GIZ organizes meet for Industry-Academia to foster innovation ecosystem in Aurangabad MSMEs & Institutes

Aurangabad, Dec 10 (KNN) In order to build a Local Innovation Eco System in the city, MSMEs and academic institutions came together for “Aurangabad Industry Academia Meet-2016” organized by GIZ in association with JNEC, MIT, CMIA and MASSIA.

Directors/Principals of all Major Engineering Colleges were present in the meet which was also attended by around 20 representatives from local industries.

Objective of this event was to discuss the challenges and issues in bridging the gap between Academia and Industries.

From the developed countries examples it is quite evident that, to build a local innovation eco system, there should be very active cooperation and collaboration in Industry and Academia, said the organizers.

Dr. Sudhir Deshmukh, Principal, JNEC and Tasvvar Ali, GIZ Representative welcomed the participants and explained the importance of Industry Academia Collaboration.

Munish Sharma, Director, MIT, highlighted the lack of trust between industry and Academia.

He also explained a few examples where faculty and students from institutes made a major contribution in solving industries problems, designed and developed new products/processes for industries.

There were also 03 panel discussions during the meet. The first 02 panels were conducted with local industries representatives where they explained the current scenario of industries and need of innovation.

Industry panelists hailed the initiatives and pledged to involve Academic institutions faculty and students on live industries projects.

They also emphasized the role of academic institutions in developing new product designs. Industry representatives also focused on Industry Academia collaboration in building cheap and local technologies for making the “MAKE IN INDIA” initiative successful.

Raghu from Siemens Digital factory explained different modules developed by Siemens in bridging industry Academia Gap and making our college graduates industry ready.

Raghu explained the role of Siemens “Center of Excellence” and different types of labs and courses developed by Siemens for providing necessary skills to Engineering graduates. He also showed interest in joining hands with Aurangabad institutes in developing some of Siemens labs in city’s Colleges.

One of the panel discussions was organized with Academia representatives, Principal of Devgiri College of Engineering, MIT-Director, MIT Principal, JNEC-Principal, Principal of Hitech Engineering College and TPO of ICEM College.

The panel explained the challenges for Academia and lack of will from industries to engage Academia faculty/Students make collaboration between Industries and Academia difficult.

All academic institutes of Aurangabad agreed to form a joint coordinating team and members of this team will approach the industries for listing down their live problems and then a team of faculty and Students would engage on each problems as considering it as live project.

GIZ, MASSIA and CMIA agreed to provide full support for such initiative and stressed on bringing all industries and Academia on one platform to enhance the innovation culture in Aurangabad city and helping to build a better education system driven by Industries requirement.  This Meet was ended on a positive note with Vote of thanks by Ashish Gadekar, Trustee-MGM Institutes. (KNN Bureau)