IIT Madras, two Japanese firms to set up research cell

The premier engineering institute signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Japan’s alfaTKG Co Ltd and Okabe Manufacturing Co Ltd for collaborating in the core areas of the manufacturing sector including research and development (Rand D). The MoU will pave the way for IIT Madras cooperating with the two companies in areas related to joint research, sponsorship programmes, usage of the facilities of each other, and exchange of employees among them.

“There is a lot of potential for this kind of collaboration with IIT Madras. This collaboration can also pave way for our students to intern in the partner firms in Japan,” Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT Madras, said in a statement.

As part of the initiative alfaTKG, a pioneer in providing Internet of Things (IoT)-based solutions for paperless manufacturing technology in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), will be introducing “Genius Artificial Intelligence Assistance” (GAIA) for efficient manufacturing, machinery utility and health monitoring, IIT Madras said

Okabe Manufacturing is a leader in SME in Japan and a tier-1 supplier for Hitachi for ATM machines.

Mindtree tied up with Indian Institute of Science (IISc) for advanced research in AI in this tech hub, said the company. “The partnership will facilitate teaching and research in AI for data sciences and natural language processing, introduce the institute’s students to solving modern business problems using AI and machine learning (ML),” said the city-based firm in a statement here. As part of the tie-up, a fund christened ‘Mindtree Associate Professor Chair on AI’ will be set up to attract faculty working on AI research. 

The inaugural chair will be headed by the institute’s Computer Science and Automation Department Prof Vijay Natarajan. With 12 years in related fields, Natarajan works in scientific visualisation, computational topology and computational geometry. “Natarajan’s research is set to impact the next-generation data processing, analysis and visualisation technology,” said the statement.