Chandigarh (05.11.2025): Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar (IIT Ropar) and iDG10 Solutions Private Limited signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish a strategic, long-term collaboration for validation, testing, training and joint consultancy in the field of subsea pipeline design technology, leveraging IIT Ropar’s academic expertise and iDG10’s proprietary software — Subsea Pipeline Design Tool (SPDT).
The MoU was inked by Prof Rajeev Ahuja, Director, IIT Ropar and Silvi Francis Farnand, A&P Director & Co-founder, iDG10 Solutions Pvt. Ltd in the presence of Dr Sarang Gumfekar, Associate Dean, Continuing Education and Outreach along with Prof Dhiraj K Mahajan who will be coordinating the proposed activities from IIT Ropar side.
The 60-month partnership creates an India-based capability that brings world-class subsea pipeline design training, hands-on tool validation, industry-facing consultancy and student Capstone projects under one roof, significantly reducing reliance on overseas providers of such niche training and building local capacity for India’s growing offshore and energy infrastructure programmes.
“The MoU marks an important step toward building home-grown capability in a highly specialized and strategic area of offshore engineering. Our students and researchers will gain practical, tool-based experience that directly addresses industry needs and national infrastructure priorities,” said Prof Rajeev Ahuja, Director, IIT Ropar.
Silvi Francis Farnand, A&P Director & Co-founder, iDG10 Solutions Pvt. Ltd said, “We are excited to partner with IIT Ropar to bring SPDT-driven education and consultancy to India’s engineers. This collaboration will help bridge the gap and enable faster, safer and more cost-effective subsea pipeline projects.”
Key highlights of the collaboration:
- Software licensing for education & validation: iDG10 will provide short-term and student licenses of its SPDT and related proprietary tools to IIT Ropar for validation, testing and teaching by students, researchers and faculty.
- Industry-ready training programme: A flagship Subsea Pipeline Design course will be delivered jointly — 5 days of classroom teaching (in-person at IIT Ropar) followed by a 21-day live project (online) where participants use SPDT for end-to-end pipeline design.
- Capstone & research opportunities: iDG10 will offer Capstone projects for BTech/MTech students; the top performing candidates will receive further SPDT tool access and technical support. Each participant in the live project receives a 21-day SPDT trial for hands-on work.
- Joint consultancy: IIT Ropar and iDG10 will provide collaborative consultancy services to the Oil & Gas sector and other infrastructure domains listed below, combining academic research capability with industrial software expertise.
- Sectors covered: Oil & Gas (offshore), Water & Wastewater infrastructure, Hydrogen transportation, District heating & cooling networks, Carbon Capture transport/storage/utilization (CCTSU), Mining & slurry transport, and Thermal power plant cooling systems.
