Bhubaneswar, Nov. 21: Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University (SOA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with L&T Technology Services Ltd (LTTS) on Wednesday to further industry-academia collaboration while focusing on training, development, hiring and research activities.

As per the agreement, LTTS will set up a Centre of Excellence (CoE) and Teaching Learning Centre (TLC) for MedTech in SOA campus, which has facilities for extended teaching and learning activities along with with state-of-the-art infrastructure, to create best quality talent for MedTech business.

This strategic initiative of LTTS Medical and Life Sciences Business Unit MedTech Academy and SOA is a unique collaboration where academia (engineering and medical) and corporate join hands to create a talent pipeline of healthcare industry with a strategic model.

The MoU was signed by Prof. Pradipta Kumar Nanda, SOA’s Vice-Chancellor, and Mr. Muralidhara Hosahalli, Global Delivery Head, MedTech Business Unit, LTTS.

The collaboration focuses on long term talent development, AI-focused training and internship, course curriculum design and joint research and patents.

LTTS and SOA will also co-develop curriculum, courses or programs focused on emerging technologies, particularly in MedTech, such as AI, for integration into SOA curriculum and also deliver the engineering components of the courses. The activities will also include establishment of LTTS labs at SOA and utilization of existing SOA labs for training, internship, certification for educational and research activities.

Both SOA and LTTS will also create a platform to facilitate brainstorming and problem-solving around MedTech challenges while LTTS will enable its labs for SOA faculty and students to visit and learn during mutually agreed upon timelines.

Dr. P.B. Kotur, Global Head, Global Engineering Academy, LTTS and Dr. Vivek Kaundal, Head, MedTech Academy, LTTS, were present during the signing of the MoU.

The LTTS team also called on Prof. (Dr.) Manojranjan Nayak, Founder President of SOA, who expressed the view that this partnership would pave the way for impactful outcomes in research, innovation and talent development contributing significantly to academia and industry.