Vellore Institute of Technology, Vellore (VIT) over the years has been synonymous with imparting quality technical education and conducting exemplary academic research within India. Being the foremost among privately funded institutions in term of research output the institution has garnered various awards and distinctions from various organizations in India and abroad. This has led to a steady rise in the world ranking of the Institute. Acknowledging the progress made by the VIT the University Grant Commission (UGC), Government of India bestowed upon it the tag of ‘Institution of Eminence’.

The recognition not only throws light on the rapid advancements made by VIT encourages it embark on a journey to achieve even greater laurels for the country through its vision of ‘Transforming life through excellence in education and research.’ Therefore, in furthering the vision of VIT, new state of the art and modern research facilities to tackle new age problems in the form of ‘Wearable Technology & IoT enabled Virtual Lab’,‘Cyber Physical Systems Lab’ and ‘Center of Excellence for Autonomous Vehicles Research’ has been set up recently. The ‘Wearable Technology & IoT enabled Virtual Lab’ not only caters to the industry’s growing demand for wearable devices but is also designed to improve their performance, safety, and efficiency in the workplace in the fields of manufacturing, logistics, healthcare, and lifestyle. The lab is supported by the unique facilities such as Data Glove for motion capture & virtual reality, Wireless ECG capturing system, Screen printer for flexible substrate, 3D printer, PCB router, PCB etching machine, and conductive fabric knitting machine. The ‘Cyber Physical Systems Lab’ on the other hand is equipped with facilities such as robotic vision systems, IoT test beds and gate ways, embedded controllers, Computer vision and deep learning computing systems, networking and communication systems. It focuses on interdisciplinary research and innovation in the cutting edge areas of cyber physical systems and mechatronics and aims to support industries in developing cost effective engineering technologies and novel engineering solutions through consultancy services. The specific focus of the laboratory is on Robotics and autonomous systems, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, Computer vision and image processing, Internet of Things and Industry, Cloud computing and data analytics and Wireless sensor networks. The Center of Excellence for Autonomous Vehicles Research has world class laboratory facilities (like high-end deep learning systems and edge computers like DGX1, DRIVE AGX Pegasus, Jetson AGX Xavier, XSens IMU, Velodyne lidars, Radars and cameras) to achieve its aim by partnering with State University of New York (SUNY) and NVIDIA. The Center aims to develop autonomous vehicles with L5 autonomy using AI based solutions to mimic human drivers to handle obstacle detection and avoidance, lane keeping, lane changing, traffic sign detection, etc. Further, Natural Language Processing and IoT technologies are used to build interactive human-driver systems for L5 vehicles. Guidance and control algorithms will also be developed to drive the autonomous vehicles in desired trajectories and routes. The autonomous algorithms developed will be tested in real electric vehicles in VIT test tracks.

In continuation of the efforts by the institute in promoting excellence in research it is a matter of great pride to announce that VIT in collaboration with Shenzhen University, China is establishing another such sate of the art facility under the acronym ‘HOME’ (Human Organ Manufacturing and Engineering laboratory) under the aegis of Centre for Biomaterials, Cellular and Molecular Theranostics (CBCMT) which will be dedicated to 3D bio-printing research for engineering a wide variety of personalized human tissues especially cornea, heart, bone and skin. HOME will be an integral part of VIT and a centralized trans-disciplinary clinical translational facility for the development of engineered human tissue and organs relevant to clinical needs with potential to market them in future. HOME has been established with generous funding from VIT and supportive funding from Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India and Research Council of Norway. HOME boasts of state of art bio-printing facility with sophisticated 3D bioprinting instruments from Cellink Sweden, Alkatek, India along with integrated organ culture and confocal imaging facility from Olympus, Japan. Though ‘HOME’ is at its infancy but it has recently bagged a project entitled "Optimization of stem cell-laden smart biomaterials for 3d bioprinting of human cornea" in collaboration with Oslo University, Norway for DST-RCN.

HOME will therefore in future successfully develop personalized human organs at affordable cost for Indian people. Thus HOME is dedicated to the service of the nation.

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