Center for Engineering Research and Development

Details

Published on Monday, 20 January 2014 13:00

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 Centre for Engineering Research and Development is established in the campus of College of Engineering, Trivandrum, with the objective of  augmentation of research activities in the state as well as to inculcate a research culture among the students and faculty of the department. The launching of the Centre was announced in the budget speech of the Honourable Minister for Finance in 2009-10 and it has become a reality on 16/12/2009. The centre has been registered as a society under the charitable societies act. The CERD council include Minister of education, Principal Secretary (higher Education), Director IIT MADRAS, Director VSSC, Director NPOL Cohin, Director IISER Trivandrum etc. From its initiation various schemes are implemented by the Centre to motivate mentor and support researchers.

The major schemes accomplished through CERD are the following.

Research Seed Money Scheme: The objective of this scheme is to provide financial assistance to initiate research in frontier areas of Engineering and Technology among the faculty members of Engineering Colleges. 14 proposals were recommended by Screening Committee during 2012-2013 and an amount of Rs. 25, 50, 000/- has been sanctioned to the investigators.

Financial support to Student Projects: The objective of this scheme is to provide financial assistance for executing innovative projects of under graduate students of Government/Government aided/Government Controlled Engineering Colleges in Kerala. 32 project proposals were recommended by screening committee and an amount of Rs. 12, 71,536/- was granted as financial assistance during 2012-2013.

Financial support to Workshops/Seminars: Financial assistance under this scheme is granted to Government Engineering Colleges in Kerala for holding Seminar, Symposia, Workshop, Training Programmes for promoting Engineering and Technology related Research. Six seminars were conducted during 2012- 2013 and an amount of Rs. 3,50,119/- has been sanctioned as financial assistance.

CERD Researcher of the Year Award:The CERD Researcher Award, which consists of the gold medallion and cash award of Rs. 95,526/- is constituted for encouraging and acknowledging the research works of the faculty of the Engineering Colleges in the state. Dr. Jayasree P.K, Assistant Professor in Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram has been recommended for the award of CERD Researcher of the Year 2012 and the award was presented during the inauguration of NATCON 2013.

National Technological Congress, Kerala (NATCON):The annual Technological Congress is conducted to give an opportunity to the researchers, to interact with the researchers from all over the country and abroad so that the exchange research ideas can be materialized. Project exhibition, competitions, research poster presentation etc are being conducted as a part of NATCON. NATCON 2013 was conducted at RIT, Kottayam.

Technological Festival (TechFest):Technological festival is being organized as part of NATCON to promote the innovations and inventions of the students of the Engineering Colleges and other Technical Institutions in Kerala. This provides the opportunity to all the talented engineering students to present their inventions, exhibit the creations and also to discuss various innovative ideas and concepts. The first TechFest was organized along with NATCON 13.

CERD Innovation Centres:The Innovation centres are established in Engineering Colleges to facilitate the development of innovative products. Regular interactions with innovators are being arranged on a regular basis to kindle the creative ability of the students. During 2012 -2013 one Innovation Centre was established in College of Engineering, Trivandrum.

Centers of Excellence in thurst areas:CERD takes a lead role in establishing Centres of Excellence in Thrust areas for undertaking research. One Centre of Excellence has been established during 2012 -2013.

CERD PhD Research Fellowship: This scheme was constituted to assist students intending to pursue full time research leading to PhD Degree. Monthly fellowship of Rs.18000/- for first two years and Rs.20000/- for the third year is awarding to the selected research scholars. In addition an annual contingent grant of Rs.20, 000 is being allotted to each scholar under this scheme. During 2012 -2013, 10 Ph.D scholars are pursuing research under this scheme.

Financial Assistance for Technical Paper Presentation abroad:The objective of this scheme is to provide financial assistance for technical paper presentation in International conferences. In 2012- 13, financial assistance has been provided to four faculty members.

Incentive for Technical Journal Publication:The objective of the scheme is to provide an incentive for publishing technical papers in Journals having Impact factor higher than 0.25. During the year 2012 -13, the incentive has been given to 29 faculty members.

Research Clusters:CERD envisions pooling of the resources of different Engineering Colleges and knowledge of experts from different disciplines to form Research Clusters. The clusters are intended to expedite major research and development projects of agencies such as ISRO, CSIR, DST, AICTE, DRDO etc. Initiatives have been taken in this regard.

Apart from these schemes, the other activities of CERD are

• Assist innovators to obtain patents for their intellectual property

• Create a database of researchers & resources to map the research potential of the state

• Bring out news letter and a research journal

• Provide expert opinion, consultancy, testing and certification and technical support.

• Sow the seed of entrepreneurial concept among young engineering students/graduates.

• Assist and encourage the faculty to be a part of various Professional Bodies.

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