Latest news with #KrishnanBalasubramanian
Economic Times
27-04-2025
- Business
- Economic Times
Checking without damaging: IIT-Madras works on advanced tech for disruptive material testing
From sensors detecting leaks in pipelines, tanks, bridges and dams without tearing those down to robots for ending manual scavenging -- IIT-Madras has established itself as a global centre of excellence for developing disruptive material testing technology. "Non Destructive Evaluation" (NDE) is the broad name given to the field of testing and analysis used by industry to characterise components or structures for indicators of performance degradation, without causing damage to the original part. The "NDE 5.0 - Industrial Assets and Process Management CoE (CNDE)" at IIT-Madras is developing advanced inspection solutions using X-rays, infrared thermography, lasers, ultrasonics, microwave, terahertz and eddy currents, leveraging industry tools in robotics, drones, AI, Machine Learning, virtual reality, distributed ledgers, hyperspectral imaging and quantum computing. Krishnan Balasubramanian, Chair Professor, IIT-Madras, told PTI that the centre of excellence has a team of internationally acclaimed professors and researchers who have executed projects with a cumulative value over Rs 200 crore, attracted industry funding in excess of Rs 50 crore and CSR funding of Rs 10 crore for socially-relevant projects. "The research undertaken by this team has already led to 15 IIT Madras-incubated startups with a combined valuation in excess of Rs 2,000 crore. The vision is to carry out cutting-edge research on asset integrity platforms for society and industry validated and accepted as benchmarks that can be commercialised worldwide," he said. Balasubramanian also underlined that technologies from this CoE impact the efficiency of industry operations and increase the availability and safety of industrial and infrastructural assets. "The key objectives of this CoE include impacting industries by helping them reduce operating costs by 40 per cent, decrease failure risk, improve availability and uptime by 20 per cent and extend as well as maximise asset life safety," he added. The professor explained that India has a lot of national assets and physical infrastructure that need to be constantly monitored. "The country has the second-longest road network in the world (6 million km) and the Indian Railways is one of the largest rail networks in the world under one management. The ports handle 95 per cent of its international trade in and out of India. "The country is currently the fourth largest consumer of energy globally after the US, China and Russia and, hence, has over 40,000 km of cross-country pipelines and underground oil reserve storage facilities," he said. The CoE's target is to be among the top five research centres globally in this field by 2026, incubate at least 20 startups that could create 2,000 tech jobs and establish at least two industry consortia to ensure the research translates to industry impact in India and abroad. Tata Steel, Boeing, DRDO, ONGC, Gail, Shell and Indian Oil Corporation are among the major industry stakeholders that IIT-Madras has partnered with in multiple critical sectors. Prabhu Rajgopal, the deputy head of the Centre of Excellence (CoE) said the facility is working to develop deep research-based non-destructive technologies for improved performance, enhanced safety and increased life for industrial applications and relevant technologies for societal well-being. "We are leveraging industry tools to create disruptive solutions that enhance the quality of inspection data for end-users with effective decision plan strategies. Today, CNDE startups are globally recognized pioneers in the areas of marine and submerged asset integrity monitoring and pipeline inspections," he told PTI. "The extraordinary dual-use potential of our research is demonstrated by solutions such as the HomoSEP robot for eliminating manual scavenging or a start-up with AI automation for the underserved healthcare sector. These are technologies that we first developed and demonstrated in the industrial context," he added. For the ongoing projects, the centre is collaborating with researchers from top global institutions such as NTU Singapore; University of Nairobi, Dedan Kimathi University and Riara University Kenya; Kenia National Innovation Agency (KeNIA); University of Dar-es-Salam Tanzania; UNDP, Tanzania; Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany; Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, France. It has also joined forces with Airbus; University of Warwick, UK; University College London, UK; Ecole de technologie superieure, Canada; and Michigan State University, USA.
Time of India
27-04-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Checking without damaging: IIT-Madras works on advanced tech for disruptive material testing
From sensors detecting leaks in pipelines, tanks, bridges and dams without tearing those down to robots for ending manual scavenging -- IIT-Madras has established itself as a global centre of excellence for developing disruptive material testing technology . "Non Destructive Evaluation" (NDE) is the broad name given to the field of testing and analysis used by industry to characterise components or structures for indicators of performance degradation, without causing damage to the original part. #Pahalgam Terrorist Attack India stares at a 'water bomb' threat as it freezes Indus Treaty India readies short, mid & long-term Indus River plans Shehbaz Sharif calls India's stand "worn-out narrative" The "NDE 5.0 - Industrial Assets and Process Management CoE (CNDE)" at IIT-Madras is developing advanced inspection solutions using X-rays, infrared thermography, lasers, ultrasonics, microwave, terahertz and eddy currents, leveraging industry tools in robotics, drones, AI, Machine Learning, virtual reality, distributed ledgers, hyperspectral imaging and quantum computing. Krishnan Balasubramanian, Chair Professor, IIT-Madras, told PTI that the centre of excellence has a team of internationally acclaimed professors and researchers who have executed projects with a cumulative value over Rs 200 crore, attracted industry funding in excess of Rs 50 crore and CSR funding of Rs 10 crore for socially-relevant projects. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like 예쁘기만 한 팔찌가 아니에요 유니세프 지금 기부하기 Undo "The research undertaken by this team has already led to 15 IIT Madras-incubated startups with a combined valuation in excess of Rs 2,000 crore. The vision is to carry out cutting-edge research on asset integrity platforms for society and industry validated and accepted as benchmarks that can be commercialised worldwide," he said. Balasubramanian also underlined that technologies from this CoE impact the efficiency of industry operations and increase the availability and safety of industrial and infrastructural assets. Live Events "The key objectives of this CoE include impacting industries by helping them reduce operating costs by 40 per cent, decrease failure risk, improve availability and uptime by 20 per cent and extend as well as maximise asset life safety," he added. Discover the stories of your interest Blockchain 5 Stories Cyber-safety 7 Stories Fintech 9 Stories E-comm 9 Stories ML 8 Stories Edtech 6 Stories The professor explained that India has a lot of national assets and physical infrastructure that need to be constantly monitored. "The country has the second-longest road network in the world (6 million km) and the Indian Railways is one of the largest rail networks in the world under one management. The ports handle 95 per cent of its international trade in and out of India. "The country is currently the fourth largest consumer of energy globally after the US, China and Russia and, hence, has over 40,000 km of cross-country pipelines and underground oil reserve storage facilities," he said. The CoE's target is to be among the top five research centres globally in this field by 2026, incubate at least 20 startups that could create 2,000 tech jobs and establish at least two industry consortia to ensure the research translates to industry impact in India and abroad. Tata Steel , Boeing, DRDO, ONGC , Gail , Shell and Indian Oil Corporation are among the major industry stakeholders that IIT-Madras has partnered with in multiple critical sectors. Prabhu Rajgopal, the deputy head of the Centre of Excellence (CoE) said the facility is working to develop deep research-based non-destructive technologies for improved performance, enhanced safety and increased life for industrial applications and relevant technologies for societal well-being. "We are leveraging industry tools to create disruptive solutions that enhance the quality of inspection data for end-users with effective decision plan strategies. Today, CNDE startups are globally recognized pioneers in the areas of marine and submerged asset integrity monitoring and pipeline inspections," he told PTI. "The extraordinary dual-use potential of our research is demonstrated by solutions such as the HomoSEP robot for eliminating manual scavenging or a start-up with AI automation for the underserved healthcare sector. These are technologies that we first developed and demonstrated in the industrial context," he added. For the ongoing projects, the centre is collaborating with researchers from top global institutions such as NTU Singapore; University of Nairobi, Dedan Kimathi University and Riara University Kenya; Kenia National Innovation Agency (KeNIA); University of Dar-es-Salam Tanzania; UNDP, Tanzania; Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, Germany; Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission, France. It has also joined forces with Airbus; University of Warwick, UK; University College London, UK; Ecole de technologie superieure, Canada; and Michigan State University, USA.
The Hindu
24-04-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
T.N. Startup Summit: Experts call for early exposure to entrepreneurial experiences in schools to nurture innovation among students
Instilling entrepreneurial education at the school level is key to shaping the future. Educational institutions have a pivotal role in providing early exposure to creative thinking among students, said experts in a session organised at The Hindu-Tamil Nadu Startup Summit 2025 held in Chennai on Thursday. The summit was organised by The Hindu along with SRM Institute of Science and Technology, and co-presented by StartupTN in association with Sify Technologies. Addressing the session on 'Startup Success Begins in the Classroom:The Power of Education in Innovation', Krishnan Balasubramanian, Institute professor, IIT Madras, spoke about his experiences in mentoring startups. The focus was to enable mindset change among faculty and students to bring deep tech solutions from lab to market. Noting that expectations about educational institutions had evolved from teaching, research to metrics of patents and their translational effect, he said building startup ecosystems was one of the strong translational effects. Every institution must commit itself to creating an entrepreneurial ecosystem and take learning beyond the classrooms. Students have to look at technological learning and also raise funds for their ventures. He said students need to be on board early to cultivate innovation skills. The concept must spread to other streams like agricultural institutions apart from engineering colleges. Revathi Venkatraman, professor and chairperson, School of Computing, SRM Institute of Science and Technology, said, 'Students are encouraged to discuss failed attempts and promote the culture of entrepreneurship in academic environment. They are motivated to embrace failures, adopt solutions and emerge resilient.' Emphasising the introduction of entrepreneurial skills at school level, she said college students were exposed to a series of interventions, including boot camps and interaction with successful entrepreneurs. These interventions boosted their confidence to cope with failures. They also learnt about challenges of rural people through community connect programmes and came up with socially relevant solutions, she added. Pointing out that incubation cells were a source of support to startups, Shaivee Malik, co-founder and COO, Yotuh Energy, said such cells were part of ecosystem and helped discuss issues with other startup founders. Mentorship and motivation were important particularly for those venturing into a sector without background. Sudarshan Varatharajan, co-founder and CEO, Bversity, too underlined the significance of introducing entrepreneurial experiences early in schools and said it would help mindset among students and expose them to business and innovation skills. Chandran Krishnan, managing director and CEO, Campus Angels Network who moderated the session, said universities were becoming hubs for entrepreneurship, innovation and incubation.
