On the heels of announcing their partnership with Duke in January, representatives from the Indian Institute of Technology in Gandhinagar met with Duke officials in Durham last month to build upon their previous discussions.
Among the topics discussed during the visit were the IITGN’s goal to establish a research park in their city as well as general strategies to promote faculty development and peer review. In addition to the Duke faculty and staff as well as the IITGN delegation, representatives from both the nonprofit RTI International and the United States Agency for International Development helped host the seven-day visit.
Lawerence Carin, professor of electrical and computer engineering and vice provost for research, explained in an email that the meeting also promoted discussions about further developing the research missions of both universities.
“We have been assisting faculty at IITGN on various aspects of university administration, including communications and faculty development,” he wrote. “We are also planning a joint research program on environmental sciences, in which Duke and IITGN undergraduate students will conduct environmental research for a couple weeks in India; the research will take place in December 2016, and planning is ongoing.”
In January, six Duke faculty were invited to a workshop series at the IITGN campus, where they collaborated on similar topics. As part of their initial agreement, five students from the IITGN are visiting Duke this summer to take part in research with the Pratt School of Engineering and the 2016 Data+ summer research experience.
“One of the important decisions, taken by both the institutions to give a kick start to this collaboration, was to initiate the students and faculty exchanges at the earliest,” wrote IITGN officials in a press release. “As a result, while [five] students of IITGN are already in Duke doing [a] summer internship, several other students will be visiting in the next few months.”
According to an email from Myles Elledge—senior director in international development policy and planning at RTI International, a nonprofit that provides research and technical services—the IITGN officials were first invited to a three-day workshop hosted by RTI Interntaional, which is based in Raleigh. During these sessions, the two groups developed a framework for the launch of a research sector near the IITGN campus similar in design to Research Triangle Park.
The press release from the IITGN noted that their representatives later sat down with Duke faculty and staff for discussions on “fundraising, interdisciplinary research, teaching engagement, research and teaching mentoring, IPR, licensing and entrepreneurship and how [IITGN] can implement some these strategies for development of the Institute.”
Carin added in his email that along with a focus on environmental science, the two universities also plan to establish new health-related research programs in India.
During a visit in May before the conference, Uttama Lahiri, an associate professor at the IITGN, met with several Duke faculty who are working on many projects ranging from an iPhone screening tool for autism spectrum disorder to an algorithm designed to improve diagnostic medical imaging.
Three other faculty from the IITGN will visit Duke before the end of the year, the press release noted. In addition, both Carin and Mike Bergin, professor of civil and environmental engineering, plan to again meet with IITGN officials and faculty within the coming months.
“It is likely that some of these discussions will culminate into joint collaborative research activities in some of these areas,” the press release noted. “The overall engagement was very interesting and with lot of possibilities of working together on joint R&D projects [and] implementing effective communication strategies.”
Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled "Indian Institute of Technology in Gandhinagar." The Chronicle regrets the error.
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