Global technology and services provider Bosch Group on Wednesday inaugurated the Robert Bosch Center for Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (RBC-DSAI) at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) with a planned investment of 2.5 million Euros (over Rs 20 crore) over five years.

The mission is to create societal impact through multi-disciplinary interactions with the government, academic, research and industrial collaborators on core challenges in Data Science (DS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

"Artificial Intelligence is a core technology for all areas of connected life -- from connected mobility to buildings, factories and cities. The expertise of our Indian engineers contributes to expanding the AI skills set of Bosch," said Michael Bolle, Member of Bosch's Board of Management.

The centre will undertake foundational research in many areas of AI and Data Science, namely deep learning, reinforcement learning, network analytics, interpretable machine learning (ML), and domain aware AI. 

The areas of activity include research projects, knowledge management and dissemination, outreach projects, and setting up collaborative facilities and laboratories. 

"The centre's mandate requires interaction with industry and other universities, including international student and faculty exchanges. The objective is to advance scientific innovation for societal benefit," said Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director, IIT-Madras.

India is one of four locations of Bosch Centre for AI and the company is investing some 300 million euros until 2021 for such centres across the world. 

"Bosch has funded two important technology areas with Cyber Physical Systems and Data Sciences & AI at IISc (Indian Institute of Science) and IIT-M. 

"By working together and conducting aligned R&D activities, they could accelerate major breakthroughs which will have wider societal impact," says Dr Vijendran Venkoparao, Head of technology strategy and university relations at Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions.

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