IIT Madras to host two-day ‘Industry Conclave 2021’ from Saturday

To be held completely online, the event is open for the public and is intended to showcase the cutting-edge technology, research, innovation and startups coming out of the Institute Ecosystem

Chennai: Indian Institute of Technology Madras will be hosting an ‘Industry Conclave 2021’ on Saturday and Sunday to promote Industry-Academic Collaboration and develop means to generate new ideas for constructive partnerships.

This is the first edition and will become an annual event to enhance collaboration between academia and the industry. The event will feature representatives from various Government agencies, multinational corporate groups and IIT Madras.

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Being organized by the Corporate Relations Cell of the International and Alumni Relations Student Council, IIT Madras, this initiative also aims to showcase the cutting-edge work research, innovation and start-up community of the Institute ecosystem.

The event is open to the public. The Industry Conclave will be live via Airmeet. Those interested can register on the following link to get access to the event – https://www.airmeet.com/e/fc847460-99c8-11eb-be0d-9b9d27d56e19

Highlighting the unique aspects of ‘Industry Conclave 2021’ Dr. Satyanarayanan Seshadri, Faculty Advisor for Corporate Relations, IIT Madras, said, “The conclave gives opportunities for students to interact with industry bodies. The format is very unique and interesting with many panel discussions focused on exposing the key innovation and research activities to relevant stakeholders.”

A first-of-its-kind student competition is also being organized in which participants are rewarded for their scientific and analytical creativity. The problem statement revolves around over-analysing a product in the market and going in-depth into its history, the science behind it and all obscure mathematics that may be unveiled along with it.

The competition would be held in two phases. Phase 1 would require the participant/s to choose any retail product in the standard market, analyse the history of the product and how it reached its final state in the market today. In Phase 2, the selected teams will be provided a common product which they will have to over-analyse in a similar manner.

Sharing the benefits for students in taking part in this conclave, Mr. Saarthak Marathe, Student Co-Head, Corporate Relations Cell, Student Council, said, “Industry Conclave aims to improve the visibility of CSR initiatives taken up by our institute and give it a boost by facilitating a knowledge exchange of the happenings at IITM. The event will also bring in eminent speakers for the investment, industrial, research sector to discuss burning topics related to the involvement of academia in the industry.”

Further, Mr. Shounak Bhattacharya, Student Co-Head, Corporate Relations Cell, Student Council, said, “IIT Madras ecosystem has a lot of innovative ideas and work going on. The Industry Conclave will help in showcasing what we have to offer to the community.”

Technical Exhibitions have also been organized. All these projects will be live on the Conclave platform with the teams presenting their idea. The exhibitions would be in collaboration with various bodies of IIT Madras ecosystem including Centre For Innovation, Nirmaan, Healthcare Technology Innovation Cell and IIT Madras Incubation Cell.

Technical Exhibition

The exhibition will witness 27 booths set up by various tech-teams and start-ups ranging from the healthcare, ed-tech, aviation and prosthetics sector. The teams will get to meaningfully network with each other and display their technological prowess to the Industry Specialists gracing the event. The exhibition will be attended by several Venture Capitalists and Angel Investors looking for funding opportunities.

The Conclave is hosting a lecture series involving panel discussions on various topics right from Sustainable Energy, Healthcare, and Cybersecurity to Innovation in Defence. Prominent personalities in these fields will preside in these lectures on the two days of the event.

Some of the top speakers include: Dr. Chitra Rajagopal, Former Director General (RM), Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Miro Salem, Global Head of AI, Rakuten, Dr. O.P. Agarwal, CEO, World Resources Institute India, Sumit Puri, CTO Evercare, Ankur Gigras, Senior VP, 1mg, and Mr. Sumit Keshan, Managing Partner, Wipro Consumer Ventures.