The department has introduced a new course starting July 2021 titled, Introduction to Chemical Engineering Applications in Industry (CL 681), with a focus on the Pharmaceutical industry. The lectures are being delivered by two industry experts, Dr Ravichandra Palaparthi (Anagha Consulting, IITM BTech) and Dr Pankaj Doshi (Pfizer Inc, IITB BTech & MTech).

The course is intended to provide visibility to the students on the practical aspects and relevance of chemical engineering in routine industrial problem solving. One of the focus areas would be the emerging pharmaceutical industry where fast paced innovations are based on sound engineering design. Pharma is a critical industry for India but faces several chemical engineering challenges. Unfortunately, there are significant gaps in the needs of the pharma industry, and the academic community. For example:

• Indian pharma industry employs fewer chemical engineers and relies heavily (and blindly) on imported resources (software, equipment, consultants, Pharma 4.0 needs, etc) due to lack of the depth of technical talent employed. (Even though, institutes like IITs produce good talent)
   
• There is hardly any systematic and meaningful interactions, like working consortia, to bridge the gaps for mutual leveraging of talents and expertise

This course is intended to partially bridge the gap by introducing the students to the practical problems in pharma, the value add to the industry through the use of relevant engineering principles, and problem-solving approaches. Such an exposure is intended to encourage the graduates to effectively leverage their skills in core-engineering principles as they pursue careers in the Indian industry and beyond.