Research Exchange Programme

The institute announces a Research Exchange Programme to promote world-class research at the institute through research collaboration with several leading institutions world-wide.

Highlights of the programme

  • Students are initially admitted to the Ph.D. programme of the institute.
  • They can complete their Ph.D. at the institute while spending time with another research group at a partner institution.
  • They can, optionally, join the collaborating group for a Ph.D. from a partner institution by securing admission into such a programme.  This is to be done after completing a Masters degree from the institute.
  • Students of the programme spend approximately equal time at the institute and the collaborative group in either case.  The exact proportion and schedule will be decided by the requirements of the groups involved.
  • Financial support is guaranteed at both ends by the programme.

Objectives

  • We are embarking on an ambitious plan to produce high-quality Ph.D.s in the area of Information Technology and its applications. We have set a goal of producing 100 Ph.D.s per year from the institute in 2012 for ourselves. This requires getting into cutting edge areas in addition to strengthening the existing areas of research. The Research Exchange Programme worked out with different top-class groups is an essential component of our scheme.
  • Under the scheme, students can work on their Ph.D. at the institute while working closely with a partner research group. This is possible through joint projects or as part of the institute's efforts to get into or strengthen certain focus areas.
  • Students may, instead, choose to get into the Ph.D. program of the other University and work with the partner research group and continue to be in the Research Exchange Programme. The students are individually responsible for getting into the programme at the other university and in meeting the requirements of that programme, though they will get all reasonable help from the research groups involved.
  • They spend roughly half their time at IIIT and the other half with the partner group in either case. The exact proportion and schedule of how this is done will be worked out between the collaborating research groups in IIIT and the partner institution.
  • The institute sees this as an opportunity to strengthen the traditional research methodology with the introduction of the best practices from around the world. The exchange students will, in addition to doing their own research, be involved with setting up laboratories and teach advanced courses to IIIT students in new research areas while they are in Hyderabad. In turn, they work on problems that are relevant to the nation while imbibing the best that a world-class university has to offer.
  • The programme guarantees financial support for its participants when they are at IIIT and when they are away. The programme is also responsible for the travel the students undertake.

Who is it meant for?

The programme is meant for the top students with an unstoppable yearning for research. Applicants should have excellent academic credentials and/or proven research orientation. In addition, they should demonstrate a desire to make a difference through cutting-edge research work.

Partner Institutions

We have made collaborative arrangements with research groups in several top-class universities in the world. These include:

  • Carnegie Mellon University
  • University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
  • University of Pennsylvania
  • University of California, Berkeley
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • University of Washington
  • University of New South Wales
  • Brown University

Current Focus Areas:

  • Natural Language Processing, Machine Translation
  • Image Processing, Speech Processing
  • Databases, Data Mining, Information Retrieval
  • Computer Vision, Computer Graphics
  • VLSI and Embedded Systems

Current Status:

The programme was started in 2003. We admitted 8 new students into it then. Two graduate students at CMU also joined the programme. Current status is:

  • Four students are currently working at the Carnegie Mellon University in the areas of Speech Recognition, Information Retrieval, Bioinformatics, etc.
  • One student spent the Fall 2003 semester at CMU. He teaches a course and conducts research at the institute now.
  • Two graduate students of CMU are spending six months at IIIT starting Jan 2004. They teach courses on Robot Building and Wireless Communcations at the institute.
  • One student spent the summer 2003 as an intern in the Vision group of Microsoft Research at Redmond.
  • One student has gone to University of Pennsylvania in Jan 2004 to work on Natural Language Processing.

How do I get into the programme?

Apply to the institute's Ph.D. programme using the admissions portal shown below. Select the Research Exchange option and submit your details including a statement of purpose and names of two references who can testify to your potential.

Proceed to the Post-Graduate Admissions Page for further details.

 

Page last updated on August, 2015