BENGALURU: Wipro has joined hands with Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur to jointly carry out applied research on 5G and artificial intelligence Research outcomes from this partnership would be used by Wipro to develop solutions for its customers, across industry verticals, while IIT Kharagpur would benefit from the commercialization of the joint research insights and Wipro’s real-world industry expertise, said the company in a press release.Wipro and IIT Kharagpur will jointly take up applied research projects on industry challenges related to the design, planning and operations of 5G networks and cognitive information processing for the automation of these processes and 5G use cases.“The two organizations will focus on AI research applicable in the healthcare, education and retail sectors as well as in domains such as climate change and cybersecurity. In addition, subject matter experts from Wipro and IIT Kharagpur will promote knowledge sharing through guest lectures, workshops and seminars on 5G and AI,” said Wipro in the release.“AI and 5G are critical technologies poised to create opportunities that will significantly enhance customer experiences across industry verticals. We hope to bring together the synergies of Wipro’s rich industry technology expertise and understanding of domain-specific business challenges with IIT Kharagpur’s distinguished research capabilities to co-innovate and develop next generation AI and 5G solutions that will benefit both our clients as well as the industry at large,” K R Sanjiv, chief technology officer, Wipro, was quoted saying.IT services firms have in the past collaborated with IITs to work complex technology research.Wipro’s rival Tata Consultancy Services in 2017 and IIT Kanpur jointly created research ecosystem for integrated computational materials engineeringP P Chakrabarti, director, IIT Kharagpur said, the institute’s partnership with Wipro comes at an opportune time and holds tremendous potential for co-innovation since 5G is expected to provide ubiquitous connectivity for diverse applications such as automotive communications, remote control with haptic style feedback (using artificial intelligence), large video downloads, automation of enterprise functions and low data rate applications.