Global semiconductor design and manufacturing company Texas Instruments (TI), along with Department of Science and Technology, announced launched of DST-TI India Innovation Challenge Design Contest (IICDC) for students. The qualifying teams will receive a fund of Rs 8.2 crore support from DST and Texas Instruments.
According to a statement from Texas Instruments, registrations opened on June 20 and will be open till August 31 and a dedicated TI-IICDC page has been launched on MyGov portal.
Sanjay Srivastava, Director, TI India University Program says that students have complete freedom to work on any sector that they are passionate about and their innovation should be able to address the issue at large. In previous years, ideas have come from various areas such as home automation, environment, healthcare, agriculture, etc.
“While all teams aim to win, it is the journey of transforming an idea to reality that students value the most. They also acquire immense learning, with rewards along the way, being mentored by leading minds from TI including networking with other student engineers, and winning several cash prizes and certificates. Our attempt is to create an immersive ecosystem for innovation that challenges students every step of the way,” he adds.
The innovation challenge will offer seed fund support of up to Rs 20 lakh to the top 10 startups, Rs 5 lakh product development funds to select semi-finalists teams, Rs 30,000 stipends to select Semi-finalists teams, free TI Tools worth up to Rs 70 lakh to participants along with 600+ types of cash prizes spread throughout the contest totalling up to Rs 50 lakh.
IIM Bangalore’s NS Raghavan Centre for Entrepreneurial Learning (NSRCEL) will help incubate the winning teams and support them in the launch of their venture.
The Ministry of Science and Technology supports the young, aspiring entrepreneurs with funding for their start-ups. MyGov, the government’s online portal reaches out to its five million subscribers for participation. National Informatics Centre provides web infrastructure for submission and evaluation of their start-ups
TI spearheads the operation of the contest along with providing technical guidance and mentorship, free TI tools worth up to Rs 70 lakh, Rs 50 lakh worth prizes and 15,000+ certificates to the participants.
“In the past editions of the contest, many cutting-edge ideas have come from engineering colleges in Tier II and Tier III cities. This is the magic of IICDC. We’ve unearthed brilliant engineers with high impact, transformative ideas and provided a platform to realise their dreams,” Sanjay added.