Ahmedabad, 28 January 2013

Japanese multinational imaging and electronics company Ricoh has announced its financial endowment and industry partnership for the creation of the Design and Innovation Centre (DIC) at the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN). The partnership is planned for three years starting April 1, 2013. The idea is to work together on technology development focussed on improving interaction between people and information. The newly established DIC will have both educational and research functions. Full-time and part-time faculty, full-time technical staff and students will conduct research in a collaborative environment.

Last year, IIT Gandhinagar in joint collaboration with Ricoh had initiated Book Snap task under which the students had developed a library linked software for them. Another project proposed was about smart boards. In education sector, RII’s free whiteboard share iPhone application allow users to capture and share whiteboard discussions. It removes unwanted artefacts from the whiteboard images, making them easier to read, share and print. Last year two students from IIT-GN were picked up by Ricoh Innovations Private Limited (RIPL), subsidiary of RII in India.