It was initially thought of as a centre for polymers but was later inaugurated as a centre of “smart materials”.

Academics-industry interface becomes more intensive at Bengal Engineering and Science University (Besu) as it launched its Centre of Excellence on Soft-Computation in Materials Science and Engineering, to help industry make smart materials in better, cheaper and faster ways.

The centre was inaugurated by state IT minister Debesh Das on Saturday. Prof N. Chakroborti, IIT Kharagpur, D. Bhattacharjee, head of R&D and Scientific Services, Tata Steel and H.K.D.H. Bhadeshia of Cambridge University were present for the occasion. Addressing the gathering, Besu vice-chancellor N. R. Banerjea said: “We were thinking of a centre for polymers when Amitava Ghosh of IIT Kharagpur suggested a centre for smart materials.”

The centre will work on cracking the hitherto unknown parameters that affect the manufacturing of materials to help industries optimise their mode of production. Being “essentially multi-disciplinary”, the centre will see collaboration not just among the various departments of Besu, but will also see foreign participation from University of Cambridge, Abo Akademi University, Finland, Iowa State University, US and Helsinki University of Technology, Finland.

Indian institutes like IIT Kharagpur and Kanpur, Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, ISI, Calcutta and Jadavpur University will also participate as will Tata Steel, Jamshedpur, providing the industrial interface.

The genesis of the centre came from a three-day international workshop at Besu last January that highlighted the intense interest in computational materials science.

“The main objective will be to formulate several industry and government-sponsored projects. All projects will essentially involve two or more participating institutions,” said N.R. Banerjea.

“The attempt will be to convert qualitative knowledge into the quantitative. Soft computing is a wonderful tool and it is here that information technology (IT) and materials sciences will come together in a major way,” explained Bhadeshia of Cambridge University.