Nokia and Indian Institute of Science establish Networked Robotics Center of Excellence

Nokia and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have joined forces to open the Nokia Center of Excellence (CoE) in Networked Robotics at the IISc Bengaluru, to conduct research on robotics and advanced communication technologies in 5G and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

"We want India to drive global innovation in an era of convergence where a few years from now, extended reality (XR) and digital-physical fusion will allow us to create, collaborate and communicate in unprecedented ways. There is substantial untapped intellectual capability and competence in India, and our collaboration with a prestigious institution like IISc will enable exciting possibilities for industry and society," said Nishant Batra, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer at Nokia.

In addition to promoting inter-disciplinary research, the center will also develop use cases across industrial automation, agriculture and disaster management and facilitate engagement and cooperation between academia, start-ups and industry ecosystem partners to research and develop these use cases, Nokia said in a press release on Friday.

Nokia said that it will fund the CoE for three consecutive years in order to sustain the first phase of the partnership between the company and IISc.

Commenting on this partnership, Professor Govindan Rangarajan, Director at IISc, said, "Our collaboration with a world-class company like Nokia will enable us to explore new frontiers for advanced technology research to benefit society as well as provide state-of-the-art training to our students to enable them to become technology leaders in the coming decades."