not satisfied: what if people would not read it? What if the mothers at her hospital could not be helped by it?

Every single day she met her head doctor until she became, by her own admission, annoying. She then wrote to all the senior doctors in the hospital and waited an entire year for 10 minutes to present her findings. They were pleased with the research, and immediately started educating all mothers in the hospital. Two years passed. But she changed the world she was trying to change. That story is the difference between research that exists on paper and research that exists in the lives of people.

“I would like to share this responsibility among all of you so that whatever research work you do does not remain limited only to your patents and published papers, but rather it should come out into the society and make an impact.”

She also shared the success story of a student who invented a small portable ECG device. Parul University supported him by testing the invention on patients in their own hospital. The device was incubated within the university ecosystem, clinically validated, and is now deployed by the government across healthcare centres. This is what translational research looks like: from student projects to university incubation to clinical validation to government deployment. If you too are a medical enthusiast and want to excel at the intersection of tech & healthcare, kickstart your MBBS journey at Parul University & say yes to such impactful initiatives.

The ceremony recognised researchers across multiple categories. Every winner is named here with their specialisation, department, and research metrics because in research, specificity is the evidence.

• Dr Shaikh Adil: Assistant Professor, Parul Institute of Engineering and Technology. Traditional Dairy Products, Frozen Yoghurt, Fruit By-products. i10-index 09, H-index 09. Best Researcher Award and Best Research Performer Award.
• Dr Vijay Upadhye: Professor, Department of Microbiology, Parul Institute of Applied Sciences. HIV, Diagnosis, Interdisciplinary Research, Tuberculosis, Immunology of Infectious Diseases. i10-index 51, H-index 23. Best Researcher, Highest Cumulative Impact Factor, and Maximum Patent Grant Award winner.
• Dr Ashish Patel: Associate Professor, Parul Institute of Pharmacy. Pharmaceutical Chemistry. i10-index 38, H-index 19. Highest Cumulative Impact Factor and Best Research Performer.

• Dr Pankaj Kumar: HOD, Earth and Environmental Sciences, Parul Institute of Applied Sciences. Environment, Water Quality, Sustainable Development, Environmental Management. i10-index 40, H-index 23.
• Dr Vishal Sorathiya: Associate Professor, Scientific Communication Outreach and Public Engagement Cell. Nano-composite, Metamaterial, MIMO antenna, Polariser, Biosensor, Solar Cell. i10-index 68. Also a Stanford-Elsevier Top 2% Scientist globally.

• Dr Gautam Patel: HOD and Associate Professor, Chemistry, Parul Institute of Applied Sciences. Organic synthesis, Nano science, Green Chemistry. i10-index 19, H-index 14.
• Dr Soyebkhan Pathan: Associate Professor, R&D Cell, Parul Institute of Applied Sciences. Catalysis, Polyoxometalates, Biomass conversion. i10-index 18, H-index 16. Also Best Publication with IMR Grant.

• Dr Prince Jain: Assistant Professor, Parul Institute of Technology. Machine Learning, Biomedical Signal Processing. i10-index 62, H-index 26. Also a Stanford-Elsevier Top 2% Scientist.
• Dr Anand Somvanshi: Assistant Professor, Parul Institute of Applied Sciences. Nanomaterials, Magnetic Materials, Energy Storage. i10-index 23, H-index 18.
• Dr Afzal Nagani: Assistant Professor, Parul Institute of Pharmacy. Medicinal Chemistry, Organic Chemistry. i10-index 08, H-index 08.

• Dr Gordhan Jethava: Professor and Director, Parul Institute of Engineering and Technology. Security, Cyber Security, Cloud Computing, Machine Learning. i10-index 16, H-index 11.
• Dr Meenakshi Patel: Professor, Parul Institute of Pharmacy. Formulation Development, Thermoreversible Systems. i10-index 13, H-index 11.
• Dr Mitesh Solanki: Associate Professor, Parul Institute of Applied Sciences. Crystal Growth, Quantum Optics, Computational Drugs. i10-index 17, H-index 12.
• Dr Radhey Shyam Kaushal: Assistant Professor, Parul Institute of Applied Sciences. Biophysics, Structural Biology. i10-index 09, H-index 09.

• Dr Avanti Khristi: Associate Professor, Parul Institute of Pharmacy. Bioanalytical and Herbal Formulation Development.
• Dr Anitha H. and Dr Hemant Toshikhane: Professors, Parul Institute of Ayurveda. Research, IPR, New Drug Development.
• Ms Drashti Shah: Research Scholar, Parul Institute of Pharmacy. Pharmaceutical Chemistry. i10-index 10, H-index 12.
• Ms Komal Janiyani: Junior Research Fellow, R&D Cell. Microbiology, Mycology, Enzymology.
• Ms Muskanbanu Memon: JRF, R&D Cell. Catalysis.

Read more on Parul University: From History to Milestones