IT and outsourcing services provider Wipro said it will use students at Israel’s largest university to jointly conduct research into artificial intelligence.

The company inked an agreement with Tel Aviv University, Israel’s largest institution of higher learning which is home to over 30,000 students studying in nine faculties.

The two will create a joint research centre at TAU to pursue “core as well as applied research in fast-developing technologies in the Artificial Intelligence space,” the Bangalore-based company said.

The Tel Aviv University has over 125 schools and departments across sciences, engineering, humanities and the arts.

The announcement comes in the wake of the first ever visit by an Indian Prime Minister to the Jewish nation. India under the Indian National Congress always kept its distance from Israel to ensure that it did not antagonize Arab nations.

However, with Israel emerging as a strong power in IT and defence, and a change in the ruling dispensation in New Delhi, relations have been on the upswing in recent years.

Wipro, on its part, has been trying to boost its capabilities in automation and artificial intelligence software to cut costs and reduce manpower.

“Wipro has a strong tradition of investing in innovation, and collaboration with academia for advanced research and development is a key element of our innovation programs. We are excited to partner with Tel Aviv University to jointly develop innovative IP in core Altechnologies that will help us build advanced and differentiated solutions and services for our customers,” said K.R. Sanjiv, Chief Technology Officer, Wipro Limited.

Oren Califon, head of business development for technology at the university’s ‘business engagement center’ said Wipro was “a great fit” with his university’s focus on Machine Learning, Deep Learning and Sparse Representation techniques.

“We look forward to growing the partnership between our organizations in the coming years.”

Wipro, which has a workforce of over 170,000, has been faced with a slow down in recent years due to a shift in the nature of IT services business.