Being situated in the commercial capital of the country, IIT Bombay has the advantage of being in the midst of the industry hub which can readily absorb the technologies developed at the institute. With a large pool of excellent faculty whose expertise ranges over many areas of science and engineering disciplines, we have persistently promoted effective interaction with industry to address their needs. We have for long provided consultancy for solving short-term problems of the industry, and have also carried out technology development to some extent. However, our current focus is to expand our interactions to a multidimensional mode by building strong R&D partnerships with the industry.

Along with sponsored research, our industrial consultancy has been growing steadily–both of which have helped create a variety of advanced R&D facilities at the institute. Spurred by this experience, we are now moving into the domain of creative and advanced research for the industry in emerging areas. In such collaborative R&D, IITB provides faculty expertise, infrastructure and advanced facilities, while the partnering industry provides financial support as well as relevant technical support. The aim is to develop technologies of the next generation. With the global outlook becoming highly competitive, and the new IP regime setting in shortly, the route to the nation's economic development may lie dominantly in knowledge-driven, advanced technology inputs.

Over the recent past we have interacted extensively with a large number of companies through workshops and other modes, towards establishing roadmaps for collaborative research. An entire array of organizations has participated in such exercises, including ONGC, Bajaj Auto, GM, HTSL, GE, Cummins India, P&W, Bharat Earth Movers Ltd., Pidilite, NTPC, MTNL, and TCE. We also encourage small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in specific business areas to form an industrial consortium so as to nucleate better R&D interaction with our faculty and students.

Overall, our experience has yielded valuable lessons on the issues that the current regime of globalization has precipitated for both the industry and academia. One of the key concerns of the industry relates to intellectual property generation and ownership. Accordingly, we have initiated various activities relating to IP management. Recently we hosted a national IPR workshop (details provided in another article in this issue) with participation from international experts. Our understanding of the relevant issues has been continually enhanced, which has helped us interact with the industry more effectively.

Adding another new dimension to our efforts, a Technology Business Incubator (TBI) is being set up at the Institute with major funding from Department of Science and Technology (Govt. of India). This is expected to help found start-up companies, exploiting IP generated by faculty, students and alumni. Recently, a Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE) at IIT Bombay has also been registered. It will provide a platform for various entrepreneurial activities: incubation/commercialization of technologies developed at IIT Bombay, bidding for competitive R&D projects, creation of joint ventures and so on. In essence, SINE would provide a framework for multiple modes of interaction between the industry and faculty.

Empowered by all these initiatives, and collaborative mechanisms that are being established, IIT Bombay hopes to be an active partner in assisting the Indian Industry to become globally competitive.
 

Office of Dean R&D

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