IIT Kharagpur Looks to Form Collaborations with MSMEs to Give Industry 4.0 a Push

The Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with a Kolkata-based startup Hemraj Infocom to promote industrial consultancy and industrial research internship for students, according to an update on the IIT KGP Chronicles.

The MoU has been signed as part of the efforts being made by the Center of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology at IIT Kharagpur to rope in MSMEs for collaborative R&D projects and consultancy to develop resources for Industry 4.0. The Centre at IIT Kharagpur is being funded by the Department of Heavy Industry of Ministry of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Government of India.

Hemraj Infocom is working in combined areas of Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Robotics, and Automation, which are technologies that constitute Industry 4.0 as well as technologies that will prove to be revolutionary to a new industrial boom in India in the near future.

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.

The MoU will enable students from various backgrounds including electronics and electrical communication, or mechanical or electrical engineering, and so on to be able to work on problem statements shared by the startup.

Prof. Surjya K Pal, Head, the Center of Excellence in Advanced Manufacturing Technology at IIT Kharagpur, 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.”

The Centre, which 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, further aims to stimulate innovation to manufacture smart machines in the capital goods sector.