Mumbai, Maharashtra, India - 12 Sep 2018: IBM (NYSE: IBM) and IIT Bombay today announced that the university will join the AI Horizons Network as part of a multi-year collaboration to advance AI research. The Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay is one of the preeminent research institutions in the world, with a long history of leadership in data mining and information retrieval systems. By joining the AI Horizons Network, IIT Bombay will pair its world-class faculty and top graduate students with leading AI scientists from IBM Research – India to advance and accelerate the application of AI, machine learning, natural language processing and related technologies to business and industry. 

The Department of Computer Science and Engineering at IIT Bombay is one of the preeminent research institutions in the world, with a long history of leadership in data mining and information retrieval systems. By joining the AI Horizons Network, IIT Bombay will pair its world-class faculty and top graduate students with leading AI scientists from IBM Research – India to advance and accelerate the application of AI, machine learning, natural language processing and related technologies to business and industry.

Teams will investigate new techniques for knowledge representation across documents, graphs, charts, and other forms of multi-media content. This area of research will be critical in helping to develop new AI applications in key industries such as financial services, retail and healthcare, which rely heavily on rich, multi-modal content. The collaboration will also work to advance the field of training and building domain-specific AI agents (chatbots), which are designed to aid humans in complex decision making such as making trading and investment choices in financial services. Additionally, work is planned to explore new, domain-neutral training approaches which could enable faster, more efficient training of AI systems.

"Over its 20-year history, IBM Research - India has been at the forefront of 

research advances in technologies like AI and blockchain. We have always had strong collaborations with the leading academic institutions in India,” said Arvind Krishna, senior vice president, Hybrid Cloud and director, IBM Research. “Through this collaboration with IIT Bombay, we aim to accelerate the pace of innovation for AI in India, working hand-in-hand with some of the top scientists and research scholars in the country."

Speaking on the relevance of collaboration Prof. Devang Khakhar, Director, IIT Bombay said “This partnership will enable IIT Bombay faculty to work in collaboration with researchers around the world on the frontiers of Artificial Intelligence focusing on industrially relevant problems and will provide access to large data sets. We look forward to fruitful collaboration, which will make a significant impact on the field.”

With this collaboration, IIT Bombay becomes the first institution outside North America to join the IBM AI Horizons Network. Globally, eight leading universities – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Renesselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, University of Michigan, Universite de Montreal, University of Maryland at Baltimore County, UC San Diego and University of Massachusetts at Amherst - are working with IBM, in key areas designed to accelerate the development of AI technologies, such as deep learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and others, as well as their application to big societal challenges, ranging from aiding the understanding of disease, education and cybersecurity.

About IBM Research

For more than seven decades, IBM Research has defined the future of information technology with more than 3,000 researchers in 12 labs located across six continents. Scientists from IBM Research have produced six Nobel Laureates, 10 U.S. National Medals of Technology, five U.S. National Medals of Science, six Turing Awards, 19 inductees in the National Academy of Sciences and 20 inductees into the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame. For more information about IBM Research, visit www.ibm.com/research.

About IIT Bombay

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay), the second IIT to be set up in 1958, is recognised worldwide as a leader in the field of engineering education and research. It is reputed for the quality of its faculty and the outstanding calibre of students graduating from its undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. The Institute has 15 academic Departments, 30 Centres, one School and five Interdisciplinary programmes. Over the last five decades, more than 55,000 engineers and scientists have graduated from the Institute.  It is served by more than 643 faculty members considered not only amongst the best within the country, but also highly recognized in the world for achievements in the field of education and research.  The Institute is recognized as one of the top centres of academic excellence in the country.  Over the years, there has been dynamic and rapid progress at IIT Bombay in both academic and research activities, with a parallel improvement in facilities and infrastructure to match with the best institutions in the world. Please visit our website for more: www.iitb.ac.in