IIIT tastes first success in its incubation efforts

Also inks MoU with Kido Software for setting up 'Dynamic Software Lab'

City-based International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), modelled on the lines of Stanford University to lend high-end research support and meet human resources needs of information technology sector, has announced its first success in its incubation efforts.

Disclosing this here today, Rajeev Sangal, director of IIIT, said that Enrich Technologies, floated by an alumnus of the institute, has developed a software product for setting up language laboratories. The institute had lent the required resources "� financial and research "� for the project, he said.

IIIT had earlier set up the Language Technologies Research Centre (LTRC) to address education, research and training in the IT sector.

The centre conducts basic and applied research on various aspects of natural language technology.

The focus is on developing technologies in three major areas "� language access and machine translation among English and Indian languages; speech processing for Indian languages; search, information extraction and retrieval pertaining to English and Indian languages.

Sangal today signed an MoU on behalf of IIIT with Prasad Yalamanchi, managing director of Kido Software Private Limited, for setting up a 'Dynamic Software Lab' on the campus of IIIT.

Addressing a press conference on the occasion, he said that the institute had already tied up with Pramati Technologies and Portal Player for similar projects in niche technologies and product development.

After the successful implementation of projects for these companies, the institute would include those areas as part of its curriculum.

The curriculum had been targeted to include a highly diverse set of IT courses, inter-disciplinary IT research projects, day-to-day interaction with industry, preparation in entrepreneurship and personality development courses.

Prasad said that the lab at IIIT would research in proven technologies in the areas of dynamic software architectures for commercial software packages.

Kido would meet infrastructure requirements, provide hardware and render its expertise for the lab, he said. Kido uses high-end technologies and dynamic object languages to deliver high value products in the areas of artificial intelligence and dynamic software tools.

J A Chowdary, president and COO of Pinexe Systems, who was the chief guest at the function, said that India would no longer be able to derive advantages from wage arbitrage opportunities. It was high time the IT sector in the country moved up the value chain and entered product development segment, he observed.

"The Indian professionals are already showing higher productivity levels in product development, and the country should not miss the bus this time. It is a question of either perform or perish," he said.