Dr. Atanu Rakshit of I2IT, Pune was invited to act as Judge’s of Intel Scholar Program 2008 and Threading Champion

Leading a movement towards change…

Intel - I2IT Associationship

Dr. Atanu Rakshit has been spearheading the collaboration between industry and academia. His collaboration on behalf of his institute has opened up new avenues for research and opportunity for the students of his institute.
The relationship between International Institute of Information Technology (I2IT), Pune and Intel India goes back to 2006 when I2IT began working with Intel for Multi-core architecture technology and related parallel environment. It was also in 2006 at Malaysia that Dr. Atanu Rakshit of I2IT was invited to join the Intel Asia Academic Forum.

Dr. Rakshit was also the part of Asia Academic Forum (AAF) 2007 at Delhi. During AAF 2007, Dr. Rakshit along with Prof. Namrata Mahinder co authored and presented a paper ' MC Parallel Programming – A Nural Net based Approach'.
The close interaction in the area of Multi-core and Parallel architecture has been a continuous one and the institute designed a special 2 years PG program with focus on parallel environment. Intel, India along with I2IT, Pune organized a National Seminar on 'Parallelism – Impact of Multi-core and Latest Trends' on 23-25th April'2008. The seminar had a workshop on MC Parallel Programming jointly held by Intel and I2IT faculty members.

In August'2009, Intel India and I2IT, Pune jointly organized a two day Faculty Colloquium on Multi-core Curriculum Development. Dr. Atanu Rakshit has been closely associated with all these activities often as an adjucators and remains at the forefront with his visionary goals for his institute.

1. It is a pleasure to be interviewing you. Please describe to us your experiences of collaborating with Intel Higher Education Program?

   Thanks for your appreciation. We at I2IT primarily focus on high-end education and research in emerging technology areas. Multi-core is one such area on which we had given emphasis. This was the initiation of our collaborative thought process. We were interacting with INTEL Higher Education in context to this since late 2005. We started serious collaborative discussion in these technology areas and formally started the 'Intel Lab' in March'2007. I had also attended the Intel Asia Academic Forum, where the research community meet on the focused area. The experience was excellent and very productive.

2. What are the key technology areas that interest you and have led you to collaborate with Intel?

   The key technology areas are Multi-core technology. However, associated areas like Parallel system design, Parallel programming approaches, the System software related to Multi-core Technology and Computer Architecture also interest us and led to our collaboration.

3. What are the highlights of the Multi Core University Program with Intel, India?

   We at I2IT, Pune believed that the present computing systems have parallel technology in totality with introduction of multi-core. The various solutions built around software technologies are sequential in nature. However these solutions are primarily computation-centric and demand high performance. Hence to build performance centric solutions around parallel systems become s a necessity. This was the genesis of the new curriculum in our program through this collaboration.

4. What is the significance of Technology / Research contests such as Intel Scholar Program and Intel Threading Champion? Do you feel that your faculty and students have benefited from these contests?

   Both the programs have won focus of the target community. I think both the contests were well defined and well designed too. Students achieved immense benefit from these contests and some performed very well in the final presentation too.

5. You have often lent your expertise as an adjucator for Intel Contests. Tell us about your experience as a Judge for Intel Technology contests?

   Yes, I have acted as an adjucator for some contest. I can tell as judge of Intel Threading Champion, it was an enriching experience. The quality of the projects were good. Some of them were praise worthy. I feel the whole approach including the Intel Mentorship and the way it was done needs special mention.

6. What are the key challenges of Technical Education in India and how can Industry – University collaborations add value to improving the quality of engineering education?

   The key challenges in technical education are an appropriate and up-to-date curriculum to match the needs for the current requirement. Right delivery of the curriculum and exposure of appropriate tools for the same. A further need is the process for constant update of the curriculum. I strongly feel there is very tight synergy between technical education and the industry's need. Industry can play very important role in making the above a reality. In my opinion technical education without 'right' industry collaboration is incomplete.

7. You have been a key supporter of the Multi Core curriculum in India. What are your plans for Multi Core curriculum integration in your institute?

   Yes, I strongly feel multi-core technology is like the last mile connectivity in parallel system architecture. This makes the parallel technology stack complete for the software system to explore. In our postgraduate curriculum the necessary subjects are included in couple of years ago and are getting modified based on experiences. We have incorporated various subjects to address the parallel system concepts in algorithmic design, application design, development process and system software level. Our VLSI Department gives due weightage for Advanced Computer Architecture aspects.

8. What are your thoughts on building a technical research pipeline in India? Should technical research be confined to IITs or do you feel other premier engineering institutions can also become pioneers in it?

   I feel we should create few nodal points to create the knowledge and research base. Involve other potential institute/universities/colleges around to share the experties in a continuous manner to sustain the process and ensure the target institute can drive on their own the same initiative. IIT's are normally the preferred nodes. But I strongly feel selection of other premier institutes can perform the same role. This will help one to reach the right region at a faster space.

9. How can Industry- academia relations can be helpful in promoting higher education / research ?

   Industry and academia relationship is extremely helpful for higher education and research. The Industry not only provides the platform to experiment but also helps in problem definition and POC creation. Further the industry expert sand faculty association helps in addressing applied research problems more effectively.

10. What’s your message to budding engineers in the current economic scenario?

    Thorough in basics and technological fundamentals. In depth knowledge in some of the preferred area(s). Knowledge hungry attitude. Try to build some domain knowledge for excellence.