Mahindra Technical Academy honoured Dr. Balakrishnan Shankar, Dean of the School of Engineering, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Amritapuri Campus, with the Udyoga–Vidya Setu Samman 2026 in recognition of his contribution to strengthening collaboration between industry and academia.
The honour was presented by Dr. Shankar Venugopal, Dean and Vice-President of Mahindra Technical Academy, in the presence of Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Amma, Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham.
The recognition highlights Dr. Balakrishnan Shankar’s efforts to create opportunities for students and faculty members to engage with real-world industry challenges, benefit from expert mentorship and develop solutions with practical and commercial potential.
A major outcome of the Amrita–Mahindra collaboration is the ongoing Automotive Innovation and IP Creation initiative. As part of the programme, 24 interdisciplinary student teams, each supported by a faculty mentor, have been working for nearly a year on 24 real-world automotive industry problems.
The problem statements span emerging areas including electric vehicles, connected vehicles, autonomous mobility and software-defined vehicles. Students from mechanical, electrical, electronics and computer science disciplines have participated in the initiative.
A series of four workshops was conducted under the guidance of Dr. Shankar Venugopal, Dr. Balakrishnan Shankar, Amrita faculty members and intellectual property experts. During the workshops, the teams presented their ideas and received technical feedback, industry perspectives and suggestions to improve their proposed solutions.
The final workshop focused on assessing the ideas on the principal criteria of patentability—novelty, non-obviousness and utility. A jury comprising Dr. Shankar Venugopal, Dr. Balakrishnan Shankar and representatives of the Amrita IP Cell will finalise the ideas and support the drafting of the patent applications.
The initiative has set an ambitious target of submitting more than 20 patent applications in a single day by August 31, 2026. The selected teams are also expected to engage further with Mahindra Technical Academy as their ideas progress to the next stage of development.
The programme reflects a shared commitment by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Mahindra Technical Academy to connect engineering education with industry needs, promote intellectual property creation and enable students to transform innovative ideas into practical solutions.
