IIT Delhi To Set Up Electric Vehicle Research & Innovation Science Park next year

IIT Delhi last Friday has announced setting up two new centres of Research and Innovative science park in its campus of national capital region. According to media reports these centres will come up next year and will be supported by both private and public industries.

Director of the Institute, V Ramgopal Rao, said that the two centres will focus on solving contemporary issues of the society. Rao added that electric vehicles play a crucial role in pollution control, but unavailability and inefficiency are causing hindrance in its use. The centre will work on issues ranging from bringing down their cost, reducing the charging time to improving the battery capacity.

The other centre, ‘Centre for Cyber Physical System’, to solve issues with the help of information technology. This centre according to Rao, will focus on connecting systems to internet that can provide data on which can help make accurate decisions to solve day-to-day problems. For example, to improve the productivity in agriculture, farmers should have the accurate information on how much water to put, exact soil moisture and what nutrient or fertilizer to use. And, to access that information deploying sensors is needed that can collect the data and help the farmers to take intelligent decisions.

This innovation park will work closely with DRDO or Defence Research and Development Organisation. DRDO currently has more than 50 laboratories which work in varied fields ranging from aeronautics to electronics.

The announcement has come soon after the IIT received Institution of Eminence Status or IoE which will help it get grants worth ₹200 crore per year from the government in the next five years. IIT Delhi has come up with ideas such as ‘Student Start-Up action’ wherein the institute funds student research in exchange for equity in their start-ups.