The Amrita- Robert Bosch Automotive Electronics Laboratory Lab was inaugurated and established at the Coimbatore campus of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham on November 20, 2014. The well-equipped lab will support the work of about 350 students pursuing their degree in engineering disciplines, viz., Electronics and Communication Engineering, Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Automobile Engineering, Automobile Engineering and Electronics & Instrumentation Engineering.

The state-of-the-art laboratory facility is part of the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the campus. The laboratory functions under the supervision by Dr. Thirumalini S., Professor and Chairperson at the department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering.

The laboratory will foster interdisciplinary research. The main objective of the lab is to bridge the gap between academia and industry and to bring in better connect to the latest automotive trends, so that the students can be deployed fast in actual projects.

Experiments at this laboratory are designed with inputs from RBEI/Chief Experts and real time experiments will be rolled out to students instead of conventional experiments. Embedded System Development Kit powered with Freescale processor with sensors and actuators will be utilised in this lab which will provide an actual ECU environment. This free scale kit is customized and will have all the advanced features that are necessary for any Automotive Embedded Software Development. The kit has LIN, CAN, SPI, GPIO Interfaces and is built on TWR-K40D100M Free scale Tower Board.

On the occasion, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Vice Chancellor Dr. P. Venkat Rangan noted, “Automotive electronics is a fast emerging field of great importance globally. Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Bosch, both internationally reputed giants in their respective domains (academia and industry), have come together to train students in the state-of-the-art, as well as push the frontiers of knowledge and practice. On behalf of our Chancellor and world renowned humanitarian leader, Sri Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Amma, we wish this joint venture a very bright future in the technology-based service of humanity.”

In his inaugural address, Director, Corporate and Industry Relations (CIR), Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham Prof. C. Parameswaran, stated,  “Amrita-Robert Bosch Automotive Electronics Lab stands as a testimony to the collaborative effort of the academia and the industry in bringing about synergy of sound academic competencies and innovative industry applications.”

Shenoy R. K., Senior Vice President, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Limited, in his key note address, informed that Amrita and Bosch has long outstanding relationship and this lab is another milestone in fostering the relationship to the next level. He has also expressed his confidence that this lab will act as a research platform to both Amrita and Robert Bosch.

Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham and Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Limited signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for collaboration in various areas of mutual interest including research.

Sathyanarayana T. K., Vice President- Human Resource, Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions, Anil Prakash, Head- University Relations and their teams were also present on the occasion.