Intel Hosts IEC 2014 for Accelerating New Ideas Among Indians

Intel India hosted its first ever two-day Intel India Innovation Conclave in Bengaluru to reiterate its commitment towards accelerating new ideas esp among youth in the country and as part of its valedictory session announced the winners of the Intel India Embedded Challenge 2014 (Intel IEC 2014).

The Intel India Innovation Conclave offers a collaborative platform to enhance synergy amongst Government policy makers, academia and industry; to share knowledge and promote innovation which is a key imperative to foster national competitiveness and growth. This year’s conclave included discussions and deliberations on the importance of innovation and its role in nation building. The Intel IEC 2014, set within the framework of the Conclave helped stimulate an environment of exciting innovation as it showcased 40 new ideas from young innovators through prototype demos displayed over two days. These projects have potential to evolve into useful business models in the near future.

The focus of Intel India Embedded Challenge is on designing embedded solutions around a wide range of application areas.  As a part of the Intel Higher Education Program, this competition enables and mentors young innovations to scale up their level of thinking and creativity. Moreover, Intel IEC offers a strong mentorship platform where Intel technologists volunteer their time and expertise to mentor each team to develop and prototype their innovation using hardware platforms provided by Intel. The participants in this contest get to architect, design and develop novel embedded applications in areas such as – Consumer Electronics, Digital Security Surveillance, Medical, Education, Storage and In-Vehicle Infotainment amongst others.

The winners of Intel IEC 2014 were felicitated and awarded at the concluding session held today. A special jury comprising of Intel executives, Government representatives and academia shortlisted 6 best projects out of the 40 prototypes at display. These 40 working models were selected from 650 innovative ideas submitted by students and working professionals from across India. Intel IEC awards cash prizes of Rs 15,00,000 to the winners, including two Grand Prizes of Rs 5,00,000 each and a Jury Popular Choice Award and a Woman Innovator of the Year Award.

The winners of Intel IEC 2014 were chosen on the basis of achieving the engineering goals, clarity and lateral thinking, project viability and the success of their prototype. The Contest showcased a range of exciting project ideas, designed and developed on the Intel Atom and Intel Galileo platforms across multiple application areas.

Speaking on the occasion Kumud Srinivasan, President, Intel India said, “Intel India is committed towards advancing innovation & entrepreneurship, accelerating digital access and empowering communities in the country. The Intel India Innovation Conclave further reinforces that commitment. And it was truly gratifying to see the key collaborators in this journey come together through this novel platform and collaborating on this endeavor. I am also very excited to see a wide display of bright innovations from young engineering students and professionals at this event.  A platform like this truly celebrates the spirit of innovation and entrepreneurship; I congratulate the winners and the participants for their exemplary contributions.”

Since 2010, the Contest has reached out to over 12000 young engineering students and professionals, over 2000 innovation proposals were submitted and over 100 innovations were prototyped till date.