SNS ISP

INNOVATION & STARTUP POLICY

SNS Institution is the first Indian Institute to implement Design Thinking framework for education. We foster student creativity by providing a good platform through design thinking and help them to bring their ideas and imaginations into life. This initiative stimulates the entrepreneurial ecosystem for the current and future generations to come. The National Innovation and Startup Policy 2019 for students and faculty of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) is a guiding framework to enable the Institutes to actively engage students, faculties and staff in innovation and entrepreneurship related activities, the spirit of which is imbibed in the SNS ISP.



STRATEGIES AND GOVERNANCE

Building an Entrepreneurial mindset and learning environment to Learn, Collaborate and Socialize.

SNS Institution works on a holistic 5 growth building centers, for building an Entrepreneurial mindset and learning environment to Learn, Collaborate and Socialize. These 5 centers act as pillars of SNS covering all streams of lives to strengthen our education system. Rather providing a traditional learning environment, we focus on building a culture focusing on delivering effective teaching, learning, innovation building, skill and career development, industry connect and social responsibility initiatives. Entrepreneurship promotion and development is the core of SNS Institution’s strategy. To facilitate development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem in our Institution, specific objectives and associated performance indicators are defined for assessment. 

Mission of SNS ISP

” Through Design Thinking, SNS strives to deepen the Knowledge and Gear-up the governance of world-class teaching and learning for building an entrepreneurial ecosystem”. 

Implementation of entrepreneurial vision at our Institution is achieved through mission statement. Student and faculty startup Policy and action plan are formulated with well-defined short-term and long-term goals. Micro action plan is also developed by our institution to accomplish the policy objectives. 

EXPERT

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

The experts (mix of within, outside, alumni, startups, I&E ecosystem enablers) who are part of the Innovation and Startup Policy Formulation Committee at Institute level. Innovation and Startup Policy Formulation Committee at Institute level are formulated as follows:

# Portfolio Name of the Expert Position
1 Patron Dr. S. Nalin Vimal Kumar Technical Director, SNS Institutions
2 Dr.S.Charles Principal , SNSCE
3 NISP Coordinator Dr.R. Anitha Head & Associate Professor MBA, EDC, NISP Coordinator, SNSCE
4 IIC Coordinator Dr. P. Gnanasundari Professor & HoD, ECE Coordinator, IIC, SNSCE
# Criteria Name of the Expert Position
1 Internal Experts Dr. S. Nalin Vimal Kumar Technical Director, SNS Institutions
2 Dr.S.Charles Principal , SNSCE
3 Dr. R. Anitha EDC, NISP Coordinator, SNSCE
4 Dr. K.Periya Karuppan IIC Coordinator, SNSCE
5 External Experts Mr. Vivek Kumar CEO of Natty Pangolian, Investment Partner in GEO Process Equipments and TIPO Engineering, Promotional Partner in R&D Team in LG Led Circuit Board (For Bulbs), Coimbatore.
6 Ms. B. Kayalvizhi Additional Director, MSME Development Centre, Coimbatore
7 Ms. Bhuvaneswari Manager, Vijaya bank, Peelamedu Branch, Coimbatore.
8 Intellectual Property Registry Mr. A. Jothi Murugan Proprietor, INVENIRE, IPR Firm, Coimbatore.
9 Alumni Start Ups Mr. S. Bhuvanesh Managing Director, EDGEFLEX Engineering (P) Ltd, Coimbatore.
10 Mr. N. Nirmal kumar Managing Director, Zuu Zuu Holidays, Coimbatore.
11 Alumni interested in Entrepreneurship Rajaganapathi.S
Dinesh Kumar.P
Ajith M
Pradeep
Mathew		 IT (2016-20 Batch)
IT (2016-20 batch )
MBA (2016-18 batch
MBA (2016-18 batch)
EEE (2014-18 batch)
12 Current Students Yasith.M.V
Alif Barith Rahuman.J (IIIAI&DS)
Kheshore.J.R (IoT & Cybersecurity)
S.Athilingam N.Gokilavani
M.Hemalatha		 IV Mechanical



II MBA
II MBA
II MBA
13 I & E Enablers Dr. B. Lakshmi Meera, Program Director, FORGE Acclerator, Coimbatore
14 Dr. K. Kanthavel ED Cell- IEDP Hub Coordinator, Anna University Regional Campus, Coimbatore
15 Mr. Ebin Ephrem Elavathingal Senior Manager, AIC RAISE Business Incubator Private Limited, A Startup Incubation Centre, Coimbatore.

Resource mobilization plan for pre-incubation, incubation infrastructure and facilities are framed with expert members.

Our Institution is implementing the innovation and entrepreneurial agenda by conducting conferences, convocations, workshops, etc. It encourages the development of entrepreneurship culture among students and faculty members by integrating leading incubation centers and promoting interdisciplinary Projects.

STARTUPS ENABLING INSTITUTIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE

As per guidelines of MHRD, Pre-incubation and incubation facilities for nurturing innovations and startups are established. The processes and mechanisms for nurturing of Startups by alumni and potential start up applicants even from outside the institutions are encouraged. SNS iHub , a dedicated infrastructure setup is enabled for our Institution. SNS iHub will focus on the following three areas 

• Pre-Incubation Facility • Incubation • Business acceleration

PRE-INCUBATION

  • The pre incubation facilities are nurtured through MHRD’s Innovation Cell, MSME, TNSCST, EDC cell, Entrepreneurship development of India and the Research centers within our Institution. 
  • As a fruitful outcome, a pre incubation facility known as Futura -Student Startup Accelerator, is developed for the students to innovate their new ideas. It includes 24x7 labs accessible to students, staff and faculty of all disciplines and departments across the institution.

Innovation Space

Having the rightful workspace for experiencing Design Thinking –encourages the young minds to become more creative and innovative. Partnering with right industry will allow us to have the perfect workspace. Our Institution offers Industry enabled space to promote pre-incubation.

E-YANTRA IIT LAB

e-Yantra Project is an initiative by IIT Bombay that SNS has partnered with, aiming to create the next generation of embedded systems engineers with a practical outlook to provide practical solutions to the real-world problems.

TI-INNOVATION LAB

SNS-TI innovation lab is a corporate connect initiative with Texas Instruments, Bangalore. It is a Design House catering to design, development, production and transfer of technology in the electronics domain.

INTERNET OF THINGS LAB (ANDES TECHNOLOGIES - TAIWAN)

Our IoT Lab has a strong emphasis on connecting with industry and is particularly focused on the areas of tech-enabled services.

SNS V-ALIENZ PRODUCT DESIGN STUDIO

The joint venture V- Alienz SNS Product Design Studio developed by Centre for Creativity and Department of Mechanical Engineering jointly inaugurated a novel initiative “Company on Campus” to foster new product development.

PISTON FACTORY

A 24*7 lounge for “Learn by Doing” centre focusing on Automobiles. It includes a fab shop as well. The lab attracts students interested in Go-karts, e-bikes and the kinds of such student’s projects. 

BOT LAB

SNS Institutions & Automation Anywhere University established Coimbatore’s first Centre-of-Excellence in the field of Robotics Process Automation (BOT Lab) by Department of Computer Science & Engineering and Information Technology. Mr. S. Krishna Raju, Manager Business Development, University Alliance at Automation Anywhere, Bangalore unveiled the plaque at CSE & IT Lab in SNSCE and SNSCT respectively. 

SNS IBI OPEN LIQUID STUDIO

As an outcome of an Ideathon – Hackathon event winning innovative projects are set to display as a prototype and product in our SNS IBI OPEN LIQUID STUDIO. It is evolving as a prime space and the budding engineers deem it a privilege if their projects get shortlisted for display   

Many more labs are slated for launch to facilitate the student’s interest and providing a platform for them to try out various ideas. A Sandbox with good collection of industry curated projects also serves as a backup for the young entrepreneurial enthusiasts.

MENTORING

  • Mentoring and relevant services can be offered for the student’s either in-return for fees, equity sharing or on zero payment bases. The mentoring facilities are provided exclusively by our team of faculty members through iHub 
  • The mentors help the students to focus on emerging innovation technologies and identifying potential problems from diverse industry verticals, and to get hands-on experience in industries, if needed. Eventually it helps them to innovate, incubate and evolve their ideas into a start-up. 
  • The panel of industry members guides incubates in shaping up the new ventures.

INDUSTRY COLLABORATIONS 

  • Our Institution identifies the industrial expectation and promotes institutional preparation for meeting industrial needs by facilitating sponsored R&D projects, seminars, workshops and various other industrial training programs. 
  • Industry Institute partnerships reflects in equipping faculty to latest practices and makes the students industry-ready by providing exposure to current industry practices, and hone their skills to adapt to changing technologies. 
  • The primary focus is to interact with elite industries in and around Coimbatore, and extend the efforts in establishing partnership with industries across the country in near future.

INCUBATION
Various events planned annually

  • Budding CEO talk 
  • Tech talk 
  • Startup Conclave 
  • Funding Conclave - Government funding options (MSME + NSTEDB), Angel Funding etc. can be planned and executed 
  • Workshop on patenting and Technology transfer

Facilities available

  • Provisions for co-working space open to our students, alumni and even to other aspiring entrepreneurs including other college students. 
  • Paid internship to outside college students in our 5 thrust areas 
  • Paid ProtoSem on credit transfer to be open to all college students

BUSINESS ACCELERATORS

Our institution focus on the business accelerators with following parameters 

  • A Strong Mentor base with startup expertise 
  • A network of Angel and Venture Funding 
  • MOUs with other TBI’s has been inked for effective networking and acceleration 

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Our Institution works actively on linking with foreign universities and industries. A visit to foreign Universities and their incubation facilities can be arranged for the incubates through centre for Creativity and iHub

NORMS FOR STUDENT/FACULTY STARTUPS

Students who are under incubation, pursuing some entrepreneurial ventures while studying are allowed to use their address in the institute to register their company with due permission.

Students entrepreneurs are allowed to sit for the examination, even if their attendance is less than the minimum permissible percentage, with due permission

Students are allowed to take a semester/year break to work on their start ups and re-join academics to complete the course.

Student entrepreneurs may earn academic credits for their efforts while creating an enterprise.

A review committee is framed by our Institution for review of start up by students, and appropriate credits for academics can be awarded based on the progress made.

Provision of accommodation to the student entrepreneurs within the campus for some period of time is provided.

Faculty member and staff are allowed to take off for a semester / year as sabbatical leave for working on startups and come back.

The seniority and other academic benefits during such period may be preserved for such staff or faculty.

As per AICTE guidelines Part-time/full time MS/ MBA/ PGDM (Innovation, entrepreneurship and venture development) program are encouraged where one can get degree while incubating and nurturing a startup company.

Students/ faculty/ staff are allowed to use institute infrastructure and facilities, as per the choice of the potential entrepreneur based on availability and following the lab norms.

As per guidelines, in return of the services and facilities, our Institution may take 2% to 9.5% equity/ stake in the startup/ company, based on brand used, faculty contribution, support provided and use of institute’s IPR (a limit of 9.5% is suggested so that institute has no legal liability arising out of startup).

Our Institution takes much lower equity share, unless its full-time faculty/ staff have substantial shares). The factors for consideration should be space, infrastructure, mentorship support, seed funds, support for accounts, legal, patents etc.

Our institution provides services based on mixture of equity, fee-based and/ or zero payment model. So, a startup may choose to avail the SNS ISP resource support, by the institute on rental basis also.

Participation in startup related activities is considered as a legitimate activity of faculty in addition to teaching, R&D projects, and industrial consultancy and management duties. It will be considered while evaluating the annual performance of the faculty.

Every faculty may be encouraged to mentor at least one startup.

Product development and commercialization as well as participating and nurturing of startups would now be added to faculty-duties and each faculty would choose a mix and match of these activities and then respective faculty are evaluated accordingly for their performance and promotion.

PRODUCT OWNERSHIP RIGHTS 

FOR TECHNOLOGIES DEVELOPED AT INSTITUTE

IPR is developed in our Institution as a part of academic activity then it is owned by inventors and the Institute.

If product/ IPR are developed by innovators not using any institute facilities, outside office hours or not as a part of curriculum by student, then product/ IPR will be entirely owned by inventors in proportion to the contributions made by them. In this case, inventors can decide to license the technology to third parties or use the technology the way they deem fit.

If there is a dispute in ownership, a minimum five member committee consisting of two faculty members, two of the institute’s alumni/ industry experts and one legal advisor with experience in IPR will examine the issue after meeting the inventors and help them settle this, hopefully to everybody’s satisfaction.

In case of institution to pay for patent filing, a committee can examine whether the IPR is worth patenting. If inventors are using their own funds or non institute funds, then they alone have a say in patenting.

Our institution is encouraging to concentrate in interdisciplinary research and publication for startup.

Proposals for Government and Non Government Funds for research activities, seed money funds are to be actively applied by the faculty members of the Institution.

ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY, 

HUMAN RESOURCES AND INCENTIVES

Our institution encourages faculty members to do courses on innovation, entrepreneurship management and venture development.

Faculty members are encouraged to equip themselves by undergoing FDP’s by EDI , TEQIP sponsored programs, Workshops and technology fair.

Faculty members and departments of our institution is working in coherence and cross-departmental linkages to strengthened shared faculty, cross-faculty teaching and research in order to gain maximum utilization of internal resources and knowledge.

In order to attract and retain right people, our institution proudly announces Budding Entrepreneur award and reward mechanisms along with academic and non-academic incentives for all faculty members and stakeholders who are actively contributing and supporting entrepreneurship agenda and activities.

INNOVATION PIPELINE FOR 

ENTREPRENEURS AT THE INSTITUTE

As per the guidelines of MHRD’s Innovation Cell, an Institution’s Innovation Councils (IICs) is established. It is actively guiding the institution for conducting various activities related to innovation, startup and entrepreneurship development. For strengthening the innovation, financing facilities are provided for the potential entrepreneurs. The Institution has developed a ready reckoner of Innovation Tool Kit, on the homepage on institute’s website to answer the doubts and queries of the innovators. 

Norms for Faculty Startups:

Faculty members those who hold the executive or managerial position for more than three months in a startup, can apply for sabbatical/ leave without pay/ utilize existing leave based on approved by the panel.

Faculty members must clearly separate and distinguish on-going research at the institute from the work conducted at the startup/ company.

In case of selection of a faculty start up by an outside national or international accelerator, a maximum leave (as sabbatical/ existing leave/ unpaid leave/ casual leave/ earned leave) of one semester/ year (or even more depending upon the decision of review committee constituted by the institute) may be permitted to the faculty.

Faculty must not accept gifts from the startup.

Faculty must not involve research staff or other staff of institute in activities at the startup and vice-versa.

Human subject related research in startup should get clearance from ethics committee of our institution.

ENTREPRENEUR

ECOSYSTEM

PEDAGOGY AND LEARNING INTERVENTIONS FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP DEVELOPMENT

  • SNS Institution is the first Indian Institution to incorporate Design Thinking framework for education. 
  • The DT based Educational framework is formulated specially for 7+5 Trust areas The 7 Industry Verticals includes 
    • Agriculture and Food Technology 
    • HealthCare 
    • Energy 
    • Aerospace and Defense 
    • Automobile 
    • Fin Tech 
    • Smart City 
  • The 5 Innovation Technologies are 
    • AR/VR, 
    • IoT, 
    • Robotics and Automation, 
    • AL/ML Data Analytics 
    • Additive Manufacturing.
  • Instead of traditional lecture-based delivery the courses are handled with various innovative tools and cross disciplinary learning such as Project based learning, Practical based learning, Industrial case study, Mini projects, Mentor–Mentee system, etc. 
  • Entrepreneurship skills are imparted to students at curricular/ co-curricular/ extracurricular level. 
  • Validated Learning outcomes can be achieved through Choice based credit system/One credit industrial courses/Professional elective/ short term or long-term courses on innovation, entrepreneurship and venture development. 

COLLABORATION, CO-CREATION, BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE

  • SNS Institution is giving prime importance for stakeholder engagement. To support Knowledge Exchange, entrepreneurship 
  • The institution is designed to discover potential partners, resource organizations, micro, small and medium sized enterprises (MSMEs), social enterprises, schools, alumni, professional bodies and entrepreneurs to meet the evolving needs of the incubates.

ENTREPRENEURIAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT

Impact assessment for pre-incubation, incubation, entrepreneurship education is formulated with well defined parameters. The information on impact of the activities shall be actively used while developing and reviewing the entrepreneurial strategy.