On 20th April 2022, IIT Bombay Research Park organised a ‘Client & Associate Day’ to meet their new and long-standing member companies. It was the first physical event post the lockdown, and 79 people were in attendance. About thirty companies from different sectors, including the current member companies and a few prospective clients attended the event. During the day, attendees shared their insights, knowledge, and suggestions to increase R&D engagement through industry-academia collaboration.
The key functionaries from the institute that graced the event were the Director, Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri, the Dean Research & Development, Prof. Milind Atrey and the Dean Alumni & Corporate Relations, Prof. Ravindra Gudi.
The Research Park member companies had the opportunity to display their R&D activities through a poster presentation which proved to be a great networking chance for the attendees. There were representatives from Applied Materials, Atomberg, Balaji Enzymes, Bharat Forge, CTech, Everest, ideaForge, igrenEnergi, Innovinc, Jay Chemicals, MNST, Muarata, Nanosniff, NCIIPC, NeoDocs, Tejase Aerosense, Ubisoft, Viacom18, Virenxia, Wadhwani AI and a few more prospective member companies.
Next was the introduction of the various new Centres of Excellence at IIT Bombay. It enlightened the member companies about the R&D engagement possibilities ahead of them. The centres included –
- Institute of Eminence (IoE)
- C-MInDS (Centre for Machine Intelligence & Data Science)
- TIH-IOT (Technology Innovation Hub for IoT and IOE)
- TCAAI (Technocraft Centre for Applied Artificial Intelligence)
- KCDH (Koita Centre for Digital Health)
- WRCB (Wadhwani Research Centre for Bioengineering)
- NCOE-CCU (National Centre for Excellence in Carbon Capture and Utilisation)
- SINE (Society for Innovation & Entrepreneurship)
Prof. Swaroop Ganguly, Professor-in-Charge, Research Park, pointed out the alignment of IIT thrust areas under the IoE scheme and the new centers with major national missions.
In conclusion, the ‘Client & Associate Day’ was a much-needed facetime between the companies and the IITB ecosystem. The event ended on a note that the Research Park has done a remarkable job connecting the industry and academia.
