IRCC is actively working towards fulfilling the research and development mission of IIT Bombay. Several consultancy and sponsored projects have been offered, agreements signed and distinguished awards given. IIT Bombay has received considerable attention with its participation in various exhibitions and its engagement with intellectual property issues such as the launch of Creative Commons and a WIPO course on Patents.

This issue of UPDATE has fascinating details about recent research developments. We are carrying two long articles on cooperative robots and the nature of high performance within institutions. How do culture and values get institutionalized within organizations? What are the inherent challenges?
The article on robots examines in some detail how a dual arm cooperative robot can minimize risk to its employees.

The pages of UPDATE are filled with a series of small articles on several technologies being indigenously developed at IIT Bombay, including, water quality monitoring, hybrid electric vehicle transmission, internet based product design and manufacturing, compact drive mechanism, designing LTA systems and multi-utility heat pumps and plastic solar dryers.

UPDATE will continuously strive to cover new areas of research and development that IIT Bombay is currently working on and share its endeavors with the over ten thousand people and organizations that subscribe to our magazine.

Shishir K. Jha, Editor