CSIR teams up with NVIDIA to set up AI innovation centre in Delhi

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has joined hands with US-based chip-designer Nvidia Corp to set up a Centre of Excellence here to offer the industry a complete design and implementation environment for the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based applications.

The CSIR-Central Electronics Engineering Research Institute (CEERI) in Pilani, Rajasthan, on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to this effect.

The CEERI-Nvidia Centre of Excellence (CNCoE) will be powered by a five-petaflop AI supercomputer, India's first industrial AI supercomputer, at CEERI's New Delhi campus, Nvidia said in a statement.

"This CNCoE is significant because it brings together Nvidia's cutting-edge AI platform with vast industrial scientific research expertise and capability from CSIR-CEERI," said Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director, Nvidia South Asia.

"This combination will enable researchers and industry across the country to advance their AI systems development," Dhupar said.

The centre will house a high-throughput artificial intelligence (AI) computing infrastructure that can be leveraged by CSIR laboratories, in collaboration with public and private organisations and industries across the country, to conduct research and development.

"This centre will provide a unique platform for developing AI systems to solve some of the critical problems in healthcare, natural resource management, food production, security and transportation by exploiting multi-dimensional knowledge base available with CSIR and other research organisations in the country," said Santanu Chaudhury, Director, CSIR-CEERI.

"The industry can use this facility to develop AI-based products supporting the Make in India initiative of the government, This CNCoE has the potential to usher in a culture of AI based innovations in a variety of application domains," Chaudhury added.

CSIR has 4,000-plus active scientists spread over 38 national laboratories covering a wide spectrum of specialisations in science and technology.