Wadhwani Research Centre for Bioengineering (WRCB) held its 5th Advisory Board Meeting (ABM) on 13th March 2019. The ABM was held at Victor Menezes Convention Centre (VMCC), IIT Bombay. The meeting saw presence of its Board Members including Dr. Ajay Kela (President & CEO, Wadhwani Foundation), Prof. Jonathan Dordick (Howard P. Isermann Professor and Vice President for Research Chemical and Biological Engineering), Dr. Devang Khakhar (Director, IIT Bombay), Dr. Subhasis Chaudhuri (Director-Designate) amongst the other institute and external luminaries. WRCB’s Corporate Affiliate Program (CAP) member representatives, Dr. B R Das (President, R&D SRL Diagnostics), Mr. Vivek Dhariwal (VP Technical, Pfizer) and Mr. Vivek Padgaonkar (WRCB’s Industry Outreach Consultant) also attended the meeting. The ABM was attended by Wadhwani Foundation representative Ms. Sunita Singh (Executive Vice-President) as well as personnel from Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC)
The Advisory Board was informed of the centre’s progress in the past year 2018-19 in the areas of supporting translational health research by Professor in Charge, Prof. Pramod Wangikar. He informed that through its 4-year journey, WRCB has gradually expanded its research activities to 48 faculty-led projects that are in the area of healthcare with clearly defined path toward the development of a technology or product. Prof. Wangikar gave a glimpse of all the outreach programs of WRCB such a Corporate affiliate program (CAP), Industry day event, CAP members’ exclusive meetings, Orations series etc. WRCB’s Corporate Affiliate Program (CAP), flagship program that will help WRCB affiliated faculty connect with the industry.
This was followed by technical presentations by WRCB affiliated IIT faculty members and discussions/feedback by Board and CAP members towards various WRCB initiatives such as Industry Day, CAP member exclusive interactions, PhD students industry internships, etc.
The meeting was deemed successful, with the board members giving some valuable suggestions. WRCB looks forward to successful years ahead.
