The 25th R&D Showcase at IIIT Hyderabad began on 14 March featuring over 400 research posters, demos and prototypes from 29 centres. The two-day R&D Showcase is the institute’s major annual exhibition where faculty and students present their latest research projects, prototypes and innovations to academia, industry and the public Themed ‘Trust in Technology – Security, Privacy and Transparency. The programme included spotlight sessions by the Centre for Security, Theory and Algorithmic Research (CSTAR) and the Cyber Manthan Centre (CMC), an inaugural keynote by Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, CEO-ANRF, and a panel discussion on “Building Trust in the Indian Cyberspace: Privacy, Security and Transparency in the Era of Emerging Technologies.” Prof Sandeep K Shukla, Director of IIIT-H, said, “It is encouraging to see our researchers engaging with industry, policymakers and the wider public to translate research into meaningful societal impact.”

Vineet Gandhi of IIIT Hyderabad, leader of the team that developed an app that converts slurred speech into clear speech or uses a camera to analyse lip movements and subtle throat vibrations to generate intelligible speech. The delay is only a few hundred milliseconds, and the developers are now focusing on regional languages. A whisper. A few slurred words. For those who suffer from dysarthria, a motor speech disorder, basic communication is a challenge, indelibly affecting both their professional and personal life. But now a new innovation based on artificial intelligence (AI) and developed in India could be life-changing. Led by associate professor Vineet Gandhi a team has developed a simple app that can help people talk as an audio translation converts the speaker’s voice almost in real-time. The app can either convert slurred speech into clear, natural-sounding speech or use a camera to analyse lip movements and subtle throat vibrations to generate intelligible speech.

Among the 15,700 proposals submitted nationwide, ten research projects from the International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIIT-H) emerged as winners of the prestigious Advanced Research Grant (ARG) – the Anusandhan National Research Foundation’s (ANRF) flagship funding scheme – an extraordinary showing that underscores the institute’s growing influence in cutting-edge science and technology. The Advanced Research Grant by ANRF, India’s national funding body for research and innovation that has been set up by the Government of India, is designed to support ambitious, investigator-driven research projects led by established researchers working on novel, high-impact ideas. From foundational research to real-world innovation, the selected projects spotlight the depth, diversity, and ambition of IIIT-Hyderabad’s research ecosystem. The selected projects cover areas including quantum computing, robotics, artificial intelligence, communication systems, speech technology and climate research.