India’s leading tyre-maker MRF has contributed ₹26.09 crore to establish the MCC-MRF Innovation Park at the Madras Christian College (MCC) in Chennai.
The Innovation Centre would be an autonomous centre with high student autonomy in the activities undertaken. The Park seeks to set up collaborative spaces that would facilitate inter, multi and trans-disciplinary innovations, said a statement.
With a proposed built-up area of about 70,000 sq ft, the Innovation Park will incorporate the biophilic design concept that connects the functional spaces with the surrounding natural environment.
“If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives; it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect. MRF is proud to join hands with MCC to help create such an environment in this esteemed institution” said KM Mammen, Chairman of MRF, while making the announcement on company’s contribution at a function at MCC.
The Innovation Park will also host spaces for Writer’s café, Design studio (Tinkering lab) and entrepreneurship Café amongst others. Active learning spaces are designed for conducting workshops to impart hands on experience and collaboration.
Open air theatre, for performing arts, is designed in the centre of the innovation park. It will also host computer-based infrastructure including data analytics lab, computational science lab, psychometric lab, media science lab and instrumentation lab.
Helping entrepreneurs
“Entrepreneurship and employability hold the key in defining a large portion of an educational institution’s success on how its curriculum has helped students in the real world. It is important that students have a seamless transition from the academic world to the world of work. Projects such as the Innovation Park will help students in this transition, said Arun Mammen, Vice-Chairman of MRF.
“The Park would serve as a haven for innovation, incubation and start-up10s. We are confident that this project will serve as a fertile breeding ground for innovations and would incubate Entrepreneurship in the coming years,” said Paul Wilson, Principal of Madras Christian College.