IITBBS-WMG ( Warwick Manufacturing Group, U.K.): Partenership

 

Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar

 

Visit of an 8-member Delegation from the Warwick Manufacturing Group (WMG) of the University of Warwick UK

 

16-19 September 2010

 

Though still at its nascent stage, IIT Bhubaneswar (IITBBS) has started fostering a vision of close academy-industry partnership. It is perceived that the major outcome of such a partnership will be the creation of innovative products and cutting-edge technologies at a faster pace, enabling the students of the institute to live through the spirit of innovation and value-addition in a global society. 

 

During his visit to the WMG, the University of Warwick in May-June 2010, Prof. M. Chakraborty, Director IITBBS had extensive discussion with the faculty and experts of WMG in an effort to bring WMG-expertise into IITBBS, and develop functional relationship with the University of Warwick. Lord Professor Kumar Bhattacharyya, the Director and founder of WMG encouraged the idea of having a University of Warwick footprint at IITBBS. As a result of the above endeavour, an 8-member delegation from the University of Warwick visited IITBBS during September 16-19 and held extensive technical dialogue with the faculty members of IITBBS. The delegation comprised of the following members:

 

1. Prof. Koen Lamberts, Pro-Vice Chancellor, University of Warwick

2. Dr. David Mullins, Director of External and International Relations, WMG

3. Prof. Sujit Banerji, Executive Director, Post-Graduate Programme, WMG

4. Prof. Richard Dashwood, Professor of Metallurgy, WMG

5. Prof. Darek Ceglarek, Professor & EPSRC Research Chair, WMG

6. Prof. Vinesh Raja, Head, Information Technology Group, WMG

7. Prof. Rajat Roy, Professor, WMG

8. Dr. Steven Maggs, Principal Fellow WMG

 

Taking advantage of the visit, IIT Bhubaneswar hosted An Academy-Industry Interface – An Interactive Session where the faculty members of WMG and IITBBS held in-depth discussions with the representatives from major Industries on designing strategies for developing functional relationship between industry and academia. Senior representatives from reputed industries and institutes like Tata Steel, Infosys, MGM, IBM, Wipro, Visa-Steel, and LV Prasad Eye Institute and others joined the strategy-building sessions. The program was inaugurated by His Excellency Sanjay Wadvani, OBE, British Deputy High Commissioner Eastern India. Mr. Wadvani highlighted the major ongoing collaborations between India and UK in the field of science and technology and extended his support and good wishes to the WMG-IITBBS initiative.

 

At the end of the two-day brain-storming, it was decided that IIT-BBS and WMG/UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK will aim to take rapid strides to forge a very close relationship. A few initial steps that are under consideration to strengthen the partnership are as follows:

 

1. Short Courses at IITBBS involving resource persons from WMG and IITBBS to cater to Industry-specific needs.

2. Engineering Doctorate (Engg. D) Programme for mid and senior level industry professionals.

3. Visits of faculty/experts from WMG/University of Warwick to IITBBS on regular basis to help in nucleating research laboratories and teams in specific areas at IITBBS.

4. Possibilities of accommodating a limited number of undergraduate students of IITBBS as summer interns at WMG/University of Warwick.

5. Visits of IIT BBS Faculty to WMG/ University of Warwick 

 

It was generally felt that both the institutes should work on collaborative research projects and approach funding agencies in UK, India and European Union for the same. Necessary steps may also be initiated in setting up Collaborative Research Centres involving industries that will be part of the Science Park at IITBBS.

 

Few of the areas earmarked for potential collaboration are:

 

• Functional Materials, Composites, Sandwiched Structure, Aluminium Alloys and MMCs, Novel Titanium Extraction Process, New Application of Cement

• Dynamical System Simulation, Fault Diagnosis in Process, Robotics, Passive Acoustics in Automotive Sector

• Informatics in Health Care, Supply-Chain Management

• Corporate Environmental Responsibility Model for Industries, Productivity and Efficiency Model for Industry, Analysis of Visual perception, FMRI and Cognitive Psychology, Business Communication