Kohli Research Block Inaugurated

Hyderabad, January 16, 2017: The Kohli Center on Intelligent Systems (KCIS) was established at International Institute of Information Technology, Hyderabad (IIIT Hyderabad) in July 2015 with CSR funding from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Foundation to give a fillip to research, teaching and entrepreneurship in the area of Intelligent Systems. The Kohli Research Block was setup on campus with 60,000 sqft of built up area spread across 4 floors to provide a world-class ambience for related research activities.

The Kohli Research Block was inaugurated on January 16th, 2017 by ShriK T Rama Rao, Minister for IT E&C, MAUD, Industries & Commerce, Mines & Geology, Public Enterprises, and NRI Affairs, Government of Telangana. Shri N Chandrasekaran, CEO of TCS, Shri F C Kohli, Former Deputy Chairman, TCS and Prof Raj Reddy, Chairman, IIIT Hyderabad and Moza Bint Nasser University Professor of Computer Science and Robotics at the Carnegie Mellon University were present on the occasion along with other leaders from the academia and industry.

The Kohli Centre on Intelligent Systems (KCIS) aims at amplifying research in the broad areas of Intelligent Systems. The centre coordinates research among the relevant groups in the institute as well as industrial and academic research groups within the country and abroad. The Centre has active research groups in Natural Language Processing, Information Retrieval, Speech Processing, Computer Vision, Image Processing, Machine Learning, Cognitive Science, Data Sciences & Analytics, Robotics, etc.

Mr. N. Chandrasekaran, CEO and MD, TCS said, "The state-of-the-art Kohli Center on Intelligent Systems will provide an impetus to advancements in Information Technology. It will bring academics, students, researchers and professionals together with infrastructure conducive to sophisticated research in Intelligent Systems. Setting up KCIS reinforces TCS' long-standing commitment to education and research in cutting-edge technologies."

Prof. Raj Reddy, Moza Bint Nasser University Professor of CS and Robotics at the Carnegie Mellon University and the Chairman of the Governing Council of IIIT Hyderabad, said, "Artificial Intelligence has become a tool to augment the human reasoning capacity and has made a big impact on different human endeavors. KCIS is probably the only center in India with the tools and technology capable of monitoring, analyzing, diagnosing, and resolving day-to-day problems of society. KCIS can find intelligent systems and solutions to address the critical problems of the society such as poverty and hunger, slavery and torture, and disease and suffering, and create tools that enable an illiterate person to be as productive as a PhD. KCIS needs to be at the forefront of inventing that future."

“The Kohli Center on Intelligent Systems will energize education and research in this critical area at the institute. The centre will intensify research done at the institute and undertake joint activities involving other academic institutions as well as research labs in the government and industry,” said Prof. P J Narayanan, Director, IIIT Hyderabad. “The infrastructure of the Kohli Research Block will be second to none in the country. The research at KCIS with support from TCS will impact the society deeply through innovative products, technology transfer, and start ups.”