Technology company Continental’s Technical Center India (TCI) and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Palakkad have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a three-year joint research program. The MoU will create an opportunity to utilize the technical expertise of Continental and the academic prowess of IIT–Palakkad to collaborate in the areas of autonomous driving technologies, connected mobility, and advanced safety solutions. Continental will also offer internship opportunities and design special course works in sync with current and upcoming industry trends to benefit IIT-Palakkad students.
Speaking on the MoU, Latha Chembrakalam, Head of Technical Center India (TCI), Continental, said, “With this program, we will have a strong emphasis on joint research projects complementing automotive megatrends. We believe this program will mutually benefit Continental and IIT-Palakkad in terms of acquiring technology competence and academic excellence. It is in our interest to provide opportunities to the students in the form of internships and specially designed coursework that will help bridge the gap between industry and academia.”
Further, this program aims to develop niche skills for both Continental and IIT-Palakkad. Together, Continental and IIT-Palakkad will research, develop, and build competencies in the focused topics such as optimizing high-performance computing, simulation models for image and video processing chain for autonomous driving, and autonomous mobility safety features based on human vision features, and advanced safety solutions for intelligent battery sensing module.
Dr. Santhakumar, Dean of Industry Collaboration & Sponsored Research, IIT- Palakkad, said, “We are delighted to join hands with Continental to create a unique program to boost industry-academia association. With this initiative, we want to set a benchmark that will help us accomplish some of the unique industry problem statements while ensuring real-time technical exposure for our students. Our academic know-how will promote this program in the right direction.”
The research project will be offered in the form of internships to students who will be assisting Continental’s topic experts. To make the collaboration more interactive and insightful, hackathons and competitive challenges will be established for the students. With this structure and special course works, Continental and IIT-Palakkad aim to groom students into highly competitive industry-ready talents.
TCI and Its Academic Associations
Technical Centre India (TCI) was set up in 2009. With a strength of more than 4,000 engineers, it is one of the company’s major R&D locations organized under the Holistic Engineering and Technologies organization (he[a]t). TCI supports both global and local R&D for the company’s Automotive group sector. TCI is currently collaborating with IIIT Bangalore to receive Advanced Radar Sensing Certification for its employees. TCI, has in the past and is currently collaborating with a host of premier institutions across the country.
The company has also partnered with other premier institutions like IIT Madras, for bio – Inspired neural networks in Automated Driving, and Simulation testing of 77GHz Radar with IIIT Delhi.
Continental develops pioneering technologies and services for sustainable and connected mobility of people and their goods. Founded in 1871, the technology company offers safe, efficient, intelligent, and affordable solutions for vehicles, machines, traffic and transportation. In 2021, Continental generated sales of €33.8 billion and currently employs more than 190,000 people in 58 countries and markets. On October 8, 2021, the company celebrated its 150th anniversary.
Continental has been present in India for close to 50 years through technology partnerships (Continental Tires since 1974) and joint ventures for its various businesses. Today, the tier 1 automotive supplier, tire manufacturer, and industrial partner operate across India – with about 8000 employees across 13 locations, including seven plants that cater to the Indian market and a Technical Center that supports Continental’s global R&D activities.
