The ongoing 4th Industrial Revolution or Industry 4.0 has opened the floodgates to technological innovations and unique business ventures built around them. The era now belongs to Artificial Intelligence, Cloud computing, Reusable rockets, Hyper loops, Big Data, Virtual Reality, Deep Learning, Quantum computers, Gene editing, and more.
Education centres around the world have – well before the Revolution – realised the importance of techno-entrepreneurship and have incubated stellar ideas from their students and transformed those into thriving businesses. But Industry 4.0 has introduced its own challenges – Businesses and Economies that don’t facilitate the confluence of technology and entrepreneurship are vulnerable to collapse.
India’s governments and the India Inc. realise these challenges posed by the Revolution and have taken the bull by its horns by enabling the country’s academic institutions to become nerve centres of techno-entrepreneurship.Narasaraopeta Engineering College is one such institution that is fast becoming the mother lode of technological innovators and entrepreneurs in the southern State of Andhra Pradesh.
NEC, located in the Guntur district of the State, partnered with the Andhra Pradesh State Skills Development Corporation (APSSDC) to provide students industry-grade training and develop their entrepreneurship skills. APSSDC has named the college a “Centre of Excellence” and will soon provide all the facilities necessary for the same.
The higher-education institution has a native incubation centre called Andhra Technology Business Incubator (ATBI) under Startup NEC, which recently was recognised by the Ministry of Micro, Small, & Medium Enterprises (Ministry of MSME), Government of India, as a business incubator. The recognition also means that a multi-million-dollar grant for the incubation centre is in the offing, which will enable the college to incubate more businesses.
Startup NEC has incubated over 12 tech-startups, of which six got off to a flying start. DigiDocTimes (Healthcare), HaasPro (Hospitality), and Book Buddy Shop (Education) are three among those startups. The incubation centre uses standard procedure and takes the startup from the business-idea/prototype stage to the elevator-pitch stage. It introduces students to a network of professionals, successful entrepreneurs and investors.
Besides this, “Andhra Technology Business Incubator (ATBI) under Startup NEC” also hosts domestic and national entrepreneurship events. Some of the most famous ones are Startup NEC E-Weekend (an event inspired by the international event, Startup Weekend) and The Founders Conclave (a national event). The ideas gathered in these events are taken through the incubation process and pitched to investors.
Besides entrepreneurship, NEC also hosts scientific and technological paper presentations at its premises. In this line, it is going to host a global technical conference on paper presentations in STEM and management subjects, International Conference on Mobile Cloud Computing, Communication & Engineering (ICMCCCE) 2018.
The 2018 edition of ICMCCCE invites doctorate holders, engineering professionals, and students from India, USA, UK, Australia, South Korea, Russia, and Malaysia. Select papers will be published in Scopus, Elsevier, Thomson Reuters, and Science Citation Index Expanded, based on the discipline. The subjects include, but aren’t limited to, engineering disciplines such as Computer Science, Mechanical, and Civil, and scientific disciplines such as Physics and Chemistry.
Besides these, the college is also sending its students to international education centres such as Stanford to enhance their technological prowess and equip them to solve complex engineering problems.
Startup NEC and the myriad technological, scientific, and entrepreneurial events and conferences that NEC holds, along with its close tie-ups with government organisations and international agencies are transforming the college and the region into a catalyst for Industry 4.0.
