State of Computer Science Research

Office of Naval Research, Asian Office
Computer Science Research in India
A summary report by Prof. Krithi Ramamritham

According to Ramamritham (1995), India has shown the potential for high-caliber computer-science research. He stated some facts and here are the following:
· India's pool of technical man power is one of the largest in the world,
· The growth rate of India's software industry has been tremendous in the recent past, and
· The demand in the West for students from India's top science and technology educational institutions has been very strong.
The report was all about the Computer Science Research in India, in which the first discussion would focus on the Nature of the Computer Science Research in India, then it is followed by the kinds of organizations in which the said computer science research is conducted then followed by the support for conducting research in the form of equipment, infrastructure and publications is then discussed.

It has been said that India is the sought after IT Professionals, they are not just proficient in English but also with their works. Today, almost all areas of computer science research are covered by researchers in India, including topics that are "hot" elsewhere such as multi-media, workflow automation, virtual reality, and hardware-software co-design. In addition, some of the research has even attracted international attention including work on neuro-fuzzy systems, machine learning, genetic and neural algorithms, the modeling and control of flexible manufacturing systems, speech synthesis, databases, and complexity theory.

But what really caught my attention is that Indians were able to develop a solution to cope up with the conditions in conversation of multitude of languages. It means that Indians have developed a machine-assisted language processing. As we all know, not everyone can really speak English fluently but then with the help of the technology that was built by the Indians that would truly help not just their fellow men but also every citizen in the world. Of course, the technology that was developed go through extensive research. And with these developed technology, that would just simply prove that Indians do produce high quality and very good research.

One thing I have also liked about is that, in India, there are 3 categories of institutions that conduct Computer Science Research in India. And these are the following:
· The first one is the six major research and teaching institutes devoted to science and technology. The following are taken from the article. These six institutes are the IITs (of which there are five, with one more coming up in Assam) and IISc, located in Bangalore. These institutions form a select group in the minds of the government as well as the citizens. The next tier of institutions is made up primarily of the Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs), with one located in each state. Also, there are several other universities where computer science research is being conducted quietly. (One such is the University of Hyderabad; researchers here are very active in (collaborative) AI research, keeping close contacts with overseas colleagues.) But a considerable gap does exist between the six top tier institutions and the next because of high teaching load imposed on the faculty, students being, on average, of a lower quality, and finally poorer infrastructure, namely library and computing facilities.

· Government-Sponsored Institutions
There are organizations in India that are funded and supported by their government and different ministries and departments. These are just some of the examples:
o TIFR and the Institute for Mathematical Sciences (MatScience) perform research which is predominantly of a theoretical nature. These are funded by DAE.
o Defence-related work takes place in a number of labs around the country, many located in Bangalore and Hyderabad, both in Southern India. A good example is CAIR which can be described as a "think- tank" serving the AI and robotics needs of Indian Ministry of Defense. It is a component of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO).
o The Ministry of Planning funds ISI, with its primary location in Calcutta. (It is worth noting that the first indigenous digital computer -- fabricated using discrete transistor units -- was commissioned by ISI in 1966 in collaboration with Jadavpur University.)
o NCST also carries out research in several areas of computer science besides having education and training among its functions. NCST is a successor of the erstwhile National Center for Software Development and Computing Techniques (NCSDCT) which was a component of TIFR.
o The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), is also involved in computer science work, but most of its work is of an applied nature, in the context of satellites and launch vehicles. ISRO has been building satellites for remote sensing as well as for communication. Its most recent success involved the launch of the Polar Synchronous Launch Vehicle capable of launching 1000-Kg class satellites into sun-synchronous orbits.
o National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), Bhabha Atomic Research Center (BARC), and Center for the Development of Advanced Computation (CDAC) have had the development of parallel processing platforms for solving computational science problems as the main focus of their computer science research.

How I wish that our country would have one like that. Even just a little support from the government in conducting Computer Science Research and not just depending on outside funding institutions. It may be sad to admit but other countries offer support to our fellow men to conduct research but the Government itself cannot support its own people. One thing is for sure, the issue is really not about money, our country is rich but then with the officials that are in the position do not know how to value Research as much as other countries do. But then, based on the recent State of the Nation Address of the President, she would like to come up with a Department of Information, Communications and Technology. I just hope that this one would push through since having this department; we would have the chance to do research and seek help to the government via this department. And not just that, this would give opportunity to IT Professionals to excel and be heard in the country.