Anna University–Tirunelveli to offer B.E. Geo Informatics from this academic yea

[sajiv]

Anna University–Tirunelveli to offer B.E. Geo Informatics from this academic year

TIRUNELVELI: Anna University - Tirunelveli is all set to launch a four-year BE Geo Informatics programme from the forthcoming academic year following increasing demand for qualified young technocrats in space research organisations and allied fields.

As the university is already offering two-year M.Tech. and Ph.D. programmes in Geo Informatics and it has become the only technical institution outside Anna University-Chennai in the State to offer this much-wanted course, demand for this programme is likely to be very high.

Speaking to The Hindu here on Monday, Vice-Chancellor S. Kaliappan, who was previously the head of Anna University – Chennai's Centre for Remote Sensing, said that the M. Tech. Geo Informatics students' hard work, sincerity and the understanding of the subject, all doing their projects with prestigious institutions such as National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad, and Indian Space Research Organisation, Bangalore, had won the hearts of senior scientists working for these research facilities. Hence, Anna University – Tirunelveli decided to start BE Geo Informatics from this academic year.

"Each constituent colleges of the university — at Palayamkottai, Nagercoil and Tuticorin — will admit 120 students in this course, for which we've designed a world-class curriculum. The existing infrastructure we've developed in this revolutionary field will be an added advantage," Dr. Kaliappan said.

Utilising his close contacts with ISRO and its senior scientists, including its chairman K. Radhakrishnan, who was awarded Ph.D. by Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, in 2000 for his thesis on 'Some strategies for management of Indian earth observation system', the Vice-Chancellor has already initiated steps to establish a highly sophisticated research station on its premises at Government College of Engineering, Tirunelveli, with the funding of ISRO.

"Students of BE and M.Tech. and research scholars of Geo Informatics will have the rare opportunity of handling the high-end gadgets, normally used in the space research establishments across the globe," Dr. Kaliappan said.