NDRF and DRDO to fund MAV development

In a bid to draw engineering students towards research-based projects, the National Design and Research Forum (NDRF), part of the The Institution of Engineers, will start an internship programme for students, wherein students will work on micro air vehicle (MAV) projects across the country.

“NDRF has active projects going on in the field of micro-air vehicles with the funding coming in from Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and Department of Science and Technology (DST), and we are looking at getting at least 30 students from various colleges in the country placed in these projects over the course of the next one year,” said Dr LA Muralikrishna Reddy, director, NDRF.

The duration of the internships would be at the discretion of the students’ availability and the programme will be functional for a period of five years.

According to Reddy, the branches of research the students would be working on apart from MAV would be in the field of rapid prototyping and sensors.

“The research in this area is at a nascent stage in India, and we need a lot of manpower to help it progress in the future.

Most of India’s engineering students land up in sectors related to IT and not many opt for research. We want to change that,” said Reddy.

Reddy said that currently NDRF is actively contacting colleges in the country to drum up interest among the students to get the enrolment process underway.

“We want undergraduate and postgraduate students from mechanical, electronic, and chemical engineering. We have to talk to institutions now, and we already have a few interns,” he said.