Rourkela: In a significant stride towards defence-tech integration, the National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela has successfully concluded a high-level National Bootcamp on “Advances in Drone Swarm and Applications” in collaboration with the Military College of Telecommunication Engineering (MCTE), Ministry of Defence, Government of India.
The intensive five-day programme, held from July 21 to 25, 2025 at MCTE, Mhow (Indore), trained Indian Army officers and defence professionals in cutting-edge drone swarm technologies, highlighting NIT Rourkela’s growing prominence as a centre for strategic technological training in India.
The inaugural session was graced by Lieutenant General Vivek Dogra, Sena Medal, Commandant, MCTE, who attended as the chief guest, while the valedictory ceremony was attended by chief guest Major General Gautam Mahajan, Sena Medal- Dean and Chief Instructor.
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From NIT Rourkela, the workshop was organised by a team comprising Prof PS Balaji from the Department of Mechanical Engineering, along with Dr Chikesh Ranjan (Project Engineer) and Subhasish Bhoi (Junior Research Fellow). Prof J Srinivas from NITR is the principal investigator of the project. Subodh K Dash and Spoorti G Hannikeri from Aerovidya Ventures assisted in facilitating the training throughout the programme.
Funded by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under its flagship initiative “Capacity Building for Human Resource Development in Unmanned Aircraft Systems” (Aeromechanics theme), the bootcamp was led by the Department of Mechanical Engineering, NIT Rourkela. It brought together military personnel, academicians, drone technologists and research leaders from across the country to advance skill sets critical to India’s aerospace and defence capabilities.
Participants explored advanced drone technologies through a curriculum that seamlessly blended core concepts with state-of-the-art applications. Sessions focused on swarm intelligence and inter-drone coordination, flight systems architecture and UAV dynamics, cybersecurity protocols, vision-based navigation and real-time swarm control and multi-agent mission planning with live simulations. The hands-on modules were designed to empower the Indian Army to operationalise drone swarms in real-world scenarios, validating the transformative concept of “From Planning to Field Execution”.
Prof K Umamaheshwar Rao, Director, NIT Rourkela, stated, “The successful conduct of this national boot camp in collaboration marks a proud milestone for NIT Rourkela. We sincerely thank the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Ministry of Defence for entrusting us with this important responsibility. Such initiatives exemplify the power of academia–defence partnerships in building indigenous capabilities for India’s strategic sectors and support India’s aspirations in the field of aerospace and unmanned systems. I congratulate our faculty, collaborators, and participating officers for making this initiative a success.”
PNN