IIIT Hyderabad inks MoU with EBTC to establish ‘Living Lab’ project on campus

International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) Hyderbad, on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding with European Business & Technology Centre (EBTC) for establishing a ‘Living Lab’ on the institute’s campus to help startups gather real-time data on urban infrastructure.

“Say if somebody wants to build an energy management solution. Unless they get access to all the power consumption data, they cannot go test it and create their solutions,” Ramesh Loganathan, professor and head of IIIT Hyderabad’s Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship, told Mint.

Loganathan said that the Living Lab will help startups planning to develop ‘Smart Cities’ products, and those on sustainable urban development.

The institute is planning to set up the ‘living lab’ in the campus by the end of next year, after which it will start considering startups that can test their products in the campus, Loganathan said.

The MoU signed today helps bring to the table Amsterdam Innovation Arena’s know-how in such a project.

Through the MoU, IIIT Hyderabad will be able to understand the various processes in allowing startups to test their products, IIIT Hyderabad director P.J. Narayanan told Mint.

Amsterdam Innovation Arena manages the area around Johan Cryuff Arena, a football stadium, in the capital of the Netherlands. The organization started uses the ‘smart stadium’ and its adjoining area as a hotspot for testing innovations to tackle challenges for the city, Amsterdam Innovation Arena program manager Sander van Stiphout told Mint.