AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat Technological University (GTU) will apply for about 2,000 patents on behalf of its students at the end of the academic year. Creating a separate intellectual property right (IPR) cell for filling the patents for its students, the university will thus become the first in the country to file patents on such a large scale.

This year GTU has made it compulsory for its students to conduct their projects in association with local micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). The students are required to point out the technological issues faced buy these companies and work out innovative solutions as a part of their academic projects. With 50,000 engineering students to graduate from GTU in April 2012, a total number of around 20,000 projects of students will emerge from GTU.

Out of these projects, GTU will select 2,000 best projects and apply for patents for the students who conducted the project. "The idea of introducing the patent related exercise in GTU is to increase the quality of research of our students. We are encouraging them to do their projects to yield patentable results. This means students will carry out high-quality research in newer topics which are relevant to the society," said GTU vice-chancellor Akshai Aggarwal.

Apart from the academic projects of the BE students, the university will also apply for patents for the dissertation projects of its Master of Engineering (ME) and Master of Pharmacy (MPharm) students.

To create the awareness of patents, GTU has kicked-off various initiatives. The university has started a two-day workshop on patents on September 3 for the teachers of pharmacy colleges affiliated to GTU. The workshop is being attended by 137 teachers of various colleges.

"The workshop is to inform the teachers about patents and the kind of innovations that could apply for patents," said Aggarwal. A similar workshop for the teachers of engineering colleges will also be conducted. Aggarwal said that the practice of filing patents by universities for its students is common in foreign universities, GTU will be the first varsity in the country to adopt the practice systematically.