JOIN USNITK gets 3 centres of excellence
The National Institute of Technology-Karnataka (NITK) has been sanctioned with three centres for excellence under Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) phase II, of which one centre will be the centre for excellence in advance material science technology, said NITK Dean-Social Welfare Dr Gopal Mugeraya.
He was delivering presidential address at the inauguration of three-day international conference on ‘Recent advances in material sciences and technology-2013’ (ICRAMST-13) organised by the Department of Chemistry at NITK campus on Thursday. He said three centers including the centre for material sciences, cloud computing and renewable energy and smart grid will be developed at a cost of Rs 12.5 crore, of which TEQIP has already released Rs six crore to initiate the work.
Later, elaborating the same to media persons, Dr Mugeraya said the centres will be developed by pooling in the already existing equipment at the departments and purchasing additional equipment using the sanctioned amount.
The project works on a simple formula wherein the government funds for developing the centre, NITK will house the equipment, students can make optimal use of available equipment and the industry will put recurring expenditure. Specially at a time when the industries find it hard to invest on developing such centres, the government’s initiative will help in numerous ways, he told.
Meanwhile, attributing the role of various departments in developing the centres, he said the centre for material sciences will be developed with the co-ordination of four departments including metallurgy, chemistry, physics and chemical engineering and it will be led by the metallurgy department. While cloud computing will be led by the computer science department and centre for renewable energy and smart grid will be led by the electrical department. “The centres will be developed and managed by the existing faculties, in the absence of any special employees reserved for the purpose. The expertise will be shared by all the departments,” the Dean said.
TEQIP had sanctioned Rs 20 crore for the development of various departments in NITK, under its phase I programme.
Research and industry
Earlier, chief guest of the programme, Shell Technologies (Bangalore) Regional Manager Dr S Girish Rao emphasised on the need for the industry and research to go hand in hand. There is a lot of scope for the students pursuing education in institutes like NITK, to take up research work in collaboration with the industry. “I have come here to explore such possibilities, where the educational institutes and the research centres like Shell Technologies can work hand in hand to meet the growing demand for energy,” he said.