To kindle the entrepreneurship qualities in students, Institutional Innovation Cell of University of Hyderabad (UoH) and Technology Industry Liaison Entrepreneurship in association with MHRD and AICTE hosted a one-day mentoring session for PoCs (Proof of Concepts) and an orientation session on Institutional Innovation Cell 2.0 and Atal Ranking of Institutions on Innovation Achievements (ARIIA) on 2nd August 2019 at Zakir Hussain Lecture Hall complex, UoH. This program is part of many sensitization programs and workshops conducted for students and faculty of all educational organizations across the country. Shri. Dipan Sahu, IIC National Coordinator and Executive Consultant welcomed all the participants and addressed the importance of innovation in Indian Economic Development.
Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has set up MHRD’s Innovation Cell at All India Council for Technical Education, New Delhi to undertake policy and program initiatives towards building and streamlining innovation and entrepreneurship ecosystem in Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) . IIC 2.0 is being launched to overcome existing shortcomings.
About 350 participants (students and Faculty) of various organizations from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states had participated in the event. Prof. Appa Rao Podile, honourable Vice-Chancellor of UoH has inaugurated the sessions by give giving a welcome note address to participants. He emphasised the importance of innovations and translating the academic innovations to commercial products. He also narrated the activities for promoting Entrepreneurship at campus being taken for the last six years. Prof. G.S. Prasad, Director TIE-U gave a brief about the UoH Entrepreneurship activities to participants.
All the workshops concentrated on making students from job seekers to job creators. They focused on how to think innovatively and how to seek business opportunities in innovation. In the age of start-ups, HEIs are moving one ahead from placement cells to innovation centres who can assist students in making their business dreams a reality. UoH, which is a leading institute in academics, fundamental research, applied research is focusing on taking its innovative capabilities and integrating it with industries. In this regard Innovation Facilitation Centre is established where industries can utilize the R&D capabilities of the host universities. A well structured platform has been created in the form of Technology Enabling Centre (TEC – UoH) which helps students with Intellectual Property Rights, Technology Transfer and Outreach.
More than 200 PoCs were pitched by students to the expert panel. The PoCs include from ideation stage to working prototype stages. The expert members from MHRD, AICTE and EDII have given valuable tips to students about business planning and how to pitch. Orientation session to the faculty of various academic organizations from AP and Telangana states on ARIIA 2020 and IIC 2.0 is also held concurrently with PoC mentoring.
-Contributed by Lokesh Naik, Department of Communication