Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Aug 15, 2002
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Aug 15, 2002 |
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Info-Tech
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IT Training Microsoft .Net centre at Anna University Our Bureau
CHENNAI, Aug. 14 MICROSOFT Corporation India Pvt Ltd and Anna University on Wednesday announced the establishment of a .NET Centre of Excellence at the School of Computer Science and Engineering inside the University campus. The centre was inaugurated by Dr E. Balagurusamy, Vice-Chancellor, Anna University, and Mr S. Somasegar, Corporate Vice-President, Windows Engineering Solutions and Services, Microsoft Corporation, US. The .NET centre will be the first of its kind in an academic institution in India, and is an extension of an agreement signed between the two early this year, Mr Somasegar told presspersons. The centre would cater to about 240 affiliated colleges of the University, equipping students with the latest tools, techniques and infrastructure to create and deploy XML Web services. Microsoft would support the University in the development of curriculum, software management, faculty development and student technology support programme. Some of the challenges for academic community include training of faculty, curriculum change, current technology, lab versus real world scenarios and exposure to students on new technologies and standards. On the other hand, the challenges Microsoft will face include research linkages and local relevance, new interfaces — language, speech and writing, reduced time from concept to solution and proactive partnering with the academic community. "The centre would take care of these challenges and provide a win-win situation for both the academic institutions and Microsoft," he added. According to Mr Somasegar, the .NET CoE would foster academic research and curriculum development, promote faculty training, support student projects like new languages, create peer-to-peer applications (like www.gotdotnet.com/terranium) and develop new Web services. The centre would also be utilised to build prototypes for Tamil language applications and also work in partnership with Microsoft Research, he added. "If a good project is done and if we find an IPR (intellectual property rights) value in it, Microsoft and Anna University would jointly find out its use and how effectively it can be used in the industries," he said. Commenting on the alliance, Dr Balagurusamy said that an executive committee comprising nominees from both Anna University and Microsoft would be responsible for drawing up an action plan and facilitating the functioning of the centre and reviewing the same on a quarterly basis. When asked whether the centre would be made use for commercial purposes like undertaking projects for local industries on .NET framework, Dr Balagurusamy said the centre was meant only for academic purposes. However, if the local industry wanted to use the facility for .NET-related projects, they were welcome, he added. Two years ago the company established the Microsoft University Relations Programme to source "highly technical talent", and also invest in the country's 13 top engineering schools. The $10 million investment over the next three years would include hardware and research grants, investment in student projects and curriculum development grants, Mr Somasegar said.
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