Pathways for deep-technology products in academic mise-en-scène
Anuj Mathur, Technology Consultant, IT Program Management & Application
Support, VAAD Gurgaon, India
IITs and IISc have established themselves as a beacon for academic pursuits. While
there are several destinations for pursuing higher academic endeavors, the Silicon Valley
is a dream destination for technology savvy geeks as it is the most successful example
of academic – entrepreneurial – industrial innovation ecosystem in the world.
Under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems (NM-ICPS) 25
hubs have been set up to propel India as a global technology leader. The hubs, ably
supported by academic institutes through the establishment of a section – 8 company,
are aggressively working towards developing an eco-system that will enable knowledge
generation and skill enhancement through product development and commercialization.
IITI DRISHTI CPS Foundation is a technology innovation hub at IIT Indore with technology
vertical of system simulation, modeling and visualization for cyber physical systems.
The path to a technical product requires a detour from an academic track. Investigators
may benefit by identifying each project phase in terms of proposal, planning and
requirements gathering, design, development, validation, and launch. This would help
ring-fence project activities with tangible outcomes from each phase. At DRISHTI
CPS, the product lifecycle starts with a quantifiable real-world problem definition (end
user problem statement) to determine its scale and serve as a success metric post
implementation in terms of core product and adaptability of technology across sectors.
One of the initiatives launched by the DRISHTI CPS is to invite industry personnel to
visit, interact with stakeholders and forge ties in identified areas. The scheme facilitates
involvement of specialists across multiple domains of a product lifecycle to better orient
technology development efforts.
A solution needs nurturing at varied levels. Industry recognized pathways like status
reports, regular review meetings, project dashboards to communicate the health of a
project are necessary to capture stakeholder attention. An academic mise-en-scène
is different and care should be taken that challenges are resolved through technical
reviews which may recommend a course correction or potential alternatives pathway.
Investigators of projects supported by the hubs should keep in mind that a technology
product will compete with other potentials and therefore definition of project milestones
and their regular tracking is important.
Apart from these levers, identifying and engaging with right stakeholders for a pragmatic
solution focusing on commercialization is important. For this, investigators may often
have to venture out of their comfort zone.
An additional pathway for laboratory-to-market transition can be a complete buyout
of the laboratory technology by domain specialists who have the resources to take
it to the next level. Even in such cases, indicators in terms of quality, compliance and
industry standards should be maintained. A robust and diverse support system from
technological to entrepreneurial, will be reassuring to investigators as many would
be venturing for a technology start-up for the first time. A word of caution is that for
bleeding edge technologies, conventional way of waterfall delivery may hamper the
speed of transition from laboratory-to-market, it’s key that an iterative approach for such
products is followed.
Economically, the cost of developing a technology outside India will always be higher
than that developed in the country. The market and social impact of an Indian solution
will be phenomenal. Taking advantage of the demographic dividend for deep-tech startups
through innovation hubs in academic institutions is the best way forward for a
technology driven academic – entrepreneurial – industrial ecosystem.