An online meeting was held between IIT Roorkee (IITR) and Samarkand State University (SamSU), Uzbekistan on July 18, 2024. Prof. Muhtor Nasirov, Vice Rector, International Relations and Dean, Faculty of Natural Sciences; Prof Akhatov Akmal, and Prof Arindam Banik participated from SamSU. Whereas Prof V C Srivastava, Dean-International, Prof Sumit Sen, Head Dept of Hydrology, Prof Ankit Agarwal, Dept of Hydrology and Dr Shantanu Wahal, Consultant International Cooperation represented IITR. This meeting was organized in the follow-up of the meeting of Prof Srivastava and Prof Agarwal with the honourable Ambassador of India to Uzbekistan in Tashkent on June 28, 2024 and subsequent discussion on building academic and research partnerships between IITR and higher education institutes of Uzbekistan .
The group discussed various possibilities of collaborations between the two institutes including setting up department level joint/ dual degree programs in the areas of Hydrology, Photonics, Sustainable Rural Technology, GIS and Remote Sensing, Data Science, Neural Networks and Machine Learning etc. To initiate the process officially it was decided that IITR and SamSU will get into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), which may be signed digitally. It was further decided that joint seminar on the above-mentioned research fields will be organized wherein domain experts from both the institutes will participate and discuss the way forward for establishing collaboration.
In the end the officials from both IITR and SamSU extended an invitation to each other to visit their respective institutes especially for IITR to participate in the Foundation Day at SamSU, Uzbekistan that is to take place on September 21, 2024.