IT RESEARCH ACADEMY Narendra Ahuja n-ahuja@illinois.edu Member and Coordinator ITRA Program Steering and Implementation Group Media Lab Asia, Department of Information Technology, GOI Donald Biggar Willet Professor Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Founding Director and Director International IIIT, Hyderabad
ITRA A Government of India Program by Department of Information Technology Ministry pf Communications and Information Technology To help enhance the quality of emerging/existing Institutions
IT Stands for Information and Communication Technology and Electronics i.e. Computing and Communications Software and Hardware
Quality Four-Fold Research: Problem Formulation and Solving Which requires 2. Teaching: State of the Art Courses Together which lead to 3. Entrepreneurship: Deployment of Solutions For a broad impact, which require Societal Sensitivity: What problems to solve? Discerning Eye for Spotting IT Problems in daily life
An Ecosystem Develop, Deploy and, Debug and Disseminate Mechanisms To Acquire Knowledge from Institutions/Experts, Adapt, Develop and Integrate, and Make Available to Those Who Need it
An Illustrative Architecture of ITRA
Illustrative Features/Interactions in ITRA
Distance learning network Teach from anywhere Students PG Scholars Short term UG Scholars Star Faculty from India, Abroad Permanent or visiting FacultyQIP Local Curricula (Eventual) Contributions to ITRA enable New world class Faculty recruits IT Curricuum Research Partner Institution ITA Curricula/Research Entrepreneur- ship Curriculum Holistic Development & Societal Sensitivity Lab Setups ITA Faculty Recruitment/Visiting PG Student Teams back for mandatory teaching Research Teams Distributed centers of excellence ITRA
Team Model – A Central Feature • Build R&D groups, network them and connect them to industry and society • Attract high quality researchers through quality of environment • Produce large numbers of high quality PhDs • Produce ideas, prototypes, companies • Include multitier institutions, mentor-mentee pairs raise quality of lower tier institutions Summary – Dynamic Collaborative Environment
R&D Capacity Building by Interlinking Groups Large Research Groups Large Research Groups Lecturers Small Research Groups Small Research Groups Company 1 Product P1, P2 Company 2 Product P2, P3 ITRA FacultyITRA Faculty ITRA PhD students ITRA PhD students ITRA ITRA FacultyFaculty P1 P2 P2 P3 ITRA PhD ITRA PhD students students
Handling the Scale of India – Via Local Parallel Collaboration • Begin with a small initial team • Debug mechanisms • Expand fast (e.g., double size every few years) • Exponential growth
A Pyramidal Model of Growth Example: Each partner institution adds two partners every two years
… … 5 … 1
Scope of ITRA Activities Through Focus Areas • IT Areas Research Centers • Interdisciplinary, IT-in-X Areas Problems Solving Labs Choice of IT/X focus areas driven by priorities and opportunities
Building the Pyramid • Composed of Sub-pyramids • Each sub-pyramid associated with one focus area • Multiple Collaborating teams within each sub-pyramid • Teams selected and funded by ITRA • Monitored and helped for quality enhancement by ITRA
… … … … … A FOCUS AREA SUB-PYRAMID = Multiple Teams TEAM 1 … … n TEAM n … …
Focus Area Pyramids ITRA Pyramid ITRA Pyramid = Coexisting Focus Area Pyramids To Ensure Collaboration Basic Unit of Pyramid Construction = 1 Mentor+ 2 Mentee IIs Called a Pyralet Every Cycle (~2 Years), the Pyramid • Rises in Quality • Fresh Mentee IIs Join at the Bottom • Gets Taller (~Doubles in Number) Exponential Growth
Organization Support from ITRA • Formation of II teams. • Connecting with experts (for Advisory Board). • Establishing curricula, laboratories, facilities • Hiring of faculty (Named ITRA professorships, salary top-ups, start-up grants, visits to Advisory Board and co-advising students, travel support to conferences, support for entrepreneurial activities, awards • Adjunct faculty visits • Attracting students to PhD, etc • Transfer of developed technologies…….
ITRA Status • Work started in June 2011 • Seed Funding of 150 Crores over 5 Years • So far, Two Focus Areas Launched • IT: Mobile Computing, Networking and Applications • IT-in-X: IT Based Water Sustainability Solutions • RFPs issued to build the two Sybpyramids
It is Time to Form a Team • If you want to be a Mentor II, find two Mentees • If you want to be a Mentee • If you have formed a pyralet • Discuss your proposal theme • Be ambitious • If you think your objectives require more IIs then • Team up with more pyralets • Start working on the proposal in two stages • Expression of interest • If invited, prepare a fullproposal
Details of Support • Length of Award:3 years. • Year 3 add mentees, supplemental budget for layer 3 • Estimated Number of Awards • Roughly 6 pyralets (18 IIs) • 2 (large) teams of 9 IIs -- 6 (small) teams of 3 IIs • Level of Support • Roughly 3 Crores per pyralet over 3 years
Budget Categories • Salaries • Student Scholarships • Travel • Adjunct Faculty • Domain Experts • New Research Labs • New Specialized Facilities • Remote Activities • Entreprenuership • Societal Sensitivity Development • Mentor-Mentee /Other Collaboration • Project Motivated Curricula • Special programs to attract undergrads • Overhead
Details of ITRA-Mobile Support • Length of Award:3 years. • Year 3 add mentees, supplemental budget for layer 3 • Estimated Number of Awards • As justified by focus area/proposal quality • Rule of thumb: 6 pyralets (18IIs) • Or 6, could be 2 (large) teams of 9 IIs or 6 (small) teams of 3 IIs, in the middle • Level of Support • Flexible • Rule of thumb: 3 Crores per pyralet over 3 years
Details of Support • Similar Numbers for ITRA-Water
Timeline
More information • (1) ITRA homepage: http://medialabasia.in/itra/itra/index.php (2) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page http://medialabasia.in/itra/itra/index.php?option=com_jefaq&view=faq&Itemid=81 (3) Instructions for submission: • http://medialabasia.in/itra/itra/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1022&Itemid=64 http://medialabasia.in/itra/itra/index.php
