Chandigarh, PIB News: Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Science & Technology, and Earth Sciences, today inaugurated the Centre of Excellence for Intelligent Sensors and Systems at CSIR-CSIO. This facility will house the development of Multisensor systems based on Seismic, Acoustic, IR, and UWB in the area of perimeter monitoring for societal and strategic applications using Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning.
Speaking to scientists at the Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), a laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) here today, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that such initiatives will kick-start a lot of synergies to proven strengths in many areas, which are at the heart of the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ dream.
Dr. Harsh Vardhan planted a tree in front of the Centre and wished that the activities of the Centre and the tree would bloom together. Later, speaking to reporters, the Minister said that CSIR-CSIO has a head-start by already having delivered in the complex, multi-disciplinary areas of Earthquake monitoring Systems which have helped in real-time disaster management for metro rail systems and avionic display systems for Indian defense needs.
Being a practicing medical doctor, Dr. Harsh Vardhan encouraged the Scientists working in the development of solutions for fighting COVID-19. He saw the air sampling devices for detection of COVID 19 virus in aerosols and was impressed with the economical solution having better suction capacity having fewer noise levels making it suitable for deployment in hospitals and other critical areas in place of expensive imported equipment. He also saw the UVC retrofit units for existing HVAC ducts for neutralizing the COVID-19 virus in the airflow of buildings. He was particularly interested in the Viral Load testing unit developed by CSIO jointly with IMTech. Various instruments/systems including Electrostatic Sanitization Sprayers, Contactless sanitizers, Ultraviolet chambers, Ventilators, and foot-operated taps, etc developed by CSIO were displayed. The Minister evinced keen interest in these developments.
The Minister interacted with the Divisional Heads and Senior Scientists of CSIO. He spent some time encouraging the young brilliant scientists of CSIO who had won national awards and fellowships in recent years. Prof. S.A. Ramakrishna, Director CSIR-CSIO, thanked the minister for encouraging the scientists and said that CSIO is committed to developing indigenous technologies as per the needs of the nation with minimum dependence on imports to provide impetus towards achieving the goal of Atmanirbhar Bharat.