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IIT Kharagpur and Japan’s The Association for Overseas Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Partnerships (AOTS) have signed an MoU on January 21, 2019, to explore opportunities for an Indo-Japanese Research Centre at IIT Kharagpur to showcase research and technology developments in thematic areas.
The two organizations shall focus on state of the art joint certification courses in the domains of technology and management to be co-taught by faculty/experts in both countries including visits to the host institutions. This partnership will have a strong focus on the professional development of students at the Institute as well as industry professionals. Courses will also be offered to impart training to the Japanese students and professionals in India. This would involve domain experts from IIT Kharagpur and industry.
“Japan is a global leader in domains such as Urban Science & Infrastructure, Advanced Manufacturing/Industry 4.0, Quality with focus on manufacturing, High-Speed Railways, Semiconductors & Electronic Manufacturing automotive while India has emerged as the domain expert in Information Technology, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence and Start-up culture. The Centre will facilitate collaborative projects and training modules in these areas in accordance to work cultures of India and Japan which have their unique styles of management and leadership,” said Prof. P P Chakrabarti, Director IIT Kharagpur.
Prof. Chakrabarti signed the MoU virtually in the presence of his counterpart Shinya Kuwayama, President, AOTS through video conferencing. The delegation from AOTS, which visited the Kolkata Extension Centre of IIT Kharagpur consisted of Hisashi Kanda, General Manager of AOTS, New Delhi office and Supriya Chandra, the program coordinator/liaison, while Mr. Joji Tateishi, Senior Managing Director, Mr. Takeshi Ichikawa, Director and Mr. Yasumi Suzuki, General Manager, AOTS Japan participated through video conferencing.
“Maintenance and health monitoring of infrastructural facilities for transportation, building etc, based on new technological developments are of paramount importance. Japan’s expertise in this area along with sensor technologies will be extremely beneficial in offering short courses jointly by IIT Kharagpur and Japanese organizations,” said Prof. S K Bhattacharyya, Deputy Director of IIT Kharagpur who was present on the occasion along with Prof. Anandaroop Bhattacharya, Associate Dean, International Relations.
Joint academic and business activities will be undertaken including events to promote education, internships and employment for students. “With the growing trend of students getting placed in Japanese companies or viewing Japanese universities for higher studies, IIT Kharagpur is keen to start courses on the Japanese language in its campus with the help of AOTS for the benefit of the students of IIT Kharagpur,” opined Anandaroop Bhattacharya. It is to be noted that Japanese companies were the highest foreign recruiters at IIT KGP placements for the past two years.
The activities of the Indo-Japanese Research Centre spearheaded by IIT Kharagpur will be open to other engineering Institutions for participation including other IITs and NITs.