IIT Madras to focus on innovation and entrepreneurship and other parameters where it wasn’t on top: Director V. Kamakoti

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, which won rich accolades at the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) rankings released in New Delhi on Thursday, will focus its attention on building an ecosystem in the field of innovation and entrepreneurship, V. Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, told journalists on Friday.

Through its freshly launched School of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, the institute seeks to support startups that work on deep tech and develop technologies that have significant impact on society, Mr. Kamakoti said. The institution was ranked top of the list in four categories while coming second in the ‘Research Institutions’ category of the Indian Institute of Sciences.

Patents and startups would be the two tools that would be used to drive the thrust on innovation and entrepreneurship, Prof. Kamakoti said. Last year, IIT Madras was instrumental in filing of 417 patents and supporting 113 start ups. “We need technology ownership. The citizens of this country should own the patent for such techs. We can then convert them to socially relevant schemes through start ups,” he said.

Answering a question about improving its research capability, Prof. Kamakoti said the institute was focussed more on translational research where patents are filed before launching the technology for commercial use.

As part of the Union government’s push to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education institutions across the country, IIT Madras proposes to expand its Vidya Shakti programme and set up at least 50,000 rural interaction centres, where school children are given access to AI tools and immersive technologies like Virtual Reality to improve their foundational knowledge.

The institute will also add courses on Aeronautical Studies, Economics and Mathematics to the already existing Bachelor of Science courses in Data Science and Electronics Systems to expand its hybrid portfolio. Launched in 2021, the two current courses have about 49,000 students enrolled.