Delhi: Deakin University, one of Australia’s premier centres of higher education has entered into an agreement with GE India Technology Centre to undertake collaborative activities and research projects in India.

Over 5300 researchers and engineers work at GE’s Technology Centres in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Chennai. The John F. Welch Technology Centre (JFWTC), located in Bangalore is GE’s first and largest global lab outside the United States. The JFWTC houses scientists from the GE Global Research organization as well as engineering teams for GE businesses – Aviation, Transportation, Power, Oil & Gas, Energy Management and Healthcare. GE India Technology Centre is a research and development division of General Electric Company with broad integrated, multidisciplinary research and development interests.

The collaboration is under the Deakin India Research Initiative (Joint Supervision program) which would involve students to be based at GE premises while being enrolled for PhD program at Deakin University, Australia. The key areas of research would include:

Understanding and controlling high temperature oxidation of superalloys used in energy generation applications

Optimising single crystal superalloy turbine performance through understanding material property anisotropy.

Speaking on the occasion Prof. Peter Hodgson, Pro Vice Chancellor, Strategic Partnerships at Deakin University, Australia said “The partnership with GE India Technology Centre is representative of Deakin’s investments in R&D in India with global collaborators. This relationship is a testament to our commitment to harness the best and the brightest from India as well as the growing recognition of India as a global centre for technology research”.

Mariasundaram Antony, General Manager, India Engineering Operations, GE Power, stated, “The initiation of this partnership between GE and Deakin will open up opportunities to collaborate on cutting edge research areas of mutual interest. I am confident that this relationship will continue to strengthen in the years to come.”