AITI-KACE, KNUST intensify research collaboration

The Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT (AITI-KACE) and the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) have intensified their alliance in areas of scientific research, innovation and development.

At a brief meeting between leaders of the two institutions, the Director General of AITI-KACE Mr. Kwasi Adu-Gyan and the Vice Chancellor of KNUST, Prof. Kwasi Obiri-Danso acknowledged the need for a strong collaboration between the University and the Centre.

The two admitted the collaboration will promote scientific research and development in the Information Technology sector leading to products and services that will accelerate socio-economic development.

Mr. Kwasi Adu-Gyan expressed appreciation for the tremendous approach by KNUST to ensure the collaboration comes to reality, saying AITI-KACE’s decision to engage officially with the University, stemmed from their mandate to bridge the gap between the academia and the Industry.

Also it is the mandate of the AITI-KACE to establish partnerships and cooperate with other research organizations and institutions of higher learning in joint research, innovation and training, as well as collaborate with partners from all sectors to catalyze the growth of ICT sector in Ghana.

The Director General of AITI-KACE, indicated the availability of a High Performance Computing (HPC) which will help deliver reliable and sustainable computing resources to meet the Scientific and technological research demands.

He suggested a creation of cluster of HPCs and building of community to groom young researchers and HPC users with the aim of building capacity and promote the use of HPC for scientific researches.

Mr. Adu-Gyan further stated that since AITI-KACE is closer to industry the collaboration is prudent, because out of it, students can have their first hand industrial experiences, thereby creating a pool of personnel with expertise ready for the industry.

He was emphatic that the alliance aims at developing a research landscape in Ghana that attracts leading researchers from around the world, where excellence in research will be at the core of the research pools, extending to knowledge exchange and sharing of facilities.

“Since KNUST will select the best students for AITI-KACE to support research, innovation and development projects, it will create a competitive environment for students to be encouraged to give out their best knowing there are opportunities available.

Mr. Adu-Gyan reiterated on how best KNUST and AITI-KACE can identify possible areas where the two Institutions can make use of the HPC, saying “Aside the HPC, AITI-KACE is in the process of developing State-of-the-Art Software Development facility, Embedded System, VLSI and Cloud Technology facilities to come out with relevant software products, which all is to see Ghana being an innovation hub of the sub-region.”

He expressed the hope that the AITI-KACE and KNUST collaboration will leverage the application of science and technology by researching and developing local technologies to resolve most of the socio-economic challenges.

According to Mr. Adu-Gyan, until Ghana researches into a lot of technology and produce them locally and even take a further step of innovating and also exporting technology to other people, the country will continue to face many of the challenges that the economy is confronted with.

He emphasized that the benefits of the collaboration will for a long time be a backbone in the future development of Ghana in terms of research, innovation and development.

The Vice-Chancellor of KNUST Prof. Kwasi Obiri-Danso, revealed an existing MoU between the two institutions expressing the hope that the recent collaborative efforts would reignite the expectations of identifying problems and come out with technological solutions in transforming Ghana.

He expressed the University’s willingness to support the initiative in every way possible.

The Provost of the College of Engineering, Professor Mark Adom-Asamoah had earlier welcomed AITI-KACE at his office, where he noted that the collaboration was not only on the agenda of the College of Engineering, but also relevant to the University’s core mandate as a Science, Technology and Engineering based institution to propel national development.

Prof. Adom-Asamoah further indicated that the collaboration will enhance the visibility and efficiency in conducting and training Students in research and development, adding it would enable Students and lecturers share knowledge and access facilities available to them, such as the High Performance Computing (HPC).

He added that both teams would embark on joint research works and supervise particularly Students after completion during their National Services or continuing students for their internship.