The 25th edition of the annual R&D Showcase of the International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad began on Saturday (March 14, 2026) at the institute’s Gachibowli campus. The two-day (March 14 and 15, 2026) flagship event concluded on Sunday and has grown into one of the most anticipated research exhibitions, bringing together researchers, industry leaders, policymakers and students to explore advances in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, algorithms, robotics and digital public infrastructure.
The R&D Showcase is the institute’s major annual exhibition where faculty and students present their latest research projects, prototypes and innovations to academia, industry and the public.
Themed “Trust in Technology – Security, Privacy and Transparency,” the event features over 400 research posters, demos and prototypes from 29 research centres, enabling visitors to interact directly with researchers and witness how fundamental research is translated into real-world applications.
The programme included spotlight sessions by the Centre for Security, Theory and Algorithmic Research (CSTAR) and the Cyber Manthan Centre (CMC), an inaugural keynote by Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, CEO of the Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF), and a panel discussion on “Building Trust in the Indian Cyberspace: Privacy, Security and Transparency in the Era of Emerging Technologies.”
Emphasising the theme of the event, he added, “Technology shouldn’t control us; instead, we should control technology.”
A panel discussion on “Building Trust in the Indian Cyberspace: Privacy, Security and Transparency in the Era of Emerging Technologies” was moderated by Girish Varma of IIIT Hyderabad.
The panellists included P R Lakshmi Eswari, Centre Head, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Hyderabad; Krishna Sastry Pendyala, Partner – Cybersecurity, Ernst & Young; Deepak Kumar, Director, Institute for Development and Research in Banking Technology; and M V Panduranga Rao, Centre for Cryptography and Cybersecurity, Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad.
Alongside exhibits in AI, robotics, data science and cybersecurity, the showcase hosted industry–research confluence sessions on themes such as Cybersecurity and Privacy in the AI Era and AI for Theory and Theory for AI, a startup showcase and an industry roundtable on Agentic AI.
One of the highlights of the exhibition is an autonomous self-driving wheelchair designed to enhance mobility for persons with disabilities. Equipped with 3D LiDAR for environmental perception and powered by Jetson Orin running ROS2, the wheelchair enables intelligent navigation with minimal user input. Advanced path planning and obstacle-avoidance systems allow safe and efficient movement in diverse environments.
Visitors also saw innovative robotics projects such as flapping-wing robots and spin drones, alongside architectural models demonstrating traditional earthquake-resilient housing systems such as Kath Kuni houses of Himachal Pradesh, Adobe houses of Rajasthan, and Ikra houses of Assam.
These models illustrate how traditional Indian architecture used local materials and ingenious construction techniques to build earthquake-resilient homes long before modern engineering technologies existed. Kath Kuni houses, for example, use alternating layers of wood and stone that absorb seismic shocks; Adobe structures rely on thick mud-brick walls that distribute stress; and Ikra houses use flexible bamboo frameworks that sway during earthquakes rather than collapse.
Sunday’s programme featured Excitement of Research (ExOR), introducing visiting undergraduate students to research pathways, and a Faculty Futures Roundtable on research funding. The event concluded with a patent felicitation ceremony at Research Street, recognising IIIT Hyderabad researchers for their innovation and intellectual property contributions. The institute has received over 70 patents.
Now in its 25th year, the R&D Showcase has evolved into one of the institute’s flagship platforms for presenting cutting-edge research and fostering collaboration between academia, industry and government.
More than 300 industry representatives and students from several colleges visited the event and interacted with researchers behind the showcased projects.