SSN College of Engineering has set up an incubation and innovation centre at its campus in Chennai. The incubation centre is supported by Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) while innovation centre is to support SSN student innovations from concept-to-market.
VG Idichandy, former Deputy Director, IIT Madras, has been appointed as chief mentor for both centres. Shiv Nadar, Founder and Chairman of Shiv Nadar Foundation was present on inauguration of both centres, says a press release from SSN.
The incubation centre is part of 100 such centres and one of the first few centres in a private institution being supported by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises to promote emerging technological and knowledge-based innovative ventures.
The ministry will support the incubation centre through a grant of Rs 66 lakhs (for a maximum of 10 incubatees) for a period of 36 months by which time it expects investors, venture capitalists or bankers to step forward with additional funding.
The incubation centre will focus on innovations by technology and engineering start-ups in the primary areas of ‘energy’ and ‘materials’. In the energy domain the focus is primarily on solar photovoltaics. However, the Centre may also look at incubating ventures in other areas of research and innovation. SSN Incubation centre will support and develop budding entrepreneurs in the state of Tamil Nadu and the research community from SSN College of Engineering or other engineering institutes.
SSN's innovation will focus on encouraging research and ideation from SSN students. It will support with concept validation and prototype creation for ideas being worked upon by SSN students. Once a working prototype is created, it will be supported by the SSN Incubation centre to facilitate industry collaboration and government support to seek partnerships and funding for commercialization of the prototype and take it to market, the release said.