A state-of-the-art research facility to be set up at the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University here and bankrolled by Indian IT services giant TCS intends to lay the groundwork for the fourth industrial revolution.

The industry-academia collaboration comes more than a century after Tata Sons founder Jamshedji Tata arrived in Pittsburg — known as the world’s steel capital — to understand technologies that he would later use to launch India’s own industrial revolution.

Tata Sons Emeritus Chairman Ratan Tata, Carnegie Mellon University President Subra Suresh and Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran broke ground for the new TCS Hall at the varsity campus.

Supported by an unprecedented $35 million grant from TCS — the largest-ever industry donation to the CMU — the building, when completed by next year, will become the hub of CMU-TCS collaborations to promote next-generation technologies that will drive the fourth industrial revolution, Suresh said.

The 50,000 gross sq-ft TCS Hall will house research and academic spaces where both institutions will collaborate in fields such as cognitive systems and autonomous vehicles and robotics.

“Today, we are not looking at heavy metal and millions of tonnes of steel. We are looking at a collaboration of intellectual skills and the development of two countries together that might bring about global understanding between people,” Tata said.

Paying tribute to Jamshedji Tata, Suresh recounted his four goals in life: setting up an iron and steel firm in India, opening a world-class learning institution, building a unique cartel, and constructing a hydroelectric plant, he added.

“Years later, a company affiliated with one of Andrew Carnegie’s executives landed a contract to build the Tata plant in India, bringing to life the Jamshedji Tata goal that mirrored Carnegie’s life’s work: the great steel empire built here in Pittsburgh, and a great university, Carnegie Tech, now known as Carnegie Mellon as we celebrate it today,” he said.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW