The country’s first Centre for Excellence in Intelligent Internet of Things (IIoT) sensors is set to come up near Maker Village in Kochi.
The centre will be established by the Digital University Kerala (DUK) in association with the Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology (C-MET) that functions under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
₹41-cr. centre
The MeitY has accorded approval for setting up the ₹41-crore centre that will be set up with support from the Kerala Startup Mission. The Ministry, along with the State Industries Department, will fund the project, the first-of-its-kind integrated facility for sensor manufacturing and indigenous development of IoT products in the country.
The development assumes significance against the backdrop of the pandemic that apparently disrupted the supply chain of electronic components, including sensor, and thereby, pushed the industrial sector to a severe crisis.
Need for indigenisation
“As part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat Mission, there is a need for indigenisation of a substantial amount of electronic components especially sensors that are an integral part of Industry 4.0. The proposed centre will become a big step towards this goal,” DUK Vice Chancellor Saji Gopinath said.
According to the university officials, the CoE will have state-of-the-art facilities for sensor manufacturing, intelligent sensor system hardware, AI software development and so on. The centre will host an incubation facility for start-up companies in IIoT sensors and promote innovation and entrepreneurship through design challenges.
