IIIT Hyderabad, Agastya announce collaboration

Gachibowli: The International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIITH) and Agastya International Foundation are collaborating to create solutions that will bring innovative, high-quality and high-relevance learning and training to economically disadvantaged school children.

The partners will jointly identify problems at the grassroots level that can be addressed by solutions based on emerging technologies such as AI&ML, language technologies and computer vision. The objective is to enable those on the wrong side of the digital divide by leveraging cutting-edge research.

The partnership is under the aegis of the Raj Reddy Centre on Technology in Service of Society at IIITH. The centre is an initiative of IIITH to enable research and emerging technology-led solutions for grassroot education and public health, with specific emphasis on the rural population. It will pursue two broad directions for high societal impact: Innovations in rural education and in healthcare for the bottom of the pyramid.

The foundation is a non-profit organisation based in Bengaluru, with a mission to spark curiosity, nurture creativity and build confidence among economically disadvantaged children and teachers in rural areas. Founded in 1999, it runs hands-on science education programmes in rural and semi-urban regions across 14 States.

IIITH and Agastya will collaborate on research and development of specialised solutions and tools, aimed at enhancing the learning experience of children and teachers through the latest technologies. The centre will focus on areas that include vernacular language tools which will provide interactive knowledge access to students with minimal resources, improved teaching tools, gamification of learning through animation, interactive experiments, augmented reality models and measuring learning effectiveness.

Speaking on behalf of IIITH, Prof Ramesh Loganathan, chair outreach committee, said "IIITH has always had social good as a key outcome of all research from the institute. This collaboration with Agastya Foundation and Navam makes this possible in a very fulfilling way. Clear and present problems addressed through emerging research led technology, deployed and value realised on ground. We are very excited about this collaboration."

K Thiagarajan, COO of the foundation, explaining about the initiative, said, "Agastya has been pioneering hands-on and experiential based pedagogy in building curiosity, creativity and confidence in school children. This collaboration with IIITH will help us increase our digital reach and richness manifold. Ubiquitous learning, sharpening of our pedagogy and being prepared for future uncertainties/pandemic situations are some of the expected outcomes from this collaboration. Looking forward to leverage technology leadership of IIITH."