The MCC-MRF Innovation Park, which will serve as a centre for "innovation and incubation and start-ups" at the Madras Christian College in Tambaram, Chennai, was inaugurated on Wednesday.
Centrally located in the MCC campus, the park seeks to set up collaborative spaces that would facilitate inter, multi and transdisciplinary innovations. It will also host spaces for a writer’s cafe, design studio (tinkering lab) and entrepreneurship cafe, among others. With a proposed built-up area of around 70,000 sqft, the Innovation Park employs the Biophilic design concept that connects the functional spaces with the surrounding natural environment. An open air theatre for performing arts has been designed in the centre of the park.
MRF Ltd, one of India's leading corporate houses, contributed Rs 26.09 crore to establish the MCC-MRF Innovation Park. “MRF Limited has made a monumental donation to the Madras Christian College to establish a world class Innovation Park, which would serve as a haven for innovation, incubation and start-ups. The Biophilic design concept of the Innovation Park would connect the functional spaces with the surrounding natural environment. We are confident that this project will serve as a fertile breeding ground for innovations and would incubate entrepreneurship in the coming years,” principal of Madras Christian College, Dr Paul Wilson said on the occasion.
K.M. Mammen, chairman of MRF Limited, who delivered the inaugural address, said, “If you look at history, innovation doesn’t come just from giving people incentives, it comes from creating environments where their ideas can connect. MRF is proud to join hands with MCC to help create such an environment in this esteemed institution”.
In his keynote address, Arun Mammen, vice-chairman of MRF Limited, said, "Entrepreneurship and employability holds the key in defining a large portion of an educational institution’s success on how its curriculum has helped students in the real world. It is important that students have a seamless transition from the academic world to the world of work. Projects such as the Innovation Park will help students in this transition”.
The first floor of the Innovation Park has been designed to host computer-based infrastructure, including data analytics lab, computational science lab, psychometric lab, media science lab and instrumentation lab.