IIT Guwahati’s Centre for Disaster Management and Research will be the nodal centre. Source: IIT Guwahati
The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Guwahati will collaborate with India Japan Lab (IJL) of Keio University, Japan, on several projects and programmes.
The two institutes signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on March 15 to initiate the partnership. The MoU will see the introduction of joint student supervision, development of new courses, collaborative research projects and exchange visits of faculty and students from both institutes.
The MoU will encourage students and faculty of both institutes to combine and focus their efforts on mainstreaming disaster risk resilience as part of training courses, developing new certificate courses on specific topics related to disaster risk reduction, exchanging visits for knowledge sharing, undertaking research projects and publishing joint articles and educational books.
The Centre for Disaster Management and Research (CDMR) at IIT Guwahati will act as the nodal centre. Training programmes and workshops in the northeast region will be conducted by CDMR and IJL. Japan is known for its expertise in disaster management and developing tech that reduces the risks of disasters. The collaboration will allow the Indian entity to benefit from this expertise.
IIT Guwahati director T.G. Sitharam and IJL director Rajib Shaw signed the MoU in the presence of Sudip Mitra, head of CDMR, IIT Guwahati.
Mitra welcomed the dignitaries and spoke about how important collaboration is for the growth of CDMR and how it would have an international impact.
In his speech, Sitharam highlighted that the collaboration will be both a technical and a social one. He suggested the initiation of a joint Master’s programme by both the institutes. The director also spoke about the role that CDMR and IJL would play in spreading awareness regarding disaster risk reduction among young learners.
Shaw, who is also the winner of the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award in 2021, pointed out the primary aspects of the collaboration like the exchange programme, certificate courses, internships and summer school. He also shared that the collaboration would allow IIT Guwahati students to get exposure to Japanese companies from which they could learn the essence of entrepreneurship.