PM's Visit to Washington, D.C. catalyses landmark agreement between AMRITA, ISRO, DST, and leading American Universities.
In a landmark agreement, that was inked during the visit of the Prime Minister to Washington DC on July 20, five leading American Universities, including the University of California campuses at Berkeley and San Diego, Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, and State University of New York at Buffalo, which are ranked among the best universities of the world, will join Indian institutions led by AMRITA Vishwa Vidyapeetham, ISRO, and Department of Science and Technology to enhance science and engineering education in India over Edusat. Three of the leading technology companies in the world, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Cadence, will be funding this Initiative.

University leaders, corporate executives, and the Secretary of Space, the Secretary of Science and Technology, and the Indian Ambassador to the U.S gathered last Wednesday in Washington D.C. for the signing of a three-year Memorandum of Understanding, immediately following which they were warmly greeted by Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in Blair House, across from the White House.

"We are delighted to forge this new partnership between AMRITA, Indian institutions and the University of California System," said Gretchen Kalonji, Director of International Strategy Development for University of California's Office of the President. "By expanding opportunities for international academic collaborations in critical fields, this partnership will not only help keep the University of California competitive -- but will also help drive global innovation and economic prosperity."

Under the agreement, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego, as well as Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, the State University of New York at Buffalo, and Case Western Reserve University, will send their best faculty to teach in India to hundreds of colleges and universities via AMRITA's e-learning setup and ISRO's EDUSAT. AMRITA Vishwa Vidyapeetham (a deemed University established by the Mata Amritanandamayi Math and headquartered in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu) will be coordinating the delivery of all of the courses by the visiting professors to Indian Colleges and Universities. AMRITA will also extend use of its e-learning center with state of the art multimedia equipment from the Department of Science and Technology.

"It is in everyone's interest to raise the level of engineering education in the global economy," said Frieder Seible, Dean of the Jacobs School of Engineering, who represented UCSD at the signing ceremony. "We expect some of the very best and brightest students participating in this program to come to the U.S. for post-graduate education, giving U.S. technology leaders such as Microsoft and Qualcomm access to more world-class engineers. So programs like this offer benefits to India and the United States alike."

"The U.S. universities in this agreement are first-tier engineering schools that can help offset the imbalance in the quality of professors in India's fastest growing colleges and universities," said Venkat Rangan, Vice Chancellor of AMRITA University, a former professor of computer science and engineering at UCSD's Jacobs School, and a graduate of both UC Berkeley and the Indian Institute of Technology. "With the help of American professors, these satellite courses will turn more students into top-level engineers, not just for India, but potentially for Ph.D. programs and businesses in the U.S. as well."

Three U.S. research centers are partners to the agreement: University of California's Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS); the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2); and Carnegie Mellon's CyLab.

The program will expose U.S. faculty to potential research partnerships in India, and could also promote more Indian students to gain admission into U.S. engineering schools from India. "For centers like ours that rely heavily on partnerships with global companies, globalizing our own activities is critical to sustaining the engine of innovation that we are called upon to drive. This initiative is also a living experiment in understanding the effectiveness of distance learning in an environment that is full of promise", said Ramesh Rao, Calit2's division director at UCSD.

Funding for travel and salary supplements for participating faculty will come from the private sector. Qualcomm's corporate sponsorship will enable the participation of Calit2 and UCSD professors in the program. "While headquartered in San Diego, Qualcomm is a global company with an increasing presence in India's wireless market," said Jeff Jacobs, president of global development of Qualcomm. "We believe it is important to support the education and training of world-class engineers who have the potential to take our business to the next level in innovation. Our company is built on the premise that wireless technology can change the way people live and work, and this partnership with U.S. and Indian institutions is empowering a new generation of future technology leaders."

For its part, Microsoft India is partnering with AMRITA University to set up the International Centre of Excellence in e-learning, for education, research and helping drive e-learning content. In its commitment towards driving IT education in the country, Microsoft India will be instituting a Microsoft Chair for three years at AMRITA University.

"We have a long-term vision for the cause of IT education, wherein we are committed to empower students, educators and lifelong learners to achieve their fullest potential by providing greater access to the latest technologies and training," said S. Somasegar, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, on hand for the signing ceremony. "There is a pressing need today to accelerate the adoption of IT in the learning process and as a company we are focused towards connecting the education community through solutions and powerful education initiatives such as this."

Visiting U.S. faculty will also be encouraged to explore research collaboration with participating institutions in India. The U.S. universities have also agreed in principle to make teaching materials available on a non-exclusive basis for a new digital content library being created by AMRITA for future students.

The program will focus initially on engineering and computer science, information and communication technologies, but courses will also include materials science, biotechnology and bioinformatics, nanotechnology, medical sciences, and others.

Signatories

From the Indian side:

• Dr. P. Venkat Rangan, Vice Chancellor, Amrita University

• Dr. G. Madhavan Nair, Secretary, Department of Space, Government of
  India & Chairman, Indian Space Research Organization

• Prof. V. S. Ramamurthy, Secretary, Department of Science & Technology,
  Government of India

From the US University side:

• Hunter Rawlings, President, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York

• Shankar Sastry, Director, CITRIS, University of California at Berkeley

• Gretchen Kalonji, Director, International Programs, Office of the
  President Oakland, California

• Frieder Seibel, Dean of Engineering, University of California San Diego

• Mark Kamlet, Provost, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

• Satish Tripathi, Provost & Executive Vice-President, University at
  Buffalo, New York

• Mark Hans, School of Dental Medicine, Case Western Reserve University,
  Cleveland, Ohio.

Corporate Partners:

• Jeff Jacobs, President-Global Development, Qualcomm Inc

• S. Somasegar, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft

• Deependar Saluja, Corporate Vice President, Cadence Design Systems.
  

Photographs courtesy Calit2 website