“Learning with work is very exciting as the implementation is real time,” says Sharma.

These lectures are part of the Open Innovation Tech Series that SRI-D kickstarted recently in a tie-up with the two IITs.

These sessions for engineers range from topics such as Computing Architecture to AR/VR technology and this program is part of SRI-D’s continuous learning initiative, which helps in fulfilling the aspirations of many of its employees.

“The lectures helped me with some terrific insights about introducing distributed computing architecture. Any future collaboration, wherein we can make some new technology solutions with the students from the university would be really great,” says Rohit Thapliyal, Senior Chief Engineer at SRI-D, who has been attending these sessions alongside his work.

The newly introduced learning program brings Samsung engineers together with faculty members from the IITs, primarily from the IITs where the Company has its Samsung Innovation Campus program running.

“At Samsung, our aim has always been to help people associated with us, reach their fullest potential through constant learning and coaching. It gives us immense pleasure to see these young millennials, talented Samsung engineers refresh their industry knowledge on cutting edge subjects by collaborating with IIT faculty,” says Pankaj Mishra, Vice President, SRI-D.

Open Innovation Tech Series is not just aimed at providing Samsung Engineers with an opportunity to learn and apply new concepts. Such learning programs also facilitate stronger ties between the industry and the academicians, which is one of the reasons why IIT faculty members are delighted at being associated with the program.

“Industry-Academia interactions are always a win-win as it is the crucial first step in the long journey of translation of ideas to commercial products. Thanks to Samsung for initiating such interactions and wishing them all the best for sustaining the same,” says Prof. V. Kamakoti, Department of Computer Science & Engineering from IIT Madras.

Samsung R&D Institute-Delhi (SRI-D) was established in 2002. It is one of the largest overseas centers having doing commercialization development for Global Smart TVs.

The Samsung AR-VR Innovation Lab at IIT-Jodhpur will train students on new technologies such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (AR/VR), helping them learn industry-relevant skills and making them job-ready.

Samsung Digital Academy is Samsung’s corporate social initiative that aims to bridge the digital divide and proficiency gaps in the country by skilling students on cutting-edge technology.

Courses at the lab would be run by Samsung engineers in conjunction with the faculty of IIT-Jodhpur and will be offered to B.Tech, M.Tech and PhD students by the Department Computer Science and Engineering at IIT-Jodhpur. A batch of 30-35 bachelor students would be trained per year and part of this lab would be used by research fellows to conduct their experiments.

The Samsung AR-VR Innovation Lab at IIT-Jodhpur was virtually inaugurated by Shri Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India and Dr. Mugdha Sinha, Secretary to Government, Art, Literature, Culture and Archaeology and Director General, Jawahar Kala Kendra, Rajasthan.

“Samsung Digital Academy is a great initiative to bring one of the finest global technology leaders, Samsung and IIT Jodhpur together to form a lab dedicated for technological innovations. Samsung has a strong grip on every technology they use and I am certain that the innovation Lab at IIT- Jodhpur will enable the students to explore various technological territories and come up with discoveries and endless possibilities,” said Shri Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, Electronics & Information Technology, Government of India.

“Samsung R&D Institute India, Delhi has been working closely for many years with premiere engineering institutions of India to foster collaborations for joint teaching, mentoring and promoting research on advanced and emerging technologies. This new Samsung Innovation Lab at IIT-Jodhpur would specialize in AR/VR and help students pursue this disruptive innovation. We are committed to work in the field of next generation technology development and participate in the growth of advanced research areas through the network of Samsung Innovation Labs under the Samsung Digital Academy program,” said Deokho Kim, Managing Director, Samsung Research & Development Institute, Delhi.

“At Samsung, we aim to cultivate a culture of innovation among students and help create strong infrastructure at top academic institutions in the country. The first Samsung Innovation Lab started in 2017 as part of our citizenship initiatives and since then we have seen several other come up where students have been up-skilled on new-age technologies such as IoT and pervasive computing. These labs have also been used by students and faculty at the IITs for collaborative research with Samsung engineers. We are confident that Samsung Innovation Lab will help students leverage the growing digital technologies market and develop their talent,” said Peter Rhee, Corporate Vice President, Samsung India.

“This lab will provide opportunity to the students to get exposed to different aspects of AR and VR technologies. As AR and VR is finding applications in diverse fields like education, industrial design, robotics, infrastructure management and medicine, students of different programs of the institute including those of Medical Technology can take advantage of this facility,” said Prof. Santanu Chaudhury, Director IIT Jodhpur.

The curriculum at the Samsung AR-VR Innovation Lab at IIT-Jodhpur will include Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Mixed Reality, with special emphasis on touch, haptics, taste, smell, robotic interfaces, telepresence and brain-machine interfaces. The course will be taught over 14 weeks through classroom lectures, assignments and lab room sessions, self-study and mini projects. Extensive tutorials and approach documents will also be provided to students to facilitate practical exercises.

Samsung has so far set up six Samsung Innovation Labs in IIT-Delhi, IIT-Kanpur, IIT-Hyderabad, IIT-Kharagpur, IIT-Roorkee and IIT-Guwahati as part of its Samsung Digital Academy program with the first one starting at IIT-Delhi in 2017. These labs have trained over 800 IIT students to date. More Samsung Innovation Labs will come up in the near future. The current focus of the labs is on activities such as collaborative research with Samsung and course/training offered by Samsung.