BHUBANESWAR: The International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Bhubaneswar, on Wednesday proposed to the Government to have a characterisation laboratory and innovation and incubation centre. Submitting the proposal at a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Secretary BK Patnaik, IIIT director Gopal Krishna Nayak said the proposed characterisation lab would be the first of its kind in the eastern region of the country and this required an investment of ` 10 crore. The laboratory will provide facility for chip testing. Although the chip designing has reached an appreciable stage in the State, the chip testing facility is not available. Now the chip designers have to tie up with IT companies having such facilities in Silicon Valley of the United States of America. The characterisation laboratory will also provide a common facility to local IT entrepreneurs, students and research scholars as well, he said adding, such a facility will attract more IT investors to the State. The proposed innovation and incubation centres will provide the local entrepreneurs to create new IT products and services. Further, innovation programmes will do talent hunt for potential customers with focus on new technology and applications, he said. The Chief Secretary advised IIIT to identify possible users and companies for these facilities. The institute should also explore the possibility of setting up the venture in collaboration with other technical institutes and IT industries to make it self-sustainable. He further suggested that the proposed incubation centre should be made accessible to students and scholars of other technical and professional institutes and IT development centres of the state so that talent will multiply. The IIIT was further advised to explore the possibility of developing a high quality team of mentors in coordination with institutes like Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar, College of Engineering and Technology (CET) and other technical institutes. The IIIT director told the meeting that the institute is all set to open Master in Technology (M.Tech) courses in different branches in embedded system. Presently, the institute has only M.Tech in computer science. New Courses are planned keeping in view the emerging trade in IT and related fields, he said. In 2010-11, IIIT utilised ` 10 crore mostly on construction of buildings and other infrastructure. The Government has given a budgetary support of ` 18 crore for the current fiscal. Development Commissioner RN Senapati, Finance Secretary Jugal Mohapatra and IT Secretary PK Jena were present.
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