Valeo establishes centre of excellence on VIT campus

Vellore, June 25, 2019: Valeo, the global automotive technology supplier has set-up a Center of Excellence at Vellore Institute of Technology’s (VIT) Vellore campus. The State-of-the-Art facility was inaugurated today by Mr. Pierre Lebrun, Vice President, Group Electronics Expertise and Development Services, Valeo.

Mr. Jaji Vijayaraman, Mechanical R&D Director, Group Electronics Expertise and Development Services, Valeo India and Dr. Anand A. Samuel, Vice Chancellor, Dr. S. Narayanan, Pro-Vice Chancellor, Dr. Vasudevan R, Dean, School of Mechanical Engineering, Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) were present at the event.

As part of its Industry Academia initiative, Valeo signed a Memorandum of Understanding with VIT Vellore last year and as part of the MoU, Valeo has established this Center of Excellence with an aim to support students and research scholars in automotive research, especially in the areas of power train, safety, power electronics and infotainment.

The 1,800 square feet facility showcases the products and technologies of Valeo in the areas of powertrain systems, thermal systems, visibility systems and autonomous driving to provide an exposure to the students on the current and futuristic auto industry trends. The center will be utilised by research scholars and students for experimentation and testing of their projects and computational studies.

Commenting on the Valeo Center of Excellence, Mr. Ashok Belani, Group President and Managing Director, Valeo India, said, “Innovation is in Valeo’s DNA. Our focused efforts and investments in research and development has led us to become a leading global automotive technology player.

In India, Valeo wants to tap into the vast engineering talent pool and their bright minds for innovative ideas that can address the emerging mobility needs across the globe. Our teams are working closely with the students across the country to identify and nurture new ideas to develop workable solutions to address industry specific needs.

I am happy that this Center of Excellence at VIT will provide the students and research scholars experiential learning opportunities. I am confident that this exposure combined with effective mentoring from Valeo’s in-house experts will help them to become industry-ready professionals, by the time they step out of the university”.

Commenting on the tie-up with Valeo, Dr. Anand A. Samuel, Vice Chancellor, VIT, said, “This is a great initiative towards integrating University and Industry and will benefit the students in understanding the industry processes and they will get an opportunity to work on live problems of industry and solve.”

Valeo has initiated joint research projects on emerging technologies along with VIT and the teams are working on five projects currently. The company is also working closely with the University to launch a joint certification course on Mechatronics and an exclusive curriculum for the Master’s program.

The company’s R&D division has recruited close to 60 engineers from Mechanical, Electronic & Communications, Electrical & Electronics and Embedded Electronic streams and management graduates from VIT in the last 3 – 5 years.

Valeo India: Present since 1997 in India, Valeo has developed a very strong Indian footprint in the last 20 years. Valeo today has eight Production Sites, one global R&D center, five Distribution Platforms, one Front office to serve clients. Valeo employs 5,000 + people in India, of which nearly 50% are engineers.

Started in 2010 with 50 engineers at Chennai, today the R&D hub employs 1000 + immensely talented Indian engineers, leveraging their skillsets to provide efficient support in the areas of Mechanical Design, Simulation, Embedded Software Development, Computer Vision, Machine Learning and Hardware & Functional Safety Design to Valeo’s global customers. The division plans to increase its headcount to 5000 engineers by 2023.

Valeo: Valeo is an automotive supplier, partner to all automakers worldwide. As a technology company, Valeo proposes innovative products and systems that contribute to the reduction of CO2 emissions and to the development of intuitive driving. In 2018, the Group generated sales of 19.3 billion euros and invested 13% of its original equipment sales in Research and Development. At December 31, 2018, Valeo had 186 plants, 21 research centers, 38 development centers and 15 distribution platforms, and employed 113,600 people in 33 countries worldwide. Valeo is listed on the Paris stock exchange.

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Sandhya Raman
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