IITH bags Rs 30 cr Japanese multi-mode transportation project

Hyderabad, Aug 18 (PTI) Indian Institute of TechnologyHyderabad has bagged a Rs 30 crore project from Japan in thearea of multi-mode transportation as the institute pursues tofurther nurture its special relationship with that country. "It is a five-year project aimed at reducing carbonfootprint. We have a unique relationship with Japan," IIT-HDirector Prof U B Desai said. Officials of the institute said it is a second SATREPS(Science and Technology Research Partnership for SustainableDevelopment) project on ‘Smart Cities for Emerging Countriesbased on Sensing, Network, and Big Data Analysis of MultimodalRegional Transportation System’. Terming the relationship as one of its kind in thehistory of academia, Prof Desai said, "Perhaps the other onewhich comes closer is the relationship that IIT-Kanpur hadwith the United States." "IITH, which started functioning in August, 2008, hasvarious programmes with Japan like research and developmentcollaborations and friendship programmes, as well as on theinfrastructure front," he said. "About 25 to 30 faculty from Japan come to IITH everyyear, and an equal number of IITH faculty go to that countryannually. Practically, we have one Japanese visitor to IITHevery week," Prof Desai said. The R&D collaboration between IITH and Japan are inareas of sustainable development, smart cities, digitalfabrication, energy and environment, nanotechnologies, designand manufacturing, among others. The institute has MoUs with more than a dozen Japaneseuniversities, and about 40 IITH graduates are pursuing highereducation in Japan, funded by means of scholarship andfellowship by universities there. On August 30, Japan International Cooperation Agency(JICA) is organising a conference, CONNECT-IITH in Tokyo,exclusively for IITH to interact with Japanese industries. As a cultural collaboration, a coffee shop named’Shiru Cafe’ has been established by Japan at IITH. Run byJapanese students, faculty and students of IITH get freecoffee here every day. PTI RS GK NSDRDS