ISRO
ROURKELA: The Space Technology Incubation Centre (STIC) of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) at the National Institute of Technology - Rourkela (NIT-R) has recently received approval for three new projects on advanced topics to aid future space missions. The projects are in addition to six ongoing ones relating to products or technology development taken up in the first phase.
STIC coordinator and professor of Electrical Engineering at NIT-R Sushmita Das said the approved projects on advanced topics include UAV-aided weather radar calibration, design and development of electronic feeler gauge and design and development of active radio frequency, microwave and mm-microwave circuits.
She said work on the new projects would start soon. The six ongoing projects are progressing well and being regularly reviewed by the Joint Management Committee (JMC). Stress has been laid on engaging more research-oriented under-graduate, post-graduate and PhD students to make the STIC programmes more vibrant, inclusive and fruitful. In future entrepreneurship in space domains would be promoted with augmentation of facilities at the centre.
The idea behind ISRO’s setting up the STIC at NIT-R is to attract and nurture young academicians with innovative ideas/research aptitude to carry out research along with supporting them to initiate startups and explore business avenues in the field of space technology and applications. The STIC at NIT-R, which covers Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar and the union territory of Andaman & Nicobar Islands aims to develop an academia-industry ecosystem for space technology in eastern India. The Capacity Building Programme Office (CBPO), ISRO, Bengaluru coordinates all activities of the STIC following an MoU between ISRO and NIT-R signed on March 18, 2021.
The space technology and application related research and the products generated from STIC are envisaged to be utilised in future space missions to boost ‘Aatmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan’ in space technology domain. The UG/PG students and research scholars with guidance of expert faculty of the host institute, mentors from ISRO and related industries are engaged in executing the projects offered by ISRO.
