Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar opened a new Centre for Innovation facility at IIT Madras.

Today, India’s Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar inaugurated the Indian Institute of Technology Madras Centre for Innovation (CFI) facility, in attendance of Thiru K Ponmudy, Tamil Nadu’s minister for higher education, and IIT-M director V Kamakoti. The new facility, which is found in the recently-constructed Sudha and Shankar Innovation Hub, is designed to boost student-led activities and foster Innovation and Entrepreneurship (I&E) activities of the students and researchers. The funds for the institute came from both alumni and government contributions.

At the inauguration of the Sudha and Shankar Innovation Hub, IIT Madras director V Kamakoti remarked that in the past 14 years, the CFI had made a significant impact on innovation and start-up culture at the institute. He added that approximately 6,000 students had benefited from the various skills acquired at the Centre, 1,000 student projects were completed and around 50 start-ups were spawned from the CFI. This project was supported by V Shankar, a CAMS Pvt Ltd founder, IIT Madras alumnus awardee, and a guest at the event.

He stated that due to the increasing demand from students for innovation and entrepreneurial activities, it was necessary to significantly enlarge the centre to meet the current and future needs.

IIT-M Centre for Innovation

At the inauguration, Jagdeep Dhankhar spoke of the Director of IIT Madras, V Kamakoti, and the faculty of the Sudha and Shankar Innovation Hub (SSIH), who have over 2,000 students, faculty and members. The hub has set 12 world records and generated over 200 start-ups, and is seen to be the makers of the warriors who will be shaping India’s future in 2047.

The Vice President noted that alumni form the backbone of any organization, and that their success and contributions are essential for the development of the institution. He suggested that there should be a system in place to nurture the relationship between alumni and the institution, and that he wanted IIT Madras to be the leader in this endeavor, with the potential to revolutionize the world.

He interacted with the teams from IITM Centre for Innovation, which includes 15 hobby clubs, 6 competition teams, and additional teams to provide support on branding, finance, web-ops, and coding. Students at IIT Madras asked questions about the future of India and the significance of start-ups for the nation’s economy.

The competitors are engaged in topics including hyperloop, electric racing vehicles, solar cars, self-driving ground vehicles, sounding rockets, and space rovers. Meanwhile, the hobby organizations are devoted to issues such as astronomy, math, data analysis, bioinformatics, 3D printing, techno-art, and Blockchain. CFI crews have earned national and international honors, including representing India at global events, noted the institute.