IISc to collaborate with US University on advanced tech

The Indian Institute of Science (IISc) has signed an agreement announcing a new partnership with Washington University in St Louis, intended to collaborate on research and academic opportunities.

The agreement which was inked on August 25, during a Zoom meeting, but made public on Thursday, will see the two centres span research workshops and visits, plus joint course development and mentoring of PhD students in India and the US.

The domains in which the two universities will be collaborating include neuromorphic engineering, environmental science, aerosols research, and machine learning.

“We have already charted our plans for joint initiatives and identified specific areas for collaboration, including joint supervision or degree programs. We look forward to the success of this new partnership,” said Professor Govindan Rangarajan, Director of IISc.

The institue said the partnership has formalised the already existing ties between IISc alumni and faculty members at McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University.

Early this year, a course was co-developed by IISc faculty member Chetan Singh Thakur and Professor Shantanu Chakrabartty of the McKelvey School of Engineering in the area of machine learning for edge computing. “The collaboration will also focus on the translation of research to real-world applications by leveraging the ecosystem [in] Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India,” said Thakur, an Assistant Professor at IISc’s Department of Electronic Systems Engineering.

There are also plans to engage other regional universities and corporate partners by organising flagship workshops in neuromorphic engineering.

“By broadening the scope of this MoU to other areas, we will be able to strengthen the relationship with IISc,” Chakrabartty said. “Together, we also hope to engage local industries — both in the US and India — to get the university/industry partnerships going as well.”