IIT Kharagpur ties up with MIT, others for cultural research

NEW DELHI: In a first-of-its-kind initiative to link India's heritage and culture with science and engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur has entered into research tie-ups with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and various other Indian and global universities.

Among the other universities are Australia's Curtin University, Visva Bharati University and Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata. The research findings will be used to re-create an engineering curriculum with more 'Indian' elements.

"Most of the educational curriculum taught to engineering students is not relevant in the Indian context. The idea behind the research and these initiatives is to make the current curriculum more Oriental," said Joy Sen, head of department, Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure Design and Management at IIT Kharagpur.

MIT faculty will visit IIT Kharagpur early next year to finalise the collaboration on SandHi, a science and heritage interface initiative, and the Shantiniketan project.

"We will finalise plans for longterm co-operation, which we hope will include jointly-run studies on key planning issues, visiting faculty and joint research," Bishwapriya Sanyal, Ford International Professor of Urban Development and Planning at MIT told ET.




The objective of the collaboration is to study the heritage, culture, archaelogy and ecology of India through the Shantiniketan project and SandHi initiative. Post research, the trio are planning integrate the findings to their respective curricula. Under the Shantiniketan project, the two institutes along with the Visva Bharati University, are retracing the land-river-tribal belt as an ecological retreat as identified by Maharishi Debendranath Tagore, father of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

While Curtin's involvement is limited to the SandHi project, the Australian university is looking at more such opportunities to understand the country's heritage. "Curtin is engaging with researchers in India's flagship SandHi research project.

Under this project, cutting edge science and technology resources will be used to understand India's ancient heritage and culture," said Sambit Datta, professor of architecture, School of Built Environment, Curtin University.

MIT — specifically the department of urban studies and planning — has been involved in 'Practicums', where students and faculty work with clients and partners, such as IIT Kharagpur, to engage in research.

The framework for SandHi was laid down in early 2014 by the Union ministry of human resource development. The projects will cover domains like language, music, iconography, CSR, end-of-life care, meditation, historical reformulation, creative or traditional economy and Varanasi. All these will primarily focus on the India story.

As part of Shantiniketan project, the institutes will study urban growth planning, preservation of historic buildings and areas, and ecological planning of the local river belts. In future, most of the research works under Shantiniketan and SandHi are expected to become part of the curriculum of the students at both IIT Kharagpur and MIT. "The empirical details of any such effort are important for both teaching and research. They are used to redefine theory, which students can learn from textbooks," said Sanyal.

IIT Kharagpur also is closely studying the culture and heritage of Varanasi and Shantiniketan along with IIT Varanasi. "Varanasi is a living lens of the SandHi programme, the Sandhi projects and the SandHi grounding," said Sen.

The institutes, along with MIT, are trying to build a meta digital archive on Varanasi and similar city based information systems covering the domains under SandHI. Other partnerships with foreign and national institutes too are in place.

IIT Kharagpur has received funds about .`30 crore from the government to set up a centre of excellence to run the SandHi projects. The institute will also carry out SandHi projects through an extended centre at its Kolkata campus, besides a proposed research & development wing under 'Social infrastructural innovations' in the Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure design and Management.

Further work will be carried out at innovative centres in institutes linked with IIT KGP, said Sen.