ISRO opens incubation centre in NIT-T

Chennai: Space agency-ISRO on Wednesday inaugurated its Space Technology Incubation Centre (S-TIC) and a Memorandum of Understanding  was signed in NIT, Tiruchirappalli (NIT-T). It was unveiled remotely by Dr K. Sivan, chairman, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), secretary, Department of Space, Government of  India from the ISRO Headquarters, Bengaluru in Karnataka.

This is first of its kind incubation centre in Southern Region of India, aims  at developing innovative indigenous technologies that could be used  for future ISRO projects which would significantly be cutting down the  cost, a press release issued in Chennai said.

Dr M. Umapathy, Dean (Research & Consultancy) welcomed the gathering,  followed by the keynote address by Dr Mini Shaji Thomas, director,  NIT-T who addressed the dignitaries, faculty members, industry partners  and student/ research scholars about the golden opportunity available  for the student community across the southern region to innovate an  idea and develop a commercially viable product thereby contribute to  the India Space programme with the support of ISRO scientists.

The ISRO - Space Technology Incubation Centre opened at NIT-T will incubate  startups to build applications and products in tandem with the industry and they would be used in future space missions," said ISRO  chairman K. Sivan during his inaugural speech.

Space Technology Incubation Centre (S-TIC) is a novel concept  conceived by ISRO to tie up the Academia, Industry and R&D  institutions in different regions of the country. S-TIC will provide  projects of importance to the ongoing and futuristic programmes of  ISRO for the research, postgraduate and undergraduate students. This  is expected to inculcate the much-required research culture among the  student community.

The centre is expected to bring the industry, academia and ISRO triad  under one umbrella to contribute towards the research and development  (R&D) initiatives relevant to Indian Space Programme, which was  briefly explained by Dr P.V. Venkatakrishnan, director, Capacity  Building Programme Office (CBPO), ISRO- HQ.Finally, Dr Jiwan Kumar Pandit, associate director, capacity building   programme office (CBPO), ISRO- HQ, thanked the NIT-T fraternity,  industry partners from CII, BHEL, TIDISSIA, student/ research scholars  among others for making this event a grand success.