Indian and German Scientific experts discussed five selected thematic areas of mutual interest related to artificial intelligence (AI ) and its implementation at a joint virtual workshop. Areas such as AI for sustainability, Healthcare, Autonomous Robotics, trustworthy AI and Mathematical Foundation were deliberated upon at the workshop on AI organized by Indo German Science and Technology Centre (IGSTC) together with the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), India on September 6 and 7.

The workshop was organized as a follow-up of decision to strengthen and enhance the cooperation in the field of artificial intelligence taken during the governmental consultations between two countries in November 2019.

The Indian co-chair of IGSTC and Head- International division of DST, Mr SK Varshney, and the German co-chair Ms Katherin stressed on strengthening the academia and industry partnership and enhancing cooperation between the two countries that would help the society, particularly in the field of AI, Machine learning and Robotics.

Ms Schieferdecker from BMBF stated that Germany is focusing on expanding the German economy with AI. India is a strong partner in AI, and the recommendation of the Scientific Advisory Board from this workshop would take these efforts to further heights.

Dr Murali Mohan, Head-FFT DST, said that globally AI is a very active research topic, and efforts should be made so that India and Germany can cooperate and augment the cooperation. “There are numerous issues to address like upgrading of the technology, skill development and job creation in this field. Academia and industry need to be leveraged in this field, and products need to be geared up,” he said.

The workshop was accompanied by two plenary lectures by Prof. Rupak Majumdar from the German side and Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri from India and followed by Invited lectures and plenary sessions.