With a view to making its research outcomes easily available to start-ups and other organisations, the International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-Hyderabad) has opened an API (application programming interface) gateway.

By plugging into the APIs, the organisations can use the tools and solutions developed by the institute.

To start with, APIs for language processing, machine translation, and speech-related tools are made available.

“For now, we are not going to charge anything,” Ramesh Loganathan, Professor Co-Innovation and Outreach at IIIT Hyderabad, told Business Line.

“Earlier, getting access to the tools was very difficult. The Product Lab team has begun to work with a research teams, making the tools API enabled,” he said.

“Though the institute used to offer the solutions, it used to be very difficult as it would take a long time for the user to under stand the code. We are making them usable now,” he said.

Prakash Yalla, Head of Product Labs, said his team would sit with relevant research teams and orient the tools API ready to make them usable.

“While a start has been made with language technologies, the idea is to eventually host research from all other labs as well,” he said.

The institute is in the process of identifying and building small applications. With a dedicated login and associated accounts that include billing and metering, the API Gateway would help the institute commercialise its intellectual property.

“To begin with, Product Labs will drive the initiative. Eventually, the idea is to make it more self-service, allowing each lab to upload their APIs by themselves on the gateway,” Ramesh Loganathan said.

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