Mumbai: The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B) has come out of its shell to do a Stanford University in India.

For the first time on April 4, the premier institute will display its cutting edge technology for the benifits of 100 companies from across the country. Years of pain and beats by IIT-B professors and its research wing could be taken to its logical end - from moving out of research laboratories to the use of masses.

"There is misconception about IIT-B that it does not do enough research. We want to redress it. Besides, what is done is not exploited sufficiently. This needs the involvement of the industry to take it forward for technology transfer," said Prof Krithi Ramamritham, dean for Research & Development. He added that most western universities and even those in Japan and Korea often do the dissemination programmes annually.

Industry professionals will see research projects and prototypes and explore opportunities to commercialise IIT-B's technology at TechConnnect 2009 which is organised by the Industrial Research and Consultancy Centre (IRCC). "TechConnect 2009" will showcase 42 exhibits across manufacturing, ICT, defence, energy, healthcare and processing industries — ranging from mobile jammers, prosthesis for children with bone cancer to treating cancer cell by heat and drug via magnetic nanoparticulates to IT for agriculture and even local area public transport. While the institute has filed patents for some exhibits, a few are in the process of being filed. Some technologies are awaiting animal trials.

Designed to improve tech transfer, foster collaborations with the industry and increase visibility of IIT-B, TechConnect is also targeting small players.

"Big players know about the work that comes out of IIT-B. We want the medium and small-scale industries to be aware that we develop affordable technology. We also want to get feedback on immediate or future problems that have to be addressed," said Ramamritham.