Research scholars of this MS programme will be offered nine-month-long internship opportunities at Wipro

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, on December 10 announced a fellowship in partnership with Wipro GE Healthcare Private Limited (WGE). It would provide increased opportunities for research scholars to build and further improve the innovation ecosystem.

The partnership will further evangelise the concept of local innovation in affordable medical technology and other related areas through activities such as student hackathons, guest lectures, product teardowns and lecture demonstrations.

Under this programme, Wipro GE Healthcare will also provide financial aid and industrial expertise to chosen Masters (MS) in Research Scholars at IIT Madras.

“The world of healthcare is getting transformed through use of digital technologies that can address some of the toughest healthcare challenges. This transformation can be accelerated by building a collaborative ecosystem of industry and academia partners. Through this partnership with IITM, we wish to mentor the students and their ideas, and help them develop affordable healthcare solutions for those in need across the country,” Azim Premji, chairman, Wipro GE Healthcare, said,

Wipro GE Healthcare aims to develop an innovation mindset in students with engineering skills by providing industrial exposure in healthcare domain and other technology areas of the company through close collaboration with technical experts. Research scholars of this MS programme will also be offered nine-month-long internship opportunity at WGE.

Highlights of the partnership

The fellowship partnership aims to increase industry opportunities for MS research scholars and improve the innovation ecosystem.
The partnership will create a platform for seamless collaboration with students and industry partners from Wipro GE Healthcare.
This industry-academia collaboration aims to tap into the brainpower of the student community to solve healthcare challenges by promoting local innovation in affordable medical technology sector.

IIT Madras director Bhaskar Ramamurthi highlighting the opportunities that the collaboration has created. “We are delighted to partner with GE Healthcare in this exciting area of healthcare innovation to catalyse innovative research and solutions that can impact the society positively. This collaboration will provide a rich experience to research scholars of the programme as they will get a chance to work on diverse healthcare projects and get mentored by industry experts from Wipro GE Healthcare. Such research degree programmes driven by industry-academia partnership are an important element of IITM’s research and innovation ecosystem,” Ramamurthi said.

Nalinikanth Gollagunta, global chief operating officer (digital), GE Healthcare, said, “Through the programme, we hope to foster a spirit of innovation and growth mindset among the future technology leaders coming out of IITM.”

The head of IITM’s Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre and coordinator of this programme, Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, said the collaboration has been very engaging and productive. “This MS degree programme takes our partnership to the next level with an explicit focus on developing talent and skills in this area through our research scholars.”