INDIA

IIT INDORE

Coordinator: Dr. Santosh Kumar Vishvakarma

Role and Responsibility: Leader of WP3. IIT Indore is a unique educational institution that focuses on interdisciplinary research and teaching. The institute is growing rapidly as the only center for advanced learning & knowledge-dissemination in the pure and applied sciences in Central India. (4 Professors are participating from IIT Indore.)

IIT Tirupati

Coordinator: Dr. Rama Krishna Sai Gorthi

Role and Responsibility: Leader of WP5. IIT Tirupati has a strong group of faculty working in Signal processing, Image Processing, Computer Vision, Wireless Communications, Signal processing, 5G and Internet of Things, Distributed Optimization, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Deep learning, Robotics and Control, driving towards Industrial Automation leading to development of Industry 4.0 platforms. Research and educational activities of IITT align very well with the proposed thematic area of Robotics and Automation. (5 Professors)

IIT Palakkad

Coordinator: Dr. Shaikshavali Chitraganti

Role and Responsibility: Leader of WP6. IIT Palakkad is actively including innovation into the academics and research initiatives covering as wide cross section of faculty and students as possible. It is active in the areas of robotics, control, artificial intelligence, brain-machine interface, and sensors. Academic and research expertise available with IIT PKD have a fair amount of overlap with UiA and align well with the proposed project areas to disseminate the research contributions and collaborate where deemed appropriate. (2 Professors)

NIT Goa

Coordinator: Dr. Saidi Reddy Parne

Role and Responsibility: Leader of WP4. NIT Goa is a premier technical Institute and is declared as “Institute of National Importance”. Academic innovations and innovative research are main strategic areas of NIT Goa. The Institute offers undergraduate, master and PhD in Five Engineering Departments. There is a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary academics at NIT Goa and to create an interactive learning ambience. (3 Professors are participating from NIT Goa.)

NORWAY

UIA

Coordinator: Prof. Jing Zhou, Prof. Linga Reddy Cenkeramaddi

Role and Responsibility:

NTNU

Coordinator: Prof. Houxiang Zhang

Role and Responsibility:

NORCE

Coordinator: Dr. Jan Einar Gravdal

Role and Responsibility:

WP1 Project Management: M1: Kick off meeting in August 2020, M2, M3, M4: Annual partner meetings to evaluate activities, progress, deliverables and plans. M5: project end. Plans for Indo-Norwegian collaboration 2023 – established.UiA is responsible for this work package and takes care of overall operation and management of the project. This includes organization of kick-off meeting, annual partner meetings, reporting to RCN, contractual work and coordination between the various WPs. The project manager will seek to optimize the resources spent in the project and actively exploit synergies between partners and WPs.

WP2 Mobility Scheme: M1, M3, M4, M7: Bachelor, Master, PhD students and researchers visit partner institutions in India. M2, M5, M6, M8: Researchers and Bachelor, Master and PhD students from India visit partner institutions in Norway. The mobility scheme will contribute to the diverse career development of researchers, both broadening and deepening their skills. The mobility scheme will be open for students and researchers at UiA, Norway as well as for students and staff from the participating institutions, IIT Tirupati, IIT Indore, IIT Palakkad, and NIT Goa from India. In exceptional cases, students from non-participating institutions will also be considered for mobility in relevant research areas related to the proposal. Final year bachelor and master students, PhDs and young researchers work with senior researchers and/or industry contacts on selected topics. The mobility scheme is flexible, to include as much industrial involvement as possible. We aim for 3 – 6 months students and shorter periods for the permanent staff.

WP3 Workshops and seminars: M1, M3, M5: Workshops in India (NIT Goa/IIT Tirupati/IIT Palakkad/IIT Indore), M2, M4: Workshops in Norway (Kristiansand or Grimstad).Workshops/seminars in both India and 3 Norway within broad areas of intelligent offshore mechatronics systems. Workshops targeting both industry (including relevant public and private enterprises, SMEs and MNCs) and academia is planned in conjunction with ongoing projects. In Norway there will be workshops/seminars in either Kristiansand or Grimstad and will be coordinated with WP2 (when we have experts from India visiting) and WP4 (winter schools). In India workshops/seminars will be conducted in Goa, Indore, Tirupati or Palakkad and will be aligned with WP2 (when we have experts from Norway visiting partner universities in India) and WP4 (summer schools).

WP4 Education: M1, M2, M3: Develop joint courses and run summer school in Norway (2022) and winter schools in India (2021, 2023). We plan to organize three summer/winter schools, two in Norway (2022) and one in India (2023). Winter schools in India focus on smart sensing for autonomous systems, smart electronic systems, signal processing for communications and offshore communications, and summer school in Norway on wireless sensor networks, process control, machine learning and advanced optimization for offshore systems. These courses will complement the curricula of master and PhD programs in both countries. We also aim to develop joint PhD courses in line with the scientific objectives of ongoing research projects and in broad areas of intelligent systems. UiA will work along with NIT Goa by involving all participants and integrate this in the MSc/PhD program in ICT and Mechatronics.

WP5 Project development: M1, M2, M3: RCN, H2020, DST, and regional funding.To develop joint research projects beyond 2023, we will stimulate joint proposals and actively pursue funding opportunities in Norway (RCN and regional funds), EU (H2021) and India (DST). It is a goal to create projects with synergies and collaboration between the participating universities/institutes in India and Norway and possible public and private enterprises, SMEs and MNCs. We will have innovation and project development on the agenda during the WP3 events. WP5 Leader will follow up these initiatives between the WP3 events. Project development will also be on the agenda during the annual meetings.

WP6 Dissemination: M1: webpage/newsletter established. M2, M4, M6: annual reports. M3,M5,M7: joint papers submitted. Dissemination of research results will be an integrated and very important part of the project. The workshops and seminars will be open, and invitations will be distributed widely in Norway and India to academia and industry (including public and private enterprises and SMEs). Lunch seminars and guest lectures will be an integral part of the mobility program. A project webpage will be made, at least 6 joint publications as a result of the research mobility program (2 in 2021, 2 in 2022 and 2 in 2023), featured at least once a year in newsletters of participating universities/institutes. In addition to the relevant international conferences, social media and YouTube channel will be used to reach out the interested groups.