IIT KGP JRF Aerospace Engineering Recruitment 2026

IIT KGP JRF Aerospace Engineering Recruitment 2026: Overview

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT KGP) is hiring Junior Research Fellows for a time-bound project in its Department of Aerospace Engineering. The project, RDE Development with Real Time Flow and Thrust Control Phase-1: RDE Engine Testing Facility (project code R/FAT), is funded by the Aeronautics Research and Development Board (ARDB), DRDO and led by Prof. Amardip Ghosh. This is project work on contract, not a regular institute post.

The research is about Rotating Detonation Engines (RDEs) and the advanced turbomachinery that goes with them. That covers detonation-based combustion, high-speed reacting flows, combustion instability, supersonic mixing, RDE exhaust-flow study, turbine integration, experimental diagnostics, and data-driven modelling and control. If you have real lab or simulation work in propulsion or high-speed flows behind you, this is a rare chance to work on a DRDO-backed engine programme.

Posts and Disciplines

All the fellowships carry the same title, but the institute is looking for hands-on experience in at least one of seven areas. Match yourself to one or more of these:

• Computational Fluid Dynamics: RANS/URANS work in ANSYS Fluent, OpenFOAM or similar, on reacting or non-reacting flows in combustors, turbines and nozzles.
• Experimental research and propulsion testing: combustor design, compressed-gas systems, supersonic wind-tunnel or propulsion tests, schlieren, shadowgraphy and chemiluminescence imaging.
• Instrumentation and data acquisition: LabVIEW, NI FlexLogger, cDAQ and cRIO, dynamic pressure sensing, camera-ignition synchronisation and EMI shielding.
• Control systems and system identification: PID design, FPGA-based real-time control, hardware-in-the-loop testing and autopilot programming.
• Artificial intelligence and machine learning: deep-learning pipelines for physical systems, image classification of high-speed flows and instability prediction.
• Signal processing and data analysis: FFT, power spectral density, wavelets, recurrence plots and time-frequency analysis of pressure and image data.
• Applied physics, plasma and advanced diagnostics: spark and plasma ignition, laser diagnostics, optical system design, combustion spectroscopy and MHD.

Service Conditions and Caveats

• Hands-on proof: Apply only if you can show practical work in at least one listed area. Naming a software package, language or instrument without showing how you used it will not be enough.
• Separate theory from practice: The institute asks you to clearly mark what you have only studied and what you have actually done.
• Tenure: The fellowship lasts up to 36 months or until the project ends, whichever is earlier.
• Pay depends on profile: The consolidated amount is fixed according to your qualification and experience, up to the ceiling in the notice.
• Shortlisting: Meeting the minimum qualification does not guarantee an interview call.

Application Submission Notes

Applications are taken online through IIT Kharagpur's Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy (SRIC) recruitment system, as the official notification directs. In your application, name the expertise area or areas you are applying under and back them up with evidence: projects, dissertations, publications, validated CFD runs, rigs you built or ran, DAQ or control systems you developed, or AI/ML code applied to physical systems.

• Carry out research on Rotating Detonation Engine development and advanced turbomachinery for RDEs
• Run CFD simulations or experiments on detonation-based combustion and high-speed reacting flows
• Help build and operate the RDE engine testing facility and its diagnostics
• Set up instrumentation, data acquisition and real-time flow and thrust control systems
• Analyse pressure signals, high-speed images and exhaust-flow data from test runs
• Develop data-driven models to study combustion instability and turbine integration