Nokia and IISc to set up Centre of Excellence for Network Robotics

Nokia announced a partnership with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore to establish a Centre of Excellence (CoE) to facilitate research in the areas of networked robotics.

The research lab will promote interdisciplinary research involving robotics and advanced communication technologies in AI and 5G. The CoE will also develop use cases across disaster management, automation and agriculture.

Nishant Batra, Chief Strategy and Technology Officer at Nokia, said, "We want India to drive global innovation in an era of convergence where a few years from now, extended reality (XR) and digital-physical fusion will allow us to create, collaborate and communicate in unprecedented ways. There is substantial untapped intellectual capability and competence in India, and our collaboration with a prestigious institution like IISc will enable exciting possibilities for industry and society."

Professor Govindan Rangarajan, Director at IISc, said, "Next-generation communication technologies like 5G and 6G will contribute enormously to the growth of India’s economy. Our collaboration with a world-class company like Nokia will enable us to explore new frontiers for advanced technology research to benefit society as well as provide state-of-the-art training to our students to enable them to become technology leaders in the coming decades."

The centre will facilitate engagement and cooperation between the startups, academia, and industry ecosystem partners to research and develop these use cases.

The research projects undertaken by the CoE will include the design of advanced robotics, automation and AI solutions built upon the next-generation telecom networks and their application for solving societally relevant problems.

Nokia revealed that it would fund the CoE for three consecutive years in order to sustain the first phase of the partnership between the IISc and Nokia.