TIFAC Internship Programme

Requirement of Student Interns for Spring 2016-17

Last date of application: 17 February 2017

Topic Topic Title Required Qualification Duration No of

Code interns
FPT01 Technology Foresight Pursuing M. Tech. in Dairy 1 year 1
study: Food Processing Technology/ Food Technology/
Technology with longer Biotechnology etc.
shelf life, >5years.
TFP03 Patent data based Pursuing MBA (HR/IT/ 6 months 1
Forecasting of Future Technology Management),
Education systems and M.Tech. (Future Studies/ IT/
skills requirement for Technology Management), Master
teachers of Science/B Tech plus pursuing
diploma/degree in IP/patents
TFP04 Artificial Intelligence Tool Pursuing B.Tech/ M.Tech in 6 months / 1
for assisting in patent Computer Science, Information 1 year
examination Technology, Electronics or (M.Tech)
Electrical Engineering
HSC02 Deep Learning Based 6 months 2
Artificial Intelligence Tool (i) Pursuing B.Tech/ M.Tech in
for Horizon Scanning Computer Science, Information
Technology, Electronics of
Electrical Engineering

OR

(ii) Pursuing B.Tech/ M.Tech in

Mechanical or Electrical Engg, or
Pursuing MBA with Engineering
or Physics background, OR
TFR07 Use of Artificial M.Tech in Transportation/ or 6 months / 1
Intelligence in Travel B.Tech/ M.Tech in Computer 1 year
Mode Choice Analysis Science/ MCA/ MBA with (M.Tech)
Engineering background/ M.Stat

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FPT01

Technology Foresight study: Food Processing Technology with longer

shelf life, >5years.

Food Processing has been identified as an important activity under manufacturing as inferred in the
TIFAC exercise on Technology Vision 2035. The sector needs to be studied in detail for an in depth
Technology Foresight analysis. The Technology Foresight study would attempt to project a
Technology Roadmap with identification of the following against near term, mid-term and long
range time frames:

Demonstration/deployment of mature technologies

Scaling up of technologies from lab scale for commercialization and
Developing technologies at lab scale.

Objectives of the foresight study

a. Identifying international technology trends and advances in the intervention areas

b. Mapping Indian food processing sector against international context, thereby identifying
technology gaps
c. While addressing technology gaps the study would necessarily delineate technology roadmap for
the country in three major stages of planned actions

(i) Actionable Agenda : Identifying technologies ready for deployment along with the likely
investment scenario at the first level
(ii) Strategies : Taking up technologies from laboratory scale to field trials for proving their
viability
(iii) Vision : Mobilizing resources & marshalling research policies for targeted, desirable and
aspirational technologies in the long term horizon.

Terms of Reference (TOR) of the study

a. An assessment of technology trends for existing long shelf life food processing technology.

b. Comparison study of existing technology vis--vis new technology for longer shelf life in terms
of Milk, Fruits & vegetables, Cereals and Fishery sectors .
c. Investigate potential of new technology and also exploring possibilities of diversifying into other
food processing segments.
d. Longer shelf life food: Background, number of existing units in India, produced varieties,
associated quality aspects, existing technology, manpower, market, available local brands etc.

e. Market potential for long shelf life food processing technology.

f. An Economic Feasibility analysis in terms of tangible and intangible benefit of longer shelf life
food technology.

g. R&D trends of longer shelf life food technology in India and abroad.

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TFP03

Patent Data based Forecasting of Future of Education and Skills

Requirement for Teachers

In recent years, technology has entered into the classrooms in a big way, making teaching intensely
technology driven. With this, for teachers the scope of enhancing the experiential learning and
integrating it in classes has increased tremendously, hitherto limited to classrooms or at best the
laboratories. From use of computers for programming to use of devices for online experiments, the
incursion of technology has, in fact, expanded and pushed educational frontiers into the infinite
cyberspace. In other words, technology has created competition between teachers and virtual
teaching/learning, a precursor to change of role of teachers in future.

Teaching of basic concepts through simulations, virtual reality for subjects like history and
geography, apps for learning languages or real-time translations, robotic or holographic teachers/
teaching assistants, adaptive learning and assessment systems etc., all look to be ready for
integration with classrooms. The imminent change has begun to pose challenges to teachers in
handling technology incursion on one hand to the technology savvy networked students on the
other; the level of challenge will only escalate further given the accelerating pace of technological
developments. As such the teachers are and will continue to be, challenged to upgrade their own
skills to stay relevant and effective in the emerging scenarios, impacted by future technologies as
they would be.

Technologies for which patents have been filed or granted in the past can well serve as precursors to
the upcoming innovations in educational spaces, which in turn can pose need of acquisition of
newer skills by teachers. The proposed study is aimed at forecasting such skills that would become
important for teachers, by examining the patent database of select technologies, dating back to last
15 years. Based on the patent data, first technologies likely to make inroad into education system in
future would be extracted and then from the same patent data, skills needed to handle them would
be identified and mapped on the time scale.

TFP04

Artificial Intelligence Tool for Assisting in Patent Examination

Patent Examination process has two aspects one formal examination and second technical
examination. Technical examination involves extensive prior art search which includes patents and
not patent literature, essentially it is a patentability assessment exercise. Prior art search and patent
analysis is used for ascertaining novelty and inventiveness of alleged invention examined for
patentability. With number of patents growing, and technical information available sources other
than patent documents such processes are increasingly becoming complex, difficult and time-
consuming. An emerging trend is to explore the possibility of using Artificial Intelligence to assist
in this process. The objective of this study is to develop an Artificial Intelligence based tool that

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will be able to read the patent applications, search existing patents in the relevant area, and prepare
preliminary report on patentability and also auto generate examination report with regard to formal
examination and technical examination. It is expected that artificial intelligence techniques such as
deep-learning will be required to develop such a tool.

HSC02

Deep Learning based intelligent tool for Horizon Scanning and its
application for emerging transportation technologie

Horizon scanning is a technique for detecting early signs of potentially important developments
through a systematic examination of potential threats and opportunities. The focus is on new
technology and its effects on the issue at hand. Horizon scanning involves anticipating issues,
accumulation of data and knowledge about them, and provide inputs for crucial decisions. The
results produced by horizon scanning are typically used as an input to policy development, strategic
planning and decision-support.
Information from a wide variety of sources can be used for Horizon Scanning, such as the Internet,
government ministries and agencies, non-governmental organisations, international organisations
and companies, research communities, and on-line and off-line databases, journals etc.
The objective of this study is to automate different steps in the Horizon Scanning process to identify
emerging trends. The tool should be able to leverage the existing web search engines, and should be
able to read, process, integrate, and analyse the full breadth of data available online. Deep Learning
technique will be utilized to develop such an intelligent system.
The tool will be applied to perform horizon scan on two emerging technologies in the transportation
sector: autonomous vehicles and ultra-fast land transport.

Required Qualifications

1. Pursuing B.Tech/ M.Tech in Mechanical or Electrical Engg, or Pursuing MBA with

Engineering or Physics background, OR
2. Pursuing B.Tech/ M.Tech in Computer Science, Information Technology, Electronics of
Electrical Engineering

TFR07

Use of Artificial Intelligence in Travel Mode Choice Analysis

Travel demand forecasting involves four stage trip generation, trip distribution, mode choice and
traffic assignment. Mode choice analysis is an important step, which predicts the mode used by the
travellers to reach their destination. Traditionally disaggregate discrete choice models such as
Multinomial Logit model are used for this purpose. However MNL has limitation that the input

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variables need to have crisp values, requiring significant time and efforts towards accurate
measurement. This limitation can be overcome by the use of Artificial Intelligence Model with
fuzzy representation of the mode choice behaviour. Use of Artificial Intelligence techniques such as
Support Vector Machines, Neural Network etc. Have been explored for mode choice analyses.

The present study will explore use of latest developments in the field of Artificial Intelligence such
as Deep Learning technique for mode choice analysis, focusing on long term projections.