Memorandum of Understanding was signed between Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) Thiruvananthapuram and AZISTA Industries private Limited (AZISTA), Hyderabad on 1st November 2025 for collaborative engagement in areas of mutual interest and academic co-operation. MoU document was signed by Prof. Dipankar Banerjee, Vice-Chancellor IIST and Shri Sunil Indurti, Director, AZISTA. Focal points/ coordinators identified from Institute side for further interactions are Dr. Priyadarshnam, Department of Avionics, IIST and Rovin Sharma, AZISTA.

Ms. Sona Babu, a Research Scholar in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, has received the Best Paper Award in the track “Simulation, Optimization and Productivity Improvement” for her paper titled “Hybrid Metaheuristics for Pareto-based Bi-objective Optimization in a JIT Unrelated Parallel Machine Scheduling Problem” at the 5th IEOM India International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management (IEOM 2025), held at VIT, Vellore, Tamil-Nadu, India, from November 6–8, 2025. She is pursuing her research under the supervision of Dr. B. S.