MVJ College of Engineering, Bangalore, in association with Institutions’ Innovation Council (IIC) – Ministry of Education Initiative & IQAC, celebrated ‘National Start-Up Day – 2023’ on 21st January 2023, from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm, to understand India’s Start-up ecosystem and its contribution in making India self-reliant. The event was organized also to provide a platform for students to discuss the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation.
The inaugural function was graced by the honorable Chief Guest Dr. Vinay Kumar, Ph.D (Co-Founder, Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO), PathShodh Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., Entrepreneurship Centre, IISc Bangalore), in the presence of Dr. P. Mahabaleswarappa, (Principal, MVJCE) and Dr. M. Brindha (Vice-Principal, MVJCE).
IIC Student Convener heartily welcomed the Chief Guest, Principal, Vice Principal and other delegates.
The Guest Speaker
Dr. Vinay Kumar has been working in the Semiconductor devices and Bio-sensors industries, for the last 12 years, with focus on Research and Development of novel Point-of-Care Bio-sensing technologies for Chronic Disease Diagnostics – diseases such as Diabetes, Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), Liver Disease and Anemia. He has invented a novel Electrochemical Diagnostics Technologies of Glycated Proteins such as Glycated Haemoglobin and Glycated Albumin, Serum Albumin, Microalbuminuria, Urine Creatinine and Albumin to Creatinine ratio (ACR).
A company, PathShodh Healthcare Pvt. Ltd. has been incubated at Indian Institute of Science (IISc.) Bangalore, based on these inventions. Dr. Vinay Kumar himself is a juvenile diabetic (IDDM), and it has been his goal to ease the burden of people suffering from chronic diseases, through scientific inventions. His focus has been to invent out-of-the-box solutions based on deep scientific exploration, translating scientific innovations to products, to serve the population at large. His Ph.D. research has resulted in multiple patents for diagnosis of various disease markers. Dr. Vinay Kumar has many research publications and patents to his credit.
Awards and Honours
- Gold Medal in Ph.D. for Best Ph.D. thesis, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
- Gold Medal in M.Tech.
- Gold Medal in B.Sc.
- Centum Research Excellence Award from Centre for Nano Science and Engineering (CeNSE), Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, for outstanding research in Ph.D.
- Winner of National Scholarship in 2002
- Top Innovator Under-35 (TR35) Award, 2017, by MIT Technology Review, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA
- Indian National Academy of Engineering: INAE Innovator Entrepreneur Award, 2017
- Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry: FICCI Healthcare Excellency Award, 2017
- Confederation of Indian Industry: CII Innovation Award, 2017
- Confederation of Indian Industry: CII Grand Jury Award, 2017
- Elevate100 Grand Challenges Award, 2017, from Karnataka Government
Session Details
The main objective of this session was to create awareness among our students, on entrepreneurship, innovation and incubation. It was intended to highlight the value of entrepreneurship, the role of innovation within society, and the role of the younger generation in making India an Innovation Hub.
The following topics were covered in the Session:
- Journey of an entrepreneur
- Introduction to the start-up ecosystem
- The decision – what is your hunger?
- Needs of an entrepreneur
- Ups and downs in a start-up
- Identifying business opportunities
- Role of mentor
- Impact of incubation
Then event concluded with a Q&A session that went on for almost an hour. Students enthusiastically posed many queries relating to start-ups.
In the end, the participants were told to share their experience of the session. The session concluded, with the participants happy to have gained a lot of knowledge and inputs.
Outcome of the Event
The students gained knowledge and motivation on the following:
- The start-up ecosystem
- Life journey of a successful incubator
- How to identify business opportunities
- The value of entrepreneurship
- The role of innovation in society
- Entrepreneurship as a primary career option
The students found all the topics discussed to be very informative. They got a lot of technical inputs. The programme certainly motivated them around start-ups. It was an enthralling talk that surely fired up tour young engineers.