Kyndryl, an American multinational providing world’s largest IT infrastructure services, collaborated with one of India’s premier technology institutions, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Tirupati to enable developments in 3D printing technology and foster smart manufacturing research. The association will focus on quickly developing cost-effective 3D prototypes for complex products in manufacturing by conducting advanced research, sharing knowledge and promoting new innovations in the country.

Today, 3D technology has become essential for manufacturing and developing product prototypes that are then used to troubleshoot design issues before mass production. With digital transformation, the demand for skills and capabilities in smart manufacturing is also increasing. The collaboration will combine IIT Tirupati’s domain knowledge in 3D printing with Kyndryl’s global expertise in Artificial Intelligence (AI), enabling the co-creation of Machine Learning (ML) models that will allow for near real-time identification of potential defects during 3D printing. Gaining this knowledge in advance could help identify significant savings in cost, time, and waste generation, as well as contribute to new product development by predicting performance in real-world manufacturing environments.

“This partnership will enable IIT Tirupati students and faculty to collaborate with Kyndryl’s best-in- class professionals on the frontiers of implementing AI to solve industry challenges,” said Prof. K.N. Satyanarayana, Director, IIT Tirupati. “The co-creation in the digital manufacturing segment with Kyndryl can quickly provide cost-effective solutions to the manufacturing industry and provide better exposure to our students.”

“India’s National Manufacturing Policy aims to raise the manufacturing sector’s GDP share to 25% by 2025. To accomplish that goal, research advancements and skills development will play an important role in deploying AI in innovative ways to make smart manufacturing technology more accessible and efficient,” said Lingraju Sawkar, President, Kyndryl India. “This collaboration will harness Kyndryl’s Data and AI expertise to help IIT Tirupati create a meaningful learning experience for students and serve as a scalable model of how industry and academia can co-create to help industries.

The organisations have already begun joint research and will be launching a series of thought leadership conclaves and innovation challenges to advance new ideas across industry and academia that align with the National Innovation and Start-up Policy (NISP) 2019.