AIIMS Bibinagar and CIE (Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, at IIIT Hyderabad) hosted the MedCare AI Impact Hackathon — a unique innovation challenge designed to empower doctors, medical students, and health researchers to tackle real-world clinical problems through deep tech research-led innovation. The day-long event saw participation from 17 shortlisted teams, representing doctors, medical faculty, researchers, and students. The program aimed to bridge clinical expertise with AI-driven research and development by nurturing healthcare innovations directly from the field. Launched as a grassroots initiative by AIIMS Bibinagar, the hackathon focused on building clinical tools, diagnostics, patient care apps, and new care delivery models. Participants received intensive 1:1 mentorship, attended expert lectures, and collaborated with IIIT Hyderabad faculty and startups during the immersive sessions.

A large contingent from IIITH’s Computer Vision Lab participated at the Conference on Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) last month in Nashville. Computer vision researchers aim to have a paper accepted in CVPR to have validation of the quality of research work, its significance and a strong indicator of its potential for impact. CVPR is regarded as one of the top 3 prestigious conferences on computer vision and is ranked second (only to Nature) overall by Google Scholar Metrics outperforming several leading journal publications. It typically has a less than 30% acceptance rate for all papers and less than 5% for oral presentations. CVIT at IIITH has been associated with the prestigious conference dating all the way back to 2008 when Prof. CV Jawahar was selected as an ‘Outstanding Reviewer’. Since then the lab has been marking its presence at the conference annually with a number of paper presentations. This year too, a large contingent from IIITH stood out for their research haul of over 7 papers.

Indian research institutions are witnessing a surge in professor-founded startups, driven by a growing acceptance of entrepreneurship and the desire to translate research into real-world impact. Venture capitalists are increasingly investing in these ventures, recognizing their potential for globally competitive deep tech innovation. Success stories and supportive incubation centers are further encouraging academics to explore entrepreneurial opportunities. For years, India’s leading research institutions engaged in cutting-edge research and development, much of which remained confined to labs. That’s beginning to change as faculty members are turning entrepreneurs, and investors are taking note. At IISc, IITs, IIITs and BITS Pilani, professor-founded startups have seen a 20-30% year-on-year increase. Venture capitalists (VCs) are viewing these ventures as fertile ground for intellectual property (IP)-heavy, globally competitive deep tech innovation.