ZF, IIIT Hyderabad collaborate for advanced technological research projects

ZF India Pvt Ltd. and IIIT Hyderabad signed a MoU to collaborate on varied research projects including AI based radar perception, vehicle to vehicle charging, object detection in autonomous driving and shadow mode function.

This MoU opens the possibility of co-development research model for ZF in India and the IIIT Hyderabad, making it a lucrative collaboration for both. The viable data points gained from the research will be used by ZF for their on-site projects in the emerging fields of ADAS and autonomous driving.

Krishnaswamy Jambunathan, Vice President and Head ZF TCI and Prof P J Narayanan, Director, IIITH signed the MoU in the presence of Dirk Adamczyk, Senior Vice President Engineering Services and Solutions from Research and Development Group of ZF. The ZF Technology Centre intends to promote local research-oriented talent to develop functions as marked in it Refresh India strategy.

Marking the occasion Dirk stated, "ZF has been leading the Next Gen Mobility landscape with cutting edge technological advances, which are the backbone of the developing automotive industry. ZF is at the forefront of research and development in autonomous driving, electric mobility, integrated safety, and vehicle motion control. This MoU is a step in the direction of co-development research which will provide IIITH students an opportunity to spearhead research on autonomous driving, green mobility, and software driven vehicles. ZF Technology Centre in Hyderabad is happy to bridge the industry academia ecosystems and will continue to develop technologies that enable efficient and safe mobility".

Krish Jambunathan noted," The ZF Tech Centre in Hyderabad has been engaged with IIITH on multiple CSR projects that enable the institute to offer its students research capability and refine their ability to solve complex problems especially relating to mobility, through technology solutions. This research-oriented mindset combined with passion to find mobility solutions using future technologies and research opportunities is a winning combination that has resulted in the current MOU and this opportunity for cooperation".

Commenting on the collaboration Prof P J Narayanan, Director, IIITH said, "Smart Mobility and Transportation offer tremendous possibilities to apply the academic research done at IIIT Hyderabad in Computer Vision, Robotics, Signal Processing, IoT, etc., to problems encountered in everyday city life. Tight collaboration with domain experts in R&D groups is very important to realise the potential. We are happy to work with ZF, a global leader in automobiles and mobility technologies, towards that and look forward to several innovations coming out of it". (NSS)