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Vision:

The Centre has a vision to become a leading Research & Development as well as Academic Institution in Free and Open Source model of knowledge development and thereby contributing towards sustainable development of the society.

Mission

The Mission of ICFOSS is to promote research and development in the area of Free and Open Source Software and the knowledge development model it puts forward.

Vision:

The Centre has a vision to become a leading Research & Development as well as Academic Institution in Free and Open Source model of knowledge development and thereby contributing towards sustainable development of the society.

Mission

The Mission of ICFOSS is to promote research and development in the area of Free and Open Source Software and the knowledge development model it puts forward.

Activities

The Centre houses–a prototyping and manufacturing laboratory supporting Open Hardware, e-Governance Lab, Development teams, State Nodal Agency for Malayalam Computing, State of the Art Production & Development servers, Language Technology Lab, UAV workstation, a dedicated team on Assistive Technology Lab, Centre of Excellence in Blender, and Training areas.  ICFOSS was successful in conducting a lot of R&D initiatives. As part of the LoRaWAN initiative project under Open Hardware Project, ICFOSS have designed, developed and implemented the Automated Weather Stations (AWS) in six Panchayaths in Kattakada Legislative Assembly Area. With this implementation, Kattakada becomes one of the first assembly constituency area in India, which operates LoRa WAN enabled AWS. As per the Kerala Government directive on applying technology to develop assistive devices for people with disabilities, ICFOSS started initiatives for the betterment of the visually impaired. The initiatives for the visually impaired are carried out based on the concept developed by ICFOSS – AKSHI (meaning eye). By associating with the schools for the visually impaired, ICFOSS started the research and development of learning aid for the visually impaired students. ICFOSS is currently developing word learning devices for the visually impaired students. The team is also exploring the development of general utility devices for the visually impaired community. These activities are based on the directions put forward by the experts of the Visually Impaired schools, all over Kerala.

Currently the Centre is looking for possible collaborative activities in association with JNU, NewDelhi for recognising ICFOSS, as an accredited Research Centre under Jawaharlal Nehru University. The collaboration is for pursuing Reserach & Development leading to Doctoral and Post Doctoral degrees as well as MS programs in multidisciplinary areas by utilising the expertise of ICFOSS in various FOSS related domains such as Computational Linguistics, Management and Entrepreneurship, Computational Finance, Artificial Intelligence, GIS, Assistive Technology, IOT, e Governance and Language Technology for exploring the potential of ICT technologies in achieving sustainable development goals.

ICFOSS is also conducting Women Hackathons, as part of the Gender & Technology initiatives with the intention of attracting more girl students and women in general to Free Software programming.  This will prepare the women to use free software effectively, deepen their understanding of free software concepts and build an appreciation technology and enable them to contribute to free software projects as well as develop their technical capabilities. ICFOSS also provides Women Hackathon Fellowships every year (maximum of 5 fellows), to individuals with general technical skills, understanding of free software, interest in gender issues and having leadership qualities. ICFOSS also offers training to women, in various areas of FOSS research through winter and summers schools.

Back-to-Work is another initiative under G&T. It is an intensive trainings in various free software domains for women who have a career gap in their profession to restart their career. We have conducted two such trainings as a pilot run. Through this programme ICFOSS’s effort to facilitate placement for the participants in reputed companies/organisations has reached a positive outcome.

Areas of Research Undertaken :

Collaborations:

• Ministry of Communication & Information Technology, Department of Electronics & Information Technology, Govt. of India
• Ministry of Social Justice Department, Govt. of India
• TNO, Netherlands
• University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien, Austria
• Prime Minister’s Science, Technology & Innocation Advisory Council, Office of the Principle Scientific Advisor, Govt. of India.
• Punjab University, Patyala, Punjab
• Anna University – KBC Research Centre, Chennai
• M S Swaminathan Foundation, Chennai
• NISH Thiruvananthapuram

Awards & Recognitions

• Under the Kerala State IT Policy 2017, Government of Kerala has recognized and entrusted ICFOSS to act as State Nodal Agency for R&D and promotion of FOSS related activities and for providing consultancy & support in FOSS solutions, among government agencies and Departments across state.
• ICFOSS has also been recognized and entrusted as the State Nodal Agency in Malayalam Computing by the Government of Kerala
• ICFOSS have also been recognized and listed as the first institutional member of LoRa Alliance International, from India
• ICFOSS has been awarded the first Bhasha Prathibha Puraskaaram instituted by Karala Malayalam Mission. The award with cash price of Rs. 50,000. Director ICFOSS has received the award from the Hon’ble chief Minister of Kerala in the function held on 21^st February 2020 at Ayyankali Hall, Thiruvananthapuram for the outstanding contribution  in the area of Malayalam Computing.
• ICFOSS has become one of top five finalists of the 2020 Equals in Tech Awards for initiating programmes in the intersection of gender and technology (out of 340 applicants globally)