Center for Engineering in Medicine at IIT Kanpur

MoU signed with Mehta Family Foundation

Kanpur, November 2, 2019:  Continuing in its endeavour to provide world class education across various genres, a Center for Engineering in Medicine will be set up at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK) in association with the United States based Mehta Family Foundation.

A Memorandum of Understanding was signed today by Professor. Abhay Karandikar, Director IIT, Kanpur and Mr Rahul Mehta of the Mehta Family Foundation.   Professor Shankar Subramaniam of the University of California, San Diego is the first International Advisor of the ‘The Mehta Family Centre for Engineering in Medicine’.

Professor Abhay Karandikar said “The idea behind the Mehta Family Centre for Engineering in Medicine is finding new way to solve challenging medical problems.. We are extremely thankful to the Mehta Family Foundation for all the help in achieving IIT Kanpur’s vision in amalgamating medicine and engineering. We are sure that this centre which is the fi­rst of its kind in the country would be a pioneer in terms of manpower it would train at the interface of engineering and medicine.  The center is expected to become  one of the best interdisciplinary centres in India terms of the unique type and quality of research work.

Rahul Mehta of the Mehta Family Foundation said “We are happy to be associated with IIT Kanpur who have been pioneers in science based curriculum in engineering with many firsts to its credit.  This centre will give rise to a new field that will be the forefront of the way healthcare will be practice in the 21^st century. . Mehta Family Foundation’s vision is to provide new opportunities for students in India in frontier fields to enable economic prosperity for everyone.

Professor Shankar Subramaniam of the University of California, San Diego and distinguished visiting professor of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering BSBE (biomedical research) said “IIT Kanpur is a premier academic engineering institution in India and Center for Engineering in Medicine has the potential to be is crown jewel, impacting generation of students. The workforce trained at the center will have the ability to revolutionize healthcare in India”.  Congratulations to IIT Kanpur for spearheading the Engineering in Medicine Initative! “

The research focus of the proposed centre would be on Regenerative Medicine, Molecular Medicine and Engineering, and Digital Medicine. The three areas have been chosen as they are expected to revolutionize the way medicine is a practiced in the future. The centre would leverage the existing strengths within core engineering departments of IITK and  department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering BSBE (biomedical research) while diversifying into new/frontier areas to enable more impactful research (fundamental and applied).

The vision of the centre is to be able to make a significant impact in health care in India in terms of research/technology output while alongside producing next generation leaders that are well trained in these interdisciplinary areas.

IITK was set-up in 1959 (with the help of technological Universities from USA) as a classical technology/engineering institute. Recognizing the importance of sciences since its inceptions, IITK had pioneered the science-based engineering curriculum in India in the late ­fities and early sixties.