IIT Bhubaneswar and its contribution towards Digital India

Digital India is a flagship programme of the Government of India initiated with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. IIT Bhubaneswar has been conducting research and academic programmes and carrying on extensive research in Digital Technologies. In this backdrop, on the occasion of celebrating the 5th Anniversary of Digital India, IIT Bhubaneswar in association with Software Technology Parks of India, (STPI) organized a visit of press and media to its Centers of Excellence in “Virtual and Augmented Reality for Immersive Visualization” (VARCoE), the school of Electrical Sciences and the Design and Innovation Center at its permanent campus. These centers have showcased research and development work focused on digital technologies ranging from Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IOT), Digitial Image Correlation, and 5G cellular.

Prof. R.V. Rajakumar, Director, IIT Bhubaneswar during the press interaction emphasized the need for cross-disciplinary Research and Development to fulfil the needs of Industry and talked about the importance of new age technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR), Artificial Intelligence (AI), IOT and 5G communication for serving the needs of the modern society and to realize the Digital India dream. He also briefed about the research activity taking place in the Institute in these key areas. He credited the Honorable Prime Minister of India for popularizing and providing momentum to the concept of Digital India among the masses. He also acknowledged the philanthropic support from Smt. Susmita Bagchi, Shri. Subroto Bagchi, Odisha Skill Development Authority, MSME department of the Govt. of Odisha, STPI for joining hands together with IIT Bhubaneswar for the creation of VARCoE.

VARCoE focuses on creating an ecosystem for carrying out R&D in AR-VR, immersive visualization, and applications, giving impetus to skill development, manpower creation through the innovative education program and foster technology incubation and entrepreneurship. IIT Bhubaneswar is currently working upon digital technology. It conducts research on artificial intelligence, internet of things, 5G cellular to strengthen infrastructure development, delivery of services digitally and to make our citizens literate in digital technology.

Prof. Rabi Mahapatra of Texas A & M University, currently serving as visiting professor at IIT Bhubaneswar, Prof. R.K. Panda, Dean, Research and Development and Prof. P. K. Sahu, Head, School of Electrical Sciences, IIT Bhubaneswar were present during the session. The press interaction was followed by series of interesting Q & A session along with visits to the centers of excellence in Virtual and Augmented Reality for Immersive Visualization (VARCoE) along with visits to the other labs of AI, IOT, and 5g Cellular. Several live demonstrations of projects in all these key areas were showcased at IIT Bhubaneswar during the course of the visit.