Islamic University of Science and Technology (IUST) and Indian Institute of Technology Ropar (IIT Ropar) signed two Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs), one at the institutional level to foster collaboration in the areas of academics and innovative research and the other one specific to promoting innovative technology intervention in Agriculture, Water management and in developing Smart City applications.The MoUs were signed by Vice Chancellor of IUST, Prof. Shakil Ahmad Romshoo and Director IIT Ropar Prof. Rajeev Ahuja at IIT Ropar in presence of Dean Academic Affairs/Dean School of Engineering & Technology Prof. A. H. Moon, Director CIED IUST Dr. Parvez A. Mir, Dean R&D IIT Ropar Prof. Navin Kumar, Deans IIT Ropar Prof. C. C. Reddy, Prof. Raina, Dr. Rakesh Kumar and Director (iHub – AwaDH) Dr. Pushpendra P. Singh.Under this collaboration, IUST and IIT Ropar have agreed to collaborate on areas of mutual interest for the benefit of students and faculty that also includes facilitating direct admission of meritorious IUST students to PhD programs at IIT Ropar, joint supervision of student project/dissertation works, floating of joint courses, faculty exchange programmes, partnering on joint research proposals besides sharing of laboratory facilities and e-resources. The MoU shall also cover joint organization of conferences, seminars, symposia, workshops and other outreach programs.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof. Romshoo highlighted the importance of collaboration of regional institutions to study some of the global problems like the impact of environmental and climate change in the trans-Himalayan region. “Research and Innovation needs to find solutions for societal and local problems”, he said. In the context of enhancing productivity of saffron and other local horticultural produce, he emphasized on developing appropriate technology solutions for precision agriculture and water management by using state of the art technologies like IoT and Machine Learning. “This collaboration would provide a launching pad for professionals and students to promote innovation and entrepreneurship development in the region,” he added.Director IIT Ropar, Prof. Rajeev Ahuja, while welcoming the delegation from IUST, called the MoU a significant part of IIT Ropar’s ‘broader outreach program to collaborate with different reputed institutions so that it will benefit the public in general and the residents of J&K in particular’. He specifically stressed on hosting IUST students at IIT Ropar to train them on new technologies under the internship program offered by IIT Ropar.“MoU majorly focuses on direct admission of meritorious IUST students to PhD programs and joint exchange of faculty that would provide an opportunity to achieve academic excellence by sharing good teaching learning practices and to collaborate in writing quality research proposals which could be submitted to appropriate funding agencies,” he added.Prof. A. H. Moon highlighted the importance of this collaboration in the context of NEP 2020 implementation focusing on research and innovation. Dr. Pushpendra P. Singh, specifically mentioned about the impressive performance of IUST students who had recently completed their internship at IIT Ropar and announced that a spoke of IIT’s project AWaDH shall be established at IUST to mentor innovation and incubation activities amongst the young and budding innovators of J&K.