An International Centre for Health Systems and Medical Engineering was inaugurated at Sri Ramachandra Institute of Higher Education and Research’s Engineering and Technology wing in Chennai on Saturday. It has been set up in collaboration with the State University of New York at Binghamton, USA (SUNY). The centre has come into being as a result of a memorandum of agreement between the two institutes.
The centre will support interdisciplinary teaching, and research in computer science, engineering, medicine and healthcare. Students and faculty in BTech, BSc, MSc and PhD programmes in engineering as well as those in biosciences, medicine, dentistry, nursing, allied health, pharmacy, and management will work with SUNY counterparts on areas ranging from artificial intelligence, data analytics, cybersecurity, robotics, blockchain, medical devices, to robotics surgery and more. Chancellor of SRIHER VR Venkataachalam presided over the inauguration, with the Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost of BU-SUNY Donald G Nieman as the chief guest. Other guests of honour included Prof Krishnaswamy Srihari, Executive Vice Provost for International Initiatives, and Prof Mohammad T Khasawneh, Chair, Systems Science and Industrial Engineering and Director, Healthcare Systems Engineering Centre, Binghamton University and AICTE Advisor Dileep N Malkhede.
Speaking on the occasion, the guests said that SUNY has a tradition of research and innovation and this year’s Nobel Prize for Chemistry was awarded to its Professor Stanley Whittingham. In the changing scenario across the world, engineers are working in hospitals and doctors are working with engineers in technical institutes to find solutions for healthcare challenges that the humankind is facing. The range of programmes and research in SUNY can be the basis for collaboration and Sri Ramachandra, they said, can become a pioneer in this field in India. Also, speaking at the event, professor Malkhede added that in several Indian universities and colleges be it medical or engineering, the convergence of the two disciplines are not visible. "Under the new education policy, the anvil barriers between different disciplines are sought to be removed. Sri Ramachandra which has brought about this integration can be a pioneer in healthcare engineering," he said.
Dr V Raju, Provost, Sri Ramachandra Engineering and Technology, said the students in the engineering programmes will also undertake six-month-long internships as well as research projects at SUNY, Binghamton, USA. SUNY faculty and students will also participate in interdisciplinary research in Health Systems and Medical Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, and Automation in medicine.
