Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Science and Technology and Earth Sciences, Dr Harsh Vardhan on Sunday inaugurated the Centre of Excellence for Intelligent Sensors and Systems at CSIR-CSIO here.

 This facility will house the development of multi sensor systems based on Seismic, Acoustic, IR and UWB in the area of perimeter monitoring for societal and strategic applications using artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Speaking to scientists at the Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), a laboratory of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) here, Dr Vardhan said that such initiatives will kick-start a lot of synergies to proven strengths in many areas, which are at the heart of the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ dream.

 Later, speaking to mediapersons, the Minister said that CSIR-CSIO has a head-start by already having delivered in the complex, multi-disciplinary areas of earthquake monitoring systems which have helped in real time disaster management for metro rail systems and avionic display systems for Indian defence needs.

 Dr Vardhan encouraged the scientists working in the development of solutions for fighting COVID-19. He saw the air sampling devices for detection of COVID 19 virus in aerosols and was impressed with the economical solution having better suction capacity having less noise levels making it suitable for deployment in hospitals and other critical areas in place of expensive imported equipment.

He also saw the UVC retrofit units for existing HVAC ducts for neutralizing COVID-19 virus in the air flow of buildings.