Valeo, the global automotive technology supplier has set up a Center of Excellence (CoE) at Vellore Institute of Technology’s (VIT) Vellore campus. The state-of-the-art facility was inaugurated on Tuesday by Pierre Lebrun, Vice President, Group Electronics Expertise and Development Services, Valeo.
Jaji Vijayaraman, Mechanical R&D Director, Group Electronics Expertise and Development Services, Valeo India and Dr. Anand A. Samuel, Vice Chancellor, Dr. S. Narayanan, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Dr. Vasudevan R, Dean, School of Mechanical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) were present at the event.
As part of its Industry Academia initiative, Valeo had signed a Memorandum of Understanding with VIT Vellore last year. As part of the MoU, Valeo has established this Center of Excellence with an aim to support students and research scholars in automotive research, especially in the areas of power train, safety, power electronics and infotainment.
The 1,800 square feet facility showcases the products and technologies of Valeo in the areas of powertrain systems, thermal systems, visibility systems and autonomous driving to provide an exposure to the students on the current and futuristic auto industry trends. The Center will be utilised by research scholars and students for experimentation and testing of their projects and computational studies.
Commenting on the Valeo Center of Excellence, Ashok Belani, Group President and Managing Director, Valeo India, said, “Innovation is in Valeo’s DNA. Our focused efforts and investments in research and development has led us to become a leading global automotive technology player."
In India, Valeo wants to tap into the vast engineering talent pool for innovative ideas that can address the emerging mobility needs across the globe. Our teams are working closely with the students across the country to identify and nurture new ideas to develop workable solutions to address industry specific needs.
Commenting on the tie-up with Valeo, Dr. Anand A. Samuel, Vice Chancellor, VIT, said, “This is a great initiative towards integrating University and Industry and will benefit the students in understanding the industry processes and they will get an opportunity to work on live problems of industry and solve them. I am happy that this Center of Excellence at VIT will provide the students and research scholars experiential learning opportunities. I am confident that this exposure combined with effective mentoring from Valeo’s in-house experts will help them to become industry-ready professionals, by the time they step out of the university.”
Valeo has initiated joint research projects on emerging technologies along with VIT and the teams are working on five projects currently. The company is also working closely with the University to launch a joint certification course on Mechatronics and an exclusive curriculum for the Master’s program.
The company’s R&D division has recruited close to 60 engineers from Mechanical, Electronic & Communications, Electrical & Electronics and Embedded Electronic streams and management graduates from VIT in the last 3–5 years.