IIT Bombay launches its first MOOCs

Further to its collaboration with EdX, a massive open online course (MOOC) platform, last year, IIT Bombay (IIT-B) recently launched its first three MOOCs.

While sessions for two of the courses – Introduction to Computer Programming (part one) and Thermodynamics – will commence this July, the third course – Introduction to Computer Programming (part two) – will begin in September.

Informs Deepak Phatak, professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay, “The quality and content offered online will be same as that offered on our campus. The only difference being the MOOCs will allow the students to learn anytime, from anywhere and at a convenient speed. Students can revisit study material as and when required and skip familiar topics.”

The courses can be pursued by anyone and will be delivered through sessions grouped into several themes or topics. Each session will be made up of two to four 15-20 minute ‘episodes’. Each episode will consist of a video recorded lecture of about 8-10 minutes, followed by some practice problems/ quizzes.

There will be additional reading material/ references, which the participants can use for greater clarity, if required. Regular interactive sessions through discussion forums, video conferencing and other such technologies are also being planned.

Students can register for an honour code certificate or for audit free of cost for the initial offerings. For students who wish to get a verified certificate of achievement at the end of the course, a charge of about Rs 1,500 will be levied.

(Courtesy : educationtimes)

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IIT Kharagpur creates record, more than 1,000 students get jobs

Kharagpur has set a record among all IITs with more than a thousand of its students securing cushy jobs in the first phase of campus placements, officials said today.

Around 1,010 students of the Kharagpur campus accepted job offers in the first round of placements which ended in December.

At IIT Mumbai, there were 900 offers while IIT Delhi got about 750 offers and IIT Kanpur had around 700 offers.

IIT officials said, Kharagpur has achieved a new record with the maximum number of students getting jobs in the IIT system in one phase.

In addition to big names like Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Shell, Deutsche Bank, ITC, Schlumberger, Goldman Sachs, Credit Suisse, Abbott and EXL, start-ups like Flipkart and Housing.com were the ones who made multiple offers in dual figures.

The highest package offered was from a US-based company which has signed an IITian for an annual salary of $1.25 lakh (around Rs 77 lakh).

The highest domestic package was of Rs 37 lakh.

Two new dual degree programs - Financial Engineering and Engineering Entrepreneurship - proved to be a big hit with 85 per cent students from those courses being placed.

"The programs not only demonstrated acceptability by the industries, but projected the vision of IIT-Kgp for launching novel initiatives," said Prof Sudhir Kumar Barai, in-charge of training and placement, of the institute.

The number of companies offering placements have also increased this year with 195 organisations coming this time.

Barai said another 79 engineering students have accepted pre-placement offers from other companies.

(Courtesy : Times of India)

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IIT-KGP to set up research parks in Kolkata

Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) will expand its base here through research and innovation parks, an official release said on Monday. 


The move aims at merging industry and academia as well as fostering international collaborative studies. 

The hubs would give scope to young scientists from the institute to not only enhance their academic prospects but also boost their entrepreneurship skills, the release said. 

IIT-KGP plans to set up parks at Gopali, Kansabati and Rajarhat, besides the existing one at the Kharagpur campus. 

"The hubs would be a merger of all these areas. The project is on...and the first building would come up by early 2015," project in-charge Joy Sen told IANS. 

"The parks will be an extension of IIT-Kharagpur in the state capital," he said. 

The first Park will be developed in Kolkata. 

It will have facilities to house collaborative research laboratories of partner organisations, incubation units, and other academic and research facilities.

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Hiring foreign teachers will now be easier for IITs

NEW DELHI: Giving a big boost to the IITs plan to hire teachers from abroad, the home ministry has relaxed the income criteria for grant of employment visa to them. 

With this, IITs can hire faculties from abroad with a salary of $14000 per annum as per the revised norms. Earlier, visa was not allowed to those who would get a salary of less than $25,000 per annum. 

"We have already informed the IITs about the relaxation in norms," said an HRD ministry official, adding the new norms would help these institutes tide over the faculty shortage to an extent. 

However, the relaxation will be given for two years up to December 31, 2015 and it will be reviewed taking into account the progress in the intake of foreign faculty. 

While providing the relaxation, the home ministry has also made it clear that norms will be available only for those recruited as teaching faculty and not for exclusive research positions in strategic areas or in strategic institutions. 

The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) and central universities would also be benefited from this, the official said. 

IITs, which face up to 30 per cent faculty shortage are willing to recruit foreign nationals on contract basis for posts of assistant professors or associate professors. 

The IIT council had a couple of years ago given the go-ahead for inducting foreign teachers up to 10 per cent of the total faculty strength. 

The new norms would, however, not be available to foreign nationals coming from countries such as China, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Sudan, he said. 

On the issue of recent reports of foreign students admitted to IIT Kanpur facing problems in local police stations at the time of registration, the official said they have taken up the matter with the highest level in Uttar Pradesh administration and have sought home ministry's intervention. 

As per rule, foreign students are required to get themselves registered at the local police station within a fortnight of arrival.

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Offer bonanza for IIT-M students

Chennai: Even as students from top engineering colleges in the state find it difficult to get jobs, students from IIT Madras seem to be lucky as several students have received more than one job offer from top-notch companies this year. Over 600 students have received 716 offers from 181 companies this year.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle on Tuesday, Lt Col Jayakumar, deputy registrar (students, training and placement), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, said 69 per cent of B.Tech (dual degree) students who had registered for placement were placed, followed by 59.1 per cent B.Tech, 39.4 per cent M.Tech and 18.5 per cent M.A. students.

“Last year, on the same day, 551 students received 617 offers from 169 companies; so the situation has improved this year, which shows there is no recession as far as IIT-M is concerned,” he said. Pointing out that the institute expects more companies to visit their campus for placement this year, Lt Col Jayakumar says that 1,366 students registered for placement this year, whereas it was 1,282 last year and over 230 companies have confirmed participation in campus placement this year.

Commenting on the trend, eminent academician and career counsellor Jayaprakash A. Gandhi pointed out that companies look for students who continue to update their knowledge as companies venture into new fields today.

“IITians have good knowledge and are fully updated, in tune with the company’s expectation. For example, not many students in private engineering colleges are aware about Big Data whereas an IITian is fully updated about it. This makes the IITian stand out in the queue,” he said.

(Courtesy : DeccanChronicle)

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Vellore Institute of Technology overtakes most IITs in research

Vellore: The Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT) is way ahead of most premier higher education institutions in India in the publication of research papers, a vital factor taken into account the world over for grading a university.

“We have overtaken all the IITs except IIT-Delhi and IIT-Kharagpur. Very soon, VIT will be at the very top. We are aiming to grow as big as the MIT (top-ranked Massachusetts Institute of Technology)”, said VIT Chancellor Dr G Viswanathan.

Acknowledging the warm felicitations on his 75th birthday at the VIT on Sunday, where his biographies in English and Tamil were released, GV (as he is fondly known) recounted the tough times in building up VIT as the ‘second chapter’ in his life after retiring from politics.

He said along with VIT that was now globally recognised and had about 25,000 students from 50 countries, including China, and almost all the states in India, he had endeavoured to improve the academic opportunities for the underprivileged in the state through scholarships and even free education at the VIT.

Lamenting that India’s GER (gross enrolment ratio), an indicator of students enrolling for higher education, was a mere 19 per cent as compared with USA (89%), Russia (76%) and Korea (over 90%), GV said VIT had started ‘Universal Higher Educ­ation Trust’ to help all the students passing out of plus-two to go for higher education. “I hope this project will create positive ripples in other parts of India as well”.

GV said India had great opportunities of emerging as a major producer in core areas, such as agriculture, technology and education. “And in India, Tamil Nadu has huge potential. We must work hard to get there”.

Former MP Era Sezhiyan, Congress MP M Krishnas­wamy, Satyab­hama Univ­ersity Chan­cellor Jeppiaar, CPI state secretary D Pan­dian and Rafeeq Ahmed, president, Federation of Indian Export Organis­ations (FIEO), were among those present on the occasion to felicitate GV on his illustrious public life.

(Courtesy : Deccan Chronicle)

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