The industry-academia research partnership got the much-needed boost on Saturday with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) here conducting its first ever career fair “Samanvay.”
It was a meeting ground for about 40 renowned software, defence, engineering and automobiles firms to interact with the institute’s students and explore unique research partnerships.
Breaking fresh ground, the career fair was an occasion for the companies to talk to students on research topics relevant to them. For IISc, it was an opportunity to link its research with contemporary industrial developments, a connection very few institutes in the country have mastered.
Dattatreya Prabhu from IBM articulated what exactly his company was looking for in students and their projects. “Your concepts are very important. Those studying electrical engineering should be extremely thorough with their chapter in semiconductors. For those specialising in physics, the Maxwell theory should always be at the back of the mind,” he said.
K L Ganpati, a PhD student of nanoscience, was visibly awed. His research idea got him words of encouragement from the IBM representative. “Currently, I am working on combined circuiting in nanoelectronic devices. The challenge is to reduce power consumption and increase speed in such devices while also tackling issues of leakage and excess use of power,” he said.
Around 800 to 1,000 students registered for the event. Larsen and Toubro, Philips Health, Oracle and DRDO were among the participating organisations.
Another student, Devanjan, will be completing his PhD in biochemistry from IISc in the next two months and wants to explore the prospect of working in the research and development (R&D) wing of any renowned pharmaceutical company. The fair gave him an opportunity to hear what the representative of Pfizer, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical company, had to say about his career prospects.
“As far as R&D is concerned, most of the work is done in the US itself. So we are not really looking at recruitment in this area as of now. There are, however, indigenous companies like Dr Reddy’s and Cipla that may hire,” said Ajith V Kamath, head of Strategic Research Partnerships, Pfizer, India. Kamath also talked about the concept of doing a “post doctorate in the industry by which if the company found any project of a student interesting and with practical applications in the industry, the company would encourage him/her to finish it with its help.” “This concept is still to reach India”, he said.
Companies like Honeywell and IBM promised to forward the profiles of students received in the fair to its various departments and take the initiative forward.
Director, IISc, Professor Balaram said such an initiative needed not only to be encouraged but promoted at a larger scale. He also assured that the institute will work to make the annual career fair a permanent fixture in its academic calendar.