A Technology Innovation Hub on Data driven technologies under the National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems is to be established at the International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT-Hyderabad).
It will be set up with a ₹110 crore funding from the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and play a pivotal role in developing and promoting data-driven technologies and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning across the country, the institute said.
IIIT-H is the only institution outside of the IITs and IISc in the initial list of 17 selected for hosting TIHs.
Director P. J. Narayanan said it was a great achievement for the institute to be selected for the TIH. “We will focus on creating and curating diverse datasets under the Data Foundation being set up under the Hub. Data and its fair, transparent and open access are critical to the development of ML-based solutions. Translational research will be a particular focus of our Hub,” he said.
Since IIITH has the largest AI research group in the country, “we are looking forward to taking our research from lab to land and making significant contributions to data driven technologies”, Prof Narayanan said.
Even as the setting up of the hub is under way, a special initiative around COVID-19 has already started. As part of a DST initiative, a project to curate and compile data sets that can be used to address COVID-19 related solutions around diagnostics and treatment protocols have commenced, a release from IIIT-H said.
TIH-Data, a Section-8 company will be a single point source for all data driven technologies on mobility, healthcare, systems, buildings, and India-specific problems. It will support projects in the domain areas of TIH to academic, research and development institutions and industry and other funding agencies, participate in international projects, support student start-ups and initiate international collaborative projects.
