IIT Kharagpur partners with Samsung for Digital Academy

IIT-Kharagpur has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Samsung India for the setting up of a digital academy on the institute's campus.

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering in the institute would host the Samsung Innovation Lab and train students on the Internet of Things (IoT) through Tizen-based operating systems, commonly used by the company for its mobile phones and home appliances.

IoT is a network of computing devices embedded in objects of everyday use for storage and exchange of information.

The training would help students acquire industry-relevant skills and "become job ready", an IIT-KGP statement said today.
 

The academy was a part of the company's corporate social initiative that aims at bridging the digital divide in the country by imparting skills to students on cutting-edge technology, the statement said.

Through this partnership with IIT-KGP, the academy planned to train over 100 students in the next three years, it added.

After signing the MoU yesterday, the managing director of Samsung Research & Development Institute, Delhi, YoungKi Byun, said, "Samsung is happy to partner with IIT-Kharagpur to help students leverage the growing digital technology market, especially Internet of things (IoT), the future of connectivity".

The company was committed to work in the field of next-generation technology development, he said.

Echoing similar sentiments, IIT-KGP Director Partha Pratim Chakrabarti said, "The partnership will help our students in developing their skills on the emerging areas of IoT and Artificial Intelligence."

The curriculum at the Samsung Digital Academy included the basics of web application development on Tizen, app testing and debugging.

The course would be taught over 14 weeks through classroom lectures, assignments, lab room sessions, self-study and mini projects.

"This (IoT) lab will enable our students to have hands-on experience with the Tizen operating system as well as facilitate research and app development on IoT platforms," the head of the department of Computer Science and Engineering, Sudeshna Sarkar, said.