The Georgia Institute of Technology and Infosys Technologies, a global IT services and consulting company, have announced the intent to partner on potential research and educational opportunities. A memorandum of understanding has been signed by Gary Schuster, Georgia Tech’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, and S. (Kris) Gopalakrishnan, chief executive officer and managing director of Infosys Technologies, formalizing the collaboration.

Georgia Tech is exploring the possibility of establishing a small, high quality post-graduate research institution in Hyderabad, India. The proposed Georgia Tech facility would include centers for excellence in information technology and information systems, energy systems, biotechnology and infrastructure studies. As part of the partnership, Infosys is planning to collaborate on research projects of mutual interest in these areas of technology. Moving forward, Georgia Tech and Infosys will create a roadmap to identify the necessary resources and infrastructure to transfer these technologies to market.

“Since Infosys has a presence both in Atlanta and Hyderabad, there are collaborative opportunities in both locations,” said Schuster. “Such alliances are critical to our goal of developing a global university and to enhancing closer educational, scientific and economic ties between the United States and India.”

According to Schuster, for the past several years the partnership between Georgia Tech and Infosys has been very strong in Atlanta, where the company has rapidly expanded its local workforce by hiring several hundred engineers. In fact, Infosys was recently named “Employer of the Year” by Georgia Tech’s Division of Professional Practice.  
Schuster noted that the new collaboration extends the existing partnership to the research arena. “Georgia Tech faculty and Infosys engineers and scientists will now have the opportunity to work together on emerging computing and web technologies that promise to add new efficiencies of cost and scale to rapidly expand markets in retail, manufacturing, commerce, energy and finance,” he said.

“The Human Resources Development Ministry of the Indian government has recently encouraged non-Indian universities to set up a presence in India through a forward-looking Foreign Universities Bill that has been recently introduced into the Indian parliament,” added Vijay Madisetti, executive director of Georgia Tech’s India Initiative. “We are hopeful that the passage of this bill will allow us to expand our proposed activities beyond the research focus to include an educational program that will offer Georgia Tech Ph.D. and master’s degrees to students in India, at the start drawn primarily from the employees of leading corporations such as Infosys.”

“Infosys has been collaborating with leading universities and research institutions across the globe, working with some of the best and brightest minds to develop and nurture ecosystems of research and innovation. Our association with Georgia Tech and the research programs we undertake will focus on emerging technologies to develop client-specific business solutions,” said Gopalakrishnan. “We have strengthened our presence in Atlanta through our recent acquisition of McCamish Systems and our partnership with Georgia Tech further enhances our business opportunities in the U.S.”

Georgia Tech currently has research and educational initiatives in France, Ireland, Singapore, Shanghai and Costa Rica. More information on these international programs can be found at www.gatech.edu/campuses