IIT KGP & TUM to set up centre on Intelligent Transportation Systems

Kolkata: IIT Kharagpur and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) will set up an Indo-German Collaborative Research Centre on Intelligent Transportation Systems.

The centre, to be set up at IIT Kharagpur campus, will promote research and industry cooperation between the two countries in the domain of transportation, an IIT KGP statement said here today.

This would include next generation cars, green transportation, seamlessly connected transportation medium, customization of advanced German transport solutions for the Indian scenario.

"The centre will be the first of its kind for TUM in India and raise our engagement with the country to a new level. In an increasingly global world, mobility is one of the key challenges, which the centre will address for the benefit of both countries," Director of TU, Munich International Center Dr Harald Olk said on signing an MoU in this regard on Saturday.

Dean Sponsored Research and Industrial Consultancy at IIT Kharagpur, Prof Pallab Dasgupta said "This will open up opportunities for us to bring our expertise in software and artificial intelligence towards partnering in challenges of transportation planning and regulation..."

Today, most of the innovation in high-end German cars is in electronics and software.

Given Indias leadership position in the software and services industry, a cooperation between the two countries is also essential for developing high-end cars of the future that have many software-controlled functions, the statement said.

The centre will focus on combining German excellence in engineering with Indias prowess in software and systems engineering.

"Our goal now is to create a sustainable R&D eco-system around this centre through a close institutional cooperation as well as researchers and industry partners," Prof Samarjit Chakraborty from TU Munich and the lead investigator of the project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), said.

IIT KGP Director Prof P P Chakrabarti said the institute is well positioned for playing a leadership role in the mobility roadmap of the country..

"We warmly welcome TU Munich as an institutional partner in our way forward. And we are confident that this initiative will be mutually enriching for academic and industrial collaborations in the domain...", Chakraborti said.