IIT Jodhpur creates platform for innovation leading to commercial viability

Indian Institute of Technology Jodhpur  has created unique platform to encourage its faculty and researchers to pursue innovative and disruptive ideas. Called ‘Moonshot Competition, ‘the idea is to develop projects that can eventually lead to large-scale solutions to improve health, societal, economic and environmental issues.

Some of the solution-oriented ideas selected under Moonshot Competition include:

•  Harvesting an Asteroid Microwave Assisted Rock Pulverize and Electrostatic Separator which is related to Space, Microwave.
• Personal Independent Digital Twin related to AI
• BRBL (To create countless 'Birbals' through technology intervention in Education) related to Education-AI
•  ‘ExPoPsych: Experiencing Positivity at the face of Psychological Vulnerability.’ which is related to AI and Psychology.

The ‘Moonshot Competition’ was organized for Faculty Members of the Institute. They had to present their ideas through a pre-recorded video pitch. “The main objective of the competition is to encourage a moonshot culture and future-driven mindset in the institute, leading to transformational technologies and effective interventions for responding to societal challenges and aspirations,” said Santanu Chaudhury, Director, IIT Jodhpur, said.

“The international community has gradually started accepting the idea of deep space exploration, human settlement in space, and resource generation from celestial bodies. In the past few years, multiple governments and space agencies have invested in developing technology and formulating regulatory frameworks for this purpose. India is in a unique position to leverage its space expertise to pioneer resource exploration on the moon and asteroids. We need strong support from the industry and government to be a leader in this domain," Debanjan Roy, Assistant Professor, IIT Jodhpur, said.

Some of the proposals have the potential to be initiated as a research project and subsequently, commercial viability will be accessed.

Through the Institute has Technology Innovation and Startup Center (TISC) commercial viability and subsequent incubation support can be provided. The institute has a strong eco-system to support faculty members to conduct research in interdisciplinary domains.