IIT-Mandi to have tech innovation hub

Tribune News Service

Mandi, March 15

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) has sanctioned Rs 7.25 crore for IIT-Mandi to establish a technology innovation hub (TIH) at the institute.

The major focus of the TIH will be on the human-computer interaction (HCI) research, where projects will focus on design and development of computer technology (interfaces) and the study of interaction between humans (users) and computers. Also, the TIH will focus on human resource and skill development, entrepreneurship and collaboration with other leading institutions.

Dr Varun Dutt, Principal Investigator, TIH, and Associate Professor, School of Computing and Electrical Engineering, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT-Mandi, said, “The TIH will provide exciting opportunities for IIT-Mandi to become a world leader in HCI and allied areas, where national research has been nascent.”

Dr Arnav Bhavsar, Co-Principal Investigator, TIH, and Associate Professor, School of Computing and Electrical Engineering, IIT Mandi, said, “In line with the culture at IIT-Mandi of collaborative research and nurturing entrepreneurship, the TIH will further enable significant strides by the institute in industry collaboration and in the development of indigenous technology.”

“The TIH will develop tools, education material, hands-on experiments with specialised tool kits, connecting with existing innovation ecosystems,” he said.

A number of industry, academic and research partners are partnering with IIT Mandi in the TIH. So far the industry and research partners include the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Mohali, the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO); National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), Regional Forensic Science Laboratory (RFSL), state government, Adobe, RxDataScience, Dattendriya, Aindra, and Bioedha.

“The academic partners include Carnegie Mellon University, USA, London Metropolitan University, UK, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway, and PGIMER, Chandigarh” he added.

Rs 7.25 cr sanctioned

• The Department of Science and Technology has sanctioned Rs 7.25 crore for the purpose
• The hub will focus on technology (interface) development and evaluation, human resource and skill development, entrepreneurship and collaboration with other leading academic and research Institutions
• The TIH will focus on human resource and skill development, entrepreneurship and collaboration with other leading institutions