Indo-German Max Planck Centre opens in IIT-Delhi

NEW DELHI: India and Germany Wednesday inaugurated the Indo-German Max Planck Centre for Computer Science at the Indian Institute of Technology-Delhi to support academic groups in cutting-edge research in the field.

The centre, which was opened jointly by German President Horst Koehler and union Science Minister Prithviraj Chavan, will be in operation for an initial period of five years at a total cost of around Rs.12 crore from India and approximately 2 million euros by Max Planck Society from the German side.

The Indo-German Max Planck Centre for Computer Science (Impecs) will have participation from IIT-Delhi and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai.

The Impecs will benefit both countries. The major benefits for India would be furthering the research base in computer science that would develop expertise of the highest calibre needed by academia and industry.

"Germany would benefit through improved collaboration with leading Indian scientists and a highly visible outpost with highly professional environment and a large pool of young talent," the science ministry said.

The joint scientific programme is intended to encourage the exchange of post-doctorate scholars and promote shared workshops and training activities. The centre comprises six Indo-German research groups. Four more are due to be added after a year.

It will act as a centre of excellence for faculty and students from both sides. The research areas envisaged under the centre would be Algorithms and Complexity, Database and Information Retrieval; Graphics and Vision and Networking.



(C)IANS