In a move to help Engineering students hone their entrepreneurial skills, the Tamil Nadu Higher Education Department has decided to set up makers' spaces, an incubation cell-like platform, in select government engineering colleges soon.
According to officials, in the first phase, makers' spaces will be established with industry partners in Karaikudi, Tiruchirappalli, Tirunelveli, Salem and Tamil Nadu Polytechnic College, Madurai in the state. The facility will later be extended to other government colleges.
The cell will provide a platform to students with adequate facilities where they can work on innovative ideas and convert them into products. Faculties and industry experts will help the students channel their ideas in the right direction, be it in creating prototypes, experimental models, programmable or intelligent IoT enabled devices. The students will get an opportunity to explore their creativity and work on converting their innovative problem-solving ideas into reality and become problem solvers.
"It is a forum for students and faculty members to apply personalised learning strategies and inherent skills for promoting creative ideas with practical knowledge. It will be a laboratory where students can manufacture their own prototypes or create software programmes using artificial intelligence and try to solve problems in society. Adequate facilities and equipment will be provided in the space so that students of all departments can work on their projects under one roof," said an official of the Higher Education Department.
The official added, "Work is already on and in the next two-three months, makers' spaces will be ready in all these government colleges."
The move will encourage students to think out of the box and provide them with the right guidance to set up their own start-ups. "As industry experts will also be part of this collaboration, our students will get ample support for their start-up. If their innovation suits the needs of the industry then securing funds for their project will be no issue," said a faculty of a government engineering college.