Western Digital Highlights Data Storage Innovation at Innovation Bazaar 2025

Western Digital hosted its 8th annual Innovation Bazaar (IB 2025) in India on 5th November, reaffirming its long-standing commitment to fostering innovation and nurturing India’s engineering talent. The daylong event celebrated engineering creativity, collaboration, and technical excellence, featuring 125+ internal submissions and 50+ university entries. 

Since its inception, the Innovation Bazaar has been a platform for WD engineers and university researchers to showcase breakthroughs in data storage and emerging technologies. This year’s entries highlighted work in AI-driven software, HDD memory organization, NVMe over-Fabrics (NVMe-oF), the OptiNAND™ architecture, ASIC-driven solutions and next-generation storage innovations such as neuromorphic storage.

“At Western Digital, we believe that innovation thrives where curiosity meets collaboration,” said Kaustabh S Patkar, Site Leader & Senior Director, HDD Engineering, Western Digital India. “Western Digital’s Innovation Bazaar showcases how our 400+ engineers and 11 university partners are transforming bold ideas into real-world solutions whether it is advanced storage architectures to AI-driven technologies. Every project here reflects our commitment to nurturing talent, advancing data storage for our customers, and strengthening India’s role in shaping the future of technology.”

Adding to this, the winners at the Innovation Bazaar, from Vellore Institute of Technology, who submitted PurgeX – a NIST-compliant offline data wiping solution for HDD/ SSD/ Hidden storage said, “Winning at the Innovation Bazaar showed us how an idea improves when we test it through real conversations and receive practical feedback from industry experts. Glad to be a part of it!”

This year, Western Digital expanded its university partnerships, receiving submissions from BITS Goa, Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women (IGDTUW), Manipal Institute of Technology, Siddaganga Institute of Technology, and Vellore Institute of Technology. Western Digital now collaborates with 11 universities in India to advance joint research, develop emerging talent, and enable innovation for the data-driven future.

Engineering showcases and university presentations were evaluated for novelty, business impact, systems thinking, and problem solving. Winners were recognized with thoughtfully curated prizes, rounding out a day of interactive sessions, Q&As, and knowledge sharing.