Telecom network vendor Ericsson announced its decision to promote innovation among engineering students at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs).
The company, as part of the initiative, will invite students at seven IITs across India for innovation in different categories. Ericsson will support up to two projects for incubation at approved technology business incubators.
The focus area of innovation will be web design, cloud computing, storage and networking, human-machine interface, embedded and hardware system design, MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output), machine-to-machine / Internet of Things, software-defined networking, open source, signal processing, graphics and visualization and research.
Chris Houghton, head of Region India at Ericsson, said: “By instituting the Ericsson Innovation Awards, we’re seeking to encourage the culture of innovation within the IITs and to support these talented young minds to develop more innovative and relevant solutions for the benefit of industry.”
The telecom equipment supplier has invited project proposals from IIT students across Chennai, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Mumbai, Roorkee and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi to participate in the Ericsson Innovation Awards.
Respective IITs will initially screen their student proposals which will be shortlisted through 2 jury sessions, comprising senior members from Ericsson R&D, FITT and industry experts. The jury will shortlist up to 10 proposals on criteria such as degree of innovation, feasibility, usability, relevance, time to market and the overall impact on masses in the first round. Ericsson will offer incentive to each shortlisted proposal to complete the initial prototype within three months.
In the second round, the jury will select up to two innovation projects and announce their names in April 2015.
PIX source: Ericsson
Caption: Chris Houghton, head of Region India, Ericsson (L) with Anil Wali , MD, FITT IIT, Delhi at the launch of Ericsson Innovation Awards
