Institutions Innovation Council

About Institution’s Innovation Council, SMIT (IIC-SMIT)

Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology, Sikkim, to foster entrepreneurship initiatives among the students Institution’s Innovation Cell (IIC) was established in 2019 under the aegis of Ministry of Education’s Innovation Cell (MIC). The role of IIC would be to identify and nurture technology-based innovative startups. IIC primarily focuses on Entrepreneurship, Start-Ups, Innovation and IPR.

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Student Representatives

 

 

Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology (SMIT) provides a plethora of opportunities for young and budding innovators and entrepreneurs

The Institution's Innovation Council (IIC) is an initiative of the Ministry of Education, Govt. of India to encourage Start-Ups and Entrepreneurship

The Atal Incubation Centre (AIC) initiative of the Atal Innovation Mission, Niti Ayog, GoI. It provides the startups with a platform and the resources needed for them to develop into a company.

PRE-INCUBATION & INCUBATION:

The Innovator(s) prepare a pitch deck and pitch their idea to the board of IIC. The board then decides whether or not the idea is good enough to be pre-incubated, suggests the necessary changes, and discusses the further steps to be taken with the idea.

Once the startup has completed the pre-incubation stage, i.e., all the work that has to be done at the pre-incubation stage has been carried out, the startup is then eligible to be incubated at incubators such as AIC which has a center at SMIT's campus itself, for further growth and development.

The incubator then takes charge and guides the startup to complete the incubation phase and helps it in any and every manner possible to make the best out of every opportunity that comes its way to grow and expand.

FACILITIES AVAILABLE & INITIATIVES :

Facilities:

• Institutions’ Innovation Council (IIC)
• Pre/Incubation Centre
• IPR Cell (supported by DST, GoS)
• Innovation Studio (housing projects and prototypes)

Initiatives:

• Cohorts for start-ups, Hackathons, Bootcamps, Workshops, Ideathons, Competitions, Technical Fare, etc.
• 106 students and 14 faculty members are directly involved so far in Innovation and Start-Up activities through the council.
• External experts in Entrepreneurship, startups, and IPR from industry, incubator, Lead Bank, and legal consultancy firms are included in the council for mentoring of pre/incubatees and other students/faculties.

IPR CELL:

The IPR cell came into existence on 21st Jan 2020 vide office order no.: 1094/SMIT/OO/21/2020 with the support of the Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of Sikkim vide letter Ref. No.: 12/SSCS&T/2020 dated 13/01/2020. The aim of IPR Cell is to create awareness and provide guidance to faculty members, research scholars, and students on intellectual property rights.

Currently, 40+ patents have been filed and granted by individuals. Although, all the patents granted and filed are at the individual level.

PRE-INCUBATION CENTRE:

The Pre-Incubation Centre aims to empower students with an entrepreneurial mindset and business skills necessary to create their own venture from the ground up, help them develop intrapreneurship skills, and get them started on their entrepreneurial journey.

The pre/incubatees are assessed regularly and ones with good progress are promoted and graduated for incubation of the start-ups at AIC-SMUTBI. Further, upon successful progress, they are facilitated for registration as companies at SMIT or AIC (Atal Incubation Centre), SMIT campus.

Current Pre-Incubatees:

• Shopping Nation
• Rejoice
• MedO
• Ezzypg
• Dasaka Greenery
• Zelion
• The Watchman

PRE-INCUBATION FACILITY:

• Tinkering Lab-1
• Tinkering Lab-2
• Pre-Incubation center
• Innovation studio

CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE facilities:

• 5G to CoE
• Central Research Facility: Nanotechnology Laboratory
• Data Analytics CoE

National Innovation and Start-Up Policy (NISP):

The National Innovation and Startup Policy 2019 for students and faculty of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) will enable the institutes to actively engage students, faculties, and staff in innovation and entrepreneurship-related activities. This framework will also facilitate the Ministry of Human Resource Development in bringing uniformity across HEIs in terms of Intellectual Property ownership management, technology licensing, and institutional Startup policy, thus enabling the creation of robust innovation and Start up ecosystem across all HEIs

Innovation Studio:

It is a facility where the innovative products developed by students and faculties finds a place for demonstration and display. It houses highly innovative and interesting projects and prototypes. Most of the projects and prototypes have been the outcome of the TMA Pai University Research Grant. It is also mandatory for the successfully completed projects under the grant to be housed and displayed in the studio.

WHAT IIC DOES ?

• Conduct national and International entrepreneurship and startup-related events and contests
• Encourage and promote entrepreneurship among college students and faculty through seminars and workshops
• Manage pre-incubation for startups from Sikkim Manipal University students, as well as outside the university

THE TEAM AT IIC :

The team comprises of highly motivated individuals, directly supervised by MoE's Innovation Cell (MIC), GoI

OBJECTIVE OF IIC:

• Institutions Innovation Council (IIC) at the institute is a unique model based on Hub-Spoke and coherence approach to align with the innovation and entrepreneurship promotion and support programs are being organized by various departments and ensures the year activities on the campus for effective engagement, learning, and practicing innovation and entrepreneurship among student and faculty community.
• Aims to create breakthrough, out-of-the-box solutions to major challenges of the present and the future, “addressing problems too big for any one organization to solve on its own”, such as devising alternative business models, or working toward solving large health, safety, and development problems.

CONTEXT - WHY IIC STARTED :

• The institution’s Innovation Council was established in 2018 as an initiative of the Ministry of Education (formerly MHRD), Govt. of India. Institution Innovation Council is a faculty-led but student-centric body formed by the institute with the active representation of entrepreneurial faculties, students, and expert’s representations from regional ecosystem enablers, preincubation, and incubation centers within and outside the institute and work in a synergy manner towards providing a platform to encourage, inspire and nurture young students by exposing them to new ideas and process of resulting in innovative activities & entrepreneurial in their formative years.
• The institution’s Innovation Council (IIC) has a representation of members from faculties, students, and experts from the regional ecosystem.
  

A Brief Overview of the Practice :

• IIC oversees various activities related to Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Start-Ups, and IPR. It primarily facilitates all these aspects at the Institute level. Also, is concerned for bringing about awareness and outreach to students and faculties in the said areas. It also makes efforts for outreach to local and nearby entrepreneurs.
• It is tasked with encouraging new ideas, executing them, and iterating until the idea is fully executed or integrated into the business. Those who work in the lab draw from cross-functional expertise and collaborate to create products and services, often for the parent company. The innovation lab may also conduct market research, or keep abreast of potential disruptors in the field. Often, it does a mixture of both.
  

WHY PRE-INCUBATION CENTER STARTED?

• Pre-Incubation centers help in the development of an economy as they primarily focus on providing a boost to entrepreneurial development which at the end also significantly contributes to an economy. Pre-incubation centers are necessary for the early growth and development of startups.
• It also serves as hubs for incubatees and business units that employ the methods of agile startups, with the goal of devising novel ideas that can either disrupt or complement the overall company. Creative processes like brainstorming and design thinking can drive ideation and the development of new innovations.
  
• The Pre/Incubation facility at SMIT is extended to the students and faculties of SMIT and outside. Also, local innovators are encouraged for incubating at the center.
  

LIST OF PRE INCUBATEES 2020-21

Sl No	Name of the Company	Sector of the Company	Team Lead Name	Team Lead
1	medO	Medical Diagnostics	Shubham Kumar	SMIT
2	Ezzypg	Services (PG and other residential facilities)	Pawan Singh Shekhawat	DHSS, SMU
3	Shopping Nation	e-Commerce	Shashank Kumar Sinha	SMIT
4	Rejoice	Services (surprise planner)	Shourav Mishra	SMIT
5	Dasaka Greenery	Recycle and Reuse of waste plastics	Karma Tashi Yangzom Bhutia	DHSS, SMU
6	Zelion	Services (Food delivery)	Varun Gupta	SMIT & Mumbai University
7	The Watchman	Farm Monitoring	Saurav Kumar	NIT Sikkim

The following are the list of Incubatees that have successfully graduated to start-ups

Name of Students	Startup	Year of Operations	Sector
Sumit Thakur	Untapped Technologies Pvt Ltd	2012-2016	End to End Solution for Connected Car Ecosystem
Juhi & Jaikishan Choudhary	Estroso Technologies Pvt Ltd	2018-2019	Electronics
Ashish Anand	AfterGlow Tech (OPC) Pvt Ltd	2016	Smart Street Lights
Kundan Mishra	Gooks India Pvt Ltd	2014-2018	Custom Merchandise

PLATFORMS TO SHARPEN YOUR SKILLS AND TEST YOUR ABILITIES:

Cohorts, hackathons, and ideation competitions are organized on a regular basis for school and college students as well as amateur entrepreneurs. Both IIC and AIC conduct workshops, seminars, and boot camps for students and local startups to help them grow and innovate.

PERKS OF PRE-INCUBATING AND INCUBATING YOUR STARTUPS WITH IIC AND AIC RESPECTIVELY:

Both IIC and AIC have a huge network of SMIT Alumni, Industry Experts, and Seasoned Entrepreneurs who mentor young entrepreneurs. Workshops, seminars, and interactive sessions are organized to solve various kinds of problems that start-ups face in the initial stages.

EVENTS BY IIC:

Event/Activities	Year
Dell Hackathon	2019
Hackathon'19	2019
Entrepreneurship World Cup regional finals	2019
Startup Boot Camp	2019
Program on Intellectual Property Rights at AIC-SMUTBI	2019
One Day Workshop on Fund Raising for Start-ups	2019
iDEX Road Show	2019
1st Cohort for Pre-Incubation	2019
2-Day Hackathon on Solving Industry relevant problems	2019
ARDUINO WORKSHOP	2020
Business Alumni Meet	2020
Drone Workshop	2020
Fund-Raiser Workshop	2020
KALAAM DRISHTI (Hackathon)	2020
Line Follower Bot Development Workshop	2020
RC CAR Development Workshop	2020
SMART INDIA HACKATHON (SIH) 2020	2020
KALAAM DRISHTI 2.0 (Hackathon) in association with IE(I) Sikkim State Chapter	2020
4 months long, ‘International Futuristic Product Prototype Challenge’	2020
Awareness Programme on Entrepreneurship at ICFAI University, Sikkim	2020
International Futuristic Product Prototype Challenge 2020	2020-21
Bootcamp for budding Entrepreneurs and Start-Ups	2021
Grand Challenges of Remote Sensing	2021
Mentorship Session for Innovators (or) Student Entrepreneurs through experts and (or) Innovation Ambassadors/Innovation Agent	2021
Orientation session for all students & faculties of Institute by Innovation Ambassador(s).	2021
Webinar Series: Advancement in Signal Processing and Communication for futuristic application/product	2021
School Ideas Meet Incubation for Innovation	2021
Session on Why IP is important in academia?	2021
Talk on “From your Ph.D./ Masters Thesis to a start-up	2021
Faculty Development Program on Technological Leadership for Inclusive Digital Society	2021
Webinar on Recent Advances in Electric Vehicles	2021
National Webinar on Research, Innovation and Ranking	2021
Cohort of Pre – Incubatees 2021	2021
Webinar on "Entrepreneur- Be a job giver"	2021
World Entrepreneurs Day Celebration	2021
Impact Lecture Series	2021
Advanced Ethical Hacking & Cyber Security	2021
IPR Awareness Programme supported by DST, GoS	2022
ElCaso 2022 – A Case-study Ideathon	2022
Bootcamp for Entrepreneurship at SMU (IIC-SMIT and AIC-SMUTBI)	18 Jun 2022
IPR Awareness Programme @ SMU under National IP Awareness Programme (NIPAM), hosted by IPO Kolkata	2022