Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (MI), announced on Tuesday that it is collaborating with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to fund four research projects run jointly by faculty members at both institutions.
The grants are the first under a new programme, the MI and MIT Innovation Programme (MMIP), which is focussed on developing commercial applications of technology research.
The MMIP helps bring MIT and Masdar Institute faculty and students a step closer to commercialisation by reducing the technology risk, and exploring possible market applications, of promising research results.
Successful projects may result in the formation of start-up companies or license agreements.
The MMIP grants are administered at MI by the Institute Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (iInnovation), and at MIT by the Deshpande Centre for Technological Innovation.
In a unique collaboration that combines the innovation strengths of two universities, every MMIP project is formed of two teams, one at Masdar Institute and one at MIT, each with a faculty Principal Investigator (PI). The projects reflect the value of research being undertaken by Masdar Institute and MIT as well as the strong collaboration that exists between the two research universities.
The four selected early-stage MMIP projects include a project to develop novel low-cost on-chip sensing devices for continuous water monitoring that could provide early warning of algal blooms, a novel wastewater treatment system for the removal of heavy metals, organic contents, and microbes from water, a scalable and renewable energy-driven technology for handling different quantities of feed waters and high salinity levels and a digital transmitter platform to reduce the footprint and power consumption in wireless radios.
Dr Fred Moavenzadeh, President, Masdar Institute, said, "The MMIP grants testify to the collaborative partnership we have with MIT that is focused on guiding and inspiring innovation in the U.A.E.. With the support of the U.A.E. leadership, we have ensured the development of an innovation ecosystem in Abu Dhabi, now linked to the robust ecosystem at MIT, to assist local entrepreneurs with early-stage technologies. We believe awarding such grants will help researchers intensify their efforts to obtain solutions that benefit the wider community.”
The project for the low cost rapid algal bloom sensing device is being led by Dr Anuradha Agarwal, Principal Research Scientist at MIT's Microphotonics Centre and Dr PrashanthMarpu, Assistant Professor, Water and Environmental Engineering, Masdar Institute, with Zhaohong Han and Vivek Singhcontributing to the research.
The wastewater treatment project is led by Dr Jing Kong, ITT Career Development Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering, MIT, and Dr Shadi Hasan, Assistant Professor, Water and Environmental Engineering, Masdar Institute, with Wenjing Fang and Sungmi Jung contributing to the research.
Source: The Gulf Today