IT RESEARCH ACADEMY

Narendra Ahujan-ahuja@illinois.edu

Member and CoordinatorITRA Program Steering and Implementation Group

Media Lab Asia, Department of Information Technology, GOI

Donald Biggar Willet ProfessorDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;

Founding Director and Director InternationalIIIT, Hyderabad

ITRA

A Government of India Program

by

Department of Information Technology

Ministry pf Communications and Information Technology

To help enhance the quality of emerging/existing Institutions

IT

Stands for

Information and Communication Technology

and

Electronics

i.e.

Computing and Communications

Software and Hardware

Quality

Four-Fold

1. Research: Problem Formulation and Solving

Which requires2. Teaching: State of the Art Courses

Together which lead to3. Entrepreneurship: Deployment of Solutions

For a broad impact, which require4. Societal Sensitivity: What problems to solve?

Discerning Eye for Spotting IT Problems in daily life

5

An Ecosystem

To

Acquire Knowledge from Institutions/Experts,

Adapt, Develop and Integrate,

and Make Available to Those Who Need it

Develop, Deploy and, Debug and DisseminateMechanisms

7

An Illustrative Architecture

of

ITRA

9

Illustrative Features/Interactions

in

ITRA

10

ResearchITCurricuum

Holistic

Development & Societal Sensitivity

Entrepreneur-shipCurriculum

New worldclass Faculty recruits

enable

Local Curricula

StudentsPG ScholarsShort term UG Scholars

Lab Setups

Faculty QIP

(Eventual) Contributions to ITRA

ITA Curricula/Research

ITA FacultyRecruitment/Visiting

PG Student Teamsback for mandatory teaching

Star Faculty from India, AbroadPermanent or visiting

ITRA

PartnerInstitution

Distance learning networkTeach from anywhere

Research TeamsDistributed centers of excellence

11

Team Model – A Central Feature

– Build R&D groups, network them and connect them to industry and society– Attract high quality researchers through quality of environment– Produce large numbers of high quality PhDs– Produce ideas, prototypes, companies – Include multitier institutions, mentor-mentee pairs raise quality of lower tier institutions

Summary – Dynamic Collaborative Environment

12

R&D Capacity Building by Interlinking Groups

ITRA Faculty ITRA Faculty

ITRA PhD students ITRA PhD students

ITRA ITRA

Faculty Faculty

P1 P2 P2 P3

ITRA PhD ITRA PhD students students

Large Research

Groups

Large Research

Groups

Small Research Groups

Small Research Groups

Lecturers

Company 1

Product P1, P2

Company 2

Product P2, P3

14

Handling the Scale of India – Via Local Parallel Collaboration

• Begin with a small initial team

• Debug mechanisms

• Expand fast (e.g., double size every few years)– Exponential growth

15

A Pyramidal Model of Growth

Example:

Each partner institution

adds

two partners

every two years

1

…

5

…

…

17

Scope of ITRA Activities

Through Focus Areas

1.IT Areas Research Centers

2.Interdisciplinary, IT-in-X Areas Problems Solving Labs

Choice of IT/X focus areasdriven by priorities and opportunities

Building the Pyramid

• Composed of Sub-pyramids• Each sub-pyramid associated with one focus

area• Multiple Collaborating teams within each sub-

pyramid• Teams selected and funded by ITRA• Monitored and helped for quality enhancement

by ITRA

… …

A FOCUS AREA SUB-PYRAMID = Multiple Teams

…

n

…

… …

TEAM n…

…

TEAM 1

…

Focus Area Pyramids ITRA Pyramid

ITRA Pyramid = Coexisting Focus Area Pyramids

To Ensure CollaborationBasic Unit of Pyramid Construction = 1 Mentor+ 2 Mentee IIs Called a PyraletEvery Cycle (~2 Years), the Pyramid•Rises in Quality•Fresh Mentee IIs Join at the Bottom•Gets Taller (~Doubles in Number)

Exponential Growth

Organization Support from ITRA• Formation of II teams.

• Connecting with experts (for Advisory Board).

• Establishing curricula, laboratories, facilities

• Hiring of faculty (Named ITRA professorships, salary top-ups, start-up grants, visits to Advisory Board and co-advising students, travel support to conferences, support for entrepreneurial activities, awards

• Adjunct faculty visits

• Attracting students to PhD, etc

• Transfer of developed technologies…….

ITRA Status

• Work started in June 2011• Seed Funding of 150 Crores over 5 Years

• So far, Two Focus Areas Launched– IT: Mobile Computing, Networking and Applications– IT-in-X: IT Based Water Sustainability Solutions– RFPs issued to build the two Sybpyramids

It is Time to Form a Team

• If you want to be a Mentor II, find two Mentees• If you want to be a Mentee• If you have formed a pyralet

– Discuss your proposal theme – Be ambitious– If you think your objectives require more IIs then– Team up with more pyralets

• Start working on the proposal in two stages– Expression of interest– If invited, prepare a fullproposal

Details of Support

• Length of Award: 3 years.– Year 3 add mentees, supplemental budget for layer 3

• Estimated Number of Awards– Roughly 6 pyralets (18 IIs)

– 2 (large) teams of 9 IIs -- 6 (small) teams of 3 IIs

• Level of Support– Roughly 3 Crores per pyralet over 3 years

Budget Categories1. Salaries

2. Student Scholarships

3. Travel

4. Adjunct Faculty

5. Domain Experts

6. New Research Labs

7. New Specialized Facilities

8. Remote Activities

9. Entreprenuership

10. Societal Sensitivity Development

11. Mentor-Mentee /Other Collaboration

12. Project Motivated Curricula

13. Special programs to attract undergrads

14. Overhead

Details of ITRA-Mobile Support• Length of Award: 3 years.

– Year 3 add mentees, supplemental budget for layer 3

• Estimated Number of Awards– As justified by focus area/proposal quality– Rule of thumb: 6 pyralets (18IIs)

– Or 6, could be 2 (large) teams of 9 IIs or

6 (small) teams of 3 IIs, in the middle

• Level of Support– Flexible– Rule of thumb: 3 Crores per pyralet over 3

years

Details of Support• Similar Numbers for ITRA-Water

28

Timeline RFP posted

 Wednesday, December 7, 2011 

 Expression of Interest (EOI) deadline for online submission 

 Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 5pm

 Feedback on EOI to teams

 Wednesday, February 15, 2012

 Proposal deadline for online submission 

 Tuesday, March 20, 2012, 5pm

 Site Visits/Presentations (if any) 

 Monday, April 3 – Friday, April 7, 2012

 Announcement of awards 

 Friday, April 20, 2012

 Projects start date 

 Monday, May 14, 2012

More information• (1)   ITRA homepage:

http://medialabasia.in/itra/itra/index.php

(2)  Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page

http://medialabasia.in/itra/itra/index.php?option=com_jefaq&view=faq&Itemid=81

(3) Instructions for submission:

• http://medialabasia.in/itra/itra/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1022&Itemid=64

http://medialabasia.in/itra/itra/index.php