Mangaluru
Experts have called institutions to collaborate and solve community issues, during a workshop titled Unleashing Innovations for and from the Grassroots that was organised by the Institution Innovation Council (IIC) of National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), at Surathkal campus.
While Prof B Ravi, director of NITK urged the institutes to form a coalition to identify and solve local problems, especially public health, agricultural plants and environment planet, Prof Sreevalsa Kolathayar, Professor in-charge, IIC, stressed the need for collaboration and co-creation among institutions and stakeholders, with community needs as the central focus for a sustainable innovation ecosystem in society.
Prof Anil Gupta, a champion of grassroots innovations, urged NITK to mentor other institutions in addressing societal needs. He emphasized collaborative excellence over competition and encouraged open sharing of knowledge and innovations.
Prof Anamika discussed co-incubation of start-ups at GIAN. The workshop was meant to share the best practices to achieve collaborative excellence through inter-institutional innovations and co-creation with communities to sense their unmet needs as well as search, spread, and celebrate inclusive innovations.
Prof Anil Kumar Gupta, former Executive Vice-Chair of the National Innovation Foundation and founder of Honey Bee Network, who was awarded the Padma Shri for promoting grassroots innovations, the workshop was attended by more than 400 delegates from 60 engineering institutions from Karnataka. One key theme focused on unfreezing the imagination by cultivating a culture of creativity and openness, challenging conventional thinking to pave the way for bold and transformative ideas.
