PM Narendra Modi inaugurates IIT Madras ‘Discovery Campus’
PM Narendra Modi virtually inaugurated the Discovery Campus of Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras), at Thaiyur near Chennai.
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It has been inaugurated to accommodate the growing research infrastructure requirements of students and faculty.
The virtual inauguration was done on February 14, 2021, in the presence of the Governor of Tamil Nadu Banwarilal Purohit, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu Edappadi K. Palaniswami, and a host of other dignitaries.
IIT Madras was allotted 163 acres of land in 2017 at Thaiyur, which is located about 36 km from the main campus at Guindy.
This satellite campus of IIT Madras will host state-of-the-art standalone Research Centres with large dedicated facilities and will have its own support infrastructure such as hostels for the research scholars and fellows, common instrumentation laboratories, and conference facilities, among other amenities.
Research activities at IIT Madras have grown exponentially during the last decade. These activities got a boost after it was declared an ‘Institution of Eminence’ in 2019. Fueled by the research successes in several fields, large research centres are being funded by various ministries and agencies of the Government of India as well as industry sponsors.
The satellite campus at Thaiyur has been planned primarily as a research campus, ggiven the rapidly expanding research footprint of IIT Madras and the need to create world-class research facilities quickly over the next decade.
After the pioneering IIT Madras Research Park established in 2010-2017, the IIT Madras Discovery Campus will be next iconic facility to be created by IIT Madras.
Funded by the Ministry of Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Government of India, these include the National Technology Centre for Ports, Waterways and Coasts. It will house the country’s first large (95mx65m) ‘Shallow Water Basin’ facility for coastal and estuarine research and industrial applications. This basin can emulate the entire Gulf of Kutch or the mouth of the River Hoogly, for example. The Centre will have a 360-degree (ship’s) bridge simulator dedicated for studies involving operations at all major Indian ports.
Funded by Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), the second research centre to come up in the Discovery Campus is the ‘Solid Propellant Combustion Modelling Facility’ of the Centre of Propulsion Technology. This Modelling Facility will be the first facility to be established under the Centre of Propulsion Technology at IIT Madras.
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These research infrastructures will make the Discovery Campus a magnet for the most exciting advanced research being carried out anywhere, and a beehive of discovery. The campus will also see a steady stream of international scientists and students.
-PTC News
