New Hub Under National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems | 11 Mar 2020

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Ropar, Punjab is setting up a Sectoral Application Hub in Technologies for Agriculture and Water.

The hub is being set up under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems (NMICPS) and is granted by Union Government’s Science and Engineering Research Board.
The application hub will bring solutions for stubble management, water quality improvement and mapping of hazardous substances in water.
The hub aims at carrying out translational research and work with concerned departments to develop prototypes, products and implementations.

It was launched in 2018 and is implemented by the Department of Science & Technology for a period of five years.
NMICPS covers entire India which includes Central Ministries, State Governments, Industry and Academia.
Objectives:
- It is a comprehensive mission which would address technology development, application development, human resource development & skill enhancement, entrepreneurship and start-up development in Cyber-Physical System (CPS) and associated technologies.
- The mission aims at establishing 15 Technology Innovation Hubs (TIH), six Application Innovation Hubs (AIH) and four Technology Translation Research Parks (TTRP).
- These Hubs & TTRPs will connect to Academics, Industry, Central Ministries and State Government in developing solutions at reputed academic, R&D and other organizations across the country in a hub and spoke model.
- The Hubs & TTRPs have four focused areas namely:
  - Technology Development.
  - HRD & Skill Development.
  - Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Start-ups Ecosystem Development.
  - International Collaborations.

Cyber-Physical Systems

These systems integrate sensing, computation, control and networking into physical objects and infrastructure, connecting them to the Internet and to each other.
Few Potential applications:
- Driverless cars that communicate securely with each other on smart roads.
- Sensors in the home to detect changing health conditions.
- Improving agricultural practices.
- Enabling scientists to address issues arising out of climate change.
Advances in cyber-physical systems will enable capability, adaptability, scalability, resiliency, safety, security and usability that will far exceed the simple embedded systems of today.