To help its employees at its Noida R&D facility to upgrade skills in areas such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Cloud computing and Machine Learning (ML), Samsung India on Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India's premier engineering institute BITS Pilani.

As part of the initiative, the employees of the R&D centre will be able to pursue M.Tech in Software Systems, to further upgrade their skills, Samsung India said in a statement. 

"As technology evolves, skill sets must evolve too, especially for a company like Samsung that is focused on the next level of innovations," said Seounghoon Oh, Managing Director, Samsung R&D Institute India-Noida.

"This MoU is in line with our vision to develop futuristic skill-sets aligned to the requirements of the fast evolving mobile and consumer electronics sectors," Oh said. 

As part of the initiative, every year a batch of 35 employees from Samsung R&D Institute India-Noida (SRI-Noida) will be sponsored for this two-year M.Tech programme. 

Established in 2007 with the primary focus of mobile software development and testing, SRI-Noida has an existing MoU with Delhi Technological University (DTU) for M.Tech and PhD since 2011.

It is actively involved in developing advanced solutions to suit market needs for South West Asia and also develop models for Middle East Asia, North America, Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) regions. 

The R&D centre has developed several India specific innovations such as popular S-Bike Mode, Ultra Data Saving Mode, Social Camera, S Secure and S Power Planning. 

Many of these innovations have done well in global markets as well, Samsung India said.

"With a deep understanding of the changing consumer behaviour and technological advancements, Samsung India is committed to support the government's 'Make in India' objective," Oh said.

Recently, Samsung also partnered with Reliance Jio to set up a nationwide IoT (Internet of Things) network to help LTE services reach 99% of the country’s population.