NXP 'Anubhav' announces a series of state-of-the art labs in top engineering institutes of India

BANGALORE, INDIA: NXP Semiconductors N.V. (Nasdaq: NXPI) has announced an elaborate industry-academia initiative called NXP ‘Anubhav’ to set up state-of-the-art labs at top engineering institutes in India. This initiative will be undertaken across various reputed institutes throughout India over a span of six months.

Kicking off the initiative, Dr. René Penning de Vries, senior VP and CTO, NXP, and Neeraj Paliwal, VP and NXP India MD, and Design Services Global Manager, Central R&D, inaugurated the NXP labs at three premier institutes in Bangalore - BMS College of Engineering, PES Institute of Technology, and RV College of Engineering.

NXP (Philips Semiconductors earlier) has been at the forefront of fostering industry-academia relationships over the past 15 years in India. The company has been associated with a number of prestigious institutions, including IIT Delhi, IIT Bombay, IIIT Bangalore and Manipal University, through initiatives such as student sponsorships, research projects, appointment of chair professors etc.

Besides fostering knowledge transfer and enabling advanced research leveraging on NXP technology strength, NXP believes in utilizing the intellectual and theoretical capability existing in the academic community for research results and technical consultancy.

“At NXP, we believe that academic engagement should not just be a one step program but a long-lasting promise. Today’s initiative will enable us to participate in the country’s growth by developing technical know-how from the university level and also attracting high quality talent,” said Paliwal. “We plan to set up approximately 20 such labs across India by end 2011 and be actively involved in partnering with them to bring industry knowledge into academia.”

Such a partnership also benefits educational institutions by enabling them to do research work on state of the art technologies and leading industrial problems. In addition to participating and contributing in practical and product oriented projects, industry tie-ups help universities to upgrade infrastructure for better teaching and research, conceive new product ideas for incubation and entrepreneurship.

Dr. K. Mallikharjuna Babu, principal, BMS College of Engineering. said: "The growing need for practical and industry-relevant training makes associations with the industry extremely valuable. Through this association with NXP, our students will have an opportunity to learn NXP’s industry leading technologies and development platforms. We also hope that this will drive the passion to invent, innovate and incubate research ideas in the field."

Dr. KNB Murthy, director and principal, PES Institute of Technology, said: "The NXP Semiconductors Lab in our campus reflects the growing collaboration between research institutions like PES and leading industry innovators like NXP. We are optimistic this gives the much-needed impetus to in-depth applied research that is relevant to today's industry and economy. It is also a great recognition to PESIT that a leading innovation company like NXP has chosen us for housing the Lab."

Prof. B.S. Satyanarayana, principal, R.V. College of Engineering (RVCE), said: “Employability of our engineering graduates is increasingly becoming a matter of concern. It is imperative that academic institutions collaborate with industries to ensure practical training for students to make them more employable. So, RVCE is proud to be associated with an industry leader and innovator like NXP, as this offers our students an opportunity to learn leading technologies and development platforms."

Over the next few years, NXP will continue to set up additional labs across India, provide recommendations and technical consultancy on industrially relevant projects and upgrade labs as needed. The company will also work on indentifying and supporting High Performance Mixed Signal (HPMS) relevant research, continuing student sponsorships and hiring top talent from universities.