IIIT-B beckons undergraduate students

[sajiv]

IIIT-B beckons undergraduate students

BANGALORE: As the International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore, (IIIT-B) turns 10 on Tuesday, this academic and research hub tucked away on the outskirts of Bangalore is poised to take a giant leap.

Soon, the institute will offer undergraduate programmes in Information Sciences and even branch out into multiple Master's and research programmes. The institute has submitted proposals on the expansion plans to the Planning Commission and the Union Ministry of Human Resource and Development, IIIT-B Director S. Sadagopan told The Hindu.

Earlier this year, the Planning Commission had sought proposals from the institute after NASSCOM recommended setting up of 20 IIITs in the country. The existing IIITs will mentor the new ones and will also receive funds worth Rs. 80 to Rs. 100 crore from the Union Government for expansion.

With information technology as the common thread, the institute hopes to strengthen its research programmes and offer Master's courses that deal with the applications of IT in telecom, automation, automobile and even chart its effect on society, to name a few. As the Karnataka Government ceded this international institute in 1989, it has been growing on its own steam (like IIIT, Hyderabad), Prof. Sadagopan points out.

"To take the next step, we need sufficient capital from the government. The proposal details our requirements from scholarships and money to equipment." At present, the institute has 300 students in its postgraduate and research programmes; a number that he hopes will swell to 1,000 by the end of five years.

"Now, the country is witnessing a string of thought, most recently seen in the recommendations of the Yash Pal Committee. It's a right stream. I think that institutes should not be narrowly focussed and the benefits of an undergraduate course cannot be undermined," Prof. Sadagopan explains.

The committee, headed by Prof. Yash Pal, to advise on rejuvenation of higher education in India, had recently recommended making it mandatory for all universities to have undergraduate programmes.

While the undergraduate programme could start with 50 to 100 students, it is proposed that the Master's programme could be expanded to include six disciplines.

"IT today is sufficiently broad-based, and computer science is evolving into a basic science with applications transforming every field.

However, starting undergraduate courses requires an expansion of faculty to include more of the basic and physical sciences.

"We aren't a training institute, and research and academics lie at our core — we would like to take this forward," he adds.

Prof. Sadagopan also hopes to increase the "international character" of this programme with more student exchange programmes and by increasing intake of international students and faculty members to about 15 per cent of the institute's talent pool.