Students innovative spirit comes through at the first LEAP Inter-Collegiate Open House, powered by IIT-Madras Incubation Cell
Chennai, India – April 18th, 2023 : The LEAP Inter-Collegiate Open House, powered by the IIT Madras Incubati on Cell was held at IITM Research Park, displaying the ingenious creations of 110 students from three colleges who underwent the LEAP approach of project-based learning. These students identified social issues, concep tualized solutions, and fabricated functioning prototypes during a single semester. Out of all the teams, the top seven were picked to participate in the Open House competition.
The student’s product concepts stemmed from personal experiences and a keen observation of societal needs, r esulting in a diverse array of innovations such as a bike accident detector, a robotic feeder for the elderly/disab led, and a CO-detector for cars. The product demos effectively showcased the team’s innovative thinking, with the guidance of LEAP-trained faculty and industry experts, who provided mentorship and conducted sessions on product design and development.
LEAP, or Learn Engineering by Activity with Products, founded by Prof. Timothy A Gonsalves, Founding Director of IIT Mandi, aims to revolutionize the way engineering colleges approach education by offering a unique reverse engineering led learning methodology. LEAP also collaborates closely with colleges to train and empower fac ulty, ensuring a multiplier effect for knowledge dissemination.
The Open House event was attended by industry experts such as Ms. Damayanti Bhattacharya, CEO of Maker Bhavan Foundation, and Ms. B. Jayasri, Vice-President of HCL.
Speaking on LEAP’s approach, Prof. Timothy Gonsalves, Founding Director, IIT Mandi, said, “LEAP provides han ds on experience building useful products from 1st BTech onwards. Students in remote areas such as Idukki and Tirunelveli interact with industry experts to gain product-development skills on par with students from the best colleges in the cities and metros. We aim to impact 7000 students, 500 faculty and 70 colleges over the next 3 ye ars.”
“Projects shown today highlights the potential of budding engineers to create solutions for societal needs. This initiative is a part of IITM Research Park’s 10 X vision to foster technical skill development among young engine ering graduates, particularly from tier 2 and 3 cities. The goal of the program is to equip, nurture, and encourage these students to emerge as leading technologists in the nation, and develop home-grown solutions to address I ndia’s most critical challenges.”, added Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, President, IITM Research Park & IITM Incubation Cell.
The LEAP initiative aims to continue to facilitate the participation of engineering students, including those from rural engineering colleges, in hands-on projects that address real-world challenges. This empowers them to enga ge in creative design and contribute towards solving practical problems faced by society.
About IITM Research Park:
IIT Madras Research Park is India’s first University-based Research Park and a Section 8 Not-for-Profit Compa ny home to 75+ R&D companies, 240+ Startups and 9 Centre of Excellence. Envisioned to “Bringing unlike minds together”, the Research Park primarily focuses on pioneering Industry-Academia interaction leading to comm e rcialization of scalable and unique technology-based solutions, several of which have found wide market reach. The Research Park holds high eminence for epitomizing an innovation paradigm ecosystem across geographical boundaries, driving the roadmap towards achieving mammoth technological goals for India through its flagship project- 10X.
For more information about IIT Madras Research Park visit: https://respark.iitm.ac.in/
ABOUT IITM INCUBATION CELL
IITM Incubation Cell (IITMIC) has emerged as India’s leading Deep Technology Startup hub with Innovation and Impact as key differentiators/drivers. Over the last 9 years of its operations, IITMIC has overseen close to 300 new incubations, founded by IITM members (faculty, staff, students, and alumni) and external entrepreneurs (50%). The companies span the breadth of deep tech areas in globally critical domains, including manufacturing, robotics, energy, e-mobility, IoT, AI/ML, space, healthcare, water, agri-tech. Today, the incubated startups are together valued at close to ₹37,200 crores and have created 7000+ direct jobs.
For more information about IITM Incubation Cell visit: www.incubation.iitm.ac.in
About LEAP
LEAP provides IIT Style / Industry-oriented Project Based Learning (PBL) to Engineering Colleges by focused programs from 1st Year to 4th Year BE / B Tech. All LEAP activities involve building products and learning by doing. During the program, students gain skills for innovating useful products and technologies by developing working prototypes, solving real-world problems.
For more information about LEAP visit: https://www.leap.respark.iitm.ac.in/
