Xiaomi Reaffirms Commitment to

 Xiaomi Reaffirms Commitment to Data Security and Privacy

Xiaomi, the world's leading consumer electronics and smart manufacturing company, recommitted itself to protecting customer data during its annual Security and Privacy Awareness Month completed today. It held employee training events and expert seminars at the Xiaomi Technology Park in Beijing, China and at Xiaomi's Technology Operation Center in Singapore.

This was the third consecutive year that it held special classes for its engineers and other employees and led discussions with industry executives, IT security experts, and the public about the importance of data security and user privacy protection. Xiaomi also released updated white papers on security and privacy along with its annual transparency report detailing its data security activities.

The purpose of the month-long series of events was to bolster its user security and privacy protection practices and to build trust in Xiaomi’s products through transparency and accountability.

Xiaomi has built a comprehensive governance structure to protect data security and user privacy. This involves cooperation between cybersecurity experts, smartphone operating system engineers, lawyers, and legal compliance experts. Overseeing these specialists is a Security and Privacy Committee led by senior executives. 

Cui Baoqiu, Xiaomi Vice President and Chairman of the Xiaomi Security and Privacy Committee, called data security and user privacy protection a key to the long-term, sustainable development of the company's global business. "Protecting the data security and privacy of our users is the top priority,” he said. “Our customers care about this issue more than any other. Xiaomi is committed to offering safe and reliable Android smartphones and IoT products."

Eugene Liderman, Director of Android Security Strategy of Google, highlighted Xiaomi's contribution to the Android system. "One of Android's biggest strengths is the diverse ecosystem of partners. Xiaomi is a great example of this and it's great to see their continued investment in cyber security hygiene across their product portfolio", he added.

Professor Liu Yang, School of Computer Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, said, "As the security challenge is becoming the focus of many technology discussions, industry stakeholders attach more importance to the urgency of managing vulnerabilities at hardware, software and even in the massive open source space. Xiaomi has made tremendous effort to address the issue, safeguarding users with technology expertise, and continuously exploring new methods for better data protection."

With the world's largest consumer IoT platform, Xiaomi is constantly working to improve IoT security and privacy protections. Xiaomi held its fifth annual IoT security summit on June 29 and 30 in Beijing. Industry executives and experts discussed a wide range of issues from data security governance frameworks and cross-border data transfers to the security of internet-connected electric vehicles and solutions for software supply chain security threats.

During the June event, Xiaomi announced that its Electric Scooter 4 Pro obtained IoT Security Rating Gold level certification from Underwriter Laboratories Inc, an international safety research institute based in the U.S. This designation made Electric Scooter 4 Pro the world's first electric scooter with such a high-level safety rating. The certificate also indicated that the security baseline of Xiaomi's IoT product development is in line with international standards.

Xiaomi created its Security and Privacy Committee in 2014. In 2016, Xiaomi became the first Chinese company to receive certification from TrustArc. Xiaomi adopted the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of European Union compliance assessment in 2018. In 2019, Xiaomi security and privacy practices were certificated on ISO/IEC 27001, ISO/IEC 27018. Last year, Xiaomi published its first transparency report, making it the first Android smartphone brand to do so. Xiaomi this year obtained the certificate of registration of NIST CSF (National Institute of Standards and Technology, Cybersecurity Framework), further strengthening its data security protection capabilities.

For the white papers and reports mentioned above, please use the Xiaomi Trust Center at https://trust.mi.com/

Leadership development for higher Education institutions

 Leadership development for higher Education institutions organised by NIT Tiruchirappalli Co organized with NTU,Singapore and IIIT Sri City sponsored by MHRD-LEAP

Excellence in higher education achieved through research and  innovation is the hallmark of highly successful economies of the  world. India is now one of the top few large economies of the world  mainly due to the importance given to higher education. However, we  are yet to attain world-class excellence and thereby feature among the  best institutions of the world. A transformational change is necessary to propel some of the Indian higher educational organizations to the  top, a change that is likely to be catalyzed via visionary leadership.  
Recognizing this need, the Ministry of Human Resource Development,  Government of India has initiated a Leadership for Academicians  Program (LEAP) which seeks to create visionary leaders for the  national higher education system. 

Leadership for Academicians  Programme (LEAP) is a unique, important and timely initiative to equip  senior faculty members with to take up leadership roles in existing  and new institutions. The program is to be delivered roughly two-weeks  in India and a one-week long program in a leading foreign institution.  The entire program expenses including foreign travel is sponsored by  MHRD.

NIT Trichy is the only NIT among 15top institutions selected by MHRD  to conduct the LEAP program in February 2019. Nanyang Technological  University, one of the top 12 universities of the world is the  international partner. IIIT Sri City is co-organizing this program.  The potential participants of the program are Professors with  
sufficient years of experience and who are likely to be the next  generation of leaders for our institutions of higher education.

In addition to providing required insights on emerging international  and national contexts of technical education and necessary learning  for taking up leadership roles participants shall have a unique  opportunity to carry out a project on chosen themes of institutional administration under the mentor ship of experts from India and  
Singapore. Comprehensive feedback shall also to participants  highlighting their strengths and areas of improvement.

The programme is broadly divided into the following themes: 
♦  Visioning, Goal Setting and Strategizing ♦ Teaching & Learning 
♦  Research and Industry Collaboration ♦ People Management ♦ Financial  Management 
♦ Internationalization and Global positioning 
♦ Project and  Operations Management ♦ Societal Engagement

The programme will be delivered through a participative learning mode. It will cover discussions, exercises, case analysis, group work, field  visits etc. As part of programme methodology, it is proposed to have  
outbound activities and field visits for experiential and  reflection-based learning so that the collective learning is  
significantly achieved. The resource persons will be highly-recognized  academic leaders, entrepreneurs, professional trainers and industry leaders.

NIT Tiruchirappalli Won Second Prize

NIT, Tiruchirappalli won second prize at Indo Singapore Hackathon 2018

Twenty teams from Singapore and India, with university and college students selected on a nationwide basis, participated in the hackathon. Each team had 3 students and a dedicated mentor. A total of  120 participants took part in the 36-hour hackathon on November 12-13, ending with the grand finale on November 14.  Nanyang Technological  University and MHRD'S Innovation Cell organized this SINGAPORE-INDIA  HACKATHON-2018 under the theme “Solution for humanity”.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented the awards to the winning teams of  the India-Singapore Hackathon 2018 on 15 November.  Earlier in the year, Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, during his visit to  Singapore, proposed to the Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong  that India and Singapore should organize a joint hackathon to harness and showcase the "innovation potential" of youth. High Commission of  India in Singapore facilitated the event in collaboration with  Ministries of Education and Foreign Affairs of Singapore. Problems  posed to the teams were in the areas of mapping, synchronizing the  output of diverse social media, shared digital identity verification  etc.

NIT Trichy was one among the two NITs that represented the Indian contingent and most of the other teams were from the IITs.  The members of the teams were chosen based on their programming skills. Mr Kartik Venkataran (IV year CSE), Mr Deep Bhattacharya (IV year CSE) and Mr D. Arutselvan(IV year ECE) and mentor Dr Rajeswari  Sridhar, Associate Professor and Head of Department of Computer  Science Engineering were the members of the team from NIT,  Tiruchirappalli. They were selected based on a screening process by  

the MHRD after which they underwent a 2-day orientation at IIT-Bombay before their departure to Singapore in order to equip themselves for  the Hackathon.5 teams each from both the countries were shortlisted  

for the finale.

              NIT Trichy bagged the overall 2nd prize from among both the teams with a cash award of $6,000 SGD for building an effective learning platform based on crowd sourcing and live chat for expert interaction in a Neuro-Linguistic Processing engine. The learning platform can tag topics to summarize the concepts in the form of mind  maps and give recommendations for prerequistes and related topics with links to resources.

Professor Mini Shaji Thomas, Director, NIT, Tiruchirappalli congratulated the team.