Indo-French R&D Seminar with the French Institute in India and IIT Bombay

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At the very outset, Prof. Amit Agarwal, Dean of International Relations, IIT Bombay and, Dr. Olivier Fudym, Attaché for Scientific & Academic Cooperation, French Institute in India shared the welcome remarks. Prof. Amit Agarwal walked the participants through the institute’s journey and the prestige it carries in the Asian continent with the multitude of international collaborations with some eminent French institutes. Under the context of Indo-French Research Collaborations, Dr. Olivier Fudym highlighted various research initiatives between the two countries. This was followed by Prof. Swaroop Ganguly, Prof-in-Charge, IIT Bombay Research Park emphasizing on the importance of IIT Bombay Research Park towards industry and academia collaborations.

Subsequently, there were presentations by academic and industry stalwarts on 3 major themes namely Circular Economy and Sustainability, AI & ML and Electric Mobility. Under the theme of Clean Energy, Circular Economy & Sustainability, Prof. Sanjay Mahajani highlighted Circular Economy initiatives at IIT Bombay followed by Dr. Prasanth Kumar, Functional Head Glass R&D – Saint Gobain India Pvt. Ltd - Research & Development and Dr. Amit Mahajan, Team Leader - DTI R&D who spoke about net zero carbon emission initiatives taken up by Saint Gobain worldwide in the context of Saint-Gobain India Road Map toward net zero CO2 emission. The second theme Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning was presented by Prof. Manjesh Hanawal, who presented an Overview of AI & ML at IIT Bombay and Mr. Sarvesh Shroff, R&D Manager, Ubisoft India focused on Ubisoft India’s journey so far and work done, challenges, interactions with academia, proposed an overview of the work in the R&D team, and finally the path ahead. The last set of presentation from the theme Electric Mobility was done by Prof. Sandeep Anand on the topic of E-Mobility at IIT Bombay sharing his experience of the Barubeda project undertaken by his engineering students at IIT Bombay followed by Preetha Arun, PTS India R&D Director at Valeo India Private Limited providing a bird’s eye view on the subject of E-Mobility – Valeo leading the way to a greener future and Sushil Reddy enthralled the participants on the subject matter of Learnings from 50,000+ kilometers with zero-tailpipe emissions with the e-rickshaw initiatives that the SunPedal Ride project has undertaken.

The last segment was the panel discussion on “Experiences & Opportunities for International Industry-Academia Collaboration”. Ms. Anshul Pandey, Head– Applied Innovation Exchange, Capgemini, Mumbai communicated about the Capgemini Applied Innovation Exchange (AIE). Mr. Julien Henry- Head of HR & Dassault Skill Academy, Dassault Aircraft Services India briefed the participants on Dassault Skill Academy and the aeronautical vocational training the academy imparts. Prof. Jacques Mercadier- Vice President, Fédération Gay Lussac mentioned about the French network of schools of engineering specialized in chemistry and chemical engineering and Mr. Hemant Gagdil- Executive Director, Dassault Systemes Foundation emphasized on Changing landscape Indian Academia Platform and La Fondation Dassault Systemes. Lastly, Prof. Ravindra Gudi, The Dean of Alumni and Corporate Relations, IIT Bombay and Prof. Swaroop Ganguly concluded the panel discussion with their insights about the bridge IIT Bombay Research Park will play in furthering industry academia collaborations and thus fostering Indo-French relations.

The Session was attended by 30+ members of the Indo-French community and concluded with an interaction over networking lunch and three lab visits namely EV Labs, National Centre for Photovoltaics Research & Education and IIT Bombay Nanofabrication Facility.