Kattankulathur: SRM bags seven prestigious industry awards

Kattankulathur: SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur has received seven recognitions in a short span of 45 days. The awards are of national and international importance and have added yet another feather to its cap. This QS-IGauge Diamond rated institute has been the recipient of STEM impact award, Green Metric Award, AICTE-CII IndPact Award for Best Industry-linked institution for Electrical Engineering and Allied Institute, University of the Year Award 2019 from FICCI and three Swachhata ranking awards from AICTE.

Present for the press meet was President of SRMIST Dr. P. Sathyanarayanan, Vice-Chancellor of SRMIST, Dr. Sandeep Sancheti, Registrar SRMIST N. Sethuraman, Joint Director (Research) SRMIST Dr. SRS Prabaharan and Associate Director (Campus Life) Dr. V. Thirumurugan.

Speaking at the press meet, Dr. P. Sathyanarayanan said, "This is a special honor for our Institution as we have received seven awards in a short span of time." Dr. Sandeep Sancheti highlighted some of the recent achievements of the institution, research works, patents received, research centers, funded projects, own projects and technology transfers.

"The Swachhata ranking awards were based on toilet adequacy and maintenance, garbage clearance system, hostel kitchen hygiene & sophistication of equipment, water purity, storage, distribution the facility, campus greenery & rainwater harvesting, use of solar systems and villages adopted for hygiene," he said and added, "The STEM Impact award was given for innovation. SRMIST is the only privately funded university to receive this award. The award was presented on the basis of socio-economic relevance."

STEM Impact Award

SRM Institute of Science and Technology won the STEM (Society for Technology Management) Impact Award for innovating a cost-effective, Microbial fuel cell for bioelectricity generation and heavy metal reduction from environmentally available biowaste, namely tannery effluents. SRMIST is the only privately funded university to receive this award, others being IIT Kanpur and two CSIR labs. SRMIST had three in-house technologies submission and Microbial Fuel Submission received the STEM Impact Award.

The award was presented on the basis of socio-economic relevance, which includes bioelectricity generation and simultaneously heavy metal reduction up to 99.7%, electricity generation through a renewable energy source, zero water concept – Renewable, recycle and reuse and can be scaled up to be a standalone power source and bioremediation sources.

This project was spearheaded by Dr. S Harinipriya, Associate Professor of SRMIST and her students. This innovation has also been granted a US patent (US 10,230,122 B2). A technology transfer is initiated and MoU has been signed between Suprajaa Solutions Pvt. Limited, Tamilnadu.

Green Metric Award

SRM Institute of Science and Technology has been ranked 243rd in GreenMetric World University Rankings and third in India. The award was given for the category 'World's Most Sustainable University'. This was organized by the University of Indonesia. About 780 universities participated in the event globally and 25 Indian Universities and Institutions participated in it

AICTE-CII IndPact Award

AICTE-CII IndPact Award for Best Industry-linked institution for Electrical Engineering and Allied Institute (Established-Degree) was awarded to SRM Institute of Science and Technology, Kattankulathur. SRMIST won the award for Best Industry Linked Technical Institute in India 2019 for Electrical Engineering and Allied Institute. This year around 9,832 institutes participated in the survey, out of which 39 Institutes were shortlisted for final presentation and EEE department of SRMIST, Kattankulathur was one among them. Dr. K. Vijayakumar, HOD / EEE, SRMIST gave the presentation for EEE department and showcased the best practices of industry partnerships.

FICCI honour for SRM

SRMIST won the prestigious 'University of the Year Award 2019' (under the category of 11-30 years old Institutes) at the 6th edition of FICCI Higher Education Excellence Awards 2019, held in New Delhi.

Universities and Institutions were awarded in seven categories and SRMIST competed under 'University of the Year Award 2019' since, being a multi-stream university, it has many dimensions of excellence. The process consists of submitting an exhaustive questionnaire highlighting how SRMIST stands out in many facets of university life. These include Governance, Curriculum & Pedagogy, Infrastructure, Faculty Development, Internationalization, Student Employability, Collaborative Initiatives, Research, Patents, Impact on Society, etc.

SRMIST highlighted 19 best practices covering the abovementioned areas which inter alia include Semester Abroad Program, Flexible Choice-based Curriculum, Specialized UG programs in the disciplines of Computer Science and Engineering, Electronics and Communication Engineering, Mechatronics Engineering and Biotechnology, Mandatory Industry Training Program, Faculty Industry Immersion Program, Liberal Student Scholarships, Accreditation, etc.

Three Swachhata Awards

SRMIST ranked No. 1 under the category of AICTE-Residential Universities in the third edition of Swachhata Ranking Award. The Ranking Award was presented by MHRD as a part of its Swachh Bharat Mission to promote environmental hygiene in the Higher Education system and beyond. SRMIST excelled in the parameters of hygiene like student-toilet ratio, hostel hygiene, water conservation, campus greenery, harnessing solar energy, rainwater harvesting, waste segregation, and solid waste management.

SRMIST secured the third rank in AICTE's Clean and Smart Campus Awards. The process of ranking consists of assessing the institutes on Impact of deployment of digital technology in order for the students, faculty and management in the campus to reduce consumption of natural resources (such as paper, gas, energy, etc) and alignment of the latest digital trends like IoT, Big Data and Cloud Networking to achieve various aspects of sustainability in the campus, specifically to contribute to United Nations' SDGs.

SRMIST also came first in the AICTE's 'One student One tree' campaign, where 50,000 saplings were planted in 26 villages near Kattankulathur and Kundrathur Panchayath. This initiative was done by students from NSS, NCC, Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, Swachhata-hi Seva and student chapter for engineers association.