IIT-Gandhinagar signs MOU with RICOH Japan for promoting innovation through collaborative research projects

Updated on: Friday, January 25, 2013

Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (IIT-GN) has inked a pact with Japan's Ricoh for promoting innovation through collaborative research projects, a senior official said.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in this regard was signed recently between Sudhir K Jain, Director, IIT-GN, and Terumoto Nonaka, Senior Vice President (Corporate) and in-charge of R&D at electronics major Ricoh.

As part of the agreement, a Design Innovation Centre (DIC) shall be set up at IIT-GN focusing on projects to find innovative solutions, designing technologies and services suitable for Indian market conditions and emerging regions.

Apart from funding the DIC, Ricoh will also be taking part in joint research projects at the Centre. It will have designers from Ricoh who will be working on various projects along with IIT-GN students.

"This partnership will enable our students and faculty to work with colleagues from Ricoh in an inter-disciplinary and an inter-cultural environment, which is most conducive for design and innovation," according to Jain.

Initially, the partnership is for three years, beginning from April 1, 2013, when three representatives from Ricoh Group will be invited by the institute to join the Centre's advisory committee, an official statement said.

"We believe that this is an interesting model of collaboration between an academic institute and a large company, which may later be emulated elsewhere," said Jain.

The idea is that technologies and services designed for the Indian market can form the groundwork for solutions in other large emerging regions like Africa, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia, which together constitute a market of over 2.5 billion people, he said.

IIT-Gandhinagar signs MOU with RICOH Japan for promoting innovation through collaborative research projects

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