What is Tata Fellowship Program and how you can join?

The Society of Tata Fellows is a global community of scholars, engineers, and entrepreneurs emerging from the Tata Center for Technology and Design at MIT.

Major/Field Of Study: Mechanical engineering

School type: Graduate school; Research

Tata Centre for Technology and Design at IIT Bombay

The Tata Centre for Technology and Design at IIT Bombay is a virtual center, which started its academic and research programs in August 2014.

The Centre focuses on innovation that is relevant to global societal needs and challenges, targeted at the bottom of the pyramid sections of the society. The goals of the Tata Centre are to train future leaders in engineering and business and to invent technologies and systems solutions that solve human needs, in the context of complex environmental, social, and political factors. The Tata Centre at IIT Bombay closely works with the Tata Centre at MIT, USA, on R&D in high impact technologies and in the development of a curriculum consistent with its goals.

Tata Fellowship Program for Masters Students (2015-17) at IIT Bombay

The Tata Centre is a virtual center and does not have a direct admissions process. It offers fellowships to a select few Masters students already admitted to the various Departments/Centers/Schools at IIT Bombay. These fellowships will be awarded to students who are passionate about using their skills to make a positive change to society. In addition to the training that the Fellows receive in their core discipline, they will receive training in innovation, design and entrepreneurship, by way of course, laboratory work, immersion programs, and projects.

Benefits of a Tata Fellowship:

• Hands-on experience in product development, design thinking and in finding creative solutions to the most pressing problems faced by the society.
• Participation in immersion programs, workshops, conferences and lectures.
• Priority access to advanced fabrication facilities at Tata Centre (Fab-Lab) such as 3D Printing, PCB Printing, Mechanical and Electrical Workshops.
• In addition to degrees granted from parent discipline, students will receive recognition as a Tata Fellow.
• Possible visit to MIT, USA, and collaborative work with the Tata fellows at MIT.
• Enhanced Stipend (Rs. 18000 p.m.) and Tuition fee waiver
• Fellows will NOT be required to perform any institute/department related teaching/research assistantship. However, the fellows are expected to perform duties assigned by the center.

Eligibility:

TA and RA category candidates admitted to select Masters programs offered by IIT Bombay for Academic Year 2015.

Fellowships & Projects offered in 2014-2015

There are in total 19 fellowships available for the 2015-2017 fellowship program. These are distributed across various departments as indicated below. They begin from August 2015.

S.No   Department And No. Of Fellowships :

1    Aerospace: 01 TA

2     Bioscience (BSBE): 02 TA

3         Chemical Engg: 02 TA + 02RA

4         CTARA:  02 TA

5         Electrical Engg: 02 RA

6         Environmental Science (CESE): 03 TA

7         IDC:  01 TA

8         Mechanical Engg:  01 TA + 01 RA

9    Material Science: (MEMS) 02 TA

Selection:

The set-by-step procedure for the selection of Tata Fellow is given below:

1. A briefing on Tata Centre and its projects will be given in the first week after the commencement of the M. Tech. program (end of July)
2. The applications from the M. Tech. students will be invited.
3. Candidates, who have applied, will be selected based on an interview in the second week of the Autumn semester (Aug first week).
4. Candidates can apply to any number of available projects from their respective Department from the list given above. The interview will be conducted by the Principal Investigator of the project and a representative from TCTD. Selection will imply immediate assignment of a thesis topic and supervisor to the candidate.

Nature of Work for Tata Fellows:

In addition to the basic requirement of the M. Tech. program in their core disciplines, Tata fellows are expected to be involved in the activities listed below.

• Tata Fellows will do an interactive coursework called ‘Proseminar ‘. This seminar will expose students to conceptual frameworks and case studies that collectively provide a holistic view of integrating technology identification, development and deployment via commercial and public initiatives to address challenges at the bottom of the pyramid sections of society. The course will impart an understanding of key challenges faced by engineers and managers and is designed to equip students with a broad toolkit of perspectives and methodologies for problem solving. One of the objectives of this course is to foster a community of like-minded professionals.
• In addition to the Proseminar, fellows will be trained in Fab-Lab on using various fabrication facilities such as 3D Printing, PCB Printing, Lathe machine and so on in order to build prototypes. Fellows will also be trained to identify needs and fabricate products that address needs.
• Tata Fellows will work in the research project, for which they are selected, under the supervision of the P.I of the project; In this project work, Fellows will apply the techniques they learnt in course work and laboratory work.
• In addition to the above, they will also participate in immersion programs, lectures, conferences Centre at MIT and the Tata Fellows are expected to participate in these workshops and present their work.