Manipal Institute of Technology And CII Mangalore Chapter Organize Academia- Industry Conclave 1.0

Manipal Institute of Technology in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Mangalore chapter successfully organised the Academy and Industry Conclave 1.0 at Manipal. The conclave witnessed the esteemed presence of Industry & senior faculty members of engineering colleges from Udupi and Mangalore districts who discussed the plausible collaborations for innovative projects in the recent future. The objective of the conclave was to forge partnerships with industries for academic, research projects, start-ups, and related activities.

The conclave was inaugurated at the hands of Shri. Kurma Rao M, IAS, Deputy Commissioner, Udupi District in the presence of Shri. M Venkatesh, Managing Director, MRPL and a distinguished alumni of MIT Manipal and Lt. General (Dr.) M D Venkatesh, Vice Chancellor, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, and other esteemed guests on the dais.

Dr. Somashekara Bhat, Joint Director, MIT welcomed all guests and delegates, while the overview of the conclave was given by Commander (Dr.) Anil Rana, Director, MIT. Shri. Gaurav Hegde, Chairman, CII Mangalore presented the CII activities in Mangalore and across the country.

Shri. Nagaraj V Nayak, Joint Director - DIC, Shri. Andaru Deviprasad Shetty, President - UCCI, Shri. K Prashanth Baliga, President – DSIA, Udupi and Shri Shashidhar Pai Maroor, President – KCCI presented the details of regional industrial activities, clusters, potential challenges and opportunities to the audience.

Deputy Commissioner, Udupi, Shri. Kurma Rao M, IAS, elaborated on the interactions between District administration with Manipal Academy of Higher Education and Manipal Institute of Technology and said “We appreciate the efforts of MIT students for developing the website for its implementation at the DC office, Udupi. We encourage different heads of industries to interact with academic institutions to develop innovative solutions for the administration related problem”s.

Lt. Gen. (Dr) M.D Venkatesh, Vice Chancellor of Manipal Academy of Higher Education said “A mutual engagement between the industry and academia is the key to development of all the sectors of the economy. We at MAHE have always focused on providing opportunities to our students to interact with reputed industry experts. The MIT-CII Academy Industry Conclave 1.0 is another step in this direction. Collaborations like these are also essential in exploring industry challenges and collectively finding the solutions”

Shri. M Venkatesh, Managing Director, MRPL said “Being at this conclave brings back fond memories of my student life at Manipal Institute of Technology. An event like this helps industry professionals to stay in touch with academia.  At MRPL we have a few ongoing projects with regional academic institutions. We invite the students to carry out industrial training at MRPL as the importance of industry academia interactions in the present scenario has increased more than ever”

Shri. Gaurav Hegde, Chairman, CII Mangalore said “There are plenty of potential business opportunities suitable for coastal regions of Karnataka like food and fish processing, eco friendly plastics etc but there are also certain challenges like goods transports system, employee skill upgradation. Industry academia collaborations can help solve these issues. Through CII we aim to establish fruitful interactions between industries and academic institutes to create a win-win situation at both the ends”

Expressing his happiness on the success of the conclave, Cdr (Dr) Anil Rana, Director, MIT, MAHE, Manipal said, “I express my gratitude and extend my congratulations to the entire team at MIT and CII for successfully organizing Academy and Industry Conclave 1.0. Around 26 industry representatives and head of CII-Mangalore, KCCI, UCCI and DSIA along with regional institutes participated in the event. This conclave has paved the way for more such fruitful collaborations in the future. We urge the local industries to connect with our Institute and share their challenges to find feasible solutions through mutual engagement.”

The One-Day long Conclave witnessed several activities taking place such as:

Hackathon which was themed ‘smart roads, transports, and logistics’. Hackathon saw a total of 90 students divided across 23 teams hailing from different parts of Udupi and DK district participating in the event.

Interactions between start-up innovators and the relevant industries which unravelled conversations that would help start-ups provide their innovations with the best possible commercialisation techniques.

Showcasing of state-of-the-art facilities of regional engineering colleges and exploring Internship & placement opportunities for students.

The conclave concluded with a Panel discussion that aimed to help further strengthen Academy and Industry relationship. The biggest highlight of the discussion was the unravelling of the fact that the biggest problem faced by both the fields was that of a communication gap between the two. This problem could be solved by initiatives from the Industrial end to share technical and business-related challenges faced by them with the academia to develop viable solutions for the same. This panel discussion forum provided the students with an opportunity for an enriching experiential session.