RWTH and University in Madras Working Together
RWTH Aachen Rector Ernst Schmachtenberg and Professor Bhaskar Ramamurthi, Director of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, IITM for short, signed a Memorandum of Understanding in Berlin. The representatives of the two universities met at part of the German-Indian intergovernmental consultations at the invitation of Federal Minister of Education Johanna Wanka.
Schmachtenberg and Ramamurthi jointly lead the Indo-German Centre for Sustainability, IGCS for short, which was founded in 2010. This was founded at the ITTM in order to conduct joint interdisciplinary research in the field of sustainability. The German Academic Exchange Service, DAAD, supports this project as part of the "A New Passage to India! international initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research. The signed Memorandum of Understanding guarantees a second funding period till 2016. Ramamurthi visited RWTH Aachen and Forschungszentrum Jülich after signing the agreement.
Summer School for 20 Students
As part of the collaboration, a summer school for 20 Indian and German Master and Ph.D. students will be held from July 2 to 13, 2013, in Aachen. The topic is "Sustainable Development of Future Urban Environments – Integrated Approaches for Sustainable Waste and Water Management“. The summer school is being organized by Univ.-Prof. Dr.rer.nat. Dr.h.c. Rafig Azzam and his team at the RWTH Aachen Chair of Engineering Geology and Hydrogeology.