Funded R & D Projects
Dinesh Katre is Principal Investigator (PI) for various R & D funded projects. He is also the Co-Mission Director for Computational Archival Science (CAS) and Digital Preservation and Augmented and Virtual Reality Missions at C-DAC. He spearheads the activities like domain research, project strategy, planning, visioning and conceptualizing the technology product / solution., design and development. He coordinates between multi-disciplinary teams, domain institutions, international partners and funding agencies.
Starting with himself as the founder of Human-Centric Design & Computing Group, he has successfully led, coordinated and nurtured a competent team of 60 developers and designers. Over the years, he has evolved a unique approach to technology development that focuses on domain research, participatory ideation and visualization, agile prototyping. He practices user-centred design approach to technology innovation. Some of the key projects led by him are listed below.
Digital Preservation and Online Portal for Sanskrit Dictionary
Centre of Excellence for Digital Preservation - for development of tools, standards, guidelines and pilot digital repositories
Design and Development of National Digital Repository and Portal for Museums of India
Standardized Implementation of JATAN Virtual Museum Software in Ten National Museums
National Study Report on Digital Preservation Requirements of India - Recommendations and Roadmap for National Digital Preservation Program (NDPP)
Interactive Game Design - He introduced interactive game design as one of the capabilities through projects in areas such as health awareness, informal learning through museums, watershed management learning, typing tutor for Indian Scripts.
Digital Library Tools and Technologies for Indian Heritage
National Multimedia Resource Centre - Multimedia authoring tools and interactive applications
In 1999, Katre established National Multimedia Resource at C-DAC with funding support from the then Department of Electronics (DoE). As a part of this project, he led the development of CD ROMs on Multimedia Rendering of Dnyaneshwari which involved computer animation of metaphors, hyperlinking and search & retrieval through text and audio recitation of approx. 10,000 Ovis of Dnyaneshwari and 700 Shlokas of Bhagvad Gita. Also, he led the development of Shaili a clipart collection of heritage motifs and design patterns that have appeared on ancient temples and a multimedia authoring tool. He designed the course syllabus for teaching computer animation and multimedia, and offered the courses through 15 authorized training centres of ACTS, C-DAC. Through this training initiative, over 2500 professionals got trained and found employment in animation and multimedia sector during 12 years of sustained efforts between1995-2007. In 2000, he organized a national conference on Multimedia Technology for Culture.