Rourkela: The National Institute of Technology Rourkela (NIT Rourkela) has been awarded two research projects under the Scheme for Promotion of Academic and Research Collaboration (SPARC) of the Ministry of Education, Government of India, with a total sanctioned funding of over Rs 1.82 crore. Each project has a duration of two years.
SPARC is a national initiative aimed at strengthening India’s research ecosystem by promoting structured collaboration between Indian higher education institutions and leading global universities. The scheme enables joint research, academic exchange, and research capacity building in identified priority areas.
The first SPARC project, titled “Smart Exoskeletons in Healthcare: Principles and Practices for Developing Scalable Exosuits for Rural Applications” (Rs 95.16 lakh), is led by Dr. Anup Nandy, Associate Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, as the Principal Investigator (PI), with Dr. Ratnakar Dash, Associate Professor from the same department, serving as Co-PI. The project is being implemented in collaboration with the University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA, with Prof. Mukul Mukherjee as the Foreign PI and Prof. Philippe Malcolm as the Foreign Co-PI.
This project focuses on developing wearable robotic devices, known as exoskeletons, to assist individuals in regaining or improving mobility following illness or injury. Researchers from NIT Rourkela will work closely with international experts to design affordable, scalable, and easy-to-use exosuits tailored for elderly individuals and post-stroke patients, particularly in rural and local clinical healthcare settings. These wearable systems aim to support lower-limb movement and use smart sensors and artificial intelligence to analyse patient motion and assist in correcting movement patterns during rehabilitation. The institutional partnership also includes joint coursework, hands-on design and prototyping workshops, as well as student and researcher exchanges.
The second SPARC project, titled “Novel Disruptive Technology: Design and Development of Smart and Sustainable Technology for Agri-Food Systems” (Rs 87.24 lakh), is led by Dr. Madhuresh Dwivedi, Associate Professor, Department of Food Process Engineering, as the PI, with Prof. Rama Chandra Pradhan, Professor from the same department, as Co-PI. The international collaboration involves Dr. Anubhav Pratap Singh, Foreign PI from The University of British Columbia (UBC), Vancouver, Canada, and Dr. Anika Singh, Foreign Co-PI affiliated with UBC, Canada, and the British Columbia Institute of Technology, Burnaby, Canada.
This project aims to develop a simple, rapid, and non-destructive technology for assessing the quality and safety of agri-food products without cutting, cooking, or chemical testing. Scientists from NIT Rourkela will collaborate with international researchers to create a smart sensing system that uses mild electrical signals to evaluate food quality—similar in principle to a medical scan, but applied to food products. The technology is expected to enable real-time detection of freshness, spoilage, and quality variations across farms, markets, and food processing units. By making food testing quicker, more reliable, and field-deployable, the project seeks to improve food safety, reduce wastage, and support farmers, food processors, and consumers, particularly in resource-limited environments.
Together, these two SPARC projects highlight NIT Rourkela’s growing engagement in high-impact international research collaborations and its commitment to application-oriented research with tangible societal benefits.
