IIT-Hyderabad eyes $15 million of research funding

The institute started functioning in Aug 2008 from then it bagged $20 million of sponsored research projects

The Indian Institute of Technology - Hyderabad (IIT-H) aims to attract up to $15 million in sponsored research funding in the next two years as the institution is giving new vigour to R&D activities, IIT-H Director, U B Desai, said.

Since, it started functioning in August 2008, IIT-H has bagged $20 million of sponsored research projects.

"We are already working on several large proposals in the realm of Rs 2 crore to Rs 30 crore. In two years, we should hit the $30 million mark; we may reach a target of $35 million in two years," Desai told Press Trust of India here.

"We want to be looked upon as a research institution," he said, adding, IIT-H wants to contribute significantly in the area of fifth-generation (5G) broadband technology, digital fabrication including 3D printing, internet of things (IoT) and storage of clean storage.

"We want to do a lot of work in 5G. We want to get some of our ideas and patents in 5G standards," he said, noting, that 5G is expected to be rolled out commercially from 2019-2020.

On digital fabrication and 3D printing, Desai said IIT-H would like to give thrust both from academic point of view and also contribute in terms of technology.

"In the area of IoT, we want to make major contribution. We have several projects in R&D that's working on it," he said.

Some of the IIT-H faculty members are already working on it in terms of energy storage in the area of clean energy and distributed grid.

IIT-H has so far filed 30 patents and Desai said it hoped to add 30 more in the next two years.

IIT-H, which has crossed the 2000-student mark, has 165 faculty members — on an average of 3.7 Ph.D. Students per faculty --, a ratio he claimed is better than most research institutes in India.

IIT-H is in the process of raising a corpus. "We have formed IIT-H Foundation in the US, that can help us build the corpus," he said.

Stating that IIT-H is doing a lot of innovation in academics, Desai said: "We really want to create academic programmes with a lot more projects out there."

"Today, students engage best when they are doing something. They are unable to engage in a situation where they are in the class room and I am talking for one hour. After 10 minutes, they are turned off," he observed.

"We want to create a space or some sort of system where lot more doing is involved. You learn the same principles, theories, concepts, everything but by doing and playing, creating a nice harmony between doing and theory part of it.