Whenever IIT Madras director V Kamakoti lays down to rest, his thoughts return to the fields of Vishnupuram in the Tiruvarur district of Tamil Nadu. A farm boy at heart, Prof Kamakoti maintains that he has never flown abroad for anything, preferring to remain “rooted” in India. At the helm of IIT Madras, Kamakoti is now promoting investment in research and developing special training programs for students seeking access to the institute’s expertise through online courses.
Kamakoti, who is a member of the National Security Advisory Board, had headed a government-created artificial intelligence task force. In the coming months, Kamakoti would focus on boosting investment in critical projects across sectors, from electric vehicles to 5G technology, which has grown 5-7 percent year over year.
He also believes that the spirit of entrepreneurship is alive in India and that more students want to build their own businesses than migrate to other countries in search of work.
Kamakoti was in conversation with Poornima Murali of News18. Here are excerpts from the interview:
How do you plan to expand the industry academic program under your leadership? Can you now broadly explain the structure of that department and how you plan to move it forward?
There are multiple ways in which IIT associates Madras with the industry. The first are sponsored and advisory projects, which have experienced steady growth over a period of time. It is expected to continue to grow by 10% per year. We will expand the reach of the industry by providing information about the different expertise available at the IIT Madras Faculty, the types of problems they can solve and their interests. This allows the industry to engage the IIT Madras Faculty as advisors or through sponsored research projects.
Second, our web-enabled MTech program that educates industry people. This program has been successful and we currently offer about half a dozen such programs where industry people can enroll and graduate. They can do the courses and projects as it is done in a full-fledged Mtech program. Lessons take place in the evenings.
Third, we have a rich basket of patents. The Institute will make the details of these granted patents and granted innovations available to the industry so that people interested in licensing them can approach us and we intend to further expand the interactions. In addition, IIT Madras is now going to have a systematic way of ‘An Idea to Start-up’ process. We have Nirmaan, which helps the student polish their creative ideas into something that is patentable and that any team can work on and develop a prototype. Nirmaan also helps the students develop the prototype.
Our goal is to incubate hundreds of start-ups every year. All these start-ups would be looking for clients. The industry can purchase the products developed by these start-ups; they can also be funded.
In addition, the industries can establish their office at IIT Madras Research Park, which gives them access to the IIT Madras Faculty. Their staff can pursue research programs (MS/PhDs) in the Institute and they can also hire students from IIT Madras. A lot is possible when a large industry participates in this ecosystem.
Under Research at IIT Madras, the most common research segments. By this I mean the sectors that attract a lot of attention from corporates that fund research and scientists who work on breakthroughs. Can you give us some examples of on-campus research driving new products to the market, in domains such as EVs, software, civil engineering, etc.?
5G – IIT Madras, as part of a multi-institutional project, has played an important role in getting a 5G standard internationally approved. We are doing a campus trial with 5G technology.
A successful start-up incubated by IIT Madras is Modulus Housing Company, which has enabled thousands of oxygen beds to be set up in just a month during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Another exciting story is Agnikul, an IITM-incubated start-up working on state-of-the-art technologies, including 3D printing to manufacture rocket engines. It’s gearing up to launch Low-Earth Orbit rockets in the next few years.
We have interesting work in clean water, battery technologies and state-of-the-art medical devices. A lot of research is also being done in the field of road transport and safety. We also work closely with the various government ministries.
Another interesting project is the Hyperloop which, if successful, can travel Chennai-Bengaluru in 35 minutes.
These are just some of the areas where exciting research is being conducted at IIT Madras.
As we spiral towards zero carbon emissions, research into green technologies becomes crucial. Can you give us a snapshot of the myriad of EV research initiatives at IIT Madras? If possible, give up major breakthroughs in, say, battery technology to move the needle in this direction?
What India needs is low cost yet high quality.
Today most of the motors and controllers come from China and some from Germany. IITM develops a range of highly efficient permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM) and controllers for various vehicles. The motor and control technology for e-rickshaw has already been transferred to a company in Delhi and one in Lucknow; production is expected to start production soon. We now import a million such engines. Our motors/controllers are superior in quality and comparable price compared to Chinese. E-car engines are under development and may be produced later this year. There is a plan to convert all existing old IC cars to EV cars. The goal is to do the full conversion in about five years.
Battery packs in India must operate at 48 degrees and withstand the vibrations of rough roads. This reduces the life of most imported batteries to one third. IITM has designed and developed battery packs that can withstand the temperature and rough roads, yet have a full service life. This will make EVs viable. The batteries will be produced this year.
Battery replacement was suggested by IITM about 5 years ago. Initially, there was a lot of resistance from the regulators. However, the IITM continued to work with industry because it made very good economic sense. This year she supported battery change in FM’s budget speech. All swapping protocols are developed at IITM.
IITM develops a variety of chargers and converters.
Investing in research at leading institutes such as IIT Madras is crucial for actionable results. Can you give us a picture of how investment in research at IIT Madras has increased over the years? How do you plan to raise more research funding for the institute?
Funding comes from both government, sponsored research, and industry through Consultancy. A significant amount has been raised through CSR subsidies, specifically for socially relevant projects. All of these have been steadily increasing at an average of 5%-7% per year.
In recent times, certain major projects at IIT Madras have been funded by the government. For example, the Technology Innovation Hub, under the National Mission of Inter-Disciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems, The Center for Road Safety sponsored by the Union Ministry of Road Transport, and the Robert Bosch Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. (CSR financing) are examples of major projects with government funding and business participation.
Start-up partnerships: Did IIT Madras come up with a structure to make it easier for start-ups to collaborate with IIT-M talent
The answer is absolutely yes. Start-ups can be incubated at IIT Madras using half a dozen incubators available. In addition, we also offer mentorship to start-ups through the Gopalakrishnan-Deshpande Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (GDC). IIT Madras also has an Entrepreneurship Cell, which allows start-ups to be quickly integrated into the IIT Madras ecosystem.
Does IIT-M have plans to diversify its curriculum to better align with the economic business demands of our time?
IIT Madras is constantly evolving its curriculum to meet the demands of today’s industry. In addition, IIT Madras has recognized the importance of building complete systems rather than fragmentary research. In order to give students a holistic view of systems, IIT Madras currently offers 10 interdisciplinary dual degree courses, which would be of great interest to the industry.
Research: How does IIT M plan to raise the institution’s profile as a destination for Deep Tech Research?
IIT Madras is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE). We would start at least 20 centers working on contemporary technologies, solving research problems in them, leading to diplomas for the students involved. The technologies covered are niche products and I believe they will paint the next-gen research picture of IIT Madras.
As a technical institute, IIT M is central to various innovations. How do we popularize our knowledge base so that a wider audience is informed about the innovation happening at IIT M?
One of the things is our Online BSc Program. Currently on offer is the BSc Data Science Program which thousands of students have enrolled in. In addition, the IIT Madras campus, IIT Madras Incubation Cell and IIT Madras Research Park have many internship programs/competitions through which a large number of students can benefit.
There was a lot of discussion before about India’s technical ability to fly to western destinations… Is it happening even now? If so, how are you trying to approach this?
The trend now, especially post-COVID, is that many young people have a strong preference for entrepreneurship and prefer to be an employer than an employee. We see an increasing trend for entrepreneurs to stay in India instead of moving abroad for study or work.
As director of IIT M, how would you strive to improve cultural and ideological harmony at IIT Madras? Not only recently, but over the years there have been developments that seem to indicate that there is a rising ideological factionalism on campus that borders on rivalry. How would you try to promote peaceful coexistence between these political/ideological factions?
The answer to this is transparency. The board of this institute has always been and would remain transparent. The governance structure of this institution would be inclusive and diverse, through which we hope to ensure peaceful coexistence.
We heard that you do not have a visa from another country and stay here in India. Tell us more
My village is my base. I may have moved to the city because my basic culture comes from my village, that’s my father’s word. I spent the first three years in my village and used to work in the fields. I learned how difficult farming was. During all school holidays I return to my village and I have mapped the changes over the past decades.
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