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Ericsson innovation awards launched at Indian Institute of Technology

Press release
Nov 17, 2014
  • Established with the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer, the Ericsson Innovation Awards seek to recognize the spirit of innovation among students at Indian Institute of Technology (IITs)
  • Projects to be invited from students at seven premier IITs across India for innovation in different categories
  • Ericsson to support up to two projects for incubation at approved technology business incubators

Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) today announced the launch of the Ericsson Innovation Awards in association with the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT) to recognize the spirit of innovation among students at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). With these awards, Ericsson aims to facilitate innovative projects from these engineering students and support some deserving ventures all the way through to their incubation phase at IIT-approved technology business incubators.

The Ericsson Innovation Awards seek student innovations in areas such as web design, cloud computing, storage and networking, human-machine interface, embedded and hardware system design, MIMO (multiple-input, multiple-output), machine-to-machine/Internet of Things, software-defined networking, open source, signal processing, graphics and visualization, as well as research. Ericsson has invited project proposals in these areas from IIT students across Chennai, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Mumbai, Roorkee and Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi.

Following the preliminary screening phase at their respective IITs, the student proposals will be shortlisted through two jury sessions, comprising senior members from Ericsson R&D, FITT and industry experts. In the first round, the jury will shortlist up to 10 proposals on criteria such as degree of innovation, feasibility, usability, relevance, time to market and the overall impact on masses. Each shortlisted proposal will be given an incentive by Ericsson to complete the initial prototype within three months.

In the second round, the jury will select up to two innovation projects. These will be announced in a ceremony in April 2015 and will be supported for project incubation by Ericsson.

At the launch of the awards, Chris Houghton, Head of Region India at Ericsson, said: “By instituting the Ericsson Innovation Awards, we’re seeking to encourage the culture of innovation within the IITs and to support these talented young minds to develop more innovative and relevant solutions for the benefit of industry. As a company that takes pride in its culture of innovation, we’re looking to promote innovation in India through this partnership and other programs that we plan to organize in India.”

Anil Wali, Managing Director, FITT, said: “The Ericsson Innovation Awards is a great initiative that encourages students to push their boundaries and come up with innovative solutions. The awards will enable our students to gain practical knowledge of the industry, while recognizing their creativity and providing them with necessary support to incubate their projects.”

 Notes to editors

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With more than 110,000 professionals and customers in 180 countries, we combine global scale with technology and services leadership. We support networks that connect more than 2.5 billion subscribers. Forty percent of the world’s mobile traffic is carried over Ericsson networks. And our investments in research and development ensure that our solutions – and our customers – stay in front.

Founded in 1876, Ericsson has its headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden. Net sales in 2013 were SEK 227.4 billion (USD 34.9 billion). Ericsson is listed on NASDAQ OMX stock exchange in Stockholm and the NASDAQ in New York.

For further information, please contact

Gaurav Sharma
Phone: +91 98 718 233 39
E-mail: gaurav.z.sharma@ericsson.com