Academia Has a Responsibility to Solve Societal Challenges

The pandemic-ridden past two years have taught us the importance of using technology to solve social problems. For instance, the global communities were forced to see how Data Analytics and Predictive computing played a significant role in pandemic preparedness and the development of vaccines. It's no wonder that we expect more from the scientific communities in that regard. They constantly look for powerful, highperformance computing and predictive technologies to better understand major societal challenges.

Indian IITs have a great reputation for developing such solutions through innovative, technologically sound multidimensional approaches. In a great leap that might help India achieve its climate change-related goal of generating 500 GW (gigawatt) of renewable energy by 2030, researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) have invented an `Ocean Wave Energy Converter' that can generate electricity from sea waves. They aim to go commercial by 2024. This could mean substantial gains for islands such as Lakshadweep and Andaman and Nicobar, which can produce 40-50 GW of wave energy.

The converter trials were completed in November, and the device has been deployed at a location about six km off the coast of Tuticorin, Tamil Nadu. IIT Madras aims to use the converter to generate one MW of power from ocean waves within the next three years. This special issue is all about the prestigious alumni ecosystem of IIT Madras, one of the finest technical institutes in the country.
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