Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar, has tied up with Japanese group Richo's California-based unit, Ricoh Innovation Inc (RII), to jointly work on technology development.
"We had floated a proposal to Ricoh Innovation to get involved with us, to which they have agreed. The idea is to work together on technology development focussed on improving interaction between people and information," IIT, Gandhinagar Director Sudhir K Jain said.
"An emerging market like India offers huge opportunities, Ricoh Innovation centre wants to understand Indian market through us. Our students shall get involved in doing this," he said.
RII develops technologies for Ricoh, specialising in office imaging equipment, production print solutions, document management systems and IT services.
"One of the projects initiated at the institute in joint collaboration with RII was Book Snap, as a part of which our students had developed a library linked software for them," Jain said.
"A project linked to smart boards in collaboration with RII is likely to kick start at the institute," sources in IIT Gandhinagar (IIT-GN) said.
In education sector, RII's free whiteboard share iPhone application allow users to capture and share whiteboard discussions. It removes unwanted artefacts from the whiteboard images, making them easier to read, share and print.
Two students from IIT-GN were recently picked up by Ricoh Innovations Private Limited (RIPL), subsidiary of RII in India, working to address opportunities in the country and similar emerging markets else where.
