Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions (RBEI) signed an MoU with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT M) to set up the Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (RBC-DSAI).

The mission of the RBC-DSAI is to create societal impact through multidisciplinary interactions with government, academic, research and industrial collaborators on core challenges in data science and artificial intelligence (AI). The Centre will receive funding up to Rs 3 crores to 4 crores per year, for five years.

Vijay Ratnaparkhe, MD, Robert Bosch, said, “This partnership is to accelerate research for societal impact, taking a long-term view. It will set a precedent in the way big-data is used to improve our problem solving capability in industry. At the same time, the collaboration will result in shared outcomes for the benefit of society.

The Robert Bosch Centre will undertake foundational research in multiple areas of AI and data science – deep learning, reinforcement learning, network analytics, interpretable machine learning, and domain aware AI.

The areas of activity include research projects, knowledge management and dissemination, developing prototypes, outreach projects and setting up collaborative facilities and laboratories among others.

Bhaskar Ramamurthi, director, IIT M said, “IIT-M has been nurturing its interdisciplinary data sciences and artificial intelligence research group for more than three years now. The launch of this Centre in partnership with, and generous support from, RBEI is an affirmation of the rapid growth and impact of the group’s research and teaching activities. I am confident that the RBC-DSAI will become a globally acknowledged Centre working at the cutting edge of various aspects of machine learning, data science and artificial intelligence, leading to work with high social impact.”

The RBC-DSAI’s mandate requires interaction with industry and other universities, including international student and faculty exchanges.

With this MoU, IIT-M will support the Narendra Modi government’s ‘Digital India’ initiative that was launched in July, 2015 to give the country a push in the fields of innovation and research.