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The Center of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology at IIT Kharagpur is roping in MSMEs for collaborative R&D projects and consultancy to develop resources for Industry 4.0. In a recent initiative, the Centre, which is funded by the Department of Heavy Industry of Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Government of India, has signed an MoU with a Kolkata-based startup Hemraj Infocom to promote industrial consultancy and industrial research internship for students.
Hemraj Infocom will be the first affiliate member in the industry consortium of the Centre which is currently led by top industries as Tata Motor, Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Steel, Tata Sons, BHEL, and HEC.
Prof. Surjya K Pal who is heading Centre said, “We are looking forward to more such startups joining the consortium whom we will offer mentorship in the area of Industry 4.0 applications. With Hemraj we will be mentoring them in the manufacturing applications in which our Centre has got a strong foothold. They will also have access to the facilities at our Centre both to the experts and infrastructure. We will also provide them with free training on cutting-edge industrial applications, research solutions for their typical industrial challenges such as cloud computing, real-time data processing, analysis and storage, networking and automation, real-time process monitoring.”
Students from various backgrounds including electronics and electrical communication, or mechanical or electrical engineering etc. would be able to work on problem statements shared by the startup.
Hemraj Infocom is working in combined areas of IoT, AIML, Robotics, Automation and which will prove to be revolutionary with a new industrial boom in India in the near future.
Soham Dasgupta, CEO of Hemraj Infocom confirmed the submission of projects for mentorship in voice-enabled survey devices, predictive maintenance for motors. He is hopeful such research internships will further boost MSME culture in the region. “We are also looking for upgrading the research skills of our human resources,” said Dasgupta.
Abhishek Saha, Head, Business Development of Hemraj Infocom said, “we are enthusiastic about seeking guidance on mission-critical projects from an academic institution of repute like IIT Kharagpur which will enable us to deliver proof of concept and projects thereby by implementing niche areas of R&D in our business operations.”
The Centre has been conducting several industry-aligned workshops, short-term courses, talks by industry experts for MSMEs and capital goods sector in areas such as computer numerical controls, composite manufacturing, metallography. The programmes are also open to students from other educational institutions. For affiliate members, such training workshops will be conducted free of cost and also a huge pool of student researchers in diverse areas of Industry 4.0 would be made available to work on problem statements.
Prof. Pal has been approaching FOSME, CII, EEPC to reach out to startups and MSMEs and connect them to the Centre’s consortium.
“It will diversify the Centre’s research goals through a different set of application-oriented industrial challenges with more tight timeline and product delivery schedule as against giant corporations which focus on broader R&D,” he remarked. More such MSMEs are in touch with the Centre for affiliated memberships, he confirmed.
The Centre aims to stimulate innovation to manufacture smart machines in the capital goods sector. This centre offers a unique platform for innovative and top-quality research focused on the industries on Specialty materials, Design and automation, Additive manufacturing, and Digital Manufacturing and Industrial Internet of Things. The centre will boost innovative interventions and collaborative research in the advanced manufacturing domain by enabling an ecosystem among Institutes of higher repute, heavy industries, and also the MSMEs and start-ups.
