Caledonian College of Engineering inks MoU with IIIT, Allahabad.

Byline: Times News Service

MUSCAT [R]e-eIN Caledonian College of Engineering (CCE), one of the premier private university colleges in Oman, recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Institute of Information Technology in Allahabad (IIIT-A), Northern India.

One of the leading institutes of its kind, IIIT-A was established in 1999 as a centre of excellence in information technology and allied areas.

Conferred [R]e-xDeemed-to-be University[R]e-EN status by the Government of India in 2000, it was initially established with the aim of developing graduates with the professional skills and expertise to meet the demands of the global IT revolution.

Over a period of 10 years, the institute has achieved national and international academic acclaim and is recognised as a pace-setting institute that contributes significantly towards India[R]e-es technological strength.

Sharing a similar mission and vision, particularly in terms of developing human resource capacity through innovation, research and technological advancement, CCE and IIIT-A began collaboration through informal discussions early in 2008. The resulting MoU, signed by Professor Frank McIntosh, principal and dean of CCE and Professor M. D. Tiwari, director of IIIT-A was ratified on September 4, 2009 in Allahabad. The main aim of the MoU is to develop further interaction between the two establishments in the fields of research and higher education.

Common aims

Both institutions share a commitment to research. Over the past few years, CCE has worked hard to establish a firm research base, particularly within the area of renewable energy, and the number of staff actively involved in research projects and contributing to international journals and conferences has increased manifold. Similarly at IIT-A, where doctoral programmes are run in many fields, including engineering, faculty have won sponsorship from the Indian Ministry of Human Resources Development for many far-reaching research initiatives. These include projects in multimodal biometric systems, medical imaging, robots for explosive detection, and digital modelling of large terrains. CCE and IIIT-A are now engaged in identifying areas of common research interest, particularly within the fields of MEMS, biotechnology and IT, and ones that relate to the various aspects of environment.

In addition to collaboration in research projects, the MoU will facilitate many arenas of mutual development such as staff exchange. Staff from both establishments will share best practice and innovative ideas through conducting conferences and seminars of international as well as local significance. They will also engage in teaching and will interact in various professional development initiatives, some which include interaction with local industry.

Students stand to benefit from this collaboration as student exchanges, at undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate level, are to be actively promoted under this agreement.

In particular, CCE looks forward to being able to send their highest flying students to IIIT-A[R]e-es Second Science Conclave [R]e-eIN a congregation where Nobel Laureates are invited from all over the world to address and discourse with students and staff within the institute[R]e-es beautiful, landscaped campus.

Neither establishment is new to the idea of international collaboration. CCE has an affiliation agreement with Glasgow Caledonian University in the UK and with Vellore Institute of Technology University (VITU) in southern India; it also has other MoUs and informal partnerships in the pipeline with a number of different educational and industrial establishments in India and Sri Lanka.

IIIT-A has similar collaborations with industry and a number of foreign and Indian universities including MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, University of California, Canberra University, Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (K-Jist), Korea. The institute has also established four centres of excellence with the Indo-Russian Centre for Biotechnology, Indo-US Centre for Language Technology, Indo-Swiss Centre in Microelectronics, and Indo-Canadian-Danish Centre in Wireless Sensors and Senses.

Both CCE and IIIT-A share a commitment towards achieving distinction through dissemination of knowledge and upholding the values that form the basic framework of the society within which they operate. In addition, they strive to cultivate [R]e-uvalue-added[R]e-e professionals who understand how to perform their role in industry while recognising their social and environmental responsibilities. As such, both establishments look forward to a long and fruitful collaboration that will benefit students, scholars, faculty and the wider society in which they operate.

E Muscat Press and Publishing House SAOC 2009

Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company