IIT Madras to collaborate with GE on Precursor technologies
Chennai: Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) and GE (General Electric Company) have signed a collaborative agreement today (8th Feb 2019) whereby GE will use translational technologies, developed by the institute, in its gas turbine component test facility.
The agreement was signed by Prof. Ravindra Gettu, Dean (Industrial Consultancy and Sponsored Research), IIT Madras, and Mr. Akhilesh Mishra, Executive – Engineering, GE Power, on behalf of Mr. Mariasundaram Antony, General Manager – Global Engineering, GE Power.
The agreement aligns with GE’s efforts to bring digital technologies to realize the vision of smart gas turbines. It will pave the way for longer term collaboration.
“We believe that this is an exciting opportunity for applying our research in real world situations,” remarked Prof. R. I. Sujith, Chair Professor, Department of Aerospace Engineering, IIT Madras.
Commenting on the collaboration with IIT Madras, Mr. Akhilesh Mishra of GE Power remarked, “The research of Prof. Sujith and his team has been very impressive. Precursor technologies in Thermo acoustics have the potential to leapfrog existing analytics in this area. Adapting these in lab environment will enable us to have significant benefits in terms of improving risk assessment and decision making, and considerable cost savings.”
Prof. Gettu said “Prof. Sujith’s team is the leading group in thermo acoustics in the world, and has been part of much ongoing and past international collaboration. Prof Sujith’s group has made highly original, ground breaking, paradigm shifting discoveries in the subject of thermo acoustics.”
Mr. Mariasundaram Antony, General Manager – Global Engineering, GE Power, said, “We have been engaging with top researchers to forge better industry-academia partnerships. We are excited to see in-depth trans-disciplinary basic research that transcends the boundaries of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics, leading to practical solutions to industrial problems.”
In 2016, GE announced plans to set up an Industrial Internet Centre of Excellence at IIT Madras to develop power intensive applications with the first focus on rolling out a Digital Twin of an Aluminium Smelter.