Dr. R. K. Ghosh pointed us to a Forbes article by the Editor in Chief of JACM. Following is an excerpt from it.
The U.S. produces about 1,400 Ph.D.s in computer science annually and China about 3,000. By stark comparison, India’s annual computer science Ph.D. production languishes at roughly 40. That number is about the same as that for Israel, a nation with roughly 5% of India’s population size.
While India needs all the new IITs, IIITs and Central Universities that the PM announced during his Aug 15 speech, one wonders where from these institutions will get Ph.Ds for their faculty. The government and the IT industry must brainstorm together and come up with a strategy to tackle this. Following are some initial un-coordinated half-baked thoughts.
- Start motivating good students from an early age about the value of research. This can be done through science magnet schools.
- In IITs and IISc and may be a few other selected institutions have a track similar to MD/PH.D tracks in US medical schools. Students in this track would pursue a B.Tech-P.hD program (no need for MS) and would be given a generous stipends.
- To allow more time for IIT/IISc faculty to pursue research and guide Ph.D students these institutions (especially their CS depts.) should take in more M.Tech students and let them do most of the teaching.
- Government should open special graduate centers in IT/Computer Science (may be as branches of exisiting IITs) that only focus on research. For example, the IIT Kharagpur center in Bhubaneswar may house a faculty of 5-10 CS professors and offer *only* a Ph.D program in computer science. Such centers may have affiliated faculty (who have Ph.Ds) from nearby engineering colleges. Such centers should be slowly opened in every metropolitan area with 15+ engineering colleges. (The IIITs could have served this purpose but it seems most IIITs are focusing on undergraduate education. Exceptions are IIIT Hyderabad, which has a good research program; IIIT Bangalore which only offers M.Tech and Ph.D and the nascent IIIT Bhubaneswar which will also only have M.Tech and Ph.D program, at least in the beginning. )
- Government needs to offer better salary and perks to professors so that more students are attracted to a career in academia.
August 17th, 2007
To improve the quality of engineering colleges in Orissa, IIIT Bhubaneswar should offer weekend M.tech for Engineering College faculty. This will be similar to weekend MBAs offered to working executives at many universities in the USA. To encourage the private engineering colleges to send their faculty for M.Tech Orissa government and BPUT should decide the fees amount based on how many faculty with M.tech (or pursuing M.tech) or more a particular college has.
August 4th, 2007
Following are excerpts from Tathya.in which seems to have broken this news.
… the institute has received green signal from the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE) to start M-Tech classes.
… So he along with his colleague Professor A K Das impressed upon the AICTE authorities about the requirement of the state vis-à-vis its ever growing engineering colleges, which are facing dearth of qualitative faculties.
S.N.Tripathy, Secretary IT and Vishal Dev, Director IT also extended their support in this regard.
Overwhelmed by the initiative the AICTE has allowed the IIIT-Bh to go for M.Tech and research initiatives in the first year itself.
“Now it has been decided to enroll 60 students in M. Tech courses in computer science”, said Prof.Nayak.
He said that a committee headed by Professor S.Sadagopan, Director IIIT Bangalore will soon finalize the admission criteria of students, syllabus and fee structure. …
The institution is also in the process of blending both experienced and renowned professors along with young and energetic talents as faculty members, said Prof.Nayak.
At the first place at least 6 professors and associate professors will be roped in and later more will be joining the institution, said he.
Harping on the vision, Prof. Nayak said that IIIT-Bh will be an unique institute imparting education, training, research, and consulting in technology and related fields to develop human resources who will lead the economy and the society in the coming decades.
He said the mission of IIIT-Bh is to be a knowledge seeking Institution of higher learning that will educate students in technology and other disciplines of scholarship.
According to Prof. Das the software major Infosys has agreed to set up a Chair with a rolling fund of Rs.1 crore and TCS is also inclined to support the institute in a big way.
The Institute will work closely with the Industry and other users of the technology including the state government to develop and deliver technological solutions to enhance their competitive position, said the Director.
The IIIT-Bh, which has 23 acres of land in the outskirts of the Capital City is also eying for another big patch of land adjacent to the allotted site as it is planning to go for a deemed university status for operational autonomy. …
August 3rd, 2007
I came across the IIIT proposal that Orissa had prepared in 1997. Here it is (7MB). Since that proposal, its been 10 years and finally we will have the IIIT. During these 10 years many IIITs were established in other states: Gwalior (1997), Hyderabad (1998), Allahabad (1999), Bangalore (1999), Kolkata (2000), Pune, Kerala, Jabalpur and Amethi (Campus of Allahbad).
July 27th, 2007
Tathya.in has a biographical article on Prof. Gopal Nayak. Following are some excerpts.
Prof. Nayak is the product of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur was born at Berhampur in Ganjam district to a family of teachers.
An electrical engineer with a Masters in Business Administration (MBA) from IIM Bangalore did his Ph. D from IIT, Kharagpur.
He has done his Ph. D under the guidance of Prof. Damodar Acharya who was the Vice Chancellor of BPUT, Chairman of AICTE and at present the Director of IIT, Kharagpur.
Prof. Nayak has spent a few years on Industry.
He has worked for Nelco in Mumbai in the product development area and for NTPC in the Procurement automation area.
Prof. Nayak has spent about 20 years in academics.
He is one of the founding Professors of Xavier Institute of Management (XIMB), Bhubaneswar.
As the Professor of Information Systems, he was instrumental in transforming XIMB into the most technology intensive campus in India.
XIMBans give credit to him in creating several firsts management education field: a campus network, providing PC to each student, making Internet accessible 24×7 and giving a technology orientation to the curriculum at XIMB.
He held important positions at XIMB such as the Dean (Academics), IT services and Admissions Co-ordinator.
Prof. Nayak’s most notable contribution is development of Academic Information System (AIS) and PAMIS.
The AIS is being used by many top business schools in the country such as XLRI Jamshedpur, IIM Indore, NITIE Mumbai.
PAMIS has been implemented in 314 blocks and 30 DRDAs in Orissa and is one of the most successful e-governance projects in Orissa.
With this background the Government of Orissa has roped in Prof. Nayak for the IIIT.
With a director of such background IIIT Bhubaneswar should also start offering degrees that relate to business and information systems such as MBA and MIS (Master in Information Systems). One may note that some of the IIITs, such as IIITM Gwalior, do offer such degrees.
July 26th, 2007
Infosys has several education and HRD related plans for Bhubaneswar. Following are some relevant excerpts on this from a New Indian Express report.
Taking its ‘Campus connect programme’ a step ahead, Infosys BPO on Monday launched ‘Project Genesis’ here to train lecturers on BPO skills for raising the employability potential of students in the ITES sector.
The project has achieved a resounding success in states like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Rajasthan and helped students not only gain employment in Infosys, but develop confidence in their abilities. Since its launch in October 2005, Infosys BPO has worked with more than 1,000 lecturers in 360 colleges in these states and trained more than 12,000 students.
The project would be extended to Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu apart from Orissa this year. …
Project Genesis would train 300 teachers from both government and private colleges from across the State. It would focus mostly on imparting language enhancement techniques and analytical skills, key attributes for BPO industry. On completion of the fortnight-long programme, the teachers would groom the students. Each student would have to pass through three tests. The programme would be be held periodically.
Pai said, Infosys plans to recruit several thousand students from the State in the coming years and engage actively in strengthening academic collaboration with colleges. “We would also tie up with universities for systematic intervention in updating course curriculum.”
He announced that Infosys would be funding a chair in the upcoming IIIT campus here for computer science with a corpus fund of Rs 1 crore.
July 24th, 2007
Pragativadi reports that Prof. Gopal Nayak has been recommended for the IIIT Bhubaneswar director position by the selection committee established by the chief secretary. He will be formally appointed after the chief minister’s approval.
July 3rd, 2007
Behind the scene actions are going on to start M.Tech classes at IIIT Bhubaneswar in the coming year. A director has been identified and he should be getting the formal appointment in a couple of weeks. Formal AICTE approvael for the M.Tech classes is also expected soon. As soon as that is received the advertisement for admission to M.Tech (60 seats) will come out.
June 23rd, 2007
Update on Sept 29 2007: CEB will offer M. Tech in Computer Sc. & Engg.
Update on Aug 10 2007: Krupajal to offer M.Tech in Computer Science (16 seats), Electronics & Telecom (16 seats)
Until recently NIT Rourkela and UCE Burla were the only places in Orissa that offered M.Tech programs in engineering disciplines. Now several other colleges also offer M.Tech programs. BPUT has advertised for these programs and that ad contains the full list, except for IIIT, Utkal, KIIT and NIT RKL. We reproduce that list for convenience. In Bhubaneswar area:
- IIIT Bhubaneswar – Computer Science (60) – added on 2nd August 2007
- Utkal University – Computer Science (30)
- KIIT, Bhubaneswar – Civil with WRM (Water Resource Engineering) (18), Civil with CEM (Construction Engineering & Management) (18), Electrical (18), Mechanical (18), Computer Science (18), Electronics & Telecommunication (18)
- ITER, Bhubaneswar – Computer Science & Eng. (18), Mecanical Eng. (18), Electrical Eng. (18), Electronics and Telecommunication Eng. (18).
- CV Raman, Bhubaneswar – Mechatronics (18 seats), Heat power engineering (18 seats)
- CET, Bhubaneswar – Computer Science & IT (13 seats), Industrial Engineering & Management (18 seats), Structural Engineering (18 seats), M. Arch (20 seats)
- CIPET, Bhubaneswar – Plastic Engineering (18 seats)
- ABIT, Cuttack – M. Arch (20 seats)
Others:
- NIST Berhampur- Electronics and Communication Eng. (18)
- GIET Gunupur – Computer Science & Eng. (18), Industrial eng. (18), Electronics & Communications eng. (18).
- NIT Rourkela – Ceramic Engineering, Chemical Engineering (Including Biochemical Engineering& Bio technology), Civil Engineering, Computer Science & Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Electronics & Communication Engineering (Including Instrumentation Engineering), Mechanical Engineering, Metallurgical & Materials Engineering, Mining Engineering
- UCE Burla – Communication System Engineering (18), Heat Power Engineering (12), Hydraulic & Irrigation Engineering (18), Machine Design & Analysis (12), Power system Engineering (18), Production Engineering (12), Structural Engineering (13), Transportation Engineering (13)
- IGIT Sarang – As commented by Shishir, IGIT’s web site mentions that it offers M.E in Power Systems since 2002. But this is not advertised by BPUT, nor is it in AICTE’s list.
June 9th, 2007
Dharitri (in Oriya) and Pragativadi (in English) report that IIIT Bhubaneswar will start classes with 60 students from September this year.
April 26th, 2007
There is some possibility that IIIT Bhubaneswar classes may start in a building in the Infocity campus. That location has many advantages over the CITE location in Rasulgarh. Effort is on to obtain some chair professorship funded by various companies that have operations in Bhubaneswar and Orissa. The search for a director continues. The plan to start classes in the coming academic year is still on.
March 19th, 2007
Today’s New Indian Express reports that director serach for IIIT Bhubaneswar is going on in full swing. The search committee consists of Dr. Sadagopan from IIIT Bangalore, Mr. Subroto Bagchi of Mindtree, Dr. Ramani from HP labs and Mr. Vishal Dev, Director OCAC. The report also says that the project cost will be Rs 45 crores out of which state government has budgeted 10 crores and the remaining is to be raised from private companies.
March 1st, 2007
New Indian Express and Samaja (page1, page2) have reported that classes of IIIT Bhubaneswar will start from August 2007. The classes will initially start in the top floor of the CITE (Center for IT Excellence) building in the Rasulgarh area. Once the IIIT campus is built in Gothapatna the classes will move there.
February 18th, 2007
Dharitri reports on three HRD related questions raised by the Orissa MPs in the Parliament. The questions were about an HRD funded IIIT, Novodaya Vidyalayas and Kendriya Vidyalayas.
December 6th, 2006
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