The Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, (IIT-Gn) has got a grant of $500,000 from US-based Underwriters Laboratories to develop a fire engineering laboratory and other fire safety research and education initiatives.
Headquartered in the US and a world leader in advancing safety, Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is a premier global independent safety science company. It has offered the grant to the safety centre at IIT-Gn.
Under the five-year grant, IIT-Gn will collaborate with UL on major safety initiatives, such as conferences, training programmes for professionals, curriculum development and research projects. The initiative will also support undergraduate and post-graduate research projects for IIT-Gn students.
"IIT-Gn is committed to pursuing education and research in safety through multidisciplinary approach. As our economy grows and as our industries and infrastructure get more sophisticated, safety will become more and more critical. We greatly value our partnership with UL in achieving our objectives," said Sudhir K Jain, director of IIT-Gn.
During the past four years, UL has partnered with IIT-Gn on several research projects: Developing a kitchen fire safety system to predict fire events; development of a national fire database; innovative use of photovoltaic systems and its safety issues; and converting a conventional fuel vehicle into an eco-friendly electric vehicle. About a dozen IIT-Gn students have also undertaken research work at UL labs just outside of Chicago and UL professionals have taught workshops and classes at IIT-Gn.
In addition, UL collaborated with IIT-Gn on an International Conference on Safety and an International Workshop on Process Safety Management in October 2012. UL also partnered with IIT-Gn on a two-day workshop on Fire Safety on March 2-3, 2013.
"UL is committed to advancing the science of safety and our collaboration with IIT-Gn is a reflection of that. Through these young engineers and scientists we are able to continue to extend our safety mission in ways that are relevant to the needs of India," said Gus Schaefer, senior vice-president and public safety officer at Underwriters Laboratories Inc.
