New research joint venture between Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and UTS on artificial intelligence
Sydney: The Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and the University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS’) Faculty of Engineering and IT have extended research cooperation by establishing a new joint research cluster (JRC).
The cluster’s focus areas will include artificial intelligence (AI), character and video recognition, document analysis and biometrics. Immensely popular fields world-wide, AI research is growing at an incredible rate, with many applications being translated for industry use. According to Accenture, AI has the potential to add US$957 billion, or 15 percent of India’s current gross value in 2035.
UTS already conducts extensive research in these areas in its Centre for Artificial Intelligence and School of Software. ISI has built strong expertise via research undertaken in its Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit.
Both institutions have strong research groups, capabilities with complementary strengths, and a joint body of work in the fields. Building on ISI and UTS expertise, the research cluster enables accelerated collaboration between researchers from both institutions to grow the scale of research.
The cluster will also enable PhD students from India and Australia to work together closely, including in lab space in India made available by ISI.
Dr Umapada Pal at ISI and I have collaborated for many years, and it’s wonderful to now see our “research cooperation take the next step,” said Professor Michael Blumenstein, Associate Dean at the UTS Faculty of Engineering and IT.
“With ISI being one of India’s key academic institutions, this joint cluster will create further linkages between our academics and offer an exceptional opportunity for UTS staff and students working with ISI experts.”
During a recent visit to ISI, UTS Deputy Vice-Chancellor International Iain Watt noted, “The signing of this JRC is a culmination of years of academic cooperation and development of a strong friendship. ISI making available lab and research space in Kolkata for UTS staff and students is fantastic, and will further strengthen our partnership.”
ISI Deputy Director Dipti Prasad Mukherjee said, “The recently signed Memorandum of Understanding and Joint Research Cluster initiative between Indian Statistical Institute and UTS will enable the two institutions to grow international research collaborations in the broad area of artificial intelligence, including pattern recognition and computer vision.
“There also exist opportunities to partner with industry, seek out international funds, and strengthen our cooperation through jointly supervised PhD students.“
This collaboration enables UTS and ISI to respond to research challenges at an international level, and generate practical software solutions that address real-world problems in the areas of health,
document analysis, drone-based technologies, as well as various other applications of AI and machine learning.
There are also potential partnership opportunities to provide research solutions to national and global companies.