IIT Delhi to set up space technology cell in collaboration with ISRO

The Indian Institute of Technology here is going to set up a space technology cell in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The announcement was made on Friday by IIT Delhi Director V Ramgopal Rao, a day ahead of the varsity's 50th annual convocation where ISRO chief K Sivan will be the chief guest.

"IIT Delhi and ISRO will jointly set up ISRO Space Technology Cell at IIT Delhi. The cell will work for carrying out focused research projects in the space technology domain with specific deliverables. It is also proposed that IIT Delhi as an Institute becomes an academic partner of ISRO in research areas, for example, Artificial Intelligence (AI), nanotechnology, functional textiles, smart manufacturing or any area of joint interest," Rao told reporters. With this, IIT Delhi will join the league of other premier institutions like

IISc Bangalore, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IIT Kharagpur, IIT Madras, IIT Guwahati and IIT Roorkee where the Space Technology Cells (STCs) have been set up to play a major role in taking up the space technology research and applications to the newer heights. \R"IIT Delhi has also started six new academic entities in the last two years to realign its research focus with the modern trends and national requirements. We have also been able to enhance our research budgets by 300 percent in the last four years," Rao said.

"In this convocation, we are also announcing two new masters programs and modifications to NIT undergraduate student admission process into IIT Delhi Ph.D. programs," he said. \RA total of 1,217 postgraduate and 825 undergraduate students will be awarded degrees at the convocation on Saturday.