A start-up at the Indian Institute of Techmology-Madras that developed an e-plane has received approval from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to scale up the model. It had developed a prototype of the e-plane and demonstrated it on the campus.
Institute director V. Kamakoti announced the approval on the sidelines of an event held on Wednesday to distribute certificates to 15 research teams chosen as Centres of Excellence (CoE).
It would take several years for other approvals before e-plane could become a commercial product, he said.
Fund of ₹1,000 crore
In 2018-19, after the Ministry of Education announced IIT-Madras as an Institute of Excellence with a fund of ₹1,000 crore, the institute began the process of identifying research teams that had globally been recognised for their work.
It called on all faculty to present their research proposals to find solutions to the country’s challenges for the next 25 years. As many as 100 proposals were received and they were scrutinised by a team of international experts and 68 were chosen in the first phase.
There were proposals from mechanical, chemical, bioengineering and biotechnology teams, Mr. Kamakoti said.
‘Promising centres’
Among them, top 15 were assessed and identified as promising centres. They have been offered funds to carry forward their work.
Each centre is working on challenges that the world is grappling with, he explained.
Other research works
The CoE includes research to reduce carbon footprint in construction industry; to develop alternative energy; health technologies; maritime technologies; communications in the field of electronics; and treatment of cancers.
In the Budget 2023 , the Union government had allocated ₹249 crore to the institute to conduct research in developing diamonds in the laboratory.
“Each centre is working on a problem that is important for the world. They are working on cutting edge technologies for lean construction, affordable building materials; ways to test machinery non-destructively; advanced technology to build diamonds in laboratory; and technologies to improve athletes’ performance in international sporting events. We expect at least 10 centres to become world class and there will be big recognition at the international level. There will be several patents and start ups emerging from these centres,” he said.
At the event, former director Bhaskar Ramamurthi made a presentation on Indian scientists of the 20th century such as C.V. Raman, J.C. Bose, G.N. Ramachandran, Ramanujan and Abdul Kalam, who had challenged themselves and their research helped to put the country on the global stage. He urged researchers to be audacious in setting research goals.
